Reflection Essay on Leadership and Teamwork Experience

Completer-Finisher

In this reflection, I am going to talk about how being a leader of my group has been to me and the new things I have learned from it. I will also talk about the challenges I have gone through since the formation of this group. I will further bring out the evaluation of what went wrong and well during the group meetings and how this has helped me today and will help me in future performances.

Being in a group was one of the opportunities I had been waiting for, and I finally had it. Being with my classmates and having a chance to discuss with them gave me a feeling of happiness since it was a platform where we can say everything we thought was true and no one could belittle the other but correct each other. I had an opportunity of being chosen a group leader, and this meant that I had to be different from my colleagues in a way despite us being classmates. I learned leadership skills through them as they would expect so much from me. My group members could wait for me to give them directions on what to do when to meet and where will the meetings be, the order of how the discussion will be done and so many other things.

The group was just at its first stage, and this was hard for everyone even though some were comfortable with the groups they were in, some werent, and this brought commotion. Agreeing was a difficult thing, and it created arguments every time one member says something that everybody was thinking differently. Lack of unity and understanding was the most negative experience I had, and I had to try so hard to ensure that my group was ok. As a leader, I found it hard to make these different people with different reasoning come to a common reasoning. I used the communication skills I had to talk to my fellow group members and convincingly tell them that we had a task ahead of us which can only be achieved if we work as one and forget our differences. I reminded them that the assignment we were to work on was the only thing that brought us together and we should focus on that. Also, I learned patience and how to tolerate every member of the group so that each is given a chance to contribute to discussions.

The positive thing that I learned from being a group leader is that as leaders we are supposed to act as the voice of our subjects because, in as much as they will want to argue among themselves, they are always ready to listen to you because they chose you. Also, positivity is key in leadership because positive thinking gives the rest of the team hope to move on and brings them together. These two skills did not only help me during our group meetings but will also help me in future performance as a leader.

Team worker

The team work is the most sensitive member of the team. Working as the team worker means that I should be the most helpful, accommodating, and focused person and am responsible for creating a pleasant atmosphere and a sense of togetherness for all the members of the group. As a team worker I ensure and prefer balance and harmony, and I am always supposed to be close to others. I am always at difficulty with conflict and also gets troubled in matters that involve decision making during critical times.

As a team worker, I should be easy going to accommodate everybody in the group, and also I should always be funny and sensitive to make every member happy and humorous when in demanding situations. Accommodative was one of the qualities group discussions taught. I was so poor in accommodating people especially when someone says something I did not agree with, but once I was chosen to be a team worker, I learned that everyones idea was worth hearing since it contributed to the group work.

Being a Team worker, I ensure that I am an individual who likes togetherness. I always ensured that all the members of the group are together without any differences that might divide the group. I also managed to help my group members improve the personal relationships hence peaceful working conditions for every member of the group. With peace in the group, each member was so productive and our discussion end with everyone having contributed as much as he or she could.

As a team working in the group, I contributed much to the group. I am always relationship oriented hence maximizing the working relationship between all the people of the group. I also ensured that there are sensitivity and care. I ensure that other workers are not overworked and exploited by other workers. When workers are cared for, they work peacefully and wholeheartedly. As a team worker, I also ensure that I am sensitive to every workers feelings and needs. In this regard, every worker feels relaxed and is dedicated to his work. I also ensure that togetherness and the team spirit are maintained. Maintaining the team spirit ensures that every task is accomplished since every individual knows his tasks and ensures that they are completed. Togetherness helps everybody in the group as it ensures that any worker is given hope whenever he feels that he is down. Coming together motivates workers and gives workers a good morale towards their work.

While working as a team worker, I ensure that people working within the team are effective. As a team worker, I fill the role of negotiators within the team, and I am always flexible to every situation. I also ensure that I am perceptive. I ensure that I am competent in my right and I always prioritize team cohesion and I help people get along.

The main challenge that I face as a teamwork is that I find it indecisive in making critical decisions in crunch situations and I always have to avoid confrontations. I am also hesitant in making unpopular decisions which sometimes does not render everything well within the group. In always tend to maintain uncommitted positions during discussions and decision making which to some extent affect the teams spirit.

