Working as one, unity and teamwork

Serving as a Young Men's President in my ward, I have learned about teamwork and collaboration in a different way than most individuals do. As a leader of the Venturing crew, we went on a campout where the group was not prepared for what was to come. This included matches or anything to start a fire. The teamwork that was accomplished by the young men to solve the problem and accomplish the task to cook dinner was phenomenal. I was so impressed with the way that the boys performed and I learned more from them than they will ever learn from me. The thing that I learned from that example that I have sought to apply today is that working together even in hard times brings success. I hope that I will take the optimistic outlook that my boys took in every challenge and not be critical to one another, but instead be supportive and encouraging each day in every task.

The greatest challenges that I face in teamwork and collaboration is working with individuals who are easy to follow and not give their opinion concerning the ideas because they do not want to offend. This problem is something that I notice because of one of my shortcomings of being overly aggressive in wanting to accomplish the various tasks that are placed before me. I find that I can overcome this by being much more open to others ideas and others input. This would eliminate any worries by an individual to share information and give their ideas. This produces greater accomplishments and also enables others to feel included.

Integrity, Character, and Communication the Keys to Teamwork

Building integrity is a pain staking process that is worth every challenge that it brings. Time is the greatest building block for integrity and trust. But it is how that time is spent as a team that is valuable. Two of the major things that kill a teams ability to be able to trust one another is personal focus rather than a collective focus. When one comes into a team and puts their individual desires and projects above the projects and needs of the collective, that individual is not trusted as looking out for the collective whole nor is that individual building their integrity with the other members in the area of hard work and determination. Another way that integrity and trust is build is through relationships. A person must continually assist and love the individuals on their team to build the integrity that is necessary to have success.

When trust is build on a team, the process of moving forward with a new project becomes fairly simple as each individual sees the big picture, the goal and the outcome while the project is being discussed. However, when teams are not united in this matter, there can be contention in the process of moving forward. The best way to ensure that all team members are united on the project before you move forward is in the storming stage to ensure that all concerns and opinions are heard out. If this takes place early on in the process of the planning of various projects, it is easy to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the outcome is desired by each in attendance. If those opinions are not brought forward early, often times they are the means by which contentions arise, blame ensues, and problems in being unified are manifest. Making sure all the information and everyone's ideas are on the table before the start of a project is crucial in ensuring this happens.

Creativity is an important way in presenting new ideas to a team in a storming session. A couple of creative ways that we can present information to a team prior to a project is through participation of individual team members who may not have come up with the idea. Allowing the team to help market the idea helps to build relationships and trust with the team members as well as help to unify the team in purpose as to the desired outcome before moving forward with a new project. This can be done by allowing team members the opportunity to see what is happening from the beginning of the process and give their input while an individual project director starts putting together a project. Another creative way for teams to present new information is to make the presentation personal by getting to know each of the individuals to whom the project will be presented, inform them of why the project will be important to them in their duties and in their lives. This creates a sense of connection to the project that will increase the likely hood of the individuals being willing to buy in to the new project at hand.

 

Decisiveness, the need for and the reason to

When it comes to the most important behavior in getting results with a project or problem, decisiveness is the most important attribute one can possess. The reason that decisiveness is so important is that no problem is ever solved and no project is never completed unless a decision has been made concerning it. In my time as a missionary for the LDS church, I found that serving in leadership positions were more about making decisions than actually leading someone to do something. This was apparent on one afternoon when I met with a couple of missionaries who had decided that they were not going to go out and work because one felt that the only thing they should be doing is knocking on doors and the other felt that it was more effective to talk to people on the street. When we were brought in to mediate a discussion between the two missionaries we discussed the importance of making a decision rather than fighting between two decisions. Concluding that the best decision was to stay in the apartment was by far the worst answer that they could come up with, but had they been able to decide as to what the desired outcome was, their decision would have been made. As leaders in BYUSA, it isn't necessarily most important in problems and projects to be innovative or being able to take initiative as it is in being decisive and able to make a decision and stand by it. It may not be the best answer, such as calling off questions during presentations in a SAC meeting because there are too many presentations left in the limited amount of time, but a decision is the difference between a problem being solved, one way or the other, and the problem remaining a problem.

My personal strength in getting results on projects and problems is good judgement in making decisions and being decisive in making those decisions. As mentioned above, I feel that this is the most important because it is the area in which things actually get done. I seek to implement this further in my leadership roles by continuing to think ahead and making decisions that will enable things to get done in organization. As the President Pro Tem of the Student Advisory Council I can implement these ideals of decisiveness to make sure that the Student Advisory Council has direction as to where we would like to see them go and that they know what we want them to do. If we have been decisive in understanding our roles as ED's of the program and as we let them know their positions, they will be able to accomplish great work in moving forward the needs on BYU's campus.

Technical/Professional Expertise

Technical/Professional Expertise is something that I get to see everyday in action. Jeff Whitlock is one of the greatest examples of this proficiency. I first had the opportunity to meet Jeff when I was in a Book of Mormon class that I didn't expect to be in, but I count it a privilege to have been introduced to Jeff at an early stage in my education. The elements that he showed in that class of perseverance and friendship, networking and focus were some of the greatest I have ever seen. Now that I have the opportunity to work with Jeff on a daily basis I notice that he is technical and professional expertise. The other day Jeff was in the midst of a conversation where he was tutoring and mentoring an individual to be successful in a field that would usually be viewed competitively. Instead of following the natural man reaction to keep the information to advantage himself, he shared freely with this individual, helping to not only build a relationship of trust but also to show his desire to lift others up from their position to higher ground, creating a team that will be successful in the future.

Problem Solving and Analyzing skills have been something that I have enjoyed developing namely while watching movies with my wife and pointing out things that are pointless in effect, but I had an experience with one of my young men a few weeks back where this came in handy. As I was meeting with one of my young men, I recognized that things were not going quite as well in his life as he would normally make them seem. Without prying or being overbearing, I was able to deduce from the words that he would post on facebook to find the right chance to be able to meet with him and discuss this issue. As we met, I found that our relationship was forged in a way that I could have never imagined. This young man still has some things that he is working through, but the relationship that we have forged has allowed me the opportunity to continue to be an influence for good in his life.

Innovation is probably on my mind more than any of the other attributes listed in the Technical/Professional Expertise section, because the Student Advisory Council is always looking for ways to improve and be more efficient in being able to move forward the purposes of the students and administrators on campus. Having to innovate new and improved ways to train the leaders on the council is probably the biggest challenge because the leaders are being trained at a higher level before they come to BYU and trying to teach them new leadership models is something that we must innovate on a daily basis. Showing support for others in innovation is one of my weaknesses, I painfully have to say that I do not do this very well because of the challenge of pride that I am seeking to overcome. One of my goals is to be more open to others ideas and innovations, however, I still struggle to do this at a high or even proficient level. The goals that I have set to be able to accomplish this is to open my mind more to the ideas of others by not making pre-determined ideas that I would like to apply and leave to others the opportunity to accomplish great things.