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Essay
During the first self-assessment in the beginning of the course, I realized that I lack essential interpersonal skills and knowledge in technology, which can prevent me from being an effective leader. While it was quite disappointing to find out that I have certain flaws, it was important to realize that lack of skills and abilities can be improved. I came to a conclusion that compassion, empathy, and sensibility to others are my weakest points and it is essential to increase my potential by using appropriate interventions. As I do in many cases, I have found several books in psychology and sociology to increase my theoretical knowledge of interpersonal skills. Yet, I have realized that this approach is not as effective as the practical exercises. It has been always my way of gaining knowledge, but as I understood throughout the course, theoretical knowledge means nothing if you do not apply them in practice. Therefore, I tried to develop a set of effective and appropriate exercises to expand my interpersonal skills.
First of all, I realized that my lack of interpersonal skills roots in the overconcentration on my ego. Thus, during the first three days of my intervention, I stopped talking about myself and started listening to others more paying attention to what they want, how they perceive the world, and how I can help them. It was quite productive, as I understood that every person lives in her/his own world which is interesting in its own way. The second exercise included the ability to give more than to take, which led me to some charity work. I made a donation to the group taking care of the homeless children and I also plan to volunteer in one of the charities to get the practical experience working with people who need the support. I have never done charity or volunteering even though I know that it is important for the community and for personal growth. I plan to do it in the nearest time.
Finally, the third exercise from my intervention was trying to satisfy all interests in the site of taking care only of my own needs. During the time spent with my friends, family, and other social occasions I tried to take care that all interests and needs of all group member are satisfied. While it proved to be particularly difficult for myself as well as for others, the intervention became an effective experience showing that people, in general, do not take care of the interests of others taking care only about personal desires. It can be a subjective opinion, but I have noticed that almost all people are quite stubborn which is embedded in our culture. I find it quite frustrating because constant competition and the need to pursue personal agenda hinder myself from becoming an effective educator and a leader. It is impossible to become a good teacher when you focus only on your personal way of educating children rather than taking care of what they actually need. The final exercise became the most difficult and it requires more practice, which I plan to pursue to make it a permanent skill.
As to my technological knowledge, I began to research the techniques used specifically in education and the future methods of improving the teaching methods. As I found out, the modern classrooms, especially in the public sector, are not equipped with the technological tools very well. Yet it is possible to include presentations, use tablets, and supplement lessons with various techniques such as video clips, web quests, diagrams, and sound effects which will engage children in the lessons better. In order to try several techniques, I designed parts of lessons using some of the tools and tried to reflect what skills can be improved with each of the tools. I also read a lot of scientific articles that teach how to use technologies during the lessons, which I consider an appropriate method for this skill. At the same time, I have noticed that the use of technologies is quite pervasive during the daily life, which can be reduced during the school time by showing that the gadgets serve as the educational tools rather than entertaining.
Questions
During one of the situations experienced in school, I had to exercise the political power quite cautiously, as there were several parties involved including those who were higher than me hierarchically. I had a conflict with the vice-principal which later on involved the principal as well. I have realized that it is important to affect the principal in order to resolve the problem and improve the relationship with his deputy as well. It was clear that the vice-principal will resist. Thus, it was crucial to take into consideration the interests of the most resisting players in order to mitigate the conflict (Bolman & Deal, 2013). The main problem was the increase of the non-traditional methods of teaching, like outdoors activities, which the deputy resisting, as he is the advocate for the traditional approach. I order to facilitate negotiations and understanding, I created a presentation that included the evidence from several studies showing the improvement of practical skills for children when implementing outdoor activities.
In order to decrease the resistance, which was the strongest in the beginning, I proposed to create some sort of “beta testing” and increase the outdoors activities for a month and children will have to be assessed afterward. The proposition was accepted positively by the principal and while his deputy resisted anyway he recognized that there was no reason for a conflict. It showed that exercising political power is an effective way of improving the relationship with the colleagues and top management, which also showed that you care about your job. Also, I realized that it is essential to preserve a balance between the personal agenda and the vision of the powerful players; otherwise, it is possible to lose a job. Resisting a political power is quite difficult knowing that more powerful stakeholders may affect your career and position in the job. At the same time, it is essential not only to follow orders but to think rationally, which made me realized that the authority figures are humans that may be wrong in one way or another.
References
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
