ORGL 600 invited me to think through four questions signifying the approach of Ignatius of Loyola to personal and spiritual transformation in his outline for the Spiritual Exercises - 1) What Are My Deepest Desires as a Leader, 2) What Do I Want as a Leader, 3) What Don’t I Want as a Leader, 4) What Does This Require of Me as a Leader, and 5) How Does This Shape Who I Am Becoming?

Manifested Competencies:

In connecting this course to my work as an Executive Coach, I gravitated toward Parker Palmer’s “clearness committee” which he presents in his book The Courage to Teach. Parker tells us that a clearness committee is a centuries old Quaker practice that “invites people to help each other with personal problems while practicing a discipline that protects the sanctity of the soul.” During the clearness committee the focus participant identifies a problem and writes a brief paper describing the context. The supporting participants read the paper and then spend two hours asking the focus participant questions about the problem in order to help the participant discover a deeper inner meaning. Supporting participants must provide the focus participant with their undivided attention without encroaching on “the center of the circle,” i.e. without implying opinions, judgement, or relaying their past experiences. This means questions are open-ended such as “what about that feels important to you,” versus “will this help you get the global experience you need to be a CEO someday?” Palmer reports that “over a two-hour period, this cycle of question and response can have remarkable cumulative effect. As the focus person speaks his or her truth, the layers of interference between that person and the inner teacher are slowly stripped away, allowing the person to hear more clearly the guidance that comes from within,” (p. 159).

The clearness committee model is the foundation of the the Explore phase of the GtCC development model.

In ORGL 516 we aimed to, 1) Explain the human centric approach of organization development, 2) Create an organization development resource library, 3) Construct a sustainable change agent strategy focused on a human-centric approach to organization development and identifying various corresponding change agent strategies.

Manifested Competencies:

Edgar Schein’s Humble Consulting, which I read as part of this course changed my perspective on what consulting with an organization can look like. My background in executive coaching has often left me struggling with many consultant approaches – presenting oneself as an expert versus leading with curiosity, recommending off-the-shelf solutions that may draw on industry research but lack specific organizational context, and implementing one-and-done fixes versus small, incremental, iterative interventions that build of each other.

Humble Consulting introduced an approach to consulting that more closely resembles a coaching conversation; something I could see implementing in my own practice with clients and their organizations. Schein challenges consultants to ditch the idea of professional distance between organization/client and the consultant, allowing for a more intimate and nuanced understand of the organizational challenge. He also emphasizes an authentic openness, curiosity, and humbleness in clients as they ask questions and brainstorm with clients on potential solutions.

This collaborative, iterative approach is the basis for my GtCC consulting model.

ORGL 615’s objectives were for us to, 1) develop an understanding of how to plan, establish, and maintain an organizational structure and the importance of organizational strategy, 2) develop an understanding and the capacity to build a network of effective relationships exploring the nuances of working with varied demographic backgrounds and the advantages and disadvantages of different communication and influence strategies, 3) understand the leader’s role in designing and leading effective teams by understanding the multiple factors that shape the design, dynamics, and effectiveness of groups, 4) develop the knowledge and skills related to understanding and reinvigorating or changing organizational culture, and 5) develop an understanding of and capacity to use systems dynamics.

Manifested Competencies:

In addition to a useful overview of systems thinking and an engaging group case-study simulation summiting Mt. Everest, my core take-aways from ORGL 615 came from Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline. I recognize many of the concepts he discusses as alive and well within my current organization. Teams are encouraged to codify mental models (often in the form of team or project tenets) that drive how they make decisions and tradeoffs. We have an Organizational Effectiveness team that helps teams craft their shared vision and leaders are encouraged to dive deep when anecdotes differ from the data – a practice that encourages system-wide thinking.

The concept with the most utility for my specific role was that of Personal Mastery. To achieve personal mastery, a leader must have a clear view of their current reality in terms of strengths and development opportunities, and a vision for where and who they want to be as they grow in their career. The delta between their current reality and their ideal state is called “creative tension.” Senge shares that the majority of people never reach their full potential because acknowledging this creative tension is too uncomfortable.

