Leadership and Teams in Service Operations Management - Coursework Example

Student name Instructor name Institutional affiliation Course Date of submission My experience with colleagues during my internship program It is now a year since I did my internship in a government agency. The central bureau of statistics is the prime centre for collection and analysis of data in a nation. It was during the program that I was not able to raise my fees. The usual program of funding the education was withdrawn. In addition, I had no funds to cater for my internship expenses. I made up my mind to look means to solve the issue. Intellectual empathy is a rare virtue in most people. During my challenging moments, I did decide to share the issue to the senior economist. I gathered courage to explain my case. As I was through with the explanation, it was a moment of amazement. He shared my worries. He did admit that he was in the same situation that I am now. He did confess that he almost left school. He had run short of school fees. Nevertheless, there was a need to overcome the challenge. A good friend comes to your rescue in time of challenges. He revealed that there is an upcoming survey to be conducted by the bureau. He did play a fundamental role to incorporate me in the survey team. I was now at ease. There was a strong indication of intellectual empathy on his side. In the incidence, he did assist me to be familiar with programs in the bureau. He took his time to look for office space. This was unlike the staff who assumed as if there was nothing wrong. There was a young lady who was very brutal. There was emotional attachment in every thing that he was doing. It is wise to attach a reason to the endeavors. This is sober way of doing things. Emotions ruin our thinking. We attempt to make wrong decisions whenever we are led by emotions. Intellectual empathy is the virtue which drives wise thinking. An individual assumes the shoes of his neighbor. Leadership is the ability to influence people positively. A good leader can alter movement towards a wrong direction. Leadership starts with small issues. This is the best illustration from the senior economist. He was an ardent of interpersonal skills. The willingness to interact with young and new interns is a virtue. A team is an organized group of individuals trying to achieve a common goal. Teamwork is the core driver in our daily corporate world. A good team will do things together. It is always able to recognize individual competence. Human beings have endowments of diverse skills and abilities. It is the collaboration of those skills that a good result comes out of our encounters. Amorphous groups do not qualify as groups. They may be together with conflicting interests. Current service managers advocate for teamwork and leadership. It is possible to embrace the two issues. Teamwork can combine with leadership. The result is efficiency in our operations. Teamwork creates a culture of oneness and empathy for others. From my case, it is empathy that did me a favor. After a short span in the agency, I was able to discharge my duties with a lot of ease. The economist was ever friendly. Since the time, he always came to provide me with lunch. All of us were not born poor. Some individuals are victims of circumstance. It is always good to know the condition of your colleague. The staff members are our closest neighbors. Neighborhood is not a coincidence. It is of great significance. A good neighbor is like a hidden key to your success. It is not good to judge negatively the fellow staff members. All of the staff members are rational. Everybody tends to make rational decisions. Whenever one goes wrong, it is not a venture to condemn him. Organizational cultures promote intellectual practices. An organization with deep roots in communication and good interpersonal skills is a big asset. Whenever we are in a bad situation, we should turn to our staff mates for the solution. My experience with the economist thought me many lessons. The first lesson is that it is not good to keep problems to ourselves. We are not architects of our problems. We are neither solution to our problems. My experience was excellent. This is because our worries were solved. I had a feeling of brotherhood and appreciation. We did our routine job in the office for a period of three weeks. The monitoring and evaluation survey was in the corner. The economist did alert me to be ready. The preparations were in progress. My biggest surprise was when we shared a platform with other senior economist. I was the only intern in the team. The economist did introduce me to other members of the team. In fact, he was very brief but we a lot of regard to my side. He said I have been a hardworking intern. This was the motivation to include me in the team. I did show ac strong sense of willingness to take instructions every time I was required to do so. I remember I had prepared a summary budget for him. It was very presentable with strong analytical skills. I did not know that it is that report that earned an extra hand in the research team. When everything was ready, it was time to proceed to the coastal town. This was the