Team Work

I used to be a varsity player in high school and as in every group or team, we have our set of arguments as well. One time, two of my team mates were arguing about “being too irresponsible of not passing the ball to the other” versus “not passing the ball because the other one usually loses the ball in passing”, consequently leading to countless turnovers, as well as, losing the opportunity to make points of course. Our game was already about to start but still they were still arguing over our previous games and the mistakes that we committed.

Nobody would just give in, so I took the opportunity to lead them to a good, nice, and smooth conversation. I assisted them in communicating well instead of scolding them both. I told them they should be achievement-oriented and focus on our current game instead of going over the past time and again. I also portrayed a very good example when the situation was incontrollable and one is most likely to get mad. They saw this and realized they should not have done what they did. These two people are extremely good players if only their emotions will not affect them. We won that day simply because their arguments were settled soon enough because of the influence of a very good leader. We also won because there was ‘teamwork’.

Personal Sense of Leadership and Teamwork

I have a “sense of teamwork”, of course. This is where roles are established, meaning functions, authority, accountability, and priorities are extremely considered and focused on making it easy to attain goals effectively (Teamwork, n.d.).

No doubt, I have a “sense of leadership” as well. I strongly believe that a leader should be exceedingly good in communication (Clark, 1997). A classic example of a leader who happens to be extraordinary and brilliant in terms of communication is someone:

1. who speaks to people as they are;
2.  who shows originality instead of emulating someone else’s style;
3. who presents himself as his/her own person; and
4. who does his/her best to understand what others say, meaning, he/she who also try to walk in someone else’s shoes, instead of merely listening to how people articulate things (Clark, 1997).

Yet another example is this: A leader will listen and try to understand an employee’s explanation as to why he/she was absent, instead of just merely listening but will not try to be considerate and punish the employee immediately after (Clark, 1997). Allow me to reiterate that, “Communication is one of the most needed characteristic if one is to become a leader” (Clark, 1997).

For instance, ” If you exhibit rudeness to your members/subordinates, for sure, you will never have the credibility that you ought to have to be respected and if you do not know how to communicate properly, you will never be able to attain being a leader” (Clark, 1997). This is why when I lead I articulate myself properly and never in a rude manner (Clark, 1997).

I also believe that a leader should consistently guide the team members (Clark, 1997). For example, I should guide the members to become achievement-oriented as well (Clark, 1997). It may be carried out through the following:

1. I should set challenges for followers to pursue;
2.  I should show confidence in the  members’ ability to meet their expectation and perform at their highest level;
3.  I should guide a member who suffers from a lack of job challenge;
4. 4 I should provide followers an idea as to what are expected of them and how to perform their tasks especially if the member of the team asked for it;
5.  I should be approachable and accommodating enough to enhance the confidence of members etc; as well as
6.  I should incorporate the member’s suggestions, if any, into the final decision (Clark, 1997).

I keep myself aware of the importance of having the heart to be open to my followers (Clark, 1997).

In addition to the aforementioned, I also believe that I should inspire trust instead of being dependent on “control” (Clark, 1997). I should know that “a group leader, for instance, should not always direct his or her member on what to do, he or she should have full confidence on the members and will just get back to them when they are ready with the results instead of supervising members from time to time and nagging them on what is morally wrong or right or even what systematic process to choose etc” (Clark, 1997).Trust, is a very important characteristic of a leader, this way the members of the team will be more inspired to work as a group since their leader has full confidence on them (Clark, 1997).

References

1. Clark, D. (1997). Leadership. Retrieved October 5, 2007 from
2. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html
3. Teamwork. (n.d.) Retrieved October 5, 2007

The team project determined to be an excellent example of teamwork. Teamwork is essential in any type of career, and by doing team projects while still in school will continue to help me prepare for my future. The John Deere Dealership Program that I helped work on proved to be a success. Not only did the team learn how to work as a team; the team is leaving something at this university that will help students in the future. I feel that if this program is implemented, many students can benefit from this internship experience.

I just wish that this program had been implemented four years ago so my colleagues or I might have had a chance to participate in this program. The project itself turned out to be a great learning experience for every member of my team, including myself. A student’s school and work schedule is tough enough to work out, but when there are four different schedules to work around one must collaborate with the other three to work out meeting times.

