Teamwork and leadership Flashcards
Give me an example of when you’ve been involved in teamwork.
In my time playing hockey at my school and in a local club, I have developed teamwork and communication skills through getting to know people and learning how to break down communication barriers to form an effective team. Through my time I have formed good connections with many players and through this I have not only made friendships and relationships to support me but also developed social and communication skills. I have also had the opportunity to build leadership skills in this setting and have learned how to effectively encourage healthy discussion as well as settle disputes which allows a team to run effectively and the individuals to function to their best abilities.
Tell me about a time you’ve been a leader
I have had the chance to be a leader in my time as the principal cellist in an orchestra. It’s been a very enjoyable opportunity from which I’ve learned a lot because it is a very mixed group of ages, abilities and personalities however this has really helped to strengthen my learning as a leader. At times I have had to help settle disputes and disagreements both about music and personal issues, learn to facilitate discussions within a group and ensure that everyone feels their voice is heard and to take and implement people’s suggestions and learn from their complaints. I have tried to take these skills with me into life and apply them in both professional and personal life and I hope to be given more opportunities to test and refine these skills within medicine.
What is a multidisciplinary team?
A multidisciplinary team (MDT) is a group of healthcare professionals that work together to care for a patient. They can come in many different contexts such as primary care or specialist MDTs. Within primary care an MDT usually consists of a GP or team of GPs, nurses, HCAs, physiotherapists and pharmacists and between them they can all attend to specific aspects of care which means the patient is looked after holistically. It also reduces pressure on each individual member of the team as there are other people to support decision making as well as the patient. That is a concern with modern MDTs; patient involvement, as patients often do not feel sufficiently involved in their own care when it comes to MDTs making decisions and sometimes feel as if they do not understand why they are doing something, which leads to patients being less engaged within their own care.
Tell me about a time you saw teamwork on work experience.
What do you think makes teams fail?
I think the main reason teams fail is a breakdown in communication, where there is discussion, any issues can be resolved without too severe of a hindrance, but where people stop communicating is where things really break down and teams can fall apart entirely. This usually happens because of differences in ideas or opinions, but by letting people cool off and then facilitating healthy debate when they are both calm, people can usually reach a compromise by coming to understand each other’s points of view and understanding their similarities rather than just seeing their differences. In other cases teams can fail because of personal disputes or feuds, and in these cases I would again try to get these people to understand their common ground and see how similar they are because people are often divided by their differences.
Tell me about a time you’ve witnessed conflict in a team.
I have had the chance to play first team hockey at my school and as people within the team generally had good relationships there wasn’t often conflict between players, however particularly surrounding things like selection for the team, there could be conflicts between coaches and players
What would you do if a member of your PBL group was disruptive and did not allow anyone else to speak?
What do you find most challenging about being a leader?
I sometimes find it difficult to act authoritatively as a leader, I always like to hear what everyone has to say but that can lead to me becoming indecisive as I want to reach the best scenario for everybody within the team. However I have been working on this in my time as the principal cellist in an orchestra as I have come to appreciate as the leader I am expected to shoulder those decisions, and while I still consider what is best for everyone, I realise sometimes there will be disputes so you as the leader have to take charge and make judgement calls which you feel are most justified.
What are the disadvantages of working in teams?
Of course teamwork is massively beneficial in terms of formulating more ideas, hearing other perspectives and getting large amounts of work done, however it does have its drawbacks as well. I would say primarily people in a group can often feel excluded and they can feel as if other people in the team are more valued or more important than them depending on the roles and responsibilities they are given, however it is your job as a member of the team to try to ensure that everybody understands the importance of their own roles and feels valued within the team. Another issue is people getting distracted within teams, especially if they are working with friends, they can often focus on issues other than work, however I think this can be managed by setting clear goals and deadlines, then the communication can be very beneficial rather than a hindrance. Finally I would say an issue in teams is people not feeling responsible; if roles aren’t properly defined then people often just feel as if somebody else will do the work, which usually leads to a couple of individuals taking on all the work and the others not engaging at all, which creates a large amount of stress for those few and also means that the others aren’t learning from the work.
