Seeing Our Work In Action

Upon reflection, what 3 - 5 elements/components/specifics from all that we've studied (behaviors employed, language used, characteristics or traits displayed through actions or choices,...) can you identify from across your meetings?

"Leadership is a relationship" (Northouse, 2015, p. 6). Ashley and I had the opportunity to work together the last term and have established a good working relationship. Even though we took turns leading different meetings, it was more about the collaboration that took place between us than taking turns leading . We worked well together to accomplish a common goal.

Task and Relationship Leadership. Each time we met, the task was understood; we knew what needed to get done. And yet, there were times during our meetings where we would stop the task and talk about things other than the project...more relational. This was a good balance and made our meetings productive and fun.

A feeling of respect and value. I know this applied to diversity and inclusion in the text, but respect and value were demonstrated throughout our meetings. There was mutual respect extended toward suggestions/ideas, schedules, basically anything that required a decision to be made. This made addressing differences of opinions and/or misunderstandings easier. 

When serving as the leader, my greatest ABC takeaways were:

• Affective: Always take time to listen with my head and my heart
• Behavioral: Be a team player, be ready to contribute
• Cognitive: Communicate clearly what I understand and know