Course 4. Foundational Leadership Principles: (Discussion #2) Learning Leadership Skills
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Hello everyone,
Welcome back to the second discussion of the course!
John C Maxwell defines leadership as, a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.
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.
Next step, below in the comments of this discussion, share
1. Are leaders born or made?
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
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?
4. Please reply to 3 of your peers in the thread!
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@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
A leader is made and not born. The qualities that an effective leader needs can be learned throughout their lifetime by making amends and learning every day.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Self-Analysis, Giving up control and communication.
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 first listen to both parties. Next, I will try and negotiate. I will make them understand in a constructive way. I will also work on a key- plan for future conflicts.
@Prachi9876
Nicely explained... Also some nice strategies in avoiding future conflicts đ
@Prachi9876
I think communication is a skill that can be improved with personal experiences and getting guidance from mentors.
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made. Through training, learning, observation and experience one could learn more on leadership and excel in it.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Decision making : I need to know that not everyone will accept my decision or be happy about it, but I will have to focus on the majority and try to make decisions that are fair for most of the team members.
Organization skills: I should better organize myself with all the things I have to work on using the things I've learnt about leadership development.
Resolving conflict: I should improve more on this and prepare myself for such occasions where I will have to resolve issues using a fair mechanism.
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 of all I would identify the issue and find the cause. After the cause is found I'll talk with my team members separately to get their viewpoints on the issue and their ideas to rectify the problem. Upon successful communication with my team mates I will look into the feedback I've received and try to arrange the items from most common to most uncommon. This will allow me to see if there are ideas that complement each other or if the same idea is there among each other (even though it's not understood at the moment). Later on I will use all the feedback and come up with a creative solution for the problem. That I will be discussing with my team as a whole and let them know our vision, our goals and our simple tasks to achieve them. This'll allow them to see why we are actually doing this in the first place.
@bubblingBreeze14
Looking at resolving conflict sounds admirable. it is a necessary skill for all leaders.
@courageousheart96
Thank You â¤ď¸ and yup you are exactly right. Resolving conflicts is a skill any leader should learn.
@Heather225
Hello everyone đđđđđđ
1. Are leaders born or made?
I think leaders are made, usually moulded by their experiences, perspectives, struggles and achievements.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
- Time management
- Decisiveness
- 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?
The best way to approach this situation is by giving them the opportunity to voice their concerns so that they can resolve them as a team. They can look at the various solutions and see what is suitable for them to de-escalate the conflict.
@Heather225
Woahh! That was an amazing lesson. Really it helped me understand a few major points of being a leader. Below are my responses against the questions.
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made and not born. Anyone can be a good leader by brushing up the skills they need to do so.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Three skills I need to work upon are as follows:-
¡ Staying motivated
¡ Meeting deadlines
¡ Time management
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?
Being a leader I would escalate the issue by observing the work profile and history of both the ends. I will ask them the reason behind they donât want to perform a particular task and I would encourage everyone that we are all one when we are working together and every work which is being done is for us and not any individualâs profit. I would consider their effort and would appreciate them for doing the work. Meanwhile I would encourage everyone for the work they did.
I believe that leaders are made! You donât have to be naturally altruistic to be a leader. We can learn and practice the different skills necessary to be effective and supportive leaders in our communities.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I definitely need to work on my communication, organization, and conflict-management skills. When it comes to conversing with others and in my writing, I always have trouble with direct communication and with keeping others engaged in the conversation. Additionally, I sometimes have a hard time staying organized, and it makes it difficult to be productive and effective. Finally, I donât have very strong conflict-management skills, which causes me to shy away from challenges and to be less effective in conversations.
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?
As a leader, I would neutrally listen to both sides of the conflict and be open-minded about their perspectives. Then, I would ask all of the team members to discuss their responsibilities, as well as their strengths, weaknesses, and skill sets. Once that is accomplished, the team can divide up the work responsibility according to the points mentioned during the discussion.
@Nerdtastic01
Your plan for conflict resolution is amazing! I agree being open-minded and neutral is very important so that the team feels like a fair decision is being made, and having a team meeting where people can discuss things freely and delegate responsibilities amongst them due to their strengths and weaknesses is a great idea.
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
According to me, leaders are made.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I need to work on my communication skills, teamwork skills, and decision-making skills.
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 listen to both parties and work towards reaching a common solution for all.
@caringHope1976
I agree, making sure everyone feels listened to and supported is really important in resolving a conflict, and can help everyone to move past a tense situation.
