Team Experiences
Executive Board Positions
Alpha Rho Chi Professional and Social Fraternity
Fall 2018
I have been closely involved with a RSO – Alpha Rho Chi, Fraternity of Architecture and Allied Arts throughout college. I have taken on two executive board and several chairmanship positions and all of them require different levels of teamwork.
When serving executive board positions, I initiated organizational change to the team. I observed a lack of communication and cooperation between members for both event and financial planning, so I started an online platform to document and share contents including calendar, resources, and budgets to every member. Conscientiousness as my strength enable my team to access resources more effectively. This effort was liked by a lot of members and was set as a precedent for the following semesters.
One of the challenges when I was working on chairmanships was that there was no appointed leader for each chairmanship, meaning that none of us had the legitimate power to guide the team. Without reward and coercive power, it was often hard for a team to work together. I learned to take on the role as an emerging leader by initiating ideas and starting conversations. We were able to delegate tasks successfully for most of the time, but there were difficult situations. For example, when planning for the Halloween party, we could not agree on the time and location and we all wanted to take the lead. Trying to be firm but not rigid, we had several discussions and finally agreed on one solution. Although it took a longer time and more effort to reach the agreement, it was the right thing to do because we worked as a team. This team experience taught me how to advance personal strengths and manage social behaviors to positively influence an organization.
Barista
University Housing and Dining
Spring 2019
I worked at a coffee shop for 3 semesters and had become a barista leading a team of 2-4 people. I had to delegate tasks correctly especially for closing shifts which involves a lot of cleaning. Training new members and helping them get familiar with the job were also my job. When mistakes were made, I had to point them out without making the person feel bad. It was a challenge to keep both authority and friendliness to get the work done. This was when I realized that leaders are different from managers, so my most important task was to develop a comfortable working environment for my team and then things will be easier.
In order to build relationships, I initiated conversations with workers working different shifts from different years with various majors. When the work was slow, I tried my best interacting with them by making small talks. I also tell jokes and act lenient around them to be likable. Through letting them know me better and knowing them better, I became more like a friend figure from whom they were more willing to take suggestions. Through this team experience, I was exposed to the difference between leadership and management. Leaders align people so people are more willing to work with them which is crucial to relationship management. This experience had greatly improved my team-working skills including communication, patience, dependability, flexibility, humor, and stress management skills. It contributed to my understanding of communication competency - because of communication we were able to bond as a team. I also improved my ability in communicating more articulately, confidently, and empathically.