destination for monitoring and evaluation exercise. We were in two teams. One of the Teams headed to the far destination. Out team was fortunate to remain in the town center. We were in the town at very late hours. This was due to the distance we were to cover from head office to the place of the research. The economist offered to look a place to sleep. We did book a place to spend a night in one coastal hotel. I had no money to pay for my accommodation. Another evidence of empathy was in this scenario. The room was there for me. He paid the room for me. This is because the booking allowances were not yet remitted. There was a delay in the system. This caused the inconvenience. Besides, he offered to buy supper for me. The next day, we did wake up and set off to the field for the research. In the first place, we did visit the disaster office. This is where I was left to proceed with the research. My interaction with the officers was a good lesson. They were willing to assist to probe for information from the respondents. There were some respondents who were not corporative. The officers made sense to them. They were informed that the research intention was to enable the government to plan and set up contingency plans. This was t avert disasters whenever they did occur. Second experience This was on my part to a colleague in the work place. It was during the school session, where I was teaching as untrained teacher. This was a decision I took since I was free. This was good for experience as a volunteer teacher. One of days, it was my realization that a teacher was a spongy drunkard. Sometimes he would come to school very dirty. He was very reckless in my opinion. The teacher was supposed to accompany to invigilate an examination in the neighborhood school. The following day, I woke up early as usual. There was an arrangement amongst the schools to exchange teacher during the examination time. The day of the examination I went to School. This is the place I was to render my services. I was there early enough. I did direct the pupils to sit as per their examination numbers. We were to invigilate the class with the teacher. As time went by, I did hope that he would turn up for duty. This was in vain. The teacher was absent for almost 4 hours. There was no communication. The school head wanted to know the whereabouts of my colleague. I am always an optimist. It is personality not to fix a colleague in the work pace. I did reply that the teacher is held up somewhere. There was further inquisition from the teacher. It is like the answer was not satisfactory. There was no communication. I did propose to the head teacher to wait for the teacher for some time. There was normality in the examination session. The pupils were on with the examination. There was no cause for alarm. As we were on attempting to ascertain the possible location of my colleague, he appeared. This was a sign of relief for me. I went to him to know the reason for lateness. This is when I learn the cost of prejudgment. There was a presumption that the teacher was somewhere drinking. This was not the case. A passer-by had caused inconvenience to the teacher. The teacher was very sober. People had developed a habit of meting the teacher drank. The person did insult the teacher. This was an assumption that since he is not sober, he should not allowed to school. In my own judgment, this was a worthy lesson to learn. There was a good thing to enumerate from the social misfits in the society. The teacher was a sharp personality. In his sober mind, he did treat the situation with professionalism. The attackers did bar the teacher from using the road. He had the option to change the course of the journey towards the school. This is the cause of the delay. After the narration, the school head came again. This time round he was relatively sad. He was very motional. He was almost ordering the teacher out of the school compound. The cause was as a result of false information that the teacher was from a drinking den. The human emotions are very strong. An emotional mind is the devil’s den. A good leader detaches emotions. An excellent teacher attaches reason. Empathy is a virtue. It is a human perception towards for brothers. The lack of empathy is an affluence of monastery. It is always good to lend an ear to our colleagues. It is a sign of being proactive. A proactive mind deters human beings from destruction and poor and misleading conclusions. Emphatic beings give a chance to the colleagues to share their experience. The information out of the experience is good for problem solving. The experience with the colleague did assist me avoid rushing to wrong conclusions. I did plead to the head teacher to allow the teacher in the examination compound. To my happiness, he did allow him. This is when I did give an explanation to what went wrong. Despite my explanation, the school head was arrogant to my colleague. He was suggesting the following day the teacher will invigilate the pupils alone. This was to compensate for the period of time he was late. To me, this was no far from a punishment. It is against my principles to unfairly punish a colleague. I did decide to oppose in