Experiences In Assertive Behavior, Communication, Motivation And Theory X

Dealing with Passive Behavior and Assertive Communication

Discuss about the Issues Of Passive Behavior And Assertive Communication.

This paper intends to offer an overview of the experience that I had in my team during the preparation and the delivery of our oral power point presentation. My team had five members that are Kim, Nemo, Samuel, Louis and I. I played the role of leadership in my team. As a team leader, I had to coordinate all the team’s activities to ensure that we finish the work on time and give out quality work to ensure that we get good grades (Hogg, 2001).) This paper deals with my experiences on assertive behavior and communication, motivation and the application of the theory X of Douglas McGregor.

As a leader I had to deal with issues of passive behavior which I had to turn to assertive when I realized that other team members were not taking keen interest into the accomplishment of the team’s quality work on time. Being assertive I had to employ the assertive communication method which proved to be effective for we were able to finish the work on time. Assertive behavior helps to tell the other team members your expectations on the team and this helps them to know what they are expected to do (Sandhu et al, 1996).

Being that all of the other members of my team were from China there was a lot of miscommunication that was happening due to the language barrier and some conflict occurred as I tried to tell some team members what to do in the project preparation and preparation. I also had the experience of motivation when I decided to take self leadership and take responsibility of doing the work that other members of my team were not willing to do. I applied the theory X in my interaction with my group members for I was in control of all the activities of the team thus leaving the other members to have the responsibility of doing their work (Kopelman et al, 2008)

The first three body paragraphs of this essay I will be dealing with the issues of passive behavior and assertive communication as an interpersonal communication skill and the experiences that I had towards this element in my team involvement. The next three paragraphs I will be explaining my motivation experience in self leadership and issues of conflict in the group, the following paragraph will be on evaluation of my team followed by a paragraph on recommendations on the areas of improvement and then I will finish with a conclusion paragraph.

Motivation and Applying the Theory X

I told the team members on our fourth meeting that they had to do the work that I had assigned them for the work was to be done in the required time. Assertive communication deals with stating the beliefs and preferences of the communicator regarding a certain issue. It has to be direct and honest and it also keeps contact lines open (Buehl, 2001). This led to the members being persuaded into doing their task and although they did not give out what I expected I was happy that they were able to give out information that I used in the preparation of the slides for the final presentation.

During our last meeting, my team member made me angry for he did not seem interested in the team meeting and I felt that he should have been kicked out of the meeting. Passive behavior in the team leaves the other members with an additional task of doing their work (Leaper & Ayres, 2007). In order to keep this in check I emailed Luxury asking him to write Samuel a note. I expressed my feelings on the issue that involved the passive behavior to luxury for I was expressing my assertive communication skills for I expressed my feelings towards the situation for I felt that he was not supposed to be included in the team.

On our presentation I asked all the team members to not leave before the whole power point is finalized for I needed the support of all the group members. This assertive communication tactic helped in making the members of my team in knowing that they had the responsibility of finishing their work before leaving. Assertive communication helps the leader to get work done (Wilson & Howcroft, 2005). Although Samuel and Kim were lacking behind with their assignments they made sure they finished the work before leaving and this helped in the finalization of the work before the due deadline.

During our second meeting I had expectations that the members of my team will come with some information regarding our presentation topic. To my disappointment they had not done anything and they were even undecided on what they were to do. This killed my trust in them. I decided to take self-responsibility to ensure that the necessary results were generated (Druskat & Wheeler, 2003). I chose to help them to come up with their best and encouraged them so as to increase their motivation. I persuaded them using the X theory by telling them to help me and I will do the rest of the work.

Issues of Conflict and Delegation of Duties

On our third team meeting, I was very disappointed for I arrived at the venue and found that I and Kim were the only ones who had turned up and I then asked him to show me what he had done and I was so disappointed to find out that he had nothing to show. This made me to lack interest in my team members. Since I desired good grades I decided to take self-responsibility and seek the accomplishment of the group’s work (Shepperd, 1993).  This requires one to go out of their way to get the end result. I decided to present on my own and asked Kim to gather some data to make my life easy.

As a group we experienced some issues of conflict especially in the delegation of duties when I tried to tell some members the work they should do. Delegation of duties helps to divide work and give each team member a chance to concentrate on their work thus making work easy and this leads to finishing work on time (sandhu et al, 1996 ). For instance, I had a conflict with Nemo as she wanted to do the conclusion alone and I was trying to make her understand that conclusion alone is not enough for her. She did not want to listen to me at first but eventually she accepted that the work is not enough for her and she gave me some information that was helpful in our presentation. I used the negotiation skill which entails the communication with people in conflict (Gan, 2008). This helped to finish the work on time.

As a team we were able to finish our work on time. We worked together and we were able to work out our differences to ensure smooth team working. Although others were not taking keen interest in the work somehow I found a way of assertively talking to them and they helped me in the compilation of the work. We did the work as a team and finished it on time. In the times of a conflict like the one with Nemo I used the negotiation strategy that helped me to reason with her that the part she was taking was too little compared to the work that had to be presented (Pearce, 2007). This helped in the team work. Some members did not turn up for some meetings and this delayed our finishing time. Next time I strongly advice that group members should make effort to attend in order to speed up the preparation process.

Evaluation of the Team

I would recommend that the next time that teams are made, the people of the same nationality be placed together to avoid the issue of miscommunication. Another recommendation will be on the meeting time, I would recommend that in the future group members turn up for meetings and they do it on time to avoid keeping other members waiting. I feel that instructors should follow up on the developments of the group to see the members that are active and those that are passive. This makes sure that some members are not doing more work than others.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the team work was successful and I got to learn so many ways of dealing with different people and issue. Although there are challenges like communication barrier, lack of commitment from some members, conflict and poor time management we had strengths like working over our issues, supporting each other and if my recommendations are put in place, team work will be easy.

References

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