15 Minutes a Day

Archive for the ‘School’ Category

The reason I started this blog in the first place was to chronicle my journey through the Management and Organizational Leadership doctoral program at the University of Phoenix. Today is the first day of my Year Three Residency – an on-the-ground class in Phoenix, AZ. The rest of my program is done exclusively online.

Our first assignment was to develop a “concise leadership statement” about our leadership style. This had to be prepared prior to our arrival in class. From that “concise leadership statement” we were to develop a one-sentence statement about our leadership style. Here is mine:

As a Servant Leader, I work to Empower those I work with to move beyond their current skill set and achieve greater things together than they could have achieved on their own.

I am told that this will change over the next five days as this class proceeds. We are also being asked to adjust how we ask questions of presenters. We are to start our questions with the phrase “I heard you say this…” paraphrase what was said and then ask the question. This is done to show that we were actively listening during the presentation. Our instructor has said that this is a very effective way to ask questions, get clarification for statements made during the presentation, and provide feedback and feedforward which is a new concept to me. More on that later as I learn more about it.

This week for me has been one of clarity (at work an on my dissertation project) and of loss (either a friend of mine or family members of friends). Work and school have been moving along nicely. I’m feeling better about doing my dissertation project and starting to see the faintest glimmer of a light far off in the distance in this tunnel I am traversing. Work is developing all kinds of possibilities, but we’ll see what pans out.

I lost a family friend this week. He was 73 and it sounds like his body clock just wound down and stopped ticking. That’s not a bad way to go for someone who gave as much to his community and touched so many lives as “Mr. Hutch” did. His time ended and he…just…stopped. I went to his funeral and was not surprised to see how many people came to pay respects and support his family. He was a humble and influential man in his community and touched my life in ways I’ll never forget.

I also learned that the son of a friend of mine from Toastmasters died after a long and troubled history with drug addiction. His mother is a friend and really tried to help him overcome his addictions. She is mourning and I mourn her loss. I think her life will improve as she moves further from the loss, but the hole he leaves will remain.

I also learned about the death of a former coworker. I went to his funeral and I grieve for his family. Especially for a very young daughter who will have to grow up without her daddy.

It’s been hard this week to focus on my dissertation project with all of this going on. However, it does keep me moving forward and thinking positively. I had a professor explain the academic process to me once in the following way:

1. AA/AS = a time for students to figure out their homework:party time ratio
2. BA/BS = a time for students to figure out where the library is on campus
3. MA/MS = a time for students to learn to use the library and all of its resources
4. Ph.D. = a time for students to contribute to the library

I’m excited to be at the stage in my academic career where I will be contributing to the library soon!

Image Credit: Retrieved on February 21, 2010 from Jonesville, Virginia – Horse Hollow

It really distresses me when experienced entrepreneurs discount the abilities of people with degrees or the value of pursuing a degree. It also bothers me when I hear people refer to professors and academia in general in derogatory terms or call life outside academia “the real world.” I don’t understand these attitudes, unless it’s that people don’t understand the efforts that go into academic pursuits.

Each level of academia (AA/AS, BA/BS, MA/MS, Ph.D/Practical Doctorate) exposes the students to different ideas, levels of thinking, and an array of different personalities. The higher the level of academia, the more reading that is required. Not just reading on one particular topic, but on a great number of subjects that help take your current thinking and turn it on its head. Then, once the reading is done, the students and professors come together to discuss the topics involved and that turns your thinking in a whole new direction.

I leave each class at the end of eight tumultuous weeks a better person than I entered the class. I have a whole new perspective of the class topic, the organization I work for, current events, and have a better idea of how I want to conduct my research for my dissertation project. The whole idea behind getting a higher degree is to help make the world a better place and solving problems that affect life, business, and society.

Writing a dissertation is a Sisyphean Task.

My parents, brother, sister, aunt and uncle, another uncle, and several friends are all entrepreneurs. None of them have any degrees higher than an associate’s degree. I have great respect for what they do and the knowledge they have accumulated through their experiences. However, each of them has expressed gratitude for my expertise and academic experience. That doesn’t make me better than they are. Nor does it make them better than me. We just have different experiences, knowledge, and expertise.

If you know someone that is working to pursue a higher academic degree, please be supportive of their efforts even if you don’t understand what they or doing or why. The higher the degree, the higher the level of commitment. The higher the degree, the deeper the level of thinking, understanding, and work is being put into solving a problem. It doesn’t matter what the problem is. Someone has taken it on because it matters to them. Don’t belittle their efforts or the hoops they have to jump through or the time it takes them to finish. Be supportive of someone pursuing a degree just like you would be of someone starting a new business. Both types of efforts are important. Just in different ways.

Comments from other sources

Twitter:

• @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford I hate having2explain either of my degrees. I have an mm/hrm &a BM in vocal performance. They hardly go together. & TBC.
• @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford Trying2explain why I chose one or the other&convincing an employer that a music degree is just as demanding as an academic 1
• @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford Not sure if I’ll ever get2use my masters which is irritating but I achieved my goal of getting my degree.Most don’t get it.

I saw a quote today that got me thinking… The quote was “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” I love quotes! Sometimes they are cheesy or corny or common, but the ones that stick with you are little bits of wisdom that can permeate the mind and change your perspective.

