A631.5.4.RB_DiazBrian

Before I started my journey in this leadership program I had a preconceived notion of what leadership was.  Boy was I ever wrong.  I thought that leadership simply meant being able to make decisions, being in charge of others, and that it could be easy.  I was vastly mistaken and thankfully so.  Because I never wanted to be that kind of person, the kind to show up for a job and tell people what to do.  I am passionate, humble, and genuinely care about the feelings of other.  From what I have learned about leadership these attributes will serve me well on my quest to one day becoming a great leader of an organization.  DO I envision myself as a CEO of a corporation?  No, not necessarily however the goals I have now over time will change.  Who's to say that might not be a goal of mine in the future.  I cannot be certain of what the future holds and that to me is exciting.

I recently had the the opportunity to attend ERAU's Leadership Enhancement Program Conference.  One of my team members was graduating from the 1st tier and our entire team attended to show our support for her.  The conference included keynote speeches from various members of our organization, a moderated roundtable panel discussion focusing on leadership, and various break out sessions.  It gave the attendees an opportunity to listen to these individuals talk about their careers and what it was to be a leader.  They used words like humility, acceptance, mistakes, empathy, openness, communication, and ability to inspire to describe what leadership meant.  They explained that leadership is not easy and that difficult decisions will need to be made as a leader.  As an attendee I found this experience to be enriching because I was able to hear real stories from individual within and outside of my organization.  Not only did I come away from this experience having somewhat of a better understanding of what is required to be leader but also thankful to work for an organization that covets leadership and is willing to offer such training (the 1st tier my team member completed was 8 months long).  Here is a link with additional information to the LEP program http://commons.erau.edu/flight-of-leadership/

I can only imagine this early in my career having to implement a system-wide intervention.  Brown (2011) stated that "Organizations inevitably change because they are open systems in constant interaction with their environment.  Although the impetus for change may rise from internal or external forces, the underlying factor is the degree of openness of the organization to the changing demands, technologies, and values that influence the system." (p. 374).  The common denominator is to aim at improving organizational effectiveness.  As a leader I think it is important to always remember just how importance change is and how necessary it is to adapt in today's constantly changing environment.  I haven't personally witnessed a system wide intervention but I am beginning to understand as a leader what is needed to implement one.  I feel that in order for a leader to be successful in today's market they need to be:

• Honest, have high morale character
• Unafraid to make mistakes
• Open to communication and working with others
• Humble
• Empathetic, approachable
• Creative
• Confident, intuitive
• Be positive

I leave you with some powerful words from Vince Lombardi regarding leadership...

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

A631.4.4.RB_DiazBrian

Self-managed teams have the ability to decide how they organize their work and processes.  Supervisors or team leaders work "on the outside looking in".  They interject themselves if needed to offer guidance, direction, and support.  Even though I work for an organization that is organized in a vertical hierarchy, the company does use self-managed teams.

As an advisor to graduate students I am a part of a self-managed team.  I was fortunate enough to be selected by my team (in the hiring process all candidates meet the entire team and they vote on whom they want to work with).  The team processes where in place when I came aboard but we are free to organize our day how we see fit.  My team shares many of the same characteristics that Brown (2011) contributes to self-managed teams such as:

• Egalitarian culture and lack of status symbols.
• Team members have a sense of vision for the team and the organization.
• Diversity in our members.
• Information of all type is shared.
• Strong partnership between our team and management.

We are given complete autonomy to make decisions, are permitted to take our breaks/lunches when we want to, and we individually determine or work procedures.  We all share the same values, are extremely goal oriented, and enjoy working together.  We have taken it upon ourselves to meet and discuss how to make our job processes better, set goals for ourselves, and offer feedback to one another.  Brown (2011) defines job feedback  as "the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in workers obtaining direct and clear informationabout the effectiveness of their performance" (p. 343).

