Reflection_Chapter 8
The way individuals think about leadership is highly divergent and, doubtlessly, influenced by one’s experiences of leading and being led. While studying, I did both, and always tended to see leadership as an aggregate of functions to be exercised by a leader. My experience shows that forming mutual trust and good relationships within a team are major tasks a leader needs to perform.
When being a team leader for a school project, I used two major practices to promote trust and links inside my team. Firsly, we tended to spend much time together, getting engaged into different activities (mainly, table games and sports). After that I introduced a so-called “hour of trust” that we had on weekly basis. During this hour each member to team could be listened to and address his/her concerns related to the implementation of the project and functioning of a team as a whole.
The above actions allowed me to build up mutual respect and trust within a team. After that we became able to establish shared goals, openly introduce, discuss and criticize our ideas and address multifaceted concerns.
The experience of managing the above project allowed me learning a lot of things and growing personally. The most important thing that I understood was that all the leadership issues are interconnected, and the mutual trust is the cornerstone of a successful team.
In the future, I plan to learn more about constructive nature of conflicts and learn how to use them to develop quality ideas and identify those, associated with considerable issues. In this view, it is crucial to learn how to get a team prepared for active discussions, generate a conflict and successfully moderate it after having used its advantages for the team. Furthermore, moderating is essential for dealing with conflicts that may arise in a team due to the differences in opinions and views.
Leadership is highly valuable as a set of functions and competency. Actually, leadership is an intangible asset that is essential for getting things done and making change. I would say that I may play two major leadership roles. Firstly, I see myself as a facilitator, capable of building trust and mutually respecting relations within a team. Secondly, I wish to be a wise moderator, able to structure a team’s work and mitigate arising conflicts.
If a leader is not able to act as a facilitator of trust and build up a team, this failure is likely to lead to the followers’ lack of interest in an initiative. Consequently, they do not come up with new ideas and are reluctant to get the tasks implemented. On the contrary, proactive position and shared goals help a leader gather new ideas and ensure followers’ responsibility. In this regard, my personal growth lies in the fact that I became more active and can approach people easier than I did so before.
Reflection_Chapter 9
After reading the chapter, I realized that two essentials of successful leadership include improving one’s self-determination and developing confidence and competence of others. In this view, it is essential for a leader to be able not only to get followers motivated about shared aims, but provide them with the tools to turn their motivation into action.
When leading a team for a school project, I discussed competencies-related issues with my team mates. Then we developed an individual plan for each team member, allowing increasing his /her competencies and becoming more effective as a member of a team. Apart from building up and realizing competence-building plans, we also discussed confidence-related issues, whereby I tried to do my best to promote mutual trust and understanding.
The above actions helped me realized an importance of a leader’s open communication with followers and getting to know them well, so that individual issues can be handled, improving the overall performance of a team. It was also crucial to revisit the role competences play in relation to ensuring the quality performance of a team as a whole.
The experience helped me learn that leadership is a process of continuous communication with followers and enhancing team performance through tackling individual issues. I think, these findings helped me become more functional as a leader.
In the future, I can become more attentive to the team members, so that I get to know their areas of issues, and learn more about individual growth. I think, I can also become more emphatic and aware about potential needs of the followers.
Apart from the fact that leadership constitutes an important cornerstone of a society’s functioning and development, it also helps each individual to achieve personal growth and the development of his/her competencies.
I believe that I can help my followers to build trustful relations and develop personally and professionally, solidifying the team.