The work of moving through the Clarify and Experiment phases of the GtCC development model illustrate the courage and journey of closing the creative tension gap.

ORGL 605 was an exploratory and foundational class where we, 1) experienced, described, analyzed, and evaluated the dynamics of the creative process; 2) enhanced our own creativity and imagination in our work; 3) applied the principles of Ignatian imagination in our own personal and professional practice; 4) gained an increased understanding of the Gonzaga University mission; and 5) engaged with peers, staff, faculty advisors, and other resources to establish relationships that supported our success throughout the program and beyond graduation.

Manifested Competencies:

The materials and assignments in this course allowed me to clarify and articulate the vision for my GtCC practice, which is outlined on the Grounded Theory page.

In ORGL 523 we were exposed to an overview of the field of psychology and leadership and learned to utilize dimensions of this field in addressing case examples; learned to articulate basic principles of attachment theory and how this field is related and useful to leadership effectiveness; reflected basic understanding of emotional intelligence; and reflected on our own levels of strength and need for growth in the three key EQ capacities: Self-reflection, self-regulation and empathy.

Manifested Competencies:

As we were learning about different attachment styles I had a meeting with one of my coachee’s managers. He was sharing how the coachee would always come to him for approval and that this indicated to him that she was still operating as a Director rather than a Vice President. I was able to broaden his perspective by explaining to him that, that kind of behavior usually had a lot more to do with a person’s deeply rooted attachment style and that this particular leader had probably been seeking approval from others her whole life, based on her insecure attachment style.

The We-Q assessment we completed also opened my eyes to some of the underlying psychological drivers that may be affecting some of my coachees behavior. The “self-other orientation” in particular resonated. I tend to work with high-achieving, self-motivated individuals who I would guess tend toward a self-orientation. Learning about this through the assessment gave me some context and language to help my clients understand how, sometimes, a self-orientation can work against them.

ORGL 523 directly informed to how I will support coaching clients in the Clarify and Experiment phases of the GtCC model.

Our course objectives in ORGL 681 were to, 1) gain an understanding of what narratives are and the roles they play in leadership; 2) gain an understanding of the idea of authentic leadership including a definition, examples and characteristics, 3) be exposed to Tichy’s categorization of leadership story types and how to use them, and 4) develop stories in each category for personal and professional use.

Manifested Competencies:

ORGL 681 was a surprisingly impactful course in my ORGL MA journey. I wouldn’t have taken it except it is taught by the same professor as Psychology of Leadership and I loved his teaching style so much, I decided to go for it. I’ve never really considered myself a “storyteller.” Storytelling, to me, has always sounded like a right-brained, creative endeavor; which doesn’t fit with how I see myself. I’m left-brained, pragmatic, goal-oriented. In my training and work as an executive coach however, I do work with clients’ internal narratives. As a coach, my goal is often to help someone change their mindset or behavior. In doing so, we must explore their current mindsets and behaviors which typically involves understanding the current stories they are telling themselves, e.g. everyone in this room has more context than me so I shouldn't say anything, or there's no way I can deprioritize any of my work. Once we understand the current story we can start to unpack its usefulness, validity, and decide if there are parts of it that need to be amended.

Like ORGL 523, the concepts I learned in ORGL 681 will directly inform how I support leaders in the Clarify, Experiment, and Reflect phases of the GtCC model.

Our aim in ORGL 610 was to, 1) learn to recognize ethical issues and articulate personal and organization values, and multiple world views; and 2) to demonstrate decision making informed by social justice concepts and communication and applied

leadership ethics - making ethical decisions independently, in collaborative forums, and by analyzing ethical dilemmas present in organizations.

Manifested Competencies:

Having a research and theory-based understanding of ethics will help me as I support leaders grappling with ethical dilemmas across all phases of the GtCC model. In particular, helping leaders clarify their values based on culturally universal Schwartz Theory of Basic Values.