Leading Teams

Part I: Explain how you perceive your leadership style within the context of (a) the team you were assigned to during the course and (b) any another team you were a member of. The term leadership has been defined in many ways according to Howard Gardner (1995). President Harry Truman, an infamous leader could lead people to do what they do not want to do yet like it (Gardner, 1995; cited in Parker &ump; Begnaud, 2004).

Eileen Ford from a well-established modeling agency defines leadership as the “ability to convince people to do what you want them to do as if they have thought of it themselves“(Karns &ump; Bean, cited in Parker &ump; Begnaud, 2004). Leadership guru Warren Bennis describes leadership as “those who make a contribution makes a difference in the organization, thus giving meaning to his or her work” (Czarnecki, 2010). In our times of innovation and change, my personal leadership have style involves a great deal of flexibility.

At work, as the principal of the Child Learning Center in the Saudi National Guard Health Affairs, I have strived to create an environment that is warm and inviting as well as nurturing. In my team during this course, I tried to look for what is best in each team member. One of my favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein states that “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ” I believe that you have to respect not only people’s needs, but also their pain and their vulnerability.

From my work experience I have found that a lot of battles are about very personal things. I try my best to be attuned to the unspoken needs that people play out in the workplace and teams. People are people in whatever setting — they bring their luggage of stuff, we all do — and the dynamics in the workplace are a function of the interaction of what we all have in our suitcases. I can’t change that. You can acknowledge it. You can give it space. You can give it air and light.

In the end, it can’t rule the day, either, because in the workplace there are higher things and rules that are going to guide what we need to do here. It’s helpful to know that, and be aware of it as a leader, and it’s even better if your team is aware of it and feels that you’re not trying to change who they are. I believe that a team leader impact the team’s mood by modeling a positive state. Attitudes are contagious. When you smile, you make others happy. When you concentrate on being the positive factor in your team’s day, their productivity goes up.

When you seek out good things to say about others, you will find more good things about them. This is not coincidental. This is the power of being positive. My attitude has the power to not only lift me up or pull me down, but affect my team in the same way. I try to look for the positives in situations. And remember, as the saying goes, that I need “to accept the things I cannot change, and the courage to change the things I can”. I simply need the wisdom to know the difference between the two.

I try hard to focus on only the things I can directly influence. Work at making a positive difference on those things. In Goleman, Daniel “Leading Resonant Teams” interview he mentioned that “The emotional system of the brain — unlike any other biological system in the body — is designed to be regulated not just internally but externally, in our relationships with other people. The circulatory system is a closed loop. But emotions are an open loop system. In other words, our brain is designed so that other people can help us manage our emotions better. Therefore, as a leader I must establish a set of ground rules for the way we work together, both by example in my own behavior and by commenting on the behavior of others and helping people do better. In other words, as a leader I need to help the team become more self-aware. Self-awareness is a prerequisite for the team’s ability to manage its own emotions, and deal with issues rather than burying them. Another component that is an important part of my leadership style is the ability to understand change. In my observation, change is a given.

We are in a fast changing environment so therefore to manage it more effectively, as a leader. I must first accept it. An effective leader must be able to know what to do at all time. I must always have a plan but also be willing to change it. I realize that there will be bumps in the road that I do not expect and I must be willing to make changes to combat those changes. I believe that each of us can access our inner resources to become a more effective leader in our own field. But first we must be willing to take initiative and stand for something we believe in passionately.

We must be ready to take the heat. Many of us avoid the responsibility of leadership primarily because we are too sensitive to criticism. But when we know who we truly are and we live from an inner core of values, criticism can be filtered to take in only what is true and helpful to our growth. Part II Explain how you studied during this course and how you performed during this course in? class. Provide details of how you approached the course material, including all activities you did in relation to learning the concepts of teams.

During this course I made sure that I finish reading all the required materials, I found the website (leader to leader) to be very helpful, especially the interview with Goleman, Daniel. I skimmed through the reading first and looked at the section headings so that I know the types of information that I’m going to be looking at because I know that the brain can only learn between 5 and 9 new concepts in a session. So I give myself several days to repeatedly rehearse and go over the material. I have read once that it takes about 24 hours for the brain to process information to make it permanent, the more rehearsal, the more permanent it’ll be.

What I learned was that, some things are best done by a group than by an individual. I found that sometimes its ok delegate to other members tasks which are not my forte and concentrate on the one’s I am good at. Being in a group made me experience different roles, if my idea was the one that the group agrees on, I got to be the leader, sometimes I get to follow other member’s plan. Being a Team leader does not mean managing the team, but help the team solve problems in order to be more effective.

Rather than optimal leadership style, I leaned that different types of leaders are useful in different situations, and leaders are more important in some situation than others. But as much as possible, I learned how to be a good listener and patient when other members talk. We found it to be very helpful to set deadlines to get things done. Conflict is better handled when you talk it out with the people involved and let them understand how their roles impact the project and how this conflict affects the team’s goal. Finally I think that good communication it’s the key to successfully finish any project.