Master of Science in Leadership

Have you ever seen something wrong... but you stayed silent about it? Katie Shonk (2020) shares a personal story in a blog post about a good intentioned, but rather crass effort that they made to shut down a homophobic comment made at their wedding reception. Even though Shonk does not identify as gay, she took offense at this comment and made the decision to call out the comment as unacceptable. She wanted to be a good ally. When we hear people say things that are offensive or rude, it can be difficult to speak up, especially if we aren’t the ones that comment was about. When we do, it can be easy to come across as self-righteous and create more tension. So, what are we meant to do when we see biased or antisocial behavior?  As a university employee I am required to complete standard HR training on a yearly basis. One of these training sessions is related to harassment prevention. Last year our training was revamped to include bystander intervention and a section on the importance...

As a leader, I get to make choices. These choices not only impact my own circle of direct influence but can have a ripple effect on the organization as a whole. I think that through my actions I can change, or transform an organization and the people within it. Transformational Leadership appears to be the hot leadership theory that has garnered the attention of researchers over the last several decades (Northouse, 2016). Denning (2011) takes a look at this leadership theory through the lens of leadership through storytelling and identifies the eleven dimensions that describe an Interactive Leader. Of the eleven elements used to describe interactive leaders, leadership that participates, connects, and that is relatively free of ego speak to me and my leadership style (Denning, 2011).   Image From: https://gonextpage.com/2018/12/28/practicing-the-art-of-leadership/  The picture above depicts three individuals dressed in business attire scaling a mountain. The person a...

Telling stories is no easy task, and telling good stories that people actually want to listen to is even more challenging. Throughout the course of taking MSLD 500 Leadership Communication I have learned many communication techniques, but what may end up being the most impactful is verbal communication and presenting. Most of the time in my career, I find myself speaking to people live, over zoom, or on the phone. It is more seldom that I am required to submit a written report.   Image from: https://minutes.co/how-to-grab-an-audiences-attention/ It is easy to tell when I am telling a boring story. People lose eye contact with me. They look at the time, or they might even start scrolling on their phone for entertainment. Julian Treasures provided some excellent and useful information about telling stories “that people want to listen” to (QuickTalks, 2016). In his TEDTalk Treasures lists the seven deadly sins of speaking. They include gossip, judging, negativity, complainin...

     As a storyteller, I believe that I’ve usually done a good job maintaining a focus on the details that are relevant, and with my story structure. When telling a story I have usually relied on the structures that I learned in primary and secondary school. I remember studying the storytelling 5 act structure of the storytelling pyramid. Duarte (2011) recounts this storytelling technique throwing me back into my tenth-grade literature class, only to tell me that this structure does not in fact capture the hearts of audiences and inspire change! Duarte (2011) contends that the best storytelling structure involves highlighting the gap between the status quo and an alternative future while alternating between these ideas. The structure ends with a call to action. She also describes effective storytelling techniques including modeling behavior, variety, audience engagement, repetition, and metaphor (Duarte, 2011).  Image from: https://seattlewebsearch.com/2020/09/m...

Sensitive Topic: Suicide Daryl Conner describes a motivational pattern that successful change leaders have used to inspire and sustain change. This pattern he called the burning platform. A leader creates a burning platform when they show their followers how the cost of maintaining the way things have been would be far more dangerous than implementing the suggested change (Replymc, 2010a). Conner goes further to describe that the burning platform should be used judiciously, and based on a personal emotional connection. This goes beyond the logic that change must happen because it is directed by leadership. The burning platform creates urgency around a situation and consequences for not changing that are unpleasant and perhaps scary (Replymc, 2010b). This metaphor inspired by dramatic and tragic events provides a very real illustration of a circumstance where emotion and logic meet to create the desired outcome. Reflecting on the burning platform and how I may have used it in my life to...

The Coronavirus Pandemic has presented me with some interesting opportunities and additional time to myself. Over the course of the past year, I have had some time to reflect on the values that I hold and ask myself if I have been living in accordance with those values. Some questions that I’ve asked myself in order to determine what my core values include “What was I doing when I felt the most fulfilled?” and “What was I doing when I felt like I was doing something wrong?” Hansen (2020), Career Advice Expert with LiveCareer, provides a values assessment to help individuals determine what their workplace values are and to reflect if your organization’s values are a good fit with your own. In completing this exercise I identified the following as my five core workplace values: Life-Work Balance Positive impact on others and society Professional Development and on-going learning and growth Strong financial compensation and financial rewards Respect, recognition, being valued Of course, t...

