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Goal 1: What do I hope to be doing after completing my MSOD?

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Goal 1: What do I hope to be doing after completing my MSOD?

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I started the MSOD program with the intent to advance my education and knowledge of the business world. I was at a point in my career where I had the time and resources to further my education and the MSOD program lined up with what I wanted, and it was a program that my employer was in full support of. Right now, I am still at a place where I want to use my new skills to leverage my current position/current type of job versus getting into another area of work. I do hope to prove myself and have more responsibilities at work after I complete this program (making budget decisions/not having to check with others all the time). Overall, I am very happy with the program and think that I’ve learned a lot about myself and business. My hope is that if I keep working hard, there is no reason that I will not be able to complete this degree by the end of this year.

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Husband: My husband has supported me throughout my career and my decision to go back to school. He is always there to help bounce ideas off of, to talk, and to review my work when asked.

Family and friends: My family and friends are the people who keep me happy and grounded. With all of the chaos life can bring, I love having such a wonderful support group of people that care, and that I can trust.

Work: I feel supported by my decisions at work and with the path that I am currently headed. For the most part, I have always been able to make decisions, and do my job the way that I see necessary. Up until this point though, I have been lacking peer support at work.

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As a relatively young professional in the workplace, I have a goal to always succeed and to do my best: at home and at work. So far, this has worked for me. I have found a place to work where I can leverage my strengths, and impress my superiors. Thus far, my job is often challenging and rewarding.

I hit a point about a year and a half ago when I decided to go back to school to obtain my MSOD. I wasn't sure if this was the right degree for me, but after much research, deliberation, and support (from work and home), I decided that 2013 was the right time to continue my education. I wanted to feel more confident with my opinions and suggestions during group meetings and better match the experience levels of my co-workers. A lot is expected of me and maintaining the company image is crucial. My hope is that continuing my education and learning from and with a new set of peers, I will be able to set myself apart for future advancement.

Work and school aside, I am recently married and although right now my work/life balance is working for me, I don't know if I will be able to maintain the career path I am on right now, once we decide to have kids. Since the idea of kids is still a few years away, I am working hard now to achieve some of my professional goals early on.

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"Working to live, not living to work"

I consider myself a person that is working to live, rather than living to work. I think this can present a challenge with career goals because it is hard to always go above and beyond when work isn't the top priority. Of course, I am always trying to do my best, but would I/could I do a better job if I spent more time working? It is hard to tell because if I spent more time working, maybe I would burnout sooner.

Other Obstacles

Another big obstacle will likely be with myself. Although I have a lot of goals for myself, I don’t always take the time to plan them out. I blame part of this on my continuously changing ideas and desires. Sometimes I am happy working full-time 8-5 and other times I wish I would do something more exciting with my life (like start my own business). There is nothing really standing in my way aside from my "realistic brain" wondering if it is really a good idea or not, or if I would even want that kind of responsibility at this point in my life.

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In my opinion, knowing my strengths and weaknesses and learning more through continuing education has helped me "get to know" my work personality much more than in the past. Over the course of the past year, we have had to provide examples and experiences in relation to those of our classmates, and the analysis of this has helped me to realize where my management/leadership style is coming from. I think just knowing more about my strengths and being able to leverage them/strengthen them even more allows me to be more in tune with what I need to continue to do to maintain a good work life balance.

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Goal 4: We never know what the future holds, but this is my hope for Goal 4!

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Goal 4: We never know what the future holds, but this is my hope for Goal 4!

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At some point in the next few years, my husband and I would like to start our family. I hope, by that time, we are able to afford a cut in my hours which will allow me to work part-time and stay at home the other half of the time. There are a few things that will need to happen for this to be successful:

Kurt will need to continue working full-time (and enjoy his job). Ideally at this time in his career, he will have had a promotion or two which will help with income. I will also need to get approval from my current role to work part-time. This would then entail having someone trained well enough to step into my place. Without this, I might have to make the sacrifice to work at a different job, where my talents might not reach full potential.

An obstacle that I see to this is my ability to give up control of my work. Although in my mind it sounds great (to be able to work part-time and raise my kids), I don't think it will be an easy transition for me to hand over my responsibilities to someone else.

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After I had recently graduated college and started my first “real” job, I had a mentor who would spend time explaining the ways of that particular business, why he was doing a task a certain way, and how. I found this type of leadership to be very crucial at such an early stage of my life and I would like to pay that forward. Although it isn’t always easy to do or manage (obviously new tasks and other responsibilities are always going to come up), I think it is very important to be very thorough in explaining work, and also the importance of what someone else is doing for the company. How do they fit into the big picture? Although it might seem like a meaningless task, nothing should be in the whole scheme of things, and it is important for a good leader to take the time to tell the story and ultimately engage and build trust with a mentee.

