Reflective Essay on Benefits and Advantages of Working in a Team

This reflective essay discusses the benefits and advantages of working in a team using Kolb's model and personality tests such as Humanmetrics Jung typology, Big Five personality test and MBTI personality test.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Reflective Essay
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY
This is a reflective essay that is written using Kolb’s model on benefits and advantages of
working in a team. I think working in a team is of utmost significance as this provides an
opportunity to learn from the fellow team members. As a part of the team, I can learn from my
fellow team mates as well as help or support them when they need me. However, the ability to
work within a team is dependent largely on the individual traits. According to me, working in a
team offers both merits and demerits that are discussed in the essay by referring it to the
personality tests such as Humanmetrics Jung typology, Big Five personality test and MBTI
personality test.
The Humanmetrics Jung Typology highlights that I am 62% extravert, 38% sensing, 16%
feeling and 9% judging. This personality of mine highlights that I enjoy being in-charge or the
one leading. While working within a team, this personality helps me to be in-charge of the tasks
and roles within the team. As a result, I was able to see the problems clearly and work hard
towards mitigating the problem (Plonien 2015). This is a merit when I am working within the
team, as I am able to solve the issues or prepare myself for handling issues from beforehand.
Another merit of me working in a working is my ability to take care and judge things before
doing anything. However, ESFJ nature within me makes to vulnerable towards the behavior and
attitude of fellow members. Working within a team means working with individuals with
different nature and attitude. The demerit is that I get wounded easily and emotions are very
difficult for me to control (Bughi et al. 2017).
The Big Five personality highlights 39% openness to experience, 51% conscientiousness,
68% extraversion, 4% agreeableness and 68% natural reactions in me. These personalities within
me allow me to be open to new things while working in a team. I think it is important to be open
to experiences while working in a team because this allows learning from the fellow team

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY
members. As a result, this facilitates imagination and insightful thereby, learning new things at
time. This result also supports the results derived from the other personality tests that I have the
personality of being reliable and prompt (Judge and Zapata 2015). This is a merit that I have is
beneficial while working within a team, as the team members can rely on me and my promptness
can help in handling emergencies. However, this is also a demerit for me, as the team members
rely on me unnecessarily that becomes a burden for me. Being extraversion highlights my
outgoing, assertive and friendly nature that is highly significant while working within a team as
this helps in portraying a positive and compelling attitude towards others (Gurven et al. 2013).
The MBTI personality test result highlights ESTJ personality within me that makes me
highly dedicated, strong-willed, direct, honest, loyal, patient and reliable and ability to organize
things excellently. The results of the MBTI personality test are my merits that help to remain
focused while working within a team. Due to my reliable nature, the team members can rely on
me thereby, ensuring stability and security at work. However, with the merits, the test results
also highlight some demerits in me. Lack of flexibility, stubbornness, judgmental, difficult to
relax and extremely focused on social status are the demerits of my personality (Cohen, Ornoy
and keren 2013). These demerits restrict my ability to work within a team largely, as lack of
flexibility and stubbornness prohibits me from accepting the suggesting and advice from my
fellow team members. In addition to, being extremely judgmental leads to strong convictions
about what is correct and incorrect and socially acceptable that at times becomes an issue for the
team members. The judgmental nature in me forces me to ignore the possibility of different ways
of doing things appropriately thereby, making me consider that my duties are set right (De Haan
et al. 2013).

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Thus, in this essay, it can be concluded that my personality has both merits and demerits
of working in a team. My personality traits allow me to ensure the success of the team by being
prepared for risks, handle things with care, being attentive but lack of control over emotions is a
major demerit for me while working within a team. I get easily affected by the attitude and
approach of the fellow team members making giving rise to turbulence towards my roles while
working as a tea. The proposed action plan for overcoming this issue with my personality is
being highly professional while working in a team. Maintaining professionalism will help me to
do my work regardless of what my team members are saying about me. I will also try not to be
affected by the actions and attitudes of the team members that will help me overcome my
demerit.

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY
References
Bughi, S.A., Lie, D.A., Zia, S.K. and Rosenthal, J., 2017. Using a personality inventory to
identify risk of distress and burnout among early stage medical students. Education for
Health, 30(1), p.26.
Cohen, Y., Ornoy, H. and Keren, B., 2013. MBTI personality types of project managers and their
success: A field survey. Project Management Journal, 44(3), pp.78-87.
de Haan, E., Duckworth, A., Birch, D. and Jones, C., 2013. Executive coaching outcome
research: The contribution of common factors such as relationship, personality match, and self-
efficacy. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 65(1), p.40.
Gurven, M., Von Rueden, C., Massenkoff, M., Kaplan, H. and Lero Vie, M., 2013. How
universal is the Big Five? Testing the five-factor model of personality variation among forager–
farmers in the Bolivian Amazon. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104(2), p.354.
Judge, T.A. and Zapata, C.P., 2015. The person–situation debate revisited: Effect of situation
strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting job
performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), pp.1149-1179.
Plonien, C., 2015. Using personality indicators to enhance nurse leader communication. AORN
journal, 102(1), pp.74-80.