Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning

"Self-directed learning is more than a form of education. It is a component in human development.”

—Thomas D. Fisher

In an effort to apply recently-validated principles of performance improvement by reducing classroom time and increasing informal workplace learning and individualized self-development, a significant portion of the learning within the Penn State Emerging Leaders program will take place outside of the scheduled seminars.

The Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning component of the Penn State Emerging Leaders Certificate program will help you to:

  • Increase your effectiveness in your roles as you “learn to learn” from your own work experiences and apply what you’ve learned on a regular basis.
  • Partake in learning opportunities that extend beyond the barriers of your job description, which will offer you exposure to knowledge, skills, and abilities required for success in your current and future roles.
  • Increase your breadth of exposure to different areas of the University.
  • Benefit from the guidance and example provided by current leaders in the institution.

Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning will enable you to customize your learning in order to reflect your own unique configuration of relative leadership strengths and needs. This approach allows for flexibility and convenience around how, when, and where the learning activities take place.

The outcomes of the Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning component include the development and implementation of a Leadership Learning Plan and a Personal Leadership Philosophy Statement.

Timeline for Self-Directed Informal Workplace LearningComponent

Introductory Session

During the Introductory Session and one-on-one meetings, we will:

  • Review the overall program requirements
  • Review the Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning component and outcomes including:

The Leadership Learning Plan and action items:

  • Discuss Self-Reflection activities
  • Participate in Kolb Learning Styles Inventory activity
  • Meet with Learning Group and develop “rules of engagement”

 Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning activity options

The Leadership Philosophy Statement:

  • Discuss how you will gather information throughout the certificate program to create your Leadership Philosophy Statement
  • Review learning group objectives
  • Review the instructional technologies to be incorporated into the certificate

Summer Month Concentration

Once you have mapped out your Leadership Learning Plan, you will begin to concentrate on your self-directed learning. Seminars will not be held over the summer months to facilitate your success with this initiative. (Note: you will be meeting monthly with your learning group, and once with the program leader to discuss progress.)

Completion of Self-Directed Learning

Self-directed learning will culminate with you sharing your experiences and your Leadership Philosophy Statements:

  • During the final participant meeting
  • Prior to the Capstone Event, submit completed Leadership Learning Plan and Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning At A Glance to PSEL project leader
  • At the Capstone Event

Your Supervisor’s Role

Your supervisor is in an excellent position to support your growth and development, as well as your participation in The Penn State Emerging Leaders program in several ways by:

  • Providing feedback on your performance in your current job and identifying your strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Acting as a mentor and coach.
  • Representing the organization’s needs, goals, and opportunities.
  • Keeping you apprised with what is happening within your unit/department and within Penn State.
  • Helping assess your advancement potential and your qualifications for other positions.
  • Acting as a resource and referral for exploring your options.
  • Supporting your training and development by providing training opportunities and resources, including funding and time.
  • Meeting with you on a monthly basis to discuss your progress within the program.

Self-Directed Informal Workplace Learning At a Glance

Interviews with Penn State Leaders (must complete at least three interviews):

Interview #1 / Leader: / Date Completed:
Interview #2 / Leader: / Date Completed:
Interview #3 / Leader: / Date Completed:

Job Shadowing (must complete at least two experiences):

Experience #1 / Leader: / Date Completed:
Experience #2 / Leader: / Date Completed:

Independent Study(must tap into at least six resources)

Resource #1:
Resource #2
Resource #3:
Resource #4:
Resource #5:
Resource #6:

Dates of Meetings with Supervisor (must meet at least ten times)

Meeting 1: / Meeting 2: / Meeting 3:
Meeting 4: / Meeting 5: / Meeting 6:
Meeting 7: / Meeting 8: / Meeting 9:
Meeting 10:

Build Your Own Mentoring Board of Directors (must complete)

Mentor Name / Dates of Contact
Industry
Career Development
Customer
Organization
Technology
Work/Life Integration
Work Process
Profession/Trade
Other

Short-Term Learning Experiences (must engage in at least two experiences)

Description of Experience #1:
Description of Experience #2:

Learning Log

Format:
Frequency:

Interviews with Penn State Leaders

Objectives: Interviewing incumbents in leadership roles will help you to:

  • Achieve an operational understanding of the challenges and daily activities characteristic of specific leadership roles.
  • Gain insight into the skills and knowledge required in different leadership roles.
  • Cultivate individualized strategies for improving practical leadership skills.
  • Recognize and assess options for your career path at Penn State.
  • Establish valuable networking contacts.