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1. Currently pursuing an MS in Organizational Development, graduation date of 2014

2. 2014 Best Practices in Communication Summit, March 2014

Ideally this will become an annual training workshop and conference that I will attend to stay up-to-date on the best practices within communications. It is very important to me to continually develop myself and increase my knowledge and understanding of how I can better prepare myself for new concepts and technology within my field.

Update: I attended this conference last week and it was really great! I learned a lot from other communication professionals and useful tactics that I am already using in my daily work. Going to a conference like this one has opened my eyes to new ideas and solutions to what I considered "problems." I hope to go again in the future!

3. Leadership and Team Building Conference | Skillpath Seminars, February 2014

4. How to Become a Better Communicator | SkillPath Seminars, March 2014

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In 2015 (or sooner), I would like to start managing other employees and utilize the skills and resources (maximizing values) that I have learned throughout my undergrad and the MSOD program. Right now, I am managing a communication intern and ideally, in 2015 we can bring her on full-time. I would like to have a relationship/partnership at work that I can utilize to bounce ideas off of and to enhance our overall company communications. I also need to make sure that our company is a place that she wants to stay and part of that is being a good leader. I am trying to pay attention to the way that I am teaching and giving her new projects, but also by giving both constructive criticism and praise for a job well done. I definitely want her to know that I have time for her and that she is appreciated so I have extended a total open door policy to her, and I want to make sure she always feels comfortable asking questions. At the same time, I am trying to teach her that sometimes she needs to figure things out on her own. I hope that by using these techniques, she will be happy with her manager and the company, and she will continue working here.

This will ideally fall into place next year simply because that is the plan I've made with my supervisor. I do see challenges appearing in this arena should my current intern decide not to stay, or should it not work out from our perspective. At that point, we would have to start searching for a new candidate, which again takes more training. We might not be able to find another person graduating in May 2015 which would likely push this personal goal back a bit.

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As the sole communication professional at Hooper, I am continually making examples for new projects and initiatives which ultimately lead others to take action. I do this in part by working with a team of individuals to come up with new policies and procedures or ways to enhance corporate communications at all levels. Currently I am working on developing a company intranet which will allow our 500+ employees to meet in one space that provides information, insight, and resources.

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I plan to continue to leverage my communication skills. For example, I attended a 2-day seminar in Chicago on the 2014 Best Practices in Internal Communications. Ideally, this will be something I can attend to stay up-to-date annually, which will hopefully have a direct affect on growing/developing my current skills.

I personally think that my communication skills also play into my futuristic talents. I know that to be successful today, we have to look forward as well. Without looking forward and knowing what is coming, we cannot properly prepare ourselves for the future. There are already too many unknown changes so it makes sense that I would use this talent to plan for the future by looking at the whole scope of things versus just this week or next week.

The futuristic strength also plays into one of the seven demands and having a vision for the future. Personally, my vision is to possibly look for a new career in 2014. I know this might seem contradictory to my professional goals for 2014 listed above, but part of becoming a more confident leader means that I want to be challenged and in my current position, I am beginning to feel a little restless. If I do decide to stay with Hooper for 2014, I would like more responsibilities and a title change, all of which I plan to communicate at my review next month.

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Laying out the above mentioned goals and strategies to reach them have helped me focus in on the specific results that I want to make happen over the next few years.

This year, I hope to have a conversation during my annual review with my boss to see where there are areas that I can improve and also areas that I am doing well in. I hope (and assume) there will be a discussion on my leadership/management role. When I started my position in late 2011, I started as the Corporate Communication Specialist and I think that it might be an appropriate time to re-evaluate that title and my job duties/responsibilities. Although our annual reviews do not seem to be super important (as viewed by management), I want to make sure that I have exceeded all of my personal professional goals for 2013 so my supervisor understands just how integral my position is within the company.

Confident Leadership/Challenging Experiences:

Part of my plan to measure my leadership success is to find ways that I can take control/have more responsibility over some of the larger marketing decisions by being more involved with the budgeting process (currently not involved at all). I think by doing this, I will better understand the company's position in terms of marketing communications and therefore, I would be in a better position to teach an intern or employee about the company. I think this added responsibility would also give me more satisfaction and purpose within my role, and also more motivation to continually do better and build upon my strengths in new areas.

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Goal 2: How do I plan to become a better leader?

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Goal 2: How do I plan to become a better leader?

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I will continue to develop my leadership skills through continuing education, various Madison/local seminars and real-world experience. Although I do not have a mentor in my current position, I can still learn from those around me and I hope that by gaining more confidence and experience in my role and my strong communication abilities, I can become a more confident leader by teaching new employees within the communication department the same techniques that I have found successful. I would like to also grow my mentoring skills (seven demands, discussed below) by starting slowly with the intern we currently have, and working towards helping her become a strong communication professional as well.

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1. Graduate with an MS in Organizational Development in October 2014

2. To become a more confident leader in 2014

3. To become the Communications Manager (with at least one full-time employee) in 2015

4. To start a family and possibly step back from a full-time position but maintain a strong role within the company at least part-time (2016-2018)