"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress.Working together is success."
-Henry Ford
CG1413 taught me practical skills which are of utmost importance to be successful in life. Our lecturer, Ms Goh, was always there to guide us and encourage us.
In the first few weeks, we learnt the principles of effective communication and teamwork. These principles were helpful as we worked on our projects in teams with members from different racial and cultural background.
Communication was an issue in the earlier stages. I think that active listening and clarity in speech are most important for effective communication. Consequently, with the help of the principles of effective communication we started understanding each other better which helped us in sharing our ideas and working together in teams efficiently.
Being the team leader of my CG1102 team, I had the responsibility of the performance of my team. I tried to keep up the morale of my team by inspiring them. I also tried my best to take everyone’s ideas into consideration; however, there were times when I had to make decisions which were not agreed upon by all. I think that’s where the challenging part of a team leader lies. The principles and the checklists always reminded me of my duties and helped me to improve in areas where I lacked.
Meetings form an important part of teamwork. I tried to arrange meetings taking into consideration everyone’s convenience and planned the meeting agenda carefully keeping in mind the goals as well as the time frame. In the beginning, I wasn’t good at conducting meetings but as the journey went along I identified my mistakes by reflecting upon the meetings based on the criteria and improved upon them.
In my CG1413 project, we had effective meetings and collaborated our work efficiently. We had some trivial conflicts which were resolved peacefully. Overall, I think it was a good learning experience.
My presentation skills have also improved and I have become a confident speaker. Video-taping the presentations and reflecting upon them helped me to identify my mistakes.
Blogging helped me to analyse things critically and write efficiently using the 7 Cs. By commenting on the blogs, I learnt to write constructive criticism. This skill is desirable and I still need to work upon it.
Overall, I have learnt social skills (effective intercultural and interpersonal communication, team work, presentation and writing skills) from the module which would be useful to me throughout my life. Learning is a continuous process and I will continue to improve upon my flaws in future.
Note: I would like to thank Ms Goh and all my team mates for being supportive and understanding making it a memorable experience which I would surely cherish in my future.
6 comments:
Dear Nitika,
I can still remember the time during the first informal presentation where Ms Goh got the first impression of our presentation skills. You are quite nervous about it and asking me whether it would be good to stand behind the desk to present. From then till now, I could notice the significant improvement that you have made for your oral presentation skills. You have more confidence and showed no signs of being afraid to speak up in front of the audience. I am really glad that you are able to improve so much in short period of time. I guess this module is really useful in molding us into better team communicators.
As a leader, in certain circumstances, we have to make hard decisions when everyone does not seem to agree on anything. You would have to balance the pros and cons of each solution and choose the one which is best for the team. We cannot make everyone happy; the leader should be objective and not be swayed by emotional decisions.
One suggestion for you to improve further: Always stay calm and composed. In some tense situations, I could see that you tend to be a bit panicky and anxious. Panicking will not help to ease the situation at all, on the other hand, try to stay calm. Then you will eventually be able to solve the situation.
Good Luck to your Finals!!!
Regards,
Kevin Lin
Hi Nitika,
I like that fact that you took us back to the first couple of weeks where we learned about principles of effective communication. I still remember those lessons and the sense of enlightentment I felt about communication. As you mentioned, working in groups with different races and nationalities means effective communication skills have to be applied.
I am not able to relate to your experiences as a leader as I was just a member for both the projects. However, I am aware of the pressure that leaders are under and I am sure you had some hiccups along the way. The important thing is to learn and improve and I am confident you have done that.
As mentioned by Kevin, your problem is getting nervous and anxious during presentations which I can certainly relate to. I think it is due to a lack of confidence and stage fright perhaps. We can only get better by gaining experience.
All in all, I am very sure you have made significant progress in terms of communicating and working in teams.
It has been a great pleasure reading your blog posts. Best of luck for the semesters ahead! :)
Hi Nitika,
It's good to see that you have been using the various skills that were taught during the start of the course and improving on yourself over the semester. Furthermore, having taken the role of a team leader will help in future group work, even if you're taking a member role, since you'll understand the problems a leader has to go through. =)
While you have improved on your confidence during presentations, I would like to say that there were times when it felt as if you were trying to force your opinion on us, instead of trying to convince us of your argument. Although the point of a presentation is to either pass on information or for us to accept a new idea, the effect would be better if the audience were convinced of what they were told, instead of having it forced onto them.
However, this is not a bad trait to have. I would say that your current style would be better suited for debates instead of presentations due to your confidence and the forcefulness.
Since you mentioned you will continuing improving, I wish you all the best in that and good luck for the finals!
Rayner
Contrary to what you have written in your blog post, i do think that you are still not confident enough to speak fluently. One major problem you had was voice control and tone management. Your presentation tend to be too loud and tone being somewhat flat.
However, i could see improvement in the way your presented yourself. You are more stable and more ready to speak to people in general.
I do not know what happened in your conflict in your 1413 group. However, i believe you had learnt that conflict management is not as easy as more people thought. I believe conflict management is one of the most important soft skill to know in life, especially when we start working outside.
Embrace the future! And good luck to your examinations!
Hi all,
Thanks for your comments. Your suggestions are really appreciated.
@ Kelvin: I remember the first time when I was so nervous that I asked you to stand behind the desk. I have certainly improved upon my confidence.
I do agree with you that it is not possible to please everyone. A team leader should have great level of EQ so that he/she is not carried away by emotions.
I think that I should work upon my nervousness, especially when there are unexpected situations at times in the Q & A sessions, and try to be calm. This can be achieved only through practise. I would continue to work upon it in future.
@ Ganesh,
I will try to get rid of the nervousness and improve my confidence. I haven't done many presentation in my past so that could be the reason why I am not very comfortable and get anxious at times. I would work upon it and I hope with further practise in future I am able to achieve perfection.
@ Rayner,
I will work upon my verbal skills. I think that the volume could be a bit lower. It might have sounded loud because the room was small. I would also try to improve upon my tone so that I don't sound as if I am debating or forcing my opinion on the audience. A more polite tone might sound better. I will surely take your suggestions into consideration and I hope I do better in future presentations.
@ Byron,
As a speaker I was confident. However, I might have looked nervous to the audience. Maybe I should be more relaxed during the presentation so that I look confident. I will try to work upon my verbal skills especially my voice and tone. I hope that with practise I am able to overcome my weak points.
Thanks a lot again.
Good luck for exams.
Best Regards,
Nitika
Dear Nikita,
I really appreciate you for sharing your vast and valuable experience through this blog. Its very nice to see you implementing all your communication and managerial skills in the real life. As you have mentioned here that you faced some difficulties in conducting meetings. so what were your mistakes in conducting the meetings and how you overcame from it.
Anshuman.
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