Master of Science in Leadership

Imagine... You are a manager at Cerner Health Technology and you receive the following email message from the CEO: “We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8:00 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing, or you do not CARE. You have created expectations on the work effort that allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I allowed a team that worked for me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture that is permitting this. NO LONGER.”  Image From:  https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/angry-boss-shouting-people-office_8608919.htm   Obstacles: Defensiveness & Disconfirmation The content of this message immediately made me feel defensive and put-down. The CEO made several stat...

Creative problem-solving requires a great deal of flexibility, and acceptance of risk which can be difficult for businesses who are generally risk averse to embrace. Many constraints also exist in our individual thinking which limit our capacity to think and problem-solve creatively (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). In my own experience in the nonprofit and social service industries I have seen these constraints hold back otherwise successful individuals.  “Well, this is how we’ve always done it” I’m sure you’ve heard this common refrain from supervisors and teammates in the past. Generally, we hear this when someone questions an existing policy, procedure, or process. The inquiry is not personal, but this knee-jerk response is a clear indicator that the individuals are experiencing some conceptual blocks to creative problem solving. Complacency is a major impediment to thinking differently, in fact, complacency may mean that the people in question are not thinking at all. When we avo...

Prior to signing up to take MSLD 520 Management Skills for Leaders, I registered for a 5-day Silent  Retreat, a part of my teacher training pathway for Mindful Self-Compassion. I added to my calendar these 5 days' worth of nothingness. Initially, I worried that I could not afford to take this time away from my work, school, and personal life. I wondered if it was worth my time to do nothing for so long. As the retreat approached everything came into alignment. I received signs from work, school, family, and friends that this time of quiet and introspection was welcome and needed. In fact, the retreat occurred during the week that I was supposed to write this blog post! The prompt here was to spend ten minutes a day for three days practicing mindfulness. I did a bit more than ten minutes. I spent 5 days, in silence doing absolutely nothing, but being mindful and meditating. In this practice, I learned about myself and my thought patterns. Meditation and mindfulness are practices tha...

The development of self-awareness is a lifelong journey. One that has been accelerated by recent events. At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, I spent much of my time alone. I did not go to work, and it was considered unsafe to do many of the day-to-day things that occupied my time before. This quiet time was an opportunity for me to practice introspection. I participated in Mindful Self Compassion workshops and honed my meditation practice. This happened to be around the same time that I started working on the Master of Science in Leadership program.  Many factors have contributed to this emerging self-awareness; changes in the world around me along with a focused study of leadership have helped me grow over this last year.  Image From: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/developing-self-awareness/seek-feedback-to-boost-self-awareness?u=26194554 Here I will reflect on how my level of self-awareness has changed over this last year, through the lens of the “Five Core...

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...