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Passion Project

The Advisor That Cares

In my opinion, life is a passion project. I just don’t really see the point of living a passionless life. I feel like this comes from a place of gratitude. I sincerely feel absolute thanks for the freedom I experience in my daily life. I recognize the gift and opportunity each and every morning presents. I just cannot imagine not looking out across the property as I open or close the gate without thankfulness.

I go to bed each night and reflect on every interaction. I analyze and process what I should have done or said differently. How I better understand someone in my world after an interaction or a miscommunication.

Gosh, working in passion projects means that people are running on high octane for long periods of time. We are often under rested and over caffeinated.

I am not sure how to pour life into those around me who are desperately trying to change and influence the lives of the next generation. These people are passionate about the work they do. They strive to do good work every single day.

They are tired.

We are three days into the registration cycle I planned my innovation to go live. I don’t know how to get my innovation idea in front of the right audience. I completed the ADL program with a growing innovation idea. My department allowed me to complete a NACADA Micro credential course on Flipped Advising with the goal of a proposal. To avoid bias and blindness I used that knowledge and experience to form a committee within our advising unit to explore and form the proposal. These team members have done such a great job taking my thoughts and ideas and expanding them with new perspectives. We utilized so much of the Backward Design principles in last years orientation cycle trying to help students connect the idea that they should be invested in and take ownership of their academic journey. Things were trucking along nicely. The proposal went to several university officials to determine placement, governing body oversight, and digital learning approvals. As different areas signed off on implementation additional information was requested regarding the official proposal, intended audience, and other logistical details. We got all the way to a scheduling conversation and then everything just fizzled out. The committee was ready to move on to planning for “advising 101” type implementation planning. I am just not comfortable moving forward with any additional time, research, or planning until I knew whether or not we had approval to do so.

Hopefully, people are in place now and some of these innovation ideas can come to life and my passion project can take form and evolve into whatever advisors and students need to feel loved and supported.

To be continued…

Personal

Advocating Mediator

The Advisor That Cares

I am an advocating mediator. My entire life, I have found myself in the middle of relationships, situations, or interdepartmental challenges as the person who sees both sides and advocates for a solution.

  • Question: Should we open calendars for late appointments?
  • Answer: Yes
    • Advocating-mediator: Agreed 100%, let me talk to the leadership team about were we can move everyone’s next day’s appointment prep time so that mistakes aren’t made and our customers aren’t angry about same day cancelations.
    • Leadership team, we need to ensure our teams have adequate time to review student records and resolve transcript, hold, schedule errors, etc., while also making sure that the last appointment of the day is reserved for high school seniors needing advising after school.
    • Collaborative discussion about the functions and features of the advising platform and effective solution of setting new availabilities for that last appointment slot to be only for the incoming cohort. Continued discussions on where best to move next day appointment prep so that team members can focus on the task while avoiding overtime. Some teams want to leave it up to individuals, and others want to standardize it. Observations were made about leadership teams’ allotted work time, which is also currently at the end of the day. Continued discussions of equity across the unit and the need for uniformity due to stakeholder meetings across campus left the final decision about where to move next-day prep and team lead work time.

My whole life, I have examined situations from multiple perspectives and genuinely tried to understand everyone’s perspective on the issue at hand.

For most of my professional life, this min-max, efficiency expert, admittedly type A professional personality type of always striving for more and for better, has been made to make me feel bad for being who I am.

I recognize that I push myself too hard, but I don’t push others too hard. I listen to those around me. I collaborate very well and am always willing to modify solutions that take all parties into consideration.

I admit that I am not willing to settle. I don’t think that is a bad thing. I have done so much research in my quest for knowledge about this amazingly beautiful human condition that makes us want to leave an impact.

For someone like myself who has so much personal emotional baggage, striving to do more, be more, and give more is a testament, not a detriment.

I don’t know how to make people realize they can trust me. I work so very hard to be kind, caring, and giving. I tell all team members and leaders how much I see and appreciate their strengths and hard work. They are the most caring bunch of people I have ever known. I have some strong personalities to balance, and every single one is just absolutely passionate about the work they do and the impact we have on students’ lives. I respect that and fight for them all daily.

