Communicative 

Objective:

Communicative:

Practice effective oral and written communication by conveying complex ideas and information in a coherent and professional manner, utilizing technology as appropriate.

Reflection:

Communication is used to inform, command, instruct, assess, influence, and persuade other people. It is the process by which information is shared between people using common symbols, signs, and/or behavior. There are three types of communication: 1) verbal, 2) written, and 3) non-verbal (Anonymous, 2017). Each member of the organization, regardless of status, is required to communicate to complete their job successfully. Communication holds the organization together, but it can also be detrimental when we have a negative exchange or leave out important details. Although we have the technology resources at our fingertips and faster processes are evolving, it remains an action that occurs between human beings who are bound to make mistakes. Whether it be virtual communication, interpersonal communication, or multicultural communication, individuals must understand that appropriate messaging is vital to the organization's overall success.

To demonstrate my achievement of this learning goal, I have included four specific artifacts. The first document is a poster that I completed during my qualitative research course and that I presented at the 2022 Association of Leadership Educators (ALE) conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Throughout its creation, I learned to identify which concepts were most pertinent to my research and display them in a visually appealing format. I chose to include a background summary of what crisis leadership is and why it is important, the stages of crisis, key stakeholders who must be notified about the crisis event, the appropriate channels to disseminate information, key information the media seeks to learn, key leadership theories that are effective in crises, and effective ways to respond in a crisis event. As a result, conference attendees had the opportunity to preview my research and understand what I was attempting to convey without reading my qualitative study. In addition, I had the opportunity to stand near my poster, answer questions about my findings, and engage in academic conversations about crisis leadership and communication.

I became passionate about the topic of crisis leadership because it takes more than authority and status to resolve an organizational situation that no one has encountered. It is beyond anyone’s expertise and each employee stands at their most vulnerable state without protection. However, one thing is certain, leadership, direction, and creative improvisation must occur to create a probable outcome. Hence, I firmly believe that charismatic leaders can convince followers that change is a vital process for the organization to survive disruptive conditions. Followers trust in a charismatic leader's ideology, express affection toward the leader, and become emotionally involved in the leader's goals. In return, the leader provides higher goal achievements and instills confidence in the follower. In addition, adaptive leaders can also be associated with effective crisis leadership. “Adaptive leaders encourage people to face and deal with problems, challenges, and changes. The role of the leader is to assist people in confronting their problems” (Goertzen, 2019, p.44). Essentially, adaptive leaders regulate distress, maintain disciplined attention, and delegate the work back to followers in the organization. By studying these leadership styles in conjunction with crisis, we can remedy poor habits. Ron Heifetz and colleagues (2009) explain this concept clearly, “the danger in a crisis situation is that people in positions of authority hunker down. They try to solve the problems with short-term fixes: tightened controls, across-the-board cuts, and restructuring plans. They’ll default to what they know how to do in order to reduce frustration and quell their own and other’s fears. Their primary mode will be drawing on familiar expertise to weather the storm” (p.64). However, with new leadership methods and communication tools, we can educate leaders and followers with new information that will help produce better organizational outcomes. 

One of the primary ways that we learn to correct crises is by learning about past occurrences. My second key artifact is an analysis of the Columbine High School shooting that occurred in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. I was able to view the crisis from all angles during my research and convey an overview of the organization and its leader, insight from the leader’s perspective, a narrative of the leadership response using key terms learned during the semester, an assessment of the key successes and failures of the communication response, and an overall reflection of the leader’s ability to communicate effectively. As a result, I was able to provide recommendations for schools that may encounter similar experiences such as implementing a crisis response system, practicing active shooter drills, updating crisis prevention plans and protocols, and educating students and faculty members on warning signs of poor mental health and bullying. Cultivating and sustaining relationships with stakeholders can be strengthened and deteriorated by communication decisions. “Crisis leadership involves prevention and management, consistency and clarity, and trust and transparency—with communication playing a critical role throughout each phase of any given crisis” (Gigliotti, 2020, p. 87). After completing this report, I learned that communication with the public should be victim-focused and apologetic to those impacted by the incident. It is critical to respond to crisis events with attention, scrutiny, and a degree of seriousness. Furthermore, I learned that crises create emotional and physical impacts on leaders. Hence, those that lead during a stress-induced event should be conscious of their mental health. Leaders must keep their composure even if others within the organization are experiencing chaos. The only way is to establish a self-care routine and coping mechanisms. We cannot be mentally and physically depleted while attempting to care for others at the same time. 