From 2015 to 2017 In Tallahassee, Florida, I served as the supervisor for a small local hotline serving childcare professionals. I oversaw around 20 full and part-time employees who answered calls on this hotline. After a few years, I felt that I knew the job like the back of my hand. I had seen everything there was to see and helped with any problem that anyone might have, or so I thought. Sometimes, when a team member came to me for support, I would interrupt them to provide them with an answer to their issue before they could finish asking for support. I was confident, which is great for a leader, but I know that this confidence sometimes made me an 18-second manager to my team (Peters, 2009).  I recognized that a block to listening was happening there. I wasn’t truly supporting my team, I was just benign right as quickly as possible. I learned that employees do not want to have their issues resolved quickly. They rather feel heard. When I recognized this, I made conscious effo...

I’ve always considered myself credible in my professional and personal work. Of course, it might be easier for me to trust myself than it is for someone else to trust me, especially when it comes to the professional world. Whalen (2007) identified “Three Pillars of Credibility: Expertise, Trustworthiness, and goodwill” (p. 123). I currently run my own business that facilitates training and education programs for nonprofits and government organizations. An area where I am still trying to establish myself is in expertise. Eric Hornfeld, the person, has a bachelor’s degree and some experience running training programs for a variety of organizations. HTS, the organization is young with less than one year in operation and just a few contracts in its portfolio. When it comes to credibility, the area where I’d like to develop is in Expertise. The other two pillars of credibility, Trustworthiness, and Goodwill, take time and exposure to develop (Whalen, 2007). I believe that I am able to devel...

The wonderful novelist, speaker, and storyteller Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie presented a TED Talk on the “Danger of the Single Story” in July of 2009. This is a presentation that I have seen many times and am quite familiar with. Her personal and authentic storytelling style is engrossing and impactful. I have presented it as a discussion piece in training for Court Appointed Special Advocates. We discuss how the danger of a single story might impact the children in foster care that we advocate for, and what the single story of foster care might be. I now have pleasure of considering the expressions and messaging that she used in the context of leadership communication. Image from: https://ethos3.com/2016/04/3-lessons-from-chimamanda-ngozi-adichies-the-danger-of-a-single-story/  Adichie shared a deeply personal story about her experience growing up in Nigeria and later moving to the United States. She began with observations about taking in media that focused on American and British p...

Brené Brown is the author of several books and an academic for the field of social work specializing in vulnerability and shame. A former supervisor of mine suggested that I look her up as a professional development activity. Since then I have heard several talks and podcasts that Brown has published. What strikes me about Brown’s research and way of presenting her data is that she tells a story in a very human and vulnerable way, leading through example what she has found through her research. In her twenty-minute TED talk at TEDxHouston Brown (2010, June) begins her story with how she once felt uneasy about the title of “storyteller,” but found the courage to embrace it as a Researcher-Storyteller. By sharing her own experiences surrounding vulnerability and wholeheartedness, Brown encourages others to accept that these sometimes uncomfortable experiences actually enhance the human experience rather than take away from it.  Image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisguillebea...

It was 11:52 PM on a Thursday night. I am alone in a small room with a cot, a computer, and a phone waiting for it to ring. The building is unmarked and uninhabited except for myself taking on my first ever solo overnight shift at a short-term crisis counseling hotline. The phone rings and I let it for a few rounds. Finally, I take a deep breath to compose myself and answer. “National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, this is Aaron,” I say in the most compassionate and neutral voice I can muster in my panicked state. Image from: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/media-resources/ I’ve heard the platitudes that our experiences shape who we are, but Bill George makes an interesting point that our experiences alone do not shape us. How we process our experiences and receive feedback about them is what can develop us into an authentic leader (Key Step Media, 2012). As a counselor for the suicide prevention hotline, I had plenty of experiences that still sit with me to this day. If it wer...

