What influences my role?

I most certainly have different roles in different groups of people. I think my type of involvement in a group depends on two main factors. One is my comfort level with the members of the group. For example, I’m very comfortable with my family members and I give my opinion in most family matters and even try to convince others to follow my decisions. I think I’ve gained enough credibility over the years that I’m not worried to be accused of making a wrong decision. On the contrary, when I attended one of my neighborhood meetings, I met a group of older people who have lived in the neighborhood for many years and I didn’t know many of them. I was not comfortable to take any leadership role and I just participated in the discussions and brought up some concerns and questions.

The second factor that affects my group role is the kind of people in that group. I work more efficiently with people who have certain characteristics compared to others. For instance, at work, I am regularly assigned to different projects with different group members. I have worked with all of my co-workers in different projects and more or less know their characters. So from the beginning of the project, just by looking at the team composition I can predict how successful the project would be. Although many people learn to work with each other over time, I believe certain personalities work with each other and achieve their goals more efficiently. Certainly being a leader in some groups is easier than others. If I gain the leadership role in any of these groups, I try to change my style accordingly. For example, if I have passive or bystander co-workers in my group who are not motivated and need to be pushed, then I have to be more controlling and do more micro management. On the contrary, when dealing with self motivated co-workers, I change my style and try not to control the details, providing only an overall leadership of the project.

Different types of leadership

I suppose the main groups that I interact with are work connections, family, and friends. I interact with my family fairly regularly... I talk to my mom almost every day... and in that immediate family circle, I take on different roles depending on the situation. If we are hosting a party or some family event, I go into assistant party planner mode, letting my mom run the kitchen, etc and helping her get everything done. If I am hosting the event for family, the roles are reversed. I believe this is where my "hosting" gene comes from... my mom and I love to throw parties. When I am assisting my mom, I have noticed that she is good at delegating work, which is something that I need to improve on. When we are not hosting parties and just hanging out, I take on the role of bossy older sister, telling everyone what to do and fighting with my dad about the best way to do things. In these situations, I like to take charge and organize people, which is a lot like my mom again. I think with her years of experience, she has a lot of tips to give me about running a family... and I'd like to hear them :)

In my work life I am definitely not as bossy. I like to be in charge still, but am more open to other people's ideas and suggestions about things. I want to be seen as a hard worker, on top of my projects, and smart at work.. so I try to be as prepared as possible for all meetings I attend and projects I run. It is sometimes difficult for me to lessen my control grip when running an event, however I understand that working relationships are not as forgiving as family, so I can bite my tongue and just go with it... sometimes.

With my friends, again, I am a planner. I love to plan parties, get togethers, outings, whatever! With these types of interactions, I do like to remain very much in control. However I do work with my friends and their ideas if they have an opinion. It is not as hard for me to let go of my control with friends as it is for me in work situations. I think this is because in work, if you mess up, people form opinions of you quickly, and it is difficult to change their minds. With friends, you can mess up, fall down, scream and cry, but they will still be there for you and still believe in you.

It would seem that I fall into the same role in most aspects of my life... and I don't consider that a bad thing. My personality is a controlling, planning one... but one that still wants to be liked and make sure everyone has a good time. I feel that as long as I keep those two aspects balanced, then I will be pretty good :)

Leadership roles

Spending a long holiday weekend with family is fun but also very draining, I guess because you spend a long periods of time with a lot of the same people. I think my main groups that I interact with are family, friends, and work. My leadership style does change with these groups. I notice when I am making decisions with friends I typically step back and let other people make the plans and decisions, and I typically go along with whatever they have planned. I notice the leader in this group is usually the person who has the most connections with the majority of the people in the group. So she typically brings everyone together and coordinates the decisions.
Around family, I am definitely not as passive and usually have a large input in the decision making, coordinating plans, and bringing everyone together. I realized my influence among my family members when I was able to somehow convince everyone it was a good idea to go see Harry Potter the day after Thanksgiving. No one wanted to go because of crowds, traffic, and many other excuses. I was able to come up with all these reasons why we should go and eventually everyone agreed and we ended up having a great time! I think I have gained influence in my family over the years as I have gotten older and everyone is more on equal grounds since we are all adults now.
I suppose at work I am kind of in the middle, sometimes I try to be a leader and sometimes I step back and let other people be the leaders. I also think my leadership style varies based on how I think people perceive me, and sometimes I do or don't act a certain way in order to to avoid changing those perceptions. Like with my family, I don't care if they think I am bossy and try to get them to do things, I’m not shy about voicing my opinions or ideas. But with my friends I try to be a little more sensitive to what other's want to do and not be so picky or come off as controlling. I think work again falls somewhere in the middle, I don’t want to be a pushover but I also don’t want to come off as too domineering and inflexible. The most important thing that people do to stand out as leaders is to influence and persuade others; and I can learn from watching the different angles people take in order to get others to see things their way. I think this could be applied to all my different social circles to chose the appropriate leadership style for each.