I was a student that was deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. I finished my undergraduate degree online and spent the rest of my graduate education learning in a virtual format. At the time, I was working for the Department of Leadership Studies at Fort Hays State University and saw first-hand the struggles other faculty, staff, and students were enduring. Hence, I was motivated to take a step back and learn about the perceptions of crisis and reveal the experiences of higher education professionals. My third artifact is a qualitative research paper that brings to light the experiences and beneficial information gained by higher education professionals to assist other organizations and communities in making accurate and informed decisions. This study was completed towards the learning phase of the crisis cycle and is a form of written communication that I produced. “The learning phase is a process of examining the crisis and determining what was lost, what was gained, and how the organization performed in the crisis. It is an evaluative procedure designed to make the crisis a prodrome for the future” (Fearn-Bank, 2017, p. 8). This assignment taught me that target audiences are more likely to read documents if the information is useful, timely, and relevant to their needs. Also, my final product needed to be courteous and anonymous. The information that was written is sensitive to those who participated in the study. It was my duty to produce a product that had pseudonyms for institutions and personal identities. Lastly, as I wrote the report it was imperative that I avoided stereotyping, emotional and loaded language, and assumptions about the knowledge my target audiences already obtained. The most difficult part of the assignment was taking my broad thoughts and narrowing those into one research question. However, after discussing my ideas with Dr. Lori Kniffin, I learned a valuable lesson: pick a topic that you are most curious to learn about. If you do not, you will not be invested in the research process and you will not be proud of your outcome.

My final artifact is a presentation that I use in my professional role to teach and train new employees in our department. As a business development specialist, my job is to monitor revenue streams and identify opportunities (customer prospects, marketing sequences, proposal requests, etc.) to increase profitability. Moreover, I work diligently to understand the technology product market, consumer and competitor behaviors, and improve branding strategies. Business Development Specialists (BDS) need to have skills such as active listening, adaptability, resilience, coachability, self-awareness, curiosity, and relationship-building skills to be successful in their work. This presentation introduces new employees to the role, walks through the steps for a successful conversation, outlines the information they need to collect from the potential buyer, and provides knowledge on basic objections they may face while sales prospecting. This presentation demonstrates my verbal communication skills and demonstrates how I incorporate my leadership knowledge into my profession. This presentation presents universal design principles and is generically crafted to support a large learning environment as it is used to educate those with different learning styles and professional backgrounds.

As I continue my professional career, my goal is to improve my emotional intelligence (EI) to communicate effectively. Van Rooy & Viswesvaran (2004) describe this concept as “the set of abilities (verbal and nonverbal) that enables a person to generate, recognize, express, understand, and evaluate their own, and others, emotions to guide thinking and action that successfully cope with environmental demands and pressures.” Specifically, I hope to be able to read others’ emotions accurately and use that knowledge to find common ground and understanding. Furthermore, I am going to work to manage my feelings and emotions and use that consciousness to maintain positive relationships with others. “There are numerous barriers to effective communication. Among the more significant are a frame of reference, selective listening, value judgments, source credibility, filtering, in-group language, status differences, time pressures, and communication overload” (Fort Hay State University, 2017, p. 185). By utilizing this concept, I can communicate clearly and understand the message and feelings of the receiver. This helps support mutual trust and ensures that all important voices are heard.

In addition, it is important for me to recognize that communication comes in various forms. In our innovative society, we are faced with a plethora of platforms such as email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, Asana, SharePoint, Gmail, FaceTime, LinkedIn, Outlook, face-to-face communication, etc. To be most effective, it is important to analyze which communication platforms are most useful and send out the right information in the correct places. Utilizing multiple communication platforms allows for information overload and added stress for employees to keep up with team details. I hope to be conscious of this notion and minimize the platforms used to ensure communication in my organization is streamlined.

References:

Anonymous. (2017). Organizational Behavior. Retrieved from https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/organizationalbehavior

Fearn-Banks, K. (2017). Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach (5th ed.). New York:

Routledge.

Fort Hays State University Department of Leadership Studies. (2017). Introduction to

Leadership Behavior. McGraw Hill Education.

Gigliotti, R. A. (2020). Crisis leadership in higher education: Theory and practice. Rutgers University Press.

Goertzen, B.J., Kastle, S.D., Klaus, K., & Greenleaf, J. (2019). Discovering the leader within: Learning leadership through service (2nd ed.). Available from: https://www.fhsu.edu/leadership/student-resources/discoveringtheleader

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis. Harvard Business Review, 87(7/8), 62–69.

Van Rooy, D.L., & Viswesvaran, C. (2004). Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65, 71-95.