Some of the challenges that might occur with is a team is the want of power, issues with
communication, control issues, laziness, and lack of motivation. When I have worked in a
team I have encountered all of the above issues. With communication there have been times
where no one wanted to listen to anyone. They would ignore what others had to say and do
what they wanted to do. Control issues where the main issue that I encountered the most.
Everyone wanted to feel like they were in power and try to control everything that everyone
did. I reacted to this situations by ignoring them, I would not say anything and just do my
part to make sure we would succeed. Others on the team would get in to arguments
constantly. The team would argue about who is the leader, who would do what and who
was right. What I have learned is that they were not the best choices for the team. They did
not help the situation, the issues made more of a delay in our goals. If a supervisor asked
me what it means to strengthen my team I would say it means cooperation. Without
cooperation you can not have a strong team. Some common challenges that may arise as a
team develops would be poor communication, lack of accountability, and misunderstands.
Misunderstands can arise from poor communication or even the possibility of doubting the
team or a team member. Another common challenge can be clashing of different
personalities or ideas.
I have encountered the challenge of having different personalities clashing within a team.
Whether it was on a sports team or even in the workplaces, this seems to always be a
problem when you have different individuals working together. I recently had this problem
with my coworkers. We are all apart of management but we have different titles and
different roles. Initially we did not work as well together because we all had different
personalities and different management styles.
My team members and I reacted by initially being defensive about our different
management styles, then we came to understand one another and see that what may work
for one person, may not work for the other person. We all came together and talked about
it, and moving forward we have transparency with each other and good communication.
When strengthen a team, I believe that means you need to have good communication and
understand your role and your teammates roles. I also think it is important to get to know
each other so you can better understand their ideas and point of view.
When you work as an individual, you are used to making decisions and complete tasks
individually. But when you work with a team, you have to trust your team mates and let
them take a few decisions for the team.
Sometimes, team members make mistakes and it could be hard for you to trust them with
any other decision. But as a team it is important to trust your teammates and function as a
team. To have good communication skills and to be work best as a team. The typical
challenges that occur as a team develop are many different personalities which can be
difficultly especially when everyone are stuck in their own ways. With my experience I was
one of those people. At first I never wanted to work with others or get to know my co-
workers. But when their were positions were open and I applied to them I got denied
because I didn't play well with others which means I would argue with my co-workers who
i felt was being rude with me or I looked at them funny. So I decided it was time for a
change if I wanted an higher position. So I put my guard down and started to get to know
my co-workers and apologize to them about my behavior and actually got to know them
and once that happen things started to change a lot I actually got offered an manager
position because I already knew my job because I've been with the company for 4 years and
this was my last chance to prove to them that can handle the responsibility or I was on to
be replace. As I got to know my co-workers I learned many different things from each one
of them which shaped me to become the person I am today. Some types of challenges that
occur as a team develops is when no one is communicating with the other, or not willing to
work with others.From my experience in working in a team, it started off ruff, not because
we didn't know the role of self, but not knowing each other or gave each other a chance of
knowing one another. Everyone had their own way of working, some had attitudes, and
their was one that just didn't even want to work with the rest of the crew. As days turned
into weeks, we were not getting no where (what is the matter? What are we doing wrong?
Who is the blame?) We figured if we were going to work together and accomplish our goal
effectively, we had to have a meeting, meet and greet type. Soon after that everyone was a
little bit stronger and helped each other out, those that needed, and didn't need it.If my
supervisor asked what does strengthen a team mean to me my response would be to always
exercise good communicate skills, because without that how would one know if your team
member is struggling or too afraid to ask for help due to the lack of understanding, or the
turn down. I think the biggest challenge of forming a new team is navigating the transition
period before everyone understands each other's communication styles and preferences. It
can be generalized as personality difference. But I think specifically, because of the
personality differences, you literally don't know how to talk to one another. That makes
working together and solving problems difficult. For example, one team member may like
to talk things out and clearly express themselves. Another team member may be somewhat
vocal, yet less direct. Still another member is more passive and less communicative - barely
talking at all. It will take time to learn the non-verbal cues and pick up on the little signals
that alert you to big problems. I encountered this at work. On one project we developed a
quarterly newsletter. Each of us drafted an article to contribute. Next, we revised each
article together as a team. One member, would get completely silent if edits were made to
their article. It took us time to realize she was communicating through her silence. Today,
we hear "guys, I worked hard on that. I am a perfectionist and I tried my best to make it
perfect. It hurts my feelings when you critique it." We reacted by reassuring them that their
work was valued and that we all had different styles. If asked how to "strengthen a team?"
I would respond by saying start by listening and learning everyone's communication styles.
Typical Challenges that occur as a team develops for me I would say is personality clashes
that would be my number one thought when developing a team. I have encountered
different personalities that clashed where there were 2 like personalities that maybe had to
take control where as you had other personalities that were more adaptable but they also got
the brunt of the other personalities and at times were left out. I would try to break up the
teams into smaller teams where each team had different personalities that were not alike.
