Chris's Bio:
I’m Christopher Browne. It is my third year as both a marketing and advertising major here at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Unfortunately, it is my final semester here at UWM; starting this fall I will be attending The University of Tennessee enjoying life in the south. I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia so the adjustment to the south will not be too difficult. I really enjoy working with people and coordinating to help things work smoothly. I helped work with Henry and Connor so we all could meet together. I read my individual article and shared with my group members what I learned from it as well as shared my model with them. I also created the Wordle describing key components of our project; we included the diagram in our project. I took charge of the group paper, combining our individual work and adding the intro and conclusions. Connor, another group member made a diagram from his article as well as configured the website and edited the large, group paper. Henry, the final group member configured the main model for our team, designed the web site, and made his own diagram.
I’m Christopher Browne. It is my third year as both a marketing and advertising major here at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Unfortunately, it is my final semester here at UWM; starting this fall I will be attending The University of Tennessee enjoying life in the south. I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia so the adjustment to the south will not be too difficult. I really enjoy working with people and coordinating to help things work smoothly. I helped work with Henry and Connor so we all could meet together. I read my individual article and shared with my group members what I learned from it as well as shared my model with them. I also created the Wordle describing key components of our project; we included the diagram in our project. I took charge of the group paper, combining our individual work and adding the intro and conclusions. Connor, another group member made a diagram from his article as well as configured the website and edited the large, group paper. Henry, the final group member configured the main model for our team, designed the web site, and made his own diagram.
Chris's Essay:
What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel
Obtaining the goal of creating a high-performance team is no easy task. In fact, it is extremely difficult to configuring a team that will excel. In Lisa J. Daniels and Charles R. Davis’s article, What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel, they break down elements of high-performance teams and make it easier for people to use their strategy. They believe the key elements to optimum team performance are: strong management, diversity, and cohesion among team members.
There are multiple parts to a high-performing team but arguably, none more important than the leadership. There is a clear difference between a leader in a group and the manager of a group. A leader can be anybody who people in a group follow; they do not necessarily need to be in a position where they are in charge. The person who is coordinator for the group is the manager. It is vital that the manager is able to create assignments for the correct people, manage many complex interpersonal relationships, and meets corporate deadline standards at all times. Managers who have diverse teams have the responsibility of matching tasks according to group member’s strengths. Personally, I have done this as well in many different instances in my life. In high school, I was captain of the varsity soccer team. It was my job to work with the coach on figuring out what were the best lineups for different situations. I also have done this while during a summer internship I have done. I was a part of a team where I was not the leader, but the manager of my team assigned me to a specific public relations job because I was the best intern at the position.
Another essential element to a high-performance team is diversity. Diversity is important in the article, What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel, because the team IBM configured consisted of experts from multiple different technical and scientific backgrounds and had them work collectively on a complex project. Due to having many people who are all experts at a specific task, as a team, their final goal was met very successfully with everybody doing their part. I have experienced diversity among a workplace where everybody is good at different ways in my life as well. In soccer, everybody has strengths and weaknesses; I was a goalkeeper. I am good at leading, catching the ball, and being able to communicate with my defense in order to maintain order. With me being a goalkeeper, I would not do well if my coach placed me into a midfielder position that required me to be the play maker of the team. Also, when I worked my public relations internship, I was the best intern at convincing people to sign up for the website I worked for. My boss noticed this and moved me into a better job due to the fact that I have done well at that task.
The final essential element of a high-performance team is cohesion among team members. All team members must become one powerful unit in order to achieve a difficult task. In order for a team to become cohesive, teams must also have coordination, cooperation, and communication. The team must be well organized and have an understanding where everybody is on the same page. Without having everybody in a similar mindset, it will be impossible to build an effective team. Also, teams must have cooperation. Without people getting along with each other there are many more opportunities for failure. Finally, each team must have strong communication. This ties in with the idea of coordination; teams must be able to effectively communicate with one another in order to get a task done. I have dealt with cohesion in different instances in my life. What first comes to mind to me is when I worked at Jimmy Johns in the fast food industry. There were many workers that would work the busy lunch shift; we would deal with over 500 customers in just a few hours. Without cohesion present amongst our team of co-workers, everybody could tell how unorganized we appeared. Mistakes would happen and people would start blaming, and negative emotions grew. It will be impossible to obtain a high-performance team without cohesion.
Building a high-performance team effectively is no easy task. It takes strong leadership, diversity among workers skill sets, and cohesion among team members to build an effective team. If these three elements are established, the sky is the limit for a team.
What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel
Obtaining the goal of creating a high-performance team is no easy task. In fact, it is extremely difficult to configuring a team that will excel. In Lisa J. Daniels and Charles R. Davis’s article, What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel, they break down elements of high-performance teams and make it easier for people to use their strategy. They believe the key elements to optimum team performance are: strong management, diversity, and cohesion among team members.
There are multiple parts to a high-performing team but arguably, none more important than the leadership. There is a clear difference between a leader in a group and the manager of a group. A leader can be anybody who people in a group follow; they do not necessarily need to be in a position where they are in charge. The person who is coordinator for the group is the manager. It is vital that the manager is able to create assignments for the correct people, manage many complex interpersonal relationships, and meets corporate deadline standards at all times. Managers who have diverse teams have the responsibility of matching tasks according to group member’s strengths. Personally, I have done this as well in many different instances in my life. In high school, I was captain of the varsity soccer team. It was my job to work with the coach on figuring out what were the best lineups for different situations. I also have done this while during a summer internship I have done. I was a part of a team where I was not the leader, but the manager of my team assigned me to a specific public relations job because I was the best intern at the position.
Another essential element to a high-performance team is diversity. Diversity is important in the article, What Makes High-Performance Teams Excel, because the team IBM configured consisted of experts from multiple different technical and scientific backgrounds and had them work collectively on a complex project. Due to having many people who are all experts at a specific task, as a team, their final goal was met very successfully with everybody doing their part. I have experienced diversity among a workplace where everybody is good at different ways in my life as well. In soccer, everybody has strengths and weaknesses; I was a goalkeeper. I am good at leading, catching the ball, and being able to communicate with my defense in order to maintain order. With me being a goalkeeper, I would not do well if my coach placed me into a midfielder position that required me to be the play maker of the team. Also, when I worked my public relations internship, I was the best intern at convincing people to sign up for the website I worked for. My boss noticed this and moved me into a better job due to the fact that I have done well at that task.
The final essential element of a high-performance team is cohesion among team members. All team members must become one powerful unit in order to achieve a difficult task. In order for a team to become cohesive, teams must also have coordination, cooperation, and communication. The team must be well organized and have an understanding where everybody is on the same page. Without having everybody in a similar mindset, it will be impossible to build an effective team. Also, teams must have cooperation. Without people getting along with each other there are many more opportunities for failure. Finally, each team must have strong communication. This ties in with the idea of coordination; teams must be able to effectively communicate with one another in order to get a task done. I have dealt with cohesion in different instances in my life. What first comes to mind to me is when I worked at Jimmy Johns in the fast food industry. There were many workers that would work the busy lunch shift; we would deal with over 500 customers in just a few hours. Without cohesion present amongst our team of co-workers, everybody could tell how unorganized we appeared. Mistakes would happen and people would start blaming, and negative emotions grew. It will be impossible to obtain a high-performance team without cohesion.
Building a high-performance team effectively is no easy task. It takes strong leadership, diversity among workers skill sets, and cohesion among team members to build an effective team. If these three elements are established, the sky is the limit for a team.