Students are required to write individual reflection on their engagement with the team process: Reflective Personal Development 1 Reflective journal, ATU, Ireland

Students are required to write a 2,500-word individual reflection on their engagement with the team process. As part of the requirements for this assessment, students are expected to engage with regular journaling and reflection on the team process. The reflective diary should provide a rich set of resources that students are called on to reference and reflect upon in the 2,500-word reflective narrative.

Assessment Criteria:

• Reflect on your role and identity within the team and how this developed and evolved when working within a team context;
• Reflect on the exercise and/or development of varying collaborative skills such as skills in communication, working with others, and being personally effective within a team, etc…;
• Set out a coherent account of progress in your professional leadership journey/practice, referring to challenges encountered, strategies adopted for dealing with them, and how you have accepted and worked with positive and negative outcomes;
• Display understanding group process and theory and how you these integrated with practice in real contexts;
• Show evidence of how you engaged with cultural concepts of ‘conversation’ to enhance learning and collegiality for professional practice.
• Reflect on your role and identity within the team and how this developed and evolved when working within a team context;
• Reflect on the exercise and/or development of varying collaborative skills such as skills in communication, working with others, being personally effective within a team, etc…;
• Set out a coherent account of progress in your professional leadership journey/practice, referring to challenges encountered, strategies adopted for dealing with them, and how you have accepted and worked with positive and negative outcomes;
• Display understanding of group process and theory and how these are integrated with practice in real contexts;
• Show evidence of how you engaged with cultural concepts of ‘conversation’ to enhance learning and collegiality for professional practice.

‘To learn effectively the individual has to be emotionally intelligent, this means they have to live and work in an emotionally intelligent environment, this, in turn, means that there has to be emotionally intelligent leadership in depth’ (West-Burham 2002). Emotional Intelligence is a term created by two researchers- Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer in 1990- and popularized by Daniel Goleman in his book of the same name.

Savoy and Mayer define emotional intelligence as well as the ability to identify, understand, and control our own emotions, as well as the ability to identify, comprehend, and influence the emotions of others. In practice, this involves being conscious that emotions can influence our behavior and have a positive or negative impact on others. The ability to recognize, interpret and control your own and others’ emotions is referred to as emotional intelligence. People that are emotionally intelligent understand how they feel, what their emotions imply, and how their feelings affect others. ‘Out of- control emotions can make smart people stupid’ (Goleman, 1998).

Through my in-depth research and engagement with this topic, I feel that I have a greater understanding of the importance of emotional intelligence to leadership and management and also when working within a group. The modern leader is ‘an emotional manager’ (Perscosolido, 2002). Successful leaders can elicit emotion in their followers, resulting in resonance. Initially, when introduced to the module Participative Research as Leadership Practice I was nervous about the group research project. I recall reflecting in

“Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.” (Lucado, 2015). Conflict is present in any organization or group, it is unavoidable. Individual desires and community requirements are inherently at odds. The tension is rarely dissipated. Your ability to lead will be limited or enhanced depending on how you handle and resolve conflict. Conflict can arise for a number of different reasons. Conflict can arise as a result of goals or priorities that are at odds. It can also occur when there is a lack of clarity in a school’s shared goals. Personality clashes are a major source of contention.

Sometimes there is no chemistry, or you haven’t figured out how to connect with someone effectively. When you’re fighting for limited resources, conflict can arise. Physical resources, as well as time, support, personnel, and attention, are all examples of resources. Various people have different personalities. Your thinking or communication style may clash with the thinking or communication style of another person.

The good news is that style clashes are simple to deal with once you realize that style isn’t the same as substance. Sometimes there will be a clash of values. The problem is that values are fundamental. It’s one thing to adapt to different styles, but it’s quite another to deal with opposing values. That’s why you might not be a good fit for a particular group or culture. You may make the most of any scenario by accepting conflict as a part of life and using it as a learning or leadership opportunity. You can also utilize it to convert a situation into something more positive.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with conflict. Each conflict is unique and necessitates a unique solution. When confronted with a variety of conditions, multiple conflict management strategies may be employed. It’s crucial to understand oneself and your dominant or default style. Understanding each issue will assist you in determining the appropriate dispute resolution style.

The easiest approach to avoiding conflict is to build trust. The best method to create a trust over time is through authenticity and open communication. Conflict is inevitable within any organization and as a future leader it is something that will be encountered regularly, ‘advocating change without generating the prospect of conflict is almost impossible.’

Whether or not we trust someone depends on our propensity to trust and the other person’s trustworthiness Propensity to trust is a stable trait defined as a readiness to be vulnerable in front of others. We use it at the start of our relationships with others before we know anything about their personalities. As a result, some people are naturally trusting of others, while others are not. When we discover more about a person, such as specifics about their behavior, beliefs, attitudes, and characteristics, it may motivate us to trust them, making them trustworthy. In a team situation, trust is essential.

Intrateam trust is the extent to which team members trust each other, and even though these perceptions are observed at an individual’s level, they affect a collective team’s trust and performance (De Jong and Elfring 2010). This is why, to build a team’s trust, an individual’s trust needs to be considered. When an individual has a higher propensity to trust, they are also more likely to view their new team members as trustworthy (Spector and Jones 2004).

There may be an undercurrent of suspicion towards the team in a team with individuals who do not trust others. Leaders today take a reduced control and huge trust approach. One approach to accomplish this is to demonstrate consistent compassion to your followers and to be viewed as a trustworthy and caring leader. Stage two is about sustaining trust and, as a result, behaving consistently, allowing the team to anticipate our next moves.

Stage three is about maintaining trust, which is a difficult endeavor. Sustaining trust refers to a situation in which the high levels of trust already present in school are enhanced. To do so, the leader must demonstrate a high level of trustworthiness. This process depicts a path from being untrustworthy to having a high level of trust (Burke, 2020).

I found this time very challenging as it was an uncertain process for all involved but I remained benevolent and approachable I believe I forged trustworthy relationships with my colleagues throughout the process and I learned the importance and value of building trust in relationships. ‘It takes a long time to build trust, but potentially a very short time to break it’ (Burke, 2020).

I try to show leadership every day of the week whether it is in the classroom, corridors, staffroom, or extracurricular. I feel it is important to lead by example. If students and staff members see you doing and acting in a certain way they will also act that way. I am a strong believer in the statement that Leadership is about creating leaders, not followers.

You must empower people to want to get on board and lead in a particular initiative. Get behind it as such as have the confidence to take it forward. I feel the necessary attributes and qualities of a good and effective leader are as follows: Humility, Understanding, and Vulnerability. I have learned that it is an important factor to understand how the person you inform the professional you. Both are intrinsically linked. The qualities you possess as a person should follow through in your leadership role. Those you have worked with to get you to this point trust and respect you partly because of the person you are and the characteristics you display. As a leader, you strive to promote the process of reflection with a view to personal change.

Instead of doing things the same way you’ve always done them, reflecting helps you to develop your skills and evaluate their effectiveness. It’s about looking at what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and then deciding if there’s a better or more efficient way to do it in the future.

I believe communication to be a key skill in leading and managing, communication becomes a means of comprehending and directing leadership and actions within the company. Language and communication are used by communicative leaders to drive various actions.

As a result, talking can be thought of as both an activity and a form of work. To understand how the work inside schools contributes to results and how the individual leader uses communication as a tool, it’s necessary to consider leadership as a social process.