Reflection on Project learning (additional)

This project has brought a lot of joy and laughter with my group mates and i. This project has also allowed me to get to know my team-mates even better.

This project, I was tasked to be the group leader and be in charge of making sure everything goes well during this project. I’d like to elaborate a little more on what I learnt about leadership as well as teamwork.

With regards to leadership, I was tasked to be the leader of this group. Initially I felt that it was unnecessary responsibility as it was not what I wanted all along. I wanted to contribute to the group in other ways besides being the leader, but since that is what the group decided, I had to continue. Initially I was not playing a primary role in making sure that my team-mates are doing their work. I allowed them to extend their deadlines over and over again until one day, we realised that we had to start doing work or else we would not be able to complete it on time. . This caused all of us to panic and we decided to put in extra effort to make sure that the work was done before the deadline. It was not a nice experience. Through this I realised I failed on a major key point which was to ensure that my team does their work on time. Through this personal experience I learnt that the tough part about being a leader is that they don’t necessarily have to make the popular choice but rather they have to be able to make the tough choices if necessary.

What I learnt about teamwork during this project is that even though time was a critical factor in everything, the entire team was cooperative and was able to work together till the end. There was no major conflicts and we that only through teamwork were we able to complete this project. Additionally, to work on my teamwork, I had to understand how to properly communicate with others to prevent me from offending somebody else. This experience changed the way I communicate with my team members and I like how this is something that I am able to take along with me for my entire life. From this project, I managed to forge a valuable friendship with a team that I would not have usually been with. (This is not our usual team in school)

This project and this module has contributed greatly to my learning and my education experience. I am sure that this learning experience is able to help me with my future career and life.

Critical Reflection on the Course (Blog 4)

At the beginning of my blog, I set out with two objectives to confidently speak and bring my ideas across without coming off as aggressive and overbearing  and to deliver a clear and concise presentation.

Firstly, my confidence to speak without being aggressive has been touched on successfully with the class on emotional intelligence.

With Daniel Goleman’s framework and his five components of emotional intelligence allowed me to achieve my first goal of attaining confidence and humility at the same time. The class on his framework was really interesting and thought provoking at the same time which was one of the main reasons why my group decided to work on his concepts during our project. His concept of emotional intelligence is an all encompassing framework that allows us to first work on ourselves before reaching out to others.

I’d like to put it out there that I might not have achieved all 100% of his objectives but I am pretty sure I have achieved at least 80% of what was taught. In the past, I tend to speak my mind without even considering the feelings of others. Now, with the framework in mind, I am able to ensure that I maintain a conscious level of self control and empathy so that I speak without being too offensive.

Secondly, in terms of my presentation skills, I had always wanted to deliver a clear and concise presentation. When it came to public speaking, I tend to be really nervous and may stutter or add filler words when speaking therefore causing myself to spend a lot of time.  However this was all fixed when it came to the project. During the presentation, I had a time limit of 5 minutes and this was not enough for me. When it came to my rehearsals, I felt that I had spent so much time speaking that I needed to cut my presentation down by at least half the time spent.

I needed to make a change.

Firstly, I started to present to myself in front of the mirror on a daily basis cutting down on my filler words and thereafter, I started presenting to my friends asking for opinion while training on my confidence. All these training allowed me to deliver a clearer and concise presentation on the day itself.

I now conclude that delivering a clearer and concise presentation is not about what we learn from class but rather it is all about practice and much more practice. I can now confidently say that I am able to present myself in front of a crowd anytime, as long as you give me a timeframe to work on my pitch. Next up, I want to work on spontaneous speaking or elevator pitches to allow me to better present myself in a job interview.

In conclusion, I believe what I have taken out from this module is not just simply grades but rather valuable life skills that I can take with me throughout my entire life. Therefore, I will end this post with how I started this blog, it is not all about content but rather, it is about stories. This module is not simply just about the content taught in class but rather the valuable life lessons and skills that we can take with us on our journey in life.

Thank you Dr Lee for your valuable time and lesson.

Best Regards,

Harold Lam

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation reflection

Today’s presentation went smoothly although I could have done better by being less nervous. Some things I did well was the way I stood up there. I felt that I managed to capture the attention of my audiences and kept them listening on. 

