Archives for January 2017

Hi

My name is Jim Williams and I currently reside in Milton GA, which is a suburb of Atlanta with my wife Leslie and daughter Summer. We enjoy time outside with our black lab Khloe, especially swimming and boating up on Lake Lanier here in GA.

I am 46 years old and this past fall semester was my first at Penn State World Campus as I am going back to school after an almost 25 year break. I really enjoyed the two classes I took as I learned a ton from both my professors and my classmates.

Professionally, I am a Vice President of Operations for Cox Automotive a division of Cox Enterprises in Atlanta. I lead a group of 100 dedicated team members who support our inventory solutions businesses the largest of which is Manheim, the worlds largest auto auction. Joining Cox was a big change for me as I spent the vast majority of my career in consumer electronics retailing. I had the great fortune to spend almost 13 years with Best Buy, joining the company when it had only 300 stores and leaving when it had over 4000 around the world.

I also sit on the board of directors for a large pediatric cancer charity, Cookies for Kids Cancer based on NJ. Tragically, my wife Leslie and I lost our son Kyle to Neuroblastoma, a rare pediatric cancer in May of 2011. I joined the board to help support pediatric cancer research here in the U.S. as I hope to see a cure for cancer in my lifetime. We fund some of the most renowned pediatric oncologists in the world and significant progress is being made through their hard work and the funds we raise.

I am really excited to be part of this class and to learn with all of you.

My favorite leadership quote is from Teddy Roosevelt….

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I have found after over a 20 year career in leadership where I have been blessed to lead teams of a few to over 10,000 that this quote was something that I could live up to. I believe in taking risks and always putting yourself in the “arena”.

Happy to be in the “arena” with all of you.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Hi, my name is Joseph Lishia and I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I work in the financial industry as a UX Designer (User Experience). I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I love what I do, however, I do want to continue to grow so that I can add value to myself and my profession.  I don’t know what my long term goals are outside of working in the design industry but I do know that I want to keep myself in a position to always be learning.

In the past I’ve been able to lead several groups but for the last 5 years I haven’t been in a leadership position. I work hard to be a good example to my colleagues around me but I am not currently leading any initiatives within the creative group. I am supporting a couple large scale product teams but in a more autonomous capacity.

One of the most eye opening books I’ve read on leadership was “Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box” by The Arbinger Institute.“discover you’ve been in the box. Do keep trying. Don’t deny that you’ve been in the box when you have been. Do apologize; then just keep marching forward, trying to be more helpful to others in the future. Don’t focus on what others are doing wrong. Do focus on what you can do right to help. Don’t worry whether others are helping you. Do worry whether you are helping others.” It’s a simple and pragmatic mindset that I truly believe will make a dramatic difference. The focus here should be about being honest about our own self-deceptions, be humble, focus on helping other people, and so on. If we do these things I believe that everything else will start to fall in to place for ourselves.

My wife’s name is Brittany and I have a little girl named Juliet. We sold our first house and are currently fixing up a 1966 ranch style house in south Charlotte. It’s been a challenging journey since spring but we are really seeing all our hard work pay off. Since you now know that I have a little girl, a full time job, I’m fixing up a house, and taking online classes there isn’t a lot of time to ride my bike but I do love cycling as well. One day I’ll have a little more time to do it but until then I’ll enjoy just have to follow the pros on Instagram or SnapChat.

Joseph

Hi All,

My name is Kevin and I am a sophomore double majoring in Organizational Leadership & Labor & Employment Relations.  I currently oversee the Talent Acquisition function at a large international utility company and am located in our North American HQ in New Jersey.  While I love talent acquisition I am a firm believer that it is a high burnout job and have given myself a 10 year lifespan in the industry, currently I am completing my 6th year.  While TA is a part of Human Resources the actual day to day interaction with HR is limited, it is my short term goal to oversee Learning & Development, Diversity and Talent Acquisition with a long term goal to oversee an entire HR department.  Aside from professionally, my personal long term goal is to retire!

 

Currently I lead a team of 4 in Talent Acquisition as well as a team of 15 as the Chair of the companies Professional Development business resource group.  I was promoted in February of last year to lead Talent Acquisition and only took over the BRG this month, as you can imagine my leadership experience is minimal and at a crossroads right now, either I will succeed or fail, hence why I am taking this class as well as completing a degree in OLEAD.

 

My favorite leadership quote is by Colon Powell “You’ll know your a good leader when people follow you if only out of curiosity”.  This quote is from his video about the essence of leadership which I highly recommend for everyone to listen to.  For me it was very impactful by emphasizing how important trust is to leadership.  Several times during my brief stint as a leader I have been put into situations where I didn’t know what to do or how to respond, however, I never let my team know that.  I never let them know when I was scared, or confused because as Mr. Powell so eloquently puts its “if you are scared, cold and hungry, they will be scared cold and hungry”.

 

An interesting fact about me is that I have a pretty substantial sports memorabilia collection and if I ever hit the lottery that is what I would do buy and trade sports memorabilia (from paradise of course!).

 

Thank you all for reading and I look forward to working with you all in the future.

 

Regards,

Kevin

 

 

Hello everyone! My name is Jon and I’m a senior majoring in Economics. This course was very highly recommended to fulfill part of my requirements, and I’m excited to take it as the subject of Leadership in a Global Context greatly interests me.

I spend part of the year in the Fiji Islands, where my business is located, and the other part in San Diego with my 14-year old daughter. I had the opportunity several years ago to own a small island resort and never looked back as I love the tropics; although even paradise has its challenges at times, both inherent to the nature of the resort business and politically, as doing business in another country is very different. Winston Churchhill once said, “the best form of government is a benevolent dictator.” He was not as far off as people thought at the time, and I look forward to elaborating more in future blogs, especially with the support of course content.

In addition to running my business and being a Dad, I surf professionally, love to kite surf as well, and enjoy snowboarding when I can get to the snow & mountains.

Hello Class! My name is Kely Blackburn and I reside in the beautiful Central Coast of California. I’m currently a senior working on my BA in Letters, Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Educational Leadership, with a graduation potential of this summer! So starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been employed with a local school district working with students with special needs going on three years and head coach two girls basketball teams (Middle School and Varsity levels). Eventually, I look to get my Teaching Credential in Multiple Subjects and Science, as well as complete my Masters in Educational Leadership which will enable me to reach my goal of working in an administrative/leadership role in education. A favorite leadership quote of mine was one by the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” I believe whole heartily that leaders are there to inspire and encourage greatness among those around them. I am happily married and have three adorable fur babies, (Lovek, a 4yrs old Aussie, and Charlie and Joey, his kitty cat brothers). My husband and I love the outdoors, walks on the beach, hikes in the mountains and enjoying time with close friends and family.