Hello, Warriors! Being an officer in the Indian Armed Forces is surely the proudest thing an aspirant can achieve. The pride of wearing the uniform, the respect you get from the society, high standards of living and moreover, saying, “Yes I have it in me. I am an officer in the Armed Forces. But, as I had pointed the thin line between, being bossy and being a leader in my previous articles, it holds true that, being an officer is all about working in a team and leading it from the front. That is why, all SSBs conducts group tasks to check one’s ability to work in a team and to lead a team of the finest military in the world.
In this article, I would like to stress on the quality of being a team member and leading it.
First of all, let us be clear with what actually a team is unlike just a group of people working together.
What is a team?
- A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. The collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually responsible.
- A team has a synergistic effect where one plus one equals a lot more than two.
- Team members co-operate each other in all aspects to meet the goal and share in various management functions, such as planning, organizing, setting performance goals, assessing the team’s performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources.
- Team members are deeply committed to each other’s personal growth and success and it is this commitment that usually transcends the team.
Developing team leader qualities is much more than what it looks and feels like. Being a team leader is not work being less, it’s about responsibilities being more. The Indian armed forces follow the hierarchy system where an officer has a control over his lower ranks. If an officer of a higher rank assigns a task to his immediate lower rank, it will pass on till the last lower ranks. And until the work is done, everyone is working. This is called the team work.
To develop a team work quality, let us go through the stages which leads us to be an effective team worker and moreover, a team leader.
Stages of Team Development:
There are four stages in team development:
- Forming: In this stage of team building, the forming of the team takes place. This stage is important because, in this phase the members of the team get to know one another, exchange some personal information, and make new friends.
- Storming: At this stage decisions don’t come easily within the group. Team members vie for position to establish themselves in relation to other team members. Clarity of purpose increases but uncertainties persist. In this stage, the team addresses various issues and discusses how to solve them. Team members open up to each other and confront each other’s ideas and perspectives.
- Norming: In this stage goals are set and plans are made. All team members take the responsibility and aim at reaching the goal successfully. Agreement and consensus are built. Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted. Big decisions are made by group agreement and smaller decisions are delegated to individuals or small teams within the group. They learn to adapt and become tolerant towards other team members and there emerges a strong sense of commitment and unity.
- Performing: At this stage, teams functions as a unit as they find ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively without unnecessary confrontation or the need for external supervision. The team is more strategically aware. The team is focused and makes most of the decisions against criteria agreed with the leader. The team has a high degree of autonomy. Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively, and the necessary changes to processes and structures are made by the team.
To develop the quality of working in a team, you have to start now. If you are in your school/college and organising an event or a function, just be aware of these stages of team development and try to stick to these. As just working in a team will not make you a leader but until your team chose you to be one. Just go through these stages again and try to make the best out of it.
If you have any queries, get in touch with me through my FB link below. Will be happy to help.
