Professionalism conduct and behavior requires that employees carry themselves in an acceptable and accountable manner that respect and demonstrates a commitment to an organization’s values. Besides accountability, competence, and reliability expectations of an employee who behaves in a professional way include respect and obedience to the position of authority as well as co-workers (Walton, n.d.). For an organization to be successful, the employees should be trained on appropriate etiquette they are supposed to observe within the scope of their workplace and out. Concerning the above expectation, some of the critical concepts covered in this course include the understanding of employee expectations, workplace values, skills development as well as professional behavior required to excel in the job environment. Concerning the practical applications of professionalism explored in this unit, this paper describes new knowledge and strategies learned from the weekend immersion.

During the first day of the weekend involvement, the speaker addressed the issue of talents and the four domains of team strength. Exceptionalism in the application of talent and abilities in the workplaces was described as one of the critical factors that separate successful organizations from an average one. Highly successful organization tend to place more emphasis on the abilities of its workforce, taking advantage of it to realize exceptional results. Though not all employees have the same talents and abilities, it is vital that organizations set to build teams that rely on the strengths and skills of each of the members. Effectively, valuing the contribution of each of the members of a term is an essential ingredient for success.

Concerning the four domains of team strength, the speaker stressed that individuals working alone or working in a team need to focus on their strengths, each time making commitment to make better use of such abilities (Quatro, Waldman, & Galvin, 2007). The four main domains of strength that was explored in the talk included executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. For high-level performance it is essential for teams and organizations to have a right balance of the four domains of strengths. According to the four domains, those people who are dominant in the executing strength know how to make things happen. When considering leadership for a team to embark on an important project, it is vital to ensure that those selected to lead the team to have a high work ethic, are highly committed, consistent, disciplined and focused towards achieving stated goals.

The influencing domain is required for persons selected to speak in charge of a team or an organization (Quatro, Waldman, & Galvin, 2007). Thus negotiators and leaders of a team need to be blessed with the ability to speak well, woo others, compete and command respect. Though somehow related to the influencing strength, the relationship domain deal with relationship building. This strength is recognized as the glue that holds teams together (Quatro, Waldman, & Galvin, 2007). Critical aspects of this strength include the ability to adapt, connect, develop, and empathize.  Last but extremely important is the domain of strategic thinking. This deals with the creation of new ideas in what is called innovative thing and includes attributes such as being analytical, futuristic, intellection and ability to learn quickly and think critically.  To fully harness the four domains of strengths the highlighted the need to learn the art of public speaking as communication plays a critical role in the execution of tasks.

Workplace and organizational culture were one of the topics addressed on the second day. Described as a combination of underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of doing things, culture plays an integral role in the effective execution of organizational processes (Schein, 2010). Concerning execution, it should be noted that culture consists of organizations expectations, experiences and general behavior exhibited by its members on their day to day activities. From the presentation given by the speaker, highly successful teams are characterized by a culture of learning, shared beliefs and sense of responsibilities. In this type of cultures, employees take the initiative to be better on what they do as individuals and as a team.

Leadership and teamwork is another topic which was addressed in the two-day learning experience. The two issues were addressed together since either of the two cannot stand on its own without invoking the presence of the other. An important aspect of organizational leadership that was explored was that which is committed to creating a following (Rath, & Conchie, 2008). As a leader, leading a team, one should not only lead by example but inspire hope, desire and motivation on the followers to work more, achieve more and be willing to give more in pursuit of organizational goals as well as personal goals. As such, leadership and teamwork often involve a sense of sacrifice where individuals are willing to give more that is required of them.

Communication is another important topic which was explored in the two-day learning mission that cannot go unmentioned in this paper. Besides explanation about the role of communication in the workplace, how organizations should ensure that there are proper channels of communication, the speaker explored the role of communication in the 21^st century. In particular, the issue of internet and social media as a way of enhancing communication was addressed to its entirety. The need for digital presence was highly stressed for the individual employees as well as for the organizations.

Last but equally important, the speaker also touched on the topic of management and the various types of managers. Management as a function though linked to leadership was delineated from the latter in the sense that it functionally deals with getting the best out of a team, making them follow instructions and orders. In this sense, management as a function has an element of pushing people around in cases they are not responsive to what it is expected of them. The five types of managers that were explored include the leader-manager, the perfect manager, the consultative one, the micromanager and finally authoritative managers.

References

Quatro, S. A., Waldman, D. A., & Galvin, B. M. (2007). Developing holistic leaders: Four

domains for leadership development and practice. Human Resource Management Review, 17(4), 427-441.

Rath, T., & Conchie, B. (2008). Strengths-based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why

people follow. Simon and Schuster.

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.

Walton, B. KSB 100-003: Building Your Business Foundation-course syllabus.