Life lessons from the MPA program

This week in "MPA Class Updates That Are Likely Uninteresting to Most," I'm sharing my response to a discussion board for my Organizational Management and Behavior class. The professor listed eight sentence prompts for which we had to complete the sentences, delving into our own personality and management traits. I had fun writing it, so maaaybe some of you will have fun reading it? If you're interested at all in leadership and organizations, you'll find some food for thought, at least.

A good organization has...healthy channels of communication both vertically and laterally.

A skilled manager must...rely on the skills of others at appropriate times, not just her/his own skills.

A leader always...has more responsibility than a follower. I think it’s very difficult to be a good leader, and yet it’s a worthy and compelling endeavor.

When someone wants to be influential in organizations, he or she must...make friends with those at the bottom of the hierarchy, not just those at the top.

I’m thinking of a case study I read last semester for another class where the newly hired CEO of a hospital made a point of walking around the various units and speaking to nurses, patients, families, etc. She did this on a regular basis despite her busy schedule. She also held regular “town halls” to hear from staff, and made sure that these town halls were scheduled at various times of the day and night to accommodate all workers’ schedules. The result was that the vast majority of staff really liked the CEO, and when it came time for implementing changes, she had the unwavering support of nearly all stakeholders.

In order to get ahead in organizations, I always...try to embody a learning and growth mindset. There is always more to learn, and by taking those learning opportunities whenever they arise, you make yourself more and more valuable to the organization.

As a leader, I like to...remain in touch with the needs of those around me. We all know far too many stories of managers who create policies that are actually detrimental to the organization, but the manager thinks these policies are a great idea, simply because s/he is so out of touch with the realities of the work. If anyone has seen the movie Hidden Figures (which I highly recommend!), there’s an emotional scene where Katherine finally breaks down and explains to her boss about a circumstance that is impeding her work. The boss leaves the room, takes matters into his own hands, and changes that circumstance immediately. He recognized that the system was preventing his employee from doing her best work, and without delaying, utilized his power to change that system for the better. To me this is an inspiring moment, and reflects (to some degree at least) the type of supervisor I want to be.

When faced with conflict, I usually...have to force myself to be assertive rather than withdrawing into passivity. I’ve learned quite a bit about healthy conflict, so I know in theory what is ideal, but it’s much more difficult to exercise those behaviors in practice!

My strengths as a manager include...open-mindedness to different ways of doing things. I think it’s important to continually ask ourselves why we are doing things a certain way. Simply saying “because we’ve always done it that way” isn’t a good enough reason. This is one point that’s come up for me several times while reading about the different organizational frames. While it isn’t a bad thing to continue old practices, we have to regularly re-evaluate whether or not those practices are actually the best fit for the organization. As the organization goes through different seasons of it’s life, it’s likely that the best approach to management will also evolve.