Teamwork: Types Of Teams, Stages Of Development, Benefits, And Leadership Skills

Task 1

Task 1

You are required to write a short essay on the following:

• What is a team? Provide at least three definitions.

• Describe different types of teams.

• Describe benefits of teams.

Task 2

Learners should look at key stages in the development of an effective cohesive team. Examples from personal teamwork task could be cited to provide snapshots of different stages in the life of a team. Alternatively, you could analyse a case study to apply the Stages of Team Development Model.  

Task 3

Describe what attributes and skills are required of a team leader. You could draw examples of well-known leaders and draw on the importance of adapting leadership style to suit different situations.

• Individually create a poster setting out the attributes and skills of a team leader.

• Discuss Adair’s three circles approach by incorporating it in the poster.  

Task 4 And 5

You will participate in a ‘Negotiation’ exercise in which you will be part of a negotiating team. Your purpose is to understand the task, prepare a strategy and work as a team to negotiate.

You will write an individual report on how well your team functioned as a team, and the leadership qualities demonstrated by the team leader/leaders. The report will be based on the following:

• Demonstrate working in a team as a member towards specific goals.

• Demonstrate working in a team towards specific goals, dealing with any conflict or difficult situation as a leader.

• Review the team’s overall effectiveness together with your contribution to achieving the goals, receiving feedback and providing feedback to other team members.

• Evaluate the team’s overall effectiveness in meeting objectives, making recommendations for improvements

Task 6

Write a Review in about on your experience as being part of a team, and the leadership or management style of the leaders within the team. Make references to conflicts within the team, and the way it was managed.

Describe how performance was monitored, and your overall judgement of the team.

The team can be defined as the group of small numbers of individuals of different skills who have been working together to achieve the goal for the company. On the other hand, Albon and Jewels (2012) defines team where many individuals have been working in order to achieve the common goals, which might include the performance goals. Moreover, Borek (2011) have said that the team can be defined as a unit where two or more individuals have been working in an independent manner.

Task 2

There are different types of teams. They are the functional teams, cross teams and the self-work teams, temporary teams and the permanent teams. In the functional team, many members of the different cultures works together to perform the specific organizational tasks. In case of the cross-functional team, the different experts from the different fields of their expertise area have joined to work in collaboration. Clopton (2011) opined that in the self-managed team, the individuals have been working together without any supervision of any leader within the organization.  In case of the temporary teams, they are not considered as the important members within the organization when once the task has been completed.

The team members need to work with the help of the proper collaboration and by this way, the ultimate goal can be achieved. The management of any organization needs to motivate the employees so that they can be able to work happily and can be able to utilize their proper skills. This will ultimately help in improving the performance standards of the employees within the organization (Curseu, 2015).

Some of the factors, which are essential for the development of the team performance, are the proper training, which need to be provided to the employees at the time of the recruitment and the selection process. The management within the organization also needs to motivate the team members so that they can be able to actively participate in the decision-making prospects in the team meetings. At the same time Flipo (2014) have shown that, the management of any organization also needs to support the team members financially or by any other means when they will face any kind of problems within the organization. On the other hand, the management also need also need to improve their means of communication with the employees so that they can be able to share any of their doubts with the employers. The management needs to maintain the friendly environment within the workplace.

There are different types of stages of the team development. They are forming, storming, norming and performing.

Forming: This is the first stage of managing the team levels. In this stage, the team members within the organization meet for the first time. As per the words of Germain and McGuire (2014) in the stage, they express all their views and the thinking with each other and try to know about each other’s behavior. In this stage, it is essential for all the team members to make an effective decision-making. In this stage, in many cases, it has been observed that the team leaders have not been taking an active participation within the organization in the case of the decision-making. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the team members to work efficiently.

Task 3

 Storming: This is the stage where all the new team members within the organization undergo a difficult situation within the organization. This happens as it has been observed that the new ones have no prior experience and for this reason, they are facing some of the problems. It is the training stages for the new ones (Jarle Gressgard, 2011).

Norming:  In this stage, the team member’s works collaborate and in many cases, they have been successful enough in delivering the effective outcome. In this stage, the team members also make some of the significant progresses in their decision-making, as the team leader is not always there to assist them.

Performing:  It is the final stage where the team leader has been asked to make a celebration as the project ends. In this stage, the project ends and all the team members of the group have been asked to keep in touch with each other. This is due to the fact as in this stage, all the team members moves to the different directions. At the same time, has also gained the adequate knowledge and the experiences (Juras et al., 2013).

