TEAMWORK

Successful teams have leaders who know how to delegate responsibilities, which means they must learn to trust their teammates to do the work at the quality level and by the deadline expected. I was assigned to lead my first group project in graduate school. As the leader I made the mistake of taking on almost all tasks required to complete the project. I would jump at the opportunity to complete each action item as they came up. Soon I became overwhelmed as I had volunteered to do pretty much the whole assignment.  A group member approached me and said that I delegate some work for others to do. He explained that by assigning work to others I would have more time to lead the team. After I learned to trust my team members' abilities, we were able to work more effectively and help one another with tasks. I delegated out work and was able to support team members as a leader. It was important to learn to trust my teammates and delegate so that I was not spending all my time working on the project, but also allowing myself to balance my group work with leading the team. I also learned that when individuals collectively contribute their knowledge and skills rather than one person doing all the work, the final product is of higher quality.