The good news is our presentation was a success and our first steps toward and a foundation for building team trust, cohesiveness, and effectiveness which in turn created some enthusiasm and commitment in team members. .
The foundation of all teamwork is trust. It is an interconnected throughout the stages and phases of a team's life, and it must be continually watched and cultivated. Trust is slow to develop and quick to be lost. It is built in a team over time through shared experiences in which members show themselves trustworthy by communicating openly, following through with commitments and acting effectively with and for the team. Kurt really never blended all of the way into our team. He missed a lot of class, did not call any of the team members. He was not communicating with us so he was not building trust and he was eroding what little trust existed between him and the rest of the team. Kurt missed the most important classroom day of work on the peer evaluation and we get a hold of him by phone to let him know we were meeting for our observation of our real world team, both turned out to be a very important events for the team. .
Around this time I had a personal turning point. I had good ideas and knew what the presentation and the next assignment needed but my team mates were not ready to listen. I started to lean towards self-censorship and began to feel frustrated and angry. With help I realized that self-censorship is not the way to effective leadership. Silence is often misinterpreted as acquiescence and it will lead to an illusion of unanimity and eventually I would continue to hide my opinions which would lead to internal conflict and when conflict is left unresolved, hidden agendas and personality traits take over. Thompson goes on to describe several reasons for this as "self-limiting behavior". I would say that of the six that are listed two fit my situation at that time; I was unsure of myself and I did not think I could change anything.
