My greatest strength is to be the mediator of a group. On this Pairin survey, my strongest characteristic in the emotional intelligence category was "Group Expert." I've previously taken a Myers-Briggs personality test and was classified as a "Mediator," which is essentially the same classification. In any group, I excel at conflict resolution. I am able to understand conflicting points of view and communicate those views to those in disagreement in a way that is conducive to reaching a consensus. This is a characteristic that I think I've always had, but have really honed in the last two years as a public school teacher. It has helped me to build relationships with challenging students, resolve conflicts between students and coworkers, and foster an environment of cooperation and productivity in my classroom.
I work best when I have a clearly defined task and I know the reason for completing the task. I enjoy collaborating with others because I know that the greatest wisdom and ideas come from experimenting with and refining several hypotheses and/or approaches to a problem. However, once I know what my task is, I am the most productive when I can work independently without interruption. It can take me a few minutes to really settle in and focus on a task, so frequent interruptions or distractions can lead to less productivity and lower-quality work. I recently purchased noise-cancelling headphones to help me focus on my work, even in a busy setting. It helps block out external sound that I find distracting and is a signal to others that I'm currently interested in focusing on my work. I have found the headphones to be a great tool for my productivity.
Since I am a hard worker and care deeply about producing high-quality work that I am proud of and that others will be impressed with, I can get very frustrated when others do not share the same mindset. In the past two years, that has taken the form of students who refused to do work during independent work time and coworkers who would not uphold certain expectations for students in their presence. For the students, I realized that a large portion of them would not be doing the work because it was challenging for them, and it was an underlying fear of failure that kept them from trying. To combat that, I taught several lessons on growth mindset, and preached it every day in class. That mindset improved overall productivity in the class, but there were still a significant portion of students who completed almost no work at all, regardless of the academic and emotional support I provided. That remaining portion of students, as well as the few coworkers who consistently underperformed, are the people I struggle with the most. I know that I become visibly frustrated, which I know is not conducive to fixing the problem. I am not totally sure what the solution is, but I am certainly thinking about how to improve my role in increasing high-quality work production amongst my peers.
As a Group Expert, I am comfortable as a leader and in a support role. I used to prefer the support role, but teaching has given me great confidence in my leadership ability. I know that in software development, many projects are team based, so my ability to step up into leader role or step back into a support role when necessary will help my team stay on track. Furthermore, I am comfortable about "leading upward." Leading upward means communicating and negotiating with higher-level management to influence their decisions. I loathe to let problems fester, so if my team is unhappy and morale is suffering, I have no problem communicating that to the boss in a tactful way to reach a compromise that benefits everyone.
Knowing that I am the most productive when I can work for an extended period without interruption, I know that I need to advocate for myself to carve out enough time in my day where I can work in such a state. That is not to say that I do not want to collaborate with a team, though. On the contrary, I love collaboration because I have seen the benefits of working within group dynamics. I just need to be sure to find a balance in which I can meet all group expectations and have time to focus on my own work. Knowing that I am comfortable in a leadership position, I will advocate for myself to be given opportunities to prove myself as a team leader. Having had success leading 8th graders to significant academic growth in the past year, I am confident in my ability to lead any team now.
