What I have learned about myself in group work. 18/11/18
What I have learned about myself from a career point of view is that I like to be in charge when working in groups. I like to give the orders and delegate the work load out between my colleagues. This is mainly because of my role working as a project manager and bearing in mind the deadlines that I had to work towards. I was able to motivate people to certain degree but if they did not do what I asked them I could get quite bossy which, at times caused conflict amongst us. I found that sometimes my colleagues did not like being told what to do, especially if that person was older than me. I found that I had approach different personalities in different ways in order to get the best out of them but if I was having a bad day that would also have an impact on how I approached people.
From an academic point of view I have learned that in groups I like to like help people that may be struggling with certain parts of a project or point them in the right direction. I like to be upbeat and somewhat positive in group work and to try make the process light hearted and fun. I can be quite passive and I’m happy to let people take the lead and take charge but if we are working on a project that I have good knowledge around I’ll be the first to take the lead and drive the project to the desired destination. I’m good at getting the project up and running but I’ve found that once I get it going, I will, at times, take a back seat because it is a group project after all and it shouldn’t be left to one person to man the ship. I enjoy working within groups and like brainstorming and thinking creatively.
