Question
Describe what you believe are the four most important characteristics of high-performing project teams.Discuss why you believe each characteristic you chose is so critical. Explain how they are related to each other.Give an example of when you were part of a high performing team and what made the team you were part of successful
Sample paper
Team Work
A team refers to a group of individuals working together to achieve a certain goal that is beyond their self-interests. A high performance work team consists of individuals who are focused towards a certain goal and have the required expertise to perform a given task. Team work is important in any organization that wants to achieve its goals and objectives. Through teamwork solving problems becomes easier as the individuals put in their experience and skills. A high performance team consists of people who are highly skilled and are capable of interchanging their roles.
One of the most important traits of a high performing project team is trust, by trusting each other the team manages to express their ideas and feelings freely and also feel safe when they are working together. The second core characteristic is communication. Communication is essential in a high performing team in order to ensure that every member of the team gets the required information of handling the project (Hakanen, Häkkinen, & Soudunsaari, 2000). It is also important in generating ideas from the team members. The third characteristic is collaboration; every member of the team should collaborate with the team to ensure that they all have a common goal and derive ways of achieving it. The fourth vital trait is disagreement, however the disagreement should be healthy that is aimed at attaining the goal of the team.
Trust is vital in a high performing project team; trust among the members of the team builds commitment, helps the members become loyal to each other and increases communication. Trust is the foundation that helps team members work together. When members of the team trust each other they manage to improve the performance of the team.
Hakanen, Häkkinen, & Soudunsaari (2000) shared experiences create trust and trust in turn enables deeper levels of interaction and expression between team members. Trust also enables free sharing of ideas, which is the best basis of innovation processes and usually the feeling of trust is based on intuition and emotions.
Communication plays a critical role in a high performing tea in that it creates cooperation among the members. Through communication a team is able to move faster and achieve its goals. Accurate and effective communication is essential to enable the members to strategize and work to achieving a common goal. It is through communication that unity of purpose is formed and maintained.
Collaboration in a team ensures that the members are aware of how they are expected to work and the roles each individual plays (West, 2012). Collaboration involves sharing, health challenges and sharing to ensure the goals are achieved. Collaboration may also involve competition among the members; collaboration helps in problem solving through members sharing their expertise. Collaboration creates a sense of belonging to the team members due to their contribution in the group. On the other hand collaboration requires trust and honesty to allow the team members to admit their personal shortcomings hence members being able to freely express themselves.
Disagreements among the members of a team should be constructive in order to ensure there is innovation and generate ideas towards achieving the goal. Opposing views among the members should be encouraged and adopt the best views that will help the team improve its performance. Constructive disagreements in a team always lead to making informed and better decisions.
Personally I was part of a high performing team that involved conducting a research on the impacts of small businesses on economy growth.
As a team we had trust on each other hence the ability to communicate and express our views without fear. We also ensured that communication was effective and that we were on the same page. Meetings and emailing were used as the main forms of communication. During the meetings we had extensive discussions that usually led into constructive disagreements which helped in making better decisions. As a team we collaborated with each other and everybody understood their roles. As a team we worked together and knew what was expected of us in order to achieve the goal.
In conclusion, for a team to achieve its set goals they should work together and define the role each person plays. Effective communication is essential to make things done. It is also important for every member of the team to contribute positively towards the goal.
References
Hakanen, M., Häkkinen, M., & Soudunsaari, A. (2015). Trust in building high-performing teams: conceptual approach.
West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.
