Communication Styles and Teamwork

  Effective Communication     The article titled, "Effective Communication", on the, Help Guides' website discusses four specific skills to establish how to communicate better, avoid misunderstandings and overall help you grasp the real meaning of what is being communicated to you, in turn improving your work life and sharpening your personal skills.      The first effective communication skill is to become an engaged listener. It sounds ironic at first but does make sense, and by listening it means to understand the emotions the speaker is trying to convey, not just to understand the information they are communicating. When being an engaged listener you have a stronger understanding of the other person, possibly giving the other person a sense of empathy, which could help start a more powerful connection between you. Also, by being an engaged listener you will lower stress between the person you're speaking to and yourself which supports emotional and phys...

Secrets of Successful Teamwork: In sights From Google     The video titled, "Secrets of Successful Teamwork: Insights From Google", discusses how technology companies encourage their employees to work together because studies show that teams tend to innovate faster, achieve higher productivity, see mistakes more quickly and find better solutions to problems yet not all teams are successful. This video highlights how do you actually build a highly effective team with studies ran by the company, "Google".      Firstly, Google conducted a huge data study called the, "Aristotle", which led them spending millions of dollars tracking one hundred eighty separate teams throughout the course of three years with the goal of finding the traits of the highest performing teams and learning how sometimes teams would succeed while others would fail. One hypothesis in why teams would succeed was that they would consist of people that liked each other or contained a mix o...

How to Build a Successful Team       The article titled, "How to Build a Successful Team", on the New York Times' Business website, indicates a comprehensive guide on how to build and manage a successful team in the workplace. It delivers practical tips and advice on how build a strong team based culture, by communicating effectively, providing feedback, addressing internal and external conflict within the team and setting clear goals and expectations. The article also goes over the importance of fostering a sense of responsibility among your teammates and the importance of promoting accountability.     First you must make a plan, by having a clear and measurable goal it makes it easy for you to understand and accomplish whatever you want to do. Managing a team isn't simple, leaders have to play a hands-on role to make sure the group flows well together and maintains focus throughout. Two examples you could do start making a plan is creating a clear map. By clea...

 The Secrets of Great Teamwork     The article titled, "The Secrets of Great Teamwork", from Harvard Business Review discusses the factors that contribute to effective teamwork in organizations. The two authors, Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen argue that the key to having successful teams require three core elements being, a clear yet compelling direction, the right mix of skills and expertise and finally a supportive context.      The authors explain how that a clear and compelling direction helps provide a shared sense of purpose and supports team members by helping them stay focused on achieving their goals. It does make sense after all, to succeed at or progress through something you must understand what your goal is and it should be clear in what you yourself are trying to achieve whether it be something small like making sure the lights are off when you leave your home or something big like declaring your major and setting yourself up for the future. ...

  Understanding Your Communication Style     The blog titled, "Understanding Your Communication Style", on the Princeton University's U Matter website, defines how different communication styles vary between individuals during their day to day life.      Firstly, the article begins to define how communication is a process of sharing information between two or more people, and how within the communication that is occurring their are specific styles that can vary based on that certain individual's personality, culture and experiences. The blog then describes the four common communication styles, being passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and assertive.      Having passive communication is when the individual prioritizes others' thoughts and opinions while avoiding to express their own needs and feelings. This style lets you rely on others rather than yourself but in the future could lead to misunderstanding or resentment. This is also used ...