The Beginning of My LTB Journey Essay Example

to a new leadership paradigm. Previously, autocratic managers made all decisions and gave employees little freedom. However, recently, for competitive edge over competitors, organizations cannot depend solely on the company’s manager to make decisions and plan strategies. With the implementation of the new leadership paradigm, which aims for employees to partake in company decisions, managers can then fully ‘exploit’ employees’ expertise and abilities to attain optimal results. Furthermore, by sharing management functions and establishing good rapport with employees, they help create a greater sense of belonging to the company; in turn, employees see their importance in the company as well as are willing to be held accountable to their job scope and to put in extra efforts. With this, organizations can function more efficiently and effectively; eventually, emerging ahead of competitors.

During the ‘Forming’ stage of Tuckman’s 4 Stages of Group Development, the old management paradigm should be implemented, where the leader makes final decisions and facilitates discussions. Reflecting on my team’s initial actions and some of our subsequent meetings, if I have asserted more authority as a team leader and finalized decisions based on my discretion when awry discussions arise, meetings will have been more effective and efficient.

Getting to Know ‘Me’ as A Leader The online 5 Factor Personality test reports on my character traits in the Big 5 Assessment; certain character aspects of mine which I had knowledge of were put into words accurately, while areas where I only had a vague idea were now described in a tangible manner which I could understand with a reasonable degree of certainty. This was an important milestone as I could now identify

my dominant personal traits which allow me to not only recognize my workstyle, but also to take concrete steps to change my way of interaction with others. Understanding myself was only the first step; subsequently working in a team for my CSP offered numerous learning liberties, through managing the team, external parties, and most importantly, myself. These served to further nurture me as an effective leader.

Acquiring efficacious knowledge and skills from this module, I impart them to other Leads and my colleagues, while simultaneously, applying them in other projects and at my workplace. One clear example is the “Giving Praise Model”, which I have been unknowingly executing it every day. After reading “The One-Minute Manager”, I realized that 1 minute appraisal of one’s action, regardless whether a child or an adult, is a strong catalyst for continuous positive performance. For greater effect, I often praise my colleagues in the breakroom, where other colleagues are resting in while awaiting to return to their work positions, hoping positive behaviours are modeled too.

Learning to be An Effective Leader Much as we believe our capability of rational and objective thought, we are often influenced by our emotions. This then result in minor conflicts which, when left unresolved, may escalate into a crippling problem for the team. One of the talents of those skilled at conflict resolution is spotting trouble as it is brewing and taking steps to calm those involved. Once we understand the other’s perspective, we ourselves will become more accommodating, thus ending the conflict.

Hence, to be an effective leader, I need to improve on my emotional intelligence and flexibility. As a

Lead in a theme park, every day, I meet challenging situations, such as technical/guests issues or sudden evacuations. They require me to think critically and make immediate decisions to solve them while controlling my emotions so as not to affect my colleagues’ composure. Nonetheless, when stressed, I tend to display negative emotions unknowingly, sparking a series of comforting gestures from my colleagues. Likewise as Team Soin’s leader, when juggling to meet clashing deadlines in Week 12, at times, my disruptive emotions dampened the team’s mood, in turn, hindering the progress of scheduled rehearsals/meetings. Furthermore, in week 11, when asked to evaluate one another’s pluses and deltas, I was rather affected by an unjustified criticism from a member.

Perhaps, this could be attributed to my high in affiliation, though it was not an excuse to disregard the criticism. Besides realizing the need to be more conscious of my own emotions and not let them affect my work professionalism, I also have to recognize that constructive criticisms will benefit me in the future and not take it too personal. Similarly, during negotiations with Campus Cohesion Council (C3) on the undertaking of SMUPAL, Chanel and Yvonne showcased unfavourable emotions which sent a negative message to Gabriel, President of C3. This indeed did contribute to our initial unsuccessful negotiation process though it was also attributed to our team’s failure to plan before negotiating.

Growing as a Fair Team In all working environments, similarly in Team Soin, we recognized that equality in work distribution in an ideal situation was possible and actively strove to ensure no individual was shouldering excessive responsibilities while others were doing less. However, as

we had to leverage on each others’ strengths for maximum efficacy, it was inevitable that some were delegated seemingly “easier” tasks while others burdened with more “intensive” tasks. As specific tasks such as report compilation would be better left to one with better English language command, they were repeatedly assigned to Chanel and I. Over time, it was only understandable that people began grousing about unfair work distribution.

Transcending Beyond a LTB Team This song lyric by Kitty Kallen: “Blow me a kiss from across the room. Say I look nice when I’m not. Touch my hair as you pass my chair. Little things mean a lot. Send me the warmth of a secret smile. For always and ever, now and forever, little things mean a lot” recapitulate our additional efforts taken to understand one another. I would send out reminders to ensure everyone would not forget their responsibilities. Birthday celebrations were also a norm, while staying in school to cover one another’s workload resulted in greater bonding and appreciation of one another, rather than development of resentment feelings.

These ‘little gestures’ soon translated into a spirit of camaraderie among us. Seeing diversified members form a cohesive team, I am heartened to know how far and much we have gone through together in a short span of three months. Team-Building is a continuous process that I will not take for granted as it requires only minor unresolved conflicts to entirely negate all our investments in this friendship. Therefore, individual efforts are needed in sustaining the team’s strength and in transcending beyond a LTB group’s status, to a group of trustworthy friends whom we

can rely for support during tough times.

Reaching the Ending Point of My LTB Journey This LTB journey may not be smooth-sailing but I can safely say that it has groomed me into a more confident and effective leader. Reminiscing the 13 weeks, LTB is the most fun-engaging and enriching module thus far. What I initially perceived as an intangible subject has turned out to be more applicable in my life than I thought possible. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be Team Soin’s leader, where I uncovered a new facet of myself, enabling my improvement as a Lead and furthering my empowerment of my colleagues. As I continuously discover different traits and characteristics of inspirational leaders, I began pin-pointing my character flaws and improving on them. Growing together with Team Soin, I realized that being a team is not just about leadership, it is sometimes having the humility to follow others in order for an effective and efficient self-managed team.