FOSTERING UNITY

Unity refers to a state of being one undivided entity. It is a salient factor which allows for high effectiveness in teams, whether it be in business, government or relationships. Progress stops the moment unity is evaded. For this reason, it is important that a leader creates and preserves it because it is one of the most fundamental functions of leadership. There are actually three levels of unity namely:

• Acceptance: At this level people acquiesce to your leadership without protest. They decide to go along because the cost of objecting—whether real or perceived—is too great.

• Agreement: At this level people agree with your direction and generally support it. But they personally are uninterested or committed to making it happen, you have their minds but not their hearts. Thus, you may not experience resistance, but you can’t seem to make things happen.

• Alignment: This is the third and ultimate level of unity. At this level people are with you. They are fully committed to making your common vision a reality. At this level they voice their support in public and their concerns in private.

Here are some tips on fostering and enhancing unity:

1.Setting Goals for Your Team: It is recommended, after setting your team’s goals, to communicate them to your team. Encourage your team to aim for new heights but do not push them beyond their limits too fast. Celebrating their successes even when losing will help them grow and become better players. For example, if your team fails to achieve an objective, do not blame an individual member, neither do something noble such as taking individual responsibility for the loss as a leader. Use the word “we” addressing the loss as the entire team’s loss. Celebrate the achievement of individual and team goals and then outline where improvements have to be made. Focus on the positive always.

2.Communication: Studies have demonstrated the difficulty of developing teamwork is the lack of a leader's ability to communicate his/her vision or goals for the team. This leads to the inability of the team members to understand their individual goals.

3.Team Strategy: It is also necessary that the leader develops a tactful team strategy. This can be achieved by increasing the role of the players on the team by assigning them more responsibility.

4.Team History: Another aspect of building good team unity is to teach new members as well as old ones the team’s history. For example, talk about traditions of the team, show pictures of pasted achievements, have trophies on display and ask former team members to return and talk about their past experience being part of the team. For example, in U.S basketball, during the 2013 NCAA season, the University of Arkansas honored the 1994 National Championship team. They had head coach Nolan Richards and all the players on the team return, along with President Bill Clinton for a halftime ceremony where they hung a banner in the field house and allowed former players to speak to the fans. These types of events can help fire up a team and also foster team unity.

5.Collaboration: Team unity requires team collaboration. Team socialization or culture has a great effect on a member’s aspiration to be a part of the team. However, leaders must take into consideration that team members will want a certain amount of autonomy; therefore, they will not expect that the leader makes every decision for them. Therefore, leaders have to be willing to collaborate with their team and be agreeable to empower them in certain situations. Also, team members want emotional support from their Shepard and their fellow teammates. By empowering the team, it becomes easier to build winning programs that achieve specific objectives.

6.Creativity: One way to develop team unity is to have a period which allows team members to demonstrate their natural or learned talent and skills. Give it a name such as “Showtime” and allow your team to have fun on the court (job). This can energize the customers, your team and give the team a commonality.

7.Avoid Individuality: Individuality will destroy team unity. Leaders must be willing at all cost to avoid showing favoritism towards a certain member. In addition, he/she should not allow an individual to take on the role as the star of the team. Individuality can be avoided by ensuring each member contributes to the success of the team and not have their personal agendas. A true leader will have clear cut objectives for each individual on the team. It is vital to ensure each member does comprehend his/her personal role as well as the responsibility of each of his/her teammates.  Every member has to be willing to perform their functions in a way that aids the overall success of the team's goals.

8.Coming Together as a Team: The aforementioned demonstrates the importance of team unity and how to achieve it by setting individual as well as team goals and then communicating them to the entire team. In youth programs, it may be beneficial to address team goals with parents. Celebrate group failure as well as success in a positive manner. Avoid individuality and award team responsibility. Help team members to understand they will have to make individual sacrifices for the team. Doing so will aid increase team identification. Also,team members must be willing to support each other in their individual and team goals and objectives.

Jarvis (2006) writing from a psychological point of view explained, there are four (4) factors which affect team unity:

• a clear role for each team member
• eagerness to forgo ones personal desires for the team
• the quality of communication between team members
• common goals for the players

The above is not a clear cut methodology of success but it sure can enable leaders develop a personal model for how to increase team unity.

YOU ARE A LEADER!!!