Companies today need a leader to advance and progress day by day, as well as to guide their followers, highlight their strengths and help them manage their weaknesses to stand out, among others. The figure of a leader in the company facilitates the management of people, helps develop talent, and achieves and maintains a pleasant and challenging organizational climate.
Friedman and ADL classes taught me about emotional conversation, where words are often said without thinking and increase anxiety and stress levels. If this is not controlled correctly, it can cause my performance as a leader to decline. Finally, Friedman's key strategies help me become a differentiated leader rather than one who allows anxiety to take over.
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Get unstuck
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Start with the heart
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Learn to look
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Make it safe
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Master my stories
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STATE my path
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Explore other paths
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Move to action
All these experiences throughout my life and my classes at the ADL (Applied Digital Learning) Master create solid knowledge to develop skills and organizational concepts to put into practice in the future. I have found Friedman's explanation immensely helpful to drive anxiety. I can understand the functioning and development of different points of view to know how to go a Crucial Conversation with those around me. According to Crucial Conversations, people are divided into three categories, which I could use to classify my team and decipher how to help each one or what may be helpful for them to reach the goal of my plan. A leader needs developing skills to put into practice as we will think before speaking; that the members of a team will stay informed of each step so that they do not make conjectures or assume wrong thoughts and ideas that lead to making significant mistakes for the organization or sabotage plans being developed.
I realize I can disagree with other people but not conflict with their ideas but negotiate with others and reach agreements. I would adopt a defined position that reduces anxiety levels. (Bardwell, 2010) In my proposals, I know that disagreement may arise that I will be willing to negotiate, such as the refusal of some teachers to use more technology in their classes. To change this idea, I must show them statistics and be consistent with practice so that they, seeing results, want to follow these Models. Staying connected with others in a meaningful way to be willing to change is the first step.
I feel like a leader, but I need to work on my weaknesses to become a true leader; for this, all my classes in DLL master and each of my readers are teaching me every day. I need to make changes in my own life first, understanding others in their behavior, and expertise they can act. So, to negotiate with the personalities around me as a leader, I need to practice the teachings from Friedman's theory. That is why it is so important to know what I want and where I want to go. When, then the difference between what is wanted and how to obtain it, I can encourage and motivate the team members to believe in my ideas and knowledge and finally, together, reach the goal. I remember a situation that I lived in a company for which I worked. The chief of staff had to offer a few pieces of training once a year for all the company's departments; he also announced that he brought innovation to each department. Although each department had its manuals and regulations that we had to follow for a long time. Day of the meeting, he would guide us to focus on the new process to acquire the company objectives, but conversely, we found a person who had not even read the existing manuals. His further instructions were not consistent with what was already stipulated. He generated disagreements and doubts that he could not explain; He was trying to impose new routines and procedures. Finally, we left the meeting very confused, and we took this to our bosses who disagreed, and eventually, we continued with what was already established. All this occurred due to lack of knowledge, not listening, sharing with other leaders, such as department heads, and trying to impose his ideas at the cost of ignoring who might help him focus on the different points of view and reach a consensus.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams.
Self-differentiated leadership and bringing the organization change process together
Friedman describes effective learning with factors such as staying free of anxiety in front of others, being anxious to position himself in an intense emotional system, clear his values and goals. On the other hand, leaders cannot identify too much with the groups they lead because they may not have the perspective necessary to make complex decisions. Leaders need to be in touch with the ideas and emotions of others but not dominated by them. In other words, the self-differentiated leader is equivalent to the emotional immune system of the organization. A Leader could not allow the discomfort of the people to be transmitted to him, and that stress affects the system and its most responsible or more focused members "that's when the leader must be immune. My leader experience in education is based on my relationship with other teachers with more experience than mine. Since I barely came to live in the United States ten ago and working as a teacher, I have been seven years which seems a long time, but when we see other teachers' experience, it is twenty or more years; mine is short. However, they always think that because of my brief experience, I do not have to transmit or motivate them to innovate in their classes. So, I do not allow myself to contaminate their stress, and only with my performance and achievements; I let them see my technology skills in my classes, which helps me motivate my students to learn. Then teachers begin to change their mindset that the use of technology in the classroom is harmful or a waste of time that distracts students; without realizing that it is the teachers who need a change in the educational model. But when they see my continued use in technology class and that this is productive and my students enjoy using technology and are more motivated to learn, the teachers ask me for help to include technology in their classes. So, with the days I won their approval, I can now count myself as part of the team. Although my experience is not so extensive in years, if I can propose and develop ideas that lead to the team's success, we achieve the objectives of the school and the district school for which we work.
Reference
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Crucial Conversations by K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. Mcmillan, and A. Switzler | core message. (2019, April 4). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCeARRE-KA
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Crucial Conversations Explained in 2 Minutes. (2012, February 10). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEI4_2Xivw
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Friedman’s Theory of Differentiated Leadership Made Simple. (2010, November 10). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgdcljNV-Ew
After reading and studying differentiated leadership and crucial conversations, I conclude that both work together to pave the way for helping develop leadership skills and becoming a differentiated leader who can handle crucial conversations, manage the process, and develop whatever challenge that I have to face leading a team. I look forward to continuing to work towards proficiency in both areas.
Friedman's key strategies
I can disagree with other people but not conflict with their ideas, but negotiate with others and reach agreements. That's a practical way to get into a defined position that reduces my anxiety levels. During the implementation of my proposals, I know that disagreements may arise that I will be willing to negotiate, such as those people who with their refusal try to block the development of my plan. To change this idea, I must show them statistics and be consistent with the practice that I intend for them to follow, so when they see the results, they will want to follow these models.
My development as a person and professional has been through the feedback of my colleagues and professors in the DLL Master, where I have learned to put my heart in my profession, and I know that I am in the right place, and I must stay focused with the correct motivation which is the key to keeping anxiety at bay and leading my project and my team to success. However, I consider it essential to apply Friedman's classification of people as role models so that they become more involved in weekly projects and activities. With the help of these models, we can motivate others who are still reluctant to help or who have not fully understood the purpose of the plan, according to (Friedman's Simple Fact Differentiated Leadership Theory, 2010), resist the drama and allow Let others take responsibility, as well as take responsibility for my own words and actions.
For crucial conversations, I must be clear and explicit in showing what I am aiming to achieve as it is to help these students fall behind in their reading levels. As a leader I can show that "dialogue is the free flow of meaning, without pretense, covered in sugar or pretense" (Patterson et al., 2002, p. 68). Mutual purpose and respect are crucial to reducing anxiety and creating safety in crucial conversations. "Once you have created your emotions from it, you can act on them or be acted out by them ... you can dominate them or be hostage to them" (Patterson et al., 2002, p. 95). This is a particularly true teaching because I could disagree with the other teachers if I don't control my emotions.
It is not easy to control emotions, but if I intend to be a leader, I must learn and be more consistent in this every day. It would be better to accept that sometimes I can get caught up in a cycle of acting, seeing and feeling, leading to a breakdown in communication. It is necessary to be part of the story to help understand; Therefore, a leader must always be attentive to what is happening to better understand the situation and understand where the person is coming from to control the emotional response.