It’s\u00a0unbelievable when I think about\u00a0how time has flown by\u00a0during my\u00a0Challenge Detroit Fellowship experience. \u00a0 Up until this point, the fellowship program has presented numerous experiential learning opportunities, leadership development sessions, connections to Detroit\u2019s Top Influencers, and much more. The program is fulfilling my professional development goals and each core value for which Challenge Detroit stands. Possibly different to other fellows, I\u2019ve grown a greater appreciation for the art of teamwork, cross collaboration, thought leadership and skill sharing.\u00a0\u00a0 On Challenge Friday\u2019s, it amazing to see how much can be accomplished when everyone joins their skillsets together to create impactful outcomes. The saying is true, there are strengths in numbers.<\/p>\n
As a fellow who was employed internally into Challenge Detroit, my initial expectation was to capitalize on this progressive program to move Detroit forward. In addition to developing my skillset around team leadership, design thinking, fundraising, programming, marketing and other critical aspects of nonprofits organizations. Thankfully, I have been able to do just that while working with professionals with diverse educational backgrounds, levels of work experience, intellect and perspectives. With four team projects down and one to go, I have developed a better appreciation for effective teamwork-what works, what doesn\u2019t work and a few tips to carry forth into careers.<\/p>\n
Tip #1 \u00a0Understand the Goal<\/p>\n
Each team will comprise of a range of people from diverse backgrounds and skillsets. It is important to understand the common goals in which the team is working towards so that the focus always remains on the finished product. Each team member must understand that personal goals must be set aside and team goals must remain a focus throughout the project. As the well-known saying goes, \u2018There is no I in team\u2019. If conflicts arise, refer back to these original goals and make decisions with a primary focus on them.<\/p>\n
Tip #2 Know when to Let Others Lead<\/p>\n
Letting someone else hold the leadership title does not make you less of a leader.\u00a0 In some instances, you are a more enlightened leader if you do.\u00a0 Leaders need to have the knowledge of the specific goal or task and its important to allow the more skilled person to lead the team and\u00a0 learn as a team player.<\/p>\n
Tip #3 Be Committed to the Finish<\/p>\n
In a team project, although you are assigned personal tasks you must remember that your overall goal is to contribute to completing the project. This therefore means that if you have completed your workload, you must be willing to help out where needed. This may mean contributing to tasks that are perhaps below your level, but the overall goal must be kept in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s\u00a0unbelievable when I think about\u00a0how time has flown by\u00a0during my\u00a0Challenge Detroit Fellowship experience. \u00a0 Up until this point, the fellowship program has presented numerous experiential learning opportunities, leadership development sessions, connections to Detroit\u2019s Top Influencers, and much more. The program is fulfilling my professional development goals and each core value for which Challenge Detroit stands. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":19929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[573],"class_list":["post-19922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leaddetroit","tag-teamwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}