8/8/2019 Matt Adams’ Leadership Plan for Growth and Development

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Matt Adams’ Leadership Plan for Growth and Development

19 Oct ‘10

 How will you articulate your area of focus for leadership growth and development?

My area of focus will be building Emotional Intelligence (a term I’m borrowing fromDaniel Goleman). Here’s why:

I passed out 2 surveys of “Personal and Relational Leadership Skills That AffectSuccess” to two co-workers: a dean, Michael Sory, and my academy lead, Cheri Albers.

Both of them gave me predominantly 4’s, and particularly in the following areas:

- “Possesses self-confidence”- “Practices realistic self-assessment”

- “Has a self-deprecating sense of humor”- “Motivation” and “Communication Skills” (including all sub areas in these 2

domains)

But, they gave me 3’s in areas having to do my with emotional IQ, such as:

- “Is able to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods”- “Is able to suspend judgment and think before acting”

- “Is able to understand the emotional make-up of other people”- “Is skilled in treating people according to their emotional reactions”

(Norm---Pays attention to self and others)

Other areas in which I was marked down---sometimes even to the “2” level---also have to

do with emotional intelligence, though not as directly; these areas include:

- “Contributes to discussions and invites others to share their views”

- “Generates possibilities rather than solely staking out positions”- “Separates people issues from problem issues”

In virtually all of these areas, I marked myself the same, and sometimes even lower.

So, the bottom line is that I need to focus on building emotional intelligence in my

teaching and in working with colleagues.

 How will you engage others in supporting your personal leadership growth and development?

I plan on enlisting the help of Charlie Glinche: he’s a biology teacher down the hall, and

I’d say he’s my best friend by far in the school. We talk frequently, too, about whatmakes for good teaching, and so I think he’ll be genuinely excited to help me get better in

this area.

8/8/2019 Matt Adams’ Leadership Plan for Growth and Development

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Also, I need to enlist the help of my Cohort Instructor (Doris Candelarie), InternshipSupervisor (Debbie O’Neill) in meeting these goals of emotional intelligence.

Here’s how I plan to do this over the next 3 quarters in the program.

I journal frequently on my own with a program called Evernote, but usually about non-school related issues. From now on, however, I plan to journal about my school life, andin particular, those events and experiences that shed light on the progress (or regress, as

the case may be), of my journey towards acquiring emotional intelligence.

I will then copy and paste the entry from my Evernote account to my DU Journal and ask for feedback on my writing. I’m excited about this idea as I think it will be an excellent

way for me to get feedback about an area in which I would much like to improve.

Given your areas of strength and weakness how will you position yourself as a strong 

 support of the principal and administrative team.

My Gregorc Style Delineator labeled me as predominantly “concrete random,” a label to

which I mostly agree. And of all the concrete random descriptors, I think the followingones specifically apply to my personality:

- Dislikes the status quo

- Inventive

…but also:

- Impulsive- Reckless

Given that, I think my desire to think outside the box, and my skill at finding alternative

ways of doing things, will be immensely useful to my administrative team. What will not(!) be useful to them, though, is my propensity to push for change while stream rolling

 people that don’t see things the way I do.

I need to find a way to think outside the box, but at the same time, to be genuinely opento others’ viewpoints and suggestions. If I can be genuine in this, I wont’ show the

condescending body language and tone (that I know are there at times) when I talk to people whose ideas don’t square with mine.