Course 4. Foundational Leadership Principles: (Discussion #2) Learning Leadership Skills

1. Are leaders born or made?

I believe that leaders are both born and made. Because the outer environment has a significant impact on the child, for example, during elementary school, a girl is always the leader, of our class, even the whole grade. However, her family was nearly broken, and at last, unfortunately, her parents got divorced before she graduates. So I am not considering how she leads, but her family made the characteristics that help her to lead, and forced her to have the confidence to lead.

At that time, I wasn't in a happy family, and I moved to Beijing, the capital, that makes me so nervous. Plus, I am Pisces. Though I was the tallest girl in my class, that can only reduce my confidence. So I was a leader, but a smaller one. And until now, I still haven't developed a great leadership style.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Communication skill-I always mess up when organizing things, I always make overlaps, because I have trouble explaining stuff and organize. That's the most important thing I should improve at this time.

Time keeper-My procrastinating skill is unmatched

Trust-trust other people is such an important skill as well! If you don't trust your group members, how can you get things done properly?

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

First, I will quickly get to know what's the issue here and come up with some different solutions.

Second, I will open up a meeting, and communicate with both of them to see what kind of solution they want, and I will propose a better solution based on their solution. But first, I want my group to be peaceful again, everyone apologize for the conflict.

Third, I will let them follow the new plan and monitor frequently to see if there should be any changes.

@Heather225

Questions:

Are leaders born or made?

Leaders are mostly made, though some individuals are more naturally capable of leading. We all are born with the capability to lead, but how we lead, the leadership style must be adapted and learnt in a lifetime journey.

Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Consistency

Communication

Decision-making

Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

I will hear each team member seperatedly, what are there views on the responsibiity share problem at stake. Then I would make my judgment, but would still try to involve and engage them all in the conflict resolution, in a positive and effective way, one that maximizes the company's/organization's goals and long-term vision.

1. Are leaders born or made?

I feel like it can be a little bit of both! While environment might be a factor in helping someone grow their leadership skills, I still feel like anyone can be a leader. Some people might be born with certain leadership skills, but even if you are not born with them, you can still learn them overtime. And even if you are born with them, that is not the end, you still can work on them, and learn, and grow, and improve.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

1.) As a leader, it can be important to work as a group, but at times you might also have to do a bit of independent work. I feel like I struggle with being independent, and would definitely like to work on this so I am not heavily reliant on others.
2.) Time management. I definitely struggle with this, and really need to work on this.
3.) Confidence, I feel like I could work on being more confident with myself, my leadership skills, and my decisions.

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

I would definitely encourage them to practice conflict resolution among themselves, and I would also try to arrange a meeting so everyone would have time to speak interrupted about how they are feeling, and see if we could work together as a team to come to a fair agreement.

4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in the thread!

Okay!

I think leaders are made and I am a prime example of that. When I was younger I was always shy and never took initiative, but now as an adult I find myself in leadership positions in school and I am now more confident in myself to lead.

The first skill I would like to improve is being a better communicator, another skill I need to improve on is being able to keep myself confident, and feel bad when something does not go my way. Lastly, I need to improve on being able to delegate responsibilities.

My first step would be to hear both sides and try to be as unbiased as possible. Next I would try to have them figure out what needs to be done since arguing or disagreeing will not get anyone very far. If no compromise is reached I will try to offer one and try to negotiate with both sides to see what they think.

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?

Leaders are mostly made. People are born with natural potentials, but everyone still has to train, gain experience, and hone their skills in order to actualize that potential. And people who don't feel like they are "naturally" good at leadership are able to learn or become more comfortable with it over time.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Of the skills listed in the original post, I feel like the three I probably am worst at would be:

• Resilience - being able to not feel too shaken or personally affected if something goes wrong
• Adaptability - I've noticed that sometimes an initial plan will be very well fleshed out, but something will occur that requires revamping the entire thing. Something I hope to learn from experience is to be able to sense/anticipate how much work is actually useful at different stages of a project. (Like, maybe early on just start with a sketch, wait for everything to get ruined and change directions multiple times, and only start making definite plans or meticulously sculpting details once the dust has settled.)
• Clear vision - I have a tendency to sometimes get very fascinated by details that are genuinely interesting and enjoyable but for which the effort and attention don't necessary have a good "return on investment" (i.e. I might spend hours working on perfecting something that is really a very small detail that doesn't matter very much in the grand scheme).

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

I'm going to assume that the "responsibility share" problem is that two people are working on a team together and one of them feels like they're doing an unfair/excessive amount while the other person isn't carrying their weight or doing enough.

• Something I'd try very much to do is to understand and empathize with both sides, but especially the person who has raised the concern.
• I'd check whether there are any existing/agreed-upon standards or rules that can serve as an objective benchmark for what is acceptable or not.
• If someone is not meeting the standards, then I'd point this out but then try to approach it with empathy as a challenge to be figured out together with that person and try to come up with a solution.
• If everyone is meeting the standards or no standard exists, then I'd try to encourage open discussion and invite everyone to share what their thoughts/feelings are about the situation. And again, it would just become an interesting problem that is understandably difficult (and so possible to empathize with and be compassionate about) where we want to see if we're able to come up with a solution that feels comfortable/workable.

4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in the thread!

Will do

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?
Definitely made. People may acquire some skillset naturally, but to be a complete leader, we must learn a few things on our own.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
a) Acting more than planning
b) Giving rewards
c) Delegation
Maybe these three are related. If I learn to reward well, I will delegate more. And by that, I will have a reliable team to execute the action.

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?
I will step in and analyze the responsibility at hand and their individual ability to take on that responsibility. Then break down the task, if required, and give them partial responsibilities.

4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in the thread!
Sure

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?

Both. I feel there are people who have natural traits of a leader. I also feel like someone can learn to be a leader later in life. It all depends on what route they want to take in their life.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Assertiveness- I can be quiet and timid at times and I want to find my voice

Self-care. I feel this is an essential skill because we can get so wrapped up into our responsibilities that we never take time for ourselves and make sure we are able to give 1000% if we do not feel it.

Time Management. I tend to overbook myself and I need to learn how to prioritize more or say no to certain things.

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

If there is a conflict among team members, I would listen to both views separately, I will then bring them together to help mediate the situation and come up with a resolution together.

@Heather225

Are leaders born or made?

I believe people are born to be leaders. I think that the innate confidence and charisma is not something that you can learn.

Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

1. Allow people to make mistakes
2. Continue to be patient and not feel like everything needs to be done yesterday
3, Delegate more to allow myself to continue to grow

Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

I would gather the team to have a discussion on what each person is doing and I would want them to work together to sort out how we can more equitably distribute the workload.

1. Definitely I feel as though leaders are made. It could be argued that there's genetics involved, i.e. a country leader's son/daughter may become a future country leader, but there's no cause and effect there. Was it because of biology, or was it because they grew up in a certain environment?
2. Communication, resilience and perhaps conflict resolution.
3. I think in this situation, I would look at the responsibilty needed, and assign a level of responsbility to all team members to ensure equality. If the shares were not equal, I would rotate every day/week/when needed, so that each team member experienced less/more than the other team members.

1. Are leaders born or made?

Anyone can become a leader, so made!

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Problem-solving, decision making and being able to adapt to things!

3. Imagine, you are a project lead and there is a conflict among your team members over responsibility share. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?

Think about the long term goal and then ask each member what they would like to do.