A520.7.3.RB- Importance of Having a Coach and Mentor

Imagine you are fresh out of college and starting your career. Sure you have had jobs before but nothing that compares to this level of professionalism. You work in a small office and myriad of concerns run through your mind such as if you are dressed okay and how are you going to make your mark and prove yourself. No one is in the office and you are left to figure out your assignments alone to be critiqued later. It would be easy to assume there is one right way and if you are left without direction that surely it cannot be too complicated. Later you find out you spend hours going in the wrong direction.

The scenario above is not far from what I experienced early in my career as a Paralegal. Needless to say that one did not stick. Had I had direction perhaps I would have been in a different place today. I felt it was not my calling and that my talents could be used better doing something else.

For me, this is why having a coach and/or a mentor is significant. A new employee, especially one that is beginning their career, should not be left to take things on completely alone. I actually think about the future and if I would be decent being a director or taking on a larger leadership role. That future looks like a giant black hole in my mind so I worry because I cannot picture it and I do not understand it. I keep forgetting that now in my professional life that is highly unlikely that I would get the job and be dropped into the deep end to swim on my own without training or at least floaties.

Regardless what point I am in the career I can always do better and make improvements. I have been so lucky since I began with ERAU to have supportive colleagues around me. My Team Leader has always been a great coach for me and all of the team members. We are lucky to have her. There is one person who stands out when I think about my current career as a mentor which is my friend and colleague, Jaime.

Right from the beginning I could count on her to give me brutally honest feedback. I wanted to know without censorship and I found that she could give that to me. In advising we have what we call the “One Year Click” or that it takes one year for everything to fully make sense. I would worry throughout the year if I was behind in my personal progress compared to previous advisors. I tried to gauge this periodically and ask Jaime if I am where I need to be. If she said I was in a good place I believed her because I knew she would not hold back if there was something I needed to know and was seeking the information.

I learned early on that my style of advising was quite different than the other advisors. I will never the quickest advisor but I am one of the most thorough and thoughtful. I was always encouraged to stay true to what I was doing and own it. One of the interesting things about having a mentor is that they can help you with checks and balances in your work so you do not go too far into left field. Jaime always knew when to pull me back a little bit or let me know that I was taking a risk if something was a little too much.

I was able to grow quicker with her as my self-selected mentor by bouncing ideas off of her than I could have on my own. I would say I am her shadow in the best sense of the word. There was never a sense that I had to reinvent the wheel because I had her knowledge as she paved the way for me to come along just as I am doing right now for those who come behind me.

As Jaime prepares for the next part of her career I feel like there is a sense of loss. While I will always be able to count her as a part of my network this provides new opportunities. I can learn about a new part of the university’s operations through her experiences and gain additional perspectives through her insight. I also have the opportunity to work with another self-selected mentor that can give me a different perspective than I have right now. I am not sure who that will be but it is something I am looking forward to having in the near future. I have passed the threshold where I am not a “baby advisor” any longer and it is time for me to start to do the things Jaime did for me with the other members. There is also a new stage of growth needed in order to fully assume what it means to be a veteran member of the team. While Jaime may not sit next to me soon, her knowledge and what she taught me will not be lost because it will be passed through each of us. Her absence does not mean the end of my learning or the conclusion of anything; it is simply a new chapter.   

I feel like all of the successes I have had are not mine alone. They never could be because I have been influenced and strengthened by my peers. I am keenly aware that I am made better because I have had them in my life. There will forever hold an importance for coaching and mentorship for me simply because I have been so lucky to have good people in my corner. 

A520.6.5.RB- Team Roles

I have been a member of a lot of teams. From my early gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading days to my professional career and even my academic pursuits, I have seen a lot of action as a team member. I have been on two teams that have won three national dance titles total and also teams that had more rocky times than not. Collaboration and working as a cohesive unit is an important part of our lives. Even our family lives reflect a team atmosphere. I am lucky that I have had a lot of experience working with others and that many of those moments were positive. Typically I know who I am as a team member, or at least, who I like to be. 

