Personal Evaluation and Future Development.
The whole concept of working with this team was enhanced by good leadership abilities and capabilities. In events of success, as the leader I added some recognition to the embers. In the event of conflicts, I would apply conflict management concepts and handle the cases appropriately. The use of Tuckman’s developments stages in team work played a critical role in the success of this group. Using this theory a good leader brings together the member’s so that trust is build amongst them (Miller, 2004).
I applied this concept in the financial analysis while marketing. The team members needed to trust the financial committee on the accounts and figures that were sed. I also learnt that storming and offering advice especially on conflicts was an important element in leadership. The strength in this case was the marketing leader who seemed to be carried away by simple critics.
Communication enabled the member to learn and admit on her character. Interpersonal communication with the team members was relevant especially when they observed the dictatorship element that came up from the marketing leader (Quick, 2012). I convinced the members to be calm as I sort out the issue with the marketing leader. The success of this group was a result of having a one on one talk with this leader who aired her problems on the misconduct. With my understanding, I respected her views and improved on my awareness on how my involvement in the issue affected her feelings. This is how we successfully came up with a solution.
Contribution.
Teams are built by discussions and contributions; the uniqueness of our product required both material and theoretical contributions. Initially some members were not so sure on what was expected of them. In order to encompass them, they were allowed to take part in setting objectives and in decision making (Parker, 2008). Using attend, encourage and reflect model, I managed to make the members feel at ease to air their views on the objectives of the group. With the use on my strong analytical skills, I would then reflect on the raised views, weigh out the better options and come up with a conclusive objective that was at the comfort of every member.
The weakest point I had on this issue is that most of the members never showed up for meetings. This became a bit difficult on me since as a leader I never wanted to impose choices or decisions on them. To market this market, the contributions of the members were critical (Miller, 2004). I advised the members to email me their questions so that I could surpass them to the marketing leader.
The formation of the online page also enhanced contribution on decisions and ideas from the members. Most of the members who never attended the meetings and those who were never at ease to air out their views during the meetings used this page to contribute. The contributions from the members was relevant in coming up with a harmonious final marketing strategy.
Decision making.
Coming up with the right choices of ideas, objectives and the decision was the key contributor to the success of this team. At first, the members were not sure on their expectations and roles while in the group. I had to initiate a draft for the objectives that could later be discussed once the members knew of their expectations. The absenteeism of most of the members in meetings also contributed to my decision making skills.
The group had to submit its returns within the deadline, with or without their attendance. With the contributions of the few members who attended the meetings, I had to design firm decisions on the way forward. My decision on the appointment of the two leaders also contributed to the success (Halverson and Tirmizi, 2008).
The decision to have a face to face talk with the marketing leader enabled me to access my interpersonal skills, conflict solving and management and also helped me to realize my weaker points. The leader pointed out that I took charge during the meetings, and she felt that this was meant to be a part of her roles. To my realization, this was normally the case since I took chair even in marketing issues. The decision to talk to her added to my leadership skills; this boosted on listening to the views of my co-workers. I also learnt on how my own act or behavior could affect the production of my co-workers.
Conflict.
Conflicts in the team developed when the marketing leader presented the survey questions. The questions were not refined as the lecturer had advised. The leader could not take any criticism from the group members. There was some dictatorship since she wanted her list of questions o be approved without being questioned. There lacked assertiveness measures in the group at this point.
There was a need for communication in the group so that the root cause of the conflict could be determined (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007). This conflict enabled me to assess my skills in conflict management. At some point, I got annoyed with what the leader was doing and wanted to confront her face to face. However, I decided to talk to some members and assess their contribution towards her conduct.
The contribution and involvement of the marketing leader was critical as the findings of the survey were fully relied on in increasing sales and developing the product. We needed to analyze the market and be aware of what the customers expected from us. This implied that the resolution of this conflict meant a lot to the team. Using the proper skills of managing conflict was the only way out. As the leader, my strengths were organizing an effective interpersonal communication with the leader. I used my assertive skills in responding to the needs of this leader. I learnt that I was too involved in what she felt were her line of duties. I learnt to respect other people’s roles and feelings (DuFrene and Lehman, 2010).
Personal future development.
I also plan to manage my time so that I don’t end up being overworked on group issues, fail to meet deadlines and avoid the last minute rush. This will be achieved by developing a work plan that will define my schedules so that I also spare time for other duties.
Reference.
Miller, B. (2004). Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn: California.
Hellriegel, D. & Slocum, J. (2007). Organizational Behavior. Cengage Learning: Mahwah, NJ.
Quick, T. (2012). Successful Team Building. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn: California.
Daft, R. & Lane, P. (2008). The Leadership Experience. Cengage Learning: Mahwah, NJ.
DuFrene, D. & Lehman, C. (2010). Building High-Performance Teams. Cengage Learning: New York.
Halverson, C. & Tirmizi, S. (2008). Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. Springer: New York.
Parker, G. (2008). 25 Instruments for Team Building. Human Resource Development: Canada.
