Team and Interpersonal Skills

This week in our HR division the general discussion is team and interpersonal skills. Three questions have been raised to discuss at this weeks meeting. What interpersonal skills are required to build team cohesion? To explain why interpersonal skills are important to a team, and what is the purpose for developing teams within the organization and how can teams help create cohesion between management and employees?

All organizations are committed to building cohesion into their teams. Webster defines cohesion as "an act of sticking together tightly." (Webster, 2006) "Cooperation, teamwork, and effectiveness in accomplishing goals by involving everyone's participation are hallmarks of high performance teams." (CTU, 2006) This would include to have an high degree of communication among the team, and decisions are made by the whole group.

Interpersonal skills not only play an important role in effective teams but in the ability to lead. One must be able to express and explain their thoughts and ideas in a manner that all can understand. They also must be able to evaluate others ideas and suggestions, and be able to critique in a non-offensive manner. For example: Suppose Jane has a new approach or important on a product, however Dick has the ability to take Jane's idea and improve upon it. Dick must be able to relay this information not only to Jane but to the rest of the team in a manner that all can understand and that Jane doesn't feel as though Dick is not stealing her idea or brushing it off the side. Remember a hallmark to an effective team is the ability to communicate. (CTU Online, 2006)

What is the purpose of developing teams within an organization? Organizations use teams to "synergistic knowledge and the unique ability of people to perform multiple tasks." (CTU Online, 2006) There are two types of teams that organizations adapt, first is a natural work team, these are created whereby people come together to do related jobs. Departments within an organization most often create natural teams. (Brown and Harvey, 2006, pg 284) The other type of team is a temporary task team, which is created to solve a specific project and/or solve a problem. (Brown and Harvey, 2006, pg 284) Team building within organizations helps create a link between employees and management by opening lines of communication among the groups.

I feel it is healthy to have team contests, with each other in the same store and against the other stores. Naturally due to location, some stores will do a better volume than others. However, I have set volume goals and put together percentages over that goal to find the winners each week. This ensures there is a healthy competition among employees. Although this may not seem like much, but this directly relates to the team development process. Although we do most of our initiation though email, then the objectives are set. We collect the data for the week, then we review and share over emails. The end result is we evaluate the team development. It is always enjoyed to "raz" the other as to whose store is doing better that week.

In addition to a healthy competition, during our monthly sales meetings we enjoy role- playing with each other leaving new tips on how to market our protects better to the customer. Role-playing focuses on the 6 components that is critical to creating a collaborative team. They are common-purpose, trust, clear roles, open communication, diversity, and balance of task and relationship. (Flynn, 2006). Role-playing show that we call has a common-purpose, selling the product to our customers. It creates trust among the sales staff by the sales staff knowing they can rely on each other when they have issues or get stuck. It clearly defines the sales staff roles by knowing what they need to do to get the job done. It provides open communication among the team members. Role-playing shows each team member that there is diversity or more than one way to get the job done, and what works for one customer may not work for another.

References:

Flynn, Beth, 2006, "Building a Collaborative Team Environment", OSU Leadership Center, [Electronic Version] retrieved on January 20, 2006 from http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/Publications/Leadership_Moments/LM_2001/Building%20a%20Collaborative%20Team%20Environment.doc

CTU, Organizational Change, "Phase 2 course materials", retrieved on January 13, 2006 from https://campus.ctuonline.edu/MainFrame.aspx

Webster, "Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary", [Electronic Version] retrieved on January 13, 2006 from http://www.webster.com/dictionary/cohesion

Donald Brown and Don Harvey, 2006, 2001, "An Experimental Approach to Organizational Development Seventh Edition", Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 07458.