Build, support and manage a team

The role of a team in the achievement of a specific project or activity is very important. A team that has different skills in different areas will work well together and will make a project successful. A quote from Belbin with regards to a team was ‘A team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role which is understood by other members. Members of a team seek out certain roles and they perform most effectively in the ones that are most natural to them.’ Dr. R. M. Belbin. This demonstrates the importance of having different skills within the team.

It is often required that the team member have to work on their own initiative in areas where they are ‘experts’ which places the responsibility on them to manage their own day to day work and report back as appropriate.

I was recently involved in building a team for a community firework display event that was taking place in the school and was involved in selecting people to be involved in the project.

The first task that was carried out was deciding on the objectives of the event. These included:

* The safe and smooth running of the event * Marketing of the event to the local community * Marketing to potential stallholders * Collection of money for pre-paid tickets and tickets being sold on the night of the event

There were skills and needs identified that team members would need to have to be able to work on the project. Skills that needed to be demonstrated were that of someone who has excellent organisational skills and who had experience of organising large events with a knowledge of Health and Safety, someone with excellent communication skills who could communicate well to the community and was also known to the community, someone with excellent people skills who could market the