Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

• EQ: What makes an effective Marine military leader?
• Answer 1: The Marine's foundation for leadership is self improvement through modeling the official 14 Leadership Traits and 11 Principles.
• Answer 2: A Leader must make use of team building in task-oriented groups.
• Answer 3: As a military leader, you must embody service leadership
• My best answer is to self improve by modeling the 14 leadership traits and 11 principles because in a study conducted by Erich W. Randall, approximately 2.5% of soldiers surveyed from July 2003 to December 2005 determined they would reenlist based on their leaders attitude on the team.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• My first answer came from my first interview with my mentor, Captain Hankle. He really stressed how important it is for an officer's to improve on themselves.
• My Answer 2 came from a common theme I saw throughout my research and observations. No matter where your assignment is, whether you're in an office or in the field, you'll always have a team there with you.
• My third answer came from a variation on an answer I made up with my dad.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• I had a hard time finding mentors and a hard time getting mentorship hours done. My first mentor was hard to meet with and I was rarely able to complete hours with him. I ended up getting 2 other mentors to compensate for my first mentor. This in turn helped me to getting my mentor hours on their way to getting done. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• The first source was "The West Point Way of Leadership" by Col. Larry Donnithorne. This book covered all three of my answers and put into perspective why they were important.
• Another significant source for me was my mentors. I was able to learn a lot from them and gain a lot of military and personal perspective from them.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Content:  

LITERAL
      (a) I, Samantha Cooper, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
      (b) Cooper, Col. Dewell J. Mentor/ Personal interview. 2014.
      (c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
      (d) I helped my dad complete the preliminary work for starting what will eventually be iPoly's military explorer program. I helped him brainstorm ideas, process paperwork, convert that paperwork to PDF format for headquarters, make calls, and prepare for an information session to be held at school. 
INTERPRETIVE 




      The most significant parts of my component were the research for the unit and preparing for the information session for the school. I really think the hands on experience of the program would be a perfect fits and really gives a great way for me as an incoming officer candidate to take initiative for the school.
       Below are samples of what I was able to complete:

My readmit from this  morning's meeting with Mrs. Flores

Adult Application
Participation Application
Paperwork for Establishing a Unit
Youth (Cadet) Application

 

APPLIED
      This component helped me to solidify my second answer. As I looked into the inner workings of how the unit is run, it really showed me how essential working in a team is in a military environment. Being able to have this opportunity for our school will also help with other's leadership skills.
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 



Blog 18: Third Answer

Content:

EQ: What makes an effective Marine Military leader? 

 

Answer #3: An effective military leader must embody service leadership.

 

1) Service leadership is defined as supporting empowered workers to accomplish the organization's purpose and vision.(Total Leaders: applying the Best Future-Focused Change Strategies to Education" by Schwabn and Spady)

 

2) You need to make yourself and necessary resources available to your subordinates in order to reach goals and fulfill the organizations purpose. (mentor)

 

3) The Marine organization strives to be ready in every possible way, and leaders need to help guide their teams. ("The Marine Officer's Guide" by Lt. Col. Kenneth Estes)

 

Concluding Sentence: With service leadership, a leader can help aid their team to perform better and become more efficient.



Blog 17: Fourh Interview Questions

Content:

1. What comes to mind when you think about military leadership?
2. What do you think is important for a leader to be effective in leading his/her subordinates?
3. How important are the 14 Leadership traits and 11 principles in a Marine's career?
4. How can the 14 Leadership Traits and 11 Principles be used to improve on ones leadership skills?
5. What aspects or skills of a team are important to work on?
6. Why is team building critical?
7. What does it take to become a successful team?
8. What are the benefits to having responsibilities for subordinates?
9. What are typical responsibilities or objectives for a team to accomplish?
10. How should a leader approach making goals for his/her team?
11. How do you determine that goals are reachable and reasonable for your team?
12. How would one evaluate his/her subordinate's abilities?
13. How would a leader take those weaknesses and turn them into strengths?
14. What types of resources should be made available to one's subordinates?
15. How are these resources used to improve a team?
16. How should a leader speak to his/ her subordinates?
17. How can a leader make sure he/she has made sure instructions are delivered clearly, concisely, and correctly? 
18. How can a leader make one's self more accessible to his/her team?
19. What should a leader consider when setting his or her priorities?
20. What should a leader do to make sure one remembers where the source of their authority comes from and their purpose?

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Content:

EQ: What makes an effective Marine military leader?

Answer 2: Team building and dynamics are an important aspects to being an effective leader.

Details:

1) You do everything with your team, not just give orders. If a team is going on a 5 mile run, the team leader should run alongside them (my mentor, Captain Hankle)

2) You go through everything with your team. Everyone goes through the same training and experiences the same things. (The West Point Way of Leadership by Col. Larry R. Donnithorne)
 

3) Communication, trust, and achieving goals are among the key parts of a teams dynamic. If you lack communication, there will be confusion and goals wont be achieved efficiently. (The West Point Way of Leadership by Col. Larry and my 1st independent component)

 

Concluding Sentence: As a leader, your team are the ones you work with and you need to know them well.
 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:
1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• I plan to help my dad start the process of beginning a Army Cadet Corp at iPoly. This would require making multiple presentations, attending meetings, and filling out paperwork for both the Army Cadets Headquarters and iPoly. My dad and I would need to get people interested and get a certain amount of people signed up. We would also be establishing certain requirements such as a budget. We would just be setting up the Army Cadets for the income school year.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• I will be working alongside my dad to make the presentations and go over details and paperwork. There are many requirements we'd have to fulfil in order to set up the Army Cadets. 

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This project would help me explore the making of a unit that would be practicing leadership in everything they do. One of the answers I'm focusing on is team/leadership building. Taking on the initiative to start the Army Cadet unit is a major responsibility and takes a lot of  people and leadership skills to accomplish the task.

Vietnam Presentation

      In this past month, I had the opportunity to help my dad with a presentation for the sophomores at iPoly. I helped with running the slide show and I learned a lot about my dad that I didn't know.
      Now the reason I felt this experience linked back to my project is because my dad has gained exceptional leadership skills from his experiences in the army. Just watching my dad was proof of that. He knows how to gain respect from others just by how he bears himself and the way he talks to others.
      He also learned a lot of different skills that I view as important for a leader. For example, he had to make careful thought out decisions that would greatly effect his team. While he was in Vietnam, any wrong step he made could've been his last because of booby traps. He helped lead his team carefully through terrain so that his team was safe.
      There was a lot of information from his presentations that I thought was useful for my project.