personal skills Flashcards
what are the qualities of a good team leader
one of the most vital roles of a team leader is to keep the peace, and ensure that the goals of the group can be carried out. to do this, the leader has to be approachable, a good listener and inspiring in order to create a good rapport with the rest of the group and allows any issues or concerns to be risen much easier. at the same time, a team leader also needs to be organised and hard working, with resilience and intitiative to cope with setbacks.
what are the qualities of a good team player / what makes a good team player
team players need to be able to communicate and work well with others. this is vital to ensure the flow of the team is effective and everyone can be as involved as they can be.
simultaneously they also need to be enthusiastic and keen to work hard to achieve the best for the group. they need to be able to listen to feedback and criticism and take it in stride to improve and learn from any mistakes or misjudgements.
finally, they need to be able to respect the others in the team and be tolerant and flexible so that they can meet the needs of the group as well as possible.
as well as the leader, they also have the responsibility to ensure that everyone understands the task, and if they feel someone needs guidance they can deliver it themselves or if they feel they are unable to do so they can look for advice from the team leader.
how would your friends describe you in three words?
friendly - i am a very chatty girl, i love meeting new people but i am also a pair of ears for anyone if they need someone to talk to.
resilient - mistakes are an inevitable part of life, we are all human. the important part of mistakes is how you deal with them in the moment and what you can then take away from those mistakes to improve your performance in the future. when i make a mistake i try not to get too worried about them, and then i look at what went wrong exactly and i then know how to avoid the mistake in the future. i can remember really vividly when i was doing a french reading assessment i thought glace was sweets but it was actually ice cream and to this day that is ingrained in my mind, i dont think i could forget the word for ice cream now. so i definitely take mistakes as a gift because they allow me to learn and grow as a person.
trustworthy
what are your biggest strengths
i am incredibly caring, i adore people and i feel i can really tap into how they are feeling and emphathise. sometimes when you are sad or stressed, the best thing is knowing that your feelings are understood by someone else.
i am a good communicator, i love to talk about anything and everything. my debate club was wonderful because you learn about all these really niche topics for debates. i remember learning that avocados arent vegan funnily enough because the bees that are used to pollinate the plants didnt give consent. which is so intriguing because i never would have thought of that had it not been for debate. my comunication skills have really been pushed at the carehome as well, i have learned so much there about how to use more than just words to talk to people. body language is like a superpower, and allows me to talk to the residents without the barrier of words.
i am a very motivated person as well, but also disciplined. you cant always rely on motivation to get you through a task, like during study leave after weeks of studying trying to keep that momentum goes beyond just motivation. having discipline with yourself and telling yourself, you are working toward this goal so you can help these people in the future really drove me forward and kept me focused.
what are some of your weaknesses
i can be quite hard on myself. i work hard in school and in times when that isnt as reflected in my results as i would hope it can be difficult not to blame myself and feel down. in the last years with my exams i have come to terms with that fact and worked on it, and now when i make mistakes i can still feel disappointment but rather than being really gloomy about it i am able to learn from it and see the positives, like well now i know i wont forget that again.
i used to be intolerant of people who dont pull their weight in group work but over the years my ability to communicate with the other members in a way that isnt confrontational has improved tremendously. there can be underlying reasons why people arent working to the level you wish, such as not understanding the topics, or they have other commitments and they are struggling to balance the workloads.
these are both qualities that i will continue to work on and turn into positives at my time in dental school
how do you cope with criticism?
first and foremost, dont take it as an offense. it can be hard sometimes not to take criticism to heart, but at the end of the day people are giving it to you as help so that you can work on the mistakes. its a gift because you can learn from it and improve yourself. so criticism itself isnt a negative thing for me anymore, because there is always room for improvement, and it can be hard to notice what needs to be improved on your own
give an example in your life when you showed empathy
empathy is the ability to put myself in other peoples shoes, being sensitive and attentice and creating a safe space for patients.
in my job at the carehome, i have to show it all the time. there is one specific resident who likes to come over and have a chat with me in the evening shifts when i am doing my tasks, so i will be cleaning dishes and shell tell me about her day. but she also confides in me about issues that she is having, so she complains about struggling to remember things and says it feels like her head is all over the place, so in times like this when she is clearly upset i take five minutes to just sit with her and let her get it all out. ill make her a cup of tea and we can just sit. she doesnt come to me looking for solutions, she just wants to be understood and listened to. i think this empathy is incredibly important in the field of dentistry because you never know what someone is going through, and if you are approachable and they know they can trust you, patients can confide their issues with you and you can be there as not just their dentist but their advisor in finding the help they need or working on any issues they have together. people dont like to feel alone in their problems and just being an open ear can make all the difference in how they are feeling.
give an example of when you showed leadership
in my fifth year i did a wider achievement with the local primary school where i arranged a game with my group and presented it to the little ones and led them through. a role of a leader goes beyond just directing and delegating tasks. you need to be there for people and be enthusiastic. it makes such a huge difference in the experience for the children if the leaders of the play time are happy to be there and want to help you as best they can. it was incredibly fun talking and engaging with them because they are so enthusiastic themselves, and one of them fell over and i went over and checked on them and after some damage control and encourgement they were back in the game as if nothing had happened.
how do you manage your time?
i have an understanding of what i need to get done as well as where my priorities are, so for example during exams i had a lot of commissions for my crochet business, so i had to manage my time to accomodate both the exams and my customers. and it worked really well finding the balance because the crochet itself is very therapeutic to me so it was a good way to relax my mind beforehand.
how do you cope with stress
i have a series of steps i go through in my head. so first of all, i like to look at the situation from outside, to see if the situation requires the level of stress i am feeling. a lot of the time this helps a lot because it does not in fact require the stress i am feeling and i can pretty much instantly feel better from that alone. sometimes the stress is required though, for instance the morning of my ucat exam sitting in the car with my dad. and it was a half hour drive or so so it wasnt too long but it was long enough to start panicking if i wasnt careful, but i have this trick that i use which is maybe a bit odd. some people count to ten but i imagine in my head crochet. so i imagine the hook going through the loop, grabbing the yarn, pulilng it back through the loop, and then down through the loops that created. gosh even sayin that just now was relaxing me. finding a system that works for you is really important, but a lot of the time stress can exaggerate a situation so keeping yourself calm can also help the others around you stay calm.
Can you think of a situation you were under pressure and how did you cope with it?
monday shift at the carehome. food order after food order. juggle normal tasks. have to be done by 12.
are you a leader or a follower
i can be both.
i naturally take on a leadership role by taking the initiative and delegating tasks to people.
i am more than happy being a follower as well. following instructions and helping boost moral in a group.
effective teamwork is essential in a dental practice. you work in several different teams with many different people
how good are you at multitasking
i adore it. it is one of the reasons why i love my role at the carehome because it isnt defined to one thing. the challenges of multitasking keep me excited to go to work.
i can also multitask outside of work, such as at school where i keep up to school work whilst also managing my own club and my business at home.
when were you a team player
to raise money for a bakesale me and a few other girls arranged to raise money for the moray food bank. we had to bake all of the goods ourselves with our own ingredients. so we called a meeting in the school library and worked out who was going to buy which ingredients and make which cakes. a few days later we were able to book a home ec room and make our cakes in our study period. lots of teamwork was involved as we had to work together to make a variety of cakes in a short period of time, sharing recipes and tips with each other. i was in charge of making the tophats, which were a best seller. it was great fun but there was a lot of time pressure and trying to get the most out of the ingredients. it was a success and we were able to raise £150.
what can go wrong in a team
some not pulling their weight, lakc of trust, no set goals or deadlines, dominators who belittle others ideas
