Theories in action 2

Over the final few weeks of my intern group project our group ran into our first difficulties as a team, that was a result of a breakdown in communication. Our team is composed of myself and three other interns that are all in office with myself in Minneapolis and one other intern in the Dallas office who participates virtually in all our meetings. Having only one of the five team members being remote has created some unique challenges that led to us having to have a discussion about teamwork. From the beginning of the project the virtual intern was a very domineering presence and had a perfectionist personality. Although this is beneficial as it has ensured we have stayed on schedule, it resulted in some of the other team members feeling as though their opinions weren’t being heard. After struggling to communicate what information should be used in the presentation, we decided to call a team meeting via Microsoft teams to get a clear picture of what everyone was feeling, and in what ways we can improve communication/cooperation moving forward. After meeting and discussing everyone’s point of view we felt a new sense of clarity that allowed us to be significantly more effective and efficient in our communication as well as progress on the project. When we spoke as a group to discuss the problems we ensured to start the meeting by going over a set of guidelines that the meeting would follow, including not speaking in any way that will be viewed as being a personal attack. This situation as well as the progression of our group’s dynamic over the course of the project led to an expression of situational leadership that was not at first apparent. Near the beginning it was clear that one member in particular was more focused on less supportive behaviors like directing that were not the best received. Instead of pursuing a mix of strategies and moving into more coaching and supporting S2/S3 that kind of evolution of time never occurred. So, although initially things were working well with this singular approach from the group member it soon became a detriment to team effectiveness and moral. Fortunately we were able to navigate many of this issues by being able to perceive the personalities and leadership styles of the members.