The Personal Reflection Of Team Management

Progress over time tends to follow learning curves Learning is a lifelong and continuous building of skills and knowledge throughout the entire life of an individual. It occurs through experiences encountered in the course of our lifetime , or in simple words it is a result of habituation as witnessed in many animal species , or as a result of complex activities such as play that may be seen in relatively intelligent animals. It may be characterized as formal such as training , counseling , mentorship , apprenticeship etc. or informal such as experience , situation etc. Learning may occur in a present state of mind i.e. conscious awareness or unconsciously.

As soon as I got admitted to the M.B.A. module , I thought its going to be the same boring business kind of module that will be exposed more to theoretical concepts. But to my surprise it is more about molding an individual into getting prepared to a management career. Here ‘Management’ is often considered as “whatever need to be done just to keep things afloat” Basically PASS overlaps the professional and academic skills that are needed by individual to strive in this interdependent world. It gave me a platform to fully explore my management skills and knowledge. PASS module provides us an platform that would pave our way to the future into the roads of success and glory. The module provides us an intellectual approach about many other management skills as well.

TEAM MANAGEMENT:

Team management is recognized as the foremost integrated integrated system of work-based , research proven assessment and feedback instrument worldwide – supporting individuals that are intended to effect and lasting change and achieve higher performance in the workplace.

Several profound and well known approaches came into play to achieve excellence in academic work. The following models are listed as below :

Tuckman’s model

Belbin’s model

TUCKMAN’S MODEL

The model was devised by Bruce Tuckman , and laid the foundational definition of the stages that goes through four steps in a cycle. These are labeled as Forming , Storming , Norming , Performing.

FORMING

In the first stage, the forming of the team takes place. Individual roles and responsibilities are unclear. The individual’s attitude is driven by desire to be accepted by others and avoid conflicts etc. There is an high dependence on the team leader for guidance and direction. The leader must be fully prepared to answer lots of question about the purpose , objective and external relationships. The team members learned about the opportunites and challenges and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle them. Processes are often ignored. Team members tend to behave independently. This stage is important for every team members to tune themselves with each other and for future coordination in the team.

STORMING

The next stage is storming in which every individual puts up his/her ideas to compete for consideration. The members feel themselves as a part of the team and are identified with different powers , resources that are to be used later on. Clarity of purpose increases but bulk of uncertainties persists. The team needs to be focused on their prime goal to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues.

NORMING

Agreement and consensus is largely forms among the team. The team strives for their prime goal my mutual planning. Smaller decision may be delegated to the individuals. The team laid stress on developing its process and working life style. A general respect to the team leader is highly prioritized.

PERFORMING

The vision of the team is clear and is able to stood up on its own feet without the interference from the leader. The team has a high degree of autonomy. The team makes most of its decision against criteria agreed with the leader. Leader delegates and oversees , while the team is more strategically aware and focused on achieving its goal.

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As every individual has its perception and its own specialty. Sometimes due to lack of active planning a state of controversy may occur and may leed to catastrophic consequences. To inculcate the problem we used belbin’s theory to made better decision while working as a team

BELBIN’S MODEL

The theory was devised by Dr. Meredith Belbin to get the insight of an individual’s behavioral tendency while working in a team environment.

Belbin’s theory specifies nine characteristics through which we can identify our roles in a team-

Planter – a member whose strength lies in problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking.

Evaluator – a member who keeps an eye , makes unbiased decisions and weighs up the team opinions in dispassionate way.

Co-ordinator – A positive thinker who approves goal attainment , struggle and effort in others.

Investigator – a member characterized by sociability and enthusiasm and are good at exploring resources outside the group.

Implementer – a member whose strength lies in translating the team’s decision into fruitful tasks.

Finisher – A perfectionist who has the ability to meet deadlines.

Team worker – A good listener , very cooperative , collaborative , easy going and tactful , who makes an interpersonal relation with the team.

Shaper – A dynamic and energetic individual who boldly challenges others during discussions , can handle work loads and to overcome from various obstacles.

Specialist – A dedicated and focused individual likes to dip in the depth and therefore a good resource for contributing information and knowledge in a team situation.

According to me belbin’s theory is a good option as it was based on certain patterns of behavior that people exhibit within a team. When people become aware of their strengths and abilities they tend to work more and form a better team.

