Maximizing the Professional Performance and Learning Rate - Essay Example

Over the of my life work experience I have had many different areas of learning open up before me. Some of them were areas that I initially never expected to open the door to, and others were areas I readily opened in hopes of the experience that lie beyond them. I have worked and gained ten years of experience as a Head of Department and have also spent thirty years of my life as a teacher and an examiner of ballet. I found that by working in these fields I developed skills that were closely related with my work that eventually became a second nature to me. These skills are skills that one almost has to learn from experience, and cannot simply be taught. Throughout my experience I have leaned pastoral and counseling, time management, organization of documentation and records, facilitation of meetings, conflict management and other intuitive skills, all that were never formally taught to me, but I simply picked up as I went along. In my role as Head of Dance I picked up on many of the technical and inner workings of management. As part of my position I was required to report to both Managers and Directors meetings, and had to learn to work within the people above me. You learn how to report back to them your successes as well as your failures, and I learned to always keep them aware of what was going on inside my department. I also got to attend many seminars, including some held by Trinity College, London, Council for Dance Education and Training, Learning Skills Council, Dance UK and the Music and Dance Scheme. I then got to report back my findings from these seminars to the “higher-ups”, and learned how to easily and casually report things you have learned in a management setting. One of the jobs I found I simply picked up on as was never taught is the skill of organizing and documenting everything, and doing so in a accurate and clear way. Now, truth be told, simply working with documents and passing papers is a task that I wasn’t to fond of, and I don’t think there are many people who live simply to keep records. However, despite this, I had to adapt, overcome, and do the tedious work of keeping accurate records. I learned through experience that it is important to keep these records precise for future needs, some of which could even be down the road legal problems. I also learned how important it was to keep the confidentiality of all records as it should be, as that is also an important legal proceeding to keep in mind. Eventually I developed a system to help me keep track of all the files. This system is one that wasn’t taught to me, but one I learned as I went along and developed to fit my own needs. This system included: Documentation of all expenditures for the budgeting process.  This is necessary for auditing purposes as well as for future budget requests Documentation of all learner/staff activity, especially if working with money from a granting agency/authority/body Documentation of the employment and induction process if a new staff member is to be employed Documentation of staff teaching observations and appraisals for future reference Documentation of any data that will be needed for all courses and departmental review and inspection purposes Through the use of this system I was able to keep myself on task and focused, and it also helped me deal with the process of record keeping that I didn’t like to much. Another important skill I learned throughout my work experience is the importance of interpersonal skills in the work place. This is another important skill that cannot be “taught” so to speak, and simply needs to be learned through the experience that comes from working with other people. In my role as Department Head I learned how important it is to keep all members of the Department positive, and to also try my best to know each of them individually, as well as their own personal strengths and weaknesses. When I reflect on this, I ask myself: "Have I shared my ideas and have I included others in making decisions?", and I really hope I always did. Listening is an important skill I developed as working as the Department Head, and I really learned how important it is to sit down and listen to what other people have to say. I feel listening is probably my most important leadership skill. Leadership should, at its best, be a consistent approach to empower employees to make good use of their intelligence in performing their work; to be highly creative, productive, motivated and committed rather than negative and poorly motivated. I also pride myself in how approachable of a person I am, to all staff at all times. I always make sure to keep an open door policy to all although sometimes to my detriment! However, I find that it is really one of the best ways to keep everybody involved and happy, and it helps flesh out problems before they are swept under the rug and come back to bite you later. I also made sure to keep all meetings as efficient as possible, as I feel it helps everyone come away from the meeting with a better understanding of what went on. It also helps everyone be on the same page, and further developed the overall understanding of the whole department. I also value the importance of continuing professional development and try my best to involve myself in the ongoing enhancement of knowledge and skills. I attempt to motivate not only myself but also those around me. Following the advised Government requirements regarding teaching qualifications I made the decision in September 2004 to sign up to a Certificate in Education course. Although my colleagues and I have a