strong terms that proposition. We made arrangement on how to be effective in the examination period. This was the right way to go. The head did insist that the following day that I don’t come. I came sufficiently early the following morning to execute my duty. It was no surprise that I did find my colleague already in the school. We shared responsibility. The teacher is a good team player. He can manage to mark some scripts at the same time invigilating the pupils. Our mind set as human beings is full of negativity. There is no room to expect good things from those we look down upon. This is a bad show. No organization can function without good relations among staff members. Our shortcomings should be a platform to learn not to commit the same mistake. Staff members need to appreciate one another. This is because we need each other. Nobody can operate in isolation. Human beings are not islands. Our inner feelings and emotions can be deceiving. The deception of the mind is the greatest sin for the human beings. In the first incidence, it was I who was in a dilemma. The senior economist did profess professional courage in his approach. This is the rationale for his intervention. I was able to raise the school fees. This is a rare moment in my life. This was realization that brotherhood is the way to live. I hope that one day; I will be in a position to assist a person as was rendered the assistance. Organizational operations require very high degree of understanding. The interpersonal relations in any organization play a role for good co-existence. Staff members ought to learn the value of empathy. Empathy is a virtue. It derives emotional thinking. It promotes logical understanding. Empathy kills fallacy in our mindset. It lays a foundation for togetherness in the prevailing circumstances. According to socialist, an emphatic mind is a recipe for greatness. Great leaders all over the world succeed due to empathy. A person can be very rich and educated, but without the virtue of empathy he is no human being. Sometimes it is good to expect good things from the people we brand as bad people. Our behavior is a result of our continuous interaction with different people. The diverse interactions shape our thinking and behavior. Productivity in a workplace is a function of interpersonal relations and culture in the working environment. There is a positive relationship among the three issues. Productivity will improve with good interpersonal relations among the staff members. Productivity will increase with a positive culture in the work place. A good culture is a derivation of intellectual practices. Empathy is one of the intellectual practices in the organization. A high degree of empathy will boast the good culture of the organization. Whenever a staff member deviates from the routine way of performing the duties, we ought to intervene to know the problem. This is because some of the staff members do not have the courage to disclose their shortcomings. The desire to share our abilities is a positive sign of humanity. Critics argue that teamwork kills individual aptitude. This is a wrong observation. A good team always appreciates the value of individual ability. The recognition of individual ability is a building block in group work. The group can be strong through the aggregation of individual abilities. A good leader can project the goodies associated with the group activities. The realization that we all need diverse ideas is a good consideration for strong groups. In most of the staff activities, staff members need to appreciate one another. The appreciation of a member of staff ability is a sign of respect. Whenever a staff member feels appreciated, he will struggle to achieve common objectives and goals of the organization. Research reveals that respect of junior staff members is equally motivational. The member will work extra hard to balance the respect awarded from the senior members in the same staff. A combination of leadership and teamwork is a positive indicator to the growth of the organization. To conclude, a good leader is a person of great empathy. The show of empathy is a show of great leadership. Teamwork is the source and foundation of growing leaders. Teamwork can achieve the leadership targets. References Charles, J. (1996), "General leadership Skills" (2nd Edition), Pearson South Africa, p. 76 Dickson, J. (1995).Negotiable Teamwork and Leadership Practices. New York, University press. Divas, R., Stella, R. (2006), "Teamwork in operations management” Jefferson, C. (2008), "Strategic Leadership", SAGE Publications Ltd., p. 29 et seq. Kingston, N (2008). The analysis of Operations Environment. Tata McGraw-Hill Foundation. Midge, J (2009). A Guide to Operations Environment. Toronto, Leeway Printers. McClure, N (2010).The Role of Leadership in the Growth of an organization. London Press. Sterling, M (2008). Successive Leadership and Management. New York, university press Stefan, G (2002). Business Information Security Best Practices: 2005 Basic Rules. Kit forum Printers Venal, K (2008). Business System Review and Evaluation: Theories, Practices and operations Methodology. Michigan University Press. Read More