Course 2: Becoming a 7 Cups Leader - (Discussion #1) Welcome to Course 2!

Question: What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of expectations and warmth? How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact 1.) the community, and 2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?

If as a 7 Cups leader, I have an imbalance of expectations and warmth, I would not really do any good work around here. I will realize that I'm not able to bring in any value to the community or feel resentful of others (maybe even myself) for not doing enough. If expectations are high but warmth is low, it would be work I am not doing for the fun of it, rather I am bringing needless suffering on myself. If expectations are low but warmth is high, there would be no direction for what I am doing here. There would be friction between what I am doing at present and what I would've wanted to do more of.

What will happen if we have too low expectations or too little warmth?

1. For the community: There would not be any good progress. People will just try to do things here and there and leave it that. We wouldn't be able to be a growing community. There will be thoughts in the minds of others like2. if the leader themselves is not so concerned with the work that we are doing here, why should we care about it either? It makes the growth stagnant, slows down the work we do here, and restricts our growth as a whole.

2. Work with fellow leaders: We won't be able to meet at a common ground, our expectations and warmth will almost always be in conflict. I won't be able to feel "connected" with others and the community at large. I wouldn't know what work we can collaborate on to yield better results or treat them fairly well as another person volunteering to do great work on the site.

You can't give your life more time, so give the time you have, more life.

Low expectation but high warmth: It means you are a nice and friendly perso but don’t push yourself to achieve real progress High expectation but low warmth: you aren’t as friendly or approachable but you get a lot acheieved I think that the imbalance between the two causes a negative impact on our community because we need that balance of motivation and friendliness.

@Heather225

Balance is really important for everything. And as a leader of 7 cups, balance of expectations and warmth is necessary to maintain. But, no one is perfect. If I ever have an imbalance of expectations and warmth it will effect my leadership and as well as my work for community and others. The imbalance of expectations would effect in achieving goals and helping others. And, having minimal or low warmth would be little risky and overwhelming for people because it will cause lack of caring and trust.

1. Community-: Having too low expectations and too little warmth will impact community in negative way. With having low expectations, community can't focus on their goal. They will not do great. And, with having low warmth, community can't grow professionally too much moreover there will be lack of caring and support.

2. Fellow leaders-: When we are in a community, there is really need of strong and caring bond between people of the community. Low expectations will decrease the growth of our fellow leaders. And low warmth will make fellow leaders to feel not cared and there will be lack of communication and trust.

What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of expectations and warmth? How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact 1.) the community, and 2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?

i) Low expectations from community would mean that there'd be no dreams about the community's mission of kindness spreading across the globe.

ii) Low warmth to the community would make it impossible for it to grow fragrant. Only under the nourishing care of the sun and water, does a flower blossom.

iii) Low expectations from fellow leaders would send a low-energy signal and would delay work and hinder progress.

iv) Low warmth to fellow-listeners could make the work feel burdensome to them (than being enjoyable).

@Heather225

Question: What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of expectations and warmth? How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact 1.) the community, and 2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?

Having too little expectations and too little warmth impacts the community and fellow leaders in many different ways.

When there are low expectations, the standards also become lower. With lower standards, the elements of the 7cups core values and the 7cups leadership oath will lack and therefore will not be implemented or maintained.

When those elements are not implemented or maintained, things occur such as a dysfunctional and disorganized environment and overall morale gets lower.

With lower morale in the environment, it is hard to implement the practices of 7cups and to be able to achieve the 7cups mission of self-empowerment and excellence.

I think that by having too few expectations it will negatively impact the community as the work community leaders do won’t be as good as if the expectations were higher. For example, daily/weekly check-ins and monthly welcome posts are things expected of subcommunity teams. If expectations were lowered, then these posts may become inconsistent, which could end up with community members becoming less engaged with the subcommunity. If there was too little warmth, then I feel like community leaders may be more likely to feel burnt out as they feel their work is less valued.

What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of expectations and warmth?
As a 7Cups leader, I think an imbalance of expectations and warmth will result in lower quality of work being done overall, as well as relationship between others in the community, both members and listeners will suffer.

How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact 1.) the community, and 2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?
Low expectations and high warmth

1. Community progress is going to be slow and inefficient as it’s easy to slack off when expectations are low. This means behaviors that drain both our personal and collective gas tank such as being distracted, making excuses and avoiding problems will be much more widespread and problematic.
2. When expectations are minimal, it would be easy for any leader including myself to not take things seriously. As a result of this, the overall quality of work being done is poor.

Low warmth and high expectations

1. Low warmth and high expectations creates an environment in which people are under pressure to perform but little to no motivation to do the work. This results in people finding work unfulfilling and prone to burnout.
2. When there’s low warmth, there’s a lack of friendliness and trust in the environment. This would impact my relationship with fellow leaders and community members because we won’t be able to collaborate on tasks without trust.

I think having an imbalance of expectations and warmth as a leader won't show proper focus and the team wouldn't be able to thrive!

Having too low of expectations, or too little warmth would cause the 7 Cups community to lose its support and trust. Having too low of expectations, or too little warmth would cause our fellow leaders to not feel valued, respected, or heard.

@Heather225
What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of expectations and warmth? How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact 1.) the community, and 2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?

Having too low expectations-
If I have an imbalance with too low expectations, that would create a sense of mistrust and low accountability around me. My fellow leaders wouldn't be able to count on me to get work done and that will make the whole process very inefficient.

This in turn would also affect the community as a whole, because missing a deadline or ultimately failing to do some assigned work would directly affect a lot of people and drain the 7cups' tank, as highlighted in the guide.

Having little warmth-
Expecting high quality work from someone without motivating, supporting and encouraging them would make the work seem a lot harder than it actually is. It would provide no room for the person to grow, personally and professionaly. This would also make communication with fellow leaders very tough and ultimately result in non professionalism.

7cups is all about providing a warm, positive environment to every single person here. Showing less passion about the words mentioned directly opposes the mission of 7cups and drains the community tank. We are all accountable if a person doesn't receive the best support here and we should all collectively work towards that system.

Thank you for this post.

I think that the imbalance would cause a negative impact on the community and fellow leaders as there would not be any progress in its community itself and the community would slowly started to fall apart.