Editing Team management (section)

===Defined team roles and responsibilities===
Poorly defined roles are often the biggest obstacle to a successful team.<ref>Traxia Partners, Inc. Discovering Your Team Leadership Style. [Online]. [Accessed 15 October 2014]. Available from:http://www.triaxiapartners.com/corp/team/learning-solutions/discovering-your-team-leadership-style</ref> If team members are unclear what their role is, their contributions will be minimal, therefore it is the team leader's duty to outline the roles and responsibilities of each individual within the team and ensure that they work together as an integral unit.

In a successful team, a leader will first evaluate the team's mission to understand what is needed to accomplish the task. Then, they will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the team members and assign roles accordingly. Lastly, they must ensure that all team members know what each other's responsibilities are to avoid confusion and to create an effective channel of communication.<ref>Human Resource Development Quarterly. 2008. Defining Team Roles and Responsibilities. [Instructor Guide]. Pennsylvania: Human Resource Development Quarterly.</ref>

Individuals in a team can take on different roles that have their own unique responsibilities. A task-oriented role occurs when the individual offers new ideas, coordinates activities, or tries to find new information to share with the team. A social-oriented role occurs when an individual encourages the members of the team to be united. They also encourage participation and communication. An individual role occurs when an individual blocks the team's activities. They tend to call attention to themselves and avoid interaction with others. Another occurrence is [[role conflict]], which is a situation where an individual faces divergent role expectation. This means they are being pulled in various directions and hold different roles simultaneously.