Honestly, leading a group is not my cup of tea. If someone takes a lead, I am most happy to obey the rules and complete the tasks dutifully. However, I do feel obliged to take the lead when there is no clear direction and meeting the deadline appears uncertain. It makes me anxious.

So, when my lovely group members initiated the discussion and provided a solid background work, I was elated. Typically me, I drew up a schedule on the tasks that need to be done with the submission dates. I offered to do the collating for the first task and asked for volunteers to lead the next 2 tasks. I promptly got 2 of my group members to take the lead. I believe it showcased our distributive leadership approach.

Though only 3 of the 5 team members actively contributed to the first task, we practiced patience and discretion in understanding the challenging circumstances of the present situation (COVID-19 restrictions). We respected members’ personal commitments and believed that we will have a better participation rate for the next two tasks.

I suggested the format to present our findings and it was taken up positively by the team.There were always words of encouragement from my team members on contributions made and that encouraged bonding of the team. These typifies servant leadership where emphasis on collaboration, trust, empathy, and ethics resulted in  increased teamwork, deeper engagement, and better performance. (Burkus,2010).

After collating our contributions, I emailed the final draft to all my team members to suggest any changes and seeking their approval. I value each of my team members’ feedback and strove to build an open communication channel. With minor changes being made, we submitted the task on time. I felt happy at our level of commitment to the task and it reinforced to me, on what I believe about leadership: working interdependently and collectively yield better outcomes.

References

Burkus, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/