Journals
I am being a leader in cases when I know a lot about a thing, when I am put in the situation where I know what to do, when I am in charge and know how to act, when I know where I need to come and what goals to pursue to achieve them. All human beings are taking part in both roles. I am a follower when I follow someone’s instructions, when I am told what to do to do work more effectively and efficiently, when I am following instructions in order to get the task done. Bertoocci (2009) has defined a leader as a person who motivates and influence other individuals and follower as someone who obeys the leader and obeys and takes out the tasks.
Every time when I am put into two described situations I use different skills. When I am a leader I try to be concrete, professional in giving the instructions, try to answer all the questions and use a skill of talking in the public, that can help in guidance and means towards the right results – the skill of decision making. All I need to manage my work is to be organized. When it comes to disagreements I use a skill of effective problem solving. When I am in the follower position I used skills such as patience, listening, respecting the other side, I need to think critically and be motivated. Sometimes you need to be both leader and a follower to do your job effectively. The combinations of skills and knowledge sometimes overlap.
Effectiveness in the Light of Success and Failures
Being effective means achieving the objectives and get solve the issues. My life moto is that we learn of our mistakes or on the mistakes of others. Nobody is perfect and it is only human to make mistakes. The mistakes should not have the negative annotation because for it we can become even better. I have done some mistake in my life in both roles as in the role of a leader and as a follower. I learned that nobody knows everything and that we need to listen to other opinions and suggestions. I have been successful in taking the lead since I can inspire people and get them to understand my cause. I have however also made mistakes to put too much trust in one person. The failures were minimal with no bigger one worth to mention. When I look in the overall picture I think I am successful in my area of work. I think that to show the real effectiveness of my work we should ask the people I work with and they should give the grade and comment about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness.
Complexity Challenges
Under the term complexity unpredictable, surprising, unintended and unexpected factors belong. Today everything is interdependent and interconnected. Analytical tools are usually not enough and individual usually cannot comprehend the whole system because of cognitive limits (McGrath, Sargut 2011).
Today all work places include some form of complexity regardless the complexity of work tasks, interconnectivity, ambiguity or their diversity. I am daily confronted with complex issues that are sometimes easy to get over it and sometimes a little bit harder. The improvisation has come in handy in cases when I could not see the way forward. I deal with complexity and I have learned got to transform chaos into order. I usually subcategorize the complex tasks and make them a whole split into various small tasks that are easier to comprehend. I know my work and in cases when something is unknown I know who to ask to help me get the job done. There’s always the option to work in a team where tasks are spread among different members. I use various internal theories in complex situations. I work in a team and made prediction and possible scenarios with the diversion thoughts.
Communication Challenges and Making Decisions
During the studies and during the work I have come to different challenges in the field of communication and in the area of decision making. Sometimes it proves to be challenging to work with people from other cultures, with different values and different perceptions. I have learned that you can always talk your differences out. The communication regardless written or oral has proved to be the most important tool to be used through my life. At the beginning I had problems with expressing my thoughts, but I coop to manage and get to the level of a very good public speaker. Usually misunderstandings mean that one side has not played enough attention. I always make sure the other side understands my point of views, my expectations and that are many times different, but as long as it is clear what the standing points are everything else is open to negotiation. When I am making a decision I always use various sources and opinions it does not always mean they will change my mind but they can help me get a broader picture. I believe you need to ask in order to get the information. I am also very good in working under the stress and when I have a clear objective I pursue it. Making decisions is a responsible work and I enjoy making decisions when I have the right basis of knowledge.
Developing an Action Plan
In order to get more successful I need to work on the forward training and developing my communication and leadership skills. An action plan needs to be done in taking into account my hopes, previous decisions, intentions for the future and activity that will get me to the desired goals. I have already set my short time and longtime plans. I have been learning a lot, but I still need to develop my expertise. I can so far also make assumptions about my previous decisions and roles in order to improve my future actions. There is never enough experience because we work in an unstable environment and with people where we are confronted with unpredictable situations every day. I am flexible, but still need more life experiences in the real events that would promote and enhance my capabilities and skills. There goes a saying practice makes perfect and I intend to follow it. To refine my skills with making the knowledge into practice and work with the people who have already mastered the required skills to be the best leader.
Work cited
Bertocci, I. David. (2009). Leadership in Organizations: There is a Difference Between Leaders and Managers. Toronto: University Press of America.
McGrath, Rita, Sargut, Gokce. (2011). Learning to love With Complexity. Retrieved https://hbr.org/2011/09/learning-to-live-with-complexity
