This project thus far has allowed me to work efficiently on a team (well.. in my opinion). I realized that I was burdened with a lot and was able to delegate tasks and was even able to appoint myself a co-project manager.
This is a difficult project because my Type A personality has been very present. Especially in the beginning of the project. The past 2 weeks have been a tad bit slow due to a number of reasons at work but I am trying to catch up right now (literally, right NOW) with school, work, and also the non-profit which is also tied to my Focus on Self. But wants reassuring is that my team believes in me and supports me in this journey.
Supposedly, it has been present my whole life....the whole, Type A thing. It was my co-worker who said "you have a VERY dominant Type A personality. VERY dominant." I was offended at first. But I guess it's something that I have to embrace and nurture. One of my friends, who knows me very well, confirmed this statement and said that I am Type A when it comes to EVERYTHING in my life. I thought it was only as it pertains to my full-time job. Am I aggressive, direct, have an urgency for time, impatience, competitive, controlling, a workaholic, ambitious, business-like, have difficulty relaxing, driven by self imposed deadlines, and unhappy about delays? "YES! Oh my God Yes." he said. Okay Okay, I guess I agree, except for the competitive one. I HATE competition. It makes me uneasy and I always feel like I am going to fail. I shy away from ANY type of competition. Even 2 of my teammates verified this ans even called me "crazy :)"
I am learning to effectively communicate with my manager, who happens to be the Director of a major department in the corporation. She commended me as an emerging leader as I have had a few struggles with a corporate team I was leading. But she sees me trying to juggle my projects but also be inclusive and genuine. She sees that my interests lie in activities that are broad and stretching and is giving me the wiggle room to lighten up on departmental activities and focus more on corporate teams. I am experimenting on ways to influence folks in my department. With one person, I gave insight, gave examples, got the input of others, re-phrased my suggestions.....all of that didn't work, so I took over. And you know what? That one worked. This person seems to learn based on experience. So to see the reaction of the customer, and it was a positive one? It seemed to be: yeah, Bernice knows what she is talking about. So after 3 months of fighting, that's all it took. Type A at it's best.
What's been difficult is getting through to the correct person in these companies. For example, Microsoft has been giving me the run around through to what is now 3 people, but I am still pushing through. What I think that is not on our side is time. I had a similar project for my employer that took us 9 months to complete. I expressed this to my team when we first got our project charge. Here's a thought! What if our Learning Modules were ACTUALLY tied to our project? I guess I just wished we had more time.
My team, as other teams, is at a point where certain members as contemplating the easiest way of getting the project "done." The other teams have self-selected parts of the charge they plan on delivering, versus what was asked of us by the faculty back in Baltimore. So I am assuming this is okay with the faculty, seeing as though that is supposedly okay with the client. So with less than 2 months left, now the pressure is on for us to the same. But I think that it is very difficult to do this because every part of the charge plays on another part of the charge. What are we going to do?
In other news, taking from what I learned in the beginning of the project, I wrote a proposal contract to a potential mentor for my non-profit, The Berrette Family Foundation, Inc. He complimented me on my professionalism then wrote me this email:
"Ms. Innocent,
I have received your e-mail regarding establishing our mentorship relation and read its contents. I greatly appreciate your assertiveness and professionalism upon the engagement of this mutually beneficial relationship and agree to the terms expressed therein. I look forward to continuing to develop a strong professional relationship as the many days, weeks, months and years come to pass. "
Kudos to me!
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