Group work often requires the combination of a number of different personalities. In fact, varying personalities and right balance of contributors and the variety of skills they bring is the the key to effective teamwork. However, without effective communication and the confidence to share your opinions, participate in discussion and debate and back your own ideas, are you limiting your potential in what you can bring to team orientated tasks? Do you find you’re holding back, or apologising for what you do or don’t say? This great article from TED discusses what happens when we say sorry to much, but most importantly gives some great examples of some some contrasting ways to communicate when you might normally default to an apology. Here’s our favourite little excerpt around using gratitude as a replacement:

“And, in some of the instances when we’d typically throw in a “sorry,” we could just use the two magic words: “thank you.” … (for example) When you’re with a friend and you realise you’ve been doing all the talking. Jovanovic says, “instead of saying, ‘Sorry for complaining’ or ‘Sorry for venting,’ you could just say, ‘Thank you for listening,’ ‘Thank you for being there’ or ‘Thank you for being my friend.”

You can Click Here to read the full article.