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

Write a blog entry on the significance, importance, and/or impact of having a coach and/or a mentor to help you in your professional journey.

I have experienced both mentoring and coaching from both side of the coin.  Both terms are often misunderstood; however when used correctly they can serve as important factors in the employee development.  I think the impact of having a coach and/or a mentor can be beneficial to help you in your professional journey.  However I also think if it is not managed correctly it can have a negative effect on your career.  I cannot recall a time in my professional career where I have not been exposed to some type of coaching or mentoring process.  We often take our parents for granted when it comes to these roles, so I will not discuss that aspect.  From my school days I can remember my third grade teacher, Ms. Hodges always giving me advice on how to be a respectable young man…we stayed in contact until she passed.  That was a mentorship that put me on the right path of life; someone beside my parents who advised me. As far as sport in high school, the coaching process was short lived.  While you played for the school, the coaches had a vested interest in you performance.  It was said that they had an interest in the person, but as soon as you senior season ended you were told to enroll in another class and that relationship ended as soon as it began.  The one time in my life where I can say both coaching and mentoring had a long term effect was my career in the Air Force. 

From the first day I showed up at my first duty station, I was being coached and mentored to some degree.  Someone more senior to you was assigned to assist you in transitioning into a new way of life and an individual, normally your supervisor, was giving you performance expectations.  Mentoring as a whole, not coaching has had the biggest impact on my professional career which is grounded in my military career. I had goal of one day achieving a Bachelor’s degree, but not a graduate degree.  Because of great mentors, I am now working on my third Master’s degree.  Their continuing investment in me personally has assisted me in achieving goals a much larger scale than I imagined.  This has opened numerous doors for professional advancement.  I believe in the phrase pay it forward.  Because of the great mentors I have experienced I have tried to provide the same dedication and commitment to young professional I seen potential in. 

A520.6.5.RB: Team Roles

Consider how you generally relate as a team-member.

Understanding your role as a team member is something very individuals attempt to understand.  Most people to include myself want the role of leadership when it comes to team dynamics.  I often have to self-reflect on my role when it comes to how I relate to peers.  I have learned that even at a more mature stage in my life, I must work to improve my relationship building skills as part of my daily routines at my current workplace.  I often here that team player should create positive energy by being optimistic and complimentary to team members.  Encouragements is important, however I must be honest with myself because I struggle here.  I do not like to encourage peers who do not put forth an honest work effort. 

Do you actively engage your team to accomplish its mission?

When it comes to my role as a task-facilitator or team leader, there are several improvement steps I must take to actively engage my team to accomplish its mission.  I must work hard to increase the level of trust with my team members; I must make sure my communication is clear, positive and consistent, when is come to being a positive contributor to achieving team goals.  I realize this is an area I need to work hard at but the first step to improvement starts with understanding where you stand as a member to your team.

Do you work to improve the team cohesion and collaboration?

The answer here would be yes.  Even though I am not the best person when it comes to relationship building, I have a deep desire for the team improve team cohesion and collaboration on a professional basis.  The key word here is on a professional basis not a personal basis.  I see the world as it is not my job or goal to see that everyone is happy when it come work. I deeply believe that a team needs s collaboration and cohesion to be effective.

A520.5.3.RB - Forrestor's Empowerment

I would agree with many recognized leaders that state that many professionals use the term “empowerment” without comprehending the true meaning of the term.  I have seen and experienced numerous variations of empowerment usage and my definition would be a combination of all of them.  The idea of empowerment is based on the theory of giving employees, control of resources and authority to make decisions that benefit the organization.

The article, “Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea”, provides examples of organizations that focus on the fallacy that “one size fits all” or what I describe as “one bandage can cover all wounds” process of empowerment.  However data showed that the bottom line is the process was not successful.  The article provides an overview of nine principles of developing empowerment in employees. Those 9 principles are as follows: Articulating a Clear Vision, Fostering Personal Mastery Experiences, Modeling, Providing Support, Emotional Arousal, Providing Information, Providing Resources, Connect to Outcomes and Creating Confidence.  Also discussed were attributes of empowerment, which are, Self-efficacy, Self-determination, Personal consequence Meaning and Trust.

Author Russ Forrester, also discussed the process of the social learning theory of motivation which encourages organizations to consider power sharing by senior leadership.  However, the process has to show a tangible benefit.  Without a doubt it must be understood that delegation is key to empowerment. 

