Page 329 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Team-building Skills | 317

wavelength, and that every idea is understood by the group before being dis-
credited or discarded. The Gatekeeper invites quieter members to participate
and makes sure that more active members do not dominate.
The Encourager builds and sustains team energy by showing support for
people’s efforts, ideas, and achievements. If the Gatekeeper focuses on mak-
ing sure that the content of the team members’ ideas is clearly understood
by all, the Encourager emphasizes members’ participation by giving verbal
approval: ‘Good point—that’s a great idea.’ This is another role that helps
people to feel valued.
It is extremely important that every member be ready and able to inter-
vene as a facilitator. If you were an eight-member team and each person had
a delegated responsibility to wear one of the SOFI HAGE hats and intervene
appropriately, you would see a significant increase in your effectiveness. But
you can do better than that by having each member wear all the hats and,
thus, provide maximum facilitation coverage.
Learning the eight different roles may seem at first like an overwhelming
challenge to you and your team-mates, but you will probably be surprised
to find that some team members are natural at orienting or encouraging, or
that some easily assume the role of summarizers and gatekeepers. To have all
eight roles covered may just be a matter of learning a few more facilitation
behaviours. I know you can do it and as a team you’ll be glad you did.

Guidelines for Effective Team Membership

• Contribute ideas and solutions
• Recognize and respect differences in others
• Value the ideas and contributions of others
• Listen and share information
• Ask questions and get clarification

• Participate fully and keep your commitments
• Be flexible and respect the partnership created by a team—strive
towards the ‘win-win’
• Care about the team and the outcomes.

Team Leadership

Leadership is inspiring a group of people to achieve an objective. A combi-
nation of most or all of the following qualities may be considered:

• Form and organize a well-balanced and productive team, recognizing
the different skills, abilities, and roles that other people can bring to
the team.

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