Hi there,
On Friday, February 17, our Summit Park Leadership Community met for the second class this semester. Our guest speaker was Ed Derr, a counselor from the Drury University Counseling Office. Ed Derr chose to speak with our class about communication and conflict resolution. He presented the idea to the class that sometimes we consider conflict a negative issue. He proved a point that conflict is not always a negative issue. When thinking about the conflict in a positive way, it often times helps us (the people involved) communicate and understand each other on a better level. I know that friends or relationships can never have a perfect relationship, because no two people can get a long all the time. A person has to understand others opinions and learn to respect them without causing conflict. Ed Derr shared with our class several handouts, which include “9 Healthy Ways to Communicate,” an example worksheet to fill out previous examples of conflicts, and a What’s Your Conflict Management Style. The What’s Your Conflict Management Style worksheet allowed us to figure out which animal we each are. This was a great game, because based off of our score of how well we manage our conflicts. My dominant style was the Accommodating Teddy Bear and my back-up style was the Collaborating Owl.
I believe that my greatest communication strength is that I always share my opinion with others. I think that the key component to communication is sharing and working out your emotions. I think that my weakness in communication is that I always try to make others happy. I always try to put others first. To better the communication with my Summit Group, I think that it would be better to schedule more time throughout the week to meet and discuss ideas for our project. I want everyone in our group to express and share their own ideas, because I think that is what will make our project successful and unique. I believe that the tips Ed Derr covered about communication will help me to become a better leader. Overall, I thought that this class period was extremely helpful when considering communication and conflict resolution.
We are still continuing to volunteer weekly at the Salvation Army in the Food Pantry. We all really enjoy helping out those in need and it is extremely rewarding. The friendships that we have built with the other volunteers at the Salvation Army are wonderful. As for our project, we are in the process of getting the word out about our clothing drive that will be held the week after spring break. Everything seems to be falling into place and we are really getting excited about helping the Salvation Army!
Stay classy Drury University,
Haleigh Brown
Hello there!
On February 17th, we had a guest speaker come in and talk to us during Summit class. This guest speaker was Ed Derr. Ed Derr is the Director of Counseling at Drury University. Ed talked to us about conflicts and gave several scenarios that helped us better understand how to handle different situations that we may come across in our lifetime. Ed explained that there will be conflicts that we will come across throughout our entire life. He gave us several useful tips on how to handle different situations and he also explained that everyone’s personality is different. We all handle situations differently based on our personality type. He used animals to explain what he means by this. I was a teddy bear, which means that I like to please others and resolve conflicts. I really enjoyed the presentation that Ed gave because he had us acting out different scenarios and working through them. This was helpful because I do like to resolve conflicts, so this was helpful advice.
My greatest communication strength is that I am someone who is really easy to talk to. I enjoy listening to people’s problems and giving them advice to the best of my ability. I feel that I am an approachable person and people feel that they can come to talk to me about anything. One of my communication weaknesses would be that I have a hard time thinking that all conflicts are a negative thing. Ed was great at explaining that conflicts were not always a negative thing because it sometimes betters the relationships around us. I think that I can better communicate with my Summit team by sitting down and talking more about our project. We all like to hang out a lot, but I feel that we do not sit down enough to discuss the details about our project this semester. I could communicate to my teammates that I want to sit down and talk about the project. I can improve how I handle and resolve conflict by going to the person almost immediately if something were to come up. If I am upset by something that someone in my group did or if I want to let them know how I feel about a particular thing, I need to go directly to them as soon as the conflict comes up. This is an important thing to do when a conflict comes up because if time goes by, it does not seem as important anymore.
Until next time,
Mariah Fulbright
Hey all!
This past Friday, February 17, we meet as a Summit Park class. Our guest speaker this week was Ed Derr from the counseling office, and he spoke to us on the value of conflict resolution. To me, dealing with conflict the proper way is a daily struggle that we all have to go through. Conflict presents itself in our lives in many different ways, from the small petty fights that we get in, to the big conflicts that take time to resolve. I took a lot out of listening to Ed speak about this because I know that it is something that I need to work on. I think it is important to step back and reflect on a conflict after it happens to reevaluate the situation and how to handle it. I am really bad about avoiding conflict whenever I possibly can. If I think that a conflict is going to arise I tend to give the other person what they want to prevent them from getting upset at me. I realize that this is not always the proper way to handle conflict, and that having conflict in my life can be healthy. During the “What Animal are You?” activity that we did during class I learned that I am primarily a teddy bear personality when it comes to conflict. I am the loser while the other person is the winner. To improve my leadership abilities I could work more on compromise rather than you take all and I will take nothing. If I focus on this, I will feel like I am getting more accomplished and keeping the other person happy at the same time. We also talked a little bit about communication during the class. I think that communication is key to getting things done, and building a relationship with someone. If you have poor communication it is going to be very difficult to make any progress on a project or make plans with other people. My greatest communication strength would be my ability to communicate on a timely manner and make sure that someone gets all of the information that they need to know. I would say that my greatest weakness when it comes to communication would probably be not standing up for my ideas if someone puts them down, of claims that their ideas are better. I think that in order to better communicate with my Summit Group I should try to schedule more organized meetings so that I know that all of the members are getting the same information at the same time and that everyone is on the same page. I got a lot out of class Friday, and am glad that I got the opportunity to reflect more on my communication skills and my conflict resolution.
I also wanted to give a brief update on how our project is going this month! We have all been going to the Salvation Army on Wednesdays to help out in the food pantry and in the office. I am hoping that in the next few weeks Katie will be able to join us in the food pantry! And we have started to get the dates planned for our big clothing drive that is coming up later this spring! This semester is looking promising!
Until next time
-Erica
Hello again!
Everything is going well with our Salvation Army project. We are each going once a week to help out! I have been working mainly in the business office but soon I am going to start working at the food pantry with the other girls. We are also planning a “Spring Cleaning” event for the Drury Campus. We want people to clean out their rooms over spring break and bring all of their unwanted items back to campus to donate to the Salvation Army. We are really excited about our project and hope it is a success!
I really enjoyed our speaker during class on February 17th. I like the point he made about how we all perceive conflict to be a bad thing, but it doesn’t have to be seen that way. I agree with what he said about how conflict can be imagined. I feel that this happens to me sometimes. When someone is having a bad day it can be easy to think they are upset with you, when they truly aren’t. I also enjoyed learning about how I personally handle conflict. We took a mini-quiz and I am an Accommodating Teddy Bear and a Compromising Fox. I thought this was pretty true to how I really am, so it was a fun experience!
Overall, I feel my best communication strength is compromising. I am usually willing to come to a decision that makes everyone happy and that is what I strive to do when dealing with conflicts. My weakness is that I don’t always confront someone when I am upset with them. I tend to just think that I am being overly sensitive and I just keep it in. This not a good thing because sometimes it causes me to hold grudges which makes it hard to move on. I can better communicate with my Summit group by making sure we are all on the same page by talking weekly about our project. In order to be a better leader in general, I can find constructive ways to tell others how I am feeling and what is causing me to be frustrated. For example, if not one volunteers to help and it upsets me I can find an appropriate way to explain how I am feeling to others instead of just keeping it inside.
Well, that is all for now!
-Katie
