Imperial Award Application Effective teamwork

Effective teamwork is a valuable skill that I developed through my first term in Imperial College London. I
believe that I have achieved communication and active learning, motivation, group dynamic and
interaction, and leadership and collaborative work through my activities inside and outside my courses.
Effective communication is a complex skill that requires active listening, not only to hear but also
constantly try to understand the need of other parties. I applied this skill at volunteering session with
IntoUniversity. When I met my mentee for the first time, we discussed our goals that we aim to achieve at
the end of our mentoring, I also offered her some suggestions to elevate her academic score which I got
from my training. Halfway of our talk, I realized that her priority is developing her social skill, not
academic skill like I expected before. I asked her about it and she agreed with that. I learned that
although active listening is crucial to communicate effectively, but I need to get rid all the prejudice and
judgement first. This changed our goals entirely, thus altered our activity plans and focus in our weekly
meetings. The effect is incredible, our relationship is built on the foundation of respect and trust, she
could to talk to me freely, it also boosts her confident to talk with other adults.
I have to admit that sometimes I found it was harder to motivate her along our sessions. While words
usually enough to motivate my adult colleague, words are not always effective to motivate adolescent.
I tried to encourage her with motivating sentence such as, Lets get it done! Dont you want to see the
end result?, but it was not enough to keep her attention. Then, I changed my approach. I asked her to
plan our activity for a day and we discussed the goal of her plan. She suggested to make the cover of
our logbook and fill it with colourful pictures. Not only we got the compliment from the IntoUniversity staff,
but she was enjoying it so much (she even asked to have other meetings to draw her future dreams!). I
found that her involvement in set our aims, adjusting our doings to her enjoyment, and having fun
together are the fool-proof motivation recipes. In fact, those ways are effective not only for kids and
adolescence, but also for all ages! I applied those methods at my group works and again, it was proven
to be successful!
Together with my fellow LPDPs scholarship awardees who are studying across the world, we are
running a small scholarship scheme for 6 unfortunate students from Jember, Indonesia. I am in charge
as one of the executive leaders and responsible to lead the regional representations, preparing
motivational and knowledge sharing session for our students. After exhausted myself with overload
works and matching all the schedule by myself, I gave up and asking for helps. I approached each one
of them and look for their strength and ability to contribute more in the committee. Communication was
tricky because we did all things just by calls and texts, but at the process I find out that meticulous
person is suitable for scheduling and talkative person is perfect at publication. At the other hand, the
representative from different time zone tend to observe more than give opinions because he afraid to
wake people with his messages, while the representative from the most number of awardees would talk
more because she felt obligated to be involved. Moving the meeting time and involve all people directly
in discussion solves the problem and makes the interactions livelier. I learned that everyone could make
a unique contribution in the team and the result is far better than my work alone. It is an incredible team
and I am not stressed anymore; in fact, I am looking forward for our monthly meeting and sharing
session.
I have to admit that at first I dont even have any idea how to lead a group of intellects from the different
part of the world, I was not confident enough. It was also the reason why I did not ask for helps until I
was stressed out, I did not delegate. I was afraid to give commands, always listened to everyones
suggestions, and tried to make everyone happy. After I realized the problem of my inferiority, I fixed my
leadership style. I continue to discuss every decision with my team but I also give commands and
delegate. I realized that to lead is not running to the goal alone but to walk together in order to achieve
the best result. Not only I have more confidence and relieved from my anxiety, my team is coordinated
and collaborate better too.
I believe I have achieved all attributes in effective teamwork skills, therefore I propose this evidences for
the application of Imperial Award in effective teamwork stream.