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.

A521.6.3.RB - High Performance Teams

Denning breaks down the most important elements of high-performance teams as follows:

·         enthusiastically shaping expectations and then exceeding these outputs

·         quickly adjusting the performance to the needs of the situation

·         group grows stronger

·         individual performances grow stronger as well

·         purpose of the team become more gallant as goals become more powerful

·         team carries out work with shared passion

In my department we do work closely together though we have not officially worked on a high performance team we do exhibit most of these elements on any even day.  For example, as a group we work hard to make sure that we exceed the expectations that our director sets for us (making sure the students accounts are correct, calls are being answered, emails returned, tickets answered in Parature).  We work hard to make our individual performances better to be aligned with what our director sets forth for us.  We have a motto in our department “One team One dream” and we strive to maintain this motto every day not just for ourselves but for our department.   

When a counselor is out we come together to make sure that the counselors queues are worked and that tickets are answered quickly.  We adjust to the needs of the situation so that no one falls behind in their work and this helps us grow stronger as a team.  Our shared passion for getting the work done is seen whenever our director comes up to see us and ask how we are doing.  He watches our interactions and how we work together to handle issues and work through problems we have with an account or even the new system.  We do these things for each other without being asked to do so and this shows that we are committed to each other and to our common goal of providing the best customer service possible.

When it comes to shared values it is important that everyone is on the same page.  Collaboration is relies on these shared values and if everyone is not sharing the same values the team will suffer for it.  I believe that in our department we have this shared value as a group. We work well together about 95% of the time and we even joke that we are a family because we spend 8 hours a day together 5 days a week and see each other more than our families at times.  Sometimes we don’t agree and when this happens we come together to work it out and try to work out our differences so that we are on track once again with our common goals. We see the positive outcome this has and we don’t have to involve our director with silly little disagreements.

The influence of having shared values is that we make a point of working together and being a part of something that is bigger than the individual.  We are all here to make sure the student is given the best advice, understands the regulations and how they apply to the student, getting and keeping them on the right plan so that they can graduate and occasionally just being there to listen to them express their frustrations.  We all want to see the student succeed because at the end of the day that is what it is all about.

There are 4 patterns of working together to include:

·         Work group (similar work tasks and reporting to same supervisor)

·         Team (defined responsibilities and interaction between members)

·         Community (self-organizing, leadership is shared by the volunteers within the community)

·         Network (large group of people who meet to discuss various ideas but do not meet face to face)

In a work group everyone has very similar tasks to complete but there is not much need for collaboration within this setting.  The goal is the get the work done and everyone reports to the same supervisor.  A positive experience with this is that everyone stays on task to get the work done and the work load is pretty evenly distributed so that is not an overload on any one person.  A negative experience with this is that there is no desire to work together and perhaps collaborate on ways to improve as individuals and as a group.  In my department we do function as a work group however we also display many of the characteristics of team and community.  A solution to this would be to come together and discuss better ways to work as a group and every one make a suggestion that would improve our work.  We can vote on what would work better for us as a group.

In a team setting the goals are clear and everyone knows what they are responsible for and there is much interaction between team members and this will adjust to the situations and work load with the common goal of that team.  The team will work on strengthening the weak areas and do this together.  A positive experience of this is that you get to know the members of your team very well and you work together for the common goal as a group not as an individual.  A negative experience would be that depending on the work a team may not be the best way to go.  In my department we work as a team however we each have certain responsibilities that would not work in the team environment due levels of security access that not every counselor has in the new system.  As managers we are required to run certain reports daily and do overrides that not everyone has access to.  A solution to this would be to do some cross training on these areas so that each person understands how these reports work and come up with a way that perhaps part of the report could be worked together as a team (broken down by regions so each counselor has some control over what is happening with their region) this way everyone feels involved in the process.

In a community setting, individuals from different backgrounds come together to work on a common goal.  Not everyone will have the same views but it is an opportunity to see things from different perspectives and perhaps come up with a better solution.  In this setting a group would meet at the same time, same place once a week, month or year. A positive experience would be that you can get some different views on a subject matter that perhaps makes more sense become each person is looking at the situation in their own way and they can bring something fresh to the table.  Meeting like this can help foster progress on a common goal of a department.  A negative experience to this would be letting things get in the way of meeting and collaborating on issues.  This is something that I am experiencing right now in my department.  We have a community group that meets once a week to discuss issues and solutions in the new CS program.  We were meeting regularly but for the past few weeks we have not met because of deadlines and it has thrown the feel of the community off.  A solution to this would be to analyze this community group and decide if once a week is too often or if there is no longer a need for this group and dismiss it for good or elect to come together at the start of the new academic year.

