Professionalism Grade

Punctuality

“Showed up early or on time for class, team meetings and other scheduled meetings with instructor, LCB Career Services, ect.”

9/10

I was never late to any scheduled class dates or meetings with LCB Career Services. The only times I was late to team meetings were because I had a prior engagement that overlapped. During these occasions I always let my team know beforehand that I would be tardy.

Participation

“Added Value to class discussions and activities on a consistent basis.”

9/10

Every day I made sure to contribute in some way to the class discussion. I am marking myself down because sometimes my contributions were not very concise.

Respectful to Others

“Treated others with respect and listened attentively to their feedback (including LCB Career Services GTFs). gave teammates guidance and meaningful feedback. Stayed focused on tasks at hand. Limited distracting behavior and sidebar conversations. Held others accountable for these as well.”

10/10

Respect has always been a major tenant for me and I always made sure that if someone is spending their time for my beterment I give them my full attention. Always respectful of my teammates and did my best to enhance their experience. Policed noise around me when speaker was talking.

Preparation

“Came to class/meetings completely prepared (articles read, assignments correctly submitted, assessments completed, ect.). Classmates did not need to update mne and instructor did not need to remind me of class requirements. Held others accountable for these as well.”

8/10

Always came to class prepared having completed the reading and with the propper materials. During particularly busy parts of the term forgot to bring laptop to group meetings which posed as a challenge at times. Reminded team members of class and group deadlines.

Initiative and Motivation

“Took advantage of every learning opportunity afforded me this term (Journal, Career Services, office hours, proposal research, personal leadership development, ect.). Approached each opportunity with curiosity and a willingness to take risks.”

8/10

Took many of the opportunities available to me and made sure to make the first moves during research for projects (setting up interviews ect.). Could have attended office hours and Career services events more.

Total

44/50

Final Blog Post

Well, here we are. It has been a long, stressful yet enlightening 10 weeks and we now stand at the finish line. I learned a great deal about my leadership style and and how what roles I fill best in a group setting.

My main personal goals for the term were to develop my ability to critically examine the work our group produced and to develop meaningful relationships with my group members in order to increase our over all group potential. I chose the first goal because in the past I have had a bad habit of developing group think early on in a planning process and getting married to sub-par ideas.  Of the 5 leadership practices I considered “Challenging the Process” to be my weakest attribute so it seemed only natural for my goal to be oriented towards critical self reflection. The second goal was based on the personal belief that if a group of people really understands each other and can read the emotions of one another they can establish the platform for effective communication. When a group knows each other they can bring out the best in each other by focusing on the the talents of individuals and knowing how to motivate each other.

Going into the process, I knew that my first goal would be the most difficult. But it turns out, my fellow group members ended up being my best asset in achieving this. Early in the process I let them know what I struggled with and soon enough I was able to look for them to guidance. All I ever had to do was ask “Is this realistic” or “Are we going in the right direction” and instantly the group was able to take a step back and look critically at our product. One of the best ways I learned to do this was to look at the situation from as many different perspectives as possible. This proved an effective way to critically examine our work and find flaws in our practices. Over all I feel like it was an effective tool and helped develop my ability to “challenge the process” very well.

My second goal was focused on building a close working relationship with my team members. Throughout the term we all got very close and learned a lot about each other which provided a whole host of benefits. Firstly, it made our meetings fun. It wasn’t a total drag knowing that I had a group meeting during the day, and everyone seemed to share that sentiment. This led to much higher motivation and productivity during our meetings. Another benefit was a greater understanding to each others body language and reactions. We knew when someone was holding something back or was skeptical of an idea. From here all we had to do was ask what they thought and we usually got actionable feedback. I also learned how to communicate with each member differently depending on their background and my understanding of their values. How I talked to Chris, a gentleman from California, is very different from how I would talk to Jessie, a lady from continental China. Finally, I made an effort to make my emotions more visible and understandable. In my action plan I described how this would be an effective method of building trust between team members and developing a closer, more meaningful relationship.