One thing I probably did badly was to stutter. That was probably due to my nervousness but I’m going to work on it. Otherwise I think I did pretty well. 

Some key points I took away from my research is to Ensure that I control my impulses and improve on my social skills so that I can be well liked by my friends. 

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict (Revised)

What is conflict? Is it progress, or a lack thereof?

Throughout my polytechnic days, I have been tasked with many projects and often I find myself being the leader of a couple of them.  There was this one particular project where the deadline was three days later. I had a group of four but I will just mention this one particular person – Minjie. Minjie is a student in school often colloquially referred to as a “leech”.

I have been constantly reminding Minjie about contributing his part of the project in order for us to turn it in. He constantly blew me off saying that he was still working on it but all I saw was him constantly on the computer playing games. Being the impatient guy I am, I requested that he show me what he has done so that I could assist him in completing it early. It was then he told me that he has not started and was not planning to start until the day before the submission because he felt that the project was going to be simple.

Immediately, I felt a surge of rage channelling through every single part of my body. I screamed at Minjie demanding an answer why was he so irresponsible. To which he replied  “I don’t care, I’m just here to scrape through and get my diploma”. 

His nonchalant attitude infuriated me.

I gave him an ultimatum, either he complete the work by tonight or I’m telling my lecturer about him. It was then he started to do his work and therefore completing the work on the night of the conflict itself.

Due to a lack of luck, I have been assigned to a group with Minjie again but surprisingly, this time round, he completes his work on time, every time.

There are several factors resulting in the friction between Minjie and I; 

Firstly, motivations. Both Minjie and I have very different motivations with regards to obtaining a diploma. I want to obtain my diploma with the best possible results while Minjie on the other hand simply wanted to graduate.

Next, working styles, both of us have different working styles. I wanted work to be completed earlier so that we can check for errors or mistakes that may occur along the way. Minjie only wants to complete his work with minimal effort and hope that no mistakes occur.

These differences between Minjie and I has led to conflict between us and has to be resolved by raised voices and ultimatums. In conclusion, interpersonal conflict is unavoidable when there are major personality differences between teammates. Although such conflicts may occur from time to time, taking a step back and meeting each other halfway could be a good way to resolve such a problem. But when a team member is as obstinate as Minjie, I pose a simple question. What is conflict, is it progress or a lack thereof?

Evaluating Listening Skills & Nonverbal Behaviour (Revised)

 

Dear readers, Today I will be sharing a short story about my observation between a superior and his men in the military. I will also be elaborating further on how culture plays an important role in shaping one’s identity. 

I will be referring to the superior as the lieutenant and the subordinate as corporal.

One day, I was having lunch in the cafeteria. The lieutenant was sitting at a corner of the room having his lunch. There was a group of corporals sitting together passing offensive remarks of a peer in their group of different race. The lieutenant stood up and shouted across the room “All of you except Rajesh, fall out immediately outside in a single file!”. The corporals scurried outside while the lieutenant slowly made his way outside. With his arms crossed and the corporals standing at attention, he lectured them on the importance of racial harmony and how it is related to the peace of Singapore. The corporals listened attentively while the lieutenant went on and on for a fifteen minutes. The corporals were raised their hand and were immediately shot down by the lieutenant telling them to listen to him first.

 

Observing their actions, I can tell that culturally speaking, the corporals were so deeply indoctrinated with the idea of rank and order so much that they fear that they are not able to answer their superior’s question, they will be punished and told off. To appease their superior, they were all actively listening to prevent themselves getting caught off guard with questions while on the flip side, the lieutenant has been so used to having people listen to him, he does not listen to what his subordinates has to say.

I believe that their presence in the military plays a large role in how a person listens or behave. The lieutenant is a superior while the corporals are subordinates. Each of them knows their place and therefore the lieutenant is able to behave as such.

To elaborate on non-verbal characteristics, the lieutenant was walking with pride with his arms crossed while the corporals were all standing at attention.  This two non-verbal actions are polar opposites and each have different effects in the situation. The lieutenant was assuming authority by crossing his arms while the corporals were adhering to the culture in the military by standing straight and not moving. Additionally, they were all listening attentively probably for fear of further punishment by their superior. Through my observation of the corporals raising their hands, I think that they wanted to apologise and make things better but the lieutenant didn’t want to accept their apology and continued to reprimand them.