In a network setting you can have many individuals who meet via chat rooms or other networks to discuss various ideas or interests without the need to meet face to face.  A positive experience of this would be that you can do this from the comfort of your office and you can share experiences with many other people all over the world.  A negative experience to this would be that there are no interpersonal relationships so there is not a real connection to each other and it may be easier to not be involved as much as one should be.  An example of this would be team assignments in our class.  I think that because there are no interpersonal relationships and no real connection to each other than the class it is easy to slack off and not be a part of that network.  A solution would be to break the groups up by interests or similar work interests (though this will not foster a community) or make the groups smaller.

A521.5.8.RB Value Narrative

Before the operations center came on board back in January of 2010, the calls were answered by student assistants who on average took about 200 calls a day.  Sometimes students would be on hold for close to 2 hours before they were able to speak to an actual human being.  The financial aid office was not operating to the best of its abilities to satisfy the customer.  Many students were not getting their financial aid in a timely manner which meant that they were not taking classes and this affected enrollment which affected profitability and targeted goals for many campuses that relied on these enrollments.

In order to provide quality customer service the operations center took over our 800 number and began taking calls 24/7.  This meant that calls would be answered within 3 minutes and most of the students questions would be answered in a timely manner. What couldn’t be answered would be escalated to our office and the escalation would be answered within 24-48 hours.  This was much better than the 2-3 week wait for a return phone call from a voicemail.

At first the operations center was met with resistance from the students of all people!  They thought they were talking to people in another country (think of Peggy from the Capital One commercials) and would call financial aid directly to say that someone was impersonating our university.  There were even a few who felt it should go back to the way it was before even though the operations center had increased enrollment because students were able to get their issues resolved in a timely manner these few didn’t like change. 

 Now that the operations center was under way was it making a difference?  Data was analyzed and more training was conducted and still is today to better service the customer.  It was clear that the operation center taking the calls outweighed the few problems that came with it (sometimes going over budget for the month in calls, continuous training that is required) and the increase in financial aid paid out, increase in enrollment and prospective students proved this.

The purpose of the operations center is continue the values that ERAU WW has and that is to provide the best possible service and education to its students.  By finding a way to improve services to the student not only did ERAU listen to the students who said that there had to be a better way but they took action to follow through.  There has been a 20% increase in enrollment (due to students receiving their aid faster) because of the operations centers.  Many other departments have now taken our lead and utilize the operations center to help increase student satisfaction and this in turn promotes our integrity to provide the best service possible.  

A521.5.4.RB - Aligning Values

Everyone hopes that they work for an organization that has the general idea of what being ethical is about and that they in turn expect the same type of ethical behavior from their employees.  Is that organization just about making money or do they really care about their customer and their employees as a whole?  Does the organization hold simple truths about who they are so that everyone is aware of them?  I believe my organization does this as well as my department.

In chapter 6, Transmit Your Values Denning talks about three basic elements of ethics:

·         Trust: idea that we will engage and behave ethically toward each other

·         Loyalty: to the organization and fellow employees within that organization a commitment to not fail that trust while doing their said duties to the organization

·         Solidarity: taking an interest and genuine concern for other people and taking action on behalf of your fellow coworkers even if is not in line with your personal interests

These components I feel are important in any setting not just in business but in a personal setting as well.  Who doesn’t want trust, loyalty and solidarity?  In the organization world it can be the glue that holds a business together and without it may well fall apart.

For my department I can say that we have these three basic but most important elements.   We must trust our director is going to do his best to get us the training materials we need to keep up with regulations, the space we need to be able to speak with students, and go to bat for us when he knows we are behind in our work. He has to trust that we not take advantage of him by constantly coming in late or leaving early, lying about our work, or not being truthful with our students.  He doesn’t have to always check that we are doing our work and that we are doing it correctly because he has faith and trust in our abilities. 

His trust in us shows in the many opportunities we are afforded (being able to work overtime when needed, traveling to conferences and campuses) and upper management sees this as well.  They are not asking him why we are doing what we do they are praising him for how well and efficiently we do our jobs and that we get a majority of our students paid their financial aid.

This trust leads us to loyalty because without trust there would not be any loyalty.  Our department has continued to experience growth in the last 4 years and we have had very little turnover since I started (we only lost a former director and one counselor because they didn’t adhere to these three basic components).  When there is talk of getting other positions within our department I get phone calls and emails from people in other departments and some who for other companies who want to come work for our department.  Not because financial aid is so much fun and challenging but because of that trust and loyalty that our department has for one another.

