In Leadership and Communications, I was put into a team for a project that we worked on throughout the term. Working as a team requires an ability to understand and work with others. This experience gave me a chance to see how effectively I contribute to a team and what I need to work on.
Understanding others is easy for me. I get along with almost everyone. I am also flexible and I am willing to adapt to challenging interpersonal situations. If there is someone that is hard to get along with, I look for ways to change that by finding common ground with him or her.
I am very social. I enjoy talking to people, and as I become better friends with my teammates, I become more likely to get distracted. During our team meetings, I got distracted sometimes and had conversations that were unrelated to the task at hand.
My teammates enjoyed working with me. One of them described me as “very cohesive” in the Midterm Peer Evaluation Report. In the Final Peer Evaluation Report, a teammate said, “You could always count on Andy to carry his load of the work and it would always get done on time. Overall, Andy was a very productive and fun group member. He added a nice dimension to our group and he always made our group meetings fun.” This feedback from other group members shows that I was easy to work with. People were able to count on me. That is a vital part of teamwork because it takes the stress off of the other team members. It also shows that I made working on our project a more enjoyable experience. Having fun in group meetings helps keep people from getting too frustrated.
As a team member, I was good at keeping the team focused on the big picture. In the Final Peer Evaluation Report, a team member reported that I was good at “zooming out” and reminding the team of our values. This helped our team be the best we could be because it kept our ideas in line with our goals.
One thing I need to work on is playing a more active leadership role. I am uncomfortable telling people what to do, but sometimes that is a necessary part of being on a team. Next time I am in a team situation, I will work on this. If I have a plan, I will make polite suggestions to my teammates as to what they should do. That way, I will be able to get my ideas out but I will not come across as too controlling.
Throughout the term, I worked effectively with my team. My team members enjoyed being around me and appreciated my contributions. In the future, I will work on staying focused during team meetings and playing a more active leadership role.
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