Effective and Efficient Facilitation in a Successful Teamwork - Essay Example

Management 3000 Reflection Introduction I took this to improve my skill and knowledge about dealing with varieties of people. In addition, I did it because it offers core concepts in business. This class will not only help me achieve my career objectives but also in my profession as a successful marketer. Marketing requires profound understanding of people and their behavior. Thus, I will be in a position to be competitive in the marketing industry. Moreover, this class has been an opportunity to correct my previous mistakes. I hoped to accomplish many things by the end of the semester such as understanding all course contents, change my behavioral attitude, and improve my problem solving techniques. Most importantly, I wanted to be in a position to answer the “Success Question.” I think the definition of success differs from one person to another. It depends on what an individual terms as an important accomplishment and the set goals. In my opinion to be success in work, I need to be in good terms with everybody including my family, lecturers, and friends as well. I come from a society set up where the success of an individual is judged according to societal traditions and beliefs. Thus to ensure success, I will have to carry out myself and engage in activities that are fit to my family and society values. These values require that to be successful in my life, I should have good income, nice looking wife, and children. The following is a personal reflection on the just concluded course on management. Chapter 1: Self-awareness In the first unit, I did experience and learned many skill of management, most of which were new to me. Unit 1 focused on personal characteristics that are essential for a successful life. Chapter 1 covered self-awareness in which I discovered that I needed to work on self-awareness. I have excellent observation skills and good personal attitude towards people. Additionally, I have effective anger management skills. Because of my good temperament, I can handle difficult situations without getting angry or losing my temper. For instance, I was trapped in United Kingdom for five days during the last Christmas due to winter storms. The airport had been closed and thus the airplane landed in shipping airport that is four hours from Heathrow airport where I was supposed to take another plane to home. I missed the plane and sat waiting in line for seven hours with more than ten-thousand travelers. I did wait my turn and spoke politely to women. I had many plans for the vacation. I needed to go back home to prepare for my cousin’s wedding and my best friend’s wedding. I arrived at the same day of my friend wedding at noon and the wedding started at 6 p.m. Having anger management trait is important since it makes it possible to integrate well with other people. However, people might take advantage of politeness and make hurtful statements. Chapter 2: Self-disclosure I realized that I needed to work on and improve on self-disclosure, which I did with help from my friends. It is hard to self-disclose to some people especially strangers and those whom confidence and trust has not been built. Talking about personal and sensitive personal experiences with some people is challenging. However, I think there should be a boundary between the people we can self-disclose and those we cannot. For instance, it is important to be open to a life partner. I learned that trust is an important concept in business. For instance, managers can improve the productivity of the workers by building and earning their trust. It is also important to earn and build trust with family and friends. This is because they will help you when in crisis. Chapter 3: Goals I learned that achieving set goals is as important as setting them. I learned a very efficient and effective way of goal setting using SMART (Short, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound) technique. In unit two, the book covers the essential skills for a successful career. It also discussed about some of the most common problems in the workplace. Chapter 5: Understanding, and Working With Cross Cultural People I came to understand that working with cross-cultural people was a pertinent issue in the past but currently, business organizations have appreciated the importance of including people of different culture in business operations. For instance, an American firm that has diversity in customer-service will deem it appropriate and necessary to include people of different cultures in their operations. This will ensure that customers of different cultures are attended and their cultural values appreciated by a person who shares the same culture and beliefs. This chapter greatly improved my way of thinking about cross cultural relationship thus I will be in a position to improve my cross-cultural relationship Chapter 6: Listening Skills in Communication I think the author did a great job explaining the difference between listening and hearing. Certainly, many people cannot differentiate between the two. I am an active listener and I like to understand the details in communication and give effective feedback to the communicator. However, I tend to be a passive listener in rare occasions where the speaker will not be useful to my feedback. I learned that boredom, fear of influence, and inadequate background information are some of the barriers to effective listening. Chapter 8: Persuading Individuals and Audience I learned the difference between persuading and manipulation. I realized that I am not effective in persuasion. I find it hard to convince people to understand a point or change their mind. I also learned how to establish credibility through appearance, expertise, trustworthiness, and composure. Unit three did an elaborate discussion on understanding and working in teams. The unit covered several key concepts of team management which include the art of negotiation, team building, conflict management in teams, effective business meetings, as well as creative ways of solving problems in teamwork. Chapter 9: Negotiation Surprisingly, I discovered that negotiation is an important art of communication that is learned through practice and experience. Certainly, I need to improve on my negotiation skills so that I can be more successful in life. Although I have some bargaining skill that helped me to sell my car at a profit, my friends argue that I could have sold it at a better price if I had better bargaining skills. I did learn the five steps that can help me to be better in negotiations. Chapter 11: Conflict Management I learned that there is a positive conflict with increased involvement, cohesion, innovation, and creativity. Differences in goals and objectives are some of the primary causes of conflicts. When two people seek to achieve two different and conflicting goals, conflict of interest arises. For instance, an employee seeking to accomplish the needs of a customer may enter into a conflict with the management if the actions contradict company goals and objectives. Although miscommunication is one of the primary causes of conflicts, I have no problem in this area since I have good communication and interpersonal skills. Chapter 13: Facilitating Team Success Effective and efficient facilitation is the key to a successful teamwork (De Janasz, Dowd, and Schneider 475). I learned that facilitation requires much understanding about team members and their interests. The movie on teamwork and facilitation was a learning experience. I learned a lot about effective facilitation. Conclusion I must admit that the course was rigorous and challenging. I had many hopes and aspirations of optimizing learning in this particular course. I believe that I have achieved most of the objectives that I had set at the beginning of the course. I am in a better position to handle challenging situations not only in business communication but also in life in general. Works Cited De Janasz, S Dowd K, and Schneider B. Interpersonal Skills in Organizations. McGraw-Hill Education, 2012. Print. Read More