The team I participated with worked out meeting times the best we could. I believe that this is an experience that each member should remember in the future, especially when we have to form meetings with colleagues in our career. While working on this team project conflict arose, and we had to overcome these conflicts. Conflicts are a big part of any team because of the amount of people working as a team. Conflicts are bound to arise, and each person must realize that their idea is not always right.

I believe that knowing ahead of time that conflicts will arise that team should run a lot smoother. Communication is also a key to a successful team. If a person is reluctant to communicate with the rest of the team, his of her ideas will not be expressed in a completed project. I feel that in small teams like we had, it helps a backward person become involved due to the small amount of people in the group.

I believe that every person’s opinion is important in running a team, and I will try to get every person’s input before a final decision is made. The presentations that each team gave in front of the class proved to be a good experience for every member of each group. Some people are more comfortable than others in public speaking, but through the presentations, a backward speaker gets experience in speaking in front of people. I believe that experience is the only way to become comfortable speaking in front of eople. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project. Each step of completion from the ground up was a great experience. I enjoy seeing our finished product, and enjoy people liking what our finished product looks like. I think all the hard work and conflicts pay off when I see a completed project. It has been a great team building experience for me, and I feel that the completion of this team project will help me in future team oriented projects.

Integration – Teamwork The first step toward peaceful common existence in a multicultural country is integration. It can easily happen that immigrants end up isolated, unable to take part in their new society. This is a problem for both the immigrants and the country they have come to. By not participating they are not doing anything for the country’s benefit, and the people of said country may start asking themselves: if they are not taking part, why should they be taken care of?

They may fall away from the system, not getting any of the advantages, and at the same time missing their opportunity to raise their voices and do anything about their situation. It all ends up as a downward spiral that makes integration, and thereby also improvement, more and more difficult. Integration is therefore something that has to start happening right away. The first step to integration is often said to be learning the language of the country, and I think this makes a lot of sense. A language barrier is a huge barrier, as communication is essential in almost every situation.

But how can we make this happen? Would it be a solution that all immigrants attend language classes in their new country? If you compare a multicultural country to a group of people with completely different personalities, values and ideas stuck together in one tiny house for an extended period of time, it is hardly that difficult to imagine that problems are going to arise; eventually they will find something to argue about. Now this might sound negative, but it is, in fact, not. Arguing, if kept on a reasonable level, is how you become fully aware of your own meanings and views.

You may learn to see things from a different perspective, and sometimes the argument brings out new ideas that can lead to solutions. This is part of the reason I believe that migration can only be a good thing, as it makes us learn new things through our differences. (Of course, the types of issues deriving from migration do differ quite drastically from the types of issues that the members of the hundreds of reality shows we have nowadays have got to deal with, but that also means that the things we learn from them are different as well, and if I may say so, also infinitely more giving. It is not that long ago that we found the whole idea of sharing, mixing and just getting to know the rest of the world somewhat frightening. We were not very good at it, and wanted everything to stay the way it was. The modern world takes pride in being open and new-thinking however, and the word on everyone’s lips is “diversity”. Yes, diversity and sharing our cultures are wonderful things that we should definitely learn to appreciate more, but through our fear of racism we are making it almost impossible to state the fact that there are actually going to be some changes for you if you move to a new country.

Of course you do not have to give up on your own culture, of course you can still speak your mother tongue, of course we want diversity. But what we sometimes forget to mention is that you really can’t speak only your mother tongue in your new country and that you will have to get in touch with the culture of this new country as well as keeping your own. If you really want your new country to actually be your new country and to accept you as a part of it, then you will have to accept the fact that if you want your country to be multicultural, you will have to be a bit multicultural yourself.

Learning a new language does not erase your own language from your brain, getting to know a new culture does not mean you have to let go of your own values, just as making new friends does not mean you can never speak to your old ones again. It is a matter of expanding rather than replacing. However, no relationships are ever one-sided. There has to be will and effort from both sides for it to work. This means that for integration to work smoothly, both the country and the immigrants have to do their best to make it so.

It is much easier for us to say that all immigrants must learn the language right away than it is for the immigrants to learn a whole new language in no time at all. If the attending of language classes are to be made compulsory, then the immigrants should be given the means to do so. It can hardly be expected that they should have the money for language classes at the ready right after they have arrived in a new country. Many of them are moving in order to start up a new life, and being forced to pay for language classes before they have started working is not going to help in any way.