There are two main types of roles that enhance team performance: task-facilitating roles and relationship-building roles according to Schein’s work (as cited in Whetten & Cameron, 2011). I have been both and there are moments when there are shades of each whether you are one or the other, but I am most comfortable as a relationship-builder. It is a natural extension of my personality and what I base the notion of my cheerleadership upon.

“Work teams face two main challenges: accomplishing the task that has been assigned and building unity and collaboration among the team member” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 512). Each member has an impact and influence of the team. In order to keep the momentum moving forward and staying on task there needs to be at least one task facilitator. It is a position that I did not understand that well until more recently. I used to think: wow, try lightening up every once in a while. That is, until everyone was too lightened up and I became the task facilitator. While it is a necessary role it is not the one in which I am most natural. My current work team is a lucky because our Team Lead has an innate focus and a skilled command of monitoring, process analyzing, urging, and information giving (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Without her we might turn into the circus. I say thing with levity, though we like to have as much fun as we like to work hard.  

Most of my teammates are fairly serious and also task oriented. I feel this is a great thing and we are lucky to have these strong members. “Without both task-facilitating and relationship-building roles, team members struggle   to perform effectively. Some members must ensure that the team accomplishes its tasks, while others must ensure that member remain bonded together interpersonally” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 515).

This is where I come in! I am the goofy team member. I will be the first to get excited about something and verbalize it. I have been told that I have an energizing presence. Supporting, harmonizing, and tension reliving are my specialties. I am always trying to add sparkle to each day whether we are working in our cubicles or meeting as a team. I strive to create inclusion for everyone and also maintain the happiness of what we do. 

When I joined the team I had to find the place that I fit within the dynamic. This was less obvious to me as a new member because I simply found that it was easy to be myself. I did not have any other perspective of what the team was like before I was there. My director told me in one of my performance reviews that I bring new life to the team and enliven and invigorate us as a group. That is a pretty high compliment in my book. I do not take my relationship building role lightly. It has importance. The friendships and relationships we build at work can factor into extrinsic motivation.

One of my favorite and best known efforts is my enrollment game. This started out as something I did for myself to make sure I was not falling behind. Then I would playfully engage my Team Lead since she sits across the aisle from me. We went back and forth for months. Eventually we mentioned this when we were told to generate ideas that would benefit the team. I am the “keeper of the game” and come up with the number each week for the target goal. In the same stream of thought as Who’s Line is it Any Way I tell everyone that the points don’t matter and everything is made up. I want to make sure the game stays fun. Obviously how well we do every week contributes to our productivity goals that we are given and this is something that without the game we have to do anyway, but I try to add flair to engage the team in our mission.

In the beginning I was asked what happens if you make the target and what happens if you don’t. My answer is simple. You get a sticker if you make it and if you don’t you win a chance to play again the next week, but with a gameshow host voice. I even bought stickers from the Target dollar bin because it is nice to have something tangible if you win. My Team Lead and I have also been in discussion about taking the game to the next level. I want to get a small “treasure chest” and fill it with dollar bin office supplies like window clings for our cubicles, dry eraser colored markers and such. Whatever it takes to keep us going is something I am excited about being a part of and this is a nice combination of task-facilitating, which is why my Team Lead is a supporter, and relationship-building, which I like because there can be more than one winner every week. As a team you win by making it together. It takes each of us to get there and that spirit is captured in this small gesture.

Reference: Whetten, D. & Cameron, K. (2011). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A520.5.3.RB- Forrester's Empowerment

One thing I learned this week is that people really hate buzzwords. Anything that comes after the term goes in one ear and out the other as a fad that comes and goes. Empowerment is one of those words. It hardly seems fair because as Forrester (2002) noted in his article that this is a potent idea and that it should be rejuvenated. This does not mean accepting throwing around the term because it was deemed important but walking the walk instead. Heck, you do not even have to say what it is called; actions are enough. Sadly, some companies have found it difficult to put empowerment into practice (Forrester, 2002).

