The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.
End
of week two, and it has been emotionally draining to say the least. Although we
have a great deal of information offered to us throughout the MSLD program, and
the support and resources provided by
our coaches and mentors while we travel through this journey, I am finding that
the real world applications transpire in a much different manner.
This week I was once again faced with stress
pertaining lacking teamwork and workflow constraints...while I planned a well
thought out conference call by being the voice of what I considered reason and
concern, turned into a teeth kicking session by upper management. Somehow in my
approach, while I am thinking others are just listening to behind-closed-doors
venting about issues and people, somehow gets interpreted as personality
conflict and unprofessionalism with others. They seem to have thought that I
would ever outwardly express or treat another peer or employee with the same
animation and vigor as I use to describe my frustrations. So while that
entirely backfired, I looked at it as an opportunity to once again reset my
goals and focus, but more importantly savor some interesting, although flawed
interpretations, feedback. By the end of the call, I had the opportunity to at
least point out that when I have conversations behind closed doors, that is
exactly where it stays - there is NO WAY our management stands for
unprofessionalism and confrontation in the workplace and that I never would
have been tolerated over the past six-plus years here, let alone given the
opportunity to sit where I do today if that is how I conducted business with
others in the facility. I then further stated that one thing I can do better is
to re-quantify that I am just venting and emotionally vomiting so that they
have an alternative perception to things, considering these folks aren't
working in the business office with me, as they are remote regional managers.
They said that would definitely help. Now I am just suffering the attitudes,
lacking professionalism, and retaliation that those who weren't performing
their daily functions and now have been spoken to are lashing out at me for it.
I feel bad that it always seems to yield that
result; I know I shouldn't feel bad for just doing my job, and I realize that
as a leader, I will face so many challenges and ways to handle them. But I am
thinking that sometimes I am just going to have to let others houses go up in
flames instead of trying to prevent the fires before the outbreak. I cannot
always be the only voice, as now it appears that other's tend to see me as the
squeaky wheel...I just want things to stay on track and people to get along and
be happy and productive while they do it...but I have to realize that not
everyone shares that vision, and to be able to still find balance for myself
when others wish not to participate.
One
small victory this week did however conclude with our first team assignment
completed, and done so ahead of schedule and turned out with a very nice grade
for all of us on it. The process we used was simple in nature, as the
assignment was more about coordination than collaboration this week. We used
emails and the discussion boards to communicate and set forth goals. This
worked very well for us, considering time and geographical challenges. We I
think one thing that helped our group behaviors was early on we set up
expectations, agreed on open communication, and all checked behind one another
to keep ourselves on track and focused to meet our deadlines. No one person
overtook the group, but all of us took the lead on different aspects which were
very complimentary throughout the process.
One
problem we had was that we had one member that misunderstood when the groups
would be formed and start; in this case we initially believed that someone on
our team may have dropped the class because it was entirely out of character
for this student to be a non-participant in the group activity aspect. After
emailing and chatting, we realized her portion was missing and she immediately
jumped into things and helped us produce what we felt was a terrific end
product for the team. Our intervention strategy on this was decided as a group
to first make some final attempts at reaching out via direct emails. Next, our
backup plan was to reach out to the professor to confirm attendance in the
class. Our last initiative included a deadline for the team to have all group
projects completed by Friday of the week of the assignment to allow for one day
review and revision, and still allow us to meet our class deadline of
submission for Sunday's. This schedule was reasonable and approved by all, and
also gives us the opportunity to send drafts to Matt when necessary for
additional guidance and input. At this point with a simple assignment, we
didn't appear to have issues surrounding power, competition, or collaboration.
In fact, we have already begun construction and task assignments for our next
deadline.
Our
team seems to communicate clearly, effectively, and efficiently - which is a
welcomed change from prior semesters. As our assignments increase in complexity
as the semester progresses, I am sure there is room for conflicts, personality
conflicts and challenges to emerge. Right now I would classify our dynamics
more along the lines of integrating, as we problem solve and communicate with the
purpose of all being focused towards sharing information and reaching consensus
(Brown,
2011, p. 301) .
My team is outstanding, hard working, easy to communicate with, and we
currently haven't experienced any role ambiguity which after the week I have
had, was almost as good as celebrating Christmas early!
This
weeks chapter couldn't have come at a better time; I hope that it will help me
mature and grow along the way into finding approaches that are more receptive
to others and that transform their perceptions about things people don't ever
want to hear...like I need you to please do your job because it's preventing
the rest of us in completing ours...I never like being the messenger and I
worked incredibly hard to demonstrate continuity in my words, examples, and
behaviors. But I always know I can learn from every difficult situation I
either put myself in or that somehow seems to come my way.
Until
we blog again!
Reference
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to
Organizational Development, Eighth Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice
Hall.
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