Blog Topic 12: Groups and leadership

It is likely that over this long weekend, you are finding yourself interacting with friendship groups and family groups more intensely than you usually do. The holidays and celebrations typically bring people together - which is sometimes good and sometimes bad.

In class, we talked about adjusting your leadership for different kinds of groups - volunteer groups, paid groups, etc. Take this time to reflect on your leadership in the different types of groups of which you are a member (even if you didn't see them all this week). How does your leadership style change? Are you more effective in one group versus another? Do you fall into a pattern such that you are in the same role in all groups? Or, as is typical in family groups, do you find yourself regressing to the same role in the family that you've always played, regardless of other accomplishments? Think about other leaders in these groups. What do they do that is effective and how can you learn from them?

Feedback!

In the feedback that I received, I would say that a few aspects surprised me. I always thought that when leading a group it is important to have high-performance expectations, but the average of others was much lower than I expected. There is that one quote, "always aim for the stars, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." These seems to be true, the higher you set your goals, the higher you will end up even if you do not meet them.

This is an important idea to note. The reason for this could be that people often set intangible goals. Setting a goal that is more easily attained might be more advantageous to actually reaching it. I don't really think that I get authentic feedback in my everyday life too often. Just by looking at these ratings has opened my eyes to a few things that I didn't already know. If I got more feedback more often, I would gain much more leadership skills.

I was also shocked that providing intellectual stimulation isn't too high on others ratings. Of all the ways to motivate people, one would think that stimulating your group would help in moving them to do something. This should definitely be a learning experience for everyone, sometimes the things we think motivate others can actually hinder your group from achieving its goal.

Relieved....

I was relieved to see my results. I definitely want to be liked by people, but at the same time I want to be seen as knowledgeable, reliable, and in control. I try to interact with people in a way so that I am pleasant to talk to / work with, but still convey my intelligence and managerial skills. Sometimes I think I can come off a little too friendly and not be taken seriously. Other times I think I can be seen as a pushover, or someone that you don't need to take seriously. I am glad that I got to see a small cross section of what people think of me...

I was not surprised by any of the results... more interested. In the Influence tactics section, my Pressure and Exchange scores were pretty low, while my Inspirational Appeal was super high. I do not like bartering as a way to get things done, so I was pleased to see that my score for that was low.

I receive feedback, whether I want it or not, on a daily basis from my boyfriend Jon. He has gotten to the point where he tells me point blank how it is and how I am coming across. I think we all know by now that I have "knee-jerk" reactions to things, get offended easily, and do not manage my emotional intelligence well. Well, when I start getting defensive about something or got super offended about something he says, Jon will look me in the eye and say "stop it, you are being irrational." Of course I get all upset all over again.. mostly because I know he is right and I am frustrated with myself that I can't control my emotions better. However this constant stream of feedback has helped me try to calm my emotions at work. If I am going to be a successful manager, I can't get all offended and hold a grudge and dwell if a co worker talks to me funny.. I need to control myself and his constant pointing it out.. though frustrating.. has made me more aware of my reactions and how they can be perceived.

The Feedback Says:

The feedback left me feeling cold, numb, anesthetized, drained and deadened because I recognized that I had “not” been authentically Asher all along. I had been wearing a disguise pretending to be someone I wanted people to believe I was. I traveled the path of least resistance simply because. I displayed a less complex Asher that was easier to palate.


The feedback made me feel as if I were flagged for having “shallow emotions,” meaning my show of warmth, joy, compassion may not have been authentic but aseptically feigned.
My display of emotions served as a cover for my ulterior motives or objectives. How could I feel so outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Truly I was not acting genuine, neither were my promises.
“Was anything surprising to you?” Nothing was really surprising for me because I interpret all feedback as useful. I may certainly digest things differently but none the less, I digest.


The primary framework I will garner from the feedback is its ability to support my learning, my change and my improvement. Darn Skippy, I know I need to learn from this experience and learning will take place by knowledge of how to manage my weaknesses.