Approach: You will identify at least three leaders across the University to interview, including an Academic leader, a Unit Administrator, and a Staff leader at the Manager/Director level or above. Interview questions will focus on the requirements, challenges, responsibilities, and characteristics of the designated positions. You will use what you’ve learned during these interviews to help create your Leadership Learning Plan.

Consider: Successful Interviewing Steps

Even though leaders may agree to be interviewed, they may have some misgivings about the process, especially if they are not sure what to expect. Take the mystery out of the process and send them a brief description of the purpose of the interview as well as some of the questions/topics you hope to cover during your time together.

During the interview, remember to:

  • Establish rapport. Put your interviewee at ease by establishing rapport prior to diving into the questions. The weather, the work, common friends or colleagues—all can be non-threatening topics. A few minutes spent in this way will pay big dividends when you get to the serious discussion.
  • State the purpose of the interview. At the beginning of the interview, please cover the points in this suggested statement:

“As part of the Penn State Emerging Leaders Certificate Program, I am meeting with three leaders within the organization in order to gain insight into the skills and knowledge required in different leadership roles. The questions I’ll be asking today will focus on the requirements, challenges, responsibilities, and characteristics of your position.

Our interview can be anonymous—so although I may share what I’ve heard with others in the program, your name and any identifying information will not be attributed to your insights unless you are comfortable with me doing so.

I’ll be taking notes during the interview so that I may record what I’ve learned in my learning log or blog, as well as to refer to them when I devise my Leadership Learning Plan.

Before we get started, I want to thank you again for being part of my leadership development. I hope you will find our time together enjoyable. Are there any questions you would like to ask me before we get started?”

  • Close the interview. At the end of the interview, ask whether the interviewee has anything further and thank them for their time:

“That covers everything I wanted to discuss. Before we close, can you think of anything you would like to add that we haven’t covered? Thank you again for your time and your rich insights—I have learned a lot. You’ve been very helpful to me as I consider the next steps in my own leadership development.”

Sample List of Leadership Questions for Interviews

  • What are your values or beliefs about balancing work and home life? How do we integrate these into our corporate culture around the world?
  • What talents or strengths do you rely on most in your daily life as a leader?
  • What is your communication strategy as a leader? What are your communication beliefs?
  • How have you evolved as a leader in the last five years? What insights have you gained about your talents and strengths?
  • What are the greatest lessons you've learned as a leader?
  • How do you recognize success?
  • What was your first recollection of experiencing great leadership?
  • What do you see as the primary role of the leader?
  • What do you see as your greatest strength as a leader?
  • What is the best and worst example of leadership that you have seen lately?
  • What are the three most important values you demonstrate as a leader? Tell me a story that demonstrates each of these leadership values in practice within your workplace.
  • How do you approach complex problems?
  • Do you consider yourself a leader?
  • Why is it important to be a leader?
  • What is a decision you made that made you a leader?
  • How do you define leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?
  • Are you a natural leader or follower?
  • What does “motivation” mean to you?

Remember: Interviews may take unpredictable twists; you should follow the flow of the conversation, considering where you can learn the most and avoiding rigid format.

Job Shadowing

Objectives: Job shadowing experiences will help you to:

  • Achieve an operational understanding of the challenges and daily activities characteristic of specific leadership roles.
  • Gain insight into the skills and knowledge required in different leadership roles.
  • Cultivate individualized strategies for improving practical leadership skills.
  • Recognize and assess options for your career path at Penn State.
  • Establish valuable networking contacts.

Approach: You will research an area or two within the University that you are interested in learning more about, especially from a leadership perspective. Once you’ve identified the areas, you will reach out to prospective job shadow leaders and schedule time for the experience to occur. It is important that you work with your supervisor in order to identify the most convenient time to devote to this experience, given current job responsibilities and what is happening within the unit, to ensure coverage while away from the office.

Consider: Job Shadowing Tips

  • Be clear about what you want to gain from the experience.
  • Prior to the experience, research the department in which you will be spending time—check out their website and familiarize yourself with the mission/goals of the department, as well as the types of roles that are present within the department.
  • During the experience, be open to new ideas and engage yourself fully by actively listening, taking on the role of observer and being willing to participate fully.
  • After the experience concludes, write a note of appreciation to the leader for their time and insights.
  • Document experiences and results in your learning log and blog.

