ei – Danielle Golden

Personal Leadership Development

In the Leadership Development Plan that I wrote at the beginning of this course, I noted two specific areas I wanted to focus on to improve. The first, challenging the process, one of Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Leadership, and the second was relationship management, an area of Emotional Intelligence.

My initial goal for challenging the process was to be “assertive in challenging my group members, whether it be by simply asking a question, or openly disagreeing and objecting appropriately.” I planned to go about this by staying “informed on our group’s decisions, as well as personal opinions, in order to appropriately judge the situation so I would have specific feedback and suggestions.”

During the first half of the term, I still struggled to challenge the process. Although I made small steps in speaking up, I still wasn’t fulfilling my goal of challenging the process. This became clearly evident to me during the first session of team feedback. As I became more aware of this, it helped me see that my group felt they could benefit from my doing so. The specific feedback I received initially was all very similar – that I needed “to be more vocal” and that the group “could benefit from heading [my] opinion more often with more authority.” I took this feedback to heart and again set the goal of challenging the process by speaking up more. Throughout the remainder of the term, I made a point to take time to speak my opinion on every decision that we made, even if I thought the group was unlikely to be swayed. I found however, that the group often took my challenges seriously and with my additional feedback, we were able to analyze our choices differently than we previously had, which helped our success as a group. During the second team feedback session, my group clearly noticed my improvement, stating that I “kept the group focused and grounded”, “made sure ideas were realistic and relevant”, and “became more active and spoke more than before.”

Throughout the term I have made great strides in my ability to challenge the process; however, it is still something I need to continually work on. Part of my ability to challenge the process so well towards the end of the term was due to how comfortable I became with my group. This made me realize that I still need to work on voicing my opinion with people I am not as familiar with. I plan to keep moving forward by continuing to share my thoughts whether or not I believe it will have and impact and by keeping in mind that speaking up doesn’t only help me, but furthers the success of any group as a whole.

My second goal, for Emotional Intelligence, was relationship management. For this goal, I wanted to “be supportive and compassionate, not just on my surface interactions, but to actually have those things be true.” I planned to go about this by “getting to know my teammates on a personal level (i.e. finding out their hobbies, interests, wants and desires in life)”, which I believed “could help to build a foundation of a more personal relationship and also improve my ability to communicate, bond and collaborate with them.” Initially, this goal was easy to meet as we were in the forming stage.

Our formation stage lasted longer than I would have expected which provided me with ample time to form relationships through small talk with other team members. However, after team feedback, we hit the storming phase hard because of how long it had taken us to complete the formation stage. My ability to stay calm combined with my initial hesitance to disagree, actually aided me in this stage and enforced my relationship with teammates. While I found myself frustrated during this time, instead of taking an active role in the conflict, which I saw as unproductive, I instead stepped back and acted as a mediator. Through my calm approach to mediation, I was able to help us break down the issues that were creating conflict to help us move to an area of norming.

Once in the norming phase, I began to reflect on my improvement in relationship management. I discovered what really aided my improvement were my efforts to empathize with others and my calm approach, which helped cement strong relationships between my teammates and I. During our final feedback session, my group also noted my relationship management skills noting that I “kept the group level-headed.”

Going forward, to continue to maintain and improve my relationship management skills I plan to continue to take the time to get to know peers and teammates more personally. This project in particular, has shown me how important relationship management is to keeping the team effective and motivated.

While I learned a great deal in this class and was able to make vast progress towards achieving my goal, I do recognize that my ability to do so was largely due to my comfort level with my fellow group members. I realize that in future settings where the group may only work together for a short period of time, I won’t be able to rely on being comfortable with the people I am around. In order to continue to improve in these areas I will have to work on my confidence in my ideas and myself. By being confident in myself, I can eliminate some of the hesitance to speak up, which will allow me to challenge the process and more effectively maintain relationships.

Significant Progress

As we are finalizing our final presentation, I finally feel like I am seeing clearly the progress I have made throughout the term in my LDP. While the process was slow, and I will need to continue to develop certain skills once the course is completed, I am very satisfied with my development personally. In the past I have struggled immensely with anxiety, which greatly affected my ability to communicate with others clearly and confidently. This has made college, specifically working on group projects extremely difficult for me. While it has gotten better over the years, I have made the most progress on it during the past term, while participating in this class.

Specifically, I have made progress on “challenging the process”. In working on our final presentation especially, I have been clear in voicing my opinion when I disagree with a particular pathway we are pursuing. I have vastly improved my ability to communicate why I disagree and at times offering a solution. A usual occurrence in my group has become me asking “is this what we are being asked to do, or is it what we want to do.” I think that in challenging the process in an open ended way really allows us to collaborate as a group, while moving in a more productive and efficient direction.

