The times they are a changin’…

This last week has been chalked full of leadership, interpersonal, and conflict management trainings. We’ve been through Hands of Peace, Diversity in Service, and now Supervisory Skills trainings, all of which were either a full day or a day and half. Now, with a little perspective on the intense, sometimes longwinded, and always intellectually challenging training, I am able to see some of the differences in how I handle leadership situations.

One of the trainings that we undertook involved examining our primary leaderships style by the use of a applying certain characteristics to North, South, East and West. I was an overwhelming North, as you may be able to tell from the following North characteristics: assertive, active, decisive, likes to be in control of professional relationships and determine course of events, quick to act, expresses sense of urgency for others to “act now,” likes a quick pace and a fast track, likes variety, novelty and new projects, etc. Although I also have elements of East (more focused on why something is being done and understanding the process), I feel that North is my primary leadership style. This knowledge made today’s activities especially interesting and encouraging.

Today’s afternoon training consisted of a long explanation of various tools that we are likely to encounter and use on either environmental or construction projects during the next year and the proper maintenance, use and personal protective equipment for each. After shifting our weight, sighing meaningfully, and playing with grass for the 90 minutes that it took to get through all of it we were asked to divide ourselves into units and build a box to go between the front seats in the support vans for the year. The supplies included a large piece of ½” plywood and a long 2x2. I did this exact project last year during CTI, knew how to construct the box, and would have loved to taken have taken control of the situation. However, I had agreed with myself beforehand that I would not dominate the process and that I would let the team discover how to build the box and decide how to implement the plan that we came up with.

This strategy worked out well for me and for the team in the end. I was able to get some practice asking questions of my teammates that led them to discover the answers for themselves, and they felt comfortable drawing on my knowledge when they got stuck. Where the situation got really interesting, and where I feel that I’ve shown the most growth, was the actual execution of the project. One of the girls on my team, a fellow “North,” immediately dove into the measuring process, pushing the pace and excluding most of the group to the point that most people including myself, felt completely divorced from ownership of the project. Rather than challenging her – something that I’ll be more comfortable doing with corps members, whose friendship I will not be so concerned with maintaining – I looks for other tasks that people could do, and involved those without tasks in planning the next stage of construction while she was busy measuring away. When it came time to do the next tasks, she was unable to dominate the process because roles had already been assigned, plans made, and ownership for a part of the box claimed by other people on the team. It was remarkably effective, and we were able to complete the project without much more trouble, although it was clear that some of my teammates felt some animosity toward the dominance and exclusion that occurred. Ideally we would resolve this issue as a team, or I as the TL would approach the girl, but I’m not sure how I’ll play this one given that I am not in a position of authority in relation to her.

I was actually surprised by the ease with which I focused the group on the big picture, looked out for the way that other people were feeling, and worked with them to develop a plan of action. Although my initial inclination with the be in the thick of things and to take control of the situation directly, I ended up taking control indirectly and achieving a much more positive result. Kind of cool!

Anyway, I thought that this was interesting and showed me a little bit of the flexibility that I’ve developed and my ability to adapt to a new situation, take on a different role, and look out for the well-being and motivation of my teammates. On a totally different note, one of the staff members here shared this poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson with us the other day:

Success

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty,

to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better,

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

I just really enjoyed this poem, and I think that it has a lot of direct application to the goals of NCCC (healthy children, garden patches, redeemed social positions, etc). I especially think that the parts about winning the respect of intelligent people and earning the appreciation of honest critics are great goals to aspire to. Oh, and I didn’t see anything about making lots of money, having a big house, or working at a prestigious/”important” job…

I can work with this definition of success.