Individual and Group Skills: Reflection on Group Work and Leadership

Running head: INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP SKILLS
INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP SKILLS
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1INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP SKILLS
Reflection on Group Work or Team Work
Introduction
Practical or constructive teamwork primarily serves a crucial role in the implementation and
accomplishment of common objectives in an improved manner in team projects. In contemporary era,
teamwork has been considered as an effective approach for the accomplishment of the goals as well as
objectives in a highly constructive and successful manner (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk 2016). Proper
delegation of responsibility and the advancement of correct strategies and approaches for the completion
of any goal are identified as the key objective of a team (Goetsch and Davis 2014). In a context a
reflective essay has been essentially developed that intense to signify my experience while working in a
team of six members for a development of a presentation.
Discussion
The group which was formed for the accomplishment of the presentation comprised of 6
members who belong from diverse cultural backgrounds and thus I have observed a greater degree of
multiplicity among the members in my group. Though being one of the vital team members, I
demonstrated utmost openness and consideration but have evaluated that such range of diversity lead to
an extent of variations in ethical values related to the work which was being proposed along with
effective forms of communication, sense of liability and assigned roles. However at the initial stage of the
presentation, certain critical intricacies and challenges encountered by our team in regards to the
inefficacy in the process of communication and diversity among the team members. Regardless to the
reactions of few team members of our team in relation to the form of diversity which existed within the
team performance, I developed an assertive perception towards the diversity as individuals from varied
intellectual backgrounds tends to provide varied forms of perspectives which can further contribute in
enhancing the competence level of the task which is being performed and thus time and again results to
the successful completion.
However forms of diversity in a team has been identified to be critical in the proper
communication among team members which eventually exhibit a propensity to impact the performance of
all the individual team members (Jiang et al. 2016). However in order to circumvent these areas of
concern within a team, it is essential important for all the individual members of the team to develop a
sense of importance and value among themselves while performing as a vital part of the team (Chiu,
Owens and Tesluk 2016). At this juncture I would like to shed light on certain theoretical aspects which
would have served a significant role in successful teamwork. By delving into the theoretical
understanding of Tuckman's stages of group development I have attained adequate knowledge about
effective team or group building. Tuckman's Model of Team Building has been essentially significant as
it distinguishes the areas whereby teams or groups do not have the tendency to commence as a fully

2INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP SKILLS
formed association (Chuang, Jackson and Jiang 2016). However, Tuckman proposed that any team or
group while aiming for a particular purpose must develop through distinctively definite stages from their
creation as groups of individuals to the highly unified and consistent goal focused teams.
Raes et al. (2015)observed that any association fundamentally evolves into successful teams
through four common stages whereby and orientation testing phase which primarily results to period
signified by the extent of negotiation which then gets resolved resulting to a socially cohesive phase.
Goetsch and Davis (2014) reveal that communication for the required to be highly effective among all
members of the group, digression to this approach might lead to an unconstructive objective and
unaccomplished team goal. Thus Tuckman’s third stage of team building theory signifies that team
members aim to focus on progressing everyone to the same direction (Jiang et al. 2016). However in such
a stage effective communication along with constructive opinions will facilitate the team members to
attain such a strategy and further help the team members to sustain the team building efforts by
effectively organising social events with the team and further ensuring to provide a certain value and
recognition to all the team members (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk 2016). As there was a high deficit of
communication among all the group members in my group, due to the absence of two members during the
process of an important decision-making a wide gap between the team members have been observed. In
such a scenario Tuckman’s Stage of Norming must be taken into consideration in order to advance
towards the performing stage where areas related to interpersonal or structural issues can be negotiated
among members which can align the task performance of other team associates (Goetsch and Davis
2014).
Conclusion
From my experience with this team I have obtained the sense of value of teamwork and the level
of accomplishment it invites towards excellence of task completion along with successful attainment of
objectives. My team performance has not only helped me to develop the understanding of coordination
and collaboration but also enhanced my strengths and helped me to consider other team members’
perspectives and opinions to have a better place within the prospective teams I will be associated with in
the future.