The fact that they will have a much easier time finding a job after the language classes does not help if they are already bankrupt before they have begun the search for a job. If the country would be willing to pay for the language classes however, that would be a huge benefit for the immigrants. It would also pay itself off for the country in many cases, once the new citizens start working. Though that does not mean that all immigrants will see and understand the necessity and the advantages of such classes, which would make the whole project a waste.

This leads me to another important aspect of successful integration: communication between the country and the immigrants. Communication is always present in a healthy relationship, the relationship between country and immigrant being no exception. Now one might wonder how there can be communication about the necessity of learning the language before the immigrants learn the language, but there are ways to get this done. It is simply another matter of will and effort, once again from both sides rather than one.

A relationship where only one part is trying to make things work is a doomed relationship. With this said, we can not blame only either immigrant or country if integration is not working, and we can not assign the responsibility of making integration possible to only either immigrant or country. Yes, it is a definite benefit for the process of integration if the immigrant makes an effort to learn the language, but it can not really be as simply put as “all immigrants should learn the language of their new country”.

No matter how much effort you put in, you will not be able to become a part of something if that “something” is not willing to accept you. It is like one of those “help me help you”-cases, if I may put it that simply, and I believe it is also know to be called teamwork. Once this first barrier, which is nothing but a barrier in the way of thinking, is overcome, all the other barriers standing in the way of integration will become a lot less insuperable.

Teamwork can be simply defined, “as a state of unity achieved within a group of people working for a specific economic benefit. ” It is used to determine the coordination and cooperation of a business venture so as to attain the optimum output of the employees. All around the world we can find various organizations that work in business group having a fixed and well defined set of rules and regulations to ensure teamwork and maintain team spirit in the organization.

Looking at the size and vastness of projects in an organization, necessary work has to be broken down into different departments, even departments are not sufficient enough to handle the burden of work. Thus in departments there arises the need to make different teams of individual that are assigned a common target, so as to accomplish the organizational goal. A team that works together to share common goal stands out to achieve the goals. Teamwork helps in making the task more interesting with the social support and cooperation of the employees and hence improving their skills.

Newspaper

The old tale of the Japanese samurai warrior takes a new life in today’s generation. The tale talks about the warrior making his sons realize that if they stick together no power can ever defeat them. Likewise, today’s executives consider that their ability to overcome challenges rests most upon teamwork. In today’s world it is necessary for a leader to work in a team so as to overcome the challenges he faces. Irrelevant of the leader’s rank, he or she needs to gather information, relating to the issue at hand, and consider others viewpoints in order to make an appropriate decision.

A leader is always thought to be someone who is heroic and unaccompanied, but instead he is the one who works in a team while solving various problems. Gergern, 2007, here, considers Honoree Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, America and United Kingdom’s former Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Krupp, being one of the best corporate leaders of America, could not do anything, to reduce carbon emissions, alone.

It was the partnership that he, along with Jonathan Lash of the World Resource Institute, created with large corporations including General Electric, Duke Energy and DuPont, which was able to put intense pressure on the federal government to reduce carbon emissions. Believing that no country can alone handle climatic change, Tony Blair being a political leader states, ‘If the U. K. stopped using carbon entirely, industrial production from China would make up the difference in just two years.’

Thus it is teamwork that helps leaders achieve success in their respective fields of profession. One’s business and well-being can only grow with the advice, support, ideas and help of his or her TEAM. It is very well said by Napolean Hill that “no man is an island” and no one can achieve its best or highest success if try to do it by itself. It is always amusing to hear that Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to scale Mt Everest, or that Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon.

True, they were the individuals who raised the flag, but those achievements were not accomplished alone. Both Charles Lindbergh, the first to fly solo from New York to Paris, and Steve Fosset who flew around the world solo before his untimely death, did it in planes they did not build and with the support of thousands of people who made their flights possible. Every successful entrepreneur has dozens of people cheering them on. Every successful endeavor is the result of many people working in concert, giving advice, sharing the vision and encouraging us.

Everyone needs his or her “companions” in success. If you do not have a “team” then it is very difficult to optimally achieve the task, and if you do not have a coach then you don’t know whether you are heading in correct direction or not. Remember Napolean Hill– “no man (or woman) is an island. ” Or, as the Beatles put it even more memorably, “We get by with a little help from our friends. ” TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) prides itself on the team’s excellent reputation, credibility and expertise.

