Why Leadership and Teamwork Skills Matter

​Leadership and teamwork have a direct impact on the ability for an organization to carry out its mission.

You need leadership to make sure everyone on your team is going in the same direction and working towards the same goal.  Good leadership:

• Provides a clear vision for the team.
  
• Provides a strategy for achieving the vision.
• Motivates team members to use their talents.
• Challenges the team to be innovative and enhance their skills.
• Monitors progress and directs the team to keep them on track.

Your team is the vehicle to help you reach the goal.

• Just like a bike needs to have all of its parts working together for a smooth ride, a team needs to have all members working together to be efficient. When there is a problem, team members need to be respectful of each other and be able to work through conflicts. Bad feelings and bad attitudes are harmful to the people involved, and break down the trust and confidence in the team. This slows down team's progress because their attention is focused on problems.
  
  
• A bike is made of more than a seat and a couple of tires. It has many parts that perform a function to make it work. Similarly, teams are made up of people with different talents that contribute to reaching a goal. Each team member needs to understand their role and responsibility as part of the team.
  

Foundation Skill Other Examples

Interpersonal Skills

• Demonstrate sensitivity and empathy.
• Accurately interpret the verbal and nonverbal behavior of others.
• Establish trust and credibility with others.
• Work well with a diverse group of people.
• Learn about other cultures.

Teamwork

• Identify with the team and its goals.
• Work productively with others.
• Resolve conflicts.

Management Skill Other Examples

Delegating

• Delegate tasks to efficiently use time.
• Delegate tasks to appropriate staff.
• Monitor status of delegated tasks.

Supporting Others

• Have a pleasant, cheerful disposition.
• Counsel and encourage staff.
• Advocate on behalf of the team.
• Pitch in to help.

Managing Conflict & Team building

• Gather and verify information related to a conflict.
• Encourage resolution.
• Discourage unproductive behavior.
• Build cooperative teams.

Scenario Guides

If you’d like to quickly test yourself on these skills, check out our scenario guides. These guides provide you with a few example situations on the first page, as well as space where you can write your solutions. Once you’ve done this, measure your responses against our answers on the second page.

You can find these guides in the “Documents” section of this article.