Happy late VEISHEA everyone! I love VEISHEA because it is a celebration of what makes Iowa State such a great university, different people from all backgrounds coming together in one place and working on common goals. I feel that the Hixson Seminar class follows the same process.
This week we talked about the kinds of peer mentors available on campus again. It was a nice refresher that reminded me how important a peer mentor is for young students and what responsibilities they have. Afterwards, we discussed the article on Social Intelligence that we all read. I found the article to be extremely interesting. The fact that we know exactly what part of the brain influences our reactions and productivity when around certain kinds of people is astonishing to me. My favorite part of the article was that it said leaders who create a positive and happy environment have happier employees and get more out of them. I would say one of my biggest strengths is maintaining a positive and relaxed environment. When situations get to tense or negative I always try to lighten the mood and get people to feel comfortable again. I guess I never that about my positive mood influencing the moods of others. I was also happy to learn that leaders who create structure but are more laid back tend to have the most productive and positive employees. Many people think that if a leader is laid back, they won't get any work done from their workers but the article showed evidence that disproved this.
The article listed some attributes that socially intelligent leaders have. I would say my strongest areas would be organizational awareness and teamwork. I think I'm pretty good at recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of a group as a whole. Understanding the culture of a group of people is crucial to being able to teach them in a style that is effective to them specifically. I am also good at using certain peoples' strengths to accomplish certain goals. I also think it is important to make sure every member of the group is involved and active in accomplishing goals. One of the attributes I would like to work on more would be attunement. I am a great listener, but I don't always know when someone isn't telling me what they are really feeling. I believe this skill can be improved with practice and look forward to developing this skill over time.
I liked the social intelligence article as well. It made me think about my bosses in the past or anyone who has had a leadership position above me. Specifically what kind of style they took and how it made me feel. Attunement comes more easily for some than it does for others.
ReplyDeleteSee attunement comes the easiest for me whereas teamwork (unfortunately) does not. Its not that I can't do it, I just prefer to do things on my own. I am constantly having to remind myself to "share" whether its at work or in my classes.
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