It's not having been in the dark house, but having left it, that counts.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Yes, what about my weakness? No matter my strengths I have to manage my weakness that are lurking around in the unfriendly darkness ready to strike at a moment’s notice when I least expect it. The contradiction in feedback scores exposes that deep seated rage, I experience often which is split off and repressed, at its core. I am concerned that I see others around me not as people but as targets and opportunities.
How can the information you received move you towards your leadership goals?
The first game rule is to identify my weaknesses which were pointed out in the feedback.

I identify a weakness as anything that complicates or gets in the way of excellent performance. Taken into totality my largest weakness appears to be transparency. Of the thousand roles that I play much like an actor reading for a movie, I have never found the role of playing Asher interesting enough to stay with it. So the pretender in me is on trial for lacking an authentic persona that is consistent with her values, beliefs and aspirations.


Without the skill of transparency I cannot articulate carefully and clearly my vision; my vision of creativity, resourcefulness and imagination.
Taken literally I need to: Stop faking it and live the life I was born to fulfill. I need to rediscover my core values and return to my authentic self. I need to lock down and regain the passion, excitement, and confidence locked inside of me. I shall get real and leave the old phony behind. I am not auditioning for a new role and that is the life of Asher.

No Feedback No Goals

Receiving feedback is essential and this phenomenon also guides us to the direction where we decide to head to. Without any feedback for your performance, people usually begin to lose their confidence and energy towards their goals. It is just like taking a math exam. When you realize that your teacher (leader) decides to keep the score secretly, you would have some sort of disappointments because you cannot get information about your performance and soon your energy will be drained and depleted. The same principle can be applied to our daily lives. As I working to achieve something great for personal or company, I always seek feedbacks, suggestions, and encouragements from my supervisor so that I can refuel my spirit and energy to step out of my comfort zone and make great things happen. Honest feedback help me understand myself more about the situation and it not only clears out my doubts but also points out the problems I should adjust before I move on. People need feedbacks to reevaluate their performance. Without feedback, we are likely to commit mistakes and fail our goals.

Time for a little self-reflection

There were definitely a few things that surprised me in the feedback. It is really important to recognize how others view you, mostly I think because you do things and repeat certain behaviors you are not always aware of. For example, I always consider myself to be in control of my emotions; however I scored lower on the average ratings of others across the board for emotional intelligence. This really surprised me because I thought this would be one of my strengths. I will have to reevalute myself in this area. I am grateful for the information because I value emotional intelligence, and now that I realize I am not as strong in this category as I thought I know this is an area I can target for improvement. I will definitely work on identifying emotions in others, and also regulating my own emotions. I have been trying to “self-monitor” the last few days to see how I am behaving and paying closer attention to the reactions of others.

In my every day life I would say I actually receive a lot of feedback from a few sources: my sister for one is constantly pointing out things about me and things that I do when I don’t realize. She always starts with “maybe you don’t realize this but….” And then proceeds to tell me her opinions about me and my behavior, what I say and how I say it. This is actually helpful because family knows you best and also doesn’t usually care if the truth hurts your feelings or not. I also get a lot of feedback about my performance at work. Everything I do is reviewed by 2 managers, so my work is constantly being handed back to make changes which is annoying but getting used to your work being criticized can make you more open and less defensive over time.

I think honest feedback is really hard for just about everyone, especially if you are a person who has or at one point had low self-esteem. If you already feel badly about yourself it can be really difficult to get feedback from other people, especially if you have tried to overcome years of low self-esteem.

Blog Topic 11: Seeing ourselves as other see us

Last week, you received feedback on how other people see you in a leadership roles. Was anything surprising to you? You've had a few days to digest the feedback, how can the information you received move you towards your leadership goals? How frequently do you receive authentic feedback in your everyday life? How can acquiring honest feedback help you achieve your goals?

Two points on the TED talk

As I was listening to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly talk, two points were interesting to me. One is that lack of basic resources leads to unhappiness, but increasing the amount of resources doesn’t result in more happiness either. So as long as human’s basic needs are met, the amount of income or moving from a three to four bedroom house does not necessarily make them happier. In other words, people with higher incomes and bigger homes may live more comfortably, but they’re not necessarily happier. The important point is that every person’s basic needs are different from others. In my own experience, when I was living away from my family, I wasn’t very happy. Now that I live close to them, although my material resources haven’t changed much, I’m much happier. So would it be correct if I conclude being close to family is one of my basic needs?!

