Reflecting
on the exercise in page 42 of Becoming a
Resonant Leader, I discovered that it is common for people to operate under
poor assumptions of what great leadership truly is. I have long been under the
assumption that emotions and feelings aren’t something that should at all be
discussed or even dealt with in the workplace. I do know that one should always
keep their emotions in-check with what is being said and also be careful to not
create a negative emotion in the workplace. In part, I think it’s also because
I have a bit of a shy personality, kind of like a quiet leader per say. I rise
to the occasion when needed but I more empower employees and let them lead so
they can gain the experience and the knowledge as well. So it has come to a
surprise to me that emotions do matter in the workplace and that it’s important
to understand how emotions play a role in leadership.
While reading and trying to complete the exercise on the
workbook, it became apparent to me that this topic was challenging for me. It
forced me to think hard and deeply into the different experiences I have had.
Since I do not have a lot of organizational experience, there are not a lot of
different experiences in which I can reflect on except those from my last
employer. Therefore, after completing the workbook exercise, I discovered a
couple of things about my resonant leadership. In the first question, “Am I
inspirational? How do I inspire people?” I can’t say explicitly that I am an
inspirational person because in reality I don’t know how to effectively
motivate people. I believe that in part it’s because of my shy personality. It
could also be that I have never truly experienced true motivation and
therefore, do not know what true positive motivation is or even looks like.
An example of this would be when the store district
manager came for a visit and noticed that the store lacked inspiration. The
district manager asked for anyone in a leadership position to form a small
group, like a huddle, and to say something that would inspire the team to
continue progressing forward. My supervisor took this as an opportunity in
which I could learn from, so she volunteered me. I feel that I felt short from
what she was expecting or of what could’ve been a great moment to learn about
inspiration. One of the few things I recall doing was trying to make people
feel good about their hard work, about themselves, what they have achieved so
far, and how thankful I was to be part of such a great team.
Another
part in which I feel that I felt short would be “creating an overall positive emotional
tone that is characterized by hope.” I feel that I did create a tone through
hope but it wasn’t the desired positive emotional tone. It was more like: “Lets
all hope that tomorrow goes smoother than today” or “tomorrow will be better
guys, I promise.” The question in my mind still continues to be how could I
create a desired positive emotional tone that would help or even engage
employees more deeply to the goals of the organization? I know how to engage
employees to the goals of the organization. But, how to truly create a positive
emotional tone, as in speech, for employee engagement, it’s something I
continue to wonder about.
Overall,
in the other questions of the exercise I performed pretty well. I know how to
be in touch with others, what is truly on their heart and their minds, how to
show it, how to demonstrate and experience compassion regularly, and how to be
authentic and in tune with myself and with others. The only things that mainly
came to a shock to me, as a leader, is what has been said above. Honestly, to a
point it even frightens me not knowing how to fix, change, or overcome the
situation if this happened again. So, I’m looking forward to the next chapter
on learning more about who I am and what are my strengths.
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