Blaine Macius - Does Higher Education Change you?

Does Higher Education Change you?

Graduate school is a long process that I have been through twice now. There are a lot of days you have to push through the busy work to get to the heart of why you are putting yourself through this emotional and financial rollercoaster. I do believe that each of my graduate degrees has changed me for the better. Especially my most recent undertaking in the Masters in Education (MAED) program at Michigan State University (MSU), focusing on Coaching and Leadership. I have to answer the question why this program with this concentration? Because I love leadership and managing people. I wanted to learn more ways to be an effective leader not only for my job but just for life in general. I do believe by putting myself through the MAED program a lot of good has come through the process. I have taken many great classes that have affected my thought process. Below I do want to dive deeper into three that I believe have made a large impact on how I conduct myself at work and outside of work. Those three classes are, EAD 801 - Leadership and Organizational Development, KIN 868 - Skill Development in Athletes, and KIN 829 - Safety and Injury Control (See my annotated transcript for more examples.)

EAD 801 - Leadership and Organizational Development -

Instructor ( L. Dixon)

I learned about how to effectively be the leader of an organization. I was taught different leadership strategies and how to motivate my employees to perform at their best. Additionally, I learned about different professional development strategies to help improve the performance of your organization. This class was very beneficial. Was probably the most influential class I have taken at MSU.

The reason this class stands out so much to me is because we dove into seventeen different leadership theories. Leadership is nothing new. It has been around since the dawn of man. Like me, it has grown and adapted with time. The three theories that impacted me the most, which I think about almost daily are Transformational Leadership, Connective Leadership, and Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Theory (Please see links connected to each for a more in-depth synopsis of each.).

Why these three?.... Transformational Leadership has been a huge part of leadership literature for the past 40 years. This work has led to extensions like charismatic leadership, full-range model, and authentic leadership. The theory originated with Downton’s work “rebel leadership and was updated by Burns with morality and ethics. Burns wants ethics employed in leadership, else leaders are nothing more than managers. Burns defines leadership as “ inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations-the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations-of both leaders and followers”. When it comes to leadership a leader will either take a more transactional approach or a transforming approach in how they go about leading. Transformational leadership is the reason for a huge upswing in leadership research and how leadership is understood. There is a ton of information and research being done on this theory. I could go on and on about this theory, but I want to focus on the issue that went down during WWII. Burns opened up the door by taking away a moral compass with leadership and so we then had pseudo-transformational leadership. Hitler and Stalin off of this were then able to think they were good leaders. Which we know not to be true! We always must learn from the past to make sure we are doing what is right for the future.

Connective Leadership Is one of three core Relationship-Centered Theories. These theories elevate the power of reciprocity, connectedness, and interdependence. These theories emphasize the process and people parts of leadership. Entity perspectives and constructionist perspectives are vital to the process of relationship-centered theories. These perspectives will be vital in examining the power of relationships when it comes to leadership. I do not like this theory because it relies heavily on all leader's behaviors being similar. People are all different. I do like how there is a need for inclusiveness in the theory. Also, this theory can be used with training programs to facilitate capacity building, which can be huge in the work that I do today.

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Is one of four core Person-Centered Theories. This theory along with the other four is leader-centric and looks into leadership roles, not the process. Kouzes and Posner started their research into this theory in the 1980s. This model identifies five exemplary practices of leadership, which the Leadership Practices Inventory measures. To date, this leadership theory is one of the most distributed and used. I like what EI stands for. A good leader will check their emotions and will not let them affect their thinking or actions. The big problem I believe with EIL is the 19 capacities. This is a long list to check off. When looking for a leader or being a leader this is a lot to try and find in someone. I do not believe it is possible to find all of these capacities in any one person. Plus, EIL does not talk about the environment and how that plays a role in leadership. But I do think about how my emotions and actions play into how I am as a leader.

