Characteristics of Teams

I've been on many teams over the years. Student Government Council, FFA, Forensics, Choir, School-Wide Committees: they all classified as teams, which, according to Daniel Levi, is a structured group of people that work together on a common project for which they all held accountable. Teams come in many shapes and sizes, have a variety of dreams and goals, and are motivated by different drives and passions. Teams are as diverse as the people that compose them.

However, looking back on all the teams that I have either been a member or a leader of, there seems to be a common trend: they want to succeed. Team oftentimes make committees or create goals that they wish to achieve during a limited time frame. There are five defined characteristics of successful teams as outlined in the Group Dynamics for Teams: clear goals, appropriate leadership, organizational support, suitable tasks, and accountability and rewards. Each and every team that I have been on in the past, and the ones that I am in now, have had at least one of these characteristics. Since joining the Elements of Team Leadership class, I have been able to pick apart these characteristics in almost all the groups I have been in, from CFFA to my team in Leadership 1016.

Now that I am able to recognize these traits of success, I can start to utilize them before my teams start projects.  Take for example: In CFFA, I am in charge of the bulletin board committee. As the leader of the committee, I provide an organized agenda of what needs to be accomplished, and once the group meets to put together the informational bulletin boards, the potential reward is that CFFA will gain more members. Also, as members of this class, we can use this information to include in our team contracts to achieve our goals for out team projects. This first unit has been beneficial in recognizing what a team is and how they can be successful in real world application and I plan to use this as a basis for future team compositions.

This is my most favorite team I have been on: the 2009-2010 VA State FFA Officer Team