Communication

Building Blocks of a Team

Building an effective team takes a great leader who is not afraid of correcting the team members and making the difficult decisions that establish the team’s performance standards. Most importantly, it is requisite for a leader to understand the people in the team by noting their strengths as well as their motivators towards working with other people. Challenges posed by egotistic team members ought not to be dismissed but tamed in a manner that upholds the individual’s productivity while suppressing their weaknesses (Mallory & Nehlen, 2005). In other words, team building is not only an art but also a science that integrates strengths and aligns them towards the achievement of set goals.

In the forming stage, the team members meet each other and get acquainted with the task at hand. As they get to know each other, a leader should portray positivity to ensure that the team members perceive each other with similar capabilities despite their allocated roles. Subsequently, the storming phase allows the leader to focus the team on the task by enabling them to identify each other’s strengths (Wilde, 2008). By doing so, the team members learn how to work together by combining the diverse capabilities. The norming and performing phases of developing a team brings the team even closer as they can share ideas and find solutions to emerging disparities without the direct involvement of the leader. Notably, it is vital for the leader to establish ground rules, which offer guidelines to the team during the execution of tasks. In this case, I would insist on punctuality in the delivery of results, politeness when dealing with the clients, and humility towards uncourteous clients.

With an employee base of twenty thousand, a team of a hundred would suffice because with this number each facility across the globe would be represented. Representation is vital in the formation of a team because it creates a direct link to the businesses operations across all affiliate facilities (Earley & Gibson, 2012). The majority of this number would be practicing nurses owing to their direct exposure to the patients with the others representing employees in management levels across the core each department. Again, ideas would be criticized more with each involve person offering their perspective. For instance, if an idea to establish a new facility comes up, the finance department’s representative would offer critical information on the availability and allocation of financial resources.

Motivation remains a significant aspect in fostering high employee productivity and sustaining the same for longer periods. In this case of motivating the team members in their assigned tasks, I would develop a target for each task as well as a timeline for the same and offer incentives that target is surpassed or achieved before time. As such, each team member would remain focused on their goals not to mention the increased efforts towards achieving the set reward. The rewards could range from monetary to promotional forms with a predetermined balance between the two. Pertinent to handling emotions, I would emphasize that the team members learn emotional triggers of their teammates as well as teach coping skills for the same. These two strategies would avoid emotional outbursts triggered by the behavior of others and simultaneously aid in handling them from a team’s level (Masoeu, 2014). Also, I would teach positive actions such as the responses to a person experiencing an emotional outburst not to mention the importance of apologies.

As the pillars of success for my team, I would accentuate the clear definition of goals, the vitality of healthy relationships within the team, and the role of integrating the diverse skills that each team member brings to the table. Evidently, diverse teams are far more efficient as compared to teams formed by individuals who possess an analogous expertise.

References

Earley, P. C. & Gibson, C. B. (2012). Multinational Work Teams: A New Perspective. Routledge Publishers.

Mallory, B., & Nehlen, D. (2005). Complete guide to special teams: Techniques of Formation. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Masoeu, E. (2014). Coping Constructively with Emotions in Teams. AuthorHouse.

Wilde, D. J. (2008). Teamology: The construction and organization of effective teams. New York: Springer.