Leadership Development

Last week I used the Indian stick technique speaking directly in my two daughter's fights. As he mentioned in the video, I went to their room and gave my little girl a teddy bear and, I said, "you can talk until you feel understood, then you can give it to your sister." They began to talk, and during their conversation, they listened carefully to each perspective and considered their side of the problem. Speaking and listening felt more comfortable and calmed down. Talking freely and expressing what was bothering them comfortably pleased both my daughters. After a while, the problem was solved. They gave each other the toy in their hands and continued to talk on different subjects. I saw accurate communication as the best way to build trust between two people.

As a leader

· I believe in reliability. A good leader should be that his team trusts, respects his decisions, and follows him without question.

· I believe everyone has different talents. I can use my strength to motivate them to work as a team and maximize the team's performance.

· I believe in being open to new experiences. Being open to innovation causes me to generate new ideas and move forward. Combined with my strategic thinking ability, I have no difficulty in making decisions in unexpected situations.

· I believe that all life is learning. I have something to learn from everyone and every situation. I must study to improve myself. Be a leader who not only stands still but always moves forward. I must not forget that knowledge is endless. That gives me self-confidence and gives my team confidence in me.

· I will always listen carefully to the other person and value every idea. That will make my team trust me and feel important. To be a good leader and have active followers, I must listen to everyone.

· I will always care about other feelings. When making decisions, I will consider how other people's feelings will be affected

As part of my leadership belief, I believe everyone has different abilities, and I used my maximum strength in a group task this week. I didn't know anyone in that class, and I emailed the class list and asked them to join my group. Three of them answered and, we formed a group. We talked in chat, and I asked everyone what parts they could have done better. One member said she is good at making videos and presentations and doesn't want to do research. I said I could do research and asked about the strengths of others. Another group member said that he is good at writing and that if we send the information, he can write the report. The other group member said he was good at math and could do the calculation parts of the assignment. At first, we were all worried about this group assignment. After discussing and distributing tasks appropriately, I felt everyone's anxiety lessened. In addition, everyone in the group has increased confidence in the group and themselves. Through this experience, I found that as a leader, I could motivate people and get them excited to work together by asking about their strengths.

Another situation I had last week was related to my little girl's class. We could change her class to be more successful and had to decide. As a leader, when deciding, it is necessary to think about how the result will affect people's feelings. I needed to do the same for my daughter. Maybe my daughter could learn better in that class, she could be more successful, but how would she feel when her friends change? I talked to her as a leader and told her about the positive and negative aspects of it. My daughter stated that she would feel very lonely in a new class, and she did not want to change. I thought my daughter's feelings were more important, so I told the school administration that it did not suit us because it would upset my daughter. After, they said that they were thinking of transferring her two best friends to the same class. My daughter's feelings changed in this situation and wanted to join a new class. In this situation, I saw the importance of thinking about how decisions would affect people's feelings. My daughter felt important and saw that I valued her.

In my 20s, I worked in a bank's credit card sales team. The team's task was to introduce the new card with additional benefits and make it available to as many people as possible. As assistant to the team leader, my job was to keep the leader informed and report daily on the performance of others on the team. The team was a high-performing team that consisted of experienced people who had worked on this subject before. In this team, I not only informed the team leader but also informed the people about their performance. This information, which I made on my initiative, had positive effects on the team, but there were conflicts between some people. I was afraid of these conflicts and just decided to do my work.

Today, I can explore the cause of the conflict in detail and talk to people to resolve it. Also, I try to understand the parties to the problem and keep everyone at an equal distance. After identifying the problem, I try to find the most appropriate solution. I try to explain that a conflict within the team will hurt the whole team, and I try to get their support to be part of the solution.

Before I did the strenghts assessment, I had no idea about my strengths and how I could use them in my leadership development. The result is seriously impressive. The aspects that I could not name until now are now in front of me.

My greatest strength is to be a maximizer.I use my full potential to excel at what I do. I can also see what people do best and what they can be good at. I encourage my colleagues to use their full potential so that they can work more productively and happily over time. Also, I am an Achiever, I feel dissatisfied if the day somehow passes without success. When these two forces come together, it makes me a more productive and excited person, and I reflect this excitement on my colleagues. To be significant that allows me to add value to my workplace and fight for the business that will have a big impact. Also, having an independent personality helps me prioritize myself and focus on the more important things than the simple things. Another strength of mine is my ability to think strategically. I can quickly evaluate possible options and take the right steps to choose the best path. This feature makes me strong in crisis management in my workplace. In addition to all this, I am a learner. I believe that learning is an endless journey and there are things to learn in every period. Learning new things excites me and I think that each of my teammates can teach me new things.

In 2018, I was the finance manager of a large logistics company in Turkey and was the leader of the finance team. Our task as a team was to create the financial policy of the company, to ensure the cash flow balance, to collect the receivables of the company as soon as possible, to make the payments without delay and to find the appropriate financial resources for new investments.

While managing such a team, I understood very well the difference between managing people and being a leader. Over time, I managed to make the finance department a team and myself their leader. While doing this, I based it on working in an area where everyone in the team is good and can express themselves better. For example, when I noticed the success of an employee who had previously organized the files in the operations department in human relations, I transferred him to the customer collection unit, where relations with the customer were important, and he became very successful.

For me, this experience was difficult but very instructive. The most important thing I've learned is that if you want to mobilize people for a common cause, you need to make them feel important and part of the team. The key to do this is sincerity and honesty.

According to me, my strengths in leadership are I have high energy and I work passionately to reach my goal. I'm always open to learning, I want to hear everyone's opinion and I'm a good listener.

I think I need to improve my self-confidence. Also, I want to be more flexible and braver. Because I think that a successful leader is someone who can adapt to any situation, can make bold decisions, and has high self-confidence.