ANALYSIS OF TEAMS AND ROLES OF MEMBERS 2

Analysis of Teams and Roles of Members

It is no accident that organizations look for individuals who can work effectively within a
team. Teams are at the heart of every organizational activity. However, even though team
members are supposed to accomplish a common goal, they do not bring on board the same
qualities. Each team member brings their strengths and weaknesses too. The task of a leader is to
mitigate the weaknesses and utilize the strengths of each member to achieve the desired goal.
In general there are four types of team members. These are the collaborator, contributor,
communicator, and challenger (Denhardt et al., 2018). The collaborator is the team member who
is completely absorbed in the achieving a given goal. They establish goals and clarify them to
team members. They take any opportunity to remind members about this goal and the need to
achieve the set goal. Apart from performing their duties they also take time to help other
members of the team perform their roles better so that they can better achieve their goals. Given
their obsession with achieving the organization’s goal, they are usually able and willing to
smoothen out any rough patches and make sure that there is consensus in the team (Denhardt et
al., 2018). A good example of a collaborator is the late Steve Jobs. He envisioned a world where
regular people would own a computer rather than just large companies as it was the case in the
1970s and even in the 1980s. He sought to make sure that his Apple team members knew about
this vision and worked to achieve it.
The second type of team player is the contributor. This is the expert in the team. They
know exactly what needs to be done to achieve the goal envisioned by the collaborator. They are
knowledgeable, skilled, and resourceful. Any time a problem arises that could make it difficult to
achieve the stated goal they step in with possible solutions (Denhardt et al., 2018). A good

ANALYSIS OF TEAMS AND ROLES OF MEMBERS 3
example of such team member is Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder. He was a genius in
computer and software development whose work greatly contributed to the achievement of Steve
Job’s vision.
The third type of team members is a challenger. They are honest to a fault and are not
afraid to boldly state their opinions, even if they are not popular with other team members. Due
to this aspect of their personality, sometimes they are considered not to be team players (Pandey
& Karve, 2017). This is, however, an erroneous view as their boldness allows the team to notice
when they are headed in the wrong direction. They also make sure that the team is using ethical
methods in pursuit of its goals. More importantly, they make sure that there is no groupthink
(Pandey & Karve, 2017). Sometimes a team member can have more than one strength. An
example is Steve Jobs who was both a collaborator and challenger. As a challenger, he could
dismiss an idea and point out why it was unworkable.
The last type of a team member is the communicator. Communicators rally team
members to achieve the set goal. They listen to concerns of team members and find ways to
address them. They bring enthusiasm to tasks of members and bring in a sense of urgency to the
team (Pandey & Karve, 2017). Good examples of communicators are captains of sports teams
such as soccer.
To make sure that the team achieves its goals, it is important that team leader utilizes the
strengths of each of the team members. During goal formulation, the team leader should have the
whole team discuss the goal and how to achieve it. However, they should engage more with the
collaborators. They are the ideas people in the team. They should be given more prominence at
this stage. Attention should also be paid to challengers. They play an important role in refining

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the idea and making sure that it is legal and ethical just as the methods of implementing it. At the
implementation stage, prominence should be given to communicators and contributors.
Communicators are good at rallying the members of the team to keep their motivation high and
give their utmost efforts in performing tasks geared towards achieving the desired goal.
Contributors provide their knowledge and expertise in efforts to achieve stated vision.
Teams, therefore, are a mixture of members with different qualities. The task of team
leaders is to use the strengths of each members so that the set goals can be achieved.

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References

Denhardt, R. B., Denhardt, J. V., Aristigueta, M. P., & Rawlings, K. C. (2018). Managing human
behavior in public and nonprofit organizations. CQ Press.
Pandey, A., & Karve, S. (2017). Understanding the Relationship of Team Roles and
Communication in Team Tasks. International Journal of Business Insights &
Transformation, 11(1).