Throughout your internship, you will likely be working closely with other people in the organization, either as a member of a team or perhaps as an internal consultant. In either case, your capability to communicate and work effectively will be tested. The following exercise will help you become more aware of and practiced with a variety of necessary soft skills. You will perform some self-evaluations and reflect on the material presented. Areas covered in the readings may include team process, team leadership, communication, active listening/questioning, individual responsibility to the team, personal initiative, and others.
Located in the Purdue Global Library is an ebook entitled Teamwork: 20 Steps to Success. For this assignment, read each chapter, then select five areas that you feel are important to a successful team.
Reflect on the information contained in the selected readings. Compare the ideas, concepts, and skills with your own experience (both past experience and your current internship work).
Explain how your experiences are the same as or different from the material presented in the readings. Describe areas where your current team process and/or personal practice is less than optimal and could be improved by implementing one or more of the ideas under consideration. Highlight how you can make use of any of the ideas presented to improve your results in the workplace.