Academic Journal

Teamwork is the most important virtue of a good team. It is the most basic requirement for the successful functioning of any organization. Most individuals work in a business environment that requires cooperative team efforts to successfully reach business goals. All business goals can be only achieved by teamwork and full co-operation of all individuals. This makes the ability to work in teams a critical skill set. It is a skill that is required by any one who wants to effectively contribute to an organizations development.

The recent trend towards leaner, flatter organizations, with fewer levels of hierarchy, places even greater emphasis on the need for cross-functional teamwork. Team performance completely depends on the synchronized efforts of the individuals who work in a team. A team that works together can achieve all goals in stipulated time, with 100% perfection and zero defects. The concept of teamwork becomes more important when people work in big teams.

Also, teamwork and functioning of a team depend on the team leader. A team that cooperates with its leader and follows him can function smoothly; hence a team which works together achieves heights together. The skill of teamwork is very precious to all organizations; all organizations are always in search of individuals who can contribute to the development of a team. These days’ big organizations also organize special activities to develop team spirit within its employees; this benefits the employees as well.

Working in a good team helps employees to concentrate better on their work, it leads to better working environment and hence better development of employees. Thus, teamwork is a skill, which is beneficial and necessary for the smooth functioning of any organization. Cooperation between individuals can only help an organization to successfully achieve its goals and good levels of employee satisfaction.

Book Extract or Chapter

According to today’s business environment, teamwork is a very essential part of every organization. Teamwork improves the quality and performance of the organization and provides job satisfaction to the workers. In an organization, teamwork is widespread and provides flexibly to the organization and shows improvements in the other important areas such as employee relations. Basically teamwork helps the organization to achieve its goals. Using effective teams fallibility can be achieved with provides a better platform for the organization so that it can operate smoothly in this rapidly changing business world.

Teams can only be efficient if it has better working relationship which can only be achieved, provided that working together as a combine effort can make an organization flourish that will also help in increasing job satisfaction and quality of work life. Teamwork will also reduce workload as the work has been divided and it is easy for the employee’s to work more effectively and this will lead to organizational benefits.

:

• Providing social support to employees
• Encourage cooperation
• Make jobs more interesting and challenging
• Improves employees technical and interpretation skills

Webpage

Teamwork is becoming more significant in the workplace as companies have started to notice the benefits that co-operative efforts can provide. While teamwork has for long been present in the workplace with employees, only recently this has shifted towards the upper level management. One trend that has also recently picked up is the ‘lift out. ’ Companies have noticed that certain groups of employees who are exceptional succeed because of the team that they work with. A ‘lift out,’ involves hiring a high functioning team that has worked together in the past.

This has many benefits; one of the main being the new group ‘can quickly come up to speed in a new environment. ’ (Groysberg, Abrahams, 2006) Employees that have worked together often have fewer conflicts between each other, and each member of a group is aware of the other members’ strengths and weaknesses, making delegation of a given task much easier and more efficient. As a team grows together, having a variety of different strengths within the group allows the group to function as a single unit, capable of much more than individuals performing together.

The longer groups work together, the more cohesive they become and their efficiency only increases. The first known ‘lift out’ occurred in 1946 when a Air Force Colonel took nine of his colleagues to the Ford Motor Company, and helped the desperate company pull through some difficult times. Since then, lift outs have become more common, and today the companies have started to realize the full potential that lift outs can bring.

While it may harm the company that lost employees, a lift out can be greatly beneficial financially to the company that’s hiring the team. The company can save significantly on training and acquainting the new group with each other, and can directly put the new employees to work. It is crucial in this day and age for firms to encourage teamwork as the internet has simplified communication and made interaction easier. A good team can be a great asset to companies as they increase efficiency while saving them both time and money.

Conclusion

Analyzing the sources given above, we can conclude that:

Newspaper article 1- Riaa Khurana: In today’s generation all leaders, irrespective of their ranks, need to work in teams in order to achieve success. Newspaper article 2- Shantanu Aggarwal: Every business today can only grow if its members work in a team and solve the problems that the business faces by giving in their respective ideas and viewpoints. Academic journal- Akshai Puri: Any existing organization can only achieve success is it has the beneficial skill of teamwork.

