Leadership Management Business Improvement Plan Discovery #1 Ideal Self, #2a True Self My name is Tanesha Bokally. I am the eldest of 9. I am a Child of God, business owner, wife, daughter, sister, mother, friend, etc. I have a Bachelor of Architecture, Certificate in Construction Business Management, and a Certificate in Business Skills. I have worked in the AEC industry for decades and as a Certified Business Advice Mentor for more than five years. I have a list of awards and achievements. “My personal vision is to live life profitably; one that glorifies God; that draws others to Christ; that demonstrates my purpose, talent and gifting; and that echoes this human vessel stewards well." Whether leading or serving, I must steward well. Ownership starts with knowing who I am in Christ. I am his workmanship. The Bible is the filter which give my actions and decisions structure. I am to work in this Earth in service to God knowing that I will be held accountablefor how I steward the assets given to me, whether tangible or intangible. Profit isn't just money but increase in a multiple of different areas. Building and restoring relationships is kingdom business. Community connections are vertical (spiritual), horizontal (natural) and full circle. God is loyal and faithful, so I can be loyal and faithful. My confidence in God empowers me to use my gifts and talents to accomplish my purpose in the Earth. (re-iterated from class assignment #1) I am a managing member at a management consultant firm. Urbanetectonics, LLC serves as an umbrella for management consultant service in vertically integrated divisions for Owners, Managers, and Administrators who need quality management solutions and business process outsourcing. “The firm's vision or plans long-term are to build the best frameworks, centralized constructs that enhance economic hubs and support business ecosystems.” “The firm's mission or our calling is to conserve business constructs and preserve business owners, managers and administrators through the implementation of quality management systems.” Business conservation seeks proper, efficient or effective use. Business owner preservation seeks protection from overuse or burnout. Discovery #2a True, Perceived, and Ideal Self; #2b Similar; #2c Different One of the conflicts that I see personally and in the business is those that center around loyalty, community, and network. I have reviewed our cooperative and business process competitors. Their vision and mission statements speak directly to relationships, whether client, employee or community. (re-iterated from class assignment #2)
I have always had strong healthy relationships, whether family, friends, professional or community. Our professional network strength today is at levels that are unacceptable and are problematic. There are a number of reasons that this has happened and there is work being done personally and within the business to restore, to correct and to build stronger loyalty, community, and networks that are sustainable and authentic. An African-American woman leading in male-dominated fields or a project teams, I am rough around the edges, cut-throat and tough in my approach. If I don't, I will be taken advantage of, stolen from, trodden in poverty or even worse I could get hurt. An African- American woman leading in the community and by faith is a gentle, personal and a safe approach. An African-American woman who is wife, mother, daughter, sister, etc. helps me to stay grounded and find balance between public, semi-public, semi-private and private faces, which can become exhausting to keep up with. I became self-aware of my leadership behavior through classroom learning, assignments and readings. I discovered I was a formal leader, who could be transformational and transactional as appropriate. I employ active management by exception. I am task- oriented, achievement-oriented and an authoritarian decision maker. My personality traits coincide with openness and conscientiousness. I display neuroticism at times. I discovered the challenges of balancing my real or authentic self between the gaps to my ideal self and in the feedback from others of my projected self. I began to see these challenges first with my nieces and nephews; with former classmates; and other professionals. Each has a perspective of who I am based on when and how they interacted with me. My family calls me Tammy and don't know I have a legal name. My professional network calls me Tanesha and don't really know me as Tammy. I had to marry the two as the firm built a second location in my childhood home State of Ohio. It was more difficult then expected. The decision for the second location in Ohio was privy to several bias. I have some good friends who are engineers who know me personally and professionally. These two mechanical engineers' feedback strikes a balance between personal and professional. I posed these three questions to them. What are my: 1. Values 2. Strengths 3. Weaknesses 4. In what areas have I grown in the past 6 - 12 months This is their responses. Mechanical Engineer 1, Best Friend Values: Determined and Inquisitive. Strengths: Fearless in your approach to live life. Weaknesses: Inability to stay put in one spot and let the seeds you're planting grow to full blossom. Growth over the past year: the setting and pursuit of educational goals.