Another point is the concept of flow. When I looked at the definition of Flow which is “the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity”, I realized there is nothing in life that gives me the state of flow. The closest feeling I can recall is speed running tournaments in my junior high years. It was such a great feeling when I was on the tracks. I just wanted to run forever. I’m curious to know how many people that I know experience the feeling of flow and in what way.

Motivation

Depending on the situation, I feel that there are a lot of things that motivate me. When I think of what motivates me at my job, I would have to say it's mostly money. I work as a server at a restaurant, so my main goal is to make good tips. This, coincidentally, means that I have to provide better service to earn them so it works for both the company and I. When I worked my full time sales job, I was motivated to push the company forward. Making money was great and all, but since it was a small start-up company, I felt personally invested and motivated to see it succeed. I like the feeling of being motivated by something I like better than money. Being personally invested in something and caring about the outcome is the easiest way to have someone do their best job at their task.

I think that what motivates me isn't much different than what motivates others. Everyone is motivated to work towards a goal if it's something they care about. But sometimes, it isn't always that easy to get everyone to want the same final goal. This is when other motivation styles need to be put in place. It is important to take the individual or group that you are trying to motivate and analyze which style would be the most advantageous. Fear is good, but sometimes can cut ties with those you are scaring. All in all, I feel that inspiration is the best form of motivation. Scaring someone or getting angry can get the job done, but may have more negative effects than you would want. Inspiring someone to be motivated gets the job done and probably gets the best outcome.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation does play an important role in my daily life. To me, there is a difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. An extrinsic motivation, for example, is like that your manager raises your salary because you have been working hard. As for an intrinsic motivation, you often find out some truths about yourself like you’ve been enjoyed getting involved in what you are doing because you like the environment or because you can help others and make contributions to the world. No doubts, people are likely to be attracted to intrinsic motivations. I that way, when I lost the momentum to work, I can quickly get energy out of my intrinsic motivation repertoire and again become focused and concentrated on what I am working now.

Whenever I got lost under stressful working environment, I like to reframe things with my eyes closed, because sometimes what you see does not truly reflect truths, and mind opened.
Then, I will take a deep reflection on what’s meaningful to me and what should I do to continue pursuing the meaningful things. Luckily this strategy works very well on me and I enjoy doing it whenever I need a break from work and my busy life.

To motivate others, as according to textbook, you need to create an environment of trust and collaboration. Abusing power with negative attitudes towards your followers will bring you and your team with long term damages. As a leader, to know your followers internally is important. Just like you, others like to be lead with intrinsic motivations.

Too Salty

Too Much Salt
Excess sodium in the blood is very serious and can lead to organ failure and death. The condition is called hypernatremia. People who have kidney failure or who are not getting sufficient water will have it. Symptoms usually are noticeable when severe. Symptoms may include: severe sweating, hypothermia, dizziness and lethargy. Danger can occur with too much sodium so too can danger occur with an overzealous amount of motivation. It’s not that complex to get overly excited about a new goal, a new class, a new relationship or even a new project; you start burning the midnight oil and then completely puke out a week or month later. When I think about the number of positions that I have had in my life, 31, I have had to get motivated and then settle into coast mode for survival.
Think about those crazy, exotic, irrational crash diets that you start only to fail a week later. It’s easy to get really enthusiastic about a new goal. It is sort of like a Kid on Halloween who eats a bit too much candy, there can be such a thing as too much motivation. My entire life has been about starting a marathon by sprinting like a demon on drugs the first mile. Call it that competitive spirit, call it spiritual awakening, call it just stupid I call it burning the candle at both ends. Take a walk down the self-help aisle of Barns and Noble and thousands of books get you pumped, revved, gunned, accelerated and ready to go make enormous life altering changes. Although this is a nice idea, it can easily lead to motivation burnout. For me it’s been ready, get set, disappointment. I view motivation globally as achieving as close to possible your life goals. From day one out of the gate it has been about viewing my habits and making small but measurable changes. Sometimes change has been monumental and painful and other times it has been incremental and effortless.
Thinking about the excessive sodium I think about the excessive speed at which I have attacked life and living. My motivation has been almost drug induced at times; my personality and zest to do and conquer can almost take on a speed freakish nature. I have taken 21 academic units and worked full-time while raising three children. I have lost 100 pounds in less than 185days. I have finished a finance exam while in active labor. I have run a five mile race while in active labor. I have broken both my arms trying to lift weights greater than my ability. I think you get the point! At some point my need for speed and prove that I am motivated has caused burnout.
I have come to the understanding that fundamentally I need to have more value for what constitutes meaning for me! Working hard had not worked for me, now I need to work passionately. Essentially it means arriving at a clear understanding of my values and sacrificing, surrendering or forfeiting only for ‘that’ which meets those values and tenets. Clarifying my values will need to come from personal reflection and deep self-analysis. It shall come from deconstruction of my past so that I am able to construct my future. No longer shall I operate on the tenets of motivation for motivation sake but fundamentally I will only become motivated for those things I deem valuable and serviceable to the ecclesiastical of Asher.

