Answer the first 2 question with a minimum of 200 words each and a reference for each.

1. Consider the complexities of interdepartmental collaboration of diverse teams across several functioning areas of an organization. Evaluate your leadership acumen and the skills needed to achieve collaboration across functional groups to achieve success. Discuss the opportunities for growth in your current skill set and provide an example of how you can prepare yourself for these challenges. Include in your discussion what you can start doing, stop doing, and continue doing to prepare yourself to lead in these complex situations.

2. Leadership positions within teams can often be fluid and dynamic. Circumstances may require an individual to step forward and lead in some situations and then adopt the role of follower in others. As a leader, discuss when you know when it is appropriate to lead and when it is appropriate to follow. Include an explanation on how you can utilize conscious leadership in fostering leadership skills in your team members, so they too feel confident enough to lead when the situation calls for it.

Reply to the response below with a minimum of 200 words with or without a reference.

3. Collaboration as a leader is something that I strive for in my current role and will continue to strive for in any of my future leadership roles. However, collaboration can be difficult at times. As a teacher, for example, I not only have to collaborate with other grade level teachers, multi-grade level teachers, parents, and administration, but one also must collaborate with the students. Keeping everyone happy is always a challenge but sticking to your convictions and having strong beliefs in how you run a classroom helps others trust your process. One area of growth in my current skill set would be shared or distributed leadership. I am the type of person that enjoys collaborating with others but have a difficult time delegating responsibility. The reason for my own hesitation is due to the risk that occurs when the leadership role gets distributed. This is one area that I hope to improve on in the future because “…teams with shared leadership have less conflict, more consensus, more trust, and more cohesion…” (Northouse, 2021). By being able to have more positive interactions with my team it is likely my team effectiveness would also improve. When team effectiveness improves it would not only improve my own reputation as a leader, but also that of the organization. One way I plan to start doing is to research how effective leaders go about picking their teams. It is not simply as easy enough as choosing qualified candidates, but also ensuring those candidates can work well with others. “Members also need to be personally competent in interpersonal and teamwork skills” (2021). As I am not currently looking for others to join a team, by beginning my research on how effective leaders choose members I can be better prepared for what that process is like when the time comes.