COMMUNICATION :

Communication is basically is derived from the word latin word ‘communico’ which means ‘to share’. It is the activity of conveying information. Communication requires a sender , a message and an intended recipient. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the sender.

For more simplification we can remember it as I3:

I: to instruct

I: to inform

I: to influence

Communication plays a vital role in a team to ensure group members interact effectively. In our group, we are well acquainted with one another but never did we come across the chance to work together as a team. The language barrier is totally restricted as all of our team members have good command over English. Our negotiations are generally done via internet messengers i.e. “yahoo! messenger” , “gtalk” , by forming discussion groups. Sometimes there is a divergent thinking in or team on certain issues but we managed to change and focused on a specific task. Instances occur when some members tend to show

Diplomatic attitude towards a particular post which results in fatal. These kind of situations are a similar example to ‘Aristotle model’ where the sender sends the data to group/receiver which is not been taken into account. I think that the best possible way to get rid of this problem is to use Berlo’s model. It is a very simple and elegant way to communicate and share information directly between the sender and receiver. It is very important for the sender to know about his/her designation and to whom he/she sending the message. The messages that are sent out should be clear, polite and not intimidating.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT :

Learning and development is one of the most happening activity in the Value Labs. Learning is the process of increasing knowledge. Most companies sends their employees to get in touch with the updated technology and learn soft skills. This way , organizations gain extra advantage in this competitive era. We were introduced to Honey Mumford learning style which requires self assessment to check ourselves for the learning category. After conducting the group activity on self evaluation , I find most are activists and pragmatists.

After knowing our learning style we were able to conclude that self. Development is the process of growing and learning ,resulting in positive change or evolution. In our group some development techniques were required the most. After importing these needs, our team was much developed.

SELF MANAGEMENT

Self-management is defined as “a treatment that combines biological , psychological , and social intervention techniques, with a goal of maximal functioning of regulatory processes”(Nalagawa-Kogan, Garber, Jarrett, Egan, & Hendershot, 1988). This often means different things to different people – and sometimes different things at different times even to the same people. One of the most frequent concerns and complaints of people in managing process that they do not have enough time to cope up with their daily work.

TIME MANAGEMENT

It is an interactive art of arranging , scheduling one’s time for the outcome of effective work and productivity. Time management is conceivably most essential for the person who owns his or who runs a business out of the home. Managing work and other home responsibilities under the same roof requires a special time management.

A better time management has proved to be a great setback in many individuals life and to team as well. Though many time management books may differ in suggestions but most agree that the initial step for time management is to well organize the workplace. As we got closer to the end of this module, I realized that we were actually taught how to utilize the resources to become a better manager.

CONCLUSION

It is pertinent to note that I had started as a nothing without having any prior knowledge without knowing the members of the group and don’t have any idea about our goal. Collaboration is to gather a variety of different skills among team members and utilize them to ensure the success of the project. After few days we have started to interact with each other in our group and strive to achieve our goal and to work as a team. It is also of great importance that the learner can choose from anyone best suited learning method to achieve its goal. We are trying to become unconsciously competence which comes from observation, experience and practice.

REFLECTION (Word count Screenshot)

References and Bibliography:

Books :

HUNSAKER, P. L., (2004).Training in Management Skills. 2nd edition. Prentice Hall. England.

Argyle, M. (1994) The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour, London: Penguin.

Goffman, E. (1990) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York: Doubleday.

Goleman, D. (2007) Social Intelligence, London: Arrow.

Handy, C. (1984) The Future of Work, Oxford: Blackwell.

Hofstede, G. (2002) Culture’s consequences, London: Sage.

Hymes, D. (1971) On Communicative Competence, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania

Honey, P. & Mumford, A. (2000). The learning styles helper’s guide.Maidenhead: Peter Honey Publications Ltd.

Internet Websites:

http://managementhelp.org/fp_progs/mng_mod/mng_ldr.htm

http://www.tms.com.au/

http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htm

http://www.coag.uvic.ca/cdsmp/downloads/What_is_Self-Management.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12867348

http://www.vilanswebwinkel.nl/Site_chronisch_zieken/docs/pdf/Self-management%20educationLorig2003.pdf