The better motivation...

I found last week’s class interesting because I actually never knew the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I had never heard of those concepts before, but it actually makes a lot of sense. I could never understand why people would live their lives as struggling artists or pursuing something that was never going to make them a lot of money; but it is because they are intrinsically motivated and do not care as much about external motivations. After learning the difference, I realized I am extrinsically motivated. I do consider myself a motivated person but I am always pushing myself for some outside reward. I’m always just focused on what the end result will bring: a promotion, a raise, recognition. I suppose that is a shallow way to be, I guess because I don’t feel like what I do really makes a difference.

I think the better motivation is intrinsic motivation. When people are intrinsically motivated the results and rewards are greater. People want to feel like they are making a difference, that their work is important and has some meaning. It is a terrible feeling to feel like your work means nothing to an organization and you never see results of your hard work. But how do you create intrinsic motivation in a corporate, non-creative setting when ideas are constantly ignored or shot-down by management? It is easier for companies like Google or Apple to create intrinsic motivation in their employees, but what about other businesses that do not necessarily need or want ideas from employees? These situations are hard to create motivation.

I think as a manager it is essential to create intrinsic motivation: people are happier, they do better quality work, and have higher morale. People need to understand what they are contributing and why. If someone just feels like they are in a grind and doesn’t care about their work, they could be motivated by having a clear understanding on how and why their job is important. I would say the majority of people don’t understand what impact they personally have on the company, and they are unable to see the big picture. Although I suppose some people just don’t really care either way; I don’t think you can motivate those who do not want to be motivated…..any ideas?

Blog Topic 10: Motivation

In retrospect, our discussion of motivation in class went in two directions: how to motivate others and how to motivate oneself. The two aren't necessarily unrelated, but it is helpful to consider them separately before combining them. The videos below concern self-motivation, but could also be applied to understanding your followers.

What do you think motivates you? Are there times when you are just trying to get by and are there times when you are striving something really great? When do you experience each kind of feeling? Which feeling are your more comfortable with?

Having considered what motivates you, think about how you might motivate others. Can you shift gears between different styles and types of motivation when working with your followers? Can you use fear? Can you use anger? Can you use inspiration? How can you improve your motivational repertoire?

Cutural Misconceptions

One point I'd like to mention is that the culture of a certain country is sometimes perceived mistakenly by the outside world due to confusion with the religious rituals of the dominant minority or the imposing belief system of the country’s government. For example, in the short questionnaire that we had last Wednesday, I was surprised to see the claim that in Iran, it’s offensive to eat with your left hand. I was born and raised in Iran for 16 years and had never heard of this. I asked some Iranian friends and families, and it turned out I’m not the only one who was suprised by this news. I later discovered not eating with your left hand is an Islamic practice which is observed in some Arabic countries.

I experience this kind of misperception about my countrymen almost every day. Iran is run by a group of Islamist extremists and is known to be an Islamic country. So although Iranians have distinct Persian traditions and a rich culture, it’s natural for the outside world to perceive Iranians as strict Muslems who strictly follow Islamic laws, although for the large number of the population this is not true.

Cultural Miscommunication

There are many things that will stymie our communication with people who has different backgrounds, cultures, and values from us. I am a foreign student, and I have suffered through really tough time to overcome the culture barrier since the first day I came to the States. As a matter of fact, for people who come from Asia usually found their culture shocks while interacting with people who speak different languages. I used to work with an Indian classmate, and we sometimes had some contradictions in minds and communications. I always try to take a soft way to accommodate things and provide him with big frame to accomplish projects. However, my partner is more like an aggressive and detail oriented person. He likes to make things complicated with elaborated labored work to make the project look nice regardless of the deadline of the project. We do have some hard time in negotiating on the issue of whether to finish the project on time or spend extra time to make the late turned in project look nice. I think my logical reasoning is not communicated efficiently enough for him to understand my purpose. I should improve my communication skill by repeating and explaining my concepts and purposes to him and reaching agreements that will do us both good.

