Word of the Week: I´ve been hearing a lot of people use “pues nada”, but was having trouble placing its meaning. I could tell that it was colloquial, and kind of a “filler phrase”, but it felt like there was neither rhyme nor reason to its usage. My host mom is the biggest offender of throwing it into conversation whenever. She was on the phone with her friend the other day, and when she hung up I had to ask: what does it mean? “It just means pues nada, I guess. It’s what I say when there’s nothing else to say.” Unsatisfied, I decided I would keep asking people for their definitions. One of my coworkers said she used it to wrap up phone calls, and that resonated with me: we have those phrases too. “Alrighty”, “Right, understood”, “In that case”, when you think about it, there is an entire subgenre of phrases we employ to bring an interaction to an end. If someone asked me to define their meanings, I would have trouble too. So, the next time you’re in a dead-end conversation, throw in a “pues nada”, and maybe they´ll get the hint.
Leadership and I have a complicated relationship. Since high school, if I have been in a club or organization, I end up being a leader of some sort, whether that ́s presidency or executive board status, or something of the like. At first, pursuing leadership was more intentional, and fueled by a desire for status. This resulted in my leadership style being more self-serving and authoritarian. (It’s just marching band, babe, take a chill pill.) Once I reached college, my accumulation of leadership experiences, as well as participating in the Panther Leadership Academy, helped me to refine my leadership style by focusing on empowering the people I was leading. I really enjoy being a role model figure, and the experience of leading collaboratively. I love attending planning meetings, and facilitating communication and connection. By removing the emphasis on the self, collaborative leadership directs a leader´s attention towards the success of the people they are leading.
In my, albeit, limited, working experience in the United States, I have found that leadership tends towards a collaborative and limited-power model. Supervisors are increasingly situated closer, spatially and hierarchically, to their employees, with more open and collaborative workplaces. Their motives and actions may be questioned, although indirectly. Supervisors will present employees with direct tasks that are expected to be completed in a specific time. They will not expect employees to initiate follow-ups independently, but rather, will check in routinely to ensure they complete their assigned tasks. American leaders tend to value charisma, often employing motivational techniques and incentivizing their employees as a means to an end. During my stint at CEIGRAM, I recognized some ways the Spanish work environment adheres to a different set of values.
My time at CEIGRAM has taught me that I prefer a more integrated and attentive style of leadership than is utilized in my workplace. Once, my coworkers and I were asked to code a new program that would transform study results into data visualizations, such as maps and charts. Although my coworkers had worked with R before, there were multiple points in the iterative process during which they were unsure how to proceed. My supervisor, with her extensive knowledge of R, would have been able to resolve their questions in a matter of minutes, or at least, direct them with a few guiding questions. This is not to say that independent problem-solving is without its place in the development process. However, managerial intervention might have been able to inspire creative solutions and limit the frustrations that often accompany programming.
While the “team-building” technique in American workplaces can feel disingenuous at times, it was the workplace component I missed most. This is probably a sentiment reinforced by a background of leadership in team-based settings, such as marching band, ultimate frisbee, residence hall communities, and a family-owned greenhouse. Although these settings have little in common, they all prioritized a sense of belonging and familiarity. In CEIGRAM, many of the departments were disconnected: if we saw one another in the cafeteria, we didn’t feel comfortable enough to greet one another. Familiarity with coworkers increases collaboration, which can improve outcomes, especially in a cross-disciplinary operation like CEIGRAM.
America is known for its tendency to compliment, not criticize. With certain employees, criticism may be necessary. However, in most cases, we are our own worst critics. The traditional 9-5 work setting, combined with the labor of academia, highlighted the absence of positive feedback. Longer-term project deadlines made it difficult to maintain momentum. It didn’t help that there wasn’t air conditioning during the feverish Madrid summer. If the supervisor sets an encouraging tone, employees will likely be more eager to produce a higher quality of work. We all need a reminder that the work we are doing is important.