HDF 412 Leadership Capstone Portfolio Jacqueline Atkins Fall 2012 Jacquelinedanielle.yolasite

1. HDF 412 Leadership Capstone Portfolio Jacqueline Atkins Fall 2012 Jacquelinedanielle.yolasite.com

2. Signature Strengths Competition Maximizer Empathy Strategic Individualization Values in Action Strengths 1. Hope,Optimismand Future-mindedness 2. Leadership 3. Industry, Diligence andPerseverance 4.Appreciationof Beauty and Excellence 5. Creativity, Ingenuity andOriginality

3. OPENING STATEMENT From HDF 412 I have studied how to have a crucial conversation, how to be a more inclusive leader and how to deal with a crisis from a leadership standpoint. I have learned how to apply Knott’s 7-D approach to my 4 goals I created for myself this semester. I have also learned about more leadership theories and improved my knowledge of past theories. *Note: all evidence is in my binder

4. SECTION 1 SELF LEADERSHIP Student will demonstrate autonomy and a minimized need for approval In HDF 412 one of my capstone project goals is to figure out what I want to do with my life when I graduate. My current job on campus is influencing my decision a lot. When I began my job as a student event advisor a year ago I was not autonomous at all. Never having been in a role like that before I asked a lot of questions and was always looking for someone to guide me to a new task when I finished the one assigned to me. However a year later I know my job well and have actually begun to create my own tasks to get done. When I finish with what I am told needs to be done I can now access other things I think should get done even if no one else has thought of them yet. I began creating my own rack cards for groups that I think will be beneficial to them and help them plan their events. I have also gained a lot of autonomy when it comes to creating the ads that I am asked to make. Originally I would ask exactly what my supervisor was looking for, but now I trust my gut and create what I think is an appropriate design and have found a lot of success doing this. Because of how well my autonomy is working out in the field of creative advertising I think that is what I want to look into doing when I graduate. Evidence: SEA Rack Card

5. SECTION 2 Leadership Theory and Models Student will describe personal application of experiential learning in leadership development (Kolb) I first learned of the idea of experiential learning from challenge course facilitation training. One of the debriefing techniques we were taught was to ask groups the what, so what and now what, questions to get the m to reflect on what just happened on the course. This debriefing technique, along with captain, cargo, crew became one of my favorite ways to reflect with a group. Many times during courses that I have run I have used this debrief. Since courses blend together after a while rather than pick a specific example I will just explain how I use this debrief when working on the challenge course. After a group completes their element, what is seen as the actually doing something portion of this model, I help them to reflect back on what they just accomplished. In this step I ask the ‘what’ question where I am just asking a group to tell me what just happened. Answers to this question may be very simple such as “we succeeded” or “we failed” to “teamwork and communication made us able to reach our goals” to “we were a mess, no one stepped up as a leader and we couldn’t figure it out”. Once everyone has shared their opinions on what just happened I move into the ‘so what’ or reflective observation part of this model. Here I ask a group “okay so you just told me all of this stuff happened, but what does it mean?” This is where groups usually talk about how teamwork is important and communication is essential reaching their groups goals. Lastly we then talk about the ‘now what’. This is the part where I as a facilitator help groups to bridge the gap between what happened on the course and what happens on campus within their group. In this step groups usually explain how when they go back to campus they need to listen actively to each other, let each other share opinions, compromise, and speak up. Kolb’s last part of the model is not something I see on the challenge courses because it is the part where groups go back to campus and apply what they learned on the challenge course to their group and see what happens. Evidence: Ropes Course Information

6. SECTION 3 Inclusive Leadership / Diversity and its application to leadership Student will demonstrate knowledge of the “Cycles of Socialization” (Harro) theory and its uses in leadership The first time I learned this theory was in Robert Vincent’s activism class, however when I was looking over what I had previously written for this outcome I realized that I was not displaying knowledge but rather applying my knowledge of this model. So I revised what section of the inventory my previous outcome was for. The next time I learned about this theory was in HDF 412. During our module 2 unit one of the things I learned about was how people become socialized. When you are born you are basically a blank slate, you don’t have prejudices, and you don’t have opinions of other cultures or of people different than you. It is through the cycle of socialization we come to accept negative things such as stereotypes and prejudices. The cycle of socialization created by Bobbie Harro in 1982 has at its very core ideas such as fear, ignorance confusion and insecurity. When we are born weare born into a world of limited information, no information or misinformation. We become socialized by those closest to us such as parents, relatives, and teachers. These people serve as role models to us and they are the people that influence what we consider our norm. As we get older these norms are reinforced by cultural and institutional messages. This includes messages sent by pop culture, the media and our peers. This is when empowerment and discrimination begin to really be seen because people have started to view themselves as part of an existing hierarchy. This results in many negative things such as dehumanization, self-hatred, violence, ignorance and internalized patterns of power. When we understand these results if we choose to do nothing than we promote the status quo and the cycle continues. Harro suggests there is another alternative to this model as well. If we grow up and don’t like what we are seeing he argues that this is where change happens. We begin to educate ourselves, question existing thoughts, reframe our ideas of people and take a stand to break down the fear, ignorance, confusion and insecurity we as a society face. Evidence: Model