The team leader needs to be honest with all the team members within the organization so that the effective performance can be delivered properly. In this case, the leader also needs to have the patience in order to deal with all kinds of problems of the team members within the organization.

The team leader also needs to maintain the good communication with all the team members so that they can be able to share all kinds of problems with him. At the same time, Oertel and H. Antoni (2014) have shown that the team member need to create the healthy atmosphere within the organization so that the team members within the organization can work properly and at the same time , they can also feel secured within the organization.

The team leader also need to bear such capabilities in order to deal any kind of problems that have been faced by any of the team members within the organization. The team leader needs to bear the problem solving capacity within him so that he can be able to maintain the productivity within the organization.

The team leader also needs to have some sense of the humor so that the team members within the organization not at all get bored while doing the work. They need to feel happy as well as also need to be cheerful in every aspect.

Task 4 And 5

This model incorporates the three factors. It shows that within the organization, the team leader plays an important role in order to make them members understand about the goals and the objectives of the project within the organization. As per the words of Tjosvold et al (2012), the team leader need to have some of the additional qualities so that he can be able to control the actions which have been undertaken by every employees within the organization.

 The model is important as it helps in explaining the tasks to the individuals who have been working in the organization for the longer periods.  It helps in defining the aims and the objectives of the team within the organization. The time leader with the help of this model makes the proper identification of the resources and at the same time helps in controlling and maintaining the activities so that the parameters can be achieved. With the help of this model, the team leader can also be able to report to the higher authorities regarding the progress of the employees within the organization.

 Some of the strategies that have been followed by the team leaders within the organization is to make the proper formation of the culture within the organization. It will happen in order to create a positive environment within the organization. As per the words of Ghuman (2011), it will inspire every individual within the team to perform well and at the same time they can be able to share the positive vision within the organization with the other team members.

The team leader also needs to make the proper utilization of the available resources and the technologies so that the negative energies can also be converted to the positive thinking and the energies. The team leader also need to develop the proper communication method with both of the managers and with the executives within the organization in order to face any kind of the challenging situation within the organization (Voight, 2014).

It is also the responsibility of the team leader to explain the mission and the vision of the company. The team leader needs to make the proper strategies in order to gain the competitive advantage in the market and to acquire the good share within the market place. The void or the gap can be filled with the positive intentions of the team leader and at the same time, it is his responsibility to encourage each of the individuals within the organization work properly on an effective and efficient basis.

Task 6

As a part of the team, I have analyzed the fact that the team leader need to make the proper communication with all of the team members so that they can be bale to share every problem with him. The team is a group of the individuals who have been working together in order to achieve the common goals and the objectives. As per the words of Ghuman (2011), the team leader needs to call for the meetings where all of the team members can be able to share their creative thinking and the ideas with the team leader. The team leader also needs to make the proper assessment of the performance of the team members and need to provide the proper guidance to them at the time of their problem. It will ultimately help in anticipating the problems in a proper manner and at the same time will also help in meeting the daily needs of the employees.

Reference List

Albon, R. and Jewels, T. (2012). Mutual Performance Monitoring: Elaborating the Development of a Team Learning Theory. Group Decis Negot, 23(1), pp.149-164.

Borek, L. (2011). Team structural constellations and intraâ€Âteam conflict. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 17(7/8), pp.405-417.

Clopton, A. (2011). Social capital and team performance. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 17(7/8), pp.369-381.

Curseu, P. (2015). Team Performance Management – 2014. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 21(1/2).

Flipo, C. (2014). Team Selection of Creative Ideas and its Implications for Team Creativity.Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014(1), pp.16626-16626.

Germain, M. and McGuire, D. (2014). The Role of Swift Trust in Virtual Teams and Implications for Human Resource Development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 16(3), pp.356-370.

Ghuman, U. (2011). Building a model of group emotional intelligence. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 17(7/8), pp.418-439.

Jarle Gressgård, L. (2011). Virtual team collaboration and innovation in organizations. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 17(1/2), pp.102-119.

Juras, A., Brockmeier, J., Niedergesaess, V. and Brandt, D. (2013). Trust and team development to fight chaos: three student reports. AI & Soc, 29(2), pp.267-275.

Oertel, R. and H. Antoni, C. (2014). Reflective team learning: linking interfering events and team adaptation. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 20(7/8), pp.328-342.

Tjosvold, D., Chen, N., Huang, X. and Xu, D. (2012). Developing Cooperative Teams to Support Individual Performance and Well-Being in a Call Center in China. Group Decis Negot, 23(2), pp.325-348.

Voight, M. (2014). Leadership Education and Development for Strength and Conditioning Professionals and Team Leaders. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 36(1), pp.52-62.