There were many great examples of building a high performing team in this week's

module. The Steve Jobs videos offer insight to his methods. The first thing that stood out to me

in the first video is that he allows other people to take control and has the ability to trust his team

to do the work they are required to do. Our textbook warns of micromanaging your team

members and to have the trust that you have created an able team. Mr. Jobs has one leader for

each department that can reduce confusion on who is responsible for each department.

In the second Steve Jobs video, Mr. Jobs looks to his team members for consensus and

acknowledgement after making a statement. He desires to have his team members to understand

what his goals are and wanted everyone to be on the same page. In the red HBR book, chapter

twelve discusses the characteristics of a team's essential discipline. These include a common

purpose, specific goals, a mix of complementary skills, a strong commitments and mutual

accountability. His team ticks off all of these by believing in Mr. Jobs as they followed him

from their old company to this new company showing purpose, goals, and strong commitment.

You can see in the video that each member has that mix of skills needed to come together and

complete their project. It is also clear from the video each head of department is holding each

other accountable by asking questions and clarifying issues during their meetings.

The third thing I found interesting in the Steve Jobs videos were the employee retreats,

not because I desire to have a job that takes trips, but because of the closeness it brings the team.

Mr. Jobs can bring everyone close together and interact during these retreats. In the Managing

Projects book, there is a list of ways to master conflict. The first on that list is to "create a

climate that encourages people to discuss difficult issues (136)." Mr. Jobs does that in his

meetings by allowing others to speak freely.

 I noticed Steve Jobs could seem overbearing. He challenges his team members and can

be intimidating. Having a leader that is overbearing can cause members of his team to feel

burned out and overworked.

My experience with some of these strategies involve communication and teamwork. I

was out of the office all last week due to illness and when I came into work this morning, I had

no information if any of my duties had been covered. As I was going through my emails this

morning, I found a few that had not been responded to. I replied to these emails then received a

response that the issue had already been taken care of. I was not cc'd on the email responses and

looked a little unprofessional for not having proper communication to my teammates. I was

appalled by this lack of communication as my team is not usually like that. On the other side,

when things were properly notated while I was absent it was awesome to see how much my team

pulled together and quickly divide up work to make sure we as a team do not fall behind.

I am going to bring up bringing our team together more often. While we meet virtually

twice a week without cameras, even when we were in office, we all called in to a conference call

instead of coming together. When we resume in office work, I am going to suggest we all meet

together face to face and maybe even propose a once a week bag lunch kind of get togethers.

Here we can discuss work projects in a more informal manner that would allow us to be more

open with each other.