My Developmental Goal Is to Improve My Skills in Effectively Leading a Team at My Workplace.

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items that may not have been raised during the hour. Moreover, the feedback provided on the minutes will also help assess whether I have been successful in aligning everyone with the objective (Kouzes and Posner, 1995).

At the mid-year and year-end time, I will also request feedback from key stakeholders to assess my own efforts in bringing the team together under a common vision, and whether everyone believes that we are directing (and adjusting) our efforts towards answering the crucial questions by re-evaluating the data at each meeting (Barton and Sutcliffe, 2010). The ultimate success of the team will be determined by end of year portfolio alignment outcomes that assesses the rate of progress of each drug program.

PART C: What is one challenge or hurdle you might face in working towards this goal? How might you alleviate this?

The main challenge that I am likely to face in the accomplishment of my goal is my own MBTI assessed personality type (ISTJ) (Briggs and Briggs, 2015). Although the thinking and judging aspects of my personality are a perfect fit for my current role, where I primarily use scientific data to make decisions and determine a further course of action, the introversion aspect will prove to be the chief hurdle in establishing contacts with the team members. Moreover, in my past observations, I have noted that senior scientists tend to have their own opinions based on their past experiences, and are often unwilling to change their mind (Gary, 1998). This will require significant effort on my part to collaborate communicate effectively with a lot of different people (and personality types) with ease, hear everyone’s opinions, and formulate a plan to ensure both scientific progress of the team and developmental progress for myself (Hill, 1996).

To work through my personality barriers, between January and March 2017, I will begin by meeting with each team member on an individual basis. This will help me understand his or her style of working and learning (Argyris, 1991), and also ensure that I am aware of everyone’s skills, interests and their contribution to the team. This will help me anticipate how each member will respond to queries and the types of questions they are likely to have, and I will be better prepared to address conflicts of opinion when they arise. I believe this will create an environment that is tolerant to addressing multiple concerns and that the team leader will guide the process to efficient decision-making. 

REFERENCES

Katzenbach J and Smith D, 1993, “The discipline of teams”, Harvard Business Review, March-April.

Argyris C, 1991, Teaching smart people how to learn, Harvard Business Review, May-June.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (1995). The practice and commitments of exemplary leadership. The

Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Barton M and Sutcliffe K, 2010, Learning when to stop momentum, Sloan Management Review, 51(3), 69-76

Briggs, K. & Briggs Myers, I. (2015). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Self-Scorable.

Gary L, 1998, Cognitive biases: Systematic errors in decision making, Harvard Management Update, U9804B, April

Hill L, 1996, Building effective one-on-on relationships, Harvard Business School Note # 9-497-028