@caringHope1976
Hello there, I agree with you. Leaders are indeed made rather than born. Although some people may find it easier to act in a leadership role, in the end, we can only become excellent leaders if we ourselves put in the effort to become one. I liked that you mentioned wanting to improve on your communication skills, teamwork skills, and decision-making skills. I feel that I myself should also work on these skills if I want to become a great leader one day. I also liked your solution to team conflicts. I agree, itâs good to hear both sides of the parties and negotiate a common solution to fulfill both partiesâ needs.
@Heather225
HI
1. Are leaders born or made?
I feel that we are all born leaders, we just have to activate that ability and use good resources to be able to lead in a better way.
2. Do you identify 3 skills you need to work on?
Working under pressure is something that I can't do very well, I go into crisis when there is no order.
Sometimes I'm bad at making decisions, that's why I prefer to work as a team
Sometimes I have to explain myself in a better way, I don't have very good communication because I'm shy but I'll work on that
3. Imagine, you are a project leader and there is a conflict among your team members about shared responsibility. As a leader, how will you approach the situation to resolve the concern?
First, to break the tension of the moment, I would make everyone calm down through a break, I mean that they can go to have a snack or a drink and then I would bring them together to brainstorm ideas to know what their needs or concerns are to solve it calmly
4. Reply to 3 of your partners in the thread!
@Crystaldancer
Taking a break when a conflict arises is a really good idea, and hopefully it will allow everyone to take a step back and dissolve any tension a bit, so you can move forward and start to brainstorm ideas :)
@Crystaldancer
Hello there, it is interesting to hear about how anyone could be a leader (I totally agree with you), but we just need to âactivateâ our ability to become a leader. Iâm happy to hear that you are very honest about the skills you need to work on, especially when you admit to not being able to work under pressure very well or that you can be bad at making decisions. I will also admit, I can benefit from improving my decision-making skills, as well as being able to better handle the stress when working under that much pressure.
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made! It takes time and dedication to develop the skills needed to become a good leader, and becoming a good leader takes a lifetime of improvement. There is always more we can do to improve and develop our skills. We can learn skills and qualities needed to be a good leader by observing and analysing good leadership, and actively using core aspects of leadership so they become integrated into our actions.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
1: Communication â in big groups I often feel overwhelmed and am unable to share my points effectively. Being able to improve on this would allow me to hold better team meetings and ensure a confident and structured meeting where more progress can be made.
2: Conflict resolution â I donât like confrontations so when conflict arises I am often quite passive and will take a step back instead of trying to resolve things. By building on my de-escalation and conflict resolution skills hopefully, I can become more confident in diffusing tense situations and helping a team work cohesively together.
3: Adaptability â I'm not very good at quickly changing when I have a set plan, so becoming more adaptable as problems arise will help our team to become more flexible and succeed in a wide range of situations. Facing problems and adapting also allows us to grow as a team.
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 first try to talk with them about it and use empathy to ensure they feel heard and supported. Then I would organise a meeting between us to have a discussion and get things sorted out. We would discuss openly the roles of each team member and I would give each person a chance to share their opinion in a supportive space. Then I would ask for ideas from everyone as to how we could solve the problem, so everyone feels included. I would then take steps to implement the chosen solution and regularly check in with my team to ensure that they are feeling that responsibilities are being shared fairly and equally, and adjust our solution if it appears to not be working as well anymore.
@Izzy274
Hi there, I agree with your reasoning as to why leaders are made rather than born. Youâre right, it does take time and dedication to become an excellent leader. Though some people may be more fit to become a leader than others (due to certain personality that helps them become one), in the end we can only become leaders if we put in the effort.
@Heather225
1. I think leaders are definitely made, we choose who we want to become.
2. Time management skills, taking regular self care breaks, less self doubt.
3. I would call a meeting and give everyone a chance to share whats on their mind and together we would work on the issue.
@Moonlemon48
I think I also need to work on self-care breaks as well as self-doubt. I think these things can hold us back. I wish you the best in your journey! You got this!
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are usually made, through the process of teaching, learning, and observations.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I should focus on improving my (1) communication skills, (2) decision making, and (3) adaptability , especially when facing changes in situations.
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?
For me with an affiliation leadership style, I should focus on using my gifts and talents in order to resolve this conflict among my team. In my case, since my particular leadership style focuses on building relationships with each other, I must remind my team that it is essential that we work as a team since although we may have our differences, we are striving towards that one goal.
@kindFish9215
Well-said.
@kindFish9215
It is very important to remind team members that we are in a team for a reason and it is important to work amicably together to harness everyone's strengths toward a common goal!