Nearing Semester's End

Well, I'm just a couple weeks away from the end of my first semester toward my bachelor degree. Thank heavens!

This has been a very difficult process for me. The courses are not difficult. The problem is the amount of work required in this accelerated course. Working 40+ hours, taking care of my family and home, keeping up on my responsibilities with the Charleston Chapter IAAP AND taking 12 credit hours - well it's just exhausting.

At this point I have basically been validating many things I have learned through my career. The importance of teams, personality types, Maslow's Hierarchical Theory, things I have picked up through personnel trainings and other college courses.

One of the things that has really helped me so far is the "inside" look at management and management decision making. I think I always knew these things, but I didn't really consider them.

One of the chapters we just completed focused on "The Seasons of a CEO's Tenure" by Hambrick and Fukutomi. They identified five seasons:

1. Response to a mandate,
2. Experimentation,
3. Selection of an enduring theme,
4. Convergence, and,
5. Dysfunction.

They have found that, on average, a CEO's performance peak comes about midway of a seven year cycle, and declines from there. When I considered this in relation to my traditional employer, I can see the pattern. The current executive director has been in place just under seven years. He has reached convergence and is moving toward dysfunction. It also tells me that I will face this same cycle in time.

Although these classes have been very difficult to juggle, it has given me an renewed sense of competency. It has also helped me to decide to make some strategic career changes. I am looking at leaving my full-time position in order to take a part-time job that will allow me more flexibility to focus on my personal business and my degree completion.