I see the following as some of the major benefits of a self-managed work team:

• Greater employee responsibility and accountibility.
• Greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from team members.
• Freedom for team innovation.
• More effective use of team members' skills.

Some of the drawbacks  of a self-managed work team are:

• Longer decision making process.
•  Possible chaos (some team members not pulling their weight).
• Possibility of being unable to adapt to team structure.

Personally in order for me to become a competent external manger of a self-managed work team I think I would need  be open to the ideas of others, not be afraid to make mistakes, and be empathetic to the needs of others.  These are all the traits that my supervisor possesses and I consider her a mentor.  In my first year I made plenty of mistakes (some big ones)!  However I was never made to feel bad about them.  I was advised to consider them learning opportunities.  I was always encouraged by my supervisor and my teammates.  I was able to take a little bit from everyone and tried to make my own identity.  I was trusted.  I think that is the competency I would most develop with my team.  I always want to have an "open door" policy and listen to the needs of my team members.

Below is  a pic of me with my team from our recent Prom Dress Kickball Challenge.  I'm the only guy, how's that for diversity!  :)

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

A631.3.4.RB_DiazBrian

I recently celebrated my one year anniversary with Embry Riddle.  I also received my first annual performance review.  Unlike my last employer, my supervisor and ERAU as an organization value and understand the importance of goals and how goals and performance are intertwined.  Prior to my evaluation I was given the opportunity to review the evaluation form that would be used in my performance review.  The evaluation form includes a section for Last Year's Goal Results (which for me did not apply to this review), Set Next Year's Goals, and Supervisor Goals for Next Year.

Here are the goals I set for myself for the next year:

1. Continue t develop and build personal relationships with my students in an effort to provide the highest quality of service possible in order to effectuate maximum student enrollments.

2. Challenge myself to continually improve my daily processes and maximize my contributions to the graduate team enabling us to achieve current and future goals set forth by our Director.

3. Exceed enrollment target goals for each term.

4. Take advantage of any training offered by the university that will enable me to become more efficient in my capacity as an advisor.

Here are the goals set by my supervisor:

1. Successfully maintain a matriculation rate of 75% of students who enroll within one year of admission.

2. Work on a project or team initiative to assist with student engagement and connection to the university.

Wolf (2012) wrote "One of the instruments used by management to ensure work efficiency and a trustworthy relationship between an employee and his manager is the personal feedback. The feedback is usually given to the employee by his superior, and represents an estimate of the employee's job performance and efforts in and for the company."  The feedback that I received as part of my evaluation really inspired me to want to commit myself to do everything within my control to accomplish our team goals.  I think the same could be said for the other members of my team.  Upon completion of our evaluations, we took it upon ourselves to meet independently of our supervisor to discuss action plans to meet our future goals and to solicit feedback from one another.  Brown (2011) states "Employees are more committed to self-set goals than to goals assigned by a manager.  This is not to say that the manager is a passive bystander when employees set goals but that the manager and employee are mutually involved in setting goals." (p. 321).  This is true of the communication between my supervisor and the rest of my team.  I consider myself fortunate to work with such a great group and to be part of this team. 

I think Brown's contention that "Eighty five percent of younger workers wanted frequent and candid performance feedback compared to only 50 percent for older workers." (p. 322) is highly probable.  But why?  I think that modern organizations have modeled their companies with an emphasis on high-efficiency teams and have adopted this position in order to become more competitive in today's environment. 

With respect to this course I have tried my best to be active and vocal in order to attain the team goals we set forth in our charter.  While one of our main goals for us was to openly communicate with one another, for us it is one we are still ironing the kinks out of.  Compton, Green, & McComb wrote "Goals alone, however, are not enough. A high level of performance requires that -all- involved parties -have, a- common or overlapping understanding of the group's objectives, their own responsibilities toward those objectives, and the procedures they will use to attain their objectives"
I hope that we all pull together and overcome any initial drawbacks we may be experiencing whether it be due to geographical location, work commitments, or personal commitments.  I think feedback  can be viewed as either positive or negative depending on the type of feedback you receive and whether or not you agree with the consensus.  I personally welcome any feedback be it from my manager or a classmate.  If there is a better way for me to achieve a common goal then I welcome the feedback.  I am open to all suggestions and recommendations.  Some other may not be but for me I treat everything I do as a learning experience and the only thing that I am certain of is that I will never know it all!

