Leadership and Teamwork

I used to be a varsity player in high school and as in every group or team, we have our set of arguments as well. One time, two of my team mates were arguing about “being too irresponsible of not passing the ball to the other” versus “not passing the ball because the other one usually loses the ball in passing”, consequently leading to countless turnovers, as well as, losing the opportunity to make points of course. Our game was already about to start but still they were still arguing over our previous games and the mistakes that we committed.

Nobody would just give in, so I took the opportunity to lead them to a good, nice, and smooth conversation. I assisted them in communicating well instead of scolding them both. I told them they should be achievement-oriented and focus on our current game instead of going over the past time and again. I also portrayed a very good example when the situation was incontrollable and one is most likely to get mad. They saw this and realized they should not have done what they did. These two people are extremely good players if only their emotions will not affect them. We won that day simply because their arguments were settled soon enough because of the influence of a very good leader. We also won because there was ‘teamwork’.

Personal Sense of Leadership and Teamwork

I have a “sense of teamwork”, of course. This is where roles are established, meaning functions, authority, accountability, and priorities are extremely considered and focused on making it easy to attain goals effectively (Teamwork, n.d.).

No doubt, I have a “sense of leadership” as well. I strongly believe that a leader should be exceedingly good in communication (Clark, 1997). A classic example of a leader who happens to be extraordinary and brilliant in terms of communication is someone:

1. who speaks to people as they are;
2.  who shows originality instead of emulating someone else’s style;
3. who presents himself as his/her own person; and
4. who does his/her best to understand what others say, meaning, he/she who also try to walk in someone else’s shoes, instead of merely listening to how people articulate things (Clark, 1997).

Yet another example is this: A leader will listen and try to understand an employee’s explanation as to why he/she was absent, instead of just merely listening but will not try to be considerate and punish the employee immediately after (Clark, 1997). Allow me to reiterate that, “Communication is one of the most needed characteristic if one is to become a leader” (Clark, 1997).

For instance, ” If you exhibit rudeness to your members/subordinates, for sure, you will never have the credibility that you ought to have to be respected and if you do not know how to communicate properly, you will never be able to attain being a leader” (Clark, 1997). This is why when I lead I articulate myself properly and never in a rude manner (Clark, 1997).

I also believe that a leader should consistently guide the team members (Clark, 1997). For example, I should guide the members to become achievement-oriented as well (Clark, 1997). It may be carried out through the following:

1. I should set challenges for followers to pursue;
2.  I should show confidence in the  members’ ability to meet their expectation and perform at their highest level;
3.  I should guide a member who suffers from a lack of job challenge;
4. 4 I should provide followers an idea as to what are expected of them and how to perform their tasks especially if the member of the team asked for it;
5.  I should be approachable and accommodating enough to enhance the confidence of members etc; as well as
6.  I should incorporate the member’s suggestions, if any, into the final decision (Clark, 1997).

I keep myself aware of the importance of having the heart to be open to my followers (Clark, 1997).

In addition to the aforementioned, I also believe that I should inspire trust instead of being dependent on “control” (Clark, 1997). I should know that “a group leader, for instance, should not always direct his or her member on what to do, he or she should have full confidence on the members and will just get back to them when they are ready with the results instead of supervising members from time to time and nagging them on what is morally wrong or right or even what systematic process to choose etc” (Clark, 1997).Trust, is a very important characteristic of a leader, this way the members of the team will be more inspired to work as a group since their leader has full confidence on them (Clark, 1997).

References

1. Clark, D. (1997). Leadership. Retrieved October 5, 2007 from
2. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html
3. Teamwork. (n.d.) Retrieved October 5, 2007