How has your experience shaped your intention of how to participate
in future MBA courses?
Congratulations to all for wrapping up another class toward your
educational goals. My experience in this class was one that I feel will
help me tremendously in the future. The topic of Leadership in an
educational realm is not new to me as an active-duty military
member. We do a lot of time studying and teaching leadership
techniques. However, this class allowed me to see leadership outside
of the Command-and-Control world that I live in and will help
prepare me for when I retire. Personally, the class came at a
challenging time, as I am stationed away from my wife and kids, but
have tried to balance work, travel to spend time with the family and
class requirements. The personal assessment and personal
development plan were especially useful for me to reflect on the
leader I am today. I have been successful as a leader in my past but
identifying leadership shortcomings and how I view myself as a leader
was immensely helpful. One of the assignments required use to talk
to someone unbiased and ask where we are good leaders. That
assignment fwas perfectly in a week that I had one Soldier and Sailor
under my charge departing my command. While “Check Out”
interviews is our normal practice, and the dynamic of the military is
one where junior service members are reluctant to give honest
feedback to their Officers in Charge. I ask both members to spend
some time thinking and give me something they think I need to work
on as a leader, somewhere I can approve. I value the feedback that
ensued and intend to incorporate that practice of asking for that for
the rest of my career.
How has your experience shaped your intention of how to participate
in future MBA courses?
As a student, the biggest change will be just staying on top of the
course work. While I did not submit any assignments late, I found
myself at the end of the week catching up with schoolwork more
than I like. While this is mostly due to my Work/School/Life balance.
I know it impacts my performance as a student. Much like I’m doing
with this discussion, I have really got to work a week ahead to give
cushion for unexpected events. I’ve also got to get better at using
Student E-mail. One of my classmates requested me to give some
guidance on an assignment, and I completely whiffed on that
opportunity to help and network, because I don’t check the student e-
mail regularly.
Another item that I put into considering as a student is the interaction
on the discussion boards. Though out any online course I have taken
the “Discussion” really is always the same. It is submitted an initial
post, reply to two people, and then the “Discussion”. I would say,
most of the time I don’t even look at the responses I get. While in this
course we were asked to engage in the discussion and that
engagement was included in the grading rubric. This force me to read
responses and to respond to those responses, making it an actual
discussion.
What were some of the challenges you faced in this course, and how
did these challenges help you prepare for challenges in today's VUCA
world of work? How do you think future courses will help you
deepen your ability to work in the VUCA world?
I would say the challenge I had with the course was investing into the
content. To avoid looking too confident, I am pretty confident in my
experience as a leader. I have been in leadership positions most of my
life, from sports to different positions in the Military. I never feel like
there isn’t something to learn about leadership, but I did not dive into
the class with the right mentality. While my grades have been good in
the class, my approach was not.
Realizing that approach or lack thereof was important for this class
and my future in the VUCA environment. While I have had
experience as a leader, I can’t say I was adaptive to the different
challenges the world has. This was extremely important for my future
as I prepare to retire from the military and enter the civilian
workforce.
The fourth industrial revolution has introduced early advances on the
internet of things; artificial intelligence (AI); and the production of
smart equipment that can analyze, diagnose, and fix issues without
the need for human intervention. How do these complex
technological developments challenge leaders to adapt their
leadership style and behavior?
Our society has continued to transition to a world that provides
immediate results mostly due to the advances in the fourth industrial
revolution. However, the cornerstone of being a good leader is
credibility, and that takes time to develop with subordinates. The
challenge we face as leaders is the desire for immediate results in an
area that requires consistent pressure to achieve success.
Additionally, 1 in 4 workers quit their job this year (reference). In this
industry, other job opportunities are at a finger type, and social media
drives employees to see a false reality of people being 100 percent
happy with their employer. This makes the challenge of retention
harder than ever before. This also makes your ability to gain
credibility as a leader even more challenging (Liu, 2021).
Considering those challenges, what do you want to learn to help
prepare you to lead more effectively? How will your future work in
this program benefit you and the people you lead?
As I continue to work through my MBA, I hope to continue to be
challenged to think about business problems in the civilian
workplace. I believe putting thought into this environment is better
preparing me for the complexity’s the VUCA world provides. When
I’m finished with my core MBA classes, I look forward to getting more
specific on the Supply Chain Management portion of my program to
put thought into the current challenges we face in that area.
The program is providing tools in both the leadership toolkit and
ability to forecast strategic planning for an organization. While the
idea of a leadership toolkit was not new to me before this class, the
Personal Development Plan with a SMART goal is absolutely
something I will carry with myself as a leader in the future.
References
Liu, J. (2021, October 14). 1 in 4 Workers Quit their job this year.
Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/14/1-in-4-
workers-quit-their-job-this-year-according-to-new-report.html