It is the cooperation between its members that helps the organization achieves their goals. Book extract or chapter- Gaurav Gandhi: Teamwork helps the organization improve its product and job quality. It also helps an employee get full job satisfaction and work efficiently by reducing his or her workload. Webpage- Vivek Talluri: Teamwork should be encouraged as a good team acts as an important asset for companies and helps them increase their productivity.

According to the text, a team is a “unit of two or more people who share a mission and collective responsibility as they work together to achieve a goal.” The team’s performance is a sum total of each individual’s contribution to the group. (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, Ed. 2007, p. 269).

Team work has several advantages for businesses and the people who work for them. Higher quality decisions are usually the result of several people sharing their input based on their individual life and occupational experiences that may provide a broader perspective of the problem at hand.

Many companies have learned that engaging employees to participate in decision making results in increased commitment to solutions and changes at various levels of the company. Other benefits include decreased competition because of collaborative efforts and interdependence, and improved flexibility based on a lack of permanence within the company, as compared to formal departments. (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, Ed. 2007, p. 273).

Key disadvantages for forming teams include inefficiency and groupthink. If the teams consist of employees who are not motivated to complete tasks on target goal and budget, the teams will spend more time discussing the problems than actually implementing problem solving strategies. This can manifest in socializing, politics, structural disruption rooted in friction between departments, and the dreaded “groupthink.”

Groupthink happens when individual team members are pressured into going along with the majority perspective to achieve consensus. Sadly, this leads to diminished individual motivation (team members believe their say is irrelevant). Further, teams can cause excessive workloads because employees are required to participate in the team action items in addition to their regular job responsibilities. (Bovee, Thill and Mescon, Ed. 2007, p. 273-4).

Thus, working in teams can be a good thing, so long as the teams are able to perform the tasks within the scope provided and participation in the teams doesn’t cause strife among the employees.

What does it mean to be a successful team? Over the past year, I watched my mother fight one of the hardest battles in the world. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, and even the best team of doctors could not cure her. The day she died, she went to my basketball game in the morning, and she died later that afternoon. The lesson I learned is that even if you give it your all, sometimes you don’t always achieve your goal and win. My mother always wanted me to go to an NBA game. I have been a Wizards fan my whole life and have never been to a game.

I am always observing how the best teams perform. I think the Wizards are a great team that love the game and respect each other, and that is what you need to be a successful team. For example, the more you trust your teammates, the more likely it is the team will achieve its goal. A team must work together to achieve a goal, but sometimes even the best teams don’t win. John Wall is one of my biggest idols. He trusts and respects his teammates, plays with speed and precision, and even when he loses, he is always respectful.

If I could see him play, it would be a dream come true. Runner up: It’s about working together By Zoe Cachion, 11, Arlington Teamwork is helping people out when they need it, and working together. You win as a team, and you lose as a team, You need to have empathy for other people on your team, Teams and teamwork are not just sports and other competitions. Teamwork is about . .?. trust, loyalty, confidence and perseverance. Success in your team is not really winning every single game. It’s more about working together with your teammates.

Sure, it feels fantastic to win, but it feels even better when you know everybody in the team worked hard to get that win. That’s what success in teamwork means to me. Runner up: The ‘ubuntu’ approach By Dan Huynh, 12, Falls Church Before each of their games, the successful Boston Celtics yell the African word “ubuntu,” which inspires the team to focus on the greater good rather than individual success. A successful team’s players don’t care about only their stats, All-star appearances, salary or winning championships.

Positive teammates focus on the people they play with every day and how they can help their peers improve. An ubuntu-type player will pass on opportunities to others. For example, the Washington Wizards show that their team is focusing on the greater good because, as Kevin Seraphin said, “we play like a team. Nobody is selfish. Nobody wants to be the hero. Every night, you let somebody else shine. ” This attitude makes their team successful. Ubuntu does not only apply to professional sports; it pertains to amateur sports also.

For example, my aquatics coach told our team that during a water polo game, one of his players had the opportunity to get a hat trick. However, instead of shooting himself, he pump-faked and passed to his open teammate, who scored. This team was successful because its players shared opportunities rather than focused on themselves. When a team works together, teammates are able to help one another overcome obstacles and improve both as individuals and as a team. As the ubuntu philosophy states, “I am what I am because of who we all are. ”