I know I’m not alone. Every middle manager is trying to meet the administration’s demands while hearing and addressing the needs of front-line workers.

I believe I have proven that I am always striving for solutions that allow both goals and initiatives to be met with that 80/20 mindset of doing everything by the established policies 80% of the time, recognizing that at that final push finish line, hopefully, only 20% of the population will require so much extra effort across the whole campus.

The turnover rate and team morale plummet when they have to rework the same schedules repeatedly, as new information is gathered after the fact.

We were asked to find proactive ways to increase enrollment and provide valuable advising. We spent months discussing ways to do more outreach to these populations and connect them with the advising office.

We were asked to reduce backdated drops/refunds due to additional information sent by students well after enrollment (and often well after the semester start date). We determined that meeting with students in various formats (in-person, virtual, email) would allow students to alert advisors to pending/potential coursework, thereby allowing a first-semester schedule that avoided those course areas until additional transcripts, score reports, etc., could be received and processed by the admissions office.

We established a campaign with a built-in communication plan through the use of reminder nudges. Utilizing the advising platform’s appoint campaign feature, we can welcome incoming students to the institution by either routing them to a specialist to complete assessment requirements and then to advise or directly to advise when those requirements are satisfied.

Not wanting to miss any incoming contacts with our parent/student populations contacting the front desk until these campaigns get sent in one week, a call list was requested so that leadership could confirm and ensure students were added to advising invitations.

A. I just don’t know how to earn/establish trust both upline and downline.

B. I don’t want to keep apologizing for who I am because I believe I have proven my initiatives effective.

Where do I go from here? Are there advocating mediator positions in the world where all my personality characteristics and skills can be utilized and valued?

I have located one company that is 100% powered by the concept of Simon Sinek’s Why. I recently attended a professional conference and found a whole community college founded and functioning from it. I have been trying to build and establish this why culture by bringing choice, ownership, and voice to the advising unit, but I am really feeling overwhelmed at the moment by the amount of apathy and defeat surrounding me.

I can’t just mark time.

I won’t just march forward to my grave.

I have a life to live and blessings to give. I really hope that I can find ways to give them where I am, but I am willing to find other ways to utilize my gifts. I know in my heart of heart, given the right supportive environment, I can help bring positive change to workplace culture and efficiency.

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Professional Pitch

The Advisor That Cares

Soft pitch, day two.

Once again, I’m letting parts of my heart slip and show with my colleagues, and no one is running away screaming in fear. It seems like everyone is really excited about some of my ideas.

I pitched having brief Monday morning (WIG meetings – though I didn’t call it that) to set our goals and intentions for the week. I suggested Friday afternoon review of the week’s collaborations where teams “check each others work” to help cross each other T’s and dot each other’s “i’s” so to speak.

I pitched the concept of new year, new us. Beginning with the day after the last day to register, we are going to come up with a departmental New Years Resolution (WIG – didn’t call it that) but it really is happening.

A wonderful addition of review plus board games, team-building at the rec, adult coloring pages, board games, or whatever sounds fun to the team. I am so excited for the new year.

ADL Program, Evolution, Goals, Influencer, Leadership, Personal, Professional, Relationship, Why

Love Your Job!

The Advisor That Cares

“When we feel safe. When we feel that our leaders care more about us than a number. They care more about our lives and our confidence, and our joy and our skillset more than some short-term gain… we will respond in kind and we will offer our blood our sweat and our tears and we will make sacrifices of all kinds to see that our leader’s vision is advanced” (REDDOT X, 2018).

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress.

Working hard for something we love is called passion“

(REDDOT X, 2018)

References

REDDOT X. (2018, July 13). HOW TO BE a LEADER  – motivational speech by Simon Sinek [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urrYhnaKvy4

Humor, Personal, Professional, Relationship, Teamwork

Such a Nerd

The Advisor That Cares

No offense intended by using the term “nerd” because I am a self-proclaimed goofball, silly goose, and nerd. So, I want to share a little piece of that with you because it is an example of how this program has helped me live authentically and how I am beginning to share myself with my team.

