As you get ready for your first day on the job, you"re a little bit nervous. You met your new supervisor, and a few of her direct reports, during the interview 3 weeks ago. Everyone seemed nice, and you obviously handled yourself well because they selected you to join their team. The nervousness of trying to land the job is over, and anxiousness has set in. You start to wonder exactly what is expected of you and if you have the right stuff for the job. Sure the interview went well and the technical questions were easy. But now its time to really perform as well as you can so that you can keep this job as long as possible. You go over, in your head, the description of your responsibilities and some of the questions that were asked in the interview. Is there anything you need to be concerned about? How about that one question that seemed silly at the time. It was a question that was asked during the "group" portion of the interview. As you think about it, you realize you have never had to interview with the entire team before. The question was, "Do you think you will have problems participating in a self-managed team?" At this point you cant even think of what your answer was, but now you are wondering what this means. Your only work experience has been with typical manager-led teams. How is this going to be different? Then you realize, the interview was your first experience with the self-managed team. The "group" participated in the interview. The questions were not just friendly get-to-know-you type questions, but they were questions from people who have a stake in the success of this team. Member selection is only one of the critical factors for this type of team. Since the group defines and manages all team processes, more interaction among members is required, and skills required to successfully work in a team environment are more important than ever before. Group participation, communication, and the ability to address and resolve conflict become team responsibilities.
