By Marette Hahn
GCU Career Services
Working in a team setting is almost inevitable in today’s corporate culture. Therefore, it is incredibly important to understand group dynamics and how your interactions impact the effectiveness of the group. There are steps you can take to improve your own communication and teamwork!
Do you remember all of those CLC (Collaborative Learning Communities) groups during your degree program at Grand Canyon University? You may have loved it or you may have rolled your eyes and sighed. Either way, those groups were intentional in an effort to prepare you to work with others in a professional setting.
Group work can be incredibly valuable by offering diverse knowledge, opinions, ideas, and creativity. However, it can also pose many challenges via varying communication styles, people who are too pushy, and people who remain silent. Everyone has different styles, so it is extremely important to not only understand your own style, but also how to read, interpret, and adjust to other styles.
There are many ways to grow in this area including your own observations and reflections, but there are also a number of tools out there to help you. For example, the DISC Profile assessment is a common one among corporations and can be used to identify effective vs. ineffective ways of communicating and working with others based on personalities and innate traits. Check with your manager and/or training and development team to see what assessments your organization may already have access to and wouldn’t need to spend extra money to gain. Plus, the extra step of initiative will always look good! You could even include that in your resume as a way to help your team or department improve its efficiency.
Remember, GCU Career Services is here for you! Stop by our office in Saguaro Hall or call 602-639-6606 to connect. Or, you can visit www.gcu.edu/careerservices to utilize any of our online tools to identify your career path, build your resume, research career options or apply to current job postings!