Going forward I still have some things that I would like to improve in order to become a better and more effective leader. I can on course always make an effort to improve my ability to critically analyze a situation and try and challenge it in order to promote innovation.  Of the other four practices, I also found that I could improve by building more emphasis on “Enabling Others to Act”. Often times people had skills and talents that completely surprised me. By taking a more active role in encouraging this, I could have improved both the project and helped them develop themselves further.

The final thing I would like to touch on about leadership before I wrap this up is the idea of developing others. At it’s core, I think this is what leadership really boils down to. To take someone who may be uncertain about the skills they have or their ability to lead themselves and to give them the opportunity to get their hands dirty and work on projects. I have found as a leader that this is one of the most crucial steps to building a strong team of compassionate, loyal and hard working individuals. If you focus on providing guidance and motivation to your team members they can develop the project as well as improve themselves. If you give them something tangible such as experience or a skill, they will put that much more effort into making sure the job gets done.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I enjoyed this term very much and learned a lot about myself and made some great friends. I look forward to applying all of this in the future.

 

Ditch in the Road

We received the feedback and score from our first draft of our proposal, and it was pretty rough. It showed some major oversights that we had made in the past couple of weeks and made it apparent that we had an awful lot of work to do. But that is just that resiliency piece. This will develop our proposal into a much more impressive piece of writing and has acted as an effective wake up call for the entire group. Earlier in the term I described in my leadership development plan that I wanted do develop my ability to challenge the process. The recent feedback has put the entire group into overdrive in this respect. Every claim that we make is being challenged and everyone is a devil’s advocate. While this makes for long work, it is already apparent how much our work has improved because of these efforts. Now we have been put on a bit of a time crunch, but I look forward to seeing the final product that we create.

Let’s take a break for a second…

Well we have just finished week five, and it has been a wild ride so far. It is important though that I take a moment to reflect on my personal performance in the group so far. I was assigned to be the group leader and I feel that I have filled that role admirably so far. My primary responsibilities are to set up meetings, delegate specific responsibilities and make sure that the group is moving forwadr in the right direction. We have been learning to work well as an effective team and I believe I facilitate that by ensuring that all members are actively participating. in the developement process and keeping moral high by bringing food to our meetings and making sure we always have a pleasant place to work. The main issue I have had is keeping up with meeting times as I have a very heavy course and work schedule. But even if I am not able to work with them face to face, we have learned to operate effectively in a remote environment.

Keep on Truckin

We finished week four with a great deal more insight on our subject and on project developement. I believe that I have made strong  strides towards improving myself on my Development Plan. My main goal in accordance with the 5 Leadership Practices is to stay open to ideas without getting attached to them. When we were initially drafting ideas, I had become very attached to a solution which put international and native students into a more social situations. At the time we seemed certain that we were going in the direction of international integration but our needs statement has developed much further since then. Under the context of our new statement my old solution is no longer viable. If I had been as stubbornly supportive of my ideas before, we may have taken the project in an unhealthy direction and created contention between members. Instead I was able to let go and I believe we have taken the project in a much better direction.

 

Starting the Engine

Well, we finished our second week of class and it is starting to dawn on me what a true undertaking this term will end up being. Already our group has had to act quickly and work as a cohesive unit in order to complete tasks according to the time line. We are blessed though that everyone in our group is creative and motivated, which makes the entire process much easier.

We our group is currently somewhere between the Forming and Storming categories at the moment, with lots of work still to go. The initial challenges we have had have been primarily communication related. Since everyone has such diverse schedules, it can be difficult to get everyone at the same place at the same time. I was selected to be team leader as well and have spent a reasonable amount of time figuring out what I should be focusing my efforts on most given the diverse and broad nature of my position.

I have made the leadership practice of “Modeling the Way” my mantra in this position, by keeping a close record of team roles and by ensuring I act in a professional manner during our meetings. Once we properly move into the brainstorming phase, I plan to take a much larger role in challenging our team to be creative and innovative.

