The Sorority Saga- Femina

Teams At Work — The Players

Irrespective of gender, any team created for a specific task will usually consist of the following kind of members:

The leader: is the person invested with authority and responsibility, accountable for the ultimate execution of the project. She may be chosen on the basis of technical expertise, creativity, or people-management abilities.

The enthusiast: is the leader’s invaluable ally, brimming with ideas and willing to speedily execute tasks as per the directions of the leader. Her lack of adequate experience or fears about responsibility are the only impediments on her road towards leadership.

The plodder: is marked by her steady handling of whatever task is assigned to her. No pyrotechnics of temper or dazzling bursts of creativity here, only lots of hard work.
The Devil’s advocate: is perhaps the least liked member, questioning all that the group proposes, gleefully discovering loopholes in plans and reasoning, and saying “no” to all and sundry. Her work is invaluable — she discovers flaws in strategies before they can cause damage.

The foxy one: can appear to be very busy without actually doing much at all. She hones her ability to change her stance depending on which way the wind is blowing. Needs careful handling.

The disinterested one: who sleeps through meetings, is comatose during brainstorming sessions and generally lets life drift gently by. With adequate doses of pep talk and area-specific training, she can soon move to the plodder or the enthusiast category.

The Soothing voice: an expert at managing diverse temperaments.

The Diva: whose airs would put a headstrong artiste to shame.

Players sometimes switch roles or even combine two roles.

Team In Action
Tuckman, a writer on Organisational Behaviour uses an interesting model to describe the stages of teamwork:
Forming — the first stage is marked by tentative explorations of each other’s skill-sets and a rough understanding of how to go about the task on hand.
Storming — marks the uncovering of challenges and problems hitherto unknown, clashes of personalities, and conflicts caused when personal beliefs and attitudes clash. Issues arise over leadership, power and authority.
Norming — is the rational, adult-like approach where petty issues and personal opinions are willingly kept aside for the sake of group productivity and norms or rules for work are generated. Cohesion and a sense of group identity are generated. Trust is the welcome new entrant in the team.
Performing — is the last stage, marking the actual implementation of the task.

Now For The Results
While evaluating the performance of teams, two criterions come into play:
Quantitative criteria include: issues like —, Was the goal successfully reached? Was the work timely? Did it use optimal resources (money, labour, inventory of goods and so on)? Did any major challenges arise and were they tackled effectively?

Qualitative criteria include: Was the client or customer satisfied? Did the team members work in harmony? Would they want to work as members of the same team in future?
Are the learnings and experiences from the project easily transplantable for the benefit of the organisation?

Needless to say, the criteria reveal that gender would rarely come into play as far as the first set of criteria are concerned. Technical expertise and ingenuity are not the exclusive domains of either sex; hence, effectiveness and efficiency are visible in all-women teams, as well as other kinds of teams.

However, social conditioning and gender-based biases may occasionally influence customer satisfaction. And women do bring an extra something, a ‘woman’s touch’, to a work environment, with their natural instinct for blending relationships.

Why Mixed Teams Work
But is it all about “female buddy bonding” or are there any touchy issues like... err... tendencies drawn from the female of the canine species or the feline species for that matter? PMS notwithstanding, any team, irrespective of gender composition, would carry a diverse mix of egos, talents, attitudes and skills.

This is the reason why Dhanashree Damle, Senior Officer, HRD, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, says, “Mixed-gender teams work better than single-gender ones. Women bring useful conflict resolution skills to a group, helping soothe male ego-driven issues. Moreover, men display greater courtesy in the presence of women. Their skills complement each other and the work gets done well. ”

Final Call
Work-specific knowledge, problem-solving skills and savvy networking talents emerge as the “must-haves” of any team member, male or female. Add to that emotional intelligence, ability and willingness for clear communication and empathy that a woman brings to a team, and one has the perfect recipe for success. Long live the sorority!

What Women Bring To The Team:
The following traits and skills bode extremely well for the presence of women in teams:

Better listening skills: That are perhaps a result of social conditioning, and make for good team spirit, allowing each member “space” for airing out ideas and discussing alternatives.

Empathy, warmth and sensitivity: Which seem to arrive as a gender-specific package. Perhaps these are partly attributable to the adroitness that comes from handling the numerous roles in her personal and work life.

A win-win approach: As opposed to a confrontationist attitude, with members willing to complement each other’s skills. This is particularly useful in negotiations and conflict resolution. The odd exception is seen when a member consistently needs acknowledgement and hence strives to prove a point to the others.