With Effective Teamwork You Can Succeed.

Teamwork according to Gibson et al (1980) is the process whereby a group of individuals actively work together in a bid to achieve a common goal. Teamwork carried out effective can help boost productivity and efficiency. 

Teams are increasingly more popular as a typical operating method for organizing and managing work. More organizations continue to embrace teamwork as they come to understand that productivity can be derived from effective teamwork.  Effective teamwork is very important for the network industry besides having  products and services that stand out. The synergy created from working together rather than individually should not be underestimated.  However, managing a team to succeed can be challenging as certain factors have to be attended to if one is to ensure that all individuals in the team work effectively towards achieving set out goals. This paper will analyze the benefits of teamwork in network marketing, the issues faced by managers with regards to facilitating teams and various factors that can help networkers to be more effective in facilitating team members for productive and efficiency.

The benefit of Teamwork

Every single individual in your network has his or her personal contributions to the achievement of organizational goals. Whenever individuals come together to perfom a given task, they combine their individual skills creating snergies that help boost the attainment of organizational goals. When individuals combine to carry out task, they put in their personal talents generating a special energy to deliver tangible performance results. There are a number of contributions working effectively together can make to your organization. With teamwork the generation of diverse ideas is highly possible which allows for better decision making. The time spent of carrying out a task which in the case of network marketing, expanding your network is cut short. Teamwork enhances participation and involvement. Workload is share making one’s task less stressfull to embark on. According to Weaver, (2008) when individuals come together to perform a given task, they combine individual skills creating synergies that help boost the attainment of organizational goals. Teams provide members with a social identity that reduces stress & uncertainty motivating members to be more productive (Levi, 2010).

The ant colony is a good example of teamwork and  how synergy is gained when individuals work together for a common purpose, in this case the good of the colony (Maxwell, 2006). Ants are small and frigle but that does not stop them from doing great things in their capacity. 

Another good example is the game of soccer. Every player has an individual role to play but for the collective good of the entire team, which is winning matches.

Food for Thought.

Why Teams Fail

ú  No vision or goals.

ú  Personal irresponsibility.

ú  Conflict between partners.

ú  Power struggle. The “I must out perform him/her syndrome".

ú  Dishonest partners

ú  No clear identity.

ú  Lack of training.

Clear mission and goals

The mission of every network marketer if you ask me is to be successful financially and otherwise. To reach the level of success you dream of, you need a vision, mission, goals, you need people, you need a team. A number of studies have noted that having clear understanding of where they are headed as one of the important conditions necessary for effective teamwork. According to Brodie (2007) for teams to be effective in their respective task, they have to understand the purpose for which they are carrying out the task. Each player in the team should be able to identify his/her purpose and responsibility. By identifying purpose for and role of each and every individual in the team; the tendency of achieving desired results is highly likely.  This is in line with one of the oldest models of team effectiveness Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry (1977) which pointed out that goal setting should always be the first thing to take on when putting a team togther, followed by defining roles and responsibilities. When the goals are clear, the team is able to concentrate on the the right things to deliver the best results. One very successful marketer points out in his book titled “ While you’re in a Traffic Jam, I’m Playing Golf!”, that some folks think they can build a business without having a dream. According to Thompson, (2008) you need a vision and set out goals to keep you inspired and motivated during the toughest of times. When one loses heart without a vision, he or she passes on such demoralization unto others in the network.

Honesty and Collaboration

Some network marketers face a lot of negativity as a result of experiences potential prospects have had in the past with other networkers. The attitude of an individual will reflect on his team and that of the team on the organization. True some companies are started with hidden agendas to cheat people however, genuie organizations are being blacklisted in the minds of the public because someone got cheated at some point. I have personally come across cheats in the course of looking for a good home networking business and I must say the experience can be very demoralizing. If one is outspoken he or she would definitely give bad world of mouth. Some people would even go at any length to bad mouth an organization when scammed. You can not really blame them, you on your part has to work hand in hand with your team in the most honest way possible to attaining your goals. 

Having competent team members is an integral part of overall effectiveness. Unfortunately, we often have no control over who we work with; (Larson & Lafasto, 1989)

You have to protray your team as the right team to be a part of. Prospects need to have enough reason and conviction to trust your team, they have to see potentials. Some might say that being honest in business does not pay well, but imagine if every marketer carried out their business ethically? No doubt, much more people would be drawn to network marketing than we have today. It starts with one. When marketers are honest with themselves and their prospects more would be achieved. That brings us to the issue of colaboration. Elton Mayo’s of productivity and work conditions between 1927 -1932 called Hawthorne Studies has been adopted by businesspeople for decades The Hawthorne Experiments showed that an individual's work performance, position, and status in an organization are determined not only by the individual, but by group members, too (Merrett, 2006). The individuals that founded teams in the course of the experiement where more productive than those who did not. According to Robert Kiyosaki, people working as a TEAM means Together Everyone Achieves More. It is through cooperation that people and organizations truly win because it is a win - win. De Meus (2009) notes that Psychologists have been contending that mutual trust and open communication are the foundation for any successful relationship. It also is logical that how one resolves conflicts, makes decisions, and deals with resource issues would be highly related to team effectiveness.

Tuckman (1965) notes that team members do not immediately build strong interpersonal relationships.

He proposed 4 stages that teams go through before they can be said to be effectively working together and committed to the same goal.

• Forming: learning to deal with people
• Storming: conflicts are brought to the surface and must be resolved.
• Norming: team members settle into their roles and a team feeling begins to develop.
• Performing: the team is united and working on the task at hand.

Some people get into the network business thinking they will easily build relationships with their team whether upline or downline, but get disappointed when things do not go as planned. Network marketing depends a lot on building relationships with people whether online or offline. The way you relate to people internally or externally does play a huge role in determining your success. The way you relate with your team determines whereby there would be long time progress or not. Tuckman’s model has to be taken with atmost importance. Do not expect relations with other networkers you work with will be all rosy in the beginning because it will not. It takes a lot of commitment, dedication and openness to be able to build relationships that amount to success. Thompson (2008) advices networkers not to waste time on prospects when they turn you down but rather move on to develop new relationships. In the course of building new relationsips never forget to maintain that which has already being built with other networkers and clients. In conclusion, the best people to work with are those that fully well understand and are aligned to your goals.

Principled leadership

Leadership is one of the most critical factors for effective teamwork.According to Larson & Lafasto notes that effective leadership is principled leadership and  Highsmith describes it as collaborative leadership. It does not matter how good a team is on thrust, trust, talent, teaming skills, and task skills, it must have the support from the organization and the leadership fit to be effective (Lombardo & Eichinger, 1995)

This makes the establishment of the Monavie University make a lot of sense. In that it was created to act as a support base for the learning and development of its independent distributors, teams and leaders. Principled leaders inspire and influence people rather than give orders, they believe in their followers to get goals fulfilled using power only sparingly

Teamwork can be a very good strategy for individual and organizational growth but its success is dependent on  leadership, clear cut goals, collaboration etc.

It should be noted that no single condition is sufficient for teamwork effectiveness, rather Davis & Scase, (2000) a combination of all conditions will allow for an effective team in turn resulting in high performance.