 From personal experience I can say this is half true. It is a fifty-fifty expedition. Some can do it and others cannot. Well, let’s rephrase. Some will do and others will not. But guess what, those that do are head and shoulders more successful because of it. I think it is the difference between making excuses and hiding behind them and knocking down barriers and making it work. Forrester (2002) contended that there are six ways to undermine empowerment:

·               Mandating a rapid shift to empowerment

·               Over-reliance on a narrow psychological concept

·               One-size fits all empowerment

·               Neglect of the needs of power sharers on the key dimensions of  control, achievement, recognition, security and subjective attribution

·               Piecemeal approaches

·               Distortions of accountability

Often it is our personal attitudes that we carry with us and thread through ideas, especially whether we will accept or give empowerment. This may be demonstrated through attitudes about subordinates, personal insecurities, or need for control (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). “Managers who avoid empowering others often believe their subordinates are not competent enough to accomplish the work, aren’t interested in taking on more responsibility, are already overloaded and unable to accept more responsibility, would require too much time to train, or shouldn’t be involved “ (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 462). I think there comes a time when we have to stop hiding behind these ideas and placing these types of attributes on others. An empowered team can do better than the most competent individual (Whetten & Cameron, 2011).

If you feel like Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders, it is time to believe that you can let go and say no to those things that are your inhibitors. Forrester (2002) also listed six strategies employed to enlist the power of employees more effectively:

·               Enlarge power, by building knowledge, skills and competence alongside    increased discretion

·               Be clear how much you want to extend employees' power, the extent    you are prepared to fund it and the appetite within the company for  empowerment

·               Differentiate among employees

·               Support power sharers

·               Build closely aligned management systems

·               Focus on results

Even with the willingness to empower success still requires skillful implementation. This can come in many forms from ensuring you are articulating a clear vision and goals, helping build confidence through the small-wins strategy, or being a model for the behavior you want to see in others. Whetten and Cameron (2011) had a similar and equally specific list that in many ways mirror Forrester:

·                     Articulate a clear vision and goals

·                     Provide personal mastery experiences

·                     Model behavior

·                     Provide support

·                     Excuse emotional arousal

·                     Provide information

·                     Provide resources

·                     Connect to outcomes

·                     Create confidence

To tie this altogether, I think of times when I was not empowered. There is almost nothing worse than feeling you are ineffectual. I remember when I worked in the legal field how my self-confidence decreased each day. I am sure the attorney wanted me to do more and have more value to him as it would only be to his benefit. Day in and day out he would sit in his office; door closed, and would stew over his cases alone. For a long time I felt like it was a “me” problem and it was hard because each day I grew suspicious to why he did not communicate with me.

Paranoia and fear set in, the opposite ingredients to fostering confidence and creativity within me. I did not have a direction, we had no rapport, and I began to realize what I was doing was not a worthy use of my time. There was no trust between us and his attitude became that I was not worth an investment of his time and attention. With my morale shot and no feeling of self-worth I left the legal field once and for all after that experience. I felt set up to fail… because I was whether it was intentional or not.

All I can say is that I know this experience has been forever imprinted upon me. The only benefit I can see is that I will never look back from a truly empowered approach and wonder ‘what if’ in terms of cutting corners and not doing it the right way. The knowledge is already there in terms of what the result would look like and for that I am wiser. Perhaps if I had only encountered positive experiences my outlook would be better. I argue it could possibly more dangerous. Would I take for granted the good I see now regarding empowerment? Or worse, would I risk deviating into the unknown and not fostering a meaningful environment that reaps enriched benefits for both individuals and the organization? I would never want anyone to feel the way I used to feel so I embrace helping other to feel a sense of self-efficacy, self-determinism, personal control, meaning, and trust because these are the things that empower me.

