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

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

An imbalance of expectations and warmth can go two ways; either high expectations with low warmth or low expectations with high warmth. As a 7 Cups leader, it is highly likely that in both these instances, there will be a drop in the quality of work I put out and the relationships fostered between myself and both members and listeners would suffer.

How do you think having too low of expectations, or too little warmth, will impact

1.) the community,

Low expectations (& high warmth)
It can be very easy to slack off when expectations are low. This could lead to widespread lack of a sense of accountability and responsibility in the community. When this happens, problem solving progress is going to be slow; goals aren’t going to be accomplished as effectively, and both our personal and our collective 7 Cups gas tanks will be drained because negative behaviors like being distracted, making excuses and avoiding problems would become rampant.

Little warmth (& high expectations)
When there is little warmth however, the community can become prone to burning out because tensions are high. Being consistently put under pressure to perform and meet high expectations with little to no support or motivation, would lead to unfulfilling work and stagnated growth in both the individual and the community as a whole.

and
2.) impact how you work with your fellow leaders?

Low expectations (& high warmth)
Similarly to the aforementioned lack of accountability and responsibility, the way I work with fellow leaders would be adversely affected as well. When expectations are minimal, it would be easy for me to not take my work and collaboration with other leaders seriously, which would result in overall poor performance and below par work being done.

Little warmth (& high expectations)
On the other hand in a scenario where there’s little warmth, my relationships with my fellow leaders would very likely suffer, as there would be lack of friendliness, conscientiousness and trust between us. Without these key components, we would not be able collaborate with each other well nor trust each other to do what we need to do to be successful on 7 Cups.

I believe that having too little expectations will result in - 1. The community not reaching to its full potential and not allowing everyone to reach to their goals, individually and as a community as a whole. 2. I believe there won't be enough trust among the fellow leaders if I too little expectations. My fellow leaders won't be able to rely on me thus resulting into negativity and will therefore, affect the work that we do. Too little warmth would result into - 1. No friendliness in the group, it would be just something that we will do. Not something that we will be happily willing to do. 2. Lack of warmth will also result in lack of trust and the lack of feeling of team spirit amongst everyone.

I believe too low expectations can cause active listeners to slack off and indirectly make members feel not heard or supported. Too little warmth can also make members feel unwelcome on the platform. Too high expectations can cause burn out when the too high standards aren't met. Too high warmth can minimize the professionalism expected of active listeners.

@ Heather225 As a 7 cups leader, I personally believe that having an imbalance of expectations and warmth can steer down the immediate goals and target that is to be achieved in the short and long term, along with miscommunication and tensions between fellow members. Having little expectations on members can lead to failure in submissions, meeting certain deadlines and lack of inquisitive strategies and planning that needs constant attention, this effects the community that was promised consistent support. This approach might lead to fellow leaders acknowledging the lack of incompetency in my leadership. Warmth is the consistent care and understanding that is given to make one feel comfortable. Having less warmth effects the community by projecting a lack of social welfare, belonging and care which makes the plans and strategies seem more like a forced obligation. Less warmth among fellow leaders leads to misinterpretations of certain expectations and miscommunication, creating an envelope of obligations and forcefulness.

Hello Everyone!

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 I was a 7 Cups leader, have an imbalance of high expectations and high warmth, then I would not be able to do the work the best way possible and due to low warmth, my teammates would not be reaching out to me for any help, support, or for discussion and they may leave the role as well because of not being encouraged and enjoying to work with a team with low expectations and low warmth.

Low Expectations

If the community and members of the community have low expectations, then the community would not be able to improve and grow. Low expectations will result in not getting the work done in the best way possible as it could be with high expectations and not doing work the best way would lead to not fulfilling the role and ultimately the community would not be able to achieve its mission.

Having low expectations would also negatively impact my work with my fellow leaders and they would not be able to trust me and depend on me for that work and 7 Cups could achieve its mission by trustworthy and dependable leaders so due to low expectations, the work done would not be of good quality and therefore affecting the way of 7 Cups, towards achieving its mission.

Low warmth

Due to low warmth, members of the community may feel like talking to robots that are unwelcoming and compassionate. Many leaders could give up because of low warmth because expecting high-quality work from them and providing too little warmth to them could make them feel discouraged and not welcomed to support the peoples during their spare time on 7 Cups which will negatively impact the community towards achieving its mission.