7. SECTION 4 Critical Thinking Student will demonstrate knowledge of leadership that is used in crisis In the last module of HDF 412 we learned about several theories related to crisis leadership. The first theorists we learned about were James and Wooten and their theory of Competence in Times of Crisis. This theory directly relates to my PR major in that half of PR is responding to crisis and being prepared for them so that if something comes up you don’t lose your public’s trust by making a bad decision. Tylenol is a great example of this. When it was found that several Tylenol bottles had been tampered with and the drugs had arsenic injected into them, Tylenol pulled everyone one of its bottles off the shelf in hopes of protecting its consumers. They kept the public’s trust by putting people before financial losses and because of that they were able to come back stronger than ever. Garvin has a military approach to crisis management. His after action reviews look to figure out what they wanted to do, what really happened, why it happened and how they will handle the situation the next time it happens. Lalonde looks at Crisis Management Archetypes. Lalaonde says there are 3 constants in a crisis 1. A major intervention near vulnerable populations 2. Expansion of mission 3. Expansion of professional tasks

8. SECTION 4 Critical Thinking - Continued Student will demonstrate knowledge of leadership that is used in crisis Schoenberg’s theory also closely relates to PR crisis leadership. One key characteristic of Schoenberg’s theory is providing a clear direction and taking over a crisis. In terms of PR this means having a crisis plan in place prior to the crisis happening. This way if something goes wrong, everyone knows what to do, who to contact, how to act and what to say to the press. When situations are handled this way, there are much less complications in the long run, even if it means being extra prepared ahead of time for something that may never happen. Lastly two theories that relate to crisis communication are about how to see crisis as a leadership opportunity. The first theory by Braden looks at leader’s strategies and how effective leadership can lead to an organization profiting from a crisis. Joni has the idea of never wasting a crisis. Joni says first you have to just figure out how to survive the crisis. This step includes planning, and being realistic in your plans. The next step is to figure out what you can do now that you couldn’t do before. This involves looking at as Joni puts it ‘market transitions’. Lastly Joni says no whining, you should be honored you are in a position to respond because that means that someone trusts you to handle a big problem, so put your anger about the crisis aside and do the best you can. Evidence: Module 3 Project

9. SECTION 5 Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills Student will describe principles of effective mentoring, as well as problems particular to the mentoring relationship In HDF 412 we talk a lot about what we are going to do when we graduate. As part of being a senior and getting ready to graduate for the PR major we are required to do an internship. As part of the online class part of the internship we are required to engage in a weekly online chat with other PR students doing internships. Each week we are assigned different articles to read in relation to being a new employee/ intern and for two weeks we talked about effective mentoring in the workplace. One article discussed idea to help build a successful mentor mentee relationship. First it suggested that the mentee be submissive to the mentor. By doing what a mentor suggests you do, you show that you can follow what you are told to do. Next it suggests something along the same lines, act on the advice given. By listening to your mentor you can gain knowledge from them to help you in the future. What they tell you they tell you for a reason, so listen! Next comes be honest. It suggests to not be afraid of letting your mentor down and covering it up with a lite. If you make a mistake its better to ask for help than try to worm around it. From the side of being a mentor it is important to act as you want your mentee to act. They look up to you are want to be like you so if you set the example of how a person in your position acts they are more likely to follow that path. Mentors also need to provide some kind of performance assessment so that way they can show the mentee how they have seen the mentee’s growth. I found an article from pcrest.com that actually suggests that being a mentor is following the steps of being a servant leader because you are helping another person grow as a leader without any real rewards for yourself.

10. SECTION 5 Interpersonal and Organizational Concepts and Skills- Continued Student will describe principles of effective mentoring, as well as problems particular to the mentoring relationship In a different article from powertochange.com there are some other interesting pieces of advice for mentees, such as picking a mentor who is unlike you in some ways. While this can be problematic if you are too different, if you are too similar than you don’t learn to work on any of your weaknesses you will not grow. However by being in a mentoring relationship with a person who is different from you, you can work on your weaknesses. Such as an introverted person may pick an extroverted mentor in hopes of learning to be more extroverted. Another problem with mentoring is figuring out when the mentee no longer needs to be mentored. In some cases this never happens and you have a lifelong mentorship, but in cases where perhaps the mentee reaches the same level at work as their mentor they may find they no longer need their mentors help. It is said that a mentoring relationship ends when a mentee is able to do their job on their own without needing help from the mentor. Evidence: mentoring article