3 Discussion Questions, 3 Student Reponses and 1 Journal Entry ... Simple

JGR200: The Power of People

Week 8 Discussion Question

Part 1: A Mentor

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Your team isn't just people who work under you - you must surround yourself with people who can advise you, challenge you, and keep you honest, including: Mentors and Counselors / advisors. All members of a team must be aligned towards common goals. The team must have shared expectations and clearly identified priorities.

Last week, you put together a fantasy team of four JGR employees to plan and run a daylong conference. Think about this team’s individual strengths and weaknesses. Then determine whether your team would most benefit from a coach, advisor, or mentor. What sort of person do you think would be a good advisor, mentor, or coach for this team based on the team need and why?  How will their expertise make the team more cohesive?

***Keep your focus on what  role  would best serve the team and you as leader rather than a specific person. 

Note: To receive full credit, remember also to write 2 posts in the discussion: one original and a response to another student. Remember one or two sentences does not qualify as a substantive learning post for both original and peer responses.  Show off what you have learned!

Part 2: Student Response (Respond Kindly to the student below)

Elizabeth Farley 

RE: A Mentor

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Hello professor and classmates. I can not believe we are working so well and so quickly in this course. Time is truly flying by. When developing any team that I am part of I like to know there is someone is an advisor role. To me an advisor is someone who kind of stays on the back burner but is always there to guide you or answer any questions when you get confused, lost, or stumble on the next step of any process when getting a task completed. This person must be knowledgeable about the tasks at hand, respect all other team members and their experience, as well as know how to keep things in track without taking over the show. A person in an advisor role must be comfortable with taking the lead and being able to demand success all while allowing the team members learn to work through any misunderstanding and correct their own mistakes so that they to can become better team members. It is all a learning process and we will all struggle with certain tasks in all the roles we fill in our lives. Whether it be professional, personal, or even a sports team sometimes you may not find it easy to do what is asked of you, but an advisor is there to help remind you of what is needed from you and even recommend ways to help you do just that. As far as the coaching role I seem to do well at supporting my team, creating encouraging words to keep them going, as well helping my team achieve greatness. Mentors are very useful in many situations and they help people in very specific roles to reach the goals of those roles, and wouldn't be my number one choice for creating a strong team in this situation.

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