[Lakota]

1. Which of the following discourages team member participation? Why you feel your answer is the correct answer?

a. Solving problems for team members
b. Sharing information with team members
c. Delegating a task to a team member
d. Asking team members for their ideas
e. Asking team members for help

Looking forward to your responses and shared experiences -- that is right. No holds on the extent of your reasons for selecting an answer. I would encourage you to share an experience from your life where this has or hasn't worked or been the case.

Begin again in 2010. Lets add value and meaning into the lives of others through the sharing of knowledge.

Blessings to all,
Lakota

[sparky]

a. Solving problems for team members
I would say this is the most damaging. By doing this, you are actively discouraging and demotivating others. People need to be able to explore their own way around problems and issues.
b. Sharing information with team members
I would say this can be a motivator, because people like to feel involved
c. Delegating a task to a team member
As long as this is not "dumping" a task on others, this can also motivate because you are demonstrating trust and allowing growth.
d. Asking team members for their ideas
As long as you don't steal the ideas, a good motivator. Again, promotes involvement.
e. Asking team members for help
A motivator if done in the right way.

[Lakota]

Originally Posted by sparky

a. Solving problems for team members
I would say this is the most damaging. By doing this, you are actively discouraging and demotivating others. People need to be able to explore their own way around problems and issues.
b. Sharing information with team members
I would say this can be a motivator, because people like to feel involved
c. Delegating a task to a team member
As long as this is not "dumping" a task on others, this can also motivate because you are demonstrating trust and allowing growth.
d. Asking team members for their ideas
As long as you don't steal the ideas, a good motivator. Again, promotes involvement.
e. Asking team members for help
A motivator if done in the right way.

Sparky,

Thanks for the responses. Waiting for a few others to post before adding yet another question to this thread.

Blessings,
Lakota

[ajithab]

Originally Posted by Lakota

Sparky,

Thanks for the responses. Waiting for a few others to post before adding yet another question to this thread.

Blessings,
Lakota

I think solving problems for team members discourages participation all the others look okay to me.

[Lakota]

Thanks goes out to Sparky and Ajithab for their responses to the first question in this series of 10.

Are you going to let these two carry the weight for TreQna? How about letting us hear your answers and comments? All of us need to contribute to TreQna so we all have a chance to grow ourselves. Here is our next Question.

2. Which of the following seems most correct, "Active team member participation" ...

a. Gives the team leader a greater sense of control.
b. Lowers productivity levels of team members.
c. Helps team members to identify with team goals when they are a part of the decisionmaking
process.
d. A and C.

Looking forward to your responses and shared experiences -- that is right. No holds on the extent of your reasons for selecting an answer. I would encourage you to share an experience from your life where this has or hasn't worked or been the case.

Begin again in 2010. Lets add value and meaning into the lives of others through the sharing of knowledge.

Blessings to all,
Lakota

[Delphi]

To the first question, I would say "a. Solving problems for team members" would discourage participation because you are taking away the learning process from someone who may need the experience.

"b. Sharing information with team members" could be tricky if the information is either voluminous or if the information is superfluous. Too much or irrelevant information could certainly "turn off" a team member.

Though "c. Delegating a task to a team member" could backfire if the task that is delegated is outside of the abilities, knowledge or capabilities of the team member.

"d. Asking team members for their ideas" is excellent but one should be careful for the "pin drop" moment. If nothing is forthcoming right away, that doesn't necessarily mean there are no ideas out there it just may mean that some members are thinking their ideas through while others may be shy to "blurt" it out.

"e. Asking team members for help" is a good way to show that you don't have all the answers and would like help however, if asked too many times, a team member might get the idea that you don't know what to do and might be incompetent.

Overall, I would say "a" has the most potential for alienating and "turning off" a team.

