Group Dynamic

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am not a huge fan of working in groups for school.  Unlike work, there is no real common goal or incentive for the group members to pull their weight as they are not getting paid.  When it comes to working in groups for school each student takes the class seriously on different levels and their work ethic reflects that, making the work more unbalanced.  That being said, out of all the groups I've worked with I liked this one the best.  I thought we worked very well together.  Sarah was the only one in the group that I have worked with in the past.  We work very well together and she is also from NY, giving us an automatic connection.  She is more creative in her approach to problems, which brought a new approach to the work dynamic.  Although Ray is pretty quiet in class, he is not quiet in a more intimate setting such as our group meetings.  Although he is 11 years younger than me, we got along quite well, perhaps because I see a lot of myself in him.  He also consistently finished his work on time, if not early, something I appreciate.  Dan and I had the most in common as we were both in the military for about the same amount of time, were both working full time while earning our degree, and attempting to balance work, school, and family.  He also had the hardest schedule to work with as he worked nights.  This was particularly difficult when it came to finding and arranging volunteer opportunities.  Finally, Kim was the group member that is a little OCD but in a good way, her OCD makes her a detail oriented person she was incredibly helpful to work with because she made sure the group was consistently meeting the standards and expectations laid out for us.  As I am not done with my degree yet, I am sure there will be more group projects in my future.  My hope is that they are made up of a people as enjoyable as these were to work with.

SkillsUSA

The most recent volunteering experience my group and I participated in was an event held at Germanna Community College.  It was a competition called Skills USA and was for high school age students competing in trade skills, such as cosmetology or auto mechanics.  I was assigned the job of judging the skills section of the competition.  This meant that the students came and gave a presentation of their particular skill - what is was, why it was important, how it was performed, etc.  My entire group was not needed judging the same event so it was only myself and one other classmate with three other judges.  Overall it was an interesting experience and I enjoyed observing the students and how they responded throughout the competition.

However, there were a few things about the experience that I did not enjoy; particularly the complete lack of organization surrounding the event.  That may be an unfair assessment as I did not engage with the other areas at the event but it was especially true in my area.  The chair of my contest was completely disorganized and was unable to answer any of our basic questions surrounding the event, having to seek clarification from someone else.  We were given no guidance regarding what we were judging, the criteria which we should be using to judge, or even our interactions with the contestants themselves.  As a result, we were not allowed to give feedback after the presentations, something I think the students would have really benefited from and I would have liked to have been able to do.  Despite all this, I did enjoy the event and would attend and judge again if asked on the condition that I was the acting chair of my particular area in order to ensure a more structured approach to the judging and therefore a more helpful and worthwhile experience for those involved.

Michael's final summary chapter

My personal story

I grew up on a large dairy farm in upstate NY which means that from as early as 5 years old I have held a full-time job.  Having to find the balance between working on the farm and going to school was interesting but a perfect way to perfect life-work balance skills.  I did miss a lot of school growing up however with only a small fraction of it actually due to illness.  My absences were usually because I was working with a parent to get something done on the farm.  Thankfully, I was a good student and was able to make up my missing work with little difficulty.  In high school, it was a natural transition for me to get involved in the Future Farmers of America club at school or FFA.  It was there that my real leadership story began.  

Everyone has that one teacher that really influenced them and helped change the course of their life.  Mine was the high school Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor.  He really helped to steer me down my path and pushed me to enter all kinds of leadership contests.  I ended up taking FFA as far as I could, winning several national competitions and was named an All-American farmer.  This meant I earned an American FFA Degree, something given only to those members who demonstrated the highest level of commitment to FFA as well as made significant accomplishments in supervised agricultural experiences.  The American FFA Degree is awarded at the National FFA Convention & Expo each year to less than 1% of FFA members, making it one of the organization’s highest honors.  

After high school, my plan was to stay in dairy farming which I loved despite the constant hard work it required.  With that in mind, I enrolled in SUNY Cobleskill College of Agriculture, majoring in Agriculture Engineering and Power Machinery.  My plan was to take the knowledge I learned there and apply it to helping run the family farm.  Yet a negative realization came along with the knowledge I had learned in the FFA and college; I began to see that my father was not only a bad farmer but he was also a poor small business owner.  This began causing a lot of conflict between us as he was not open to suggestion or any criticism to the way he did things.  I was beginning to pull back from the idea of working with him on the family farm and striking out on my own when a major event changed my life forever.

I had just finished earning my Associates degree and had just begun my junior year towards a Bachelor’s degree when the terrorist attack that took place on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon happened.  Being from NY, the attack perhaps struck me harder than it may have those who lived on the West Coast but I felt compelled to do something, I just didn’t know what.  The answer to that question came in November 2011 when I enlisted in the Marine Corp.  I expected to leave right away but realized soon after that they couldn’t just send a bunch of kids and new recruits to boot camp all at the same time.  Instead, I waited and ended up going to boot camp on April 9, 2002, and began the biggest leg of my leadership journey.  