Having low warmth would negatively impact my relationship with my fellow leaders and could make them feel uncomfortable working with me and therefore, they could not like to reach out to me for discussion or for anything which will be ultimately, negatively impacting the word done for the community.

Therefore, having a balance of both High expectations and High Warmth is crucial for a community to improve and grow together and achieve its mission.

Thank You!

Hello everyone :)

Having an imbalance of expectations and warmth means the scale is tipped on one side, quite unfavourably.

In terms of the community:

1) Having low expectations means I’m sort of putting down the capabilities of all involved. This means that as a community as a whole we may not be able to flourish because there is a lack of confidence among us. As humans, most of us deal with insecurities on a daily basis. When someone has low expectations for us, it can in a way, simply deepen those insecurities as we might feel that others too believe we aren’t capable.

2) Having low warmth may mean that there is a lack of care and acceptance. While warmth is a requirement in every environment, 7 Cups is a place where people come for support. So it’s one of the building blocks of this site.

In terms of my work with fellow leaders:

1) Having low expectations means there will be a gap created, in terms of what could potentially be achieved and what actually is. This would also indicate that ‘trust’ is not built without which an effective team cannot be built.

2) Having low warmth can cause a rift between my fellow leaders and I. Just as with low expectations, a lack of warmth will also result in lowered levels of trust. Be it for informal communication or formal discussions, a lack of warmth from my side can discourage the other leaders from having an open line of communication with me.

So, having too little of either warmth or expectations can be detrimental.

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?

Balance of expectations and warmth enables us to outperform and do better than the expectations. While, its imbalance can effect our quality of work or our performance. Because of this imbalance, I will not be able to fulfil my role as a leader.

The most important thing i can do to help 7 Cups is to work hard. Being distracted can affect me, my team or the community. Behaviour of a leader can provide an inaccurate image of the entire community.

My fellow leaders will not find me trustworthy and they won't trust me with their important things.

@Heather225

According to me

Low expectations can cause:

1)The community to grow slow 7 cups is a fast-growing community because of its high expectations.

2) Expectations motivate leaders to move forward and realize goals. Having low expectations would cause Leaders to feel unmotivated to take steps to realize their goals

3) it’s really important to have expectation because if you have no expectations then people don’t strive for things.

Low warmth can cause:

1) 7 cups community is all about high warmth. Having High warmth is what makes this community what it is today. Having low warmth would make people feel less welcomed and make things seem like a chore

2) Having high expectations but low warmth would cause people to feel highly pressured.

3) Warmth helps people feel comfortable in new situation when a leader take a new role and lacks warmth it can become difficult to communicate with fellow leaders

@Heather225

Having an imbalance of expectations and warmth can be quite devastating.

Here's why:

Low Expectations : If a leader here at 7 cups were to have low expectations, it would have great adverse effects on the community. A leader is tasked to "Lead" the juniors through easy and hard times. But with low expectations, Neither the leader nor the followers will find the righ motivation. There would be little to no goals, and the overall productivity will decline eventually

Low Warmth : A leader is required to maintain a peaceful yet professional environment. For that, it is quite necessary to have warmth. Without it, the communication will fail, there will be chaos in the community, and the level of co-ordination will be affected.

@Heather225

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

I think that if I have an imbalance, I will either be feeling a lack of love from 7 Cups and feeling pushed too much, or that I will be receiving so much love from 7 Cups, yet not feeling like I’m being given much to do.

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 that having too low of expectations will lead to me becoming too complacent, which will lead to the way I work with my fellow leaders not being its best. In addition, having too low of expectations will impact the 7 cups community because others will become too complacent too, leading them to not really give their best.

Having too little warmth in 7 Cups will lead to me feeling stressed by the work too much and feeling a lack of love from 7 Cups. This will lead me to not performing my best when I work with my fellow leaders, so I’ll end up naturally not putting as much effort because of the stress. In addition, the 7 cups community will be impacted because a good amount of people will feel that while the expectations consist of being a very loving warm environment to come to, that the 7 Cups environment isn’t resembling that. People can work so hard at something that they can actually end up not succeeding at what they’ve been trying to do because of trying too hard.