TU-E3161 - Junction Leadership Experience, 16.09.2020-31.12.2020

The purpose of the third assignment is to 1) describe your leadership experience in Junction, 2) ask feedback from your team members, 3) summarize your learnings from the Junction event and the preparation process as a whole, 4) reflect on your thoughts about leadership and your own future as a leader, and 5) summarise improvement ideas for the next year event. Try to accomplish the first and second task as soon as possible after the Junction event.

1. Write a narrative of your leadership role and actions in Junction

The first part of the assignment is to write a description/narrative of your role and action during the event and in the preparation. Try to write it in as neutral and descriptive way as possible. Do not make any judgements or reflections in this part - just describe what happened and how did you act/react/behave. Concentrate on the main leadership moments, your communication, encounters, incidents, flow of events. Try to make a description as rich as possible.

2. Ask and report the feedback from your team members

Interview at least three of your team members or persons you worked closely with during the event. Ask how did they perceive your behaviour and actions as a leader and colleague, and how did they experience working with you. The best way is to meet face to face, but you can also make interviews by phone. If most convenient you can also arrange a group meeting and reflect on the experience as a group. Summarize the main points from the feedback.

3. Read and review two articles

Read and summarize the main points of the articles concerning the leadership as everyday practice, and a leader as a critically reflexive practitioner. Review shortly contents of the articles, and writers’ key messages.

Alvesson, Mats & Svenningsson, Stefan (2003) Managers doing leadership. The extra-ordinarization of the mundane. Human Relations, Vol. 56(12) p.1435-59.

Hersted, L. & Gergen, K. (2013) Relational Leading - Practices for Dialogically Based Collaboration

4. Summarize and reflect on your leadership experiences and insights from Junction and the preparation process as a whole

The purpose of this task is to summarize your key learnings about leadership and yourself as a leader from Junction by utilizing your leadership narrative, feedback from the team, leadership article (Alvesson), and your thoughts and anticipations before Junction. The task comprises three parts:

a)    Assess how well were you able to follow your leadership principles and ideals described before the event. In what ways were you able to follow your ideals, and in what ways maybe not? Was there something in your reactions and behavior that surprised you? What did that tell you about you as a leader?

b)    Compare the feedback from your team members to your wishes and aims you wrote before the event. How did the reported perceptions and experiences support and fit to your anticipations?

c)    Compare the ideas presented in Alvesson & Svenningsson (2003) to your own leadership experiences in the event, and to your current thinking and view of leadership.  In which ways your experiences and thinking are similar to those presented in the paper?  And in what ways do they differ from those presented in the article? Evaluate shortly how useful the article was for you in understanding the leadership as everyday interaction and practice?

d)    Summarize shortly your key leadership learnings from the event.

5. Summary and update - your leadership path onwards

Update your leadership principles and ideals based on your experiences, feedback, and insights from Junction, if you feel it necessary. Give reasons what made you change, complete or adjust your principles.

Describe how are you going to continue your learning as a leader. Refer to Hersted and Geergen (2004) ideas of dialogic practices. In what ways would you see yourself as a relational leader in the future?

What will be the possible next steps to take, experiences to gain, challenges to meet?

6. Improvement ideas for the next year

Think through your experience and perceptions of the preparation process as a whole and the arrangements of the event itself. What all would have supported you to prepare yourself and your team for the event even better? What would you do differently in your own preparation? What advice would you give to the person taking care next year of the role and task you took care this year?  In the end, list some ideas how this kind of course could serve better the preparation for the event.