Module 4: TEAMWORK and TIME Management and TEAM MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Module 4: TEAMWORK and TIME Management and TEAM MANAGEMENT

SKILLS

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Building TEAMWORK in leadership

Wherever more than one person is involved to get a job done, team work is required. The team may be of just two persons - a husband and wife, a tutor and the student, or the boss and the subordinate. Effective Team Work is achieved when the desired results are obtained with the minimum amount of work and conflict between the members, at the least cost, and with the greatest satisfaction to the people doing the work. In Teamwork, the performance matches the promises made. There is genuine concern for others, not only concern for self. There is shared problem solving, and a sensitivity for the wants and needs of others.

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The Requirements for Effective Teamwork for Organization Leadership are : 

Clarity of goals and objectives, and directing all effort to achieve these. The goals may be short, medium or long term.Determining the work to be done to achieve the goals and creating a structure for doing it.Assigning work to individuals, so as to take the advantages of a person's specialization, experience and interest.Establishing effective working relationship.Knitting the team together.

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Team Work is the system to reduce human effort and make things easy for everyone. However, It requires a holistic approach, as an impact on one part affects the total system. An organization is like the human body. It is not the stomach that gets hungry, but the whole being is hungry. A toe separated from the body is no longer a toe. The same cause may have different effects on the same person at different times. For example, a cold drink could quench a thirst, or cause a sore throat. In organizational matters, one need to take a total view. Effective Team Work means that a problem in any one part is immediately known. Long term views are taken, and the interest of the whole team are considered. There is no resistance to change of change is seen as being in the long-term interests of the greatest number of people involved, and appropriate action is taken to protect the few who will be adversely affected.

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Teamwork is outward looking. It nurtures the concept of looking to everyone who is a recipient of one's products or services as a customer, whether the person is inside or outside the organization. The success of the scientific approach is dependent on observations, knowledge and facts. Full facts are seldom known to one individual, nor is one person able to do everything. Hence, the scientific approach demands teamwork. It also demands that decisions and judgments stand up to questioning and rational thinking. Such questioning can only be effectively done in an environment of co-operation and Team work, rather than one of conformation.

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How to develop TIME MANAGEMENT skills

Time Management is necessary for those who have goals and objectives to achieve. For the one who does not have any purpose, time is expendable, time hangs on one's hands, there is plenty of time. Similarly, time management is not required when the level of performance is low, and there is plenty of slack in the system. Time is the one factor over which man has no control; it is being spent whether we like it or not. But is it being spent to a purpose, are we trying to adapt or condition ourselves so that the ever turning wheel of time takes us to the heights of achievements? This is what Time management is all about - to be able to manage time so that we get the optimum out of it. To be good leaders of time, we first have to know what are the characteristics of time Management.

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Road-blocks to effective time management

Attitude Fear, lack of goals, tolerance of delays and inefficiencies, a feeling that the job is too difficult, voluminous, diverse, unpleasant, low self esteem.Knowledge Inadequate information, unclear priorities, lack of know-how on the planning process and how to tackle problems.Environment noise, visitors, poor housekeeping, organizational disturbances, lack of tools, work overload.Physiology Fatigue, illness, stress.

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And what are you going to do with the time you and your co-leaders start saving with all this time management?

You could always find more that needs doing, of course. But before you spend all your time, consider this: There's no greater reward you can give yourself ad your colleagues than a little time off. Make Time : Set aside time each week for the thinking and reading, meeting and talking that never seems to get done. Mark this time on your calendar, and keep that appointment, just as you'd keep an appointment with your most important person in your life. And give your members some time to do that as well. It will be the best time your spend on the task.

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Characteristics Of Time Management

It is a resource given equally to everyone.It comes to us in small bits - one bit at any moment.It cannot be accumulated and stored and, hence, must be judiciously used as it comes.Time classifies events into 3 zones - Past, Present and Future. We lose effectiveness by not getting the most out of the present.We neither live in the past not have over-anxiety for the future.Time is synonymous with change. If there is no change there is no time- there is eternity.Time is a dimension in which change takes place. Time is also a measure of change.Life is change; nothing stands still.Self management is basically time management.

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Solving problems and leadership attitude

When we are faced with a situation, how we react to it will depend on our mental make-up. Will we intuitively act, or will we make a reasoned decision before acting? Will we take an analytical approach, or would we rather go by experience? Do we prefer to see the board picture, or do we like to break situations down into manageable bits? We tend to classify anything disagreeable or undesirable as a problem, be it the hot summer months or the wet rainy days, the inability to get up in morning or the difficulty of getting a good night's rest, or be in the phone ringing continuously or the phone not working at all. 

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The Problem with Problems 

The first step in solving a problem is to first define what exactly is the problem. Situations may or may not be considered as problem depending on the time, palace, people and circumstances. Consider 

The following situations with respect to time, place people and circumstances:

1. Time: Price rise in the festive season may not be considered a problem but could lead to agitations at other times.

2. Place: Drinking alcoholic beverages in a place where prohibition is religiously followed may be a serious problem, though it may be acceptable elsewhere.

3. People: Calling parents by their first names may be acceptable in some cultures but taboo in others.

4. Circumstances: Cancellation of all trains in a flood situation is accepted with equanimity, but delay of a few trains in normal circumstances could cause an uproar. For AKAP use only

From situations to problems

We are continuously being faced with situations, but not all situations are problems. The development of human thought is basically a process of classifying and cataloguing situations. Knowledge simplifies existence and transforms the complicated into the routine. For Example, the cost of painting a house can be made into a routine arithmetical exercise of finding out areas and multiplying this by the rate of painting per unit area. Education is the process of indexing and classifying knowledge; firstly into board subjects like Mathematics, Science, Religion, History, then into sub-classifications like Algebra, Geometry and Arithmetic, and then into specific subjects like profit and loss, areas and dimensions.

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Solving Problem, therefore, calls not only for skill to analyze and synthesis situations. But, more important, to handle the human issues involved of differing view points, approaches and objectives When the team encounters a problem, it will always have to do either with how is processes are operating or with some type of member dissatisfaction.

Processes should operate to minimize waste and costs, while delivering defect-free outputs that meet member’s needs and expectations. When things get in the way of that happening, the team has a problem. So the primary part of defining the problem has to do with understanding what about the process is causing a problem or what about the output is not satisfying the members. Solving problems means just that-solving the problem so it doesn't recur.

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HOTSEAT ACTIVITYHave you ever been in a situation where there are a lot of tasks given to you at a minimal time? How did you manage it? On this activity, you will be in a scenario where you will feel you are in a HOTSEAT.

You will literally sit on a chair. Three persons surrounds you. 1st person is at your FRONT, 2nd person is at your RIGHT and the 3rd person is at your LEFT. 1st person will ask you anything about your personal life, 2nd person ask you anything about what you do when you are with your friends and the third person will ask you to answer some math problems. Here’s the catch! All of these THREE people will simultaneously throw you these questions and you’ll have to answer them all at the same time! Each of you will have a turn sitting on the HOT SEAT!

GOODLUCK!

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