I think as a leader remembering where you came from and the road to where you are now is important. I come from a blue-collar family with a strong work ethic and belief in education, effort, and respecting everyone. When I started in education, I started at what some would say is an entry-level or ground-level position as a para-professional. I have worked my way up to working at the university as a professor and partial administrator. I state this because I am learning about the human resource perspective on leading organizations—and this framework is one I find comfort in, maybe because I’ve always had to work my way up in organizations or maybe because it makes all work seem more humanizing and brings capitalizes on respect.
I value others’ thoughts and believe everyone has something to bring to the table, and we can all learn from each other. Knowing people’s aspirations and finding ways to encourage and promote these aspirations leads to a more engaged and richer organization. Often when finances are a struggle, this level of support is the first thing that declines, and when layoffs need to happen due to financial constraints, it continues to decline. When leaders do not invest in people, they can become disengaged and apathetic and could ultimately just check out mentally or physically leave a university. The pandemic exacerbated people feeling under-appreciated and, in turn, left more workers disengaged. The job of a leader at this time would seem to be to make people’s contributions to the organization noticed and attempt to reengage culture. Are there ways to do this while many workers want to remain remote? Would requiring in-person contact reestablish culture, or would it drive people further away? Before asking about in-person culture building, should acknowledgment come from personal conversations and departmental praise? I think each individual person wishes and requires something slightly different in their work environment to feel connected, but feeling appreciated is needed regardless of how much in-person or human contact one requires. I have heard that the Dean’s newsletter should be reinstituted because this was a way to get praise across the school. Previously, it was stated that not many people paid attention to or read this newsletter—but what people said pre-pandemic I don’t think should be touted as gospel post-pandemic. I think this is a small way to begin to acknowledge people’s talents and show appreciation for the work being done. I know this is too big a lift for some, but maybe I can take this on as work to do—in starting to build the culture portion of leadership that I wrote about in my last blog post. Culture takes time to develop, and small actions start to add up to shape the organization. I think this can be one small starting point. Knowing what everyone is doing also keeps leaders grounded in “where they came from” and their path to their current position. I also think it helps to know this to encourage and promote aspirations in all employees.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorKristina Scott Archives
February 2023
Categories |