Action Plan “Emotional Intelligence”

Building strong relationships with both your team and your audience are crucial when both achieving your objectives and making your message convincing. While I have always done a good job of keeping in touch with others emotions, I have had challenges with expressing my own. While this would normally be a good shield against expressing negative emotions, it also restricts me in my ability to express the positive emotions as well. Happiness, excitement and passion must be shown if you want your team to trust you. You you are only picking up on others and never putting down, it is almost impossible to build strong emotional attachments to your team. The more you care about your fellow members, the more likely you will be motivated to see the entire project succeed.

I intend to develop strong relationships with my fellow team members by taking time out outside our initial meetings in order to get to know them and develop  a lasting bond. At the same time I will be as open as possible about my own life and experiences, so as to increase the trust between us.

Action Plan “Challenging the Process”

In my previous post, I described the need to develope my critical thinking abilities and the importance of taking a step back and asking “Does this really work”. In my current work, I tend to get tunnel vision and as soon as I have set myself to an idea, it often becomes the center of my focus. I would benefit greatly from taking a look at the big picture and asking serious questions about if we are going down the correct path. I tend to be a very safe person, and taking risks is a challenge for me at times. But if no one ever takes them, the group will stagnate and the end product will be sub-par.

In the future I was to me a member who will focus on the big picture and remain open minded towards the direction of the group. I would also like to act a motivator for my team so we can brainstorm and discuss our ideas effectively.

Strategies I can adopt to achieve this include:

  • Making sure I have a solid understanding of the task at hand, and different methods of achieving it
  • Listen
  • Do not get married to any ideas, especially early in the game
  • Focus on what is best suited towards achieving our goal, not just on making the set idea a reality

As we move into the future, I intend to use all of these in order to keep our group fresh and motivated, especially as we begin initial planning for our projects

Leadership Development Plan

After completing the Student Leadership Practices Inventory, I developed a good understanding in the areas in which I excel, as well as some things that I could improve on. I scored very well in the “Model the Way” category, as well as “Enable others to Act”. I found these to be acturate as the concept of leading by example, or leading from the front has always been a core value of mine. I like to be in the thick of things and directly involved in the projects I work on. At the same time I understand that delegation is key and that if you try to accomplish everything by yourself, both you and your work will suffer.

I scored particularly low in the category of “Challenge the Process”. My military background I believe plays a strong role in this. As enlisted soldiers we were always encouraged to think less and act more. Someone else has always been responsible for the thinking and if we tried to do too much of it ourselves, we tended to run into problems. Forcing myself to thing outside of the box has always been a challenge, but it something I hope to improve on. The other category that was lacking was “Inspire a Shared Vision”. The key concept here is to dream big in whatever project you undertake. While being involved in the present is practical, it is still important to stay progressive and forward thinking. Once you have a solid picture of what you believe you can make the future, share it with your team and inspire them to believe as well. These all play a crucial role in working successfully as a team.

Emotional intelligence was also stressed very strongly, and I feel as though it is another skill I am blessed with. One area that I could improve on is to express my own emotions a little bit more. I generally keep my own feelings reserved and focus on those of my peers. But in reality, a balanced exchange is crucial to building a strong working relationship with others. This has kept me in a good place in the past though, as being able to make objective decisions even while under pressure is a crucial skill.

The best example for this is the role I played in the Give Back Classic, a golf tournament hosted by my fraternity to benefit wounded veterans. My initial role was small, but as I became more involved with the project my responsibilities grew as well. My entire time with it I was focused on how we could make what we had worked. I was relatively short sighted in my initial planning, which lead to complications down the road. I was far to focused on making bad ideas work, rather than creating new ideas. It was an excellent learning opportunity and left me with the desire to start over.

One Week Down!

So with the first week of Fall term finished, I’ve felt nothing but anticipation towards the weeks to come. We received our teams for the term’s group project and I have a lot of confidence in our ability to work together. It is a really diverse group, so we should be able to learn a lot from working together.

As for the class itself, it has been extremely refreshing to actually learn to lead. So many times in our educational careers we are just handed positions of leadership and basically expected to wing it. Having a class devoted to developing strong leadership strategies is exhilarating and I look forward to seeing how I can fine tune my own style throughout the term!