C. Jewel Garcia
Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University
MSC 540: Leading Collaboration
Dr. Leslie A. DeChurch
November 6, 20212
Everything about my CliftonStrengths report was surprising. Coming in I wondered if I really had any leadership strengths. I wondered if the report would come up blank. In this way all of my results were surprising, but most of them did not shock me once I learned what they meant. I definitely had Input (the want to understand and collect information), Ideation (constant idea generation), Learner (the want to learn more in general), and Communication (the ability or want to communicate with people in multiple different ways). However, I was shocked to find Command as my number one strength. At first, I thought the results were wrong because of this strength and the fact that Communication was dead last. Before I completed the report, I would have said that storytelling, which is part of Communications, was my top strength. This is because I am a writer and artist first, always. However, I completely overlooked my Command strength. I did not even think about the many moments I stepped up to solve difficult situations and or take charge. When I did think of them, I thought I was just doing what I had to do. After talking to my mother and reflecting, I realized the results were probably accurate. This is probably for the best because I am also an aspiring director and I need this Command skill to make the art I want to make.
Unfortunately, in the workplace I have not seen my Command strength come out much. This is largely because I do not have much experience in the workplace, and when I did, I was not in my element and was put at a lower position. This was frustrating, but I leaned hard on my Strategic Thinking skills in these situations, especially my Input and Learner strengths. In one situation working at my local public library as a history room assistant, I had to create non-degrading digital copies (which I had not known was a thing the day before) of old documents by scanning them with a machine I had never used before. The Historian gave me a two-minute example on how this process worked and left. After a rough start, I successfully copied over fifty documents and damaged none of them on the first day. In this process, I learned how to use and create information I had not known of before by collecting information, taking notes, and being attentive during the brief tutorial.
In academics, I have really seen my Command skill come out. In groups, I am often the one trying to get everyone to concentrate, and I help when no one wants to make the hard decision. This happened just last Saturday in our Market group discussion. I decided to keep trying to bargain when the group wanted to stop and to stop bargaining when I realized the group would actually bump a member out of our team if they kept trying to bargain. I was also the one who decided to take a hit in points for the team to work out. In this situation, I applied my strengths in a real-world context, which helped me better understand my leadership potential.
After seeing my strengths, I believe some of the roles I could take on a team are leader (because a combination of all five of my skills), researcher (because of Learner and Input strengths) idea generator (because of an Ideation strength) and finally questioner (because of Command, Ideation, and Learner strengths). Using my Communication strength will help me collaborate with a team. I will use my Input and Learner strengths to look for better solutions and be more willing to not take teammates’ stances so personally. Through my Ideation strength, I will come up with new and improved ideas. Finally, my Command strength will help teams address and solve difficult problems.
There are three aspects of collaborative leadership which are needed to have a highly effective team. They are team affect or motivation, team cognition or shared understanding, and team integration processes or communication. My strengths make me a natural leader in some parts of each of these aspects.
For team affect, I have leadership strengths in Command and in Communication. These are both Influencer Skills, as such I can use them to influence people to believe that what they are working for is worthwhile. I experienced this while writing a group project in an undergraduate class. In this class no one really knew what had to be done to finish the project and many people felt disillusioned by it. I used my Command and Communication strengths to figure out how to fix the major problems and convince people on my team that we should finish the project.
For team cognition I have strengths in Ideation, Learning, and Input, which help me foster a psychologically safe environment for question asking and risk taking—which is a key component to team cognition. In writing groups, I am usually one of the people asking questions about others’ work and taking risks with my writing. Nevertheless, I also encourage this of others, asking if they have any questions and pointing out different directions they could go with their work.
Finally, for team integration processes my Communication skills help me communicate frequently and clearly with my team. In addition, my Command strengths help me encourage conversation and communication with my team even when it may feel uncomfortable. When we had the Interstellar project, my Communication and Command strengths helped me insist that we compare notes before coming to a conclusion.
Nevertheless, I know my leadership strengths can also be sources of derailment. Each of my five strengths may lead me to disaster. As a result, I must be aware of these derailments so that I do not fall into them as easily.
For my first strength, Command, I have two potential derailers. The first is I may come off as too commanding, demanding, or forward. Because I am often not afraid to talk about the elephant in the room, people are sometimes intimidated by me. This has happened in almost every setting I have been commanding in. For example, when working on projects at the undergraduate level I have often almost been ostracized for my Command strength and have been labeled “hard to work with” or “bullying.” I never understood this. I had never tried to be rude. I just told the facts as they were and wanted to get to work. So, although my Command strength is powerful, it sometimes works against me. However, because I have received this sort of feedback and my Command strength makes me want to address problems head on, I have often forced myself to be less commanding which has also derailed me and backfired tremendously. This happened when I was working on my first student film and almost risked one of my closest friendships.
My second strength is Input and it has one potential derailer, distractions. Because I love collecting information and knowledge, I often get distracted by it and go off on tangents. This happens in conversations, research, and everyday activities. For example, my mother sometimes thinks I am air-headed because I forget so many things due to the fact that I get distracted so easily.
My third strength is Ideation which has two major derailers. The first is I sometimes blurt out ideas before thinking them out completely and derailing conversations and progress. I also think of so many different ideas that I become derailed from one by another. Another creative writer told me I am a good writer, but I do not spend as much time as I should with each project because I get distracted by the next one that I think up. I need to put in more time for revision.
My fourth strength is Learner which comes with one major derailer; I become bored easily when I feel I am not learning or gaining anything new from an experience. This can make it difficult to stay motivated for long periods of time when doing the same thing.
My fifth strength is Communication which has one derailleur that is saying too much. Sometimes communication is so exhilarating I want to keep talking or communicating more, even when the conversation or project should end. This can dull down my effectiveness as a communicator.
My five strengths come with many benefits and real-world applications, but they also come with pitfalls, also known as derailers. To leverage these strengths, I need to be aware of when they can be used and how they can be used. However, I have to watch out for common derailers to the strengths I have. If I manage these components of my strengths, I have the potential to maximize my effect as a leader.