It can be seen on a daily basis when you walk by our area.  We work closely together and the common goal is to provide the best service possible for our customers—the students and campuses.  It is this trust and loyalty that makes our department cohesive in many ways.  If one of the counselors are out the others jump in and help.  There is no worry that someone’s work won’t get done because we trust each other to help out even if there is a conflict of personalities between counselors the director knows we will work together.  He doesn’t have to worry that the work will not get done.

The third component solidarity is something that we have but not to the degree that we should.  This is one area that as a department we must work on to make us stronger and more cohesive.    Because we work so closely some personalities do not mesh well though on the outside it is not something you may be able to spot right away.  Some of us truly care about the interests of others however there are a few that are only looking out for themselves and they will make a point of letting you know that they are helping you out just in case you forget.  It is not about trying to crush others to get ahead in the organization.  We are all in this together.

This is not what solidarity is about and there are some courses of action that are currently being taken to help in this area.  There will be a retreat with team building exercises that will hopefully bring us together as a team and make us more cohesive.  It will be a great chance to come together and get out some of these underlying issues that we have.  Once this is done the department will then truly be able to say that we are a genuinely ethical community.

As for the organization itself I think that solidarity is something that needs to be practiced across the board.  ERAU is one university though we have two main campuses (Daytona and Prescott) and the worldwide headquarters there is not the feeling of being one university.  For example, the state of the university address is split up so that Daytona has one and then WW has one.   Distance is not an issue as we are right down the street from the campus.  I believe that there needs to be some education about the differences but most importantly the similarities between the campuses.  We are one university and this needs to be conveyed to each campus.

There was a time when students were not told that worldwide was an option to get an education if they couldn’t afford to attend the main campuses.  The suggestion was to attend another college.  Why take money away from our own university?  This was because there was a lack of education in what ERAU had and still has to offer.  There is a new program that is starting next fall called the 2+2 where a student attends the worldwide campus for the first two years and then transfers to the Daytona campus for the last two years.  It is a first step but it needs to be pushed at all levels.  We are here for the same reason and that is to give students the best education possible.

A521.5.1.RB - Core Workplace Value Assessment

I have worked in the financial aid office for 4 years now and every day I still wake up excited to go to work.  I started as a counselor and have worked my way up to manager of direct loans and verifications as well as being the trainer for our call center.  I feel that this type of work really suits me well.  I get to problem solve, guide students, guide the counselors and expand my learning.  At the call center I get to interact with the agents and get their perspective.  At the same time they can ask me questions or get clarification on topics which in turn help with answering calls.

            When I apply for a job I try to think about what I want out of the position. For example, when I applied for my position at ERAU Worldwide I knew I wanted to work for ERAU again because of the benefits, summer hours, and chance of advancement.  I also knew that I wanted to be challenged and I did not know anything about financial aid and thought it would be a great addition to my knowledge base.  I heard about Worldwide and wanted to see how different it was from the residential campus.  The things I feel are important to me in any job I take are (based on the assessment I took):

·         To be challenged, working toward problem-solving

·         Have a balance with work and family, will there be time to explore both and be satisfied?

·         Job security (as much as one can hope for) and stability

·         Will what I do help others?

·         A fast work pace with variety

·         A chance for training and professional development that can lead to advancement within my department and/or the organization

·         Having the ability to make decisions and influence possible change for the better good of the department and organization overall

·         Great teamwork and developing great working relationships

I feel that these assessments are most important to my core values for my job.  ERAU holds its employees to a higher standard and I think that any job a person holds they too should hold that company to a higher standard as well.  A company needs to be about integrity, honesty, goals and values for its employees and its customers.  There can be some differences within an organization however.  These changes can be seen in different departments.  Certain directors may be only looking out for themselves and not the greater good of the organization only what the person feels they can get out of it such as financial gain, highly visible recognition.

My current position lines up nicely with the values of the organization.  My director gives us many opportunities to develop our professional skills with training and we get to help make decisions and most times are given the chance to be the one making the decisions as counselors.  As financial aid counselors we are constantly challenged and our roles are very fast paced.  Our job is to problem solve and our team is very close knit and we work well together most of the time.

There aren’t any differences in my values versus those of the organization.  The only big issue we face is that we do not have enough positions in our department so advancement is not easy to do at the moment as we are understaffed.  It can be frustrating when looking to move up within the department.  The one other issue would be that we need to be more “green” since it is something that the university is trying to move to it needs to be done across all aspects of the university not just the main campus.