Courses
Required Courses followed by Electives
ORGL 600 Foundations of Leadership
In this introductory course, I learned the term servant-leadership. I also decided to drop my concentration so that I could gear my electives towards a role leading a Talent team. Taking the SLPI was useful as well because I learned that my innate servant-leadership was reflected in my highest trait of "Encourage the Heart". This trait exposed that I focus heavily on community and empowering others. My weakest trait was "Challenges" and knowing this encouraged me to work harder to find ways to challenge myself and find new opportunities.
ORGL 605 Imagine Create Lead
I was able to take 605 immediatley following 600. I was still on a high after learning about servant-leadership and then I experienced the 3 day virtual immersion. The readings in this course were less valuable to me than the immersion and subsequent conversations. The most important result from this course came during a challenge posed in the immersion where I lead my classmates to translate foreign languages together. My belief in myself and my leadership skills were reignited by this challenge. Then, Dr. Popa said something that I still say today, "it is not the change itself that people fear, but it's the perceived loss that comes with change." This one phrase meant so much to me and I used it in my sales job and my current role, where I make constant changes to my team. It was after this class that I started to truly understand the magnitude of this program and the amazing resource of my classmates.
ORGL 610 Communication and Leadership Ethics
This was my first course with Dr. Hoover and was the first time that a class had weekly zoom sessions. I enjoyed these sessions because I was able to connect with my classmates virtually, which made our DB posts more meaningful. I found the topic of Ethics harder than I thought it would be. For my papers, I chose to discuss the murder of George Floyd and how that affected life in my hometown of Richmond, VA. Being the former "capital of the confederacy" caused alot of newly uncovered tensions. The topic of removing confederate statues was daily, and completing the assignments for this course made me look closely at my community and how we chose to protect or not protect our citizens. My takeway competencies were understanding the importance of articulating organizational values and making ethical decisions in collaborative forums. However, neither of these felt as natural as other competencies, like servant-leadership.
ORGL 615 Organizational Theory and Behavior
This was the most difficult class for me in the program. The Systems Loops Journals made me think so far outside of my current understanding of cross relationships within an organization. My most useful takeaway was to not underestimate how groups can affect other groups, within or outside of your organization.
ORGL 506 Leadership and Diversity
This was one of the courses that I was looking forward to since the beginning of the program. It was my second course with Dr. Houglum, who I enjoy as a professor. This course was important for two main reasons. First, I am in a bi-racial marriage and want to learn and understand as much as I can about his life experiences and his family. Second, my goal is to work in DEIB space and the course readings made me think about diversity in a different way, especially, Allen and Bordas. I recently had a conversation about diversity and inclusion and discussed one of my learnings, which is that diversity is not only racial. In order to truly consider diverse groups, we must also consider gender, socio-economic background, sexual orientation and more. This course has helped me start the DEIB conversation at my current company.
• Competencies:
Students apply intercultural communication concepts to identify DEI goals and needs, and develop, implement and evaluate DEI initiatives within an organization. I am using DEIB learnings in two ways. First, I will recruit by focusing on a diverse and inclusive workforce. Second, I am working towards creating DEIB training for our employees.
ORGL 515 Human Potential
This was my second course with Dr. Hoover. I found that I really enjoyed repeating professors because the level of intimacy and understanding was much deeper by the second course. My biggest takeway from this course was learning about growth mindset. Since learning that term, I recognize growth vs rigid mindset in so many different types of settings. Most importantly, I started to realize that my company, while progressive and large, had a rigid mindset when it came to career progression. Understanding this allowed me to be brave and break away into my next path of HR. Another equally important aspect of the class was reading about Appreciative Inquiry and learning how much words and actions were potentially harming my son when he had meltdowns. My words could affect my son's belief in himself so it was absolutely necessary for me to be more thoughtful in my interactions with him. To be able to utilize this program to become a better mother meant more to me than anything else I had learned.
ORGL 530 Servant-Leadership
Reading Greenleaf and Spears was perhaps the most important influential portion of my program. This course helped me understand my calling and gave me a clearer picture of how to be a transformational leader. Talking with my husband throughout this course also engaged him to read more about servant-leadership to learn more about his leadership style.
• Competencies:
Articulate a personal, servant-centered philosophy of leadership. I am leading my team as a servant-leader. We talk regularly about their career aspirations and needs.
ORGL 550/551 Teambuilding &
Advanced Teambuilding
Teambuilding was THE CLASS that I had waited for since January 2021 when I started the program. I purposely took it in 2022 hoping that Covid restrictions would be lifted and it would be in person. And it was! However, I got stuck in Atlanta and missed the immersion. I was devastated but as Dr. Armstrong said, "I made lemonade out of lemons." Initially, I was going to create a teambuilding project geared towards a future team. However, during this course, I got my current role as director. I was able to use the book Culture Code to help build a teambuilding retreat for my new team. Tomorrow, I leave for DC to meet my new team in person and spend 1.5 days together. The agenda is the one I put together for my final project. There is nothing more satisfying than putting what we learn into action, particularly team development and communication.
• Competencies:
To increase knowledge and understanding of team development. I will create and organize regular, perhaps quarterly, in person meetings to keep team connected and relevant to our clinics.