Team Work, the Ultimate Managerial Solution?

884 Words4 Pages
Collaboration comes across the literature as an increasing necessity in organisations for optimal performance in productivity and a necessary managerial and leadership skill. Erickson (2010) argues that increased collaborative capacity is a well suited leadership activity for today’s managers. Gosling and Mintzberg (2003) argue that the collaborative mind set is one of the five minds of the manager and finally, though she disputes the teams’ ideology, Amanda Sinclair admits that “teams in various forms have become ubiquitous ways of working” (Sinclair. A 1992, 13, 4 -611-626 in Peters and Waterman 1982, Payne 1988). Teams under certain circumstances can probably satisfy everything at once if the team adopts a collaborative approach, is high in Emotional Intelligence, can resolve conflict positively, acknowledge the importance of human well being and is capable of not losing the big picture. I believe from my own experience in my management role in France and my group work for FOL, that teams can be a powerful crane of performance when positive dynamics occur from within and therefore satisfy the elements of Amanda Sinclair’s quote. It is important to acknowledge that a team is a complicated structure of individuals, a“cauldrons of bubbling emotions” (Goleman, 1998, p 101) embedded in yet another complex structure which is the organisation. Thus, taking into account individuals and the interacting forces that results in a team is fundamental to appreciate and argue Sinclair’s quote. Individual needs cannot always be satisfied in a team unless a balanced approach and an understanding of the impossibility to satisfy everyone is understood. This is exactly what I encountered in my team work for FOL. Sharing leadership, we listened to each other’s views and acted that we would not be able to satisfy everyone’s needs. With different personalities, behaviours,
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