Mechanical Engineer 2, Husband Values: God, Honesty and Fairness Strengths: Perseverance, Beliefs, Ignore Negativity Weakness: Ignore Negativity; Adversity with Calm Growth: Tolerance, Adaptability I believe the feedback I have received from the two engineers' chart similar to my ideal self and aligns with my real self for the most part. The values they denoted are an overflow of my push towards my ideal self. In contrast, I am not fearless. I weigh the risks. I make calculated decisions. My pursuit of the engineering management credential has been at large a business improvement decision-making exercise. I have panic attacks, test anxiety and avoid conflict. Both individuals have pointed out personal stability issues, whether they see it as an internal emotional or external physical challenge. One denotes it positively. I have tolerance and adaptability. The other sees it as stumping growth. In reality, I move and travel with my husband, who is in the oil & gas/transportation/midstream industries. I thrive and am my best self in stability and structure. I discovered that clients and other professionals may have these same differing views. I will need to take a counteractive measure. Discovery #3 Learning Agenda My learning agenda is usually the firm's annual learning plan for managing members. The training plan uses traditional classroom learning and test taking to a credential. The Master of Engineering in Engineering Management will coincide with the business analysis, business intermediary, quality engineer, ARE and PE training and credential goals. The learning plan for managing members doesn't have any required soft skills. This will have to change. The firm's Gamma Learning courses include communication, non-verbal communication, and team building. The courses are self-paced 30 minutes sessions. The duration of the courses could be 2 days to 16 weeks. I have intentionally introduced action learning projects in my day to day activities. These projects will offer a qualitative
assessment to building training plans in emotional intelligence, exposure therapy, and self-awareness development. A directly applicable course or training will be selected, after experimental and experiential study. Assessments will include interactive feedback from advisory board members, team members, clients, etc. It's how we have formed most of our training plans, which have done well nationally and internationally. I discovered through the leadership course lecture that emotional intelligence is high in leaders and low in managers. I believed the opposite was true. I learned leadership styles should vary with follower competencies. One of the firm's tag lines is “We Manage.” It speaks to the firm's role, service and approach to using scientific methods and system thinking. The firm does focus on changing process and systems. People follow process and systems. The service is successfully delivered through cohesive project teams, the firm doesn't market that we focus on people-first. The firm markets empathy and solutions for the problems faced by owners, managers and administrators. These types of roles are our clients, advisory board members and project team members. Discover #4a Experimenting and #4b Practicing The approach to applying new information personally and within the firm has been agile, experimental action research. The required training plan for managing members in soft skills will most likely be based on qualitative assessments. I have begun experimenting with empathy and emotional intelligence exercises on social media. The firm is resuming posts that inspire motivation, stimulate intellectually and are authentic to the firm's culture. As seen with this documentation of intentional change, it is hard to separate personal values from organizational values. Personal selling and direct marketing for services require the service, person and expectations to be marketed in alignment. I do understand that personality and culture whether positive or negative reads through in social media feeds as responses are posted. I have begun exposure therapy exercises to address periodic panic attacks and test anxiety. I am addressing a childhood trauma where I was injured while diving. I had my first swimming re-learn. Moving to fast, I hit my head on the wall but other than that it went well. I have increased my professional Linkedin connections and feeds to include more professionals and tutors in finance, statistics, government contracting and industry software I need to be proficient in. I have become self-aware of my leadership activities and personal activities I enjoy. I have taken corrective measures and have taken steps to make those things I enjoy a part of my routine. I recently had a birthday, I love to sing and tried karaoke. I had my favorite cheesecake instead of regular birthday cake. I went to a restaurant I liked instead of opting for the traditional restaurant the family always goes to. I decided to establish a gift giving plan based on age, church offering plan and non-profit volunteerism to coincide with my life plan and family budget. I began to think, Is this authoritarian? Pleasantly, attendees embraced and enjoyed the changes. My brother said, I am proud of you. I am impressed.
Discovery #5 According to the definition, resonant leadership is a leadership style that focuses on building responsive relationships between the leader and the followers to foster an environment of trust and respect. We will build that trust and respect personally and professionally by being responsive, being reliable, being knowledgeable, giving empathy, providing assurance and quality deliverables. Clients and professionals have complained about non-responsiveness. Fulfillment of these service expectations will convey intangible and tangible stability. Through relationship, culture measurements and expectations will be monitored, whether a personal acquaintance, a class member, a client, advisory board member, professional team member, or managing member. Conversations, discussions, questionnaires, surveys, interviews, focus groups, referrals, and real time feedback will be collected, analyzed and addressed. This is how it will be proven that progress has been made and/or changes need to be made. This data will be balanced and weighted with project achievement and outcomes. As I engaged in discussion and feedback with team member, the subject of clear and concrete messaging rang clear. Again, my group experience on this project exposed that I had an expectation that I had to adjust. Once engaged in discussion, I thought I was communicating clearly, and feedback suggested I needed to adjust and communicate more clearly. I can adjust. That is my true self and projected self. However, the challenge for me will be to use communication methods that convey clearly the intent the first time, not trial by error. Communication in a team really helped me to see that. In balancing the ideal, true and projected self, I have learned how to compose a personal balance sheet of discovery that introduces my authentic self, whether in the past, operating now or an ideal becoming for the future. This discovery process is useful and can be used to develop resonant leadership skills within the POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Control) framework of management functions. Works cited: The Bible. Boyatzis, R. E., Smith, M. L., Van Oosten, E., & Woolford, L. (2013). Developing Resonant Leaders Through Emotional Intelligence, Vision and Coaching. Organizational Dynamics, 42(1), 17-24. Principles of Management by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Donnelly Jr, James H., Gatton College of Business and Economics University of Kentucky; Peter, J. Paul, University of Wisconsin–Madison; 2015, A Preface to Marketing Management Fourteenth Edition.