I have also made significant progress in making sure that I focus not just on my work specifically, but the product we are creating as a group. I think that doing so has helped make it so no one person is responsible for anything, and that the work we do turn in has approval from all members. Working in such an inclusive and collaborative way has also helped me further my goal of “relationship management.” While our group has never had a problem socializing, there have been times where disagreements have led to tensions amongst the group. In pushing for a collaborative approach to all of our work, we have been able to eliminate the bulk of the tension, allowing us to work effectively as a team.

Calm Before the Storm

This week we presented our prototype to our classmates. I was one of the people presenting, and overall I think I did very well. I am slowly but surely improving my public speaking skills, but seem to be doing better in small groups. Talking with people one-on-one makes it much easier for me to clearly articulate what I’m saying. Opposed to when I speak in large groups and let my nerves take over- leading to my (and my voice) shaking, fidgeting, avoiding eye contact, and struggling to process my thoughts and vocalize them. I’m hoping that with continued practice our final presentation won’t be as anxiety provoking as the first. In order to practice in preparation for our final presentation, I plan on taking a more active leadership role in my group. By having to clearly communicate with people, in an authoritative way I will be more comfortable and prepared to do so in a larger group setting. I will also try to immerse myself in all aspects of the group work, even if specific work is designated to me so I can be as knowledgable about our presentation as possible. By being extremely informed and gaining confidence in my speaking abilities will allow be to excel in our final presentation delivery.

As a group we’re working together much more productively than before. I am effectively achieving my goal of “relationship management.” I have been doing so by trying to become more involved with all aspects of the project including everyones individual part. By expressing my interest in what they are doing, and “challenging the process” as we move along, I have been able to create a solid working relationships with all of my teammates. Managing my relationships with all members has played a part in our productivity, since we are able to communicate more clearly and allowing every opinion to be considered instead of prematurely disregarding them. We are getting things done faster and with better quality than ever before. I think that part of that is because we don’t currently have any work due. Our focus right now is preparation for the proposal and presentation. I think that as long as we stay up to date on what we have to do and continually work on our project that we should be headed in a very good direction.

My Place

Within our group I think that my place as group organizer has become pretty solidified. I often find myself being the person who keeps track of deadlines, guidelines and reminding other members what projects are coming up. I think that in doing so I help to keep on on track and headed in the right direction. I also think I do well making sure than no one person gets stuck with the bulk of the work and try to enforce the idea that all projects are group projects and should be treated as such i.e. getting everyones input and perspective and having all of us be accountable for everything we turn in and not just the last person who saw it.

By ensuring that we are effectively working as a team, I have been able to work on my goal of relationship management. As a team member, I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you are doing more work than someone else, or feel like your not being heard. So in order to make progress on relationship management I am actively working to ensure that no one person feels like their not being treated fairly. I have been doing this by making sure we go through each assignment as a group to assign parts, and then have the group add input so even if someone is putting the final pieces of something together they aren’t solely responsible for what it will include. I have also made a significant effort to make sure the quieter members of the group get hear. While I am one of the three softer-spoken members of my group, I have made it a point to speak up to and ask the opinion of the quieter members so everyones voice can be heard. I think that by helping others to speak up I am seeing the importance of having all members of a group contribute their opinion, which in turn is helping me to speak up and contribute. By having all members contribute their opinions we have been able to complete assignments more accurately which will ultimately help our projects success.

Fish On Dry Land

As the initial proposal presentation becomes nearer, the more frenzied my group and I seem to become. While we have a very clear idea of the need we are trying to address, anytime we attempt to figure out our next course of action we seem to flounder. I think that part of our problem has still been jumping ahead and trying to finalize a solution before we have finished outlining, defining and researching the need we are trying to address. In response to the repetitive floundering, I have made numerous attempts to challenge the process and try to refocus our efforts on the task at hand. Generally, I have been doing this by throwing out blanket statements of “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves and need to refocus on the need we are try to fulfil, “or as of our last two meetings just throwing out as many possible courses of actions of possible. In doing these things I think I’m trying to attempt to make progress in my LDP goals of challenging the process, but am overthinking my other goal of maintaining group relationships which generally leads to me spouting out ideas but not reinforcing why we may want to consider that course of action because I’m still not quite at a point of wanting to outright disagree with group members. Personally, despite my efforts (which are probably more exaggerated in my mind than in actuality) to be open to various members ideas, I find myself backtracking and discrediting their ideas, and maintaining the illusion that my way is the right way (though I have never actually said it aloud to my group). When reflecting on that ideation and our progress, logically I can discredit that idea, but in the moment while those suggestions are being made I struggle to remember that logic. In order to combat that rudimentary thinking, delving into those ideas, asking questions and exploring those suggestions as legitimate courses of action may help to pull me out of that thought pattern I think I need to focus more on challenging the process in a deeper sense and supporting those challenges and try to keep in mind that I can maintain a positive relationship with my group while disagreeing with them.

