Leadership Development Plan and Profile

Keith Williams
December 3, 2014
EDLP 300: LDPP
Part I: Beginnings: What have been my pathways to leadership?
 My first real taste of leadership was participating in hall council as a first-year

student at university. On a whim, inspired by the simple motivation of wanting a second

ping pong table for the lounge, I joined a group that represented my residential complex

in various campus efforts, as well as made decisions about event-planning and

purchasing. We werent elected, nominated, or vetted in any real way. It was a learning

opportunity for me, to bear the burden of perceived responsibility in making decisions

about a budget shared by a large group of people. While my participation was inspired

by selfish intentions, it introduced me to a lot of recurring themes for positions of

leadership.

I also spent three years of my undergraduate career serving as a peer tutor in the

Writing Center. My job was working collaboratively one on one and with small groups of

my fellow students. As writing doesnt follow a strict set of facts or procedures, any

meeting was one of a relatively flat power structure; it is hard to maintain authority when

there are no right answers to share. This time and experience imbued in me the value I

carried for a kind of servant leadership; with power and influence should come some

level of responsibility in working for others.

As a writing tutor, my supervisor was the director of the program and an

instructor, overseeing a year-long seminar that also served as the primary vehicle for

training us tutors. She was a teacher and a mentor, and valued the learning process, for

both students and tutors, throughout the stages of academic, professional, and personal

growth. She had a powerful vision that led her employees, and rarely was there any

additional motivation necessary. Value, for both students and tutors, was always at the
forefront of her mind and her policies; that, in turn, made tutors appreciate the

opportunity for them to develop themselves.

After graduating from university, I went to the East Asian country of Taiwan and

taught English to children from a range of ages. As a classroom teacher, there were

certain new skills I had to develop and responsibilities I had to bear; classroom

management and student motivation became daily concerns for me. In the role of a

teacher, I learned about the delicate balance that one must strike with young people; a

strict disciplinarian might inspire fear, but most likely will not lead to the best classroom

dynamics and the most productive learning outcomes. Too lax of a teacher, on the other

hand, and all chaos can break out, undermining the efficacy of a lesson. While nine year

old students and adult professionals cannot be compared directly, I nevertheless laid

the foundation of my philosophy about managing people while under these

circumstances. A person is neither entirely good nor entirely bad; at the same time, a

person will neither work without some potential consequence, nor will they work well

without some positive motivator. More often than not, that positive motivation must

come in some satisfaction in the task at hand, and cant come from the outside. My

students learned more quickly and more effectively if lessons were embedded in fun

games and songs than if everything was a heavily structured activity. In my mind, I

immediately applied this lesson to all forms of leadership.

While a teacher, my supervisor was an older gentleman from South Africa. He

had been in Taiwan as a foreign teacher for over a decade. His style was rigid, and

without compromise. He thought both students and employees should be managed by

way of a set of elaborate rules, governing every aspect of ones day. Further, he was
prone to sexism and sexual harassment in the work place. This combination of traits

served as a powerful negative example for me. This experience reinforced the

importance of, and my personal value in, professional integrity. Respect, honesty, and

ethical behavior should serve as the bedrock of any professional setting; his behavior

illustrated why that is the case. Employees felt uncomfortable around him, embarrassed

and ashamed to work alongside him, and resistant to listen to any advice he might offer.

Beyond that, he offered no room for collaboration, which pushed away the few who may

have been able to tolerate him. At the time, because of how that supervisor made me

and other employees feel, it was important to me that I treat my colleagues and

students differently, and I carried that home with me.

In a broader sense, I gathered many meaningful life lessons from traveling and

working abroad. To leave behind everything that was familiar and comfortable, and

plunge headlong into the unknown was not an easy thing for me. The experience forced

me to face brand new things with no significant time for acclimation. One day, I was at

home in Vermont, and a mere few days later I was an intensive teacher training

program in Taipei, Taiwan. Language, culture, mannerisms, values, physical

environment, and climate had all been turned on their heads. Having lived through that,

I learned that I was capable of so much more than I expected of myself. I now apply this

in dealing with my colleagues and employees; people are capable of more than they

know, and will generally rise to the occasion when presented with the opportunity. In the

long run, a little push in the right direction will inspire some stress, but can also spur

substantial growth.
 Over the last two years, I have served as the program administrator in UVMs

Learning Co-op, where I manage a large number of peer tutors. My role here has

pushed me into a position of leadership in a variety of different ways. A great deal of my

work is recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and managing new tutors. I have had to consider

higher-order concerns, like the capacity of my staff, and taking necessary steps to grow

where it is lacking. The nature of our programs require the majority of my

communication to be digital, through emails and blog posts. This fact has challenged

me in the realm of communication, and I have had to make adjustments to how I

distribute information via text. Finally, much of my work is about the training of new

tutors, and the professional development and continued learning of my staff, comprised

almost entirely of student-employees. While distinct in many ways, my position has

been one with a great deal of overlap with that of a teacher. I have had to lead pupils to

meet minimal acceptable standards, with the room to outperform them, as well frame

my work with them as preparation for the next phase of their life.

