Team Skills Reflection and Action Planning Paper

Team Skills Reflection and Action Planning Paper

Part-A: Insights about my Team Skills

Reflecting on my time at school thus far, I have made a few observations on my team skills and the type of roles that I typically play in the teams I work within. Having never been part of any team in a professional capacity, I find these insights highly valuable. I have arrived at these insights by analysing my contributions to the OB team and our team's overall performance. iPeer feedback, periodic team debriefs, and the conversations that I had with Ms. Wein are my sources of data.

Firstly, I learnt that I am highly analytical and can cut through the clutter to arrive at the root of a problem. This skill of mine has been revalidated by my teammates, as were evidenced through their feedback. (“His problem solving is amazing. He would speak up when the rest of the group were stuck on a problem. His solutions were simple and effective.” “He was able to raise awesome questions that paved the way, or shaped our cognition." "There were many times when we were stuck with some specific problems, and Fred suddenly came up with some genius ideas, and then executes the idea to help us fix the problem--the whole room would cheer for him. I was deeply impressed by his creativity.” “He is the ideal turn-to-person when something goes wrong, and his solutions always blow my mind away.”) Several factors enabled me to contribute so highly to the team. The team created an atmosphere where everyone felt psychologically safe (Kahn 1990), which enabled both divergent and convergent thinking to flourish (OB Unit 4). My innovative ideas were a product of these highly engaging and productive brainstorming sessions (Osborn, 1963).

Conversely, this experience also made me realise that I might not flourish as well if I were a part of a more combative or non-cohesive team environment. Owing to my introvert personality (Briggs Myers, 1987), I require a psychologically safe and respectful environment to contribute to my full potential. The critical feedback that I received from my OB teammates was that I need to engender a “stronger expression of opinion”. (“Fred is reserved and quiet. I would've liked to have heard more contributions from him because they were always of high quality.”) This is in line with the feedback I received at work in the past, where my manager would ask me to take up the initiative and share my expertise rather than wait for someone to come to me for help. I realised that I need to express myself more often – even if my ideas aren't fully formed, or even if the team environment is too chaotic and unconducive for a typical introvert – as this leads to a well-rounded, collaborative, inclusive and richer experience that is far more beneficial to the team.

Finally, I found that I more quickly towards