Introduction
In business various tasks can be accomplished by use of teams constituted to serve that particular purpose. These teams may handle aspects such as sales promotion, IT development among other functions within affirms. For a team to succeed there is need for proper communication and understanding. The members need to be cohesive and make decisions together. Among these aspects of team dynamics I will look at communication within the team (Nelson & Judith, 2004). A practical environment basically changes and improves the ways in which teams operate. Practical teams can outline, use varied intellectual talents, and disband quickly and the way businesses handle this process can create the difference between success and failure. These characteristics make communication and collaboration more significant to a team’s success (Beranek, 2005).
Communication entails the exchange of data and thoughts from one individual to the next. It is two ways in that the person who passed information expects feedback from the person he is communicating to. Communication is a basic management tool; managers who don’t know how to communicate effectively have a hard time in managing their employees and getting work done. The art of communication is the greatest aspect that differentiates us from other animals.
Communication is more than just talking but rather passing across information and getting the desired response. All the other aspect of team dynamics highly depend on the ability of team members to communicate with one another. The ability with which the team members communicate with each other and with their audiences determines the success of the team in accomplishing the task at hand. Communication is an aspect of life that people start learning when they are still children. This process continues even in adulthood as people learn to communicate under different circumstances or situations. They also learn how to make purposeful communication.
Communication breakdowns are not good as they will undermine the ability or efficiency of the team leading to shoddy results; this is only equivalent to failure.
Proper communications enable team leaders to steer their teams properly. In order to communicate to the team members, the team leader should have a good and wide range of communication skills. In addition he should also have a correct knowledge of his team members so that he/she can communicate effectively to each one of them. Cooperation among members is also boosted through communication the members gain a unique identity (Kennedy, 2002).
This is facilitated by the interaction between the workers. As they interact team members communicate through verbal communications and other non-verbal signs. Through this team members get to know each other well and they thus will be able to work together with greater cooperation. This will ensure that all tasks are done to completion and success. This will also foster friendship among the members and they become team players. The team spirit that is inculcated in these people will enable them to undertake future tasks perfectly. In a nutshell, proper communication gives a team superior quality over other teams that are devoid of proper communication.
These qualities include sense of direction, clear leadership and unanimous decision making. Members share a mutual understanding and this improves their productivity.
Challenges
Team communication can be affected by many factors. These factors may originate from within the team or outside the group. Internally differences in personalities can have very negative effects, on the communication within the group. The presence of many strong personalities within the team may spell doom for the team since each may want to lead and thus. In the long run those are not allowed to lead and feel that they are the ones who was supposed to lead may resort to ignoring those who are given a chance to lead.
They may as well insight the other to also follow soot and ignore the team leaders and some members might even start taking sides. This will have negative effect on the communication between the members thus leading to failure of the team to accomplish its goals and objectives secondly, the timing of the communication is very important if the communication is intended to yield any meaningful response. For instance all the members of the team can not all communicate or talk at the same time since they wont be able to get or hear each other. Each member has to be given time to talk as the others kee0p on listening (Gideon, 2001).
Communicating to members who are not fully attentive will also yield wrong response as the people being talked to might respond without even digesting what they have been told and may likewise respond without thinking properly about their response. Communication may also be very difficult if it has to take place online because some members may not be able to keep time. Thirdly lack of trust may also hinder communication because the team members may not communicate with each other freely (Margaret &Gideon, 2001).
Conclusion
Generally, when you are working in a team, be a member of the team. Thin k with the team and do the work together. Each member should always communicate his/her thoughts to the other members for discussion and decision-making. Team leader should always be clear on what they expect from the members so as to avoid confusion in communication. In a team where members are dissatisfied with the proceedings there will be a lot of activities which do not relate with the purpose of the teams existence. They will be more concerned with self-interests more than the work at hand and sometime they may get involved in unnecessary arguments that do not contribute to the well being of the group but rather tear it a part.
The teams’ failure to perform properly may translate to failure of the mother organizations because many organizations depend the out come of various teams activities to plan and budget for the future. They also use the teams’ reports to gage themselves against other similar organizations. The team leaders thus have a great responsibility or duty of ensuring his/ her team members communicate properly. This can be done by fighting and minimizing or if possible eliminating the negative effects that affect or hinder proper and meaningful communication from taking place. For instance to avoid power rivalry there should be an established structure clearly stating who the leader is and spelling out the responsibilities of all other members of the team.
Secondly, the team leader should also put in place guidelines to guide the process of communication and other activities within the team. Members who do not have adequate communication skills should be helped to acquire these skills as they are very important.
References
Kennedy, T (2002) Team dynamics and the social participation in schools: a vision for development. Longman publications.
Gideon F,(2001) Antisocial behavior in school: Strategies and best practices. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Margaret K and Gideon F,(2001) Important passage of information following the ethical perspective: a vision from east Africa. Longman publications.(1)2, 9 -10.
Nelson,P and Judith C,.(2004) Effective group communication in the workplace. the concept of genders. Macmillan publications (2) 22-23.