商务英语BEC拓展阅读：团队协作

商务英语阅读辅导：商务英语BEC拓展阅读 团队协作

The way a team is led will have a major impact upon the success or otherwise of the team. When asked what they want from a team leader, team members will often identify several values they would want a leader to hold :
commitment to[1] people as well as task is the first key element.
desire to support and serve the team as well as lead from the front.
enthusiasm, energy, inspiration and sufficient expertise[2].
willingness to shoulder responsibility rather than pass the buck[3]
ability to make the team come together to achieve more than a group of individuals.

Commitment to people
Most team members are primarily concerned about relationship and about being valued as a team member, before they are concerned about the task that the team is to undertake. Feeling secure in a group environment is an important pre-requisite[4] before individual contribution.

The good team leader is able to spend time building the team, not only when the team starts off, but when a newcomer[5] joins an existing team.

Desire to Support and Serve
Whilst team members want to see the ability to lead from the front, they are also strongly motivated by the ability to lead from the back! Servant leadership from the team leader is vital if team members are in turn, to want to serve each other. This is a particularly key topic for Christian leaders. There is a balance to be struck between a willingness to take on any chores[6] that need to be done by the team, and taking an inappropriate balance of roles so that the leadership is diminished[7].

Enthusiasm, Energy, Inspiration and Expertise
Unsurprisingly team members want to be inspired and motivated by team leadership which has the energy and enthusiasm to fire them up[8]. However, they also want to feel secure that the team leader has themselves, or has access to, the necessary expertise to lead the team in the right direction. The leader doesn't have to be the most knowledgeable of the subject at hand, but if they are not, they must encourage the input [9]of others.

Willingness to shoulder responsibility
Team leaders are tested under pressure. When challenges arise, as they inevitably will, the leader will need to take responsibility to ensure that they are fixed as far as possible and that the team is strengthened as a result. This does not mean that the leader should admit that issues beyond their control[10] are in any way their fault, (although they should be honest in admitting their mistakes), but rather adopt a proactive stance to ensure the team is not deflected from its course.

Ability to achieve more as a team
Teams only become a team once there is some synergy[11] within the group ie the team process adds value to that which a disparate group of individuals would achieve undirected. This is likely to require the team leader to explore leadership models that share the leadership role within the team, to have an understanding of different individuals team roles, strengths and gifts, establish a mutual accountability[12] within the team, and to create a team environment which is open, fun and allows healthy and productive discussion.
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[1]对…作出承诺, 承担义务, 担负责任; 使(自己)致力于…I must go. I have committed myself to the club tonight and the members are expecting me.我得走了, 我已经答应今晚去俱乐部, 会员们正等着我呢。

[2]special skill, knowledge, or judgment; expertness专门知识或技能

[3]推卸责任,把为难的事推给别人

[4]先决条件

[5] a person who has recently arrived or started to participate in something新来的人; 新手

[6]a small routine task, esp a domestic one零星工作(尤指家常杂务)

[7] reduced or lessened; made smaller减少了的,被贬低的

[8] arouse or excite feelings and passions; "The ostentatious way of living of the rich ignites the hatred of the poor"; "The refugees' fate stirred up compassion around the world"; "Wake old feelings of hatred"点火, 点燃; (使)突然生气, 勃然大怒

[9]输入, 投入

[10] out of control; out of hand无法控制

[11] Also called: synergism the potential ability of individual organizations or groups to be more successful or productive as a result of a merger协同,配合,企业合并后的协力优势或协合作用

[12] responsibility to someone or for some activity责任承担；问责制