THE TEAMPLAYER

The class started off with everyone introducing themselves, giving a brief background to their work history, how long they have been at the company, their location and what they expected from the course. The facilitators gave an outline of what the course would encompass for the day and that it was an interactive session.

We were asked what we understood by the PSP- People, Service, Profit philosophy....an account executive give his description of what it meant. I disagreed, the reason why was because he stated only that employees of the company counted as people.

In my view its not only employees but included the customers and clients who were also PEOPLE.  Also SERVICE meant the quality of the goods/services that are provided external and internally with staff of the organisation and PROFIT meant re-investment into the company by technology, shareholders value, the growth of the company and also the profitability of good employees.

The facilitators then split the class into three groups to discuss three areas of special requirements of a manager: Leadership (ability), Planning, and Special Trust/Confidence. We had to give specific examples for each and the reason why it was important and to present our findings in a 20 minute presentation to the whole class.

The group I was assigned to nominated me to be the leader and facilitate the team. Even when I deferred it to another member, it was strongly turned down. So I had no choice but to accept the role.

I clarified again what was expected of us and the time-frame so everyone in the group knew what was required of us. I had given another member of the team the task to write down the results on the flipchart paper at the end of the discussion the key points. I asked each person to read out what they had put down in their notebooks.

Then I organised the summarising of the key points into a brief, short to the point statement, which encompassed all the group members ideas (so no one was left out of generating an idea).

I gave each member of the group a chance to give their own examples, picking out the ones which were more in-line with the requirements of the exercise, the team was in agreement at the end of the discussion even with constructive arguements taking place. We were the first to finish ahead of time.

I was also nominated by the group to actually give the presentation to the rest of the class with our conclusions, this I did with confidence and had kept to the original thoughts of the group. I was asked only a few questions by the class, keeping my answers brief, but also give the group the role to take some credit by allowing them to present the examples themselves.

After watching a video of a manager's first month, the class was asked to point out his mistakes and successes, this we all did but it was missed by others that when his manager offered to find him assistance, he didn't accept, which I pointed out was a mistake, as when support is offered to empower him to meet his targets he should have accepted and/or seek support from his senior manager, his peers or mentor even his circle of friends.

In our groups we were required by the facilitators to present the effects of "personal transitions" to being a manager in 45 minutes. Our team was given the task of "personal impact, handling conflict and objectivity".

I decided to step down as leader of the team, pointing out to the rest of the group that someone else should be given the chance and also the reason in certain situations another person's weakness is another's strength and a leader is born and made on recognising that there is the strength in teamwork as well as the individual.

The new leader was confident and instructed the group as I had previously done using my management style as a framework for his own.

Unfortunately, some of the team lost focus halfway thorough and I had to gently pull them back on to the objective of the exercise without undermining the new leader by asking politely "how much time do we have left?" This assisted the leader to regain control of the group.

He then presented the groups findings and only when a question which he, himself couldn't answer did I and another member of the group stepped in to assist him. It was definitely a team effort and we all participated.