References:

Forrester, R. (2002). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. Measuring Business Excellence, 6(2), 68. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/208740450?accountid=27203

Whetten, D. & Cameron, K. (2011). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A520.4.3.RB- Motivation Beyond Money

What did you want to be when you grew up? Was it a doctor? My guess is always doctor… or maybe it was firefighter or a policeman. In second grade for career day we had to dress up as our future profession on stage and tell the audience our name and what we were. My name is Casey Rollins and I am going to be a florist when I grow up. Eventually I switched my answer to mortician for a couple years. That idea also did not stick. So why did we pick certain jobs when we were younger? Is it because you didn’t know many jobs, did you pick what sounded like the most fun, or is it because you thought it would make a lot of money?

I came across an interesting statement this week which is this: Yes, we all like to be paid, but money is not among the three most important reasons why we work. According to Mulholland (2011) the three reasons are:

1.       To have interesting work

2.       Expanding your skill set

3.       Being recognized for your work or the value of what you do

I agree with this statement because all of the money in the world would not ward off me becoming bored, possibly disrespecting myself (depending what I was doing), or even compensate for basically living at work unless I was wildly enthralled with what I was doing. Money alone does not cut it for me. Funny enough when I get paid the first thing I think of is that I got more vacation hours, but of course paying the bills also important.

Interesting work is very important to me because I have an active mind and imagination. Education interests me and I find it very fulfilling to be engaged in various subject matters throughout the day. Although I am not involved in course content I like hearing from my students about why a certain elective course would help them with their future career goals. Working with online students at a worldwide campus is also a great match for me because I love feeling connected to people all over the world. We learn from others so to me there is no better way than to learn from my students.

Because I am engrossed in education it is important to me to continue to expand my skill set. I will never reach a point where I just throw my arms up and go okay that’s it I know everything I need or want to know. I believe we should always strive to learn and grow. In my organization there are many opportunities for this within the position and through other avenues. On my first day my director went through the job expectations and other information. I will always remember that she said that professional development is encouraged. In many ways this has a second meaning, which is that the organization does not strive to become stagnant. I am not content when I come to a standstill and neither is my company.

One of the most demotivating things I have encountered is to put a lot of effort into something and it not to be noticed. When I worked for an eye doctor I went above and beyond everyday with customer service and even with some of the clerical tasks. I was paid hourly and I soon learned that as long as I showed up and mostly did my job it was the same as working circles around the position. This was evident in my coworker’s attitudes. Although I was there three years eventually I decided I should move on before I became burned out and adopted a negative mentality.

When I am at work I give everything I have, but I also value my personal time. Earlier I mentioned that I have a near Pavlovian response to earning more vacation time (personal leave) each pay period. If you want to see me get really competitive, and therefore productive, attach extra personal leave to it and watch me go! I love to travel and am renewed and inspired in this way. Creativity and innovation often come to me during my free time and I bring it back to the work I do so it is important for me to have the ability to have time off.

How I do my work and manage my time is another huge aspect for me so having autonomy is another major aspect for me. When I am accountable for getting the work done I do not necessarily rely on a one size fits all response so I like having the ability to tailor communications to each situation. I feel I was hired because of my abilities, but also for my judgment, so I like that I am not limited and am able to operate with relative freedom. Without autonomy I would get bored and my organization would not see how much I am capable of so it impacts my work in a positive way to have this discretion.

Lastly, security is a motivator for me because without it I would be preoccupied with fear. Although fear can be a very powerful motivator for me it has to come from a certain place and wondering if I will have a job next week is not the right place. To thrive I need to know that I can do more than just play it safe and that would prevent me from tapping into my natural artistic sensibilities. We often hear it is important to be ourselves. I am not my best me when I am trying to fit into a prescribed formula of who or what that is, otherwise we would all be static individuals or at least there would be a strong risk of such standards.

Of all the things we could work for, out of the six unique motivators that are meaningful to me, it is easy to see where money does not make up for not having them and it is important as leaders for us to be able to recognize the needs and wants from various employees. Where one this is important to one person, it may not be to another.

Reference:

Mulholland, A. (2011). The three things we work for (money isn't one of them). Retrieved from: http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=43753