Teamwork

Teamwork

All of us have worked in teams at some point in our lives, and we all can recall a time we had interacting with others to meet team objectives. Communication is the way we get through our daily life, both personally and professionally. There are team units in our lives that we chose to be in, and then there are those that we are simply put in without a choice. It is usually these groups that have we will have the most conflict. I have had the ability to view a lot of different team settings through my work and family life. Being part of a team brings to my mind many things, both the good and bad experiences that I went through while working with team members and others in my life.

There are many questions that I have asked myself after many meetings. Some are as follows:

How did I perform? Was I able to lead the team to meet its objectives? What did other team members feel about my presence in the team? Were my interactions positive or negative? Did I learn anything from my interactions within and outside the team?

As I look back into my own life, I find myself dwelling on these points, was I able to come up with hither to unnoticed aspects about my personality and work that will qualify me as a valuable member of the management team at work, in which we meet every Tuesday morning at 8 am. This is when we get together to discuss any open cases, client concerns, upcoming training, what is working for us in regards to recruiting and much more.

I truly love being part of my management team at work. I find myself looking forward to our Tuesday morning management meetings. In these meetings is where I find support, guidance and a true sense of camaraderie. If I have an issue I have been struggling with all week, it is here that others know what I am experiencing and help me through it.

In order for this team to be established and work as effectively as it does, our support comes from the top. Our upper management, who actually directs the meetings, has a whole team outside of this team, which is just to support us as Sales Managers. Sometimes they give us an inspirational book to read and then we get come together and discuss it. Other times, they actually need our advice on some issues in the agency or just want to give us ideas on how to be more profitable.

I always leave these meetings, knowing I received so much from these fine people, and have walked away a better person. I do realize that it also takes my individual contribution to the team as well; I always try to exceed my normal limits when asked to complete a goal for this team. In our management team, moreover, there is a mutual accountability and togetherness amongst all the members, whether it is from the most experienced manager down to the brand new manager with little or no experience. There is never any rank pulling. We always seem to pull together and help each other work through issues of the utmost importance in assuring that our organization runs smoothly, productively and effectively. It is wonderful to have such a variety of experience in the room, because you know that they have been through exactly what you may be going through.

As an individual, we realize that we might not be able to complete everything needed to be done, but, as we come together as a team, we are a well organized, close knit, problem solving machine. We have one basic premise among us which is that our individual contributions are always our best nothing less. This is what makes us working together a team a benefit.

Teams can take a while to form as you get to know each other and find out how each other works. So when we were first established, we came together to and had to get to know one another, even though some members have worked together for many years, there was an adjustment phase that we went through. We realized that working as a team could be very frustrating at times. There are many times that we have had to come to a compromise. We have learned to negotiate and to trust the fact that the others will do a task to the high standard that we have always set for ourselves.

Now as I look back at my experiences, with this team over the last year, I find that this team enables me to do more then I could do on my own. I try to totally understand my team members, realizing that each of them has a different personality; I appreciate them and make the most of each of their special skills and abilities. I have learned that good team players place team objectives ahead of their own personal goals.

This is not to say that I may sometimes disagree with one of the members, or that they may disagree with each other, there are times of true conflict. But to call it conflict would be too negative a term for this team. My dictionary defines conflict as "a struggle to resist or overcome; a contest of opposing forces; strife; battle; a state or condition of opposition; antagonism; discord; clash; collision." This is never the case amongst us. There may be a slight battle of opinion, but never to the extreme of the definition above.

We realize that while conflict seems to be ever-present in our lives, it is how we learn to handle it is our fate. The possibility of conflict looms anytime two or more people convene. In many team settings, I have heard the people say that "conflict" is good for teams, and so sometimes it is encouraged. What I think they mean is that "disagreement" is good for teams because it causes topics and opinions to be brought up that might not have been displayed. Conflict has an emotional component that tends to be destructive, whereas disagreement is a non-emotional presentation of differing viewpoints between teammates which can be very positive, yet competitive in nature. When we are competing for the same goal, we make sure that it is just that, friendly competition. We make sure that what ever happens during the meeting, that when it is over, we leave always on a positive note. We realize that while competition may place a negative impact others, we are opposed to taking this competition to the extreme and having others leave with many negative feelings.

When our conflicts arise, and yes they do arise, we admit it, learn from it and move on. Our conflicts, usually, arise from a multitude of different sources and issues that reflect our differences in personality, experience, values, ideologies, religion, culture, race, and behavior. Conflicts are usually are brought up from simple requests and arise from simple misunderstandings. As I have said before, this management team is made up of many different people from many different places in their life.

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