leadershipasajourney-blog

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Indian Talking Stick and Intentful Listening.

I found the video clip on Indian Talking Stick to be quite interesting and decided to practice this with one of my best friends. I sent him the link to the video, and we decided the word ‘timeout’ as our implied talking stick when one person says ‘timeout’ the other person should stop talking and start listening. It was quite amusing at 1st because we both were confused about when to stop talking but after a while, we realized this exercise to be rather enlightening.  We’ve been friends for over a decade but both of us have been busy the last couple of years with work and school so we did not get many opportunities to get together and talk about what was going on in our lives. So we decided to talk about his recent relationship which ended leaving him in a pretty vulnerable position.

What I experienced That was Important or Interesting.

The most important aspects I uncovered by applying this method of listening were the depth and clarity of our conversation. I’m the kind of individual who always finds a way to make a conversation humorous with my sarcastic comments no matter how serious it could be while my friend is a good listener.  By applying the Indian Talking Stick method, I could not interfere when it was his turn to talk. This made our conversation clearer. I gave him more space to keep talking while I was focused more on listening. I quickly realized how deep the conversation could go and the tough time my friend had to endure during the last few months. In the end, I apologized for not actively listening when he brought up his situation the last time we talked.

What I Learned About Building Trust From Intentful Listening From This Experience.

From this experience, I learned that when intentful listening establishes trust within individuals. When my friend realized that I was more focused on listening rather than talking, he opened up to me talked about his feelings which he rarely does.

How I Might Apply This New Knowledge To Another Leadership Opportunity.

Intentful listening is a skill that every leader should be focused on developing. It portrays that the leader values his/her subordinates’ contributions towards facing challenging situations. In future leadership opportunities, I will apply the knowledge I gained from this experience, by actively listening to my followers’ ideas and suggestions without prejudice. This is important to make them feel valued and enhance their morale. This will also make me a respected and effective leader.

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The Opportunity I Had to Apply My Leadership Credo.

The Situation and What Happened.

Last week, my roommate had to face a challenging and stressful situation. He was doing an assignment and suddenly his laptop started beeping with a warning window saying there’s a serious hardware malfunction that needs immediate service attention. And the assignment he was doing was due in a few hours. I personally have never experienced a situation like this, and my roommate was panicking since he had no time to get his laptop repaired by a professional.  I quickly looked up the model number of his laptop and the issue he was facing as being initiative is in my leadership credo. I did some in-depth research on the internet and figured out with certainty, that there was an issue with the laptop fan. There was an informational video on YouTube on how to fix such issues. I borrowed some screw drives from our landlord and started to take the laptop apart carefully. I was certain and focused on what I was doing even though this was a whole new experience for me. Once I did that I could see some dust and debris stuck in the laptop fan which was affecting its functionality. Then I cautiously cleaned the dust and debris and put all the components back together and once I did that the laptop was functioning smoothly as if there was no issue in the first place.

 What I Experienced That Was Important or Interesting.

This situation was quite challenging since I had no experience on the subject matter, which I found to be unbelievably interesting and tense at the same time. I was also taking a considerable risk because I would have been responsible for any damages that would have been caused. The only guidance I had was a brief video on YouTube which was uploaded by an experienced professional. However. I was glad and extremely satisfied that I handled the situation successfully. 

What I learned about my leadership from this experience.

What I learned from this situation was that I could always take the 1st step in a challenging situation with certainty as per leadership credo. And having a focus on where I am headed is of utmost importance in order to have a clear vision of my destination. I also realized that dealing with challenging experiences is what makes or breaks the leader within an individual.

How might I apply this new knowledge to another leadership opportunity?

I’m confident that I will be able to apply the knowledge and experience I gained from this situation as an exemplary leader. I could use my strengths of focus and certainty, combined with my initiative skills to take charge of leadership opportunities whenever possible. I could also use my strength of proactiveness to anticipate possible challenging situations and be prepared to lead my subordinates successfully. In conclusion, my leadership credo is the ultimate tool that would help me become an effective leader.

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My Followership Commitment.

I will commit to being an effective follower by actively participating and enhancing my critical thinking abilities. I will not hesitate to put myself at risk and initiate change in order to serve the best interest of the organization. I will initiate opportunities for personal growth which are also in line with the organizational goals and objectives, to become a follower who strives for growth, who is futuristic and loyal. I will be committed to the task at hand by going above and beyond as responsibility is one of my leadership strengths. I will integrate my personal values and leadership strengths for my followership commitment since an effective follower is in fact a leader.

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My Top 5 CliftonStrengths.

Following are my top 5 CliftonStrengths based on the assessment completed in Strength Finder 2.

1. Futuristic.

The future never fails to fascinate me. I could see the details of the future as if it is projected on a screen. And this detailed picture is what keeps me pulling forward. I could identify myself as a visionary thinker. My vivid mental images of the coming months, years, or even decades often motivate me to move into action.

I will use this strength at school by surrounding myself with individuals with similar futuristic mindsets. Moreover, I could use this strength to identify individuals who are highly enthusiastic but need a little guidance to become futuristic and transform them into visionary thinkers. By doing so I’m confident that I could become an exemplary leader.

2. Focus

I see myself as a person who strives to reach my goals and succeed. Most of the time I prefer to be fully in charge of things that directly affect me. It’s most likely that I sometimes put in long hours performing assigned tasks. Perhaps I do whatever is required, even when it means inconveniencing myself. I may choose to wake up one, two, or three hours earlier than usual because I do my finest work when you are rested.

I will use this strength at my workplace to position myself as an individual who is dependable and who will always go above and beyond to achieve set goals and objectives. I have already attained the impression of someone who is responsible and who needs less supervision. Therefore I could use this strength to further excel as a leader at my workplace.

