Team Development: A Reflection on Adjourning

The adjourning part of every team development has always been the hardest part, but a few times I was too ready to be done with the group. My hardest team/group to leave has to be from my freshman year of undergrad. I completely loved that group of students in my first fashion course at LSU. We would all stay late nights and weekends busting butt to get our designs completed; and I loved that we all had the same work ethic. Like in this weeks readings and media segment, we learned the foundations of a successful team and that group of students definitely had each one to a T. It was nice not worrying if someone would do there part, had a clear undertanding of what was needed of them, and showed up ready to work and contribute equally to the team. I have also been part a few teams where I absoluted hated the team I was in and just counted down the days under the adjournment. These teams all had pretty much everything opposite of what a successful teams needs; no one wanted to work, everyone was either late or didn't show up for meetings, and I ended up do the entire project myself so I wouldn't fail because of someone else not wanting to do anything for the group.  Sometimes being a part of a group or team can be amazing, while other times you just want out before you even start. As a professional and adult now I have learned to work with what I have to work with and make the best of the situation, but that took some years to get use to. Now that I am the instructor for furture teacher, I teach them the importance of working together as a team and everyone doing their part for the success of the whole team. Especially as furture teachers, I want them to understand that we work with a huge TEAM from parents to student, coworkers and administrations, and even the community and government.

Communication Evaluation

This week I had my sister and brother-in-law evaluate my communication skills and then compared them three ideas and views. I feel my personal evaluation was a bit bias due to I think I communicate amazingly, I know I have some (very few) areas for improvement,  but none the less I believed I was doing pretty darn well in the communication part of my skills. My sister had very close views of my communication skills as I did, however, she was more harsh when it came to my listening skills. She felt I jump to assumptions easily and seemingly refuse to listen to others views on topics I feel passionately about. My brother-in-law had a completely different opinion on my skills and I am guessing hes feelings are a little more honest, but at the same time I kind of took some thoughts as him joking. He saw me as a good communicator when I wanted to be, I am a huge push over and people pleaser; which makes it hard for me to actually have/state my real feelings for anything, and he felt like I can get overwhelmed in stressful or new situations which causes my communication level to decrease.

After listening to my family's thoughts and evaluations of my communication skills I started to realize and pin-point areas in which they were referring to. I completely see where they were coming from and noticed myself trying to adjust my skills level and actively listen regardless of my personal feelings. I was completely surprised of my brother-in-laws honesty when I asked them to evaluate me. He actually wanted to have a sit down meeting to discuss ideas for me to improve my skills and become a better listener and less of a people pleaser.

Now that I have a clearer idea of what others see as my communication skills I feel I can adjust and hone my abilities to better suit my personal and professional careers alike.