For the second question, "c. Helps team members to identify with team goals when they are a part of the decisionmaking
process" is correct for two reasons. First, it is the longest answer so it must be correct. Second, the nature of teams is to be greater that the sum of all parts. When all members can identify with the goals and are a part of the decision making process, there is a sense of ownership and commitment to success. This itself, it a huge motivator.

Who else wants to take a shot at this? Any one else have any thoughts?

[ajithab]

Originally Posted by Lakota

2. Which of the following seems most correct, "Active team member participation" ...

a. Gives the team leader a greater sense of control.
b. Lowers productivity levels of team members.
c. Helps team members to identify with team goals when they are a part of the decisionmaking
process.
d. A and C.


Begin again in 2010. Lets add value and meaning into the lives of others through the sharing of knowledge.

Blessings to all,
Lakota

Okay Let me take a dig at this...

Team member participation certainly gives team leader a greater sense of control unless of course he is insecure - in which case I do not think he is a leader. So as far as I am concerned, I am always happy when my team takes activities seriously, ask a lot of questions and fill in my boots whenever necessary so that I can move to my next role - I still believe best manager is the one who makes himself redundant as soon as possible.

b. I do not agree with it, personally I do not believe in this productivity mania and if at all I believe, In the long run I think empowerment has its own space.

c. I largely agree with the third one. A leader has to be wary of his able team members' voice getting lost on noise though

d. Ahh.. is this a trick question?

[yogambala]

[QUOTE=Lakota;35102]Thanks goes out to Sparky and Ajithab for their responses to the first question in this series of 10.


a. Gives the team leader a greater sense of control.
b. Lowers productivity levels of team members.
c. Helps team members to identify with team goals when they are a part of the decisionmaking
process.
d. A and C.

I think d could be an appropriate answer. The reasons are that in c, helping team members to identify with team goals when they are part of the team decision making is fine. But for overall decision making and development of the project pivot point is necessary. Therefore I think d could be appropriate.

[yogambala]

[a. Solving problems for team members
b. Sharing information with team members
c. Delegating a task to a team member
d. Asking team members for their ideas
e. Asking team members for help

a) Solving problem for others are going to cut short their learning curve... But by documenting the previous mistakes one can eliminate the repation of the same problem over again.
b)For sharing information, one need to know what information has to be filtered from the main pool of information, that will happen, only when one id highly focused and goal oriented.
c) I think by deligating the work, we can find out our team members attitude.
d) Asking team members for ideas -- seems giving importance to the team members. Again what kind of idea is going to get implemented for the project?
e)what is the difference between c &e?

[Lakota]

Originally Posted by sparky

a. Solving problems for team members
I would say this is the most damaging. By doing this, you are actively discouraging and demotivating others. People need to be able to explore their own way around problems and issues.
b. Sharing information with team members
I would say this can be a motivator, because people like to feel involved
c. Delegating a task to a team member
As long as this is not "dumping" a task on others, this can also motivate because you are demonstrating trust and allowing growth.
d. Asking team members for their ideas
As long as you don't steal the ideas, a good motivator. Again, promotes involvement.
e. Asking team members for help
A motivator if done in the right way.

Sparky,

Very nice respose answers to these very general (it depends) type of questions. (A) is the intended most correct answer.

You comments are very telling regarding your past experiences with (delegation) and (motivation) and suggest there are still many problems with the proper handling of each. Have collected these into a listing I keep for future information sharing -- perhaps an article or short training piece.

Appreciate your sharing these answers and explanations with your fellow treqnaites. These responses also caused me to reflect and wonder what might be the differences in response or those (like yourself) well experienced as compared to those just getting started in the leadership game of work.

Seems as we progress through our careers learning, experiencing, and gaining knowledge -- sometimes we "assume" those coming into the business have these same skills, tools, and knowledges. Perhaps in our businesses we should establish a set of basic set of skills and tools all stakeholders should possess and ensure each new employee attend this training to acquire these before entereing the workforce. Just a thought.

Blessings,
Lakota