Importance of Leadership and Teamwork in Mine Field Games

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
Strategic Management and Leadership
Name of the Student:
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Author’s Note:

1STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will say: we did it ourselves.”
The above quoted lines of Lao Tzu clearly indicate the role of an effective leader and
the goal which he or she needs to achieve. Leadership can be defined as the ability or the
capability of an individual to lead other individuals or groups towards the achievement of
their desired goals or objectives (Goleman 2017). In the opinion of Jaques and Clement
(1994), “Leadership is that process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one
or more other persons and gets them to move along together with him or her and with each
other in that direction with competence and full commitment”. It is significant to note that the
various scholars as well as critics have different definitions of the concept of leadership
however all them agree on the common point that it is the ability of an individual to influence
the behaviour of other individuals and also to lead them towards the achieve of their common
objective or goal (Daft 2014). Thus, this concept is used by the various business organisations
for the process of guiding their workforce and also for the achievement of their common goal
or objective (Yukl 2013). Therefore, it would be apt to say that the concept of leadership is
used by the various business organisations to bring about their overall growth as well as
development. In this particular paper I will try to give an overview of an incident in which I
was involved in and in particular will give an overview of the emotions which I felt at that
point of time.
The incident which I am about to narrate happened sometime back when I and my
friends were a part of the mine field games. I would like to say first of all that mine field
games are one of the most “collaborative game involving teamwork and trust between the
members” (Gallant 2011). This particular game not only requires an active collaboration of
each and every member of the team but also the co-operation of all the members of the team
is very essential in this particular game. For this particular game, you are required to carry a

2STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
piece of wooden log and four plastic boxes through a ring to the other side of the ring. I
clearly recall that there were some eleven of us and we made two teams-one of six members
including myself and the other one of five members. The game started on a very positive note
however soon the other team started being aggressive and started complaining that the game
was not fair to them as they were playing with only five and we were playing with six
players. I would like to say that this was the particular point during which the trouble started
brewing. Thus, when my turn came to perform I carried the piece of wooden log and the four
pieces of plastic boxes to the other side of the ring but in the middle passage my leg touched
a part of the ring and I was adjourned for almost five minutes and my team had to play with
only five members. This is the incident on which I would like to focus on at this particular
point of time.
I would like to comment here that when I was adjourned for the duration of five
minutes I was very angry as I was sure that I had the penalty for touching the ring merely
once did not lead to a penalty of almost five minutes. Therefore, I called my team and tried to
explain to them the thing which had just happened. I myself was very infuriated with the
other team and the referee for not seeing the thing which had actually happened and thereby
making a decision which was completely wrong. Moreover, I was also very angry with the
opponent team as well for supporting the mistake of the referee and trying to take the help of
this opening to make progress in the game. Therefore, I called up my team members and tried
to explain to them the thing which had happened and also tried to explain to them the strategy
which the other team was trying to use. Initially, just like me the members of my team were
also very infuriated and wanted to openly confront the referee as well as the other members
of the other team. However, I tried to reason with them and also tried to explain to them that
this was the exact thing which they wanted us to do so that they can disqualify more of our
team members and go way with an easy win. Thus, I ask them to keep their cool and calm