KIN 868 - Skill Development in Athletes -

Instructor ( A. Driska)

This course explored skill development through the lens of the constraints model of motor learning and foregrounds constraints-led approaches as a means to comprehending, applying, and critically assessing the range of coaching techniques intended to develop athletic skill. It had me think through coaching and skill development. Just because it's been done one way for a long time doesn't make it right! This also correlates well with leadership on how we educate new people? How do we develop people in the role and for the next role?

Coaching and leadership are things that do not come from thin air. They are deliberately thought out, planned, organized, and executed. Finally, the leadership methods should be reviewed and reflected on to analyze efficiency or potential changes. This course provided a copious amount of knowledge reflected on as practice for reflective leadership procedures. As a leader, there must be a constant critique of the methods used to teach and drive those around you. A leader who does not reflect and be conscious of the day-to-day events of the team has no direction to move forward. Today, there is an opportunity to explore competencies and their use in one's practice more than ever. There is more data than ever before, allowing for a more in-depth analysis of successful leaders/team management.

As stated above, KIN 868 has provided a wealth of knowledge that has aided in my personal growth as a coach/leader. It first allowed me to identify that strict knowledge. Even expert knowledge is not enough to be a successful leader. Hence, some of the best people in a particular job do not necessarily make the best leaders. Also, because they may be too ingrained in the one mindset and can not change. On the flip side, there must be a certain degree of knowledge and expertise through personal success within a working domain or a successful working line to which one apprentices. In the great words of Trevor Mowad, "success leaves clues." This course allowed for a greater understanding of concepts and why they are used. These clues will help us go down the path but we must always question why and what can I be doing differently. We must always strive to think outside the box.

KIN 829 - Safety and Injury Control -

Instructor (J. Wallace)

In this course I learned about the health and safety of sports participants through a variety of platforms. Furthermore, this class promoted the understanding of sport-related injuries and the prevention, care, and management of injuries. Injuries are evaluated from many standpoints, including, growth-related factors, biomechanical factors, sex differences, sports differences, etc. In addition, this course showed me how to evaluate how ethical dilemmas relating to safety and injury may arise and how they may be resolved through the application of anatomical and moral knowledge. The biggest aspect of my job that I do have to think about is the safety of my people and how I am going about keeping them safe each day.

From the course, I think every module had great takeaways that will be useful when I go back into coaching and with my current leadership role.

Module 1 was very informative for me because of just recently went through the shooting at MSU. It made me think about what kinds of emergency preparedness we have at the hospitals where my people are working. The world is a crazy place these days and if something were to happen are my people prepared or even know what to do?

Module 2 was great from the standpoint of everything that goes along with a player being injured. It's not just we are down a player, and we hand them off to the AT. There is a lot that goes into an injury and getting a player back onto the field. To do this properly a coach must think about the etiology of the injury, mechanism, tissue involved, specific anatomy, methods of prevention for the future, treatment, coaching plan for the future to reduce risk, coaching takeaways, and the athlete's takeaways. If you focus on these things, you can prevent injury, and get a player healthy mentally and physically. In turn, this will help you win.

Module 5 I love talking about burnout and how sports have changed for young kids and high school athletes. I am going to be looking more into this in the future because burnout is a real thing in sports and the workforce. As a good leader, this must be a part of my thought process long term when making decisions on contracts, work hours...etc.

Overall, enjoyed the class and feel like I learned new things. I also started thinking about some things from different angles which I want to get from my grad school courses. When we look at things from different angles, I believe that we learn how to solve problems more efficiently and can learn to be more preventative with our actions. We do not want to be reactive in life and our jobs.

To sum up, my approach to leadership has evolved. As we gain experience and wisdom through life, courses as you see above change our outlook. These courses put you a step ahead. How I react and act on certain emotions and events are different than they were before. Going through this program has helped me re-think my leadership style and how to react to situations when they occur and or how to be more proactive as a leader for my people to help them along their paths. I feel that going through this master's degree has sped up my knowledge in the field of leadership tenfold. Now instead of learning from my actions, I can go into situations using what I have learned. In today's world, a step ahead is never a bad thing, and having more tools in your toolbox to help you along the way is always a good thing.