A master’s student reflection paper about the leadership and human development course and the overall experience in the University of Greenwich
My experience in the University of Greenwich has been very educative. The University of Greenwich has influenced my perspective in life. The leadership and human development course has enabled me to explore my leadership qualities by being involved in team work. I was very shy and could not stand in before people to deliver a speech or even pray. I would use someone to say it for me. The confidence to address people and issues came as a result of being paired in teams for projects and even in games. I had a chance to be a team leader in a student type team, and it was very challenging to coordinate team members because they expected me, to come up with the best of ideas. The challenges that I faced as a team leader helped me to gain confidence and believe in myself. The performance of the team got bestowed on me, and I did not want to feel like I had let my team down. I worked hard to coordinate everything and did lots of research on the topic, and we emerged the best. The confidence helped create a sense of responsibility in me. Even though I have always been responsible, gaining confidence to lead a team felt totally different. I have recently joined various clubs in the university and hope to develop them into better clubs. I am no longer shy when attending meetings and am better of a person than I was before joining the University of Greenwich.
Time management
Since I joined the University of Greenwich, I have known to manage my time effectively. Time lost cannot get recovered. I used to procrastinate my commitments and eventually I would end up not getting them done. I lacked priorities and would end up panicking and worrying when I realized I had missed a commitment I had made. I was much disorganized personally and depended on doing things during the last minute. Especially, class assignments were handed in, almost late and hence the quality of paper was low. Most of my time was wasted on hosting unexpected visitors and using a mobile phone to access social media. I have become my own life coach, and it feels great. I have in the past one month managed my time so well that some of my friends are coming for advice on how to do the same. I can venture into life coaching as a part time job. I have learned to manage my time at the university, work and home. Now I wake up early and plan for the day unlike before when I used to miss activities due to poor planning. I have a journal that contains my day’s activities and uses it to confirm before making any commitment (Pausch, 2008 p. 42). When I have an early morning, I prepare the clothes to wear at night. I have now allocated time for a morning run to stay fit and healthy. My weakness in time management is overdoing something especially if it is related to entertainment. In the future, I plan to allocate enough time for entertainment and include my family and friends in my entertainment time (Schwarzer 2011, p. 39).
Theories and practice
Since I started taking the leadership and human development course at the University of Greenwich, I have come to understand theories presented in the programme as well as practice of the same theories. I have realized that theories give a general idea of what is expected or may have occurred, but lead to the same conclusion. It is easy to understand the theory and have different opinions on what it states. When presented with a circumstance that needs the theory to be applied it becomes hard. Even though theories get formulated on generalized ideas, I do not always conform to what they state. Cultural diversity has various theories, for example, the masculine vs. feminine theory tries to define that some roles get based on gender. I have a different opinion about this theory; culture here tries to create inferiority in women even though women have had the same achievements as men. In practice women have shown to achieve more in the competitive environment that is dominated by men. I have encountered the theoretical concept of Pareto Principle, and I have applied in my time management issues and it has shown to work well (Li, 2008).
Culture Diversity
The University of Greenwich got culturally endowed during its establishment. It has diversity in cultures. Culture has helped me to distinguish people here at the university. I have had the opportunity to interact with so many people from different cultures that initially I did not have a chance or environment to interact. My interaction skills have greatly improved and helped me understand people better and will prevent me from experiencing culture shock when I travel. I realize that it affects even business because it dictates how a business should get done. The culture in the University of Greenwich gets determined by religion and social structure among other factors.
Some of the ideas I have learned on this course focus on human development. I have expanded my educational spectrum and am more qualified to work in administration departments and development of programs. I have learned about power and how it influences a person. I have learned the various styles to influence power. I have assimilated leadership with power that can influence individuals. I have noticed that the power on leadership is helpful to the society when it influences people to become better persons. I have understood how Public administration can get used wrongfully to take advantage of office especially with embezzlement of funds (Shenker, n.d.).
Application of theories in this program
The theories in this programme have helped to solve problems. For example, the Belbin’s team-type model encourages that people in teams not be given roles that fit their personalities, this helps to create productive work environment and relationship. I applied this model, and it helped me nurture my leadership skills. If had taken a shy role, I would not have discovered my capacity to make informed decisions. I have realized that the Belbin’s team-type model opened my learning scope. I had a challenging time in satisfying the team’s needs, but it was worth it. In practice, however, I was not able to provide all the aspects required by the model because group dynamics is different (Belbin team roles).
Another theory that was helpful is the Tuchman’s stages of group development. After group formation challenges began in storming of ideas, some team members did not think I was good enough to be a team leader and felt they could handle the task better than me. I showed competence by coordinating the storming and performing process ensured that everyone participated, and all concepts were applied in the presentation of the finished work. I choose oral presentation for our work that every member of the team practiced in front of the team. I learned a lot about the presentation from the team and helped to speak eloquently. I did not explore rhetorical use in presentation. I learned that one can have a well-researched assignment but can fail to get recognized if the presentation gets done poorly. I learned to present myself before people even in offices (Forsyth 2013, p.31).
The theories on cultural diversity by Hoftede helped to better my negotiation skills especially in my current work experience. I know to negotiate better for salary. I have gained skills on interviews, data collection and doing assignments. Also, I have gained skills on how to get interviewed about course project or a job. The leadership and human development course has helped me to better my grades in the other courses that am taking in the university because it has provided better time management and hence more time for study. It has helped me to prioritize things in life. The overall experience in the university has been great, and it has provided a good environment for study. The leadership and human development course should be a common course for all students. Life in the university would be less hectic. It has helped me to think critically about my life (Bacon 2011p. 21).
Conclusion
As a professional practitioner, I would make leadership my main subject so that I can guide people into becoming well rounded for the society. I would start a leadership school with various programs to nurture leadership. I would give exposure to people who think they do not leadership skills. This course can help me get a promotion at work because leadership entails handwork. I will help individuals to put work on knowledge gained in school and show that knowledge evolves just like all aspects of life (Safty 2009, p. 53).
As a professional practitioner, I would remind people that knowledge is dynamic and lifelong. This course has reminded me that it is important to gain skills that help in the establishment of a business, and become self-employed other than giving up in life due to lack of employment. I have learned that to move this economy we need to create jobs ourselves and be in a position to lead our organizations guide the young generation.
References
Bacon, T 2011, Elements of Influence: The Art of Getting Others to Follow Your Lead, AMACOM Books, New York.
Belbin team roles. Retrieved from <http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8>
Forsyth, P 2013, Successful time management, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Li, Y 2008, Relationships among work tasks, Sharpe Inc., New York.
Pausch, R 2008, Time management,Sharpe Inc., New York.
Safty, A 2009, Leadership for human development,Cengage Learning, Stamford.
Schwarzer, R 2011, Personality, human development and culture, Cengage Learning, Stamford.
Shenker, D n.d., The Challenge of Human Rights and Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from
<http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1627e.htm>
