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

@Heather225

I personally believe that having too low expectations will affect the community in a sense that i will not realise my full potential and ultimately i wont be able to use my skills or tools effectively and which in turn will lead to low productivity for the community in regards of performance. Furthermore, theres also a fair chance that i will be getting my peers down or hinder the progress for my fellow leaders, which is not desirable.

Less warmth on the other hand will show my lack of dedication and will be unable to convey the true value and essence of 7cups that is being supportive. This both applies to the community as a whole and also my fellow course mates

@Heather225

Question: What do you think happens if you a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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?

Imbalance of Warmth and Expectations

I do go in more detail in the next sections, but in general, as a leader, if we have an imbalance of these, we would either not get our work done the best way that we can or we would lack communication and, well, warmth.

Expectations

1. In our 7 cups community, if we were to have low expectations, our community would not be able to improve and support others the best way that we can. In most communities, each community hopes to become a better version of itself in order to adapt and also to, well, put it simply, become more than it already is. If our community already has low expectations for its members, by this I mean listeners, members, and everyone, we would go nowhere. Speaking of communities, I recently also read an article that was pretty inspiring. The basic idea is that if we aren't improving as time goes by, we are deteriorating, and though it may seem harsh, but it's essentially pretty much true. Therefore, setting high expectations in our community is just as important!

2. As a leader, if we have low expectations, our work would be incomplete, not the best that it can be, and the community or area we focus on would not be the best that it can be! Our low expectations of ourselves would mean that we would not be able to achieve a lot more had we have higher expectations. As a famous quote says, "it is better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit." Afterall, setting higher expectations not only increases the amount of work done, but it also let's us learn and develop in the process. In my culture, there's also a saying that if our expectations are 100%, we might only be able to achieve 80%, but if our expectations are already at 80%, we might only be able to achiev 50% (I might have gotten the percentages wrong, but that is the general idea). I personally really like that idea, and I would definitely say that having high expectations is very important in every aspect as a leader as we are also representing our community as well!

Warmth

1. In our community, while setting high expectations is importanting, having high warmth is just as important and needed. We want our community to feel inclusive, welcoming, encouraging, and supportive. However, if we have low warmth, many leaders might give up midway, causing our community to slowly fall apart. Members and listeners might leave because they feel discrouraged and unimportant. In order to keep our community going, finding a balance between expectations and warmth is therefore very important. (I feel like I used too many "important" but)

2. Warmth also has a high connection to communication and how well our teams can work together. By having low warmth, members of our teams might feel not needed and leave the team. Most importantly, by having low warmth, some may not communicate with other members of the team because of the loss of, well, feelings and warmth, causing the quality of our work to go down as communication is a key part of every successful team. Having low warmth also leads to teams feeling discouraged, which in turn, does also affect our expectations as a team. Therefore, finding a balance between expectations and warmth is critical for our growth.

General

Maintaining and emphasizing the balance between expectations and warmth is important as one affects the others. Having low expectations can sometimes cause some people to feel unneeded, lowering our community's warmth level. At the same time, having low warmth can sometimes cause problems with communication, resulting in poor work and poor expectations!

What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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 I have an imbalance of these, I think that work would suffer, as well as personal fulfillment. If I had too low expectations, I would not thrive as I would never set a higher bar. If I had too low warmth, I would not have the support system necessary for success.

Having too little warmth or too low expecations affects the community because it creates an imbalance in myself. If I am unbalanced, then the community does not get the best work that I can do. It also impacts work with fellow leaders because with too little warmth, I may end up burned out and not be able to hold up my end of the bargain. If I have too low expectations, we cannot build each other up as leaders to grow.

@Heather225

Question: What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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 think having an imbalance of expectations and warmth as a 7 Cups leader will negatively impact the community and the teams that I work on. If a leader has too low expectations, then it would be difficult to achieve any growth in a community as the expectations would easily be met, leading to low effort and low participation. As well, having too low expectations will make it difficult to achieve goals when working as a team with fellow leaders, and also allow for unprofessional behavior. If a leader has too little warmth, then it would difficult to build a community at all. Communities are built on people and the interactions between them, and without warmth, it will be difficult to foster a sense of welcoming and create a positive atmosphere necessary for a community. Similarly, having too little warmth will negatively impact how you work with fellow leaders, taking away from the sense of togetherness, teamwork, and collaboration that helps projects succeed.

