Decision making

I learned the importance of having courage to make a decision. Even if one cannot understand all of the implications of their options, it is extremely important to have the courage to make a decision.

The biggest problem I have with making decisions is reviewing the consequences of my decisions. I will start

taking inventory of all that I have accomplished in one week every Saturday morning and write down what I could have done better in my journal. I will also write down what I have done right to see what I should keep doing.

I think the most important principle of decision making that I need to apply to my leadership role is that time and the ability to choose are the 2 precious gifts of this life. Internalizing this principle will help me emulate a good example to those I lead. I believe that leading through example is the best way to help my friend. With good examples to follow, it is much easier to be a great person.

Balance & Time Management

Above all else, I wish to have a strong family.  The time spent with them will be the highest priority in my life. I will dedicate all of my resources to creating and maintaining a strong family unit. Right now, I will develop characteristics, habits, qualities, skills, talents, etc. that will assist me in being the best family member imaginable.

Time management is a very important quality to have as a leader, because it is how a leader makes things happen. Without time management, a leader could not lead--everything they planned would fall apart because of poor managing. A leader needs to understand the time schedule at hand and make their goals fit to it.

I plan to better manage my time with my friend by being more productive with my time with her. Even though getting two things done at the same time would be nice, just making sure that the time spent with her is quality time would make the time infinitely better. I will also make sure good things happen.

Strengths and weaknesses

A strength I have is the ability to cook. My friend is not a very good cook, but loves delicious food--who doesn't for that matter? I can use my ability to cook in my leadership role to teach my friend fun and easy skills that will serve her well now and in the future.

Strengths of my group project team include creative problem solving. When a problem arises, we are all able to bring ideas to the board, be flexible, and come to a good conclusion. This helps us to better our results because  without the ability to solve problems, any group project would fall apart. Another strength my group has is working well together. When we made t-shirts, we were all able to work well together and get them done in a timely fashion. This helps us get better results because we are able to get things done.

Teamwork

1.Choose and describe in detail two of the four teamwork stages (forming, storming and norming, performing) you have seen in your group project teams and how it has affected your teamwork

In my group, it was interesting to see how the storming and norming stages of our project came together. Our original, provisional plan from the forming stage was left in the dust for a fresh, visionary plan. That is not to say it was perfect, we definitely had to refine the new idea very much. We tried to think of all the possible problems that would occur with our plan and address them. Throwing ideas off of each other helped us come to exceptional solutions. 

Assigning who would do what went pretty smoothly; everyone willingly volunteered their services. We delegated duties that came up throughout our planning according to the skill set each individual person had to offer.

2. Pick one dysfunction (Ryan's lecture) you have seen in your leadership role and what you are going to do to turn into a function.

I believe there is always room for improvement, and even the most well oiled teams have dysfunctions that must be addressed. It is the fact that they are addressed that keeps them a good team. In my leadership role, I know I am far from perfect. I have especially noticed a fear of conflict. Usually I just go with the flow unless something is seriously wrong. When I do not address a small problem before it becomes a big problem, big problems develop needlessly. I plan on addressing these smaller problems sooner and having a healthy conflict instead of waiting until they become larger problems.