www
mariosantos
com
Airspeed 4-Way Training Work Book
Team Dynamics
_______________________________
Team Leader
We believe that it is important for all teams to have some sort of
leadership. Strong leadership provides direction, which keeps the team on track
and working efficiently. It must be remembered that there are a lot of
different ways to do anyone thing but nothing will be done properly unless the
entire team focuses on one method at one time. Having a leader, will give the
team a beacon to follow, which will keep them working together on the same
thing.
It is best to have a person whom all have agreed to have as their
leader, than not. Should be someone, who is well liked and respected by
everyone on the team. This respect must be earned. The leader must constantly
prove his worth with his deeds. He must be very tactful and able to see what
each individual needs from the group. He needs to have a holistic vision of how
the team will look when it reaches its goal and know what basic adjustments
must be made along the way to create that vision.
The team leader has a variety of responsibilities above and beyond his
personal mental and flying skill work. He
must lays out the plan that will bring the team to fulfil its goals. He must monitor progress and
make decisions about when and if the plan needs to be altered. He is
responsible for the setting of smart goals. He needs to mediate
team meetings to ensure that they are productive. At the end of a debate on
technique, he must make the final decision on the method to be pursued.
It can be very helpful to the efficiency of the team and the moral of
the players, if the team leader can delegate responsibilities to other team
members. This will keep the work’s load at a manageable level for the team
leader allowing him to perform all his tasks well. It also gives the rest of
the team a sense of equality with the leader and ownership of the team’s
responsibilities.
Team Meetings
Communication seems to be the key to making interpersonal relationships
work. A team is very much an interpersonal relationship with a lot of potential
pitfalls. It is common for people on a team to try to bury problems due to a
lack of desire to create a seen. This can be very destructive because the
issues do not get resolved. They lay buried and slowly build into something,
which is blown way out of proportion and very destructive to the team. It is
important to safe guard yourself from this by setting up a system of routine
meetings where people have a chance to table potential problems.
These meetings should be very routine and held regardless of whether or
not there is a problem. You do not want to create an environment where people
shudder with apprehension every time a meeting is called. They should be
pre-scheduled and if there are no problems then only good things are talked
about and everyone leaves happy.
I believe there should be two separate kinds of meetings. One should be
a meeting where any personal problems are brought out in the open. Here each
individual should have an uninterrupted chance to speak freely. It might help
this process if you actually have some sort of object that is held by whomever
is speaking and it is understood that you do not speak unless you hold this
object (“pass the rock meeting”). It
is best if you start out with things that you like about your teammates before
you start into the problems. This will let them know that you don’t think all
badly about them and help keep the problem being discussed in perspective.
The other kind of meetings that must be regularly held, are business
meetings. It will help keep the team focused on skydiving if everyone is clear
on how and when the different business aspects of the team will be dealt with.
This should deal with everything from money to scheduling and decide who is
responsible for what tasks and when they will be accomplished.
A closure meeting held at the end of each day is also important. Here
you can recognize the day’s accomplishments, discuss future plans and events,
and bring up potential problems that need to be avoided. It is a good time to
review the day’s goals and discuss what was and was not achieved and why. It is
a good thing to officially close the day. This will prevent any confusion about
when the day is actually over and you can relax. The meeting should be brief
and concise to avoid dragging out the day. You should also be sure to end with
a positive note regardless of how the day went.
Coaching
Skydiving coaching has proven itself an invaluable element to any teams
training time and time again. There are dozens of instances where a team has
come out of know where to make incredible gains with very few training jumps
with the use of a well qualified coach. The teams I have been on have always
made use of as much coaching as we could manage.
A very well qualified coach will show you how to perform all the skills
properly without you having to spend all the thousands of jumps he did to learn
it. He should be experienced enough to be able to troubleshoot your problems
bringing you to the fix immediately. He will tell you what you will be doing
and why making you understand how everything fits together.
The coach does much more than provide technical information. The coach
basically takes the place of the team leader. He is in much better position to
do this job. He is unaffected by the emotional
involvement a
team member has and he is not dealing with the adrenaline coursing through his
veins after he has landed from a training jump. This allows him to think much
clearer during the debriefing and briefing allowing him to make better
judgements about what the team needs. He is much more able to positively affect
the team’s moral.
Having a coach also allows
the team leader to be just a teammate. This is a better place for him to work on his own
skills. It is also a lot easier on the team for there is no feeling of there
being someone on the team who is superior to another, easing a whole field of
emotions. Life on a team with a coach is a lot easier than without.
__________________________________________
wwwmariosantoscom
ã 1998 – Jack Jefferies, Airspeed – All Rights Reserved
__________________________________________