A team is a group of two or more people working together to accomplish a task. With the explosion of knowledge in the information age and the greater interdependence of different work groups, it has become clear that team members need to work together more effectively to accomplish tasks

In the past, many organisations have emphasised the interactions between managers and employees; the challenge for the future lies in the interactions among employees as equals (i.e., on teams). These teams may be cross-functional in nature and will operate without the benefit of a built-in hierarchy. Thus, team members may be less certain of their respective roles. The challenge is to help team members manage these roles and contribute to the team using their own unique strengths.

Individuals and teams need to know their strengths – do we prefer to analyse, organise, socialise or conceptualise, most of us have two or more preferences. We are all motivated and stimulated by engaging our preferences.

Focus on your strengths and have plan to manage your weaknesess if they affect the productivity of the group.

For example: how many of us know the stalling speed of a Jumbo 747 ?

“I guess if you are the captain or the first officer it’s important – however for most of us it’s a knowledge weakness that if it dosn’t effect the productivity of the group then the strategy would be to ignore it”.

Much time, money and effort is spent every year on training on peoples weaknesess with very little permanent improvement in productivity.

Focus on your strengths and you will be well rewarded.

Richard Spooner – Sales Coach