Lynette McKinnon
My experience has been fantastic! It has been the most impactful program I have attended in my 14‐year career at Boeing. I was able to uncover specific patterns in my behavior and their root causes. That was extremely enlightening for me. For example, I’m now aware that I’m often driven by my (previously unconscious) desire to be liked. In some cases, this driver can cause negative consequences if I’m not as direct with my team as needed or don’t set high enough expectations for those I lead. This is a consistent behavior that I’ve been working on and receiving feedback on through the regular Boeing performance management process as an area for improvement.
While I was aware of these counterproductive behaviors, I had not been able to make more than incremental progress in changing them despite making them a regular developmental priority, until I uncovered the unconscious driver. These seminars not only helped me recognize this specific pattern and others, and become acutely aware of the root cause behind these recurrent behaviors, but also provided me with tools to be able to consciously act to build a more honest and productive environment around me. Having the power to recognize my patterned behavior and make a choice about how to act has been extremely powerful.
The self‐awareness that I gained has greatly enhanced my leadership abilities. The experience energized me to more consciously begin creating the environment I want around me — one of engagement, learning, and growth (which used to be hampered by my unconscious reluctance to give constructive feedback or set firm expectations). Over the past couple of months I’ve put my learning into daily practice with improved delegation, more clarity in my communications and accountability. I have set clearer and higher expectations with my direct reports and entire program team and I’ve been more diligent about follow‐up to insure delegated tasks and projects are on track while still giving the individuals and teams the agency to “own” the task.
Thanks in particular to the Advanced Mastery seminar, I’ve applied some new strategies to email, meetings and prioritization. The awareness I gained about my own personal time management has resulted in my ability to be more in control of my time, while being productive and effective with much less stress. Of personal significance to me is my new ability to take feedback as a learning opportunity rather than a discouraging threat, using it for inspiration rather than focusing on my failure. I’ve received positive feedback from my team about their appreciation of the clear direction and have noticed a more communicative relationship with my executive leadership.