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Group and team dynamics
Group and team dynamics
Team dynamics summary
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Colonel Stas Preczewski, the coach of the Army Crew team for the United States Military Academy at West Point was facing an unusual dilemma in forming Junior Varsity(JV) and Varsity(V) teams. Though he had selected best rowers for Varsity team, still they were always defeated by Junior Varsity team. National Championship is within a week and he needs to decide which team he can send to participate with over 100 schools participating in it. After reading the HBR article “The Army Crew Team” by Jeffrey T. Polzer, I believe that Coach P. should intervene to improve the performance of Varsity team and if he could not solve the situation soon, he should simply promote JV team to Varsity team. To be successful in racing, the crew must
It requires a great effort of teamwork and trust among each other. As stated in HBR article “Managing Teams for High Performance”, “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” [1] We can easily see that team Varsity didn’t mix up well and were critical of one another’s performance. Their individual performance being better than team performance clearly proved that there was some dysfunction in the team. Coach P. decided to evaluate them based on leadership skills and found that most of the Varsity team members were team disruptors instead of team builders. On the other hand, JV team had no team disrupters which made them succeed in every game.
Seeing the kind of emails the teams have exchanged within each other shows that JV team was highly motivated as a team, but in contrast, Varsity team focused only on weaknesses of each other and only focused on themselves and personal performance which made them lose to JV team. Coach P. should communicate with Varsity team to know the flaws and differences they as a team are facing. As mentioned in HBR article “Managing Teams for High Performance”, “The leader must empower the team as a whole, so as to create a climate where the team feels encouraged.”
when selecting the rowers should have taken into consideration both the psychological (personality types and traits) and the physical aspects (strength, speed, stamina, & coordination) and experimented the results of various combinations by mixing these aspects. He should have identified the growing internal conflicts and tried to look into the matter in the initial stages. Coach P from the beginning has focused on ascertaining his belief whether the Varsity team he chose is highly competent or not. Quantitatively, the members were highly competent in their individual abilities. Coach P. had several opportunities to counter this during the Atlanta Retreat. However, he failed to take actions on their failure as a team and waited to resolve it only in the end, just three days before the national games. The Army Varsity Crew is a dysfunctional group. They’ve not yet reached the Norming phase where trust among the members has largely been achieved. The coach should have made sure the structure and composition of the teams were properly made long before the seat races have started. The lack of presence of strong motivator in the Varsity team should have been met to give them a
From the author’s perspective there are certain factors needed to build a strong team to overcome the obstacles the team faces. Davis, the author, thought that one of the factors necessary to build a strong team is to have a leader who can motivate the team to do their best. Another factor that the author thinks is necessary to have in the team is to have cooperation among the team
As the incoming brigade commander, LTC (P) Owens, I see the critical leadership problem facing the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) is the inability or unwillingness of Colonel Cutler to lead and manage change effectively. In initial talks with Col Cutler and in reviewing the brigade’s historical unit status reports, the 4th ABCT performed as well as can be expected in Afghanistan, but as the onion was peeled back there are numerous organizational issues that were brought to the surface while I walked around and listened to the soldiers of the 4th ABCT, in addition to reviewing the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) report. One of the most formidable tasks of a leader is to improve the organization while simultaneously accomplishing
Valvano gave a speech at the 1993 ESPY awards in which he depicted his ideas of leadership. He stated that leaders need a vision. He said that in one practice every year he would have the players practice on how they would act when they win. He did not say if they win, he said when they win. Valvano was giving his players a vision. They had something to believe in and play for. They were not playing just to look good and move on to the professional level. They were playing to win a national championship. Valvano envisioned an idea for his team and his team bought into that vision. He also taught that leaders need to connect with their followers. Valvano stated that he often would randomly call his players into his office just to chat with them. He wanted them to feel comfortable with him. They did not just talk about basketball, they could talk about anything. Valvano’s followers, in this case his players, were comfortable with him and they trusted him. They had no doubt when it came to their leader. Valvano fully understood the value of connection. He also taught that leaders learn from their followers. In Valvano’s final speech he talked about the four things that the 1983 national championship team taught him. They taught him hope, dreaming, persistence, and love. These four things came from the connection that Valvano had with his players. The 1983 national championship team
In order to see outcomes in this area of improvement, we as coaches must re-evaluate not only our athletes, but, in addition, our coaching styles. Of course, we all want to tell ourselves that we are great coaches and it's the athletes who are not following direction...