 3. Significance

I prefer to associate myself with individuals who are driven to excel and highly productive. I occasionally understand when and how exactly to spotlight someone’s finest accomplishments. I know how to make others feel good about themselves and I often push people to achieve nothing less than great accomplishments. Simply put: I usually want to spend time with people who are known for their accomplishments just as I am recognized for my successes.

I will use this strength in order to share my dreams and goals with my coworkers to motivate them to reach greater accomplishments as well as to keep myself motivated.  Also, I will use this strength to stay focused on performance and to push myself to become an admirable leader

4. Communication

Driven by my talents it’s relatively easy for me to initiate conversations. It is very likely that I enjoy surrounding myself with companions rather than being alone. I highly appreciate the discussions I have with future-oriented thinkers. I’m undoubtedly attracted to those who really enjoy my company and carefully listen to my ideas.

I will use this strength at school to network with highly driven individuals. This will definitely become an advantageous strength whenever I come across challenging situations at school such as group projects. I can use this strength to actively participate in such challenges as a leader.

5. Responsibility

It’s very likely that I probably want to work on my own because I thrive in settings where I can function independently. I have a strong need to know each task has been done correctly and ethically before I declare it is done. I generally push myself to excel by recalling the obligations I have accepted and the promises I have made. Chances are good that I am quite comfortable being honest about myself with others.

I will use this strength to volunteer for more duties at my workplace that match my experiences. I can use this strength to align myself with others who share my sense of commitment since I will thrive when surrounded by others who take their responsibilities as seriously as I do.

How One of My Leadership Strengths Was Used in a Leadership Situation.

Communication.

I’ve been finding it quite challenging to keep up with one of the courses I’m taking this semester at college. I had a casual conversation with two of my classmates and we quickly realized that we were on the same page about the difficulty of this course. So, we decided to create a virtual group to discuss questions and quizzes relating to the course and these discussions were equally beneficial for each one of us. Everyone was contributing towards these discussions, and I was so glad I initiated the conversation which ultimately lead to these discussions.

And the midterm exam for this particular course was held last week. Even though it was still a challenging exam, we were able to tackle it quite well since we were familiar with core concepts thanks to our group discussions.

The key lesson I learned from this situation was that implementing my strength of communication has been greatly beneficial in this practical scenario. Initiating the conversation with my classmates was the critical leadership moment in this case which ultimately lead us to achieve a common goal as a team

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My Leadership Experience.

My Leadership Experience.

For one of the courses I took in my 1st year of college, there was a group project to be completed. This project had a significant contribution towards the final grade of the course. We were assigned into groups randomly and there were 5 students in our group including myself. We had a brief discussion and I volunteered myself as the group leader since I was looking forward to a leadership experience.

Then we discussed how the workload would be divided among the members and everyone agreed to complete their assigned tasks. We also created a WhatsApp group so we can communicate with each other regarding the progress of our tasks and if anyone had any issues with them. All of the group members were actively participating in these group discussions except for two of them who were not responsive at all and they didn’t even attend the class next week.

Another week went by and the following week, all the group members were present in the class and everyone had completed their tasks. As the group leader, I was somewhat relieved and I took the responsibility of curating all our separate work into the final assignment which was due in a week. However, as I went through the work of the two members who were not responsive, I realized that their work was not aligned with the project requirements. I informed them about this and they replied to me saying that they were busy with work and they’d look into it whenever they get a chance. I was not impressed with their response and decided to complete their work myself so that I’d be able to complete the assignment properly and submit it on time. In the end, I was able to do so and our project received a good grade as well.

What I Learned from This Situation.

The key lesson I learned from this situation was that when you are a leader, your followers depend on you and you are mostly responsible for the final outcome of the task at hand. Moreover, leadership is an ongoing process and as a leader, you should always follow up on the tasks you have assigned to your group members. In this particular scenario I was not following up on my group members’ progress of their assigned tasks and at the final stretch, I had to carry a significant weight of their tasks. This situation could have been avoided with timely and proper follow-up with my group members.

 My Leadership Strengths and Skills As I Currently Know Them.

Responsibility

My strength of responsibility forces me to take psychological ownership for anything I commit to, and whether large or small, I feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion since my good name depends on it. If I cannot deliver for some reason, I automatically start looking for ways to make it up for it. In this scenario, I took the responsibility of being the group leader, and even though I was not the most successful leader, I made sure I fulfilled my leadership responsibility of completing the group project.

Dependability

As a leader, I can identify myself to be dependable. I make sure that I fulfill my responsibilities as required so that others can count on me to meet commitments and deadlines. Being a leader often implies that your actions have direct impacts on those around you. In this case, the timely and proper completion of the project had an impact on all group members’ grades. And everyone could depend on me as the leader to complete the project on time as required.

Competence.

I can identify myself to be a competent leader since I act, and deliver results. In this scenario, I volunteered to be the leader since I was confident about my competence to lead the group towards successfully completing the project and so I did.

 Leadership Skills I Would Like to Develop.

Planning

Planning is an important skill to develop as a leader since it acts as a communication tool as well. With proper planning, the group members/followers are well informed about what is expected to be completed by the end of a particular timeline. In this scenario, proper planning would have helped me reduce the stress I had to endure at the final stretch of the project. 

Communication.

Effective communication and effective leadership are closely interrelated. Lack of communication could lead to misunderstandings as well as it could reduce the level of motivation among the group members/followers to complete their assigned tasks. In this particular leadership scenario, my ineffectiveness of communication leads to some difficulties in completing the project.

Time Management.

Effective time management is a must-have skill for a leader. Establishing daily, short-term, mid-term, and long-term priorities is important for a leader to make sure that the task at hand is reaching completion. The team project would have been completed in a smooth manner If I had further excelled in my time management skills.