Job Shadowing Notes:

Name of Leader:

Position:

Department/Unit:

Contact Info:

Date of Experience:

Questions to ask the leader:

My observations during this job shadowing experience:

What I learned:

How I can apply this learning to my development as a leader:

Independent Study

Objectives: Completing independent study will help you to:

  • Broaden your knowledge or understanding of leadership.
  • Focus on leadership philosophies or trends that are relevant to you.

Approach: You will select and read at least six resources (which could be books, articles, online resources, etc.) focused on leadership and/or self-directed learning and incorporate your findings into your learning log and blog. You may also choose to discuss what you’ve learned with your peers in the Penn State Emerging Leaders program, supervisors, and/or colleagues (either face-to-face or via technology).

Build Your Own Mentoring Board of Directors

Objectives: Having multiple mentors will help you to:

  • Refine and leverage your leadership style.
  • Benefit from your mentors’ insights on issues related to leadership, career advice, and your continuing leadership development.
  • Address current leadership challenges in your personal sphere of influence.
  • Develop working relationships with others at Penn State and beyond.
  • Develop skills and knowledge to serve as a future mentor.

Approach: This activity is based on the article Eight Types of Mentors: Which Ones Do You Need? by Caela Farren, Ph.D., MasteryWorks, Inc. You will use this article as guide to begin to build and connect with your Board of Directors throughout the duration of the program. You will use your learning log and/or blog to capture your insights from the process, as well as what you’ve learned from your mentors. You will update your progress and share your findings during your scheduled meetings with your program leader.

Consider: Learning from Many Mentors: The Five Key Knows

Source: Beverly Kaye and Beverly Bernstein, Career Systems International

Here are five logical and essential steps in the process of creating, building, and nurturing learning relationships:

Step One: Know What You Want

The starting point of all mentoring relationships should be identifying your objectives. What are you looking for? What is your purpose? Can you clearly state this purpose to others? It is important to explore your short-term and long-term goals while focusing on the strategies and tactics it will take to achieve these goals.

Step Two: Know Who’s Out There

The second step is to realize just who the potential mentors might be that can help you. Once you begin identifying specific people, you will be amazed at how rich your human resource bank really is.

It’s good to be realistic and practical, but also a bit courageous and ambitious while identifying those individuals who you would like to serve on your Mentoring Board of Directors.

Step Three: Know How Others Can Help

The third step is to determine specific ways in which the various mentors you have identified can help you. People will play different roles that are directly related to your needs. Understanding that help, guidance, information, counsel, and support can come from a variety of people in diverse ways is key to ensuring that your mentoring relationships are dynamic and flexible.

Step Four: Know the Odds

The fourth step is to evaluate your own level of commitment to the mentoring process. How much effort are you willing to put in so that this process becomes an on-going part of your professional life? Think about the effort necessary for all successful mentoring relationships including taking the initiative, making the time, and being open to learning.

Step Five: Know How to Reciprocate

The final step is to creatively determine how you can make all of your work with mentors a true two-way street. What can you give back so that the mentors on your Board of Directors feel that the time and energy they have given to you has been well spent? Think about and identify unique ways in which you can help and appreciate others who have helped you.

Short-Term Learning Experiences

Objectives: A short-term learning experience [that goes beyond your typical duties and department] will help you to:

  • Assess the match between your talents and interests relative to a specific leadership challenge or role.
  • Develop, refine, and apply new knowledge and skills.
  • Increase your breadth of exposure to different areas of the University.
  • Become more familiar with challenges and available resources in different areas at PennState.
  • Increase your visibility within the institution.

Approach: Examples of short term learning experiences could include:

  • Attending or joining a commission (e.g. Commission for Women, Commission on Racial/Ethnic Diversity, etc.)
  • Joining or leading a taskforce or ad hoc team
  • Improving a designated workflow or work process
  • Contributing to or leading an effort to improve workplace climate in a designated area
  • Contributing to a campus, college, or other area’s strategic plan—or attending a strategic plan presentation
  • Helping to plan or launch a new initiative, program, or service (e.g., start a green team)
  • Assessing customer satisfaction, needs, and preferences for a designated area
  • Managing work with a broad, interdisciplinary scope
  • Interacting with people from different disciplines, cultures, or countries who have different perspectives
  • Serving as a temporary “fill-in” while your boss is away from the office
  • Helping to implement new office technology in a designated area
  • Increasing breadth of experience by taking on a temporary assignment that requires new knowledge or skills
  • Mentoring a coworker
  • Supporting the United Way fund drive
  • Serving as a member on a Board of Directors
  • Negotiating with a customer or vendor
  • Leading a staff meeting, including preparing an agenda

Consider: Plan Ahead—But Be Flexible