I was in the Marine Corp for 10 years and worked with a wide variety of great leaders as well as quite a few bad ones.  I first was stationed at Miramar in San Diego, CA working as a mechanic on CH-46’s.  While there I did two deployments with the 11^th MEU, both times straight to Iraq.  Later I received orders back to the East Coast to work for HMX-1, the Presidential Helicopter Squadron.  About this time, I got married and thought that being in a non-deployable unit like HMX-1 would be good for the formative years of my marriage but I was wrong.  Being a part of HMX-1 meant that I went everywhere with the President.  Where he went, I went and he traveled so much that in reality, I saw my wife maybe one weekend a month.  After 5 years of non-stop traveling around the world, I decided to get out of the Marine Corp and put down some roots here in Fredericksburg.  

Having already begun earning a Bachelor’s degree I felt that I should finish it and be the first one in my family to earn a college degree.  So, with the help of the GI bill, and the support of my wife, I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Aviation Business and Maintenance Management and got a job doing logistics for the Marine Corp.  It was during this time where I was working as a civilian Marine that both my daughter were born and I came to realize that to take care of my family I needed to move up in the business world.  This realization, along with help from the GI Bill and a ton of support from my wife, is what set me on my latest leadership journey of earning my MBA through Mary Washington University.

Who do you want to be as a leader?

Within the Marine Corp, there is no leader more revered than the Marine legend Lewis "Chesty" Burwell Puller.  Aside from the ideals that the Marine Corp instills in you, I have always found his leadership style fascinating and have strived to emulate him.  While many Marines honor Chesty Puller for his courageous combat, I tend to be drawn more towards his interactions with his men.

He was hard on his men and demanded a lot from them, but in turn, he always did everything in his power to make sure that they were taken care of.  From the historical accounts I’ve read, Chesty had an innate understanding of his men which enabled him to unite them as a unit and treat them with respect while simultaneously disciplining them.  His superiors were incredibly impressed not only with the unity of his men but also by his commanding presence on the battlefield.

In one bloody battle, Chesty was wounded and laid bleeding and crippled in a foxhole and yet continued to call in airstrikes all night.  He refused to be moved from the field to tend to his injury until all the Marines that had been killed and wounded had been picked up first. Puller truly believed that his men came first and lived out that belief no matter the circumstances.

Every day while deployed Chesty would make daily inspections and insist on clean and ready weapons, alertness while on watch, and care of the feet.  Violations of these simple tasks were promptly punished but he always made sure his men had the resources needed to complete these tasks.  He also always arranged for the comfort of his men before his own, making sure that the other officers in his charge did the same.  Chesty would always be the last to get his food and made sure there was enough for the troops before he ate his.  One of the Chesty Puller rules that I still practice today is that when it comes to eating, the most junior among the group gets to eat first.  

He practiced what he preached when it came to leadership.  Visit all of your men frequently.  Talk to them.  Be sure they know what you want them to do at all times and where you can be found if they have questions.  Never be cruel, even to the enemy because it undermines the natural courage and manliness of the perpetrator.  Be respectful to a dead friend, or foe, and bury the dead quickly.  Make sure your men get enough rest or downtime and avoid unnecessary harassment, such as "standing by," meaning don’t give people busy work for the sake of giving them something to do.

Chesty was not only a great leader himself but he was responsible for training new leaders as well.  He always stood behind his men’s attempts to lead, standing back and allowing them to lead.  If they began to falter, he would work to convince them they were capable of leading.  The key leadership traits Chesty believed in were: over the top and continual combat training and discipline, cultivating loyalty and commitment among his Marines, leading from the front and participating in training and combat even when exhausted, set a courageous example, and speak out when you see something, no matter the consequences.

Who are you as a leader and why?

Although I am not leading Marines into combat, I believe that adopting Chesty Puller’s leadership example and applying it to the civilian section is easily done. I have been able to adapt and relate almost every one of Chesty’s leadership ideas to a leadership skill I use today.  I try to be fair but firm, and try to take the time to get to know my employees, taking note of their interests, hobbies, and families.  I strive to make sure that they have the resources available to them to be successful and I always make sure that they understand that I will support them when they need it.  There are clear paths in my life that made me into the leader I am today, beginning with the leadership completion in my youth and becoming more honed and defined in my time in the Marine Corp.

What will help you get there?

I hope to reach my leadership goals by constantly growing in my experience and education.  When they say that education is continual I believe it because it has never stopped for me.  I believe that once you stop learning, you stop growing as a person and a leader.  I am also aware that the best way to grow as a leader is to make mistakes and learn from them.  Ultimately then I believe that what will help me reach my leadership goals is actually a process of trial and error.  

What parts of this class changed you, molded you, enhanced you, and challenged you?