During the last six months or so, I have been part of our departments leadership

team, representing my particular unit. This has been a tremendous opportunity to learn

and gain a significantly different perspective. I now have to weigh in on, and reflect on,

the policies related to staff assessment, departmental decision-making, and the

planning and execution of various efforts. Specifically, we continue utilizing restorative

practices as a model for how we run meetings and make decisions. This leads us to

slow, at times agonizingly so, decision-making, but we consider all options almost

completely democratically. While the decision is still ultimately in the hands of the

director, everyone in the department is not just expected to contribute, but are given a
structured opportunity to offer an opinion on the options presented. In the spring, we

spoke for months about changing our name from Academic Support Programs to

Academic Success Programs, but the entire thought-process was open and transparent

for all members of the department. As part of the leadership team, I was able to value

this fact for reasons I wasnt previously capable. I was also, for the first time, at a

supervisory level for the making of a decision that would be impact an entire

department.

My current supervisor has served as a foil to my supervisor in Taiwan. Where he

was rigid and heavy-handed, she is flexible and accommodating; where he was often

unpleasant and aggressive, she is thoughtful and empathetic; where he was frequently

rude or crass, she is warm, welcoming, and inclusive. When there are disagreements,

individuals can discuss and talk through issues under her supervision. With my old

supervisor, the only acceptable answer to a question was the one he himself gave. Just

as my old supervisor provided an example of how to not demonstrate integrity, my

current supervisor serves as an exemplar. All voices are heard, all opinions are

considered, and the well-being of each and every member of the department, as well as

those we serve, are considered when decisions are made. She makes us feel heard,

valued, and important in our community, and I believe we are more productive for it.

I have always felt most comfortable in an academic setting. As a student, I

always felt confident, and, at an early age, I had aspirations of pursuing careers that

would involve me in the world of education. My teenage years led to thoughts of

teaching as a vocation. I was inspired by two instructors in high school; they were both

strict and fierce on the first day of class, but relaxed as the academic year progressed.
They both had incredibly high standards for their students, and accepted nothing but an

individuals best. Generally, despite the difficulty and extra work they created for many,

they were loved by students, parents, and other faculty alike. Students respected them

for their immense knowledge and their ability to motivate. They were the kind of

teachers that brought the best out of their pupils.

I believe these teachers stood out to me so much because of how their approach

to their positions stood at odds with the typical leader in education. These high school

teachers of mine deviated somewhat with these ideas, with their toughness and

classroom management styles. At the time, as their student, and now as an adult with

experience of my own, I value their approach. They blend the conventional with the

unorthodox to create particularly productive circumstances for their students.

The role of leadership is different in education than it is in other fields. More so

than other circumstances, leaders in education must value continued learning and

development, collaboration, and a relationship-oriented style. Whether as a classroom

teacher, or the supervisor of student-employees in a higher education setting, I have

had to prioritize the development of individuals alongside, and occasionally at the

detriment of, the task at hand. These settings require of leaders a delicate balancing

between short-term goals of completing objectives, and the longer-term goals of

developing individuals skills. As an educator of any sort, I have been compelled to

make decisions about my leadership that would benefit students and employees in

these areas. Between my different jobs and different supervisors, I like to think that my

experience has helped me craft a balanced leadership style, that incorporates, at least

in a rudimentary way, a relationship-focused, collaborative element, as well as one that

considers the long-term tasks, goals, and development of both individuals and

organizations under my management.

Part II: In what ways is my leadership conveyed to others?

The opinions of leadership that I formed in my young life contained stark binaries

and rules of utmost certainty. I have long considered the need for a leader - a single

entity at the pinnacle of an organization - was a prerequisite for its existence. While

unpleasant a thought, I considered some level of authoritarianism was a necessary evil

for an organization to function.

In an almost completely irrational line of thought, I have tended naturally to

gravitate toward a laissez-faire system, whether as a follower or during my earliest

moments of leadership. For a very long time, I have believed that ones best work is

done by way of his or her own inherent passion in a particular project. I have

experienced myself, and observed in others, a failure of interest even under the

guidance of particularly great supervisors and teachers, just as I have seen great

personal success with supervision of only seemingly inept or inadequate individuals.

Experiences of life in a broad sense, as well as my work, and the necessities of

being in a position of leadership, have forced me to strike a balance between these

ideas. This transition, from primarily a follower to a leader, has illuminated for me the

links between relationships and development in these contexts. All along, I have thought

that the ability to work with, teach, and inspire others was some natural and inherent

characteristic, more like height or hair color than something learned and acquired. Now,

as a leader myself, the responsibility I now bear in regards to others has suddenly
crystallized this idea for me; everyone needs to actively work to improve in this area,

and its something I now need to cultivate for myself.

