MSLD - Rivera, Chad

       I attended the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) for my undergrad and a common expression that we use to describe our school is that it is a “leadership laboratory.” We were constantly in charge of events, expected to exhibit superb time management skills, and we were responsible for taking care of underclassmen when it came to training, discipline, and honor awareness. One of the most important things I learned is that I cannot fully and satisfactorily take care of my team if I do not know his/her personality, what motivates them, and where their interests lie. I initially thought they should be able to tell me their strengths and weaknesses, which I would use to build from. However, I have grown to understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg. I need to form my own list of where each of my employees flourish and where they need help. This will allow the opportunity to capitalize on their individual talents, but also ensure that they are not fall...

Any highly-successful team is comprised of members with clearly-defined roles and responsibilities in addition to the team’s overall common goals. The best time to establish roles is at the very beginning of team formation prior to any actual work getting done. Without team roles there would likely be chaos within the team. According to Whetton & Cameron (2016), common roles can range from the leader, to task-facilitator, to relationship-builder, and to unproductive (p. 428). Leaders should work to develop credibility and articulate a clear vision. Task-facilitators should provide direction, enforcement, and synthesis of information (p. 423). Relationship-builders should be supportive, energizing, harmonizing, and confronting while tension relieving (p. 424). An important note is that all team members can serve in multiple roles at once, but, in different facets. However, the leader is more of a special, singular position because a team cannot have too many “chiefs,” so to speak. W...

     During my short career one particular supervisor stands out above the rest in regards to employee empowerment. This supervisor, Caitlyn Diffley, put me in charge of a large program within the U.S. Air Force Academy Admissions office at just 22 years old. The program was called the Diversity Visitation Program (DVP) which organized and executed week-long visits, or camps, at the school. The program required scheduling complex itineraries with several events and third-parties along with the transportation logistics during the event, but also to get students to and from their homes. We served as travel agents where we booked flights well in advance, we organized food sustainment, we made room arrangements for the high schoolers to stay with current cadets, and we escorted the participants around each day. This was a high-visibility program and very important to the admissions office.       Diffley truly embodied what it meant to delegate by trusting ...

       “While conflict is inevitable, it is not always dangerous or damaging” (Sweetman, 2009). In the TED talk, William Ury (2010) states there with the world more interconnected than ever thanks to modern technology, the more the world is like a big family reunion which inevitably brings arguments. He argues that the majority of conflicts have two major sides and an additional third side, which is the side that reminds the parties what is really at stake in a facilitator and mediator type of role. Throughout his talk he speaks of personal experiences around the world and in discussions with world leaders where he served as the third side to bring the discussions back into perspective in order to refocus on the objective and tamper emotions. Ultimately, Ury (2010) claims that the third side is the secret to peace if everyone can learn to effectively serve in the role as a listener with empathy, to treat others with hospitality over hostility, and to diplomatically c...

     In the TED talk, Dan Ariely outlines the importance of meaningful work, the secrets to work motivation, and what makes us feel good about our work (2013). He discusses a few scenarios to get us to think more deeply on the subject. For example, climbing mountains is an experience full of misery, yet people do it for the challenge and gratification upon completion of a difficult task. Ariely elaborates that this can be translated to work environments as well. His example was an employee developing a presentation for a merger that did not end up going through which resulted in a sense of wasted effort. He claims that sense of progress is critical to work motivation. In order to make his point he focuses on the opposite where he talks about a common prison punishment of digging a hole, having it filled, and digging the same hole over and over again which causes lack of motivation. Ariely claims that making people feel valued means that a leader must also acknowledge thei...