Welcome to my Blog

This blog was utilized throughout my Master of Science in Leadership program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide campus and is tailored to fit certain leadership topics presented throughout the program.

I hope you enjoy reading these items and please feel free to jump around as there are two years’ worth of entries.

Respectfully,
Katy

Instructional Designer
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide
600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, Florida 32114
Office: (386) 226-6934
Website: http://worldwide.erau.edu/ 
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/katy-hendry/26/562/398/

A631.9.2.RB_Video Debrief of Team MA

Steve Jobs is and always will be a visionary.  The desire to fight through defeat and come back stronger is what fueled Jobs to continue in his quest to produce the best and strongest technical advances for home computing.  Although Jobs is gone, his legacy and life’s work will forever live on for generations to come.  Many remember Job’s as the founder of Apple but most forget that he was let go from Apple which drove him to create NeXT which later was purchased by Apple.  These changes in the Job’s life and professional career are what fueled him to be one of the best creators of technology to date.

During my debriefing I learned a lot about myself that I might have otherwise thought about differently.  As much as I want to be a leader and change the way people understand and value academic technology, I know that I am not the type of person to create a new learn platform but instead I am the person who will test, break, provide feedback, and transform what is currently out on the market in order to help those who are the visionaries for design and production create a better product.  According to my management assessment profile I wouldn’t necessarily be the perfect fit for a startup company but instead I would be better suited to come in when the company it at its large and rapid growth stage(s).  Even though I am not perfect for this stage of the NeXT startup team, I do however have characteristics that would be great for this stage of their organization and could ultimately help to transform the organization.  Below I have captured 3 different characteristics from my assessment that I feel would fit great into this step of Job’s new organization:

Fiscally Conservative

• Starting up a new organization there are many areas where spending will be taking place.  Job’s discussed in the video that he has forgotten how much money and how many different things would need to take place in order to get the organization off the ground again.  I believe that because I am great with money I would have been able to assist Job’s with the design of the structure and responsibly allocate finances in order to ensure they were put the best use possible.

Structure

• I need structure and when structures (policy/procedures) are not in place I am the type of person to create them.  In the video it was clear that mostly those in the room were engineers who would rather do what they love then be bogged down with creating an organizational structure.  In this area I would come in and help to create the walls of the organization to allow the creators to do what they love.

Desire for a Challenge

• Start a new company is a challenge in and of itself and according to my management assessment I have a strong desire for a challenge.  In conjunction with my problem solving skills I believe that I would have been a great asset to the NeXT team during their startup phases because regardless of the problem or challenge I would have the skills to handle the issue.

Even though this startup organization is centered around technology, the root of the organization was focused on the needs of education and creating a tool that both students and staff/faculty can use.  Education is something that speaks to me in volumes and I understand what it takes to create a prosperous learning environment for students.  I feel as though many of my best qualities for this type of implementation would span across the area which focused on the needs of the students and staff/faculty.  I would need to understand what their needs are and how I can take those requests back to the person creating the tool.  I have found that nowadays we send out survey’s in order to request that type of information but its more than a survey when it comes to education, you have to be there in person with the client(s) to understand their needs, their wants, and their desires.  Many of the people in the room with Steve Jobs were engineers who don’t necessarily want to be with the client but instead want to be in a room filled with computers, writing code and reading through hundreds of lines of HTML.  I would have been the person in Job’s team that would have been sitting down with the client and finding out what their needs are, I would have been the face or the bridge between the two worlds.

Even though we lost Job’s, we will always continue to benefit from his hard work and determination.  Technology was forever changed by him and his team.

References:
Петренко, C. (2012, January 19). Steve Jobs Brainstorms with NeXT Team [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=youtu.be
NextSteps, R. (2013). Management assessment profile: Katy Hendry.

A631.8.4.RB_Reflective Analysis

                                      “Hi, I am ENTJ” also known as “The Executive”

Jungian functional preference ordering:

• Dominant: Extraverted Thinking
• Auxiliary: Introverted Intuition
• Tertiary: Extraverted Sensing
• Inferior: Introverted Feeling

About 2 years ago the department I was working for offered the Myers Briggs test and at first many people didn’t take it seriously until we all lined up to see how each person in our department measured up to each other in relation to the number they scored in each section.  The most eye opening moment is when I realized that my boss and I were both scoring in the same areas at almost the same number which made me realize that I couldn’t be an assistant to an executive if both of us ranked in the same area (the area known as the executive).

According to the Myers site, “ENTJs are natural born leaders.  They live in a world of possibilities where they see all sorts’ challenges to be surmounted, and they want to be the ones responsible for surmounting them.  They have a drive for leadership, which is well-served by their quickness to grasp complexities, their ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and their quick and decisive judgments.  They are ‘take charge’ people.”

