Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Nate SL1

*Intro: Skip to the last page of the intro.  There are three questions.  The author suggests that if your answer is no to the questions, continuing is a waste of time.  If your answer is yes to each, please also explain WHY you are willing to go through this pain, because it will be painful if you want to truly be a better leader.
Yes, I am willing to work to improve myself to better the team.
Yes, I can take feedback.  I am willing to put aside any ego I have to better the team.
Yes, I am able to spend a lot of time with the team.

Chapter 1: Explain the differences between leaders and managers.  Would product owners and scrum masters be leaders, managers, both, or neither?
Leaders are meant to help peers improve themselves and work towards a common goal.  Managers direct people to get work done.  A product owner and scrum masters have to be a combination of both a leader and a manager.  They need to help improve people while directing them to get work done.

I think qualities of a leader can be natural and some aspects are a skill.  Some people are more charismatic and are good at helping people from birth.  Knowing how to lead takes practice which makes it partially a skill.

Chapter 2: In what places in your life have you earned authority?  How did you get it?
I have earned leadership on some of my soccer teams.  I was a captain a few years ago on one of my teams.  I earned this by playing well and helping my teammates.  I have also lead the defense of some of my teams.  I was given the authority because I knew what to do and was confident enough to speak up when needed.

Chapter 2: What is a legitimate use of power by the leaders of a FRC team?  How often should this be used?
Leaders of out team should use power in order to keep people focused on the task at hand. This should only be used when people are getting unfocused during crunch time.  Also, if breaks become overused a leader should get people back to work.

End with a summary of what you learned.
I learned about how to use leadership and reasons it is given to people.  With these skills I, along with everyone leading, can help improve our team.  These strategies will allow for us to implement the strategies of scrum and lean startup.

4 comments:

  1. What power are you talking about when people are unfocused on their task? Take them off the task, five minute timeout, change task, what?

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    1. This is when people will begin to wander off or avoid doing something they may not be excited about (I have done both). Power should be used to tell them to get their job done because it is needed for the team.

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  2. Do you think that people should be urged back to work when not on crunch time? Usually during the season we aren't really rushed to do anything for the first few weeks of the season and we tend to slack off at that time which isn't really crunch time yet, but the lack of effort put in at the beginning of the season requires crunch time at the end of season.

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    1. I did not think of that. I think that is definitely something we should do so we don't have crunch time.

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