A521.9.4.RB Reflection on Leadership

This week we read about a different kind of leader from chapter 12 of the Leader’s Guide to Storytelling and Denning hit on some great information here.  There were several dimensions that he discussed:

•          Interactive leader works with the world rather than against it.
•          Interactive leadership both adds and subtracts elements from the leadership palette.
•          Interactive leadership builds on personal integrity and authenticity.
•          Interactive leadership doesn’t depend on the possession of hierarchical authority.
•          Interactive leadership benefits from an understanding of the different narrative patterns that can be used to get things done in the world.

All of these dimensions are important factors to be a good leader, a different kind of leader, one that will change the way we think and act as leaders.  The workplace has changed so much that for leaders it is vital that they be willing and able to adapt and grow with these changes.

            As a leader my goal will be to learn to work with my surroundings instead against it.  What does that mean?  If I try too hard to sway or influence my followers within my organization I wield all the power and there is no give and take.  To be an interactive leader I will need to modify my thinking and use that energy at any level within the organization.  This means active participation from everyone not just me doling out commands and watching with disinterest.  I want to make sure I can connect with everyone within my organization including the followers I am leading.

            Another goal I have is to use the interactive leadership to convey my integrity and authenticity to my followers.  It is something that I notice is lacking in many departments within my organization.  If you are not sure what your leader stands for or that they are sincere in what they say there is no trust or faith.  When I can make it clear who I am and what I stand for my followers will not have to question what my agenda is because I will have to convey it to them clearly so they can understand it.  One must lead by example so if I am always complaining about the new system and how much I hate it my followers will pick that up as well and either agree with me because they just want to be agreeable or they will not have faith in my abilities to adapt to the new system.  The actions of the follower are only as good as those of its leader.

            One other dimension that I want to touch on is the interactive leader that benefits from having a good understanding that there are different narratives patterns to get things done.  This is where emotional intelligence comes into play.  It is important to be able to read and evaluate the emotions of yourself and others.  This doesn’t mean you are to control how others feel but when you can pick up on the emotions of others you can gear your narrative toward this to get your story told.  For example, if it is a very sober event you aren’t going to start your story with a joke if it is not appropriate for that that occasion. 

            The major points I take from this reading is that it is vital to be able to adapt and change with different situations, not close yourself off to learning and understanding the dynamics of your department or the organization as a whole.  You have to be able to connect with your followers and not have a fear of participating on any level from the mail room to the CEO of the company.  Leadership should not be my way or the highway and it continues to evolve and the only way to be an effective leader is to be able to evolve as well and listen and I mean really listen to what is going on around you.

A521.8.4.RB Making Contact

How comfortable are you striking up a conversation with someone new?  Are you able to "work a room" with ease? Anyone who knows me would say that I don’t have any problems striking up a conversation with someone new in most situations.  When I am attending a conference or on a business trip I try to mingle with interesting people as it is a way to network.  If someone looks shy I will try to talk to them and bring them out of their shell.  I have found that this is a good way to meet people and learn new things.  I will even start talking to someone in line at the store if they look approachable that is.  I enjoy "working a room" getting to know new people and never find it uncomfortable doing this.

Body language according to chapter 14 talks about in order to be able to be open to conversation you have to be able to project this with your nonverbal cues.  This includes moving toward the person, leaning forward so you are engaged, not crossing your arms or legs, smiling, show you are listening (nodding) and touching the other person.  Most of these make sense to me and I agree for the most part but for me crossing my legs is a comfort thing I am not being closed off.  However when I think back to many conversations I am more engaged when my legs are not crossed and I am leaning toward the person I am talking to.

Growing up I was pretty shy however I was very good at listening to conversations around me and seeing how people interacted with each other.  After breaking out of my shell and becoming more outgoing I found it easier to communicate with different people in different situations.  Having to get up in front in people for speech classes, performing in dance class, or even acting in musicals helped me become the outgoing person I am today.  I use the icebreakers described in chapter 14 pretty much on a daily basis when I talk to students on the phone, or when I am running a training session.  I ask questions and I use humor to break the ice.  I find this puts people at ease.  

I think my biggest frustration is that I can’t always engage every person and I must work on understanding how and when I get rejected and that I don’t take it personally but work on ways to reframe that rejection to work toward my advantage.  I will continue to be that friendly person who makes contact and meet new people because you never know who you might meet!

A521.7.4.RB Knowledge Sharing

I worked in the flight department at the Daytona Beach campus at ERAU from 1997-2003 as the Flight Academic Administrative Coordinator.  When I first started in the flight department I had no idea what a private pilot’s license was let alone ground labs or anything else having to do with flight training.  I had on the job training that consisted of about two hours during registration and I was told “you have to the power to close the sections”.  I had to learn my job which I found out later had no real structure to it and it was kind of “make it up as you go along”.

Within a few months I had a better understanding of my job which was to:

·         assign flight blocks to students

·         assign students to flight instructors

·         ensure that ground lab instructors had the correct material to teach

·         ensure that each classroom was properly equipped

·         FAA exams were up to date and accurate

With all these things going on my office was always busy especially during registration because all flight students (approximately 1,000) had to get my signature in order to get into the flight block and ground lab.  This was done to ensure that the students were able to get into their sections without any issues.  It also helped us keep track of how quickly sections filled up so that I could open sections as needed.

            The problem with this was that I would have a line of students outside my office from 6:30am until 6:30pm and there was no rhyme or reason to who showed up and when.  As soon as a section filled up I would have to get up and step into the hallway to inform them of the closures.  You would have thought I was giving away free laptops!  It was not customer freely at all and created a sense of irritation and frustration among the students. After doing this for 2 semesters I realized there had to be a better way doing this.

            I approached the Department chair and the chief flight instructor (CFI) and told them I had some ideas for creating better customer service for our students while having a new system in place for tracking students in each flight block.  My idea was to block out a classroom and set up chairs theater style with screen in the front for movies.  There would be a table set up with various snacks and fruit punch.  I would also have everything in the computer so that we would know right away when a section filled up.  There were three of us working different sections to ensure a fast and smooth process.

I also had a printout of all flight students in order from SR to FR which I broke down with time blocks to come and get registered with the dates and a four hour time frame.  This way everyone had an assigned time.  When a student checked in we would be able to check them out and keep track of how many students were coming in during each allotted time frame.  Letters were sent to all flight students with their assigned time and date.  Both the department chair and CFI thought it was a great idea and said they would let me try it for one semester to see how it would work out.  I brought in movies from home and set everything up on my own with a white board to show all available time blocks and ground labs so the students would know what was still open.

The end result was amazing!  The students were happy and forgot about the wait because they were entertained with movies and free food.  The fact that they had assigned blocks to come sign up for their flight course helped them to be able to work out a time to come between classes and not have to worry about missing class.  There were very minimal complaints and both the department chair and CFI came by and spoke to students and the students expressed their gratitude to them for making it a better process.  After such a successful first run I was told that they would implement this process each semester.  The only thing they didn't continue was the free food because it had to be catered it would not cost effective.  I decided to ask the Flight managers donate cookies and candy so that the students could still get something out of it.  This process continued until I left in 2003.  Once registration became automated there was no longer a need to this process but I was told that students still asked about this service two years after I left.

This experience taught me that it can take the smallest thing to improve customer service because I was looking out for the students and understanding their frustrations.  By listening to them and taking my ideas to the top and then following through I was able to look for ways to “work smarter not harder”.  This has helped me in my current position as a manager.  I always look for ways to improve the customer experience and find that it comes down to being able to actively listen to your audience and figure out a way to make it better.