If you are participating in the upcoming event, I ask that you stop reading here and don’t steal my awesomely nerdy idea. Agreed? Okay, let’s continue.

So, I may have mentioned in a previous blog that our institution is celebrating its centennial celebration (woot woot, centennial class!). Leaning into that 100-year achievement, this upcoming weekend, we will participate in a campus preview event. These are typically themed, and this fall’s theme is “A Century of Leaders.” Boy, oh boy, were we stumped.

We’d recently done a decade of leadership and struggled to think of something new. “Cheers to 100 years” and President Taylor for taking a picture with our booth at the Spring event. We showcased the 100 years of university presidents and had university annuals from the 1950s to the 70s for guests to view.

Photographs of the last 100 years of Lamar University presidents is strung between red letters reading Cheers to 100 Years" below them and "LAMAR" clothes pinned above. President Jaime Taylor agreed to be photographed with his photo in the display.

So, one morning, I was mulling over the theme. I kept repeating, “A century of leaders, A century of leaders, leaders, leaders, leaders, leaders, humm liters?!?!”

What if we created liter bottle people to represent a century of leaders liters. So, I pitched the idea to my immediate supervisor. Then, I pitched the idea in a staff meeting. Needless to say, I was met with many stares of “Are you kidding me?” but no one flat out said, “That’s stupid,” and no one offered a better suggestion, so away we went. In my head, I could hear them saying they were crafty and couldn’t possibly create 6people from 2-liter bottles. But I was prepared. I came armed with middle school assignments to create just such a thing. I asked them if they could think of anything else, and I came prepared with lists of distinguished alumni and a more contemporary top 25 most recognizable alumni. We began brainstorming who we could create and showcase as our entry into the prize-winning contest.

I feel so much like Dr. Harapnuik when he says he’s so sneaky in how he helps us learn, collaborate, and grow (COVA). My teams have worked together to create their “bottle buddies.” When I explained in the staff meeting that 5th graders were making these, I found that everyone stopped thinking they couldn’t. We just needed a little dose of Growth Mindset. I will see staff members wandering off with felt, hot glue guns, and any crafting supplies I and others brought to the office.

The culture is shifting. There is teamwork happening. It is so exciting!

I have selected Florene Miller Watson as my most recognizable alumni of LU to honor with a crafty creation since I visited the WASP Museum in Sweetwater, Texas.

Goals, Growth, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Personal, Reflecting

Find your Element

The Advisor That Cares

In the On Point interview, Sir Ken Robinson (2013) shares that as a young person, he found himself in special education classes and recognized people around him. “Finding what lies within” became a personal passion (Wbur, 2013).

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2013/06/19/sir-ken-robinson

This makes me very interested in learning more about his books:

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Accountability

The Advisor That Cares

Personal. Professional. Academic.

Accountability.

Man, it really does go so far in helping you work through your own thoughts and ideas. Just having someone ask you what is working, what could be better, and just check in to say, did you consider this? You may have overlooked that? Don’t forget you wanted to do this. I keep thinking of the WIG sessions for 4DX; what did you do to move the WIG, what are you committing to do in the next week to continue moving the WIG, what are you not meeting expectations, and how will you improve or compensate?

Academically, I’m feeling a bit out on an island, so I’m throwing out some feelers to see if I can rectify that. Professionally, my leaders are doing a great job holding their team members accountable. They are collaborating and seem to be moving toward healthy functioning teams. I am doing everything I can to be a supportive leader and teammate by asking for their feedback and ideas, genuinely appreciating their efforts, and hoping (thinking) that the workplace environment (morale) is improving.

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Picturing the Finish Line

The Advisor That Cares

Somebody pinch me. I must be dreaming!

I have spent hours and hours watching Learner’s Mindset Discussions. Never would I ever have dreamed I would be in one! What a dream come true to sit and visit with two inspirational educators.

LMD EP47