I was in the committee in my school band. When my committee stepped down, elections were held to search for the next batch of leaders. My teachers and committee had to interview the juniors running for the elections to enable us to understand the positions they were interested in and roughly gauge if they are suitable for the job. After the elections, eight juniors with the highest votes would form the next committee. My teachers and committee, together with the newly elected juniors, gathered to discuss the structure of the committee. This was when the conflict occurred. For the post of President, my teachers had a different person in mind from my committee members. My teachers were impressed by A’s confidence during the interview but my committee felt otherwise. To us, confidence is not the only characteristic that defines a good President. We agreed that B was more suitable for the role because she was firm and mature. There was a long argument over this matter, thus we decided to let the new committee vote. A had the highest votes, so she was elected as the President.
The conflict arose mainly because there were different opinions among my teachers and my committee members over the roles of the new committee members. There was probably a lack of active listening because the teachers and my committee did not listen to each other’s comments in an objective way. I felt frustrated and disappointed that the teachers insisted on choosing A as the President despite our objections. I also thought they were not respecting my committee’s suggestions and it seems like there was actually no need for us to participate in the discussion.
Is there a better way to resolve this conflict so that there will be a win-win situation?
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5 comments:
It seems as though as times the teachers give us the authority to make some decisions, but at the end of the day, it's them who make the final one. I feel that the teachers should let the students make the decision but in this case, perhaps the group was too big to hold a discussion. Maybe the teachers could have call on the ex president of the band alone to give his/her thoughts about who should be the next president. After all, if he/her got the post as President, there should be a certain amount of weightage of his/her words to the teachers and thus should be respected by the teachers. Before the ex president meets the teachers, the committee could have a meeting on their own to state their points so that the president can consolidate and relay the points to the teacher.
Oh, you are also in the band!
My sec sch band had this problem also... so we restructured the system in such a way that during Jan to May, the selected 2 or 3 prospective leaders will take turn in managing the band. The assessment was done black and white, with different scoring charts for the committee and teachers to deal with.
That sort of gave everyone a chance and also to minimize the error of selection. So yep... that was what my band did... haha
In our daily lives, we need to yield if it is really necessary to do so. In your case, since your teachers have the power of making the final decision, you and your committee have to yield. However, I don't mean that you guys just sit there and keep silent. Of course not. You have your responsibility on this committee, that is, help your teachers to get the best future president. You could tell your teacher your opinion towards the candidates and I believe your teachers would take your advices as consideration. At last, even the president is the person you don't like, you also should show respect and support to her. No one knows what miracles she can achieve, right? You need to trust her because what you really care is not who takes the position of the president, but how you can develop your committee in future.
Since A has the highest vote from the new committee, I think that they themselves also preferred to let A be the president. The new committee will be the ones who work with A, so I think that their views are much more important here. The teachers may have also thought that a good leaader must have confidence. As for the areas where A is not so good in, the teachers may have thought that A can pick up these skills along the way. Maybe you and your friends can listen to the new committee on why they choose A. Probably they will tell you some good points about A which you all didn't know about.
I think that mj's suggestion is a rather new idea to me, probably because my committee members and I came from similar school band systems where we do voting and selection by ourselves. I also agree with zhengning! I shouldn't focus on the conflict between my teachers and me, instead, I should support and help the committee to be a successful one! Like siokhui had said, the new committee is the ones who are going to work with the President, so they do have every right to vote for A. As for what enlin had said, I agree that the group was rather big and there were too many opinions being exchanged at the same time, and this probably caused miscommunication at some point. Anyway, thanks for everyone's comments! =)
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