Encourage Collaboration and Share Leadership

Hey everyone,

I do not know about you guys, but when I work in a team setting, sometimes things can become a little bit competitive. I always want to be in charge of putting the final project together, and making sure I receive everyone's part of the assignment at a certain point. I like how people get their job done fast because that is what I do. I never procrastinate.

 However, sometimes you work in groups where not everyone is like you. There may be some slow people in your group that need time to catch up. You all have to work together as a team. By being a team, that means you need to collaborate. Collaboration means working with someone to create something. It is crucial that you work together with your team and not to compete with each other. Competition leads to bickering, fighting, people in the group taking sides, etc. This leads to your task/project not resulting in a good manner. Parts of your assignment may end up sloppy, or incomplete.


"Sharing information in a cooperative effort to achieve team purpose must be more important than competing with other members for individual achievement." (Business Communication, 2016, pg.41)
This quote essentially means that you are working as a group; not by yourself. You need the support of your team to develop an excellent task/project.

During this collaboration effort, there may also be a leader assigned to your group. Now leaders are good, they keep everyone on track, and make sure people are assigned roles that best suit their strengths. A leader is often someone with the most expertise and is good at taking charge. Although having one leader is important, sometimes it is necessary to point other people as leaders. (Business Communication, 2016, pg.41) If you are working on a task where someone has more knowledge about the topic, you should let that person be the leader.

Sharing the role of leadership allows everyone to have input on the task and lets people of the group gain confidence.

Effective Communication Skills

While working in a team, it is super important to communicate. Without effective communication, your group may run into problems that could affect the task/project at hand. 

"Productive team members articulate ideas clearly and concisely, recognize nonverbal cues, and listen actively." (Business Communication, 2016, pg. 41) It is evident that all team members in the group know what is going on and communicate if they do not understand. If five people in the group understand, and three do not understand; someone needs to explain to the others so a clear message can be spread across. 

Effective communication is not only verbal, it includes written work as well. This means you need to get your idea/pint across clearly on paper, email etc. While communicating with your team, you should establish feedback. As a team member you want to encourage people to express their opinion. 

While communicating is important, so is listening. "Listener's become actively involved, read body language, and ask clarifying questions before responding." (Business Communication, 2016, pg.40)