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

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?

I think there is always a contribution of nature and nurture, both free will and determinism. A leader is made through their choices - whether it be in personal or professional development.

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

Providing others with feedback - I’m not good at doing this because I don’t want to hurt peoples’ feelings.
Sometimes decision paralysis can be a problem - gotta learn to trust gut or at least have a good team to help me with decision making when it becomes overwhelming.

This ties into the 3rd skill I thought of which is confidence. Believing in oneself makes up a sizeable part of successful leadership. I suppose building confidences is a trial and error process that comes with experience and patience with yourself.

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?

Speak to each person individually so that they feel heard out ( based on the team size). Then meet them collectively as a group and moderate the discussion so that we can come to a compromise without pointing fingers.

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made! I am a believer that all great traits can be acquired by anyone who puts their mind and efforts towards developing themselves. Even great leaders can continue developing their leadership skills to continue to become better leaders through time.

2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I would like to work on my (1) trust in others, allowing them to take charge and believing in their abilities without the need for my supervision and check-ins; (2) communication with others so there is warmth and assertiveness in how I speak with team members – keeping the balance for consistency and clarity; and (3) my perfectionism – I would like to be less hard on myself and others and accept that “perfect” doesn’t exist.

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 be sure to investigate the conflict fully first – one cannot make good decisions and take action unless one knows everything involved in a situation. Then I would be sure to communicate with all the members on my team so we can all be on the same page and can generate ideas as a group working towards the same goal. Ideally each team member will show their strengths and each one of us can go off, complete our tasks to the best of our abilities and come back together to work as a team in the collaboration of all these different tasks we completed. It is important that we all stay positive, take into account our weaknesses and support one another with the main goal always in mind.

Are leaders born or made?

Leaders are Made- A leader develops over time, some may naturally want to take charge but this does not necessarily make them a good leader. A leader develops over time, learns from their mistakes, listens to feedback and works as a team member

3 skills that you need to work upon?

Communication- ensuring that my instructions are clear and understood

Time Management- Planning out my tasks and sticking by a realistic time frame

Motivation- Motivation in myself and also making sure I motivate others on my team

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 possible I would discuss with the two members what the really issue is. I would also try to share the responsibility between the two. If it was not possible to do this then I would pick one for the task and inform the other that they would have the role for the next task.

1. Are leaders born or made?

Leaders are made!
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?

Patience, communication, and trust
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 listen to the team members and identify the strengths of each member. Based on the strengths, I can assign additional responsibilities for all and reassign if needed.

Effective Leadership starts with utilizing skills to guide your team. There are different research and studies that show that to be a good leader, one would require a blend of some key skills like communication, problem-solving, decision making, conflict resolution, clear vision, integrity, emotional intelligence, listening, empathy, adaptability, resilience, etc.

Behavioral Theories believe that people can become leaders through the process of teaching, learning, and observation. Leadership is a set of skills that can be learned by training, perception, practice, and experience over time. Leadership learning is a lifetime activity.

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it is the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: we are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated. -- J.W.V. Goethe

The same is true with leadership. You may or may not have all the required ingredients of becoming an effective leader. And, thats totally okay. You can acquire them by learning. Taking small steps every day. That is how one learns, practices, and masters skills.

1. Are leaders born or made? depending on the situation leaders can be born or made. some people are just born with leadership personality traits such as being outgoing or open-minded. other qualities such as being a hard-worker can be made if you have to provide for your family.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon? perseverance, persuasion, problem solving
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 ask to hear both sides of the story, use active listening, hold accountable, find common ground, make necessary adjustments, and lastly, ask for final feedback.

@Heather225

1. Are leaders born or made?

Leaders are made, we can learn how to become leaders through working continuously on ourselves, noticing our strengths to make use of them and noticing our weaknesses to work hard to improve them while being open to get feedback from others and be aware of our personal growth

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

- Decision making: I hesitate to make decisions and sometimes my decisions are impulsive which might cause lots of problems when I'm a leader
- Communication: I need to be capable of having good communication skills especially when it comes to team work because we need to know each other more to exactly understand what's the best way that everyone works with
- Emotional intelligence: I should be more patient, confident and know how to treat each one of the team members to bring the best results


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 calmly listen to both sides and try to make them both understand each other's point of view by explaining what the other meant. I wouldn't side with any of them and tell them that conflicts always happen and it's ok but we need to try putting ourselves in the other person's place. I would use their strengths to let the work go smoother and even better as a team.

@Heather225

Are leaders born or made?

I think that leaders are made! Certain opportunities to do good and to change for the better arise throughout life, I think the ones who take them opportunities to learn and to grow are building their path to becoming a leader in any aspect of life. Things condition people into becoming leaders, people adapt and grow further towards being a leader.

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

I think I need to work on the ability to trust in my actions and decisions more. To be more confident in certain social situations. To work on my mental health self care too!

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 approach the situation calmly and open minded. To resolve and manage a situation of conflict you should get to understand what is going on. So it's important to do that before saying anything. I will make all involved people feel heard and understood and remind them that we all are here as a team and all are working towards the same goal. Then I would make the necessary adjustments to the project if needed

@Heather225

1. Leaders are made, we all have to grow and learn even at a young age. Whether you’re naturally attributed towards leadership qualities, we can all learn how to be a leader.

2. 3 skills I could work on are time management, communication, and readiness.

3. I approach the situation by mediating, I hear both sides and show support, finding the best solution.

1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made, like with every mastery it is a skillset to develop.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Being good at communication (communicating well will make me more confident and being more integrated into what other people think), problem solving (and time management - both will help me find the best approach in difficult situations), decision making (will help me to define a goal and ways achieving it).
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 make a meeting where everyone could constructively discuss distribution of the roles. And then distribute them based on peples' abilities, and strengths, and weaknesses (including some of their agreement based on opinions).

1. Are leaders born or made? �

Definitely made!

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

Decision making, communication and organisation

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 take everyone's thoughts into consideration.