Table of Contents
Leadership styles and leadership styles
Relationships between Tasks
The group members are not included
Leader Weaknesses and Strengths
Personal Decision-Making and Group Climate
What I learned about team effectiveness
You can learn from my experiences in completing class assignments and group projects. This semester I worked with some wonderful people and it was an amazing experience. My teammates were the reason I was so successful this semester. Also, I learned a lot more about my own leadership style.
Leadership and Leadership stylesThe V Leader simulations helped me learn about many concepts I’d previously ignored in my interactions and conversations with team members. Nonverbal communication is an important part of communication, with up to 93% of it being nonverbal. Paying close attention to body language was how I first became aware of nonverbal expressions. Body language helped me understand how Oli and the others in theV Leader simulations felt. I could tell whether they were annoyed or frustrated by the messages I was delivering. I could then make adjustments to my delivery in order to achieve the desired result, which was in the V-Leader Simulations to complete the task.
I was able to better understand myself through the group project. In this course, all of my leadership traits have helped me to tackle the tasks that were put in front me and my team. I believe that this course is designed to make students use all of their leadership traits, including intelligence, confidence and charisma. The course design, from group presentations and group projects to individual exercises, achieves this. The course encourages you to discover your inner-leader. Throughout the course I used my intelligence, charisma, and sociability most. It was a team project that I believe influenced my decision to use these traits as my top leadership qualities. It was through the group projects that I developed my social abilities to help me complete the project.
I completed the Leadership Traits questionnaire and found that, in most categories, I received fours or fives, but had two threes. In the self-assured category, I scored a three. This is because sometimes I have doubts before I make a big decision and I seek reassurance. Sometimes I speak without giving the question serious consideration. In these two areas, I want to be a better leader.
There are three major categories for core leadership abilities: administrative skills, interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills. When I took the leadership skills test, I learned that I scored high or very high in each category. This was a pleasant surprise. The interpersonal category was my strongest. In this category, I received a score of 29, which is very high. Next, I scored 27 in the conceptual category. That was also a high score. My weakest area was the administrative category, for which I received a score of 24. I agree that my weakest skill in leadership would be administrative. I was able to receive feedback from my group project sessions that matched the way I had rated myself on the questionnaire. I’m going to improve my administration skills.
My leadership style is democratic. I try to be fair to everyone and let them do their jobs without me interfering. I preferred to let my subordinates do their work without me interfering. Because I enjoy being managed this way, I find it appealing. It also causes higher levels in group member commitment and cohesiveness. When I answered the leadership style questionnaire, I chose democratic as my first choice, followed by authoritarian, and laissez-faire. The scores I received were interesting. I scored 25 on the democratic questions and 22 on the authoritarian ones. This showed me that your leadership style might be a mixture, not just one. A good mix will help you in many situations.
Tasks and RelationshipsI have been thinking about how the position you hold within an organization can influence your leadership style. It’s hard to avoid being task-oriented if you are in manufacturing or logistical environments. This is why I feel that way. In my experience as a professional, I’m very focused on building relationships between teams. As a leader, this is a problem because I am in an environment that is very task-oriented. In the case of the group projects, my job was to ensure that everybody understood what they were supposed to do and by when. I felt that I and my group members developed a good relationship because we were all completing our tasks.
My group and I created a vision when we decided how to build our presentation. We worked together to create a plan, based on shared values. This would help us achieve our vision to get a high grade for the presentation. On the leadership questionnaire, I got a high score. It is something I am proud of. I am almost a natural at identifying areas of improvement for my company or group. I was able to use my V-Leader vision to help me focus on getting my points accepted by participants.
It is the leader’s job to create an environment that encourages constructive behavior. This was the best group project climate that I’ve ever experienced. This is because we all worked towards a common goal of getting a high grade in the course and developing as future leaders. I hope we achieved this. I also believe that my group was great at setting up structure and defining the norms. This helped us to become more cohesive. We were able to enjoy the project because we didn’t receive a single grade for the entire project. Instead, we received multiple grades at different points in the process. The project itself allowed us feel rewarded during the entire process. Instead of receiving one grade for the whole project, we had to submit multiple pieces at different times.
It was important to me to create a positive climate in V-Leader. You had to be able to tell when to click on a person or an idea to get the desired results. I learned this lesson slowly, which explains why I felt my simulation scores gradually improved. If I kept doing V-Leaders simulations, then I am sure I would get better over time at creating the climate necessary to reach my objectives.
I don’t think there was any disagreement among the group members. They were all working together towards the common goal. The team in V-Leader initially did not like some of my ideas, but with each simulation, they seemed to be more open-minded. We would listen to any member of my team who was not part of our group. It would have helped them feel we were interested in their ideas. The feeling of inclusion would have made them more motivated to act.
