Response 1:

  have enjoyed my time in the  program, but i can say that I am more than elated that this journey has come to an end. I have learned alot about myself and more about how to be a good leader. I was able to use the emotional intelligence,people management, and strategy course in my everyday life. These takeaways caused me to think differently. The biggest take away has been having your team live and breathe the vision. This made sense to me on many levels. it caused me to think about what vision i wanted to have for my position and how i could communicate that to the people that i affected by my job. These have impacted my leadership as i have a guideline of what I should look for in leadership development. I am currently in a management training position and i will get a chance to apply these tool snot only in my job where i am but in different places across the company in the next three years. I will touch different departments and this will give me the necessary tools to make the most of my leadership and management training. I have found that leadership is something that I really enjoy. I have not necessarily received any promotions because of this but I feel like this program was something that was considered when being put in my current program. I have grown considerably in understanding my leadership style, and developing my vision for each position i encounter. More importantly, I grew as a person. 

****************************************

response 2:

t’s been a journey of growth and perhaps more importantly, clarification of assumptions during my time. The different courses have integrated into a decision-making process that I believe allow me to cut to the core issues, weigh the risks and returns of a strategic decision, manage the people involved through change and communication management processes, and test and adapt to those decisions. Importantly, I learned to focus less on lofty vision and mission statements, but focus on aligning them to the practical, implementation parts to test and make adjustments from there.

Practically, the use of candor, team communication and Lean Six Sigma principles were immediately applicable to my team. Strategic planning has become a clear interest for me, careerwise. Out of that, however, is the awareness of a need to grow in developing  communication strategies that help people not just buy-in, but “map-out” the timing of when components should be made known to people.

My ability to lead has improved significantly, both upwards, laterally and down. At work, I’m considered a problem solver who is able to communicate a rationale for why decisions are made, and why certain resources need to be sacrificed to achieve results in a priority area. It doesn’t make me loved, but people understand the “why” and feel respected enough that it was communicated to them – a change in our previous management team’s style, which was primarily top-down and directive.

With respect to promotions, because I work in government I’m relatively limited with respect to bonuses – which is to say none. Having said that, I have been assessed as “exceeded expectations” during my two years at JWMI and received the highest raises on our scale as possible; I’ve taken on new responsibilities such as becoming the Lead Purchaser for the directorate, and becoming the lead for the program’s electronic medical records system. As well, I’ve been given a fair amount of autonomy in my work, which is important to me as it signals trust and reduces the “friction points” for my day-to-day.

Most importantly, I feel that I am well prepared to take on future challenges. Since my work has predominantly been in non-profit, or government, I had a sense of inadequacy with respect to going into the private sector – I don’t know what I don’t know. Now, I feel more than willing to embrace those inadequacies (I’m not a data scientist), and believe that I can contribute despite them with both perspective and critical thinking.