Personal and professional development Essay

In essence, a team may be defined as two or more people who co-operate together with a common aim. A Team focuses towards common goals and clear purpose (park, 1990). The purpose of this report is to reflect on my experience on working in groups, effectiveness of group work, presentation skills, and reflect on the presentation skills. Effectiveness of the group work: The most popular and common model which explains the effectiveness of the team work is Tuckman (1965) the five stages group development model. According to Tuckman (1965) there are five stages of group development and these stages include: forming, storming, norming, preforming, and adjourning. The first stage of group development is forming stage, under this stage the team members are selected, and get to know each other, objectives are well defined, and tasks are identified. Group members try to identify a group leader and the other roles, and they try to find out what behaviors are acceptable to work in group. The second stage of group development is storming, this stage often characterized as conflict stage, where member tends to disagree on leadership, objectives and the rules. In addition, some members may feel dissatisfied with his or her group. The third stage of group development is norming, at this stage the group manages to have one objective goal and come to a common plan for the team. Some may have to give up their own ideas and agree with others to make the team function. In this stage, all team members take the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team’s objective goals. The fourth stage of group development is preforming, at this stage team members performed at the best of their abilities, and the project will be completed effectively and all the problems will be resolved at this stage. The last stage of group development is adjourning, at this stage the members will be happy due to team achievements of their group at the same time they might feel sad because they will be losing close friends when the project comes to the end. Belbin (1981) has researched and analysed effective group performance and recommends a new team model of nine different roles. These roles include: the coordinator, the shaper, the implementor, the monitor evaluator, the plant, the resource investigator, the team worker, the completer and the specialist. The coordinator is a person who has skills to organize, harmonize and control the team very well. The shaper is a person who makes things happens and encourages the team to action. The implemantor is the person who is hard working who like clear objectives and directions. The monitor evaluator is a person who solves the problems and evaluates the suggestions and the ideas. The planet is innovator, creator and inventor. The resource investigators are likeable, enthusiastic, creative and innovative, excelling under pressure through the improvisation. The team workers are the ones who improve the communications between the team members and foster team spirit. The completer is the person who Have all the necessary or appropriate parts and ensures about the targets and deadlines. The specialist contributes technical skills and he is self-motivated, committed and professional in his tasks. Belbin (1981) claims that if the team is incomplete in a team role, or has too many of the same types of role, it would be less effective team. Reflection on Group Work: To some extent our team follows Tuckman (1965) five stage of development but we removed the second stage which is storming. The team consists of four people and we are all friends we know each other’s from the beginning of the semester. . The purpose of the team is to write a report on Melaka trip. We divided the task each member is given a particular task and team leader assume the overall supervision role. These tasks include conducting interview, taking picture, and managing. Each member adopts different team roles based on our skills so as to ensure effectiveness of our team work. For instance, I assume the role of the monitor evaluator and specialist. I have technical skills of taking picture and also am good in analyzing problems and providing good suggestions. Indeed, our team managed to succeed because of our strong relationship, Since member are familiar to each other, the atmosphere was joyful, we were very happy to work together as team, we trust each other and we had achieved an excellent work together. Presentation Skills: According to Carlile and Hensley ( 2005) effective presentation includes planning and writing the presentation, effective use of visual benefits, overcoming nervousness, confidence in delivering and competent answering questions. For instance, presenter needs to understand the aim and purpose of the presentation that he or she will present, prepare well in advance, master the content and research on the audience in order to tailor the content to meet the expectation and understanding of the listeners. Moreover, Students who have a good foundation in literacy skills, with reading, writing and oral communication skills have bigger opportunities to experience the success as active fellow of society. Equally students, who have limited literacy skills, will find it difficult to make successful move from high school, to university. In addition, the success of leadership, teamwork and work place depends on communication skills (New London Group, 1996). Reflection on presentation skills: Before the presentation I was worried about what I well do and how I will speak but after I done my presentation I relaxed because I did a great job the tutor comments was good. Therefore, I have learnt many lessons from individual and group presentations and the tutor feedback that i will try to follow in my next presentations. Now am aware that oral communications skill is a way for successful life after university. I have weakness regarding to my presentation skills, and my weaknesses are: nervousness and weak preparation. Therefore, in order to succeed in presentations I will work harder in my future presentations and try to master the presentations skills. Conclusion: To sum up, I have learned many lessons during this semester and, this group and individual work that I have done so far. I have also learnt many skills and these include social skills, presentation skills, interpersonal skills and spirit of working together as team for mutual goals. Moreover, I have learnt how to communicate and work effectively with people even if I disagree with their ideas.