It's pretty ironic that for Assignment 2 I found myself in the role as 'Team Leader'; not because I don't see myself as a leader in general, but I feel like such a newbie in the world of environmental science and have really relied on my team to lead the way in this assignment.
As a teacher of 11 years, and within the education sector, I have been in leadership roles since very early on in my career. In this area, I see myself as a Plant, a Specialist and a Shaper (Belbin Associates, 2015). I feel confident in my ability, I know what I'm talking about (or at least I can fake it till I make it), I'm creative and happy to put forward ideas that challenge the status-quo.
So it has been a humbling experience to be in a relatively new field for me and to feel out-of-my-depth at times. This assignment has been a challenge in many ways and taking on the role of 'team leader' has been one of those challenges. In this instance the biggest obstacle was my confidence in the subject matter. I work well with others and can be relied on to perform my tasks however, my lack of subject knowledge is the one thing that holds me back from fulfilling those same Belbin roles that I fill in my teaching life. In this context, I am much more of a Implementer, Team-Worker or Coordinator (Belbin Associates, 2015) but hopefully as I continue studying I will be able to fulfill some other roles as well.
Luckily my team, Team 1, hasn't actually needed much of a team leader as such. Every member of our team has been pro-active and worked really well as a member of a group, particularly considering the distance between us! I think our regular Skype meetings and being able to utilise One Note Online has really helped us to keep moving forward and work collaboratively. Within our group we have most team roles covered, although none of us feel we naturally fulfill Belbin's (2015) role of the Specialist - for this particular task we were able to research to create knowledge to help us along the way.
Belbin Associates (2015). Belbin Team Roles Retrieved from http://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/
Excellent! This goes along with the prevailing wisdom at my work, that you don't have to be a 'subject matter expert' to lead a team. What they don't mention though is what you're talking about here: the results can be great but it's very uncomfortable for the person involved. It's been good to have you in the lead and I'm very glad we haven't had a specialist. Those are the ones who don't play nicely with others. We can do without them!
ReplyDeleteyou've been a great, proactive and involved leader. Even if you may have felt uncomfortable in a new field while being our leader. Well done and thanks.
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