Project getting it back on track.

Friday 4th October 2013

I presented a 2 hour seminar yesterday. It went really really well. I'm not sure I really covered the brief that the lecturer wanted but the feedback I received from students was that it was interesting and informative. I am so relived.

This is what I feel like.

However I think the reason that it went well is because I prepared and I prepared and I prepared. It took me about 18 hours of preparation. (A little more than the 3 hours that my boss told me he would give me for it!). I am actually really cross about having to take time away from the "work that matters" to have to do this. Now I feel behind in my day to day work and behind in my project. I know it is going to be difficult to find the time to catch up. So back to the drawing board with scheduling in tasks and preparing to do the urgent work that is needed.

I have reviewed where I am up to in the literature review and I know it is going to take me a full day or 2 days to complete it. It is enjoyable work but it does need a serious chunk of time devoted to it.

I am finding myself reviewing the team roles we learnt about in September and thinking about my team and how we all play a part to get jobs done. My manager is such a strong Coordinator that I am getting to the stage that every time I go near him I have more work to do! Delegation is definitely his strong point and I often feel manipulated in my dealings with him. I am looking forward to managing people seminar in October to explore this a bit more.

presentations - oh me oh my!

26th September 2013

I have been directed by my manager to present a  one hour seminar to second year psych students on motor development. I am freaking out about this. I was trying to work out why the prospect of doing this has unsettled me so much I believe it is because the last time I did a presentation I did a really bad job and received a complaint afterwards. Last time I was presenting to more than 60 experienced teachers about our service and I had not actually had the opportunity to work in the service. So was very much put on the spot.

There is some useful info here from mindtools. It is hard to prepare for a presentation when you don't know what to expect and the brief changes. Already we have been given 3 different emails with 3 different request for information. So today rather than working on my project I am working on a presentation!

I like this mind map for preparing presentations.
http://www.presentation-skills.biz/images/Planning_a_Presentation.jpg

Well at least I will have researched and practiced this prior to learning this in the last unit in November. Wish me luck!

Teamwork: Thought from the September workshop

19th September 2013

We had a great session on building innovative teams and understanding how teams work. I found this unit really interesting and enjoyed the Belbin Team Role's identification and think this is a useful tool to apply at work. Mindtools has info and links to the self perception inventory at this link. I also learnt about the situational leadership model which I think is a useful tool. So will try to get my hands on a copy of The One-Minute-Manager Builds High Performing Teams. Applying this to my own team I can see the constant struggle we have experienced as we have had 10 out of the 12 people in our team join in the last 2 years. Our team has been forming and re-forming and re-forming since I started nearly 3 years ago. This has meant that it has been really hard to think of us as a team as we still tend to work parallel with each other, occasionally coming together but not really working on our services together.

http://leadershipsolutions.co.nz/images/TAP.jpg

In our team we have lots of 'people' people and struggle with the action and thinking roles a bit more. We are about to embark on a new round of recruitment so will take this info with me during that process.

Leadership revisited.

I had a good session with my manager this week who has provided me with some good models to work within. 

Allocating tasks and action plans:

RACI - Who's responsible? Who's accountable? Who needs to be consulted? Who needs to be informed? 

Helping to prioritise team leaders roles / tasks 

 Review of book: Strengths-Based Leadership

Presents Followers' 4 basic needs

Trust, Compassion, Stability & Hope

Therefore as leaders we need to meet that need by making sure the work we do is work that matters and work that can build trust, show compassion, provide stability and /or create hope.  

The other 7 factors introduced to me when making decisions for the team are:

1. Is this a compelling case?

2. Do I have a clear vision?

3. Is there a defined plan?

4. Do we have adequate resources?

5. Does the team of the capabilities and capacity?

6. Is there sufficient motivation?

7. What is the feedback and communication needed/expected?

So now I need to take these models and start using them everyday to see if they fit me and my leadership style. 

Stress belief - make it healthy!

Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend



Check out this great reminder in how to be healthy and make stress your friend in the above video. 

This was timely as I have a uni seminar to present in a month and I hate public speaking.

There are also some good tips about preparing for presentations here. 

August Workshop: Budgeting & Financial Plans....ughhhh

Well there was a slight change of plans and this week the workshop schedule was changed and lucky us had the very dull topic of financial planning and budgets. I'm not sure how this topic can be delivered in an interesting and relevant way but I certainly found it extremely boring and poorly prepared. It would have been more relevant if a team member could have presented it to us and shown us an actual budget and balance statement. 

ipad_team.jpg

This great article on the mind tools website, pretty much covers everything that we learnt. I may need more Excel training down the track. 

However it did make me think about my personal spending habits and how bad I am at sticking to the family budget. 

Following the workshop my project team got together and nutted out the next phase of our project. It is really great having such a great team of people to work with. My job is to finish off the literature review. So I must schedule this in. 

Culture, delegation, and stuff.

Well, my head is spinning trying to collate and make a report from 2 different drafts so thought I would review what I have learnt lately: 

I just came across this article and thought these 6 points are so relevant to all of our work. I think I need to find ways to train staff in the 'soft' skills. These are the things that I often call personality, but in doing this I am allowing myself to think I cannot influence and support that person and I am not giving the person the feedback they need to learn and develop. For example when a person has anxiety about their work and has a tendency to be a perfectionist, preventing them from working effectively, I need to be helping them to develop strategies to make faster decision and allow them the time at a later date to refine the work. 

I had a great session with my manager on Monday and he imparted information about another great tool to use to help lead and manage: the RACI model to help delegate tasks. He uses this all the time and once he makes someone responsible he then checks to make sure that the action occurs, remaining accountable. It is probably useful to think like this when sending info to the team- who needs to know? How should I manage this information? Often people are overloaded with information emails and therefore they are unable to use and absorb the information. 

http://thepaceofservice.com/is-your-social-media-strategy-raci/

So I have left the meeting with a few new responsibilities. 

I have been interested in the ways that some of my colleagues are working. As a team leader I seem (although this hasn't been identified) to need to be on top of what everyone is doing. I work with a number of female colleagues that have recently moved from India to Australia to work and my manager is a man of Indian background (although he did not grow up in India). I came across the work of psychologist Dr Geert Hofstede today and his website here provides his understanding of culture based on  five demensions. It is really interesting to look at the differences between India and Australia, especially in the area of power/ dominance and I have noticed the formal attitudes my colleagues have towards our manager. I thought this may be  because he is a man and the more patriachial society they have come from, however reading this has made me think that it is more about power. Where some of the team have an equal and jovial relationship with the manager, he often chooses to set himself apart from the team. I thought that this was his way of keeping a distance so it is easier to have the difficult performance review type conversations, but the work of Hofstede has been useful in providing me with alternative view points.   

I am entering overwhelm again so today I will take the time to do a mind sweep and schedule in time to complete all the tasks that I need to do. Returning to using the time management tools I am familiar with. I know that consistency is not my strength and I need to revisit tools and keep consciously using them to develop new habits. 

I am looking forward to the workshop next week, especially as the topic is Teamwork.