This session we covered leading teams, although we agreed that facilitating meetings would have been a better title. The session focused mainly on the role of the facilitator in a meeting and the behaviours, traits and the role of a good facilitator.

My reaction to the session was that initially I felt quite disappointed about what makes a ‘bad’ meeting, but as my understanding to the role of the facilitator grew, I began to see how it might be useful. The session challenged some of my initial ideas about meetings and although I still don’t necessarily agree with some of the practices I did feel that I learned some techniques I could use.

I felt challenged. I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss what makes a successful meeting and what doesn’t. I liked listening to other people’s views and there success and unsuccessful stories of meetings. It helped me put into context the different types of meetings that take place – discussions/ forum type meetings, task orientated meetings, casual meetings, committees, etc. although I couldn’t help but feel there are just way too many meetings!
I didn’t like the role play – and I took Sarah’s point that it just isn’t close enough to real life experiences for it to be beneficial.

To help make sense of the situation I have thought about the different types of meetings that I attend. In some committee type meetings, I often have an urge for it to be more informal allowing discussion, sharing and decisions to take place. I do now feel that this wouldn’t be appropriate! There are simply too many people in this particular committee for this type of meeting to take place. I also thought about the times that I have chaired/organised and facilitated meetings and felt that my role as facilitator worked best when I didn’t have an invested interested in the outcomes of the meeting. This made me question how useful being the facilitator is in a day to day leadership role. I believe that in team meetings everybody is expected to participate on some level, and at times the leader is the one that is expected to answer questions and guide the team through the problem. I appreciate that there are facilitator techniques to help us do this, but I don’t agree that it is always the right way to lead a meeting. Especially when under pressure.

Having said that, I have to be realistic. I’m a pragmatic person and a “completer-finisher!” I like to be involved and at the centre of activity and so for me, a meeting is nearly always about moving forward and being task orientated. I like to take on action points and delegate. I can now understand that moving forward doesn’t have to be “so, who is going to do what?” but it can be a change in attitude of a team, or a mutual understanding which may lead on to action points in the next meeting.

When organising a meeting next, I’ll set the agenda and explain if I am going to be contributing or facilitating. I really liked the suggestion about using this for a creative get-together, and I think I could practice some facilitation skills with my team in this context. When attending a meeting I suppose I have to be more pragmatic about the outcomes and my expectations. Some meetings I can’t avoid, and not all are for the benefit of ‘doing something’ afterwards.

We attended the Dealing with Difficult Conversations seminar, which touched lightly on how to deal with conflict, we looked at assertiveness, perceptions of conflict and situations of conflict and we had the opportunity to practise resolving a conflict.
My initial reaction is that this topic is very relevant to me, even though I have very little ‘direct’ managerial responsibilities. I often find myself dealing with difficult conversations and ‘conflicts’ all the time through Social Media. There can be a lot of negativity about the University and the processes and procedures which come to light through this media. I have to manage these difficult online conversations and help other members of staff to also learn how to deal with these circumstances. As I am approaching this module in the position of leading people that are not in my team, it is rarely the case that I am the one in conflict with fellow staff or employees but rather I find myself in online conflict a lot of the time! I feel that I lack experience in dealing with difficult conversations (face to face) and I feel strongly that I avoid confrontation and conflict, and so this session was the beginning in what will likely be the biggest learning curve for me on this module.
The session was good because I was able to listen to other peoples’ views on conflict and discuss the approaches they have taken. Sadly, though it also made me realise how little knowledge and experience I have in difficult conversations and conflict. It made me realise that the circumstances where I have had to have a difficult conversation, I didn’t do it very well! I particularly liked the “Rules of Assertion” and the communications techniques which address the ways to be neutral, how to focus on the issue, and how to ask open, non-suggestive questions. I feel kind of guilty in the way that I reprimanded the individual and wish I had sought some advice before doing so.
I’ve realised that I have a chance to learn how to deal with difficult conversations well, before I have to. Listening to other people on the module has given me a sense on the kind of conversations people have to have. I was really feeling inexperienced in this area! Learning how to effectively deal with difficult situations will be hard for me. It means that I will have to stop avoiding conflict and practise some techniques. Yet it is such an important part of being a good leader, I really do need to face this fear!
I’m concluding that I avoid conflict and lack experience in dealing with difficult conversations face to face. I like to have a positive working relationship with my colleagues and feel that effective communication in conflict is an element of my personal/ professional development that I have to master!
I would really like to discuss this in more detail with my peer mentor and see if I can address a way to gain some experience in the area in a safe environment.

We discussed the definition, purpose and the meaning of reflection, with particular emphasis on being a reflective leader.

I have had some experience with reflection. Through my degree I regualrly reflected on the development of theatre productions and the links between theory and practice. I’ve also used reflection in a Personal Development Programme in which I analysed and assessed my own development in my early career. It is nice to come back to learning about reflection and to remember why it is so important.

I really enjoyed participating in the exercise which used Structured Debriefing to facilitate some reflection. This model of structure suited me and allowed me to make clear in my head what was important and valuable in my behaviour, what I learned from the process, and what I could have done differently. The process of making the conclusions and doing the personal action plan last, was simple and effective and allowed me and my mentor to discuss what was actually happening in the situation before I made any conclusions. I could be honest and felt safe to discuss what was really happening.

I’d like to use this process again and think it would be nice to use it as part of a more formal peer mentoring session in the new year.

I’ve learned that through reflection, one can learn and adapt. It can show an aspect of yourself which you may not always either appreciate or recognise. It opens up avenues to think in a new way and I like that it can turn something negative into a very positive experience.