At this point, having now gained some experience with leadership, my opinions

have shifted dramatically. In considering the educational world specifically, an ideal

leader should be committed to the role of education first and foremost. This person

needs to be relationship-oriented, focusing on the long-term development of all

members of the organization. The growth of employees, as well as the potential future

contributions, needs to be valued more highly than past accomplishments; the job

requires this development to fill the rapidly, and perpetually, changing needs of students

and community members.

Beyond simply this idea of leader as educator, I think an ideal leader in this kind

of organization would utilize an approach including a democratic style and a relationship

orientation. A leader would need to be thoughtful, collaborative, and inclusive, as the

learning process requires teams of staff members and instructors, but also because the

best learning goes on in groups. Having been exposed to some unorthodox examples of

leadership, such as shared leadership models, I now see not only the possibility, but the

need for approaches to the distribution of authority. Leadership should, for the good of

the organization as well as the constituent individuals, be distributed both around

different units, as well as down the hierarchical ladder.

I believe that recently I have made significant growth in the areas around these

topics. I believe that I have made strides in making growth of all employees my highest

priority, as well as incorporating a more democratic leadership style. In forging and

maintaining relationships, I do my best to put into practice leadership as barrier

deconstruction. In an effort to more effectively provide services, but also minimize

burdens on employees, I work hard to reduce, and occasionally dismantle entirely,

bureaucratic and administrative processes.

However, its this very idea - forging and strengthening relationships - that still

seems to be my main weakness. When soliciting feedback on my ability as a leader, I

received impeccable scores. I am sufficiently self-aware to know that this, more than

anything else, reveals a weakness in my own ability to communicate clearly my desires

and priorities around a particular task to those with whom I work. Interestingly enough, I

received a perfect score for Communicates effectively with others. If I had made myself

perfectly clear, I believe I should have received more variety than the responses I

actually received.

In the end, I have come to the conclusion that inauthentic engagement in a

democratic leadership style and relationship-oriented practices are more detrimental

than not incorporating these styles at alll. While my experience, review of literature, and

personal reflection all underscore the importance of these aspects in a leader, I believe

that they must be goals to be pursued, not mantles to be worn prematurely and

artificially. I will continued to work toward these aspects of leadership, but will also

accept that they will take time, and I must balance my current strengths with traits in

development for the time being.

Part III: The Journey: Where do I go from here?

I see my path going forward structured very much around how I can express,

nourish, and grow my inner life as a leader. I believe the two most important things are
personal growth, both professional and academic, as well as striking a healthy balance

in life.

One way I can develop and express my mental self, as well as develop my skills

as a leader, is to continue pursuing and participating in academic research and

discourse on the topic. Being enrolled in the Leadership and Policy Studies program,

and having now completed a semester, I feel I am ready to venture out into courses that

will focus on more particular aspects and applications. I personally find joy and

satisfaction in being able to stitch together connections between disparate ideas, and I

think continued enrollment in courses that bring me into interaction with peers from

different backgrounds, as well as diverse subject area content, I can continue to

understand the world I must navigate.

Specifically, over the next few years, I anticipate expanding my knowledge by

way of psychology, statistics, and further study in education administration. In

psychology, I hope to gain greater knowledge on learning, motivation, and adult

development. I believe this will help in my efforts to improve my ability to build

relationships and create an environment that promotes collaboration and positive

affects. I think that increasing my understanding of statistical analysis can provide

concrete skills with which I can help to survey employees, students, and partners. With

this additional knowledge, I should be able to calculate more accurately the levels

satisfaction and efficacy related to the programs that I manage. Finally, a continued

focus on the realm of education can help me to narrow down and focus on leadership

practices within this area. A good leader will have both a broad and deep sense of
leadership; I want knowledge from other fields, but I dont want my understanding of the

world of education to be merely superficial.

In a less academic sense, I plan to engage in some independent research on the

leaders around me. Now that I have a sense of existing leadership styles and strategies,

I believe that I can gain a great deal of knowledge in more carefully studying the leaders

within my department, but also around the university. Given that leadership is

personalized and unique, I feel liberated in knowing that I can take ideas from others,

and adapt them to my approach. The people around me have always been a powerful

resource, but now that I am able to identify and distinguish more about their leadership

strategies, there is significantly more available to me than there was before I had this

knowledge.

More generally, my experience with the study of leadership over this semester

has merely cemented a belief Ive always carried; life is best lived when a healthy

balance is struck. Having reviewed and discussed the literature, it seems to me that

being too immersed, too involved in a particular thing is, at best, less productive, and, at

worst, destructive. In order to work and lead optimally, I must give myself space and

time away from the sphere of work and leadership. I believe very strongly that this

applies to everything in life, but it becomes more relevant with commensurate increases

in stress and responsibility. To nourish my inner self, both as a person and as a leader, I

must be sure to explicitly make time to remove myself from these settings, and expand

my mind in alternative ways. The best leaders, and the best creative minds, are able to

incorporate knowledge pulled from unconventional sources into their work; this time

away is as important as anything else I can do.