An Evaluation Of A Team For A Medium Sized Insurance Company Essay

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

The following strategies will help you to manage your team more effectively and ensure that they meet future performance goals.

| “The top 10 features of an effective team are: * clear purpose; * open communication; * constructive conflict; * effective problem-solving and decision making; * defined roles, responsibilities and accountability; * strong relationships; * systems and procedures; * experimentation and creativity; * measurement and self-assessment; * shared leadership.” For a team to be effective, they need to have clear

However, diversity of the group is not managed properly and conflicts are not handled effectively because of poor communication. There is a serious degree of trust problem in the team. For example, Merz has not much confidence in team members’ competence and she is not believing in their ability to deliver the product. Therefore, we can’t talk about a team efficacy for this team. Everyone asserts his/her expertise and experience but no one regards and trust each other’s. Lastly evaluation system of performance of the employees is a serious problem. While they were working both in the project and in their functional areas, they were evaluated only on the basis of performance on their functional area. This situation definitely destroys motivation of the team.

Like any individual or team, there are going to be weaknesses. It’s not necessary to focus on them every time, however; it’s important to know what they are so when it comes about, it’s able to be addressed at that time and to avoid an conflicts or disagreements. Robbins & Judge said that, “When managers use collective work situations to enhance morale and teamwork, they must also be able to identify individual efforts. Otherwise, they must weigh the potential losses in productivity from using groups against the possible gains in worker satisfaction” (2013). Our teams weaknesses are being impatience, some might take themselves too seriously, can be critical, some might be slow decision-makers, won’t speak up or be unresponsive while others are over thinkers and don’t want to rick change. Also we fear work criticism, some don’t like surprises or the feeling of being hustled or looked at as too “soft”, and don’t want to lose control. Even though these are weaknesses, we don’t look at it that way because when one style is having these current issues, we can rely on each other’s strengths to come in and make sure everything stays in order.

After the selection of the effective team members, it is important to analyze the conditions that should be in place before the team is launched; analyze the team processes that unfold as the team begins its work; assess what should happen during the team’s launch, and

2. In monitoring this team, at what level and function do you see the most serious problems? Internal task? Internal relational? External?

The Five Dysfunctions of a team are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattentin to results. Each of these items will lead team to failure eventually. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team written by Patrick Lencioni address each of these in detail.

After reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Pat Lencioni, discussing the function of effective teams in class, and completing various team building exercises, I have developed a much better understanding of the importance of a proper team in a business setting and how good team work can produce more efficient and productive results.

Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.

The author, Patrick Lencioni, has experienced great success. He wrote eleven books and sold over five million copies, and his books were translated into more than thirty languages. The author is emphasizing the issues that will make a team come together and build a strong team. As he mentioned in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, first, the absence of trust; in every team, there should be trust in order to achieve one common goal. For any team that lacks trust, it is difficult to accomplish their goal. In addition, teams experience fear of conflict. When a team fears conflict, it happens because there is lack of trust. Trust brings togetherness to a team. When there is trust, no one fears conflict because every member of the team works on the same understanding. Thirdly, lack of commitment: a team has to be very committed to one another. When a team has a commitment to the company, it makes the team strong. The fourth point is avoidance of accountability. Every member of a team has to be accountable to themselves. Without commitment, it is hard to hold each other accountable for any issues on the team; every member of a team has to be responsible. Lastly, inattention to results: every organization needs a result, as a result of growth in the company, not a personal ego but collectively. These are the five dysfunctions a team that wants to be successful has to focus on. Leaders should be able to bring their best and possible changes into the system of their organization to better the company, just like Kathryn, who does not have any experience in DecisionTech.

Healthy and dysfunctional teams, for most part, function as mirror images of one another. While one can find characteristics in effective teams without direct counterparts in unhealthy teams, however these qualities tend to arise out of a smaller number of corresponding qualities. Four characteristics stand out as quintessential to whether teams are effective or ineffective; attitude, control mutuality, communication, and execution.

The following are a few lessons I am taking away from this team experience: 1) quality communication is key 2) do early recon and understand what work lies ahead 3) quickly discern who is a self starter and who works better with direction 4) for a team that is just forming I would suggest that you set expectations early and try to spend time together outside of work in order to build bonds 5) communicate by phone or face to face as much as possible to avoid

The first problem Ellen needs to resolve are the negative behavioral issues present in the task force that are affecting performance. The team will remain stagnant unless Ellen can motivate the team out of the storming stage (Phillips & Gully, 2014, p. 394). It is evident there is dysfunctional conflict within the team, primarily based on insignificant reasons. “The team leader needs to keep team members focused on their goals, roles, and tasks to avoid members’ becoming distracted by the

The concept of developing an effective team has resonated with me over this quarter as the company I work for has begun to hire a large number of new associates as a result of a new contract with a big name company, which we signed earlier in the year. Working closely with my boss, the company’s CFO, we have determined that we need to make some additions to our small finance team. The knowledge of what it takes to establish an effective team has helped me provide critical personality specification as well as job specifications that I feel would be essential for joining