Tag Archives: organizational leadership program

What Is a Persistent Optimizer?

15 Oct

What Is a Persistent Optimizer?

Once I get a big question in my head, it doesn’t leave. I will drive in to work thinking about insights and answers, spend all day working on solutions, drive home thinking, and then spend my most productive evening hours working on solutions. I will read voraciously the best material I can find about the issue. I will find the experts on the issue, talk to them, and read what they have to say. I will start to zoom in on the large themes and connections I see and develop my own unique response to the question or problem at hand. Though intense, this is fun for me! Finding big answers to big questions is where I gain the most energy.

Persistent Optimization – A Story

In 2007, six months into my current job, I saw that our manual CRM and registration system was not adequate for the future. I saw the trend that people were going to increasingly register and purchase goods and services online. I spent an extra 100 hours outside of my normal work hours in the month of January 2007 analyzing our customer and staff needs, researching potential options, talking to experts, and eventually designing and developing a custom registration and CRM application, from scratch. This was a big and complex problem that was quite fun to solve. We went from 0% online registration to 70% in just one year. We increased our attendance over 30% in the next five years. I estimate that we saved 4-8% in personnel costs, and we drove our mailing costs down to $0 through the use of automated emails and CRM communication functions.

My Strengths

Deep understanding of how to bring value to an organization

I seek out root causes and hate to see surface solutions stall the discovery of root change. I also love data because it gives one important piece of the puzzle when determining whether or not some solution is successful. Data helps you focus on the right things. I know that value is best-measured with supporting data. I bring the highest value to any work because I revel in measuring the details. I design and implement human performance solutions and systems that solve root issues.

Focus on human performance and solutions

I pursued and completed graduate studies in leadership not to simply lead but to discover ways to allow people to perform at their highest levels. I discovered early on in my teaching career that the social and emotional  dimensions of people’s lives are just as important as the cognitive and pyschomotor components. I work to bring good change to people and organizations.

Instinctive ability to work at the highest level

I also love to learn myself and pursue topics of interest as deeply as possible. I am well read across diverse disciplines and am able to walk into any given organization and discern issues and areas of opportunity very quickly, by both observing processes in motion and by talking with leaders, workers, and customers. People want to work with me because they know I am trustworthy and support their success.

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What is Organizational Leadership?

15 Oct

I completed a Master of Science degree in organizational leadership in 2011. I have been asked more than a few times, “What is your degree in?” I found that many elements distinguished my experience and I wanted to share what this study of leadership really meant to me.

The organizational leadership program focused a great deal on ethics. This was a program to learn not just to lead, but to lead in a way that was good, just, and right. These are lofty ideals, yes, but have an urgent importance. Organizational cultures are created by big decisions and influential events, but they are also created by the decisions people make all day, every day.

“Our Small Decisions as Leaders Have Great Effect on the Future”

Our job as leaders is to be conscious of the effect both our large and seemingly small decisions have on the people around us and the organizations we lead. It is easy to forget that today’s decision has effects far into the future. Double this with the short-term success pressures one often faces and it is even harder to make the right decision for long-term success.

One thing leaders can do to combat these pressures is to recognize their own tendencies, personality traits, and needs. What we do under pressure can be very different than what we might do in a less intense situation. Knowing what literally gets our blood boiling is very helpful. Recognizing the potential for a situation to upset us and bring out our fallback responses allows us to prepare better to make better decisions that reflect our better selves.

I also learned that leaders must recognize the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of those they lead. The situational leadership theory we studied was one of my favorite theories and suggested we give a great deal of attention to those we lead. We increase our reach as a leader by empowering others to do great work.

I covered these topics at various levels of detail and through various disciplines within the organizational leadership program. The program gave me the experience of looking critically at myself and reflecting on the decisions I make every day. It enabled me to recognize the important ways leaders affect those around them and how that affect helps bring success or failure.

See also, “The Three Leadership Essentials I’ve Learned”.

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