No matter how you look at delegation, it is not as simple as it would seem.  When management delegates certain duties and tasks, management retains overall accountability and the majority of responsibilities to ensure tasks are completed correctly.  On the flip side of the coin, empowerment can be a process where employees can gain trust from superiors through their actions.  The article summarizes empowerment with the fact that, as one size does NOT fit all!  Leaders and managers must use the historical lessons to learn how to properly apply delegation!

 

 

A520.4.3.RB

In the video, “The Three Things We Work For (Money Isn’t One of Them)”, Andy Mulholland explains his theory on why people are motivated beyond money.

 

·         The first motivational factor I want to discuss is, “I want interesting work".  Andy gave a very good example of how he was offered opportunities that enhanced his emotional ties to the organization.  His story hit home with me on how we have to look at personal growth challenges over money alone.  I can personally testify to this being true. Personally, I have received many great job offers, but they never really met the needs of me or my family.  While pursuing my second graduate degree, I did a research paper on the importance of job satisfaction.  The findings supported the fact that money actually did not rate in the top 5 motivational factors supporting job satisfaction.

 ·         The second motivational factor is having the ability to expand my job skills.  Having the opportunity to learn on the job is a powerful motivator.  As the saying goes, “knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have, you valuable you are to your organization.” Expanding your skills strengthens your versatility when faced with challenging tasks.  I do not think I know anyone who wants to do the same task every day for the next 20 years.  In order for an organization to build upon an employee’s skill set, both the organization and the individual must determine the skills the individual needs and then provided a way to not only train them, but an provide opportunity to expand on that growth. 

 

·         The third motivator in the video was the desire to be recognized. According to the words of Mr. Mulholland, "value me for what I can do, and how I can work.”  Overpaying someone to make them stay, won't work in the long run!”  Sometimes a simple thank you or hand shake goes along way when it comes to motivation.  You know what they say; motivated employees are more productive employees!

Additionally, 3 motivators that have a major impact on me are as follows:

Immediate Feedback…Tell me when I am doing wrong so I can improve.  I feel it is an essential part of learning and it can improve overall performance.

A flexible work schedule…personal time off and the ability to modify my schedule have more value to me than money.  This motivator is a win-win for me and my family.

 

Last, but not least, is what many of us will not admit to being a motivational factor; money.  To have the ability to purchase goods and services for yourself and your family is a motivator in itself.  People often say I love my job and I don’t do it for the money.  Well I tell them, “If that’s the case, go to work for free”.

 

A520.3.5.RB - Supportive Communication

Whetten & Cameron (2012) defined developing management skills as “communication that seeks to preserve or enhance a positive relationship between you and another person while still addressing a problem, giving negative feedback, or tackling a difficult issue”.  As identified in the textbook, proper use of supportive communication guidelines is a way to achieve this goal. 

·         Differentiate between coaching and counseling situations - Counseling is focused on addressing issues that are current and from the past.  Many experts believe that counseling can be a life-changing series of events.  Through supportive communication in the work environment, the goal is to change the performance levels for the present and for the future.  Coaching, on the other hand, focuses on the present and future issues.  In my work environment, using supportive communication during coaching can be very instrumental in improving performance results.

·         Communicated congruently - For this situation, to integrate supportive communication successfully, I must make sure my facial expressions do not overrule my words.  Sometimes I know what the correct words are that needs to be said, but deep down the words you want to say are different. 

·         Use descriptive statements - To integrate supportive communication successfully for this area, I have to be careful not to evaluate certain issues before I have examined them, leading me to subconsciously use descriptive statements.  By using descriptive statements during supportive communications, hopefully, I can learn to remove personal bias out of my conversations. 

·         Use problem-oriented statements - The bottom line here is to make sure I use problem-oriented statements rather than person-oriented statements during conversations.

·         Use validating statements/Use specific statements - Facts, facts, facts; this is something that I believe strongly in.  With facts, I can make sure the topic is focused and supports the conversation.  The focus should be more specific, meaning we should focus on what is causing the need for supportive communication which can lead back to the root cause of the problem.

·         Use conjunctive statements that flow smoothly - I think it is very important to repeat parts of the conversation to ensure everyone received and interpreted the same message and at the same time acknowledge what was said by others.  I also believe pauses in the conversation are very important to allow time for reflection of the statements in the conversation. 