I’m pleased with the session and what I have taken from it. Now I have to actually put it into practice and get on with my learning journal!

I’ve been waiting for this session!

I’ve always enjoyed working as part of a team. I like the dynamics of a team environment and get a good feeling when something is achieved through using different peoples skills. In the past, when I have thought about my role within a team, I always think about ‘teamwork’ I’m the type of person that is very aware of the dynamics of a team and i’ll always step in and help a team when, say, somebody is off sick or on holiday.

I still don’t know what my strongest traits will be in a team, especially as the Belbin model will take into account 6 other peoples view of me! I’m excited and anxious to find out.

I was interested in Belbins Team Roles. I enjoyed looking at the different characteristics and felt I understood that a person can be a mixture of what may seem as conflicting team roles. 

When we played the task of “Organising a University Staff Sports Day” I was given the role of Coordinator and Monitor Evaluator. I enjoyed observing the team dynamics and had to repress the urge to join in using my own natural characteristics.

If there is one thing I’ll take with me from the session today, I think it is that sometimes, in life and in the workplace I’ll come across people that I find difficult, negative, overpowering or controlling. But, rather than looking at these characteristics as an annoyance and as a problem I think i’ll look twice. In many cases everybody can bring something to a team and it’s about brining out the right skills in people to make a team work. 

Of course – my other observation of this is that in many cases a person is expected to play all these parts of a team in one role. So, I’m looking forward to exploring that issue more!

I’ve now attended my second formal leadership session.

The course looked at how mentoring can be used within the leadership role.

I’ve had a lot of experience as a mentee and have found effective mentors to be extremely helpful throughout my life so far. It was really interesting to look at the qualities of a mentor and how certain attributes can make a good mentor, or in fact can result in a negative mentoring experience.

Coming at this session from the perspective as a mentee I have a positive insight in to how beneficial a good mentoring experience can be. My only concern was that I have a ‘sugar-coated’ experience of mentoring and I had to keep looking at mentoring more objectively, like how being an ineffective or overtly bad mentor can have a negative effect on a person’s development. This is what I want to focus on in my reflection.

The session introduced us to some models of mentoring and then gave us the opportunity to practise mentoring each other. I couldn’t believe how hard I found this! Partly because the exercise felt somewhat false and difficult to grasp, but mostly because I lack certain mentoring skills!

When we had begun the session we were asked to look at where we thought we were in terms of being a good mentor – I guessed around 3-4 out of 10, knowing that I lack experience and effective mentoring skills. I was pleased to see that my ‘humanity’ and my ability to look at situations with empathy were finally some positive traits which could be seen as effective within the mentoring role. However, when posed with actually being a mentor I was so focused on asking questions I really didn’t know what to say! I panicked and struggled to support my ‘mentee’ this showed me that I tend to give advice more than allowing people to develop themselves and I believe this will have a bad effect on me being an effective leader.

I’m really looking forward to practising my mentoring skills in a supportive environment and hope that I can draw on some of the techniques that we went over in the session and put all of these to good use. Most importantly I need to listen more and let the mentee do the talking!

As our first task we’ve been asked to take a look for one of the following:

1. An image that says something, to you, about leadership.
2. A short text extract from any source.  This does not have to be from a book about leadership.  Again, something that speaks to you.
3. For the really ambitious and technically astute, a video clip, audio clip or youtube link.

I searched for a while using Google obviously! There are so many images to choose from. I decided to use this one becuase it reminded me of some traditional ideas of who a leader should be and what makes a leader great.

I think wisdom, compassion, knowledge and an encouraging nature really stand out for me and I remember this character  from my childhood.

I know he’s somewhat ‘ideal’ and in terms of our everyday working lives, I’m not sure we could compare ourselves to a fictional character (unless of course his character was based on a real person?) yet as a leader he was adaptable and could take charge when needed! I think these are admirable qualities in a natural leader.

Reflection on the Leadership module.
The first session on Effective Leadership has been a good start to the module. The principles are very new to me and I enjoyed looking at the methods of leadership. It has been hard to grasp some of the models, and I didn’t really understand or relate to ‘Mitzberg’s 10 management Roles’. I liked looking at the difference between a manager and a leader and this had made me think more about my own styles and what I consider to be either a good leader or manager.
After reading the Times supplement about the Six Leadership styles I couldn’t help but visualise the methods used by managers and leaders that I know. I felt that the model and the styles had a lot of kudos and could definitely recognise traits and behaviours in relation to my own working environment. When reading about the different styles I liked to think that I swayed more towards the positive styles and wondered whether this was my own pride or if it was actually true; so when we made a quick self assessment, looking at scenarios in which we behaved in a particular way, I was glad to see that I used a range of styles and didn’t really fit into one type. I was also able to recognise my behaviour as a Pacesetter and the negative effect this had on the person I was leading.
Another useful part of the session was the Personal Styles Model, in which we marked from 0 to 2 how much a word described us. It highlighted some interesting points and some areas which I perhaps suspected about myself but didn’t realise the traits were quite as dominant.
The simple Personal Styles Model is under the anagram DISC and stands for the following; Directing, Influencing, Supportive and Contemplative. I came out strongly in the Influencing and Supportive model which highlighted that I was more focused on people that ‘things’ and that I am motivated by recognition, personal approval, a process. I think this is very true!

The next step for me will be how I can apply this to my advantage in my working relations and how I deal with those people that possess the opposite traits.