Teamwork

All of us have worked in teams at some point in life and can recall interacting with others to meet team objectives. Bring to mind both the good and bad experiences that you went through while working with team members and others. How did you perform? Were you able to lead the team to meet its objectives? What did other team members feel about your presence in the team? Were your interactions positive or negative? Did you learn anything from your interactions within and outside the team? Look back into your own life. As you dwell on these points, you are sure to come up with hitherto unnoticed aspects about your personality and work that will qualify you for management school.

Good teamwork releases group synergy so that the combined effect of individual contributions far exceeds the sum of their individual effects. There is mutual accountability and togetherness amongst members of a well-knit team. The basic premise here is that individual contributions cannot be as good as all of us working together in a team.

Look back at your experiences. Were you able to define the team's objectives and the roles of members clearly? How did you understand your different team members, appreciate them and make the most of their special skills and abilities to substantially improve the result of their joint efforts?

Good team players place team objectives ahead of their own personal goals. If you are able to recall an experience on these lines, you have identified the right team experience for your essays.

Many applicants to the top business schools focus so much on their own achievements that it becomes very difficult to judge their ability to effectively work with people. If you think you could be headed that way, be sure to describe an experience where you worked with others in a team, learned from them and effectively utilized their strengths to achieve team objectives.