Running Head: FINAL REFLECTION

Final Reflection Paper

Rubn E. De Pea
Fort Hays State University

LDRS 807: Leadership in Teams and Collaborative Environments

Dr. Brent Goertzen
July 22, 2015

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2
Introduction

This final reflection paper will answer and individual and/or team assessment of the LDRS 807
course, including my personal and/or team contributions, and any practical applications or
implications for both my professional and/or personal impact. Moreover, the reflection will
include several concepts or theories that I believe have challenged me and will continue to do so
as I continue to grow as a professional in Leadership Studies. Lastly, I will address several
insights that I believe I have gained by working with others along with a personal reflection
about my own insight.
1. My personal and/or teams main contribution to the class
For starters, I would like to confess that as I began this class, I felt a strange mix of excitement
and apprehension. In this section I will focus on the first part, while I will address the
apprehension portion as I continue to develop this paper. Why excitement? Simple: I had never
taken a comprehensive course in team groups, not even in my undergrad years. I felt that because
of my current position at work, it was essential that I should learn important theories and their
application not only about starting a team, but more important, how to keep it cohesive toward
successful outcomes.
As the class progressed, and my interactions with my classmates became more frequent and
meaningful, I felt confident enough to be able to articulate my thoughts by providing real-life
examples of my personal and professional experiences in team leadership theory that I believe
many in the class found appealing.
I found that being diversity and culture two several concepts that this course emphasizes for
effective creativity in team groups, I believe my contribution as an immigrant whose native
language is not English, seemed to resonate well. I thought that sparked a sense of curiosity,
openness, and cohesiveness, particularly toward the end. That was particularly the case when our
team decided to meet periodically to discuss ideas for our final competency project, Power &
Influence. Therefore, I found this type of synergy and dynamic created to be my main
contribution to the team/class.
2. How well my group/team functioned
In addition to being diverse, I believe our team was very well balanced, even in writing style.
Moreover, we had a great chemistry. We were very respectful to each other and each of us
seemed to be very organized, which enabled us to meet our assignments, for the most time, on a
timely manner.
Lastly I feel that our team was very cohesive. Sadly, toward the very end of the course, one of
our team members decided to drop out of the class due to personal reasons. That happened
shortly after the three of us had committed to start wrighting the project as submitted in the
prospectus. While startled, the remaining two of us in the team assessed the situation and divided
up the work of the departing third member among ourselves. It was an urgent matter that we

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needed to take care of immediately, to ensure that the whole project did not suffer neither
qualitatively nor quantitatively.
I believe we were able to survive this contingency because the two of us had a very strong sense
of work ethic and accountability. In this regard, Thompson (2011) states that [t]eam members
who feel individually accountable for their idea are more productive than teams in which it is not
possible to discern who contributed what (p. 217).

3. Discussion of at least two theories, concepts, or skills from the course content that
challenged myself toward development and growth
As I started at the beginning of this paper, I felt a combination of both excitement and
apprehension for this course. Since I briefly explained the excitement part already, I thought to
focus now on the apprehension part before I discuss several concepts that challenged me toward
becoming a better leader, and follower, for that matter. I felt apprehension because of a trust
issue pertaining working with groups. Throughout my career, I felt resentment toward
individuals that did not contribute at all, or, at best, contributed very little to team efforts. Yet,
they reaped the benefits of everyone elses hard work and dedication.
Therefore, as one of the takeaways from this course, I can confidently state that it truly helped in
better understanding the reason why individuals become free riders or loafers. Prior to this
course, I did not even have an idea that the subjects of free riding and social loafing as a threat to
team cohesiveness and creativity have been researched.
It was very stimulating to learn that a social loafer is someone who, as being part of a group,
does not work as hard (either physically or mentally) as the rest of his or her team in a given
project; however he or she would work harder if working alone. Additionally, this course taught
me that people tend to free-ride when they believe that whatever effort they contribute toward
team success will not have a significant impact on the results. In other words, they feel that they
will not be given credit anyways, so they exhibit a what they heck or so what attitude toward
team contribution. Most importantly, however, the course taught me to identify the three main
reasons for people to free ride, including the proverbial sucker aversion (Thompson, 2011). As
a result of learning these concepts, I have made a few changes in my department pertaining the
selection process of team members, while ensuring that everyone in the team feels that his or her
contributions toward victory are continuously encouraged and they received the corresponding
credit for their ideas.
Lastly, a few concepts that I found fascinating and that have challenged me to become a better
leader in the decision making process, is by recognizing and avoiding various pitfalls that
typically sabotage that process. Among those pitfalls, I particularly found that both Escalation of
Commitment and the Abilene Paradox (2011) to clearly explain some of the errors in decision
making that at least one workgroup that I led in the past incurred. Consequently, I usually
encourage every team member in my department to speak up when they have that funny feeling
that a particular decision is not the correct course of action, even if everyone else (including
myself) has decided on the opposite. In addition, I do not get tired in remembering my team that

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it is OK to express themselves whenever they feel that a particular project is going nowhere and
it is necessary to cut it completely, instead of trying to save it with more resources through an
escalation of commitment that will result in futility.
4. Insights that I have gained about working with people and insights that I have
gained about myself
This course has taught me greatly about the positive impact of working with others, even in an
off-campus experience like this program. Working with others has taught me the value that
different perspectives can offer on a particular subject. That was the case in the rich, stimulating
variety of postings in this class. Nonetheless, I found that in spite of the differences in
personality, writing style, fields of study, etc.; I found that there were more commonalities than
differences. Above all, communication and becoming vulnerable among each other helped my
team to successfully complete several assignments, including the final competency project.
Lastly, as an individual, working in teams has helped to trust again in others. It made me feel
respected, encouraged, validated, and supported, just to name a few outcomes. As a result, I was
able to reciprocate that level of deference to my fellow team members without hesitation. In fact,
it was delightful to do so. Being part of this team also gave me a sense of pride because I knew
I was part of a group of smart, hardworking people that were focused in learning together and
applying that knowledge not only toward the goal of making a good grade, but to utilize that
insight in virtually every aspect of our personal and professional life. The whole program was
beyond all my expectations.

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References
Thompson, L. (2011). Making the team: A guide for managers (4th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.