TotalGadha GMAT

Let me start this post with a childhood anecdote today.

An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a faggot of sticks, and said to his eldest son: “Break it.” The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. “Untie the faggots,” said the father, “and each of you take a stick.” When they had done so, he called out to them: “Now, break,” and each stick was easily broken. “You see my meaning,” said their father.

Moral of the Story: Union gives strength.

As kids, we might have heard this story many times but might not have bothered much about following it .Now when we are embarking on our journeys to become successful business managers and entrepreneurs, we realize that any successful business is a team effort. Pick up any great company from Abbot, Circuit City, Gillette, to Sony, do you think these companies would have become great had there been the culture of “I” and not “we”? There is no surprise that Business Schools ask applicants to write about how successful they have been as a team member. In a Business School, you would often be assigned a class presentations and group assignments, schools want to see how you would handle such situations. Or how you would enable your team to meet deadlines.  Duke Fuqua that truly stands by its “Team Fuqua” motto even has a specific essay question included in their application. A student writes:

Fuqua was a wonderful school to attend. The friendly, team-focused atmosphere overshadows the breadth and depth of the educational experience offered at Fuqua. We are able to work together, play together, and learn together in an environment that encourages us and pushes us to work hard. It is with this mentality that we can attain great heights while expecting and planning for continual improvement. If you are a gregarious, team-oriented, self-motivated, high-achiever, then Team Fuqua is for you! –Consulting

How to approach a teamwork essay?

The first and foremost thing to understand is that being a part of a team is just as important as leading a team. A good team member can handle issues, can contribute to the successful completion of plan while a bad team member can ruin the team. Even though you have a specific job function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives. You need not necessarily lead a team to showcase your capabilities. People who play sports or are part of rock band/ orchestra must be aware how a good teamwork can even create miracles. After all, teamwork is a fuel that allows common people to achieve uncommon results and without a good team effort a peak performance is not possible.

Keep these few points in mind while writing your teamwork essay.

1. Tell your story

Your essays are not read by robots but by the real people who can feel every emotion that comes through your words.  Your stories and anecdotes should bring across the work that you did as a team member.  Did you break ice among other team members? Did you resolve any issues? Did you contribute anything to resolve the ego clashes among the team members and pushed them to achieve a common goal? Did you as a team member change yourself from being ‘I’ to ‘we’? Did you do an extra research /put an extra effort and became an example for others whilst igniting the same spirit among the other members? What character traits did you apply to maintain the team symphony? Did you help in sorting out cultural differences among your team members? Did you take the responsibility of  co-worker’s task in case of his/her absenteeism?

Think about it. Each one us have been a part of team at some point of our lives. It is the the matter of how well you are able to tell your story to the admission committee members. Admissions committee members don’t know you personally or professionally, so it is essential that you support your words with enough evidences. For example just stating that “I am a smart team player” would sound phony if you do not show how you call yourself a team player. What exactly did you do to make a claim such a this?

2. Teamwork can come from any sphere of your life

A lot of applicants assume that they can display their qualities only through their work experiences. While doing that is not a bad option. If you have something significant to share from your work, go for it. But you can also widen your horizon by bringing anecdotes from your extra curricular activities, and community services as well. You can bring experiences from your base ball matches, a finance class team assignment, a challenge that you faced while starting an education programme for underprivileged kids , so on an so forth. Bring at least two to three genuine examples to put your case forward. Write compelling stories so that even after years some admissions committee member recalls your story and shares it with her colleagues.

3. Be Specific

Business School essays come with word limits. You would not have enough space to write every teeny-tiny detail about how you achieved your goal. Focus on the major achievements while taking every opportunity to showcase your hard work, abilities and skills along the way. Show a progression of events that helped you in achieving the target as a team. Elaborate on the lessons that you have learned underway, give specific data about the results, show the numbers,  be specific, and tell your story.

Caution: Be careful that you don’t present yourself as someone who single-handedly  got the team dynamics going. Don’t sound like a braggart.

***********

Sharing some of the excellent team work quotes with all of you.

“Our goal is not to win. It’s to play together and play hard. Then, winning takes care of itself.”
– Mike Krzyzewski

No one can whistle a symphony.  It takes a whole orchestra to play it.  ~H.E. Luccock

One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but team work dynamites.  ~Jin Kwon

Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.  ~Henry Ford

Regardless of differences, we strive shoulder to shoulder… [T]eamwork can be summed up in five short words:  “We believe in each other.”  ~Author Unknown

We must all hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately.  ~Benjamin Franklin

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.  You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.  ~Babe Ruth

It is a fact that in the right formation, the lifting power of many wings can achieve twice the distance of any bird flying alone.  ~Author Unknown

A must watch videos to see what an effective teamwork can do. Learn teamwork from animals…

OR

from Humans!

Subscribe to get ore such tips and tools for effective essays and a 56 page free e book of Dagny Taggart’s Ultimate Guide to GMAT.

Further Readings:

• 5 Tips For Writing Business School Admission Essays That Sell
• Essay Tip- I Like To Break *Word/ Page* Limits
• How To Write A Career Goals Essay?

Image Source