In the book Boys In the Boat, Daniel Brown tells the story of the U.S.’s rowing team’s Olympic journey to gold in 1936. The games were held in Berlin, right under Hitler’s eye. Though the games were held in Berlin that didn’t stop Joe Rantz, the book’s main character, and his team from going for gold. The boys had to show perseverance and teamwork to even be able to row. From country boys, to gold medal winners, rowing and hardships helped them embody the American spirit of hard work and teamwork. The boys had to overcome hardships, to work hard, and they never stopped being a team in order to win gold in Berlin.
The team has become united and they continue to win their way through. They even had their own special warm up before the games started. The school also has become more united after the winning streak of the football players.
The first day we got there we had started off so wrong by arguing. We weren’t doing well and we argued most of the time. Us as a team, we honestly made ourselves look bad in front of the coordinators and other teams that were watching us. The coaches had given us a real big pep talking about sticking together as a team to make us better. Although we didn’t think we needed it, it actually
Without the combination of his values, directive attitude, the ethnicity and culture of the community and his love and knowledge of his school and hometown, Carter may have not gone the extra mile or been able to motivate as successfully. Carter utilized many different types of power throughout the movie and as the relationship with the team changed the type of power he used evolved. In the beginning he was just a successful alumni of Richmond and he had some expert power in the relationship because he experienced the same life at Richmond but had knowledge of what happens outside the high school doors. With being in an assigned leadership role, as a hired coach, he was provided with some legitimate power to utilize in his leadership of the team. As the players resisted his rules and guidance, Carter shifted to utilizing a more coercive power. Without the use of coercive power, Carter would have also not been as successful. He had to use this power to persuade the players to give his approach a chance so he could prove his leadership and his goals to gain the team as followers. I think that after proving himself, and standing his ground during his first season the power Carter held shifted to a referent power over the followers because he fulfilled his promises, returned their futures and gained their respect and trust (Northouse,
For instance, the Rye High School soccer club suffers from internal teamwork issues that involves diversity interaction disorder and lack of leadership from an interpersonal level. With the new addition of a foreign player from Colombia, a new batch of freshman players at the varsity level, and the hiring of a female coach on a men’s team there is conflict present that is dividing the team and its leaders from working towards their goals of winning games and learning how to work with one another. These types of problem within a sports team are prevalent around the world. A language barrier and integrating different cultures in this situation has created a negative tension that is dividing the team. Numerous players and coaches on the team are unfamiliar with how to deal with working as a team with a new member that has come from different upbringings and tradition of how to work on athletic team such as soccer. The practices are different. Communication has been minimalized creating a disruption of teamwork in a sport where talki...
At last, I could see the first boat racing across the Chattanooga Lake with four more boats drifting behind it. The crowds were no longer in their seats, but were standing on their toes cheering for their team. I could tell that losing was not an option for these rowers, as their strokes gradually began increasing in velocity. At this point it was a question of which team wanted to win more. The UGA novice team answered that question as soon as they ripped through the finish line with their last powerful stroke. I found myself on my feet and cheering for my winning team as they held their heads high and victoriously. I was not expecting to be feeling this involved and interested in a rowing race, until I actually experienced one.
Basketball is supposed to be a team sport. A team can constant of ten or twelve players but only five can compete at a team. Five players on the court working together to win. Teammates are supposed to have their teammates back. Fight to the very end for their team to get a win. This is not always true. Players have their own way of doing things. They think a team should be like this or that, but they are players who do the right things for the team. I have experienced this from my team. My teammates cab be categorized based on their performance as the “Jankin’ Jerseys”, the “Limitless LeBrons”, and the “Paparazzi Peters.”
Having a team is harder than working alone. Every member of their own way on how they understand when people are communicating and how they communicate with others. Observing different types of teams, whether its football or in a business atmosphere, they all have the same sort of habits that make them successful. Small things such as, leadership, trust, and how you communicate are key components of many team successes.
Rowing, the thrilling team sport that gets you physically/mentally fit and provides you a second family with many friends. In the sport of crew, teamwork is very crucial. With that teamwork comes new friends and wonderful coaches. Even though you might think this is a physical sport it is also considered to be a mental sport. Just think, baseball has nine innings, approximately two hours of play and a lot can change in that period of time for a loss or win. With crew you only have about seven minutes to get your eight man boat down a two thousand-meter racecourse to receive a medal or win. If you have the lead it is mentally hard to come back and win for the rowers behind the top three boats.
A team's weak cohesion will result in poor performance that may prevent the team from reaching its goals. Individual team members must forget their arrogance and take their roles and responsibilities seriously. Managers, trainers and leaders must make a significant contribution to making the team come together. First of all the leader has to choose the right