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Teamwork and Communication

Often I take the lead in a group because I would like things to be done my way. I have no problems with someone else taking the lead but if I do not agree with the way things go I will let it know. In our group things were going very tough and slow and that is what irritates me. In moments like that I take the lead. I cannot stand it if someone is doing nothing while I am trying my best. This really demotivates me. I think I should try to motivate the ones that don’t do that much so that I am not demotivated. I think I am in an awareness state.

This is the competence I have grown in the most. In our group we had trouble when we were with three people and one of them was very shy and in the background. I have been trying to get him to do more on his own. Later we got a new team member who was kind of the same and did not really contribute to the team and to project. This was a very difficult situation to deal with, because we had a group of four and only two were doing the work. I kept my patience and tried to help these two group members to do the most they could. They both have a lot of trouble to present in front of an audience so we decided to let them do the presentation. This was not a great success but it was a step in the right direction and I provided them with feedback. I hope this was useful for them and will help them with their next presentations. On the Demo Day they were very nervous and so I did the first presentation to break the tense atmosphere. I slowly let them speak more and more and by the end of the day they could do it themselves! For me it was very rewarding that they were able finally able to give a good presentation. I think I am in a depth state now.

'You are a good team player. While you take the lead naturally, and thus might overshadow others, you have proven that you have no problem in stepping back and giving the initiative to others, if asked.' Coach: Janine Huizenga

This project the dynamics of the group were much different that the project in Next Nature. This group had much more dominant individuals and this was more difficult for me. In the beginning I had a bit more struggle to stand out in the group. This changed during the project and I really contributed to the group.

As a group we encountered some problems as it came to the contribution of the project. We tried to get this out of the way talking about it after the midterm demo days but this did not really help. As the final demo days came closer we decided to leave it the way it was and concentrate more on the project. We didn’t want to ruin the team spirit that was still there and agreed to talk it out later on in the project. Eventually this did not really work and things came to the surface and were solved. This turned out to be a better solution then just leaving it the way it was. We could go on with the project without constantly having to think about the group situation. Next time I think we need to solve the problems earlier because that is much better for the group. Don’t leave issues like this in the middle.

With building the prototypes I tried to teach my group members from the knowledge that is have about building and making. It was very nice to see that they picked it up and did a good job. This really motivated me to share my experience.

‘Presence: all meetings. Pleasant to work with, eager to learn, critical (positive). Keep up this attitude!’ M.M.R Peeters.

‘The moment it came to building/modelmaking you showed dedication and joy in your work. In general you don't show that much enthusiastic involvement and tend to be a bit lazy.’ Coach: Jeroen Thoolen.

These two comments from my feedback kind of contradict. I am aware of the fact that I can look like things do not matter to me. This is just my countenance and in the past in for example my hockey team my coach thought that I did not really care about anything. This was not the case at all and I personally thought I was one of the most fanatic players of my team. This feedback from Jeroen Thoolen feels the same for me. This is something I need to work on because people that need to work with me or have to give me feedback also need to see the enthusiasm. My behavior can lead to situations like this. To prevent this from happening I need to open up more towards my team and my coach.