Plant

In this self-reflection, am going to talk about my experience as a plant in my group based on my thoughts and my feelings. My group members chose me as their plant considering my characters. While serving them, there so many things that happen some good and some bad. I am going to evaluate what went wrong and went good at the same time discuss out how I benefited from being a plant and how I should improve in future.

Plants are very important in group works and being chosen one, I knew I was very important to my group, and I had to concentrate in our assignment since I knew that my group members depended on me in case anything becomes hard during the discussions. I made use of my creative nature and generated as many ideas as possible during the discussions to help my fellow group mates. To be honest, I enjoyed every session we had until my group members pointed out a gap on how I argued my ideas sometimes. This was my problem because I was always preoccupied with so many things and so sometimes I cannot even deliver what I had to the right way. The other group members finding this out was demoralizing to me and I felt so bad.

I felt like no one was appreciating the help I was offering in the group which resulted in a misunderstanding and a big argument between my fellow group members and me. We wasted much time arguing and quarreling among ourselves instead of focusing on the main agenda that brought us to the discussion meetings. This was the bad experience I had during these group assignment meetings because I was not used to being corrected and this was a bitter pill to swallow. With the help of our leader, we were able to agree and we continued as usual. I accepted the correction, and I focused so much on our assignment forgetting all the many things that used to preoccupy my mind behind.

Being in this group did not only taught me to be a person that accepts corrections but also someone who can focus on one thing and be able to produce good results for it without allowing interruptions of any kind. Moreover, being in this group molded me to be a person who would listen to people and argue with them positively without feeling that they have the evil intention of demoralizing or destroying my image and the talents I have. I was also able to get rid of my absent-minded nature with time since my group members kept on reminding me when I was off track. These are some of the positive things I would like to carry with me and use them in future to help people who will need me and who are assigned to work with me.

For this plant role I was given by the group members, I can admit that it is challenging but at the same time educative. Also, I learned that with the skills I have, I need to play that important role to help people and commit all my energy to doing exactly what is right for the benefit of my group as a whole.

Coordinator

This reflection will mainly discuss my experiences as a coordinator based on my emotions and my thoughts. I will also point out the challenges I faced during my exercise of coordination and how I was able to deal with those challenges. Also, I will also talk of some of the lessons I learned in the process and if they are going to help me in future or not.

Basing on my personality and characteristics, I was chosen to be my class coordinator and given a responsibility of forming groups. I could do the work with ease since I was able to point out ones ability and talents and knew which group of people could work together and come up with good results. I placed people into groups and clarified their goals to them so that they could not be misled when working out their assignments in their groups. I can say that being a coordinator and at the same time was challenging since I was subject to misjudgments by fellow students. Sometimes with the nature of the work I was given of delegating work to various groups, I would be late in my group, and my fellow group members could feel that I am boycotting the discussions and want them to work on their own.

Some of the students will misunderstand me and think that I was delegating much work to them and leaving little for me to do. This was not always the case since I had more work to do as a coordinator. I had to ensure that all the work that I had delegated to all the students is done and is done perfectly and in time. In fact, most students will think that working as a coordinator is not demanding, but in the real sense, it is very demanding. As a coordinator, I had to identify talent among other students and delegate work to them according to their abilities and talent. This is usually not an easy work to do, but I managed to accomplish. I had to draw out all the students into their working teams and delegate them appropriately.

To do all this work as a coordinator, I had to show some sense of maturity to overcome these challenges. I had to be confident in my work because it takes courage to delegate duties to your fellow students who always feel that you are at the same level. After my duty as a coordinator, I realized that I had gained enough experience that can enable me to work in future when delegated such duties. I can comfortably work as a coordinator in any team provided that all the group members be cooperative and heed the goals of the group. I realized that I need to maturely, and confidently act to coordinate a team well. The strengths I have gained can enable me to work comfortably and deliver a high standard result. Despite the challenges, that I faced, with composer and steady mind, I was able to overcome them and deliver appropriately.