You cannot create obstacles as a leader. We faced some obstacles as a group in order to finish this project. I thought my group did a great job overcoming this obstacle. One example is that we didn’t get an equal number chapters covered, so I chose to take on an extra chapter. It was no problem. I didn’t want me to be the one who was always doing this. Everyone in our group did it at least once. Oli did this in V-Leader. He took on extra tasks because he thought it would benefit the company. Sometime, everyone in a company or group will have to step up and help out a bit more to complete the task. Clear goals and directions will motivate employees to go that extra mile.
In order to be successful, a company must know how its leaders handle conflict. We had minor disagreements in my group about how to approach a particular task or which point to emphasize, but they never affected the group negatively. The group was able to handle conflict collaboratively, and this is the reason conflict didn’t negatively impact it. This enabled us to discuss and decide on the best way forward. We always handled conflict professionally. My conflict-style questionnaire confirmed my beliefs about handling conflict. My style of conflict-mediation was excellent. V-Leader taught me many ways to deal with conflict in groups. The V-Leader simulators gave me some valuable experience.
I think I demonstrated ethical leadership throughout this project. All my decisions were made based upon good character and values. I am confident that my group members will all agree that I acted ethically. If a person is a good leader, I believe they will be successful. People will not follow someone who has bad ethics. To lead a group, you need to have a strong moral character. The questionnaire I filled out for the chapter of ethics revealed that my values were happiness and family. This is fine with me. My family’s comfort is my main motivation to succeed.
Leader WeaknessesLet’s first look at my weaknesses. I found that after completing the questionnaire on leadership strengths, I had rated myself lowly for the question regarding the ability to keep people together. There was no feedback on this issue, but I believe that at times I focus too much attention on my work and do not have the time to talk with group members. In both my academic and professional career, I plan to continue working on this. This is probably the case; my score in this category was moderate. I am slow to start, but I finish everything I begin.
My group got a pretty positive response during the leadership phase. The presentation and outline received high marks. This is an excellent reflection of my ability to lead. But I would still like to improve my communication skills in groups and be more organized. My group mates may need some help, but I might not have checked in for a few weeks to see if I was able to assist them. It could lead to a situation where you discover a problem too late. It was not the situation, but it might have been had I been in a group with fewer people. I am not very good at organizing things, and this is something that I’m working on to improve.
In the leadership test, I received a high score in the areas of innovation and analytical thinking. I agree I’m a strategic thinker who can solve problems and make changes. My group kept telling me that I always found a way to accomplish tasks and was positive during our discussions. The group project that I worked on was a rewarding experience for me. I was able utilize my strengths and help my group earn a very good mark.
It is important that a leader has emotional intelligence. This helps them understand what someone else is feeling, and it allows them to motivate and guide them. My strength is my self-awareness. I am always assessing my own abilities and making adjustments to how I interact with others. Leaders that have good emotional awareness are good to be around because they adapt well to any situation. The team will then be able work at their best and enjoy the tasks they are doing.
It is important to know how to deal with conflict. In my role of group leader I had few conflicts, but at the start of the project one of my members had failed to finish any of his tasks. We then had the task of removing him from the team. The group manager of this project handled the matter very professionally. The expelled member was given several chances to finish their tasks, but made no effort. She was clear and direct in her communication, but she didn’t come across as rude or abrasive. Her conflict resolution methods impressed me and I learned from the situation.
I was able to lead the project with a diplomatic style because my group was self-motivated to finish their tasks. Our group had a member who used daily communication in order to get people to stay open to communication. Everyone was able to be involved with the project. The lesson I learned will help me in future group work. As a leader within my group, I was able to use my sociability in order to influence other members. This allowed me to have my ideas accepted by all. We were able to create trust by being politically aware.
Group Climate Our group climate was very positive. There wasn’t much tension among us, and the atmosphere was generally positive. In the group brainstorming phase, we noticed that everyone had already completed one chapter. I felt that as the discussion continued, no one was really interested in doing the chapter. I decided that as co-leader, I would take on the responsibility of the chapter. I relied on my intuition in observing everyone’s hesitance when it came to taking on this particular chapter. The meeting became very productive as a result.
This was our road to success. Our team’s culture was based on flexibility and cohesiveness, which helped us stay on the same wavelength and achieve our goals. We used meetings and feedback sessions in order to ensure all members were on the same track and followed the group process. When I was co-leader, I made sure that I scheduled meetings at times for everyone to be able to attend. I was proud to ensure that everyone could attend all major meetings during my leadership phase. I also used concepts, like the green-clicking people I learned during group brainstorming sessions.
I definitely need to work on developing my creativity. Sometimes I just follow instructions and check the boxes. This prevents me expressing my creative side and could reduce the quality my work. Leaders use creativity in order to challenge their own performance and that of the organization. In this area, I will try to improve.
Team Effectiveness – What I’ve LearntThis project helped me identify my strengths as well as weaknesses. I then put these on paper, in the form of a personal report. I will now work to improve my weaknesses, and strive to enhance my strengths. More communication would have helped me better handle the few problems I faced during my time as leader. My goal is to improve communication or consistency in communication. If I can improve my weaknesses and use what I’ve learned in this course, I believe I will be successful.
