Understanding Balanced, Unbalanced, and Virtual Teams

What Is Meant by a “Balanced” Team? Why Is This Concept Important to the Success of the Team?

Organizations apply the balanced team concept to avoid difficulties associated with employing incompatible teams. This practice stimulates success among individuals who collaborate to accomplish a common purpose. To profit from the benefits of this construct, alliances should consist of people who have complementary skills and diverse backgrounds (Bell & Smith, 2011). Compatible collaborations bring different perspectives, improve organizational culture, and create synergies.

The most substantial factor that contributes to organizational success is the presence of harmonious teams. Balanced alliances have members who play compatible roles, while unsuccessful ones are characterized by role conflicts, such as lack of cooperation and personality clashes, which occur as a result of role surplus and mismatch (Batenburg, van Walbeek, & In der Maur, 2013). Participants have diverse variations in behaviors, personal qualities, experience, expertise (Bell & Smith, 2011), and make contributions and interconnect with each other in a particular manner. These aspects enable them to perform tasks to high standards.

As a construct, a balanced team is imperative to the success of any organization. Implementing this concept is vital because it allows players to give different perspectives. When members of a well-compatible alliance meet, they are able to offer a wide range of insights and views (Jen, 2018). Including individuals with varied backgrounds and life experiences helps to overcome implicit prejudice and bring distinct ideas to a group. Therefore, strategic choices can be assessed from all viewpoints, ensuring effective decision-making and problem-solving.

Additionally, balancing teams forms the backbone of organizational culture. For instance, harmonious alliances define the values of a business startup. For young companies to start growing, they must employ people who are more likely to remain loyal for many years (Jen, 2018). Working with a balanced team will construct a base for future growth by building a philosophy of inclusiveness and group effort.
Harmonizing teams also creates synergies. Members of a balanced alliance have the potential of engaging in cross-disciplinary collaboration and thinking collectively because they are in a position to learn and comprehend the perspectives of each other. This kind of teamwork helps them to address issues and prevent failures and costly mistakes (Jen, 2018). Therefore, combining efforts provides solutions to problems and maximizes productivity.

A balanced team consists of persons who play compatible roles. Members of such alliances have different personality profiles and backgrounds. They contribute many ideas, induce collective thinking, and shape the values of an organization. Implementing this concept helps collaborations to make a culture of inclusion, realize high performance, and attain shared goals.

Discuss a Few Reasons Why Teams Often Find Themselves Out of Balance, and What You Would Do as the Leader to Get That Team back into Balance

A compatible team comprises of goal-oriented people with specific capabilities and complementary skills, who cooperate and innovate to yield exceptional outcomes consistently. However, alliances do not find themselves in appropriate balance automatically. Several factors cause team imbalances, and leaders must, therefore, take actions to harmonize the affected organizations.

The first problem that makes teams to have disparities is choosing members who have similar personality profiles. Participants who share the same personal values, qualities, and life skills lack creativity and fresh thinking (Bell & Smith, 2011). Consequently, they might be able to apply work schedules and meet requirements, such as deadlines, but fail to solve issues efficiently. Therefore, having uniform characteristics, experience, and knowledge compromises the quality of conversations and decision-making.

Additionally, a team is unbalanced when a few persons dominate discussions. Harmonious teams function effectively because all individuals are active. However, if several players have a say on every issue and consider their views as more relevant than the ones raised by their counterparts, then the alliance is not balanced (Stonehouse, 2011). In such instances, passive members sit back, permitting others to make contributions without involving them. Therefore, all group actors must participate in all aspects to ensure harmony and improved team performance.

As a leader, I would select members who have different personality types and challenge every person to contribute to discussions in order to balance the team. Designating players with varied qualities would bring creativity and lead to the generation of innovative ideas. On the other hand, asking all people to participate is likely to prevent a few individuals from dominating. Each member would take part in every subject, and no one would have higher opinions than others. These moves would enable an alliance to capitalize on diversity and make informed decisions.

Teams may find themselves out of balances. Having members with the same personality types indicates imbalances. In addition, an unbalanced collaboration encompasses players who dominate discussions and have higher opinions than others. Choosing people who have different behaviors, skills, and experiences and asking for contributions from every participant harmonizes an organization. These actions help managers to create high-performing work groups.

As the Team’s Leader, Discuss at Least 2-3 Ways You Would Effectively Manage a Virtual Team Spread Across the Globe

A virtual team is a group of geographically dispersed people who combine their efforts to achieve common goals. Members use collaboration and communication platforms to organize their work and conduct organizational tasks without engaging in face-to-face interaction (“Developing and sustaining high-performance work teams,”n.d.). Although it might be challenging to deal with them, they help companies reduce travel expenses and save time-related costs. Therefore, leaders must manage global virtual teams effectively to profit from the opportunities that come with them.

To effectively manage a geographically distributed team, a leader can develop a social network. For instance, he or she can create group forums on Facebook to enable members to make their contributions, including posting announcements, asking questions, sharing ideas, and reminding others about something (Shroy, 2017). Instance messaging can also be utilized to facilitate the connection between teammates and help them to build friendships. This method will make communication easy and allow players to perform better.

Additionally, a leader should encourage collaboration and team building as a way of strengthening bonds and building trust among members. He or she can allow virtual teammates to meet regularly through video conferences, helping them to create a sense of belonging and familiarize themselves with each other (Bakken, n.d.). Working collaboratively will allow individuals to understand the thought processes and styles of their colleagues, which in turn enables them to know their roles and responsibilities clearly. This approach will permit remote staff to develop each other’s ideas, form strong relationships, and work towards shared goals.

A virtual team that spreads all over the globe needs to be managed well. Leaders must encourage members to use video conferences to enable them to meet online and understand each other. They can also create social networks to help players to exchange information efficiently. These practices will lead to high performance in a geographically scattered alliance.

References

Bakken, R. (n.d.). Challenges to managing virtual teams and how to overcome them. Harvard Extension School. Retrieved from https://www.extension.harvard.edu/professional-development/blog/challenges-managing-virtual-teams-and-how-overcome-them

Batenburg, R., van Walbeek, W., & in der Maur, W. (2013). Belbin role diversity and team performance: is there a relationship? Journal of Management Development, 32(8), 901–913. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jmd-08-2011-0098

Bell, A. H., & Smith, D. M. (2011). Learning team skills. New York, NY: Pearson College Division (pp. 19-42).
Developing and sustaining high-performance work teams (n.d.). Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/developingandsustaininghigh-performanceworkteams.aspx

Jen, B. (2018, May 11). Five reasons why balanced teams are so important for startups. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/05/11/five-reasons-why-balanced-teams-are-so-important-for-startups/#52c4274e32ce

Shroy, M. (2017, Oct. 4). Five tips for leading a virtual team. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/10/04/five-tips-for-leading-a-virtual-team/#28e808122509

Stonehouse, D. (2011). Teamwork, support workers and conduct at work. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 5(7), 350-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.12968/bjha.2011.5.7.350