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Building and Leading Teams

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name and Number

Professor’s Name

Assignment Due Date

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Building and Leading Teams

The authors’ main point is the necessity of team-building skills for healthcare

professionals, particularly for nurses. There are several approaches to organizing tasks within a

healthcare system. These include the case method, functional method, and team method. The

team method has marked advantages over the former two methods. It results in significantly

lower workloads, improved job satisfaction, happiness at work, improves patient outcomes, and

reduce morbidity (Kumar et al., 2014). Nurse leaders need to learn the basics of teams such that

they become effective team players. Once they achieve this, they can transfer the benefits of

working in a team to their respective teams.

The authors intend the paper to be read by professionals in the healthcare sector, more

specifically, nurses. While leaders have the responsibility of ensuring their teams are effective

and working well to achieve their respective objectives, the information in the paper is intended

for all individuals who could be part of a team. Reading the article informs one of the various

aspects of teamwork, such as team formation, barriers to effective teamwork, and approaches to

improve a team's efficiency. The information in the paper is also applicable to teams outside the

healthcare sector.

The authors’ arguments support the article’s main point. Their arguments are centered on

various aspects of teamwork. These arguments are centered on how teamwork may be optimized

to optimize performance. The authors also focus on various ways in which teamwork is not

effective in facilitating the achievement of objectives. For instance, conflict avoidance leads to

energy wastage in maintaining an equilibrium that results in suboptimal performance. However,

embracing positive discourses and healthy conflict management strategies results in growth

(Kumar et al., 2014).

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Teams have various traits that increase their desirability. A team has various stages, such

as forming, storming, norming, and performing contributing to its dynamicity. Each stage has

distinct qualities such as expression of conflict and learning curves that contribute to a team's

variability. Teams allow several individuals to aggregate their effort and unique abilities in the

pursuance of a common goal. More so, members can fix each other’s weaknesses (Kumar et al.,

2014). It also leads to the development of relationships that survive the team.

The authors highlight communication as a vital aspect of an effective team. Negotiation

skills are necessary for handling disagreements and conflicts such that they become constructive

rather than destructive. Through communication, team members can engage in healthy

competition. Furthermore, trust is a crucial aspect of a successful team. Communication creates

an atmosphere of transparency, integrity, and accountability, all of which are essential precursors

to trust within a team. Communication is cited as a factor that is facilitative when it is clear,

open, and positive (Kumar et al., 2014). It ensures that members get timely information

necessary in the accomplishment of their respective tasks.

I find the paper quite informative on the subject of team-building. I agree with the authors

on various issues raised in the article. For instance, working in teams lower the level of stress

among healthcare workers. The case method where a nurse is assigned complete care of a

number of patients is likely to result in a heavy workload for the nurse. This increases the

probability of problems such as burnout and poor patient outcomes. The functional method

assigns nurses specific tasks in a care setting. The results of adherence to the functional method

include monotony and a higher probability of job dissatisfaction (Dyer Jr, 2015). In this

approach, there is limited interaction with other nurses of professionals. I also find the

information on motivating team members enlightening. Motivation is not an isolated concept, but
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one that needs to persist if the performance of nurses is to be maximized. Motivation may be

based on attributes such as money or power. Other aspects of improving the job environment are

crucial too. These include several dimensions necessary in enriching jobs. They are providing

feedback, increasing autonomy, improving task identity and task significance, and broadening

skills variety (Dyer Jr, 2015). The authors also place emphasis on mentoring and coaching as

crucial skills for team leaders. These two skills relate to the relationship between a leader and a

leaner with the objective of allowing the learner to improve their performance.

As a leader, it is essential to ensure that interpersonal communication does not boil to

conflict that derails job performance. As a team leader, I would engage in a team meeting to

address various issues that are working against the team. First, I would identify the positive

aspects of both Sheila and Quintin and appreciate the value they bring to the organization. Next,

I would highlight the various forms of communication and their effects on a team’s performance.

I would then ask the two to identify the root cause of their conflict. Sheila would be required to

address the source of their issue with her colleague. It is likely that the source of the conflict is

misunderstandings between the two. Therefore, identifying the source of the issues would be

crucial in promoting positive, constructive communication that involves healthy conflict

resolution mechanisms (Ramsbotham, Miall, & Woodhouse, 2011). I believe that I would need

different communication skills as a leader than the ones I currently use. This comes from the

need to facilitate cooperation among several people where there are possibilities of conflicts that

require urgent resolution.

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References

Dyer Jr, W. G. (2015). Team building. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-2.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118785317.weom110270

Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and leading teams. Indian Journal

of Community Medicine: Official Publication of Indian Association of Preventive &

Social Medicine, 39(4), 208.

Ramsbotham, O., Miall, H., & Woodhouse, T. (2011). Contemporary conflict resolution. Polity.