variety of dance teaching qualifications it seemed necessary to gain further recognition with the Certificate in Education. I have gained this ahead of my staff in order to be able help and guide them through the process. I found the work very interesting and it gave me a valuable opportunity to work closely with other experienced teachers in many disciplines and to observe teaching and learning strategies. We learned a lot about ourselves, not just about how we all teach, but about how we think and learn, and how we cope with a variety of situations. It was a great learning experience for all of us, and it helped us all grow as people and teachers. Time management is another skill that I found I eventually developed even though it was never officially “taught” to me. In the role I play, I found time management to be one of the most important skills I could develop, and that it is vital to success. Being that I had duties spread across several people and activities, I always need to be on top of my game and know how much time I can realistically donate to everybody. Through this skill I have also learned the important necessity of delegating tasks to a support staff, as this also helps me better manage my time and get everything done in a timely manner. I actually find delegation very difficult and know that by doing the job myself I will probably get the task done effectively, however I try to develop and help staff to do jobs quickly without my involvement. This way people are able to grow and work on their own. People will, with time, learn to do jobs properly. I have a wonderful personal assistant who has worked with me for many years and knows my views and thoughts in most areas and can often help when I have an overload of tasks to complete. There is a level of incoming and outgoing information that is difficult to analyze, observe and discuss, but nonetheless it does exist. It is teaching by instinct, perception, and insight and using a ‘sixth sense’. It is one of those things that can be hard to explain and pin the head on, but if you have them you know. I am one of those people with one of these skills. I am among many teachers who make pedagogical decisions made on a moment by moment basis that are based on information, on sights, sounds, and impressions, some of which dont even register on a conscious level. In teaching dance these decisions include: Whether to repeat the phrase or section or move on If repeating, whether to adjust to a different modality/intelligence/tactic or continue with the same one Is it time to focus on technique, musical beats, footwork and specific matter, or investigate style, mood, character, inner feel of the movement, or to work on sequencing, recall, or something else? Whether to leave the realm of words and rely on demonstration, or vice versa What can the learners handle and how much can I challenge? Is it a touchy sensitive day with prickly “artistic tempered” learners, or can we really forge ahead? Touchy days can be valuable for developing other things like unison, harmony, faith, trust, support, kinship, sense of humor etc. I find the best way to deal with this overflow of emotions and data is simply to open up and let it all come in, as that helps me deal with it the best. Using interpersonal intelligence, learning to give importance to this kind of information can require a certain amount of experience, great familiarity with the discipline/subject and instinctive intuition. I also spend a great deal of time in my line of work giving advice, sharing my own thoughts and ideas, letting people know that we all have been there, and sometimes I just have to sit and lend an ear. Often times I may not hold the solution to the problem, but I can help people look and manage them better. I feel that through this process I have learned another skill, the skill to console, throughout the years, even though I have never went through professional training of any kind for this skill. This counseling skill I consider myself to be emotional intelligence that is empathy, self-motivation, and relationship management, all dealing with how well I am able to deal with and control my own emotions. I have also developed many other skills throughout my career, and my passion for learning has now slowed any. I have learned a great much more about Dance than I originally knew. I have also learned how important it is to include everybody, and of late I have been a huge advocate for the inclusively of all activities. I have also gained knowledge in child protection and safe recruitment. My knowledge database for the fitness and lifestyle of dancing has all also expanded. This knowledge includes many things I never thought I would need to know in my field including: driving, smoking, posture, drugs, alcohol, STDs, first aid, credit card abuse, self-employment tax, fitness and injury prevention, nutrition, psychological aspects of dance, yoga, Alexander techniques, Tai Chi, marketing techniques, and diversity problems, just to name a few more of the areas I have picked up skills in and needed to learn in my career. None of these things could be taught to me in any other setting, they were all simply things I found out I needed and picked up as I went along. All of these many skills are skills I truly feel cannot be taught, and simply need to be learned in real life experience. Through my experience in life I have picked up many of these skills, and have simply learned how to get things done as they come about. Sometimes that is the best way, and I feel in my life it was the best and easiest way for me to pick up and learn all of these skills. Read More