Question: What do you think happens if you a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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?

Expectations need warmth, we cannot expect others to put their spare time to projects and roles if we do not welcome them warmly and be a pleasure to work with. People need high warmth, this builds confidence and helps others to grow. If I have high expectations and high warmth then I feel like I am achieving something and building something worthwhile.

If a leader has low expectations - which can sometimes come as a prelude to burn-out - then the role is diminished and suffers from that lack of care and attention that is often missing when expectations drop.

If a leader has low warmth, well then not many will enjoy working with them or being on their team! People will not give their best if there is no warmth. They will sit and shiver on the outskirts of the role or team until someone new comes along that is high expectation/high warmth and full of beans with enthusiasm for the role or project.

Listening - One Step At A Time!

@Heather225

A) Low expectations and high warmth:

1 - this will impact the community because not much will be done in terms of developing, helping and progressing the community.

2 - this will impact how I work with fellow leaders because a lack of expectations such as professionalism could create and unsafe environment. In addition to this, we wouldnt be able to work as a team very well due to the fact that we arent set expectations so may not know how to help each other in terms of workload.

B) High expectations and low warmth:

1 - this will impact the community because the leaders may burn out as we wouldnt feel cared for so the services that we provide to people would weaken in quality and enthusiasm.

2 - this would impact how I would work with fellow leaders because there wouldnt be a sense of a team or support system.

@Heather225 im not sure if these posts from August posting should be in July cohort not sure if you noticed that

Question: What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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?

it ill deeply affect coommunity if too little warmth they will feel under valued not welcomed and low expectations will mean chaos i feel how it will impact working with fellow leaders is somewhat similar to wat i said above

@Heather225

the system becomes uncertain if there is unbalance, the confidence is upset then. since everybody would like to lean on stable main reason. important the tall expectation the magbízhatóság and because of the stability. important collaborating with the co-leaders, because this is a team and we must not pull each other down.

@Heather225

What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these?

The quality and efficiency of the team depends on a leader. So an imbalance in high expectation and high warmth in a leader would result in a team that do not fulfil the actual potential it has or a team that do not grow much personally and professionally, none of which is desirable. As a leader, I see it as my duty and responsibity to do maximum focused and efficient work at the same time enhance the team's growth.

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?

1. In a community, too low expectation would cause a decrease in its growth. High expectations are needed in a comunity for its members to out perform themselves. While too low warmth creates an undesirable environment for the members of they community where they do not thrive.

2. Low expectation from my side would negatively impact my work with my fellow leaders as i do not keep up to a certain quality of work that is required. While low warmth from my side would create a bad relationship with my fellow leaders, where there is general misunderstanding between us and they do not feel comfortable with me that would negatively effect the efficiency and quality work to be done.

@Heather225

What do you think happens if you, a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of these? 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?

High expectancy with little warmth creates an atmosphere of negativity for both the community and the leaders I work with. I equate this type imbalance, from personal experience, with micromanagement, non-constructive criticisms, and a feeling of unease that my position may be in constant jeopardy and/or that I am just seat filler with no name. High turn over and unfulfilled employees/listeners/leaders is a direct effect of this kind of environment.

High warmth with low expectations creates chaos. In my personal experience, this kind of environment leads to resentments. Someone has to be in charge and it's usually an employee who takes on the responsibility of taking care of critical tasks with little support from the team but lost of criticism in the way things are being cared for. Though employee longevity is to be expected in this atmosphere, the ones who do take responsibility will leave when the next opportunity becomes available. It's unrealistic to expect a business or a relationship to survive when it is always play time.

Finding the right balance will encourage team members to continue lasting relationships with me, would make someone more likely to reach out to me for help, guidance, and support, and, in maintaining high expectations of myself, would make me a dependable and trustworthy person to work with.