OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context

Cultural Leadership blog

Introdcution

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Hi everyone,

I apologize for the lateness of this blog post, but better late than never.

Here is a little bit about myself:

My name is Olivia VanAmburgh and I’m 21 years old. I just moved to Orlando, FL at the end of June with my furbaby, Nani, to start my career at Disney as an intern. I am hoping to stay with the company long-term.

With that being said, I’m very busy working at least 35 hours a week and taking five classes. I appreciate any patience given to me through instructors and classmates as I am trying very hard to graduate as soon as possible while maintaining my job. Even though they present their challenges, I am thankful for these opportunities and I know the struggles are temporary and will be rewarding.

I love being a part of an online campus for the flexibility and the chance to connect with my fellow classmates that are all around the world with such unique backgrounds.

Best,

Olivia

Introduction – Phil Miller

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Hello fellow classmates,

My name is Phil Miller; I am roughly a junior by credit count in my pursuit of a BS in Organizational Leadership as a non-traditional student. By trade I am an IT Manager in a Fortune 500 company and lead a globally distributed technical and support teams made of employees and partners. I hope to further develop in my role as a leader in a global organization as a result of what we learn in class this semester.

Outside of School and Work, I am also a husband and father of three girls, two in Elementary and now one Middle Schooler. Thank Goodness everyone is back in school, in person. I hope this semester is more normal than spring semester was. I look forward to getting to know you all as we learn about Global Leadership together.
Phil Miller

Intro Post

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Hi everyone,

My name is Tyler Dolbashian, and I have a BS in Marine Science from East Stroudsburg University in PA.  I hope some day to work in the National Park Service in the pacific northwest, and I’m starting work on a graduate degree in Ecosystem Management and Administration with that goal in mind.  Since I have time on my hands because of the pandemic, I figured that specializing and learning more about the system in which I am going to be maneuvering in would be a great use of my time.  I look forward to working with all of you in the upcoming semester.

Class Introduction

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Hello Everyone! My name is Deb S and I am from Hollidaysburg, PA. I actually work for Penn State University in a leadership management position, but years before that, I worked at Shippensburg University.

My goal is to obtain a degree in Organizational Leadership and continue to develop effective leadership skills. I have taken on-line courses at Penn State in the past and have enjoyed them and found the information very useful, both at work and home.

Some interesting facts about me is that I am an alpine national ski patroller and an avid golfer. I do prefer the winter season more though.

I’m married with three awesome daughters. My husband and I are committed to raise strong, confident leaders.
One of my favorite leadership quotes from Colin Powell: “As a leader, you set your tone for your entire team. Communicate your vision.”

Good Luck in all of your endeavors and achievement of goals!

“Do you live in a casino?”

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I live in Las Vegas but no, I do not live in a casino.  😉

My name is Vanita Harvison and I live in Nevada. I am taking classes part-time, towards a degree in communications. I work in marketing for an engineering firm and have done so, for a couple of different firms, for about 10 years. Without a bachelors degree, I have reached the top of my field so very much looking forward to the opportunity to move up a peg or two. I love what I do and especially love the engineering and construction industry. A long-term goal would be to lead a team of marketing professionals in a mid-sized architecture, engineering or construction company.

In a previous life, I was a program (marketing) manager for a non-profit organization and I was responsible for keeping a few employees, about 20 members of a board of directors, and countless volunteers working toward the mission. With a clearly defined mission and the authority to make decisions, I think I can be a ‘good’ leader. I very much rely on my team(s) to make us successful.

I don’t really have a famous quote on leadership that I turn to for inspiration but do have more of a persistent internal dialogue that I believe my parents instilled in me by way of example that calls me to ‘do before telling to do’. What I mean is that I believe I should have some sort of working knowledge on a topic before attempting to tell someone else to do something, especially if I want them to do it my way. I work for engineers and I am not an engineer, but I try to understand their points of view and seriously take them into consideration before giving any directive. It has served me well so far.

The only “interests” I have at the moment is school work and volunteering to get my community engaged in voting and the democratic process so that really makes my “hobby” SLEEPING!

I am looking forward to this class!

Intro Veronica Johnessee

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  • My name is Veronica, I go by Veronica.  I am currently the Director of Operations for a non-profit, the Marine Gift Shop.  We travel four locations throughout Asia in order to provide home decor furniture and gift items to those stationed here in Okinawa, Japan.  All of our profits above operating costs are distributed to Okinawan and American charities and to military dependent scholarships.
  • Please provide brief responses to the following questions:
    • I am located in Okinawa, Japan. ( a smaller island, off the small island of Japan)
    • I love my position as the Director of Operations and hope that through my experience here and my degree when we return stateside I will find another non-profit that I can commit to.
    • Currently working on my last two semesters and working hard to leave my current position automated better to endure the constant and frequent turnover we experience as our employees are always related to the military moves.
    • This is the third company I have worked for in the past ten years where I have supervised staff, it is also the most challenging as while I have 3 staff members I also have about 20 volunteers.
    • I do not have a favorite leadership quote.  I can say I have an answer that I receive from people that bothers me, “that’s how we’ve always done it”.  It bothers me because it means that there has been little or no innovation or even thought about how possible changes or improvements could benefits the stakeholders of the company/place.
    • Optional: Post something interesting about yourself:
      • I have 3 children.  Two who are starting school off base this year, which we are super excited about having more local friends and experiences.
      • I don’t have time to have special interests!  But if I did, it would be gardening.
      • I used to play roller derby.  Unfortunately, my position and school does not allow for that at the moment.
    • This photo is of me and my husband at the peak of Mt Fuji.

