Improving Leadership Skills and Academic Performance Assignment

Improving Leadership Skills and Academic Performance - Assignment Example Whilst I have always been extroverted in social and professional situations, prior to this study program, my over-confidence in my capabilities and knowledge complicated being a solid team member when working in groups. For instance, I had previously desired to work independently in most situations, both academic and professional, with minor levels of resentment and animosity when forced to work in team environments. It was not an inherent part of my personality in which I believed that team members were not capable, only that trust in my own talents and ability to organize made it difficult for me to build group inter-dependency and rely on others achieving team goals. Hence, I have come to learn that an effective leader is one that gives others opportunities to excel and make positive contributions to a group. Stover (2004) discusses the concept of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, in which individuals that maintain a specialized set of talents (tacit knowledge) must convert this knowledge to teach others. Interaction with others, according to Stover, is absolutely necessary for effective knowledge conversion to be achieved. However, as aforementioned, my personal resistance to participative teamwork challenged gaining followership from others as an effective leader. My current study program has given me ample opportunities to work with others and I have made a very competent effort at reducing the internal conflicts that arise when forced to work in groups where all members have a distinct task. Some of these attitudes and resistance to teamwork ideology is likely a product of my cultural background in the Middle East. In my home country, it is common that professional members of an organization, in politics and even general society to maintain high power distance, defined by Hofstede (2001) as a type of inequality where hierarchies are dominant business, social and political structures.