Model the Way

During team meetings, my points of views always can make influences on others’. I always kept promises to finish work on time and managed time very effectively. I always made plans for the team to see how work will get done, for example, I tried to come up with our timeline at the first of each process of assignment. For the midterm and final evaluation, I wrote my comments for my team members very openly and graciously.

 

Inspire a Shared Vision

I always tried to motivate my team members to work actively. Sometimes, just like me, some of them also have language barriers, however I gave as much help as possible to let them understand our points. Also sometimes if different person have different ideas, we could have common view finally. However, there was a problem that was not solved very well: Some of us had different opinions at first, but the minority of us always committed with the majority. I could remember that there was a comment on me that indicated this point. We should look for common ground, but we also need to debate and discuss with considerable different ideas in order to “inspire” others.

 

Challenge the Process

In this aspect I think I did well, however only in the previous part I described is the shortcoming. I encouraged my team to learn from mistakes. For example, we did not do well in the first draft of proposal because some parts were vague which made the paper unpersuasive. Some of my team members were upset; however, I told them that it was not that bad and at least we got the feedback which could lead us to the next steps and where we could improve. And I asked our team to try something new on different ways, such as doing more surveys and interviews.

 

Enable Others to Act

This aspect of leadership skill requires me to be active listening, asking for others’ ideas, giving others freedom of choice, etc. I did pretty well of those parts. During meetings, I always let everybody share ideas and when I expressed mine, I tried to make everyone understand of my points of view. I did so because a group work could do better than do by individual.

Encourage the Heart

I also learned and achieved on this part of leadership skill. For example, the atmosphere among my team was tense before the final presentation; I tried to use easy way to relax everybody, for example, humor. Also after the presentation, I celebrated our team and each individual accomplishment.  Also, during the term, I always asked my team if anybody needs my help. I did like that because I think we should contribute good relationship with each other to finish our common goals.