A little later in the day I read a blog post by one of my favorite Twitter buddies, @CouchSurfingOri, who listed out his goals (- NOT resolutions) for the year and what he was going to do to achieve those goals. Between the quote this morning and Ori’s blog post, I was inspired to set down my 2010 goals here in my blog and start working to achieve them. So, here goes… (by the way, these are in no particular order)

Toastmasters:

• I plan to earn my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB). Earning the ACB entails giving a total of ten speeches from two Advanced Communicator Manuals (five from each manual). I have ordered and received two manuals already. The first is the Public Relations manual and the second is Communicating On Television. I chose the Public Relations manual because I am the Vice President of Public Relations for both of my clubs and because being able to get the message out about anything is of key importance to my plans for the future. I chose Communicating on Television because I would like to turn my podcast into a video podcast in 2011 (if not before) and don’t want to look like a fool when I do so.
• I plan to earn my Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB). To earn this award I will need to conduct two programs from the Successful Club Series or the Leadership Excellence Series. I ordered two books from the Successful Club Series: Finding New Members for Your Club and The Toastmasters Educational Program. I decided on these two because both of my clubs are having membership issues. I thought these might be the best two for helping to recruit more members.

School

• Complete my dissertation proposal. I have two classes scheduled with my dissertation mentor to do just this. I plan to submit my proposal in the Fall and start working on the project in January once the proposal has been approved. My mentor assures me that this is a reasonable timeline that  will not cause me undue stress. I told my mentor that I wanted to get through the dissertation process with my health, my sanity, and my marriage intact. My husband says he agrees and approves of the priority listing.

Work

• Teach 12 Video Webinars this year. I enjoy doing webinars for my coworkers on new or better ways to use Microsoft SharePoint 2007 to create and maintain our corporate intranet. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule dedicated time to work on and prepare these webinars
  • Conduct a survey of my customers to find out what topics they most want to have covered
  • Advertise these webinars in advance of each one so that we get good attendance at each one.
• Start an educational blog. I plan to post weekly articles that will answer questions and give tips and tricks to help our site administrators maintain their sites in an efficient and effective manner. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule time to research & write articles each week
  • Survey my site administrators to find out what questions they have so that I can write articles that address these issues
  • Advertise each posting with our site administrators so that they are aware of this new resource

Life

• Meeting health-related challenges. I have had some recent medical challenges that need to be met and overcome. This includes issues with my blood sugar levels dropping dangerously low due largely to a poor diet following gastric bypass surgery. To meet this goal I will:
  • Consult with an endocrinologist to try to regulate my insulin secretions
  • Consult with a nutritionist to start eating healthier food and developing better eating habits
  • Schedule time to exercise regularly
• Spending quality time with my husband and dogs. I need to make sure that I am spending quality time on my relationships and the most important relationships I have right now are with my husband and dogs. They all rely on me for love and nurturing and I need to make sure they are taken care of. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Schedule a date night with my husband so we can have some quality time alone together doing fun, relaxing, or adventurous activities
  • Spend time playing with my dogs every day and when possible, take them with me when I exercise.
• Turn StudentTech into a weekly audio podcast. Last year I did three episodes of this podcast but did not lay out a schedule of time or topics for further episodes. To achieve this goal I will:
  • Set up a list of topics to cover each week using Google Wave
  • Schedule time to write and record a podcast each week
  • Try to find people who want to be guests on podcasts in order to change things up a bit

That’s all that comes to mind right now. Do you have any suggestions for other goals I could add to the list? How about ideas for methods to achieve the goals I listed above? Please comment or connect with me on Twitter.

Image Credits:

The Goals poster was found on Drop and Give Me 20 … Pages! using Google Images.

The Chapter One image was found on A Plethora of Positive Energy using Google Images.

The Healthy Food photo was found on Mom-Going-Organic-Sensibly.com using Google Images.

The past decade has been eventful for me! A number of milestones have occured including:

• Worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles
• Got married for the 2^nd time
• Graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree
• Got caught up in the excitement of the Dot Com Boom when I got a job with a web design company
• Witnessed the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and it’s aftermath with the rest of the world
• Got caught by the Dot Com Bust when I got laid off by the web design company and experienced 18 months of unemployment
• Got a job with my current employer
• Bought a House
• Earned my Masters Degree in Health Administration
• Became the proud parent of two beautiful dogs
• Had Gastric Bypass surgery & lost 100 lbs in a year
• Bought my 1^st brand new car
• Got a promotion in my current company
• Started working on my Doctoral Degree in Management and Organizational Leadership
• Joined two Toastmasters clubs and earned my Competent Communicator and Competent Leader Awards

Whew! That’s quite a decade! So, with all of that behind me, what does the future hold? Naturally I can’t predict the future as precisely as the past, but I do have plans. They include finishing my doctoral degree, becoming a college or university instructor, perhaps starting my own business, and maybe doing some traveling with my husband.

I must say that I am excited by the prospects of my future! Most immediately I’m looking forward to researching and writing my dissertation on corporate use of social media. I really enjoy participating in social media and feel that if large corporations (like the one I work for) were to utilize some of the more versatile social media tools, they would be surprised by the resources and ideas they could tap into once their employees start using them.

At the beginning of February 2010 I begin the first real, solid steps down that path. Everything in my doctoral program so far has been in preparation for this next class which is a one-on-one with my Doctoral Mentor, Dr. Nancy Holley. In that class Dr. Holley and I will be solidifying the plans for my dissertation project and setting the plans for how we will proceed until our 2^nd class together in September.

The plans I’ve laid out so far only cover the next couple of years. I don’t know what will happen after that, but I am looking forward to finding out. I’ve always been someone who enjoys the adventures of life. I don’t see that changing any time in the near future…