Improving Time Management and Team Work Skills

Successful change management requires strong leadership qualities, personal
competencies, and knowledge. Change consultants cannot successfully help organizations
manage change when they lack the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to be an effective
leader. The groups work exercise was quite helpful since I was able to identify critical gaps in
my skills that have hindered effective management of studies in school, as well as on a
personal level. Two of the most significant gaps right now are time management and the
ability to be a team player. These skills play an essential role in determining my productivity
levels. For instance, I realized that it always takes me much time to come around working on
my assignments. I have missed deadlines severally and find it challenging to plan my time
effectively. Additionally, I also noted that I am a poor team player. I generally feel that
working in a group slows down decision-making so I always prefer individual assignments to
group assignments. However, this is a significant set back since my future career is mostly
dependent on teamwork. I embarked on research from professional platforms to discover the
different techniques I could adopt to help manage my time better and also build my teamwork
skills.
Time Management Skills
Although I did not fully understand the implications of poor management skills before
joining college, I recently realized that having poor time management skills is affecting my
academic performance. The primary issue in time management is excessive procrastination. I

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tend to put off activities until there is very little time to spare. After intensive research, I came
up with the following techniques.
Goal Setting
Highly productive people master the art of time management, which with no doubt, is
backed by useful habits. Goal setting is one such habit, and I learned that active goal setting
drives effective time management. Essentially, goal setting determines the ability to use time
beneficially since goals are founded on decisions about what is essential to an individual and
the different types of activities that need focus. Goal-setting takes into account a well-
rounded approach to life. For instance, I would need to ask myself questions that help me
gain a perspective of what is essential in my life, including the ultimate goals that motivate
the efforts I put into studies and eve social life. Many scholars identify these questions as the
most crucial element in time management since they help set precedence for objectives. Some
questions such as the type of person I want to be and what I would like to achieve in my life
would help me conceptualize my time further. Most importantly, goals should cover every
area of my life, not just in my academics and career. Goal setting helps and individually
develop a healthy habit of setting one’s mind into what they want out of their lives.
Prioritization
One of my most significant weaknesses is procrastination, which I believe is worsened
by my inability to set priorities. A famous personal and career development coach, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, said that “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of
things which matter least.” Unfortunately, I have not purposefully set my mind into
understanding what is important or what needs to gain priority over what. Most ineffective
people habitually start too late in the process, and this is the biggest reason why they struggle
with prioritization. It is crucial to note that prioritizing is not about getting more work done. It
is about being able to complete the most valuable work with the resources and time available

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to avoid embarking on activities that are just on a random task list. Although people are
highly encouraged to develop a to-do list every day, not everything that gets to the list needs
valuable attention. Some items on the task list end up wasting more time. It reminds me of
the efforts I tried in the past to improve my time management skills. I started working with a
task list but would always place random tasks. Mostly, I never followed through a list.
Self-awareness
Growing up, I realized there is quite a lot that goes into identifying the self and what
my purpose in life is. I have always thought I am a kind-hearted, fun-loving, and highly-
spirited person until I became aware of the full implications of what it means to understand
myself, right from my beliefs to preferences in music. Different things in life motivate
people. Although these might not seem weighty, there are many scenarios where preferences
can affect an individual’s professional and personal life. For instance, I like playing football.
I think I like extending football practice hours more that I like creating more time for research
and other activities related to schoolwork. I like the outdoors, and I think I had never taken
the initiative to try engaging my study work outside class. I do not take the time to identify
conditions that contributed to my poor performance. In the context of time management, self-
awareness would help me to identify contexts or elements that boost my productivity, hence
the capacity to reduce my resistance. Furthermore, self-awareness goes hand in hand with
self-motivation, in which case an individual has to motivate themselves and hold themselves
accountable daily.
Teamwork Skills
The literature on teamwork identifies the ability to build relationships and work
cooperatively with other people as essential aspects of personal and professional excellence.
While I do not have trouble building relationships with people around me, I realized that I am
a poor team player especially during group work in school. While researching productive

