SUPERVISION AND TEAMWORK

Supervision and Teamwork

Supervision and Teamwork

Introduction

Many people used the words team and group interchangeably, but there are actually a number of differences between a team and a group in real world applications. A number of leadership courses designed for the corporate world stress the importance of team building, not group building, for instance. A team's strength depends on the commonality of purpose and interconnectivity between individual members, whereas a group's strength may come from sheer volume or willingness to carry out a single leader's commands.

Influence dimension

Four dimensions of “influence skills” exist, so clients can now differentiate between these levels to optimize target populations' expertise. Each dimension is “necessary but not sufficient,” so each requires a different learning solution. 1) Substantive Influence- The influence idea itself must be compelling, well documented, accurate, sound in business rationale, and clearly conveyed. This entails task level training, but is also addressed by “influence message” formats or templates (e.g., “Hook-Point-Value” or “Idea-Action-Value,” etc.).

Core Interpersonal Influence- Many influence courses teach fundamental communication skills, such as Listening and Speaking skills to gain Agreements (Ridge Training), or Advocacy and Inquiry skills with “push” and “pull” tactics (Forum, Barnes and Conti, Situational Management Institute, etc.). Whether discrimination learning oriented (drilling discrete terms and skills), focused on platform presentation skills, or achieving broad interaction skills, this level targets the interpersonal domain as the influence building block.

Motivation

Why motivating a team?

Have you ever asked yourself the simplest why questions? For example:

Why do you focus necessarily on motivation?

Why do you want to drive team motivation? For what reasons do you want to stimulate motivation in their teamwork?

Why do they “need” you to get extra motivation? Do they really have to be motivated? Is it necessary?

Define your team members: know your team - select them

It goes without saying that selecting the right mix of talents, expertise and leaders for the team will ensure that the work they do leads to success. And the right mix of people for any specific teamwork is the most important part of the process. Therefore, who are your team members? With whom you are going to battle?

Make note of - the leaders, the talents, the initiators, the hard-workers, the professionals, the creators, the individualists, those who are mature/responsible and those who really need directions to get the job done. Conduct your research and select the right mixture. These insights of your team members will help you on deciding who needs extra motivation and how to start motivating these team members.

What motivates the team members?

Find out what motivates your team members. What brings each and every one of them to the highest level of performance? What do they want to achieve at work? Ask them on a regular basis and once you understand their professional needs and goals you are on the right track to know what can motivate them. If you understand your employees, they will take more interest in understanding what you want from them.

Task allocation and self efficacy

Despite the widely acknowledged impact of dispositional ...