Cultural Communication Styles

I have definitely had experiences with those of other cultures that maybe didn’t go as well as they should, and I think it can attributed to different backgrounds, cultures, and family of origins. My family heritage is European but I am third generation so basically consider myself just “American”. I don’t really have a culture of origin that I identify with, so I think when I meet people that do, some I don’t really understand them or I can see areas that we differ.

I think communication can be a challenge also, not just a language barrier but also the ways in which people communicate. For example, I had a neighbor who was from India, and he always needed to come over to borrow something or tell us something. But when he would be at the door, before saying why he was really there he would always start with small talk and chit-chat asking questions about how we were. [I have been told by another person from India that this is a cultural thing, that is it polite to start off this way and take time to get to the point, but I could be wrong, this is just my experience.] So to me I saw him as being annoying and wasting my time, he didn’t seem to notice or care that he was taking a long time to get the point. I personally didn’t care if he asked me how I was, I just wanted him to tell me what he needed! So he probably thought I was being rude by being impatient, and I thought he was being rude. In America we value our time, and although both cultures may have shared “neighbor” values, the approach is much different.

I’ve never lived anywhere else to be able to compare other cultures. So I think travel is very important, especially for Americans because yo have the opportunity to live differently for a few days or weeks, and see what other lifestyles can be like, and learn about other cultures.

Mis-meetings of the minds

My parents are Scottish... like real kilt wearing, hard to understand, my cousin and godfather play the bagpipes kind of Scottish. My mother raised my brothers and I as she was raised, and it wasn't really until college, when I met people from all different walks of life, that I realized how differently people acted in situations.

The first ever realization that my up-bringing might be different than another persons was at a dinner party. I was taught the "proper" way to use a knife and fork, and that is what I thought everyone did. However, the person sitting directly across from me ate VERY differently than I did. He stabbed his meat with his fork in full-fist grip and proceeded to saw the meat, scratching his knife repeatedly on the plate. Then, once the piece was cut, he *gasp* changed his fork from his left hand to his right hand, and ate the piece. My first thought: heathen. It was at that point that I began to notice things that I was taught to do in social situations that not everyone did.. at first I was put off by the lack of "manners" that people had, but eventually I realized that some people did not act the same way I did because of their up bringing, not because they were rude.

I still do the things that my mother taught me.... if no one is talking in a social circle, one must find something... ANYTHING to start a conversation about.. one must sit with her ankles crossed under the table, not legs crossed, in polite circles... one must always have biscuits (cookies) and some form of refreshment when a guest comes to call.. etc etc... however my version of things is tamer than hers (don't tell my mom that though!)

When I do have cultural clashes with people, I still get put off.. however since the realization at the dinner party, I do not hold it against people. I find other cultures interesting, and try my best to take note of customs and try to appropriately incorporate them into interactions. However, I am sure that somewhere along the road, someone has thought my constant talking through silences was pretty annoying..

Misscommunicating

In many of my group projects I feel like there is always a "mismeeting" of minds. Recently, I had a project in one of my classes where my assumptions clashed with one of my group members. I always try to do my best in group projects to get an A, because other than learning that is my ultimate goal. It was very apparent that in this case, he had a different route he wanted to take to get there. He had this preconceived notion that if we did whatever we wanted, as long as we thought it was what we should do, the teacher would be pleased. I, however, believed that we should use the teachers guidelines to give us the best chance of getting an A.

I felt like he was making things too complicated, he felt that I was simplifying things too much. I'm not sure what I can say about the geography of my mind that made this interaction go sour, but I can say a lot about his. Sometimes the answer isn't always something that takes a lot of brain power and thinking. The problem we had was what to use as our mission statement for our marketing plan. There is all sorts of mission statements out there. Some are really specific, some are complex and long. I truly felt that we needed to make ours simple and easy to understand (like the teacher said). He wanted to elaborate and make it catchy and funny.

I think the critical disagreement we had was about what the teacher would think. I thought logically, do what the teacher says and do it well and we will get an A. He thought more than that, do kind of what the teacher says but attempt to go above and beyond and see what happens.

.....we made a simple one and got an A