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

McComb, S. A., Green, S. G., & Compton, W. D. (1999). Project goals, team performance, and shared understanding. Engineering Management Journal, 11(3), 7-12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/208972931?accountid=27203 

Wolf, R. (2012). PERSONAL FEEDBACK AS A TOOL FOR GOOD MANAGEMENT. Mustang Journal of Business and Ethics, 3, 113-121. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1260996572?accountid=27203     

A631.2.5.RB_DiazBrian

This week I had the opportunity to work with the members of my team on our Team Charter.  My team consists of: Melissa Mena, Director of Career Services for the College of Business with the Prescott Campus of Embry Riddle; Shannon Compre, Executive Director of Leadership Development for last 23 years at a college ministry; and Calvin Hunter, a C-17 pilot in the Air Force based out of CA, who just recently returned stateside from deployment.

This week we have been asked to answer the following:

1. What behaviors seemed to help your team successfully complete its task?

Melissa initially contacted the group via email and volunteered to start off the assignment as well as submit it.  As a team we communicated both via email and our group discussion board.  We shared our joint assignment via the file exchange.

2. What factors inhibited decision-making or problem solving?

We were unable to make contact with Calvin until late in the week.  He was returning from out of country so it was not for lack or wanting to be able to contribute.  Calvin did email the team and notified us as soon as he had internet connection to let us know he would have his portion completed and he did.  I was more concerned for his safety than the assignment to be honest.  I was glad to hear he had returned home safely and the group is now whole.

3.  How much time was spent on decision-making or problem solving?

For this week our focus was on how we wanted to proceed as a team on future assignments.  Our Team Charter, emails, and group discussions reflect the various conversations and the themes we want to focus on during the course of this term.  Communication was the major theme we discussed.  We also would all like to "meet" during the course of the term using video conferencing, namely Google Hangout or Skype (we are leaning more towards Google Hangout).

4.  How was information shared among team members?

We communicated via ERAU email and the group discussion board in order to complete the Team Charter.

5.  How did issues of authority or power affect the team?

This team did not experience any conflict regarding authority or who was in charge.  I do not anticipate there being an issue with this group over who is in charge or for there to be a power struggle.  I feel a sense of unity from our group as well as a genuineness to work together.  I did suggest that all decisions be reached by group consensus.  If an issue arises I think that we could use intergroup team building to address our concerns.

6.  How did collaboration and competition influence the outcome?

This team did not work in competition.  We worked together to complete our assignment in a timely manner and ahead of our deadline, even with Calvin coming into the group later in the week.  We collaborated and discussed what we wanted to accomplish as a team and set goals.  As Brown (2011) wrote "Group behavior research suggests that cooperation promotes productivity in some situations." (p. 300).  I would suggest that our team working together will promote productivity and embrace this process.

7.  Did the team members make process interventions?

At this time we have not had to have a process intervention.  Will we in the future?  Possibly.  But as of right now the team all seems to be on the same page.  We have openly discussed our expectations of one another, made our goals clear, and have a common purpose.  I think we are off to a pretty good start.  I very much so look forward to working with this team.  I think my teammates' experiences will help me to grow.  With Melissa and Shannon's work experience and Calvin's military background I think we can be a contender for top team this term.  That is not my overall goal as I do not want to turn this learning opportunity into a competition with other groups, however I do want us to be a successful unit.  I think as long as we abide by our team rules and are honest with with one another and not afraid to disagree we can be successful.  Either way I am happy to be along for the ride!

Brown, D. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.