I have observed multiple types of leaders over my life. I have had 3 supervisors since I started my career after graduations. All have taught me a great deal on leadership and how I want to lead my staff. I feel though the most beneficial supervisors I have had would have to have been my first supervisor as a professional, Dan Gockley.
Dan Gockley, Tish Cavicchio, Carolanne Keim
Dan pushed me as an employee to think and act outside my comfort zone. In these pushed though he guided me along the way and was always their for advice. I never felt like he pushed me to hard or not enough. He also would let me guide what areas I would branch out into. He was very supportive of the work I was doing and always pushed me to continue and do my best.
Dan also was great at creating a strong team. He always gave you his full attention when speaking to him. He would then give very sound advice on any situation be in professional or personal. If we had disputes among the staff he was very neutral and proactive on getting the situations under control.
Thinking back on his leadership style and of my other supervisors leadership style it has gotten me to think about my leadership style. I really enjoyed the “How good are you Leadership skills?” quiz. I thought it was one of the shortest leadership quizzes I have ever taken on leadership but felt it was very effective. The evaluation and results I got was very accurate to what I have already understood to be my strengths and weaknesses.
The 2 areas I scored the lowest on were being a role model and positive attitude and outlook. I feel the reason I scored lowest on these areas is due to my stress and worrying. I do my best to not show this to my staff but at times I know I appear to be overwhelmed. This I feel can hurt me as a leader, as it doesn’t show that I am strong and sound in my work.
The areas I scored the highest in was motivating people to deliver the vision. I feel strongly in pushing my staff to do their best (personally and professionally) as well as praise them when they do well. I feel if they see the gratitude from me for putting in the hard work they will continue to work hard. I also am not perfect and want them to feel comfortable telling me when I make a mistake or they feel there may be a more effective way. I want to create an open environment where you can communicate freely about the workplace without the fear of any repercussion.
I think these qualities of my leadership style will be similar till the day I die. Similar but I know I will have evolved in some aspects of these styles. We are humans and we are always evolving and changing with the environment. I am only a young professional but I have seen over the years how I have changed and adapted. Looking over the six secretes of change I have used all of these at some point over the 4 years.
I strongly agree with Loving your Employees. The word love might be misinterpreted by some but I view loving your employees as gaining their trust, support their work, creating a safe environment, encouraging them to take risks, and so much more. Showing them love will empower them to do more for themselves as well as work harder for your company.
Staff from 2012-2013 School Year
Going along with doing more for themselves and their job, I feel learning by working is also very important. Encouraging people to learn more about something or follow an interest has multiple benefits. Once an employee has learned a new items they can share what they have learned with other employees. This will then educate your whole staff and give the employee who learned gratitude and support for doing her research.
I believe the supervisor also has to demonstrate learning while working. I personally have tried to go away to a conference each year and if possible take a few staff members with me. After each conference, the people who attended are I ask to do a recap of what they took away from the conference. Then as a group or individual they will share the informant with some if not all the staff. This concept has helped me grow also as a leader. When I am able to come back excited about new innovative items to share with the staff I am excited for the future and can’t want to get started.
Another great aspect of going to conferences is making connections with others around the state/county that have similar jobs to yours. I have found becoming part of the social media groups from the conferences has also helped me bring new items and ideas back to the work place. It has also helped me stay connected with he people I have met along the way.
Social Media has become a very hot topic with education. Before I go into my philosophy of social media I just want to state that I use social media daily to connect with students at the University. I have a different outlook then most in this class as I only deal with college age students outside the classroom.
About 3 - 4 years ago we created the Office of Residence Life and Housing Facebook and Twitter page. We started with these pages as they were free and what our students were using at the time. We still currently have these pages and are looking into how to connect more to our students through social media.
So with that back story, I feel you might know my philosophy already but I strongly believe that social media should be used at the college age level of education. We have found that attendance for events has increased as well as knowledge of important dates has been communicated faster. Social media helps us as most students check this multiple times a day vs. maybe checking their e-mail once or twice a week.
The seven Pillars are a great reminder of how to use social media for education.
- Communication
- Public relations
- branding
- professional growth and development
- students engagement and learning
- Opportunities
- learning environment and space
I believe, if we are using these 7 pillars, properly then we are using social media for our students to better them. Today there is a new social media society, that is becoming such an important part of our culture today. If we can tap into this society with education we are going to engage our students more and let them grow in this society as well.
Leadership and social media can be very controversial topics. I know some people might not agree with my stance on these areas but I feel I am doing the best I can currently. I know even by tomorrow some of the items and concepts I use will be outdates and need revamps. Changing and adapting is key to both leadership style and social media.
1 comment:
Carolanne,
I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you for posting the pictures too. You seem very open-minded and willing to step out of your comfort zone. I couldn’t agree more with your statement in regards to evolving as leaders. As we move forward in our careers and personal lives, significant changes can occur. When I reflect over the past twenty something years, I see numerous differences in my leadership abilities and even my philosophy. I truly believe the leaders we admire the most, play a profound role in shaping our leadership styles. I also strongly agree with loving your employees. For example, last week I was working on a project and one group member stated,” The problem is… teachers have too much autonomy!” - I really had a hard time accepting that statement, so I reacted with my opinion – with professionalism and respect. I believe my response helped this person see another point of view, and think outside the box. Bringing back ideas from a conference, empowers teachers/employees to present professional learning to others, and grow professionally. I attended ISTE in Atlanta this past summer, and connected with many groups through twitter and now receive a lot of up to date information in the education world. Yes, using social media in schools is a hotly debated topic. When I speak about social media, I use my own testimony since I have used social media in an effective and engaging manner in schools. The seven pillars are a great foundation to rely upon when implementing social media in schools.
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