Being an ENTJ I realized that I was born to lead to some capacity but I also know that I still need a few more years of experience and education to become more prepared for the type of leading I wish to do.  I think it is very important for all young professionals to take the MBTI once when they start their careers and a few more times at milestone points to see if they have changed or remained the same.  It is so important to know who you are and being self-aware so that you can be effective as a leader and to better understand those who you lead.

Once I took the test I became self-aware rather quickly that it was time to start making progress to change my career and within 6 months I had finished half of my master’s degree and had secured a new position within the university I am currently working for.  Now all results will vary but becoming self-aware helped to lay out a path for my professional success.  It has been sad that ENTJ people are very forceful and decisive people and I completely agree with that because I know that when I set my mind to something, I go for it full force and I don’t stop until I achieve it.  Asides from the attributes of being an ENTJ individual, there are some downsides that I have to keep in mind which I find is part of the self-awareness journey and that is I have to be more open-minded and understanding.  Often ENTJ people can be too aggressive in getting to where they want to be and I don’t want people to remember me that way although I am sure some think of me that way now.  I want to be a comfortable balance of driven and compassionate and that is what I try to work on each day through my studies and my career.

Taking the Meyers Briggs test is extremely important to me and I think others feel the way I do.  I know that if I was in a leadership position I would set aside both time and funds in order to have the MBTI test administered because I think it helps for a team of people to understand one another better and therefore ultimately work better which will promote a better working environment.

Reference:
Myers, B. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.personalitypage.com/ENTJ.html

A631.7.4.RB_Future of OD

I would never classify organizational development as a fad that would over time become irrelevant because development is not a fad but instead is a necessity of organizational change and growth.  The need to keep up with rapidly changing times is extremely important to organizations who want to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive in their industry.  Taking into consideration ERAU as an example, the need to remain at the top for both education and our specialized field (aviation/aerospace) we have to constantly go through periods of organizational change in order to stay dynamic and not become static.  As thing change with in higher education and in the aviation/aerospace field, the organization will need to embrace OD as it takes shape in ERAU to ensure we stay prosperous and see steady growth.

In the area of organizational development as a disciple, I foresee constant changes taking place because the needs of OD will change as other variables become relevant.  Areas that will change how this disciple is seen or taught are (but are not limited to), the economy, demographics or location, industry, and politics. The future for OD will continue to grow especially with the changes of generations in the workplace.  What were once the needs of the Baby Boomers are now becoming the needs of Generation X, Y, and ME.  We often forget about that changes that are taking place right now in the workforce and how important it is to have the skills of organizational development as we embrace these changes.  I can only speak for myself but I think that I am at a slight advantage now because I have taken these two courses and understand how important OD is and how to apply it to my career.

Over the past two courses I have learned so much about not only myself as a leader but how my leadership skills help to promote organizational development and how I have been a part of organizational development.  I have found that these two courses helped to guide me to understanding how important it is to have both inside assistance and outside guidance when organizations are having difficulties or need to promote themselves over a plateau they could be having in their industry.  The need to understand how I play a role in this discipline is very important for me.  In order to change and mold myself, I have to understand the study of OD and how I aid in the OD process.

Although challenging, the study of OD was truly eye-opening and helped me grow so much.  I feel as though now I have a better perspective of understanding situations (case studies) from a broader perspective which has allowed me to become a better practitioner of the OD discipline.  My goals now are to continue to grow from my OD studies and apply these as I move forward but with the note that OD is a living thing and it will constantly be changing as other changes take place around it.

A631.6.4.RB_Transformational Strategies

Transformation change is taking place all around us all the time and at many times we are unaware of those who are leading those changes. But it is not always about what is changing but it is how it is changing and who is leading that change.  Everyone is a leader and anyone can effectively lead change but the difference between a successful mission and a failed operation is the structure or path in which you took to implement those changes.

Now I have never worked in a furniture company nor am I military but have watched what happens when the successful approaches that McIngvale and McChrystal took were not properly executed in order to save an organization from their demise.  The prompt states “how do you relate and make sense of these approaches” and for me it is simple, if you don’t apply these approaches you will have a harder time meeting the end results in a positive and effective manner. When I worked for a dancewear manufacturer based out of Hialeah Florida, I didn’t understand that I was coming into the organization as it was steadily declining. This organization was a family owned and operated company with more than 50 years of experience but they were lacking something and that thing was the ability to lead their employees (which ultimately lead to the organization closing). 

If we are two take both figure 15.4 and 15.5 we can see that the organization I was working for was in the Weak Culture quadrant for the “Relative Strength of Corporate Cultures” and we in the Change the Strategy for the “Strategy-Culture Matrix.”  Now moving from one quadrant takes time and effort and it cannot be done overnight.  I believe that if the company I worked for (we can call them SSDW) started to move step-by-step from one quadrant to another then they might have been able to keep their doors open longer.  I think some of key issues with SSDW were that they needed an overhaul of the organizational structure; they had been stagnant for years and it hurt the ability for change to take place.