·         Demonstrate supportive listening - I think everyone can use improvement in this area.  The listener must be very careful with non-verbal actions such as body language; the listener can misconstrue this as being inattentive to what they are saying.  I have learned are the most important thing is maintaining eye contact during the conversation with the speaker.

Supportive communication is a skill that can be very beneficial to anyone serving in a leadership position that has to make key decisions.  By remaining focused on how I can best utilize supportive communication, I feel I can continue improving my communication and leadership skills.

A520.3.1.RB Decision Making

What are a few words that describe your decision-making style?

Decisive, analytical, optimistic, creative, logical, and flexible

What are the opposites of the words you chose?

Biased, pessimistic, dishonest, motive driven, irrational, and rigid

Could you see any benefits to making decisions using an approach that is based on either the opposites or somewhere in-between and what outcomes would you expect to see?

Yes, I can see benefits from using the opposite approach at times; maybe not all the chosen words but without a doubt some of them.  To start with, we all want to be flexible in our decision making process, but many times there are many constraints that cause us to be rigid.  An example would be when dealing with the law.  There is not a lot of flexibility when it comes to legal matters.  Should I speed or should I stick to the speed limit.  Honestly, one mile over the speed limit and you are breaking the law, no matter what anyone says.  We have to ask ourselves, we embellish facts sometimes to motivate employees when it comes to decision making.  We even say we are making the best decision for the company, but really do we have personal motives in our decision making process.  Very few of us make decisions without considering WIIFM (what’s in it for me).   I would like to think we consider the outcomes which guides us in our decision making process.  The problem is when we are overcome with the win –win mentality.   Internally a lot of us even wrestle with the theories of, does the end justly the means or does the mean justly the end. No matter what choice you make, your style of making decisions will be scrutinized by yourself and others.   

Last but not least in the opposite word that describe my decision-making style is being biased.  What if you had to eliminate several jobs from your organization?  After you analyze the situation, you realize the positions that are expendable include your best friend and your position.  Are you really going to turn in that report and is or are you going to be bias and figure out a way to save one or both of the positions.  If you are biased in your decision making you are not being fair to the organization that hired you. 

As decision makers, we want to think our decisions are easy and we have chosen the right style.  We want to be comfortable with our choices, but the truth is far from this.  Our decisions are influenced by many factors; seen and unseen. 

A520.2.6.RB - Time Management

1. Assess your time management skills.
2. Evaluate how these skills have increased your locus of control.
3. Identify three new areas in which improved time management skills would reduce stress.
4. Add an action plan to integrate these to your daily routine.

        I believe I have a mixed assessment of my time management skills.  I tend to be very organized and generally take the time to think about every particular situation before it occurs when the issue is a high priority.  The same cannot be said when I have a long timeline to work with.  This is due to the fact that I prioritize everything I do; if it can wait, it normally drops down on the depth chart.  I am a habitual list maker, with yellow sticky note pads everywhere in my work area.  I even keep a “things to do list” which has become a living document.  Even when my family or friends tell me something that needs to get done, I tell them to write that down, or send me an email, if not I may forget about it. The biggest issue I have when it comes to time management is I will become “stressed out” when things get out of my control or when I try to do too many things at one time.

        Throughout my professional and academic career, I have gained an appreciation for the understanding of locus of control.  I have even learned how my actions are influenced by both internal and external locus of control.  I am a firm believer my management and leadership skills have been enhanced due to the fact that I have a comprehension of my internal locus of control. When my time management is where I want it to be, it definitely has an effect on my locus of control process.  I have a passionate belief and understanding that I have a major effect of how I manage my time.  If my time management fails, I blame no one but myself.  For me to have any type of fun for myself or to spend with my family, I must manage time effectively.  I am very aware that I am a Type A personality and can sometimes be very controlling.  I like knowing that I am in control of how I use my time.  I get self-satisfaction if I can properly organize the personal and work events around me.

       If I had to identify three new areas in which improved time management skills would reduce my stress, it would be by establishing and maintaining deadlines I set and reducing procrastination when I have time to address certain issues.  Just because it is not due until later, does not mean I should not do it in my spare time.  Last, but not least, I need to schedule more personal time; better controlling the type A personality in me. 

        I am not sure if I need an action plan, however I know what I need to do to improve.  I just need to follow through with my thoughts.  I think the biggest obstacle I need to overcome would be to maintain balance in my life; professional versus personal life, while decreasing time spent on non-priority activities. I need to also understand that there will always be setbacks and that sometimes I cannot control my external environment. 

..