Workshops

Through the Conflict Management workshop, instead of looking at conflict as something that will harm my team, I learned how to leverage conflict as a catalyst for positive change. I understand now that conflict helps lead to important constructive feedback which ultimately will help increase my team’s productivity and accomplish our goals faster. I also learned that my personal conflict management style is “Collaborating”, which means I am assertive and cooperative, and I seek to identify solutions that satisfy the concerns of both sides in a conflict. The Empathy workshop helped me understand and further develop my ability to ask questions and practice active listening, both of which are extremely helpful when resolving conflict. In my career, when I spot conflict arising, I will know to not take it too personally. It’s critical to listen to and understand other people’s perspectives when hashing out conflict. It’s also important that I clearly express my personal needs so that I can come to a fair solution with my team.

In the Working in Global Organizations workshop, we discussed how people’s varying cultural backgrounds and experiences can affect their expectations and behaviors when working in a team. For example, people from certain cultures tend to be more reserved when it comes to giving feedback while some are very blunt and direct. After this workshop as well as my study abroad in the Netherlands, I know that communication is key for working with a diverse group of people. It’s also important to be flexible and patient while still maintaining accountability for the team. Recognizing people’s accomplishments and trying to meet up whenever we can are also crucial to maintaining a team’s sense of unity. Since my Software Engineering job is remote and my team is composed of people from a variety of different backgrounds, these tips will be at the front of my mind – I will be sure to communicate as much as I can with my team and maintain flexibility when working with people from different cultures.

I also developed my ability to communicate my leadership stories through the Telling My Leadership Story. I was able to practice highlighting the impactful and important parts of my experiences to show how I am an effective and successful leader. These skills will help me tremendously as I move forward in my career (likely into a leadership role), especially when interviewing for positions that require leadership experience.