Assignment 7: Growth portfolio

When conflict arises in the workplace which of course is obvious many team leaders are not
prepared to handle it or in handling, it may tend to worsen the situation (Dan Mccarthy,2020).
This gives rise for leaders to build up special skills to fit in specific situations and also needs
emotional intelligence as well as genuine self-reflection to get the team back on track. Thus,
conflict management is the most competent skills I identify myself functioning in it the most.
I have involved in different instances where I have been able to resolve conflicts, and brought
the team back to work. In the other hand, the competency that I see myself not functioning well
is communication. although I still put in much efforts to overcome it. However, in both
situations below is a case by case where I have been able to demonstrate these competencies.
Among the many circumstances I have demonstrated the skill of conflicts management, I will
highlight on the most recent event that happens while working as a team leader in a team of six
members at a restaurant in the city of Gent. Defining the individual work task was what I failed
doing to two members of my team who came late at work on the day. Of course, after
distributing the task to four members I also had a meeting that lasted longer than I expected.
However, the visible work was dishwashing which these two team members joint doing as their
task for the day since I was still in the meeting. As early as it was few customers where
available, and the two dishwashers decided to pause for a while since they were no many plates.
At this point, they forgot the tap open just for me to come and notice the whole hall was filled
with water. On finding out what happened, it resulted in a serious conflict between the two
members as they push blames to each other. Solving this, I immediately close the top myself
and ask them to meet me in my office after cleaning up the total mess. Arriving at my office I
created a conducive atmosphere by sharing a coffee with them while listening as they expressed
themselves separately. However, I did not lay blams to any of them as i understood it
couldn’t be intertionally, but rather I explained through a dialogue the importance of being
conscious at the duty post with or without my presence or any team leader. The brief meeting
ended up as they embraced themselves and appreciated the manner I took to resolved the
conflict. Indeed it was a joy that I was able to bring my team back to work.
Communication is among my top competencies of a good leader yet, I sometimes find it
difficult to demonstrate this competency. A case at hand is where I currently reside. Being the
first tenant in an apartment of four, and with confidence, the landlady place me in charge to
ensure cleanliness in the entire flat. everything was going well as everyone keep to the cleaning
calendar i draw up but, at one point it is not respected yet I find it difficult to call the attention
to those concern leaving me with no choice than to do the work. Conscious that each of us has
a unique way of communicating, often based on our family experiences, culture, gender and
many other factors (Markman et al., 2004; Miller & Miller, 1997) At this point i still see myself
not functioning well with the skill of communication as a good leader ought to.
The similarity between these two skills is that Communication has a big role to play in
conflict management. It has been observed that poor communication always results in
misunderstandings and eventually conflicts. Thus I see that communication has to be clear and
precise to avoid conflicts. As a good leader, I have to be very clear in what I intend to convey
especially when it comes to conflicts management or communicating with team members.
These skills differ in the sense that, A conflict at one point is not a daily activity at the business
side but it arises when individuals (team members) have varied opinions and thought processes
and are just not willing to compromise with each other. Meanwhile, effective communication
affects every conversation in the workplace. No activity can effectively be carried out at the job
site without effective communication.