1. Answer the following questions. Give your reasons.

1. What do you need to do after you have defined your communication objective?

2. What should you do instead of try­ing to find one "right" style?

3. What are you doing in the tell style?

4. When is it necessary to use the consult/join style?

5. Does being a leader mean doing all the work yourself?

6. What three kinds of leadership do effective groups balance?

7. What people are considered to be leaders in the group?

8. What leadership styles do you know?

2. Determine which of the following statements are true and which are false. Then put t or f in the blanks. Rewrite false statements to make them true.

1. __Instead of trying to find one "right" style, use the appropriate style at the appropriate time and avoid using the same style all of the time

2. __ Use the tell/sell style when you want to learn from the audience.

3. __Use the consult/join style when you want your audience to learn from you.

4. __Someone who implies that he or she has the best ideas and can do the best work is likely playing the negative roles of blocking and dominating.

5. __Laissez-fair - a leadership style characterized by a "leave it alone" or "hands off" approach.

6. __ Participative - a leadership style in which the leader uses authority in a straightforward manner by simply issuing orders.

Assignments

1. Say what you have learned about:

1. the tell/sell style; 2. the consult/join style; 3. three kinds of leadership;

4. leadership styles .

2. Translate paragraphs 1,2,3, of the text.

3. Summarize the text.

Vocabulary Below is a list of terms that you could find in the text. Use this as a working list and add other terms that you figured out in the unit.

1. appropriate - подходящий, соответствующий ( to, for )

2. framework - структура, строение

3. to persuade - убеждать

4. to advocate - защищать, поддерживать, пропагандировать

5. inputs - затраты

6. dimensions - размеры, величина;

7. resolving - разрешение

8. rotate - чередовать(ся); сменять(ся) по очереди

9. to respond – отвечать

10. to encourage - ободрять; поощрять, поддерживать

11. concern - интерес, участие, заинтересованное отношение

12. straight­forward - честно, открыто, без утайки, без обиняков

13. approach - подход ( к решению проблемы, задачи и т. п. )

BUILDING TEAMS⁴

Groups and teams are not necessarily the same thing. A group is two or more individuals who interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each other perform within a given area of responsibility. Members of a group have no need to engage in collective work that requires joint efforts so their performance is merely the summation of each group member's individual contribution.

It could be worse. If a group is plagued by factors such as poor communication, antagonistic conflicts, and avoidance of responsibilities, the product of these problems produces negative synergy and a pseudoteam where the sum of the whole is less than the potential of the individual parts. Even though members might call themselves a team, they're not. Because it doesn't focus on collective performance and because members have no interest in shaping a common purpose, a pseudoteam underperforms a working group.

What differentiates a team from a group is that members are committed to a com­mon purpose, have a set of specific performance goals, and hold themselves mutually accountable for the team's results. Teams can produce outputs that are something greater than the sum of their parts. The primary force that moves a work group toward being a real, high-performing team is its emphasis on performance.

The best teams tend to be small. When teams have more than about 10 members, it becomes difficult for them to get much done. They have trouble interacting constructively and agreeing on much. Large numbers of people usually cannot develop the common purpose, goals, approach, and mutual accountability of a real team. If the natural working unit is larger and you want a team effort, break the group into subteams.

To perform effectively, a team requires three types of skills. First, it needs people with technical expertise. Second, it needs people with problem-solving and decision-making skills to identify problems, generate alternatives, evaluate those alternatives, and make competent choices. Finally, teams need people with good interpersonal skills.

Members of successful teams put a tremendous amount of time and effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing upon a purpose that belongs to them collectively and individually. This common purpose provides direction and guidance under any and all conditions. This purpose is a vision. It's broader than any specific goals. Successful teams translate their common purpose into specific, measurable, and realistic performance goals. Specific goals facilitate clear communication and help teams maintain their focus on getting results.

Team members must contribute equally in sharing the workload and agree on who is to do what. Additionally, the team needs to determine how schedules will be set, what skills need to be developed, how conflicts will be resolved, and how decisions will be made and modified. Integrating individual skills to further the team's performance is the essence of shaping a common approach.

The final characteristic of high-performing teams is accountability at the individual and group level. Successful teams make members individually and jointly accountable for the team's purpose, goals, and approach. Members understand what they are individually responsible for and what they are jointly responsible for.

Studies have shown that when teams focus only on group-level performance targets and ignore individual contributions and responsibilities, team members often engage in social loafing. They reduce their efforts because their individual contributions can't be identified. The result is that the team's overall performance suffers. This reaffirms the importance of measuring individual contributions to the team, as well as the team's overall performance. Successful teams have members who collectively feel responsible for their team's performance.

Comprehension