What skills I learned from a recent group project

I took the role of a leader in a group project recently and it forced me to acquire skill I thought I would never achieve which were:

• Commitment to people and keeping the task as a first key element.
• Desire to support and serve the team as well as lead from the front.
• Enthusiasm, energy, inspiration and sufficient expertise.
• Willingness to shoulder responsibility rather than passing the buck
• Ability to make the team come together to achieve more than a group of individuals and finishing the task.

Commitment to people
Most team members were primarily concerned about relationships and about being valued as a team member, rather than the task that we as a team were asked to undertake. I spend time building the team, not only when the team started off, but when a late comer joined an existing team.

Desire to Support and Serve
Whilst team members wanted to see me lead from the front, they were also strongly motivated by the ability to lead from the back! Being the leader, did not mean I could sit back and let my team do all the work, it was necessary I showed the group, that we are all here to do the work to a professional standard, it was vital to show this trait as team members wanted to help and serve each other, from seeing me setting the standard early on, within the project. There was a balance to be struck between a willingness to take on any chores that need to be done by the team.

Enthusiasm, Energy, Inspiration and Expertise
When the group started I had to inspire and motivate them, with energy and enthusiasm to fire them up. However, they also wanted to feel secure that I had myself, or had access to, the necessary expertise to lead the team in the right direction, which I did as I had worked with two of the group members before. I wasn’t the most knowledgeable of the subject at hand, but I encouraged the input of others, to overcome this problem.

Willingness to shoulder responsibility
As a team leader I was tested under pressure. When challenges arise, I had to take responsibilities to ensure that they were fixed as quickly as possible and the team was strengthened as a result. Some of the issues were beyond my control and were not in any way my fault, (although some were and I felt I should be honest in admitting my mistakes) but rather adopted a proactive stance to ensure the team is not deflected from its course.

Ability to achieve more as a team
The team only becomes a team once there is a strong synergy within the group i.e. the team started the process of doing some work and added value to the project, which they would have not achieved individually or undirected. To successfully work as a team I had to understand the different individual team members, there role, strengths and weaknesses, to establish a mutual accountability within the team, and to create a team environment which was open, fun and allowed healthy and productive discussion which helped the project and tasks achieved by doing so.