Georgia Tech Presentation
Transcript: Ladan Mowlid Case Study Presentation Case Study You are settling into your new routine as a new Hall Director and have been working to better understand your team and the students who live in your residential area. During 1:1 meetings with your student staff members, you have asked them to share information about their residents and trends on the floor. In the majority of conversations, you've noticed that your staff members can speak to broad themes, (ex: a lot of Greek affiliated students, people not around very much, etc.) but they struggle to share specific information about their residents. At your most recent staff meeting, you introduce modified expectations for community building.You want each of them to spend more time talking to residents individually, strengthening the relationships they have with them. You share that this is something you want them to prioritize and that you will be asking about their conversations during your meetings with them each week. As you outline your expectations, you notice that some of the staff members are visibly confused and one of your returning staff members, Kelly, looks very overwhelmed with the new information. While there are no questions raised during the meeting, it's clear that your team members are not fully bought into the expectations you've shared. During your 1:1 with Kelly, later in the week, you inquire about the reactions you noticed during the community engagement conversation at staff meeting. Kelly apologized for the visible reaction and then shared, "I'm just a little confused by the new expectations. I get that talking to residents is important, but I don't have time for all of these conversations every single week. They know they can come to me if they need something. what's wrong with the weekly programming we've been doing?" Supervisor's Next Steps What are my next steps as a supervisor? 1) Clarify the expectations with each student staff member, individually. 2) Support student staff members by helping each one come up with a plan to as they take on this challenge. 3) Lead by example. 4) Offer tools for success. 5) Assess the results. Clarifying Expectations What are the expectations the supervisor has set for the student staff members? Student staff members should prioritize strengthening individual relationships with their residents by spending more time talking to them. How do you create buy-in? The Supervisor should use effective communication styles to explain the necessity for strengthening individual relationships with residents during upcoming 1:1s with student staff members. The supervisor should also ask the student staff member what their specific concerns are and how they can best support them in this process. This minimizes the chances of student staff members feeling as though their supervisor is inconsiderate of their individual needs. Expectations Support How can the supervisor better explain the expectation? To help the student staff members develop the skills necessary to strengthen their relationships with their residents, the supervisor should be willing to have collaborative discussions with the student staff members during 1:1s to help them come up with an action plan as they aim to fulfill the expectation. For example: - Ask Kelly how he/she got to know their Peer Leader during their first year. - Provide Kelly (and other student staff members) suggestions on how to better get to know residents through intentional and strategic scheduling. Lead As a supervisor it is important to lead by example. In this scenario, the supervisor should find ways to work on strengthening relationships with their residents and student staff members. For example: - The supervisor should consider joining residents already sitting at a table when eating in the dining facilities. - The supervisor should try to have a meaningful conversation with one to two residents before or after hall/area programs or in the hallways. - When following up with student staff members about their discussions with residents, the supervisor should also let the resident know what he/she has learned about individual residents in the past week. Offering Tools A fueling up station allows student staff members the opportunity to learn something new from one of their colleagues/peers. A fueling up station is an abstract that can go anywhere. For example, a staff member can set up a fueling station for student staff members in the lounge on a monthly basis or at the end of every staff meeting. A fueling up station allows student staff members the opportunity to ask their colleagues questions about any topic their colleague is proficient in. For example, if student staff member A speaks Arabic and student staff member B has a resident who is an international student from Dubai, student staff member B can ask student staff member A to teach them a few Arabic words. This example allows student staff members to fuel up on their knowledge regarding the middle east while