Given the varied leadership experiences I have had, specifically during my time in the Marines, we have not covered many topics pertaining to leadership that have been new to me.  One thing I can say from my time as a leader in the civilian world that has been tested and confirmed in this class is empathy.  My time in the Marine Corp was spent in a culture and surrounded by men and women amongst whom empathy was a foreign concept.  I have a new level of understanding and respect regarding empathy and have found new ways use it in my leadership roles.  By far the greatest challenge in this class didn’t have to do with the content but the sheer time it consumed.  Balancing work, family, and school has been a huge challenge this semester and the massive amounts of reading for this class has not helped

CYT

Our most recent volunteer experience was through the Fredericksburg organization Christian Youth Theater or CYT.  CYT is an extracurricular performing organization for children ages 4-18.  Not only do they offer 10-week classes in the areas of performing (dance, theater, and music) but they put on a musical theatrical performance every 10 weeks.  This means that at the conclusion of each show a breakdown of the sets required for the previous performance needs to take place, which includes not only deconstructing set pieces but also organizing the pieces so that they can be repurposed later for future productions.

Our group will participate in three volunteer experiences overall, this being the second.  Although I do not know how I will feel about the third opportunity, a competition for high schoolers hosted by Germanna, I believe my experience with CYT will be my favorite.  While I recognize that our experience at the multicultural fair at UMW was helpful, the type of work we were doing for CYT was more enjoyable for me.  I was able to work with my hands and use my construction skills, knowledge, and experience as we broke apart set pieces from their previous production of Willy Wonka.  It also provided a sense of accomplishment because you could see the immediate results of your work.  Additionally, because my wife is a theater director and I have often worked on or designed sets for her shows, I am aware of the amount of work that goes into building and breaking down sets.  I, therefore, know how helpful the work we were doing was for the current production crew and how any amount of help given to them is immensely appreciated.  

Class Reflections

Class Reflections

Thus far there has been a lot of reading in this class.  Don’t misunderstand – I enjoy reading but usually only when I am able to pick the material.  I find that I struggle to read when I am assigned the reading, even if I may enjoy the book.  Despite this fact, I found that I did enjoy the first book we read by Dale Carnegie.  He makes a lot of valid points and his lessons were presented in an interesting and thought provoking manner.  Additionally, I noticed that all the concepts he was mentioning in his book were ones that I have been taught throughout the years in various leadership and management classes and yet his book or his name were never mentioned.  This leads me to believe that, although his book was written several decades ago, the lessons he teaches are timeless.   By far the greatest thing about the book, because it was written so long ago, were the dated references and how some of the companies he mentions in the book, such as Sears, still exist today.

  

The second book, Self-Handicapping Leadership, was a much more difficult read for me.  The information might be interesting but it is presented in such a way that the reading itself is very dry and therefore difficult to get through.  While I recognized the importance of the information in the book and felt convicted regarding certain topics and how they applied to myself, I struggled to get past the delivery of the information which in turn made it harder to me to internalize the information.  Many of my classmates must have felt convicted by the topics in this book as well because during our class discussion last week, I felt as though it was less of a discussion and more of a therapy session.  Other than that, I still am enjoying the structure of the class and the discussions in particular.

Reflections on Volunteering – Mary Washington Multicultural Fair

My initial thought regarding the volunteer experience at the Mary Washington Multicultural Fair was to wonder who usually helped to set up the event as out of the perhaps 20 people there, roughly 75% of them were graduate students from our class.  We were given 4 hours to set everything up which seemed to be much more time than we needed.  However, I believe we were given that time out of previous experience as few people, particularly college students, want to get up at 6:00a on a Saturday morning.  For the most part, the Mary Washington staff seemed very competent and knew what needed to be done but the equipment that was rented did not arrive until 8:00a so the first few hours of our volunteer experience were spent mostly standing around, waiting. 

One thing I did observe was that many of the graduate student volunteers, which were most of the volunteers, were type A personalities, or “chiefs.”  As a result, they seemed to struggle with the idea of simply serving and responding to another’s leadership and instead attempted to lead themselves.  Yet with so many leaders, there was more struggle and personality conflicts than I believe there may have been had more people taken a more serving mentality.  Although my team blended and worked well with each other, observing some of the other teams attempting to manage each other rather than working as a cohesive unit was, quite frankly, amusing and made me very thankful that my team did not have that problem.

Volunteering is not something I have the opportunity to do often.  Between work, spending time with my family, and taking care of things at my house there is not a lot of free time left over, let alone the time needed to volunteer for an event.  Yet it was nice to be a part of a group and to work towards a common goal, specifically one that was not completely self-serving or self-seeking.

First reflections

We have had two weeks of class now and I am going to give this reflection post a try.  I am going to start out by saying how much I dislike writing or journaling.  I have never found it to be a useful way to collect my thoughts.  I have always found that nothing organizes my thoughts like a nice long car ride.  I love to drive and I especially love long car rides; the 3-5 hour ones are my favorite.  It is like my Zen time where I organize my thoughts and reflect on what is going on in my life.  In essence, I am typing this reflection under duress!  I was rather nervous before the first day of class because of how the class and the syllabus were laid out.  The impression I got was that this is going to be a class of busy work and that is the type of class I dislike the most.  However, after two nights of class, I am no longer worried.  Even though I am not a big fan of the amount of reading involved, I find that the overall class format of discussion and sharing of our personal thoughts regarding a variety of topics makes the class time go by quickly.  And as far as the discussion posts go…I’d still prefer a long car ride.