Radical Self-Accountability  A close confidant and friend of mine Jade Jamie (personal communication, 2 October 2020) is a health and wellness coach. We recently discussed a concept she calls radical self-accountability. To Jade, everything is her own responsibility, even events that many would see as out of their control. If Jade cannot control the outcome of an event, she instead takes responsibility for the reaction she has to that event. Before radical self-accountability Jade found frustration and anxiety in life. She felt that others had control over her life and were responsible for her suffering. With this new outlook of self-accountability in life, Jade now sees that suffering, success, and everything in between is of her own doing. Reflecting on this I see that this is something that also guides my own actions and outlook on life. I feel responsible for what I do and how I react to the events of my life. I can’t change the world, but I can change how I react to it.  ...

In life, we take on a multitude of roles. At this moment in life in particular I have many. I am an Academic Advisor for students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I am a trainer for volunteers who want to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate, I am a husband to my partner, and confidant to my friends. Reflecting on the different roles that I play, I notice that they can all be viewed through the lens of directive and supportive behaviors as described in Leadership: Theory and Practice (Northouse, 2016). Here, I reflect on the leadership behaviors that I use in the first two. In some circumstances, behaviors that lean towards a directive one-way communication meant to provide “structure, control, and supervis[ion],” are necessary; in other circumstances, behaviors that are supportive or two-way meant to “praise, listen, and facilitate” could be more or less important (Blanchard, 2008).  Academic Advisor: High Supportive, Low Directive In the role of Academic Advisor, I ...

As a trainer in trade and at heart, I view assessment as an ideal way to gauge growth and track progress. It can be tricky to assess one’s own progress, so reaching out externally to a self-assessment to a third party perception is helpful. Northouse (2018) provides a useful leadership traits assessment instrument that uses this concept exactly. I completed a self-assessment of my leadership skills and reached out to members of my family, friends, and colleagues to ask them to rate me on my leadership traits. The results can be found in Table 1.1.    Leadership Traits Questionaire Results From Leadership Trait Questionnaire (Northouse, 2018, p. 90) The results from this self-directed survey reflect that the incongruence between my self-rating and the average of the 5 who rated me on my leadership traits was on average 2.07% lower. I am impressed by this result as it indicates that my-self perceptions are largely congruent with how others who know me personally perceive me. One...

I was recently asked to develop my own definition of leadership. Inspired by the integrative definition of leadership developed by Winston and Patterson (2006) and leadership as defined and described by Northouse (2018) I came up with the following: A leader causes a follower to change in a way that helps the follower achieve something that they desire. The role of leader and follower can be assigned, or emergent. That is to say that a leadership-follower relationship can arise out of formal positioning, like that of a manager and subordinate. Leadership can also arise organically, or emerge, within any group or relationship that forms in any setting (Northhouse, 2018). An environment that allows the leader-follower relationship to work both ways can be mutually beneficial to those involved. I believe that my supervisor and I lead one another to ensure the success of our campus. While she has the formal role of supervisor (an assigned leader) I emerge as a leader in our group when she ...

While I was in College I applied for a job at the Florida Department of Children and Families Office of Child Care Regulation. This office housed an internal call center named CCTIC focused on child care credentialing and answering questions related to the training required to become a child care professional in the state of Florida. In the interview for that job, I was asked where I saw myself in 3 years. I told them that I was interested in holding the position that the interviewer held as the Call Center Manager. I thought that perhaps it was risky to say that in the interview, but it seemed to sit well with the interviewer. After my hire, I approached the interviewer, who was now my supervisor, and asked them to be my mentor. I really meant that I wanted her job and I knew that she wanted a position at a higher level too. We worked together often, and after a short while I became a Team Lead for our department. As the Team Lead my supervisor worked with me and we developed a close...

I had standards by which I lived my life before I could explicitly identify them. I found that not every choice I made brought me closer to the person I wanted to be. I make decisions every day that bring me joy, sadness, fulfillment, and yearning for more. In an effort to understand how I make these decisions, and to be more intentional, I recently started a journey to reflect on my own core values. I have made many moves in my life and I wanted to better understand how I can make decisions that align with my core values. To facilitate this introspection I asked myself the questions below. In reflecting on these questions I found patterns. Patterns of behaviors and ways of being that helped me understand how I have lived in and out of alignment with my core values. Now that I am aware of them, and have them written out, these are my standards for decision making. These are the ways of being that help ensure I am living the life I want to live. Questions I asked myself What am I doing ...