While recording the video last Wednesday, I was a bit conscious. Being aware of the situation that whatever happens during the video will be watched afterwards, I did my best to look appropriate. I felt that this circumstance led me to deviate some of my focus from the topic at hand. During the first few minutes, this was the case. After a short while, I felt that the discussion became more natural and it seemed that things were falling into the right places.
While watching the video, I was amused. That is me!?! Hahas! One major action that I noticed myself doing was smiling which I did a lot during the meeting. It was even accompanied by a few laughs here and there. This might have caused distractions for my team mates. Everything else looks fine. My thoughts during the recording of the video did not really show in my actual actions.
Regarding the role that I played in the meeting, I feel that I satisfactorily carried out my job as the team leader. I found it challenging to start the meeting, though. It was like starting a fire with the use of wooden sticks and dry leaves. I had to heat it up first to obtain a burning exchange of ideas. Throughout the meeting, I knew that I was able to hold everyone to focus towards the things that the team had to discuss and finish debating about. A few sidetracking moments were successfully put back into place.
After reviewing the video, I strongly believe that our team did an excellent job for this particular meeting. It was efficient and effective. Everyone was prompt for the meeting and brought everything that was required of them. Everyone had their share of ideas. While the meeting did not take too much time to finish, from analyzing the problem to the laying down of groundwork for the solution and the writing of the final proposal, everything was successfully discussed during the meeting. Every item on the agenda was successfully resolved.
A job well-done, team mates! Thank you!
5 comments:
Hi Paul,
I must agree with you, that the first few minutes of our meeting were weird and awkward. We were being too conscious of the camera running in front of us. (Not literally).
However, as you mentioned in your post, as time goes by, everyone eventually forgot about the camera and started acted/talking more naturally, which in my opinion is more productive for the meeting.
You mentioned that you smiled and laughed a lot, and was worried that it might cause distractions for others.
Well, I can assure you that it wasn’t much of a distraction.
In fact, I feel that it is important to smile from time to time, as it gives off a positive air to the meeting, and helps loosen the tension that a meeting can have. (As the Joker from Batman’s The Dark Knight goes: Why So Serious?)
I liked the part about using sticks and dry leaves to explain about the difficulty of starting a meeting.
It would be a problem if the sticks and leaves were cold and wet to begin with, but nevertheless, things quickly warmed up and the meeting was as productive as you described.
Let’s hope that our future meetings can be just as efficient, and effective!
Cheers
Zhen Yong
Hi Paul,
Wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year. Hope you enjoyed the recess week!
After reading your blog post I sense that you and your team members really enjoyed the meeting and working as a team.
You are right about the fact of the presence of a camera. It does make us conscious for some time but then as soon as one gets into serious discussion and starts enjoying their work, it is not of much importance then.
I can, after reading your blog, even say that you were a good leader because smiling is a part of good leadership skills because that helps the people in your team smile with you and feel relaxed and confident. The way you initiated the meeting is again a really important quality of a leader in a team. And I really like your choice of words in describing the act of starting the meeting (dry leaves and sticks)
It was good that your group warmed up soon and started to enjoy your meeting and work.
All in all it looked like one successful interaction between you and your team mates.
Cheers to your team and all the best for the programming project.
Cheers,
Saurabh Arora
Hi Paul,
First of all, wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year and I hope that you have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The first few minutes in our meeting too were weird and awkward as we didn’t know exactly how to start the meeting and the presence of the camera too made us conscious for some time but once we started the discussion and got into the depth of topic we no more thought of it.
I don’t think smiling and having laughs here and there could have distracted other team member’s as it could only have build a positive environment within the team and would have instilled confidence within the members after seeing a cool, tension-free leader. I clearly admire the words wooden sticks, leaves which you used to compare it with the way you started your team discussion. I think the job of a team leader is difficult as the leader should make sure that every member contributes to the discussion and makes sure leader brings back the topic if any sidetracking takes place.After reading your post, I personally feel that you have shown that you have all the capabilities of an effective team leader and I could clearly conclude that your meeting was a fruitful one with each member contributing to the best.
Good luck with your lab and Lets improve our skills through this module.
Regards,
Santhosh
Hello Paul,
I agree with you that when the camera was in place and recording, we tend to get self-conscious and sometimes even nervous! This might be so, since we have never filmed ourselves in a meeting before, at least for me. However, once the meeting got underway, we became less conscious of the camera and went with the flow.
Well, I feel smiling is not a bad thing after all! Your smiling might have eased most of the tension of the meeting and even made it fun when your other team members laughed along.
Your analogy about the usage of wooden sticks and dry leaves reflects well on the start of the meeting. Someone has to start the ball rolling, and you did so as a team leader. It's not easy to lead a group into debate and you've done it well. Well done!
Getting the work done while doing it with much fun is definitely worth commending. Good luck to you and your team for the project!
Cheers,
Qinxian
Hi Paul,
Congratulations on the great meeting!
I actually had similar problems with being in front of the camera as you did - I felt rather self-conscious that everything I said, did and even didn't do would be evaluated. However, as the meeting goes on it becomes pretty easy to forget that the camera's on, especially if you focus on the topic at hand.
I feel being the leader is often even more challenging than we think it is - the leader not only has to fulfill the role of the regular team member, he also has to adequately lead and steer the discussion to give it relevant and on topic. It reflects well on you that you were able to do this successfully - I know from personal experience that it is actually very easy to get caught up in the side distractions ourselves and detract from the original discussion.
From what I've read on others' blogs, the meetings were generally a lot shorter than most of us expected, though I think that was largely due to this first lab not being too difficult to understand and delegate. Perhaps the meetings for the future labs will lead to more intense and detailed discussions.
Good luck for the project!
Cheers,
Abhinav
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