Then after the teams each had a discussion I would bring them back together as a whole for
input. The other team members adapted to the way I set it up as they did not feel as
intimidated and the others not left out. The reactions are normal for teams you get a mixture
of personalities and you just have to develop the teams accordingly. If my supervisor asked
my what it means to strengthen a team I would think first and foremost Team Building.
Whether inside of work during meetings or outside of work activities. Appreciation is
another way to strengthen a team it boosts morale. When a team is put together sometimes
personalities clash immediately. These are the most obvious, but sometimes this will
happen over time as teammates work together. At times it is over communication, there are
so many trips in this department. Some people are long winded others keep it short and
simple. There is a balance in information people need and not having the appropriate
information for tasks. It is important to keep information sharing professional in a team,
everyone is busy and have jobs to do, we have to keep this in mind.
I have had some issues with communication, mainly just misunderstandings and not enough
information. Nothing too major and nothing that caused serious problems except for one. At
my old company I was part of a team put together to open a new warehouse in Nebraska.
The GM for that location asked me to drive the van to my warehouse. I just thought
someone else would come and pick it up there, at least that is how he made it sound. I had
no idea it was a rental, it was just a white van, no rental markings. Two weeks later I got a
call from my boss asking if the van was still there in out parking lot and why it had not
been returned to Enterprise. My boss was mad, not so much at me, because I explained the
situation and he knew I was not that incompetent from our years together. However, I still
felt guilty and upset that that had happened. I took it back to Enterprise and turned it in and
I did not normally work with that GM. So, I did not call him or send any communication
about it I am sure he heard it from my boss though. b
The biggest typical challenges that occur while developing a team would definitely have to
be the lack of diversity, and clarity. Differing cultural assumptions can more than less make
it harder for a team to bond. Without a team being able to properly bond will eventually
lead to friction and misunderstandings, this therefore hinders the achievement of goals
within a team.
During my current job we have experienced the lack of diversity and clarity in our teams,
for example we have these two Spanish speaking employees who do absolutely wonderful
work when working with each other. During our meetings as a whole company is when it
starts to become difficult for them which leads to it being difficult for us. This is where
clarity comes in, without clarity of our meetings topic the two natives cannot fully
understand what we are trying to achieve without us pulling them aside and having separate
meetings for them to have better understandings of the topic up for discussion. Being lost in
translation ends up adding to the problems they are already trying to adjust to when being
on a team that does not have a lot of diversity. This leads to them being discouraged and
keeping their head down, not feeling as though they can speak freely or being useful
enough to offer up their valid ideas to improve our teams.
In the beginning me and some other co workers did not react as well as we should have.
We found this diversity in our team to be quite frustrating and time consuming. Me and
other supervisors were having to take time out of what we were doing already to bring them
into another room to have separate meetings so they could get a better understanding of
what happened in the previous meeting. This therefore defeated the whole purpose of a
Team meeting. Not having the whole team together as one to bounce off of each others
ideas led us to not really being able to improve as we needed. Our reactions were
completely inappropriate and after taking the time to sit down and talk to other supervisors
about this we began to see how this was not the appropriate way to react. I thought about
what if it was me in their shoes, how would I feel if I noticed what was going on. It was
discouraging to me and made me really take a step back to see how we could change this
aspect of our team and the way we handled it.If my big boss came to me and asked what it
meant to strengthen a team I would have to say specifically for our diverse team it would
be hiring someone who could speak both languages, a translator possibly. Without a
translator on such a diverse teams, asks for conflict. We need a way to have everyone on
the same page in a comfortable environment where they feel welcomed and can be
understood. This would benefit the overall team indefinitely. Some challenges that occur
are not asking questions, which can lead to not knowing what to do. Clarity can become an
issue as well, if the instructions for a task or role are unclear it’s likely the project will be
incomplete.With my previous job we did have issues with clarity, we hired a few new
people therefore the daily task list and breaks were changed. Because we had two call
centers on different time zones, some wouldn’t have their tasks completed before the next
person because they weren’t aware of the changes, or were confused on when the new
schedule would start. This would cause the entire day to be behind because we would have
to finish the previous shifts work before being able to do ours. This happen a few different
times and each time it was an unpleasant situation. Me being on of the team members being
affected by this, I brushed it off the first couple days because we all understand the
confusion. But from there I messaged the person directly with a friendly reminder of the
changes and tasks (normal procedures), if it continued to become an issue the supervisor
would need to step in. However, the times I approached the situation with a friendly attitude
the situation was resolved and there were no personal feelings or conflict. To strengthen a
team would involve myself and others, understanding each other’s weaknesses and
strengths to be able to give each person a task they can strive on. For an example, for
someone who is gets overwhelmed easily, I would give this person a less stressful task, to
where maybe they do not have a deadline.
