Read the passage given below to answer the questions by choosing the correct options.
If we ask, "Why did such-and-such a group or organization, which was perfectly ordinary, become a high-performance team or an excellent organization?", the answer is often that they were inspired to raise their sights and standards by the vision, enthusiasm and drive of a particular leader. Therefore it is impossible to divorce effective teambuilding from effective leadership.
The ability to inspire others is a general characteristic of good leaders. It is essentially important if the group or organization is working in difficult conditions or adverse circumstances, where morale can easily fall.
To achieve excellence in results over a period of time in an organization, as in a football team, is not accidental. The various properties of groups identified in Part One — communication, decisions making, cohesiveness, morale, atmosphere, standards, procedures — are all found again in high-performance teams but to different degrees. The average work group and the exceptional team can be compared to two horses: both have the same muscles, legs lungs and other organs. But one is an ordinary riding horse in the local stables, the other is a three times winner of the Grand National. Why is one different from the other?
In the transformations of a work group into a team, and an ordinary team into a high-performance team, attention must be given to three crucially important elements; leadership, membership and common methods of working together.
The vital element that transforms an ordinary team into a high performing team is:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Effective leadership
The passage asks why a perfectly ordinary group becomes a high-performance team, and answers that its members were "inspired to raise their sights and standards by the vision, enthusiasm and drive of a particular leader". The whole passage builds on this point: team building cannot be divorced from effective leadership.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Team membership — Incorrect. Wrong focus: membership is one of the three elements that need attention, but the passage gives the leader as the reason an ordinary team turns into an excellent one.
Option 3: Strategies of working together — Incorrect. Wrong focus: common methods of working together are also one of the three elements, but the passage does not present them as the force that transforms the team.
Option 4: A larger team size — Incorrect. Not mentioned: the passage says nothing about the size of a team; the average group and the exceptional team are compared to two horses with the same muscles and organs.