Hello! :)

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Hello!

I am a fourth year senior in the Organizational Leadership program. This is my last semester, and after one summer class, I will graduate this (August) and go on to pursue an MBA.

I live in Northeastern CT, and am a full-time student enrolled in 18 credit hours this semester. I was self-employed from 2009 to 2014 when I began PSU full-time. Last semester I took 15 credit hours and worked a temporary full-time job at an insurance company.

Most of my leadership experience comes from starting my small business which is still in operation and is run by my partner. As a self-funded small business owner, I was charged with leading over 200 independent contractors who worked as sales people. I developed our website, marketing strategy and materials, our training program, wrote our proposals, negotiated our supply contracts, and projected our sales volume. I also led, trained, and developed our sales team. I plan on either working in marketing or HR when I graduate.

My long-term plans include a leadership development company that helps individuals and organizations develop stronger skills, self-awareness, and their professional brand; and an executive role leading a marketing, product development, or talent development program for a large corporation.

My interests include listening to NPR podcasts, cycling, binge watching a really good series, hiking, and kayaking. Most of all I enjoy date nights with my husband and family time with my 2 daughters and stepson. Something interesting about me is that I routinely “go way down the rabbit hole” researching and learning about things that make me curious. This can happen multiple times per week, and serve the purpose of filling my “mental trough” of useless information. For that reason my favorite leadership quote comes from Diane Sawyer who once said in an interview, “Wake up curious, and determined to find an answer”

Good luck to all this semester!

Best,

Ericka

Hello Class

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Hello Class,

My Name is Mickey McCormick; I live in Vail Valley Colorado. My Family, wife and two daughters just moved here from Tampa Florida a few weeks ago. My wife took a position at Vail Medical Center. I took a Job with Vail Resorts.

Professional experience has been Military, Coal miner, Federal Police Officer, Federal Mine Inspector, EHS Specialist and now safety at Vail Resorts.

I have been working on my degree off and on since I got out of the military in 2006. I’ll get it done eventually!

Leadership experience is light; I was a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force, lead police officer when needed and in charge of 6-10 officers. Other than that, I have worked under someone or had no supervision requirements.

No leadership quotes, but always lead by example.

Welcome post from your instructor

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Welcome to OLEAD 410 Leadership in a Global Context. I am your instructor, Brian Redmond. I have been teaching for the World Campus since 2006 (Yikes over a decade now!). I previously worked in the psychology department as a instructor and assistant director for the MPS in the Psychology of Leadership. But now I head up the OLEAD degree.

 

I created this course several years ago to help OLEAD students fulfill their International Culture (IL) requirement. The first part of the course introduces a few tools you can use to learn about cultures. These are far from the only ones, but they are good starting points. In the second half of the course we explore several regions across the globe using some of the tools that we discuss in the first half. So I strongly encourage you to retain the lessons from the first parts of the course as we will be revisiting them again and you will find them useful throughout.

 

For this Blog, you will need to make 4 entries as well as 4 comments to your classmates’ entries. These assignments are less formal than papers, but you do need to treat them as more than journal entries. You need to provide evidence for your idea via citations and references. But feel free to get creative. I had a student write about escaping a zombie apocalypse in the past, but she did so supporting her ideas using course ideas, course materials and research from the library. And it was a success.

 

Personally, I’m a sci-fi and baseball fan. I also like to hike and snowboard. I look forward to working with you all this semester.
–Brian

Introduction by Rachel Maddux

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Hello, my name is Rachel Maddux, I am a senior getting a bachelors of science in OLEAD. I am the chief of staff for a director at an airplane manufacturing company in Charleston, South Carolina. Five years ago my husband and I moved from Seattle, Washington, where I was born and raised, to start a new life with new jobs in the company we worked for. At that time I left a job I loved tremendously to an unknown future away from my friends and family. I was terrified to say the least. Now that I have lived here for five years with my husband and seven months with my new daughter, I am happy to say I may never want to leave Charleston.

My current job is a lot of fun and I really enjoy going to work. I was on maternity leave for four months but I have been back at work for three months and happy I am back although I am not a huge fan of daycare. Just yesterday my boss asked me what I want to do after I get my degree and we came to the conclusion I am not in the right role to accomplish what I need to in order to get my semi-dream job. I want to be on the company’s side of union negotiations. In 15 years I would love to work on the NTSB (National Traffic Safety Board), with airplane accident investigations. I am not sure if my wish to work on the NTSB will ever come true but I will try to do it as long as I am alive.

As for leadership, I am the vice president of the diversity council and I am the leader of my employee involvement team. In all of my roles at the company I work for I have been a team leader. My past two jobs before this company were with small businesses where I was the office manager, over the course of seven years I managed roughly 100 people, no more than eight at a time. I do not have a favorite leadership quote although this makes me think, I should have one!

As I mentioned above I had a daughter seven months ago and I am amazed how much she has changed my life. My husband and I are beekeepers and we enjoy gardening. The whole reason we got into beekeeping had to do with our move from Seattle to Charleston. When we arrived we built a house and began a garden. We quickly realized that the growing seasons were much different here than from home. We took a class on gardening and the teacher mentioned that the decline of the bees has really taken a toll on how well crops grow in the South. Due to that single comment my husband decided we should become beekeepers and have a hive. After a long weekend of training and a very scary ride with 10,000 bees in the trunk of our car, we have a healthy hive and get 125 pounds of honey every year. It is amazing!

IMG_2193This is my daughter and I this year for Halloween.

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