BSB399 Assessment 3 PDF

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Written component for Assessment 3...

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Professional Plans BSB399 Assessment 3

Olivia English N8583536

At the beginning of the semester, our team completed the Soto & John (2017) Big 5 Personality Test to understand our main strengths and weaknesses. My results dictated I was the most extroverted team member, but also one of the least conscientious. Whilst I was previously aware of my extroversion, it was unbeknownst to me that I scored low in conscientiousness. Due to my chosen profession, I was under the impression that I wished to always complete my work well and to a high standard. Particularly due to the amount of work that needs to be completed to a client’s standard, and as I work for an agency, this standard varies greatly. According to Patrick Lencioni (2016), real team work requires vulnerabilitybased trust, healthy conflict, active commitment, peer-to-peer accountability, and a focus on results. Out of these important traits, during the assignment I lacked peer-to-peer accountability, as well as a focus on results. During the final week of the assignment, I was required to submit the slide deck, however there were numerous changes required prior to doing so. Unfortunately due to my lack of accountability, another member of the team had to complete this as I missed my deadline. This could also directly link to focus on results, as I wasn’t focused on completing the slide deck in time, to receive a high end result. In the future, I will be focusing on not only completing my assigned tasks but I will accept that said task is my sole responsibility, equally, I will ask for help from a team member if I am struggling. In doing so, I will not only become more conscientious but equally, I will create vulnerability-based trust, due to admitting I cannot complete my section solely.

Contrary to Belbin’s (2010) belief that the leadership role is assigned to the most senior person, our team decided based on the aforementioned Big Five Personality Test (Soto & John, 2017), we would assign the role to the most introverted yet conscientious team member. In this case, the role was assigned to Djarra, who whilst softly spoken and unable to handle conflict, handled the position admirably. Unfortunately however, one of the other team members also had a problem with accountability, in that they did not accept responsibility for the part they were given. During this stressful time, when the speech was almost one week away, we discussed probable solutions to solving the problem with this team member. Fortunately, we came together as a team (minus the other member), and realised that confronting the problem head on would yield the highest result. Sessa (1996) discovered that teams that viewed conflict as task orientated opposed to people orientated, yielded the highest result.

So by opting to tackle the conflict our team was facing with this team member, we were yielding the highest result. This tactic was wildly beneficial, as no feelings were hurt nor any negative tone used. The method used to engage the team member with the project was by setting a deadline (to which they failed to meet) yet offering help since they were unable to meet this deadline. When I compare this with how I would traditionally react (in a negative and confrontational way), it has become apparent that handling conflict as a group limits negative undertones.

Throughout the assignment, it was apparent that what I lacked the most was trust in my team. Lencioni (2002) believes the absence of trust is the very first dysfunction within a team. This was apparent when it caused a major problem towards the end of the assignment. As mentioned previously, I struggled to not only complete my final task (to edit and submit the slide deck) but equally I failed to inform my team about it. By not trusting that my team would either help or understand, I put our assignment in jeopardy. The slide deck was to be submitted on a certain date, to which I was unable to meet. I failed to communicate to my team members that I had not finished the required changes. Whilst I did not officially overcome this absence of trust, I did however accept responsibility for not delivering what was asked of me. Lencioni (2002) believes that shared experiences over time, specifically followthrough and credibility, can create vulnerability-based trust. For team-based work, Lencioni (2002) suggests a small exercise, known as “personal histories exercise” in which team members answer a series of short questions about themselves. This exercise helps team members relate to one another on a more personal level, as well as encouraging empathy and understanding. I believe that my lack of trust not only stemmed directly from not understanding my team members but equally not knowing them on a personal level. Whilst I did create a small relationship with the team leader, I to this day still do not know anything about the other team members. Looking forward, based on this experience, I believe getting to know the other team members would have created not only understanding but equally empathy, which in turn would have encouraged me to communicate my problems to the team. If this situation were to occur again, I believe I now have the knowledge to learn from my mistakes and initiate conversation with my team.

References

Belbin, R. (2010). Team Roles at Work. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080963242

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team a leadership fable (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lencioni, P. (2016). The ideal team player : how to recognize and cultivate the three essential virtues : a leadership fable . Hoboken, New Jersey: Jossey-Bass.

Sessa, V. (1996). Using Perspective Taking to Manage Conflict and Affect in Teams. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 32(1), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886396321007

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and accessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. https://doi-org.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/10.1037/pspp0000096...