Essay Sample on Teamwork & Leadership: My Reflection on Group Working

Introduction

Teamwork and leadership have one thing in common in today's working setting. Many organisations embark on it to deliver their mandate and achieve set goals and objectives (Kiweewa, Gilbride, Luke, & Clingerman, 2018). However, after completing the task on the group presentation, I will critically reflect upon my participation. The reflection will entail my self-awareness while in a group working setting. The reflection will also tackle how I observed and solved some issues facing us a group and how the same problems had an impact on the dynamics of the group. In this setting, I will give a transparent scenario of how each group member performed and their roles in the group. I will also address how role allocation affected working relationships and group dynamics. Lastly, I will evaluate my work as a team member and share some experiences working with my fellow members.

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The Concept of Teamwork and Leadership

It is essential to discuss what comprises a team or what makes a group before evaluating my role within the group. A team is a group of people combining efforts to achieve a common goal or objective at ease. However, teamwork requires every person in the group to be an active listener and performer (Natvig, & Stark, 2016). Leadership, on the other hand, is much discussed as necessary to the organizations by many scholars. Some scholars believe that leadership has to be an inborn idea while others claim one has to attend training to acquire it. Therefore, it becomes difficult to define what administration entails since every scholar justifies his or her argument on the same.

Tuckman's Five Stages of Group Development

According to Tuckman and Jensen (1977) Tuckman's five stages of developing a group, the first stage entails pre-grouping. It refers to establishing group rules, setting expectations and procedures, building skills and preparing the roles (Raes et al., 2015). In our team, we did well at this level. Our group had a precise aim and objective of the project at hand; hence we were able to discuss each member skill sets. Also, the group could define well the rules, aim, and objectives of the project. We were able to prepare a group contract which happens to be a very useful facilitation tool that enables the members to be aware of the set guidelines for the team and at the same time defines what unacceptable and acceptable behavior for the team members. The members of the group were able to get a clear picture of what entails the group contract. This allowed the members to identify the boundaries and norms of the team. For instance, our team was able to decide that if a member in any reason was not able to attend a meeting should proper arrangements to make the team know early in advance. It was also advisable if the matter was urgent; the member should relay the information via email immediately.

However, the next meeting the group met we were in the storming stage. At this stage, conflicts do occur as many members are not willing to be led. The communication process starts at this stage whereby they start communicating their feelings (Raes, Kyndt, Decuyper, Van den Bossche, & Dochy, 2015). The only challenge is that they view themselves as individuals rather than part of the group. In most cases, they show hostility and resist control by group leaders. For instance, in our team, we interacted well though at the start some of our colleagues resisted the new leadership. Some wanted the positions; hence after being rejected, they opposed the elect management of the group.

Moreover, we started working as a team to actualize the set goals and objectives. According to Tuckman and Jensen (1977), we were at the norming stage in our next meeting. Norming stage is whereby people feel part of the group (Purwanto, Zuiderwijk, & Janssen, 2018). At this stage, members realize that they can achieve their set goals and objectives if only they accept other viewpoints. It is at this stage where those opposed to the leadership at hand realized and agreed to work together. They could come on board and listen to others viewpoints hence supporting them.

The next meeting we were committed at actualizing the agenda or objective of the project. From Tuckman's viewpoint, the team or group work in an open and trusting environment (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). At this stage, the group members observe flexibility as key. Moreover, they consider hierarchy to be of little importance. We could work together at this level whereby everybody presented his ideas and contributions to the success of the project. In our team, everybody was mandated to give his or her ideas regardless of whether you're an executive member.

Lastly, our last meeting was at the adjourning stage where we conducted an assessment of the year. At this stage, team members assess of the year. The team also implements a plan for recognizing members' contributions and transitioning roles (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). We were able to deliver the work promptly and correctly. One person could not do the task at hand as it was voluminous. We achieved the goals of the project in a shorter period compared to when an individual does it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I learned that teamwork is essential in any organization or working setting since it simplifies work. Compared to my dealings at work could not make it as working as a team did. The time taken was short and accurate. I have found that teamwork and leadership have one thing in common in today's working setting. Many organizations embark on it to deliver their mandate and achieve set goals and objectives. A team is a group of people combining efforts to achieve a common goal or objective at ease. However, teamwork requires every person in the group to be an active listener and performer. Leadership, on the other hand, is much discussed as necessary to the organizations by many scholars. Teamwork assisted us in meeting all targets within a short duration, and everybody was satisfied with the work done.

References

Betts, S., & Healy, W. (2015). Having a ball catching on to teamwork: an experiential learning approach to teaching the phases of group development. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 19(2), 1. http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/having-a-ball-catching-on-to-teamwork-an-experiential-learning-approach-to-teaching-the-phases-of-group-development.pdf

Kiweewa, J. M., Gilbride, D., Luke, M., & Clingerman, T. (2018). Tracking growth factors in experiential training groups through Tuckman's conceptual model. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 43(3), 274-296. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01933922.2018.1484539

Natvig, D., & Stark, N. L. (2016). A project team analysis using Tuckman's model of small-group development. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(12), 675-681. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27893902

Purwanto, A., Zuiderwijk, A., & Janssen, M. (2018, September). Group Development Stages in Open Government Data Engagement Initiatives: A Comparative Case Studies Analysis. In International Conference on Electronic Government (pp. 48-59). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-98690-6

Raes, E., Kyndt, E., Decuyper, S., Van den Bossche, P., & Dochy, F. (2015). An exploratory study of group development and team learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(1), 5-30. https://gdqassoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Raes_et_al-2015-Human_Resource_Development_Quarterly.pdf

Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), 419-427. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/82ce/5d6862e726c9221104fe67b0e3c8fe890b9a.pdf