What did I learn this week?

  I learned about the grant writing process and that the various places to find grants. I learned that grants do not just exist on state or federal websites, but they also can be found by contacting businesses and retailers.  Furthermore, many grants have specific guidelines and rules to follow and that if the guidelines and rules aren't followed to the "T" the grant applied for will most likely be denied. 

1.) What could I have done differently this week that might have impacted my performance for the better?

   When I was team leader on a grant brainstorming process, I could have been more direct with the team as far as what the team needed to accomplish and assigned the tasks to individual team members rather than let the group work as if no leader was present.

2.)  How will my "real world" behavior change as a result of what I learned/experienced this week?

  I learned a lot about being a team leader during the grant brainstorming class project.  Normally, I feel that I am a rather direct person, but on this particular assignment I did not act that way. I let the group, as a whole, lead and that was not the correct way to handle it. I felt that the assignment was rather difficult as grant writing is mostly foreign to our team.  With that being said, I think that with me not assigning specific tasks such as, looking up a recruiting video, to individual members this created a leaderless group.  I did not like that and it was uncomfortable. In the future, when I recognize this, I will be more direct and assign specific tasks which may make the task at hand easier.

What did I do today?
 
  Today I worked on my goal achievement sheet along with the team memo presentation where I was tasked with explaining shared resources and partnerships. 

1.) What could I have done differently today that might have impacted my performance for the better?

  Today, I was a few minutes late for our team meeting as I was caught in the hallway talking to Chief. I should have politely interrupted her and said that I had a meeting to get to and I'm sure she would have understood. She was asking me about the class, my team, and the experience with the class so far. She was expressing her thoughts on the course and what she has noticed when others have attended.  It was interesting to hear her take, but I should have mentioned to her that it was getting close to the meeting time rather than be late. 
   
2.)  How will my "real world" behavior change as a result of what I learned/experienced today?
 
   Even though I was talking to the chief about our class, I was late for a team meeting.  I should have politely interrupted her and told her that I needed to get to my meeting.  In the future, I will inform others of my deadlines if I am running short on time. In this particular cases, and with others at my department, he/she would understand, but I need to make he/she known of my schedule as that is important, as is my team's time.  

What did I do today?
 
  Today I finished up the "It's Your Ship" audio book. I also reviewed memos and made some revisions to my own memo.

1.) What could I have done differently today that might have impacted my performance for the better?

  There is not a whole lot that I could have done differently today, since I just listened to the book and reviewed memos. 
   
2.)  How will my "real world" behavior change as a result of what I learned/experienced today?
 
   The "It's Your Ship" book was actually a good book. I'm not too much of a reader, so I listened to it as an audio book.  After listening to the book, I did learn that it seems really valuable that in order to get a team to function at a high performing level, to include everyone in the decision making, let them have fun with mundane tasks, and to create a culture of where each member feels empowered and proud of the work that he/she does.