One of the major aspects of this term was working in a group to create a proposal for the Lundquist College of Business. The main aspect with this was group work and working together as a team. Working as a team involves multiple aspects from inquiry, advocacy and combining ideas to create more powerful ones. Although I was very strong in my ability to speak my ideas and advocate for them, I lacked in my ability to actively listen and inquiry.
With communicating effectively in the group, I didn’t realize how many different aspects of teamwork there was. When the first midterm evaluation came out, I got a lot of positive feedback in my creation of my ideas and advocacy for them. “Great in providing ideas that helps towards the progressing with the proposal.” Although my ability to present my ideas was strong, the one thing that I saw that was interesting was my lack of listening. “Better job of listening at certain times.” Was one of the main comments I received was about active listening and after thinking about it, I realized this is equally as important as speaking. When you actively listen, this will allow you to formulate stronger statements to present back to the group, ultimately adding to more progress and success as a group.
During my blog post “The Final Speech” my I really worked with my group to develop a solid presentation and encouraged each member to have the confidence with their speaking abilities. Putting together the final proposal and presentation was the most work among the group and for our group to efficiently work together to create a powerful presentation is something I was very proud of
For the second half of the course, my main goal was to work on actively listening to ultimately lead to better discussions and communication among the group. After getting the final feedback, one of the group members stated that, “Brian did a great job letting others speak and encouraged them to do so.” This showed me that others saw the importance of active listening and specifically saw me making a stronger effort towards this aspect of teamwork among the group. The ability to actively listen created stronger group discussions and led to the fantastic end result.
Working in a group is one of the most important aspects of business. Everyone needs to work with someone almost everyday of their life and the more and more practice you get, the more confident you are with working with others. For me, my confidence is far higher now, especially since I understand the importance of actively listening.