The Beginning

Up to this point in the class, I have found myself actively attempting to understand and manage myself, as well as understand and work with others. Today was the first time my group met outside of class, and during this time we worked on the team agreements for the project. Meeting outside of class and on this particular assignment really gave us time to see how we interact with each other, without the structure of a classroom. I think we were really able to gain insight into how we work together as a team and what roles we all take on, weather it be instinctually or by a conscience decision. While I didn’t reach too far outside my comfort zone in volunteering to take notes for the duration of meetings and to email my group reminders prior to our meeting time, I think that I made headway in my relationship with my group by volunteering to complete these tasks.

Leadership Development Plan (LDP)

In past leadership experiences I consider myself highly adept at modeling the way and leading my example. It’s rare for me to not follow through on a commitment or to complete my work in a timely fashion. Although I appreciate feedback and attempt to adjust in order to accommodate those critiques, I generally don’t seek it out. Being a more soft-spoken person, I usually attempt to complete my work not only to meet the requirements, but also to satisfy fellow group members as to not need to be given any negative feedback.

In terms of inspiring a shared vision, I’m very open to group suggestions in addition to making compromises in the decision making process. I try to incorporate all participants’ ideas into what we are doing in an attempt to void any possible situations of conflict. I generally see the work for its face value and struggle to find a higher purpose or meaning. While I do generally tend to think a few steps in advance I find it to be a struggle to look to the future and imagine what the full picture is.

While I do set high standards for myself, and my own work, it’s unusual for me to challenge the process in a position of leadership or group setting. I generally find myself as the planner/organizer in the group in the beginning, but find difficulty in managing a group of people to adhere to that plan, which leads me to shy away from adding any additional challenges.

I am usually very supportive and encouraging of other group members, and enabling other to act. I rarely find myself competing in groups and instead try to gain input from all involved. While I find it difficult to trust others with completing tasks because I sometimes get rutted into the idea that my way is the best way, I’m a firm believer in delegating tasks and sharing responsibilities.

I think that I do well recognizing when people do good work and let people know when I think they have done something well. These accolades are generally something that I ensure the person knows personally, in contrast to sharing my feelings with the entire group.

Action Plan 1: Challenge the Process

Currently, I stick to the basics when it comes to completing any sort of task. I complete what is required in order to just meet the standards. I rarely question a teammates idea or plan of action even if I have objections. In a past group experience, I was assigned to a group with members seemingly unconcerned with the outcome, their actions reflected that they were less interested in meeting the projects requirements and more interested in simply having something to turn in. Instead of trying to challenge what we were doing, or our approach to the project, I merely completed my portions and saw to it that my portion alone met the standards. In the future I would like to be more assertive in challenging my group members whether it be by simply asking a question, or openly disagreeing and objecting appropriately. I think to go about this I will need to stay informed on our groups decisions as well as personal opinions in order appropriately judge the situation so I have specific feedback and suggestions for the group, opposed to broad suggestions like “we should try harder/ do more”.

Action Plan 2: Relationship Management

While I have never had an outright negative relationship with any group/partners, I tend to be a quiet contributor in group settings and avoid relationships beyond necessary communications and polite conversations. While I am always careful to talk to others in a kind and sensitive manner, I avoid getting involved with conflict at almost all costs and focus on my work on an individual instead of group level. During a class this past summer term I was grouped with two international students who, with English being their second language, were at times difficult to understand and communicate things to. I was very patient in trying to get past the language barrier, remained calm and didn’t let any communication-based barriers frustrate me. Despite my efforts to remain calm during interactions, I worried about how that barrier may effect the final outcome of the project, and instead of working with them to positively influence or collaborate with them, I instead focused again on my own work to ensure that my portion was more than enough to make up for any foreseeable issues (none of which occurred). In the future I would like to be supportive and compassionate, not just on my surface interactions but to actually have those things be true. In order to do this I believe that getting to know my teammates on a personal level (i.e. finding out their hobbies, interests, wants and desires in life) could help to build a foundation of a more personal relationship and also improve my ability to communicate, bond and collaborate with them.

Self Assessment