Ultimately, no matter what kind of external factors there may be, I feel that culture plays the largest role in how a person responds and behave in any given situation. No matter how the situation turns out, culture always prevails and reveals how a person responds to the situation.

 

 

Role of Emotional Intelligence

 

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence (EI for short) is a representation of your ability to perceive and make use of emotions to enhance interpersonal communication and thought. Through my research I have found that there are several factors that make up Emotional Intelligence but today I will be focusing on the components of Emotional Intelligence

There are five components within Emotional Intelligence, they are Self-Awareness, Self regulation, Internal Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills.

Self-Awareness is the ones’ ability understand and recognise their own moods. This ensures that an individual understands how he/she is feeling and take appropriate steps to ensure that their feelings are kept in check.

This also brings me to my next point on Self-Regulation. Cookie Monster in this case makes a perfect example. Cookie Monster acts on impulse and does not have an appropriate response to his desires. He clearly lacks Self-Regulation and therefore is not a good representation of having a high Emotional Intelligence.

Internal Motivation represents an individual intrinsic or extrinsic motivating factor. Depending on a person’s goal in completing a task, these represents a person’s drive and commitment into completing a task.

Empathy. It represents an ability to understand others and develop a stronger understanding of other people’s situation. This can be achieved by watching verbal and non-verbal cues of people and responding appropriately.

Social Skills. Social skills represent a range of competencies that are based on self-confidence and self-esteem. These skills allows oneself to mingle and network within a crowd or a party. This is an ability sorely lacking in many people nowadays and I believe this is one that is the easiest and simplest to attain.

To conclude, I personally find that empathy is highly lacking in most people nowadays. People simply pay lip-service and never really bother to walk a mile in another person’s shoe. This simply shows how caught up the world is in their own pursuits for excellence and success never offering genuine  care and compassion to people around them.

I wish and hope that one day, I would live to see the day that people stop living for themselves and start living for others.

Signing off,

Harold

Strength and Challenges in Communicating

 

Dear readers, tonight I am going to speak to you regarding my strengths and challenges in communication as well as two objectives I am going to achieve by the end of the course.

When I was in my polytechnic days,  I was really shy boy. It was through a really demanding presentation that I realised that I have to come out of my shell and improve on my speaking skills. Therefore nowadays I am proud to be able to stand on stage and deliver a message across without fumbling as much as when I just started out in polytechnic.

Some key strengths that I have in communication is my stage presence, my charisma and my wit. I strongly believe that communication is not simply just about talking. It is how you speak, how you express and how you conduct yourself. My greatest strength in communication is that I am an extremely expressive person. I am confident whenever I speak and I never let fear affect my thought process. Besides being confident and expressive, On a personal level, I am able to empathise with how people feel and work according to their needs.

Definitely, all these qualities comes with  drawbacks as well; I can be seen as aggressive whenever I am trying to drive a message across and as a result may not come off as a person that is nice to work with. Although I am able to deliver a message or presentation whenever I am called to do so, I may not do it in a concise and clear manner because I am unable to properly summarise my thoughts into words for people to understand.

This course is a comprehensive and structured program designed to improve on my personal and professional communication skills. I hope that through this course I will be able to confidently speak and bring my ideas across without coming off as aggressive and overbearing. I would also hope that this course would be able to ensure that I am well equipped to deliver a clear and concise presentation whenever I am called upon to do so.

Objectives

To start off, communication plays a vital role in our society. The society that we live in exists because of communication. The creation of Uber started from a single tweet on the very popular social media platform — Twitter. This clearly shows the importance for communication and the need for more ways to communicate.

There is a strong need for me to improve on my communication skills because this would in turn allow me to secure that job interview, get the job and advance in my career in the years down the line.

There are many things I can do to help myself develop as an effective interpersonal communicator.

1. Get out of my comfort zone.
2. Speak out in class.
3. Participate actively.
4. Be open to Criticisms.

These are just one of the many ways for me to develop and become an effective communicator.