Ana Paola Rico Villarreal A00816243 15/05/2019

Individual Assignment
Being the leader of a group of people, doesn’t matter if it is large or small can be hard. In this case,
I’m in the board of my neighborhood which makes me the representative of this group of people. Also, it
is important to point that everyone will have different opinions about what’s best for the neighborhood
and it is the job of the leader to solve the problems in the best way possible. Now we are confronting a
case where all the comments I’m receiving are pure complaints and bad reviews about things happening
and I’m starting to feel frustrated and want to quit the job.

It is true that not everyone has the inborn personality to be a leader, but one can develop the
abilities to be a great one. It’s a question about self-knowledge to understand where your areas of
opportunities are and how are you going to improve them. In this case, I’m already aware that I do not
feel good being in the neighborhood board even though I entered willingly. A cognitive restructuration
consists in identifying that negative thoughts that lead to a negative emotion so that, after analyzing and
evaluation it, I can try to change it looking for alternative thoughts. I’m now aware that I have become the
emotional dumpster of my neighbors, now I need a way to redirect the bad feelings and create a plan to
build positive emotions.

Now that we are self-aware of how I feel I need to build my social intelligence. It’s good to feel
what others are feeling so if people are mad about something that is happening, this is called empathy
but this emotional contagious can be positive and negative because I feel everything and all the
complains are getting into my nerves and I’m a garbage truck that just collects people’s negative
emotions. In this case, we cannot get rid of these people and stop listening to them without resigning to
the position in the board, so our only choice is to work on redirecting these feelings and make them
something positive.

I think in this case what’s important is to start building positive relationships with the
neighborhood. To start I should make a plan of action to solve all the important problems and start
delegating tasks to do so, not by being bossy but by being an inspirational leader giving examples of
what can be done and showing how great life would be if we all solved the problem together. When
people feel like they are being listened to, they will trust you and most importantly they will be willing to
work with you to fix problems.

In conclusion, I believe that the best strategy is to create a real community, I’m part of the board
and I receive complaints and negative comments, but everyone should be part of it and everyone should
be working towards a solutions. Creating a positive environment is important and to achieve this it is
crucial for a leader to develop emotional and social intelligence.