Changing an organization is never an easy task especially when an organization has met so many hurdles that have negatively impacted the structure of the organization.  But in these types of situations, hurdles don’t necessarily enable an organization to rebound.  If an organization has the will power to change and can effectively introduce strategies for success into the corporate culture of an organization then there is a high possibility that the organization will make it; sometimes all we need is a little fate.

Reference:
Brown, D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A631.5.4.RB_Leading System Wide Change

Being a leader is like being a teacher and teaching is an art and a science, the art is the ability to articulate the science of knowledge in which that person encapsulates.  They say that great leaders are born but I don’t necessary think that is true.  I think everyone has the ability to lead but only a select few allow themselves the ability to tap into that side of their personalities and allow it to take shape through education and professional experiences.

In the video you see many different leaders from different walks of life and experiences but what you don’t see is who they were before, they are just like you and I, they have interesting stories, and many didn’t aspire to be a great leader.  But they do all share many of the same foundations and of those foundational similarities; one is one I believe to be the biggest helping hand in becoming a successful leader…

I have met many leaders in my short life and some were amazing and others, well let’s just say I don’t know how they got to the top.  I often hear about the hoops people have to jump through to get where they are but maybe some of those hoops are relative to what the person (the leader) wants people to hear and maybe getting to the top wasn’t the best idea for them but they went there anyways and each day are trying too hard to maintain their momentum; maybe they are not designed to be a leader.

I worked for a person who thought and to this day still believes they are a successful leader but they are not.  Even though this person isn’t a leader in my book, they are not far from being one; they are only missing one thing, compassion.  Often time’s people get caught up in the hype of being a leader and they forget everything they have learned about people and communicating and one the common areas with people and communicating is compassion.  The only problem with this person not having this trait, compassion, it cannot be taught in a classroom or seminar, you cannot read on how to be compassionate, instead it must come from within.  I know speaking from experience that as we move up the corporate ladder we change and evolve but I have always made it a point to take the time and remember who I am as a person and why I got to the position I am in and it is not just because I am educated and hardworking but it is also because I can relate and understand people (those above, below, and on the lateral scale as me). I have found that this person never

There is no list of characteristics a person must have to be a leader but there is that one element they should always have, and that is compassion and they should execute this on a daily basis. Leaders should always take others into consideration and know their story, understand who you are working with, and how they ultimately keep you in the position you are in.  If you don’t know those who work for you, how can you serve them?

I am pretty sure I have deviated from the originally prompt for this blog entry but I think it’s because after watching that video I realized that all those people in the Apple commercial had a common dominator and that’s compassion; they knew what it took to be where they are and that meant relating to those who helped them reach their full potential and goals. These people didn’t know what type of system wide changes they would make on the world but they knew they loved what they did and they cared for others.

A631.4.4.RB_INSEAD Reflection

I think there are many benefits in self-managed work teams.  Brown (2011) defines a self-managed work team as am, “autonomous group whose members decide how to handle their tasks” (p.348), which I think allows for people to self-govern themselves and forces people to work through their problems as a team.  I have found when you put people on a team and allow them to work through their differences they are more likely to rely on each other to get the job done and feel less pressure as opposed to being on a team where the team leader might also be the department manager/supervisor.  Self-managed work teams in my opinion often have a more relaxed feeling which allow for creative ideas to flow more freely and more naturally.  Some of the potential drawback with these teams is the thought that those in team might clash completely and the need for management to step in would be present but I think the benefits completely outweigh the drawbacks.  The idea of self-managed work teams is more likely to be less embraced by those who are micromanagers than those who are progressive leaders.  Speaking from experience I have been on many teams and those that were formed by my direct supervisor and included her were more uncomfortable, stagnant, and ultimately dissolved without any true team collaboration taking place whereas teams developed by those on a lateral scale were more productive and successful.

I love working in self-managed work teams because I think that they allow each person to shine in their abilities.  Many of the reasons these teams are established is because each person is going to bring a different and unique attribute to the team which allows for the group to overall be more successful. Even though SMTs are great, there can often be times where situations of conflict can arise and as a group/team we are forced to resolve them.  I find that conflict is inevitable and these types or situations help to make each team member that much stronger than they were (individually) before.

Those who manage effective self-managed work teams are not micromanagers but instead they are the type of manager who trusts their employees and allows for their creativeness to show and grow with each new project. I also think the following characteristics need to be engrained in a competent manager of self-managed work teams:

• Trust
• Creativeness
• Openness
• Honesty
• Reliability
• Educated
• Hardworking
• Versatile
• Flexible
• Understanding

Being in a self-managed work team takes practice and often the first go round will be unsuccessful because it takes will power from the team to keep each other going but I do believe that when you allow employees to work together and manage themselves they often create a stronger working bond that ever before.

Reference:
Brown, D.R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Tesluk, P. (2008, September 22). Self-managing teams; debunking the leadership paradox., Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBnR00qgGgM&feature=youtu.be