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?
Made! You don't have to be born a leader — it's a skill like learning how to ride a bike.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
- Communication
- Accepting feedback
- Being more decisive
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 communicate with them and see how we can resolve it as a win-win situation.
@usefulSummer3139
those are really good tips 👍
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made because not everyone has all the qualities and characteristics of a complete leader, so these qualities can be acquired through learning.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
communication, providing feedback, and decision making.
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 communicate with my team members, find common ground, and work toward achieving the goals we set for.
@Helpingheart23
I loved your answers about whether leaders were born or made. People need a chance to grow, and so do leaders
@Helpingheart23 it's wonderful how you value communication. Well said!
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
I think that leaders are born as humans, and made through effort, mistakes, patience and practice.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I would like to work on managing my time , priorities and energy, as well to be confident in doing what I love to do.
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 try to find the root of the problem, the why of the conflict and try to communicate 1-1 with the members to understand where they're coming from.
@blissfulForest7074 l like how you will find the root of the problem. Good job!
@blissfulForest7074
That's an interesting taken on leaders but it is true that it comes from humans and important for people to see it as it is and not something out of perfection. Humans are living beings that come to the world to learn and grow with it and that comes with all kinds of emotions, thoughts and experiences that are both good and bad as long as the human strivers to give back to the world.
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
I believe leadership is something that we learn and get better at with time and practice, it's like a muscle that we keep training. So I would totally say made!
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Decision making- I find it difficult to make a final decision at times, making a decision for the whole team sounds very challenging.
Communication- I think I can improve that, I believe communication is the most important skill, by communicating we can grow bigger and stronger.
Time management- I want my team to feel loved and comfortable in their work area, but also i want them to be hard workers, employees who value time and get the work done without flimsy excuses.
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 value their feelings, listen to every member point of view.
Then, I will ask every person to write down the skills that they are most good at. And then I can decide which responsibility every member should be taking.
@Here4good74
That’s a good idea for the team to write their values and see what they have in common. They can also share how they think getting to those values will be helpful and see and accept their differences.
@Here4good74 Very nice conflict resolution technique! That form of skill evaluation gives each member time to evaluate themselves and they areas they both are best in and also areas they can use improvements
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
Definitely made! we dont need to be only born to become a leader.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
1. resilience for sure. in some cases , I become stressed out easily and the other negative feelings which it needs to be worked on .
2. important one - adaptability
3. needs to work a bit more on communication as well.
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 asking all the members thoughts without judging them for sure , and try to declare each member's ability and see which responsibility is the best for each of them.
@niceworldmnd
Amazing keep it up
@niceworldmnd
Communicating is a good and tough one to practice especially when everyone communicates differently and intertwined with the adaptability part which is also needed to be able to communicate well with people consistently.
@niceworldmnd Very nice conflict resolution technique, it's like form of evaluating your team to help delegate the roles that's a proper fit for them
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
Leaders are made because anyone has the potential to learn and be taught leadership skills. Being a leader also takes years of experience and accumulation of self-awareness as well as awareness of what’s going on in their community and surroundings. It takes practice to effectively be proactive in making something better than what it was and to guide people to take these following actions.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
Skills I need to improve on:
1-confidence- I want to get better at showing what I know to people and trusting what I know and reflecting that in my communication to people such as not being wavering if I tell them a date and when someone asks me I freeze or sound doubtful.
2-decision making- I want to also get confidence so I can have an easier time deciding on what to do going through with those decisions and being ok with stumbling here and there as long as I preservere.
3- time management- I want to get to using my time better like practice measuring realistically hoe long people may or may not take to do something and adjust accordingly.
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 first ask my team members to take a few minutes to breathe in and out slowly, to take a complete pause. After this I would ask them to take a few minutes to write about what they think will be good and bad outcomes of the responsibility shares. After these few minutes I would have each one share what they put and then see if anyone has questions about anything the persons shared. Once this is done we would gather that things that most of us agree on and from there discuss other things we can compromise or negotiate with that will be in best interest of the project itself and acknowledge everyone’s efforts and feelings.
@Mari228 Your conflict resolution is very compassionate and shows you care about your team's overall well being as priority so that the project can thrive!
@Mari228
Great strategy for conflict resolution! You're doing great.
@Mari228 I support you in your journey towards a stronger self-confidence! <3
@Mari228 these are all great things to work on & you came up with a great solution
@Mari228
Great Insight
@SirenOfSerenity
Your strategy is different and I got something to learn from it. Good work, Siren!
@SirenOfSerenity these are good skills to work on :)
@SirenOfSerenity
I love how you put time management in!
@Heather225
Both. Everyone is born with a leader inside them but we need to find it, mold it and execute the skills to become a worthy leader.
Patience: I lose my cool a little easier than I'd like to.
Authoritative: I sometimes want people to do exactly what I tell them to do and not give their input.
Compliance: I don't like someone bossing me around, for any reason. I want to be able to accept feedback more.
As a leader, I'd first appreciate that my team members are enthusiastic about their work. I'd approach both of them in an open manner and highlight the skills they have and thus, come to the conclusion as to who will be a better fit. Also, assigning some other task to the other individual will divert their attention and reduce any bitterness.
@KimByeongIn I like how you would reach out to both of them and highlight the skills they have and thus decide on the better fit for the role. Also, good luck on the skills you need to improve.
@Heather225 1. Are leaders born or made?
From childhood, leadership qualities were something I always liked. I was a class monitor of my class and that always made me so happy. In school I was given an opportunity to help organize a school event and that got me very excited as I enjoyed doing it. So, I would consider being called a born leader
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
The 3 skills I need to work upon are
1st-: My communicating skills which are very important in teamwork to communicate and let the others know what I am thinking or expecting out of them.
The second skill would be to be more outgoing and bond with my fellow members of the team to ensure we work together. Outgoing and communicating skills would go hand in hand for me.
The third skill I can improve on is better execution. I come up with good ideas, but sometimes hesitate to take them forward. I want to be able to execute my ideas in a better way as a leader
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 them to take turns and express the role they are comfortable with. If more people are comfortable with the same work, I would try to distribute the work among them or ask them if they were willing to take up other roles in the team. If the situation goes out of hand, I will try to recognize the strengths of my team members and distribute the work according to that to ensure no more conflicts among the team members. I will try and satisfy all my members by the work they are given and make sure there is a healthy environment among the team
@yourbuddy30 I understand that you want to improve your communication skills, but I also want to commend you for it because you are one of the most effective communicators I have met so far here in 7Cups <3
@CosmicMiracle That means a lot Cosmic. It is a progress for me. Thank you
@Heather225
1. Are leaders born or made?
I believe nobody is born a leader, but I think the parenting skills of the parents alone can help a child naturally develop the skills to be a leader, but if this is not the case, these skills can be learned, some people may struggle due to life circumstances, disabilities and learning difficulties but with good leadership and patience, I believe everyone can become an amazing leader.
2. Identify 3 skills that you need to work upon?
I would like to improve my communication skills, although I'm not generally too bad.
I would like to improve my time management as this can cause issues for me and will be extremely important to being a great leader.
I can't think of any more right now but the above are very important and I believe no matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement.
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 the lead, it would be my responsibility to ensure things run smoothly and effectively, so it would be important to have a team meeting and explain to each person what they are doing and if they have any concerns regarding their ability to complete the task, team work is the best work and I believe good leaders would take this time to have a great time than a disruptive one.
@iCareUK time management is also something that I need to improve on! <3