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team members, I learned that skills such as good collaboration, sensitivity to cross-cultural
differences, providing constructive criticism, communication, open-mindedness, reliability,
and being non-judgmental were the most critical skills. However, I noted that I scored several
strengths on that list like open-mindedness, being sensitive to cross-cultural differences, and
non-judgmental. However, I had severe weaknesses such as poor collaboration skills, the
ability to adapt my behavior to the situation at hand, and did not provide constructive
feedback to other team members. I am highly impatient, and this trait comes off as rudeness
and arrogance. I also lack patience for people who take too much time to express a genuine
opinion that could have been expressed in a fraction of the time. With these factors in mind, I
came across the following techniques to improve my teamwork skills.
Creating a Healthy Group Climate
One of the most critical aspects of helping organizations manage smooth change
transition is creating a healthy teamwork environment for the change process to take place. In
this case, I would have to understand the importance of a healthy group climate and foster
such a context even at the current level of education. Most leadership literature notes that
teamwork skills are cultivated early on in schools, and this helps students become good team
players in the corporate world. Group members work best when there is a sense of cohesion,
which is a result of openness, support, respect, and trust. I need to be willing to get to know
my group members, especially those with different backgrounds and interests. Such an
initiative is considered a brave step towards being open to diverse viewpoints and new ideas.
In multicultural management, multicultural teams are considered as the most effective at
boosting creativity and innovation in organizations. Building the skill of expressing the
interests of other team members would ultimately help me balance the group’s cohesion
while encouraging individual expression.

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I need to work on my ability to build mutual trust with other group members. This
initiative is one of the most critical elements of teamwork since individuals in a team setting
must trust one another enough to share their opinions and feelings. The capability to
demonstrate self-disclosure and trust with my team members would also help me develop
personal accountability for tasks that I might be assigned. In turn, this also helps build a sense
of team loyalty that is key in going through challenges. I think that the conventional
education system brings us up with the mentality that our classmates are our competitors, and
as such, we must always strive to do better, persevere and perform better. On this note, I need
to remember that I must communicate my opinions in a way that respects others’ opinions
and feelings.
Fostering an Effective Group Process
Just as it is vital to foster a healthy group climate, an active group process drives
excellent teamwork skills. Although I consider myself a highly responsible individual, this
trait seems lacking when I am in a team setting. This lack of responsibility happens most
when I feel that the group process is most tiring just before everyone gets on the same page.
Individual responsibility, constructive feedback, problem-solving, management and
understanding one’s roles as the most important skills. I recently learned that problem-
solving skills facilitate group decision-making in addition to helping individuals manage
conflict effectively. My problem-solving skills need improvement since I tend to choose to
avoid confrontation instead of initiating resolution. Throughout the research exercise, I
realized that my career as a change consultant depends on how well I master specific skills,
knowledge, and abilities, especially when dealing with people.
Conclusion
During the group’s work exercise, I identified several gaps in terms of skills and
knowledge required to be a successful change consultant. I have poor time management and

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teamwork skills. These skills are some of the most critical skills as noted in change
management literature. I discovered several techniques during this research on skills I need to
build to boost my personal as well as professional development. Goal setting, prioritization,
self-awareness, and self-motivation are some of the essential skills that help people develop
effective time management skills. I need to set goals on what I need to do, chart my vision
and develop habits that help me move towards the accomplishment of these goals each day.
Furthermore, practicing prioritization will help me organize and manage my classwork as
well as personal activities. My weakness in teamwork would affect the ability to be a
successful change consultant. Building teamwork skills in the future require my capacity to
be an effective team player even at the current level. To achieve this, I need to help build a
healthy team climate and process. In this case, excellent communication skills,
accountability, open-mindedness, and constructive feedback drive healthy and effective
teamwork.