HR Newsletters 2021

ExCEL Leadership Training

Dr. Sheriece Robinson

Expanding Capacity for Effectiveness and Leadership (ExCEL) is a competitive training program designed by Cynthia Jiles and Dr. Krystal Thurman. This program provides professional development to staff members aspiring to advance into management and leadership roles within the agency. ExCEL also contributes a pleth- ora of resources and support to enhance leadership and managerial competence. Since the commencement of ExCEL, Jim Miller and I have been immersed with meetings, discussions, obser- vations, guest speakers, video recordings, case studies, and article and book readings. Comprised with a mentoring component, this enhanced training program implements teaching, coaching, and learning oppor- tunities that contribute to the enrichment of skills and knowledge. Our first mentors, Dr. Rachel De Vaughan and Ray Smith, were committed and influential in providing guidance and support to help us learn and dis- cover new concepts, information, and potential challenges we may encounter in a management and leader- ship role. We have spent extensive time with Dr. Mayfield, Dr. De Vaughan, Ms. Jiles, and Dr. Thurman. They have been innovative and instrumental in providing various internal and external learning opportunities to engage us in various practical experiences. In addition, we have had the opportunity to work with Jason Carter, Dr. Krista LeBrun, and Russell Shaw. I have also had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with Audra Dean and Cindy Goodin. All have shared knowledge, resources, and imparted wisdom that can be utilized in our future role. Throughout ExCEL training, we have assessed our goals and professional growth. During one of our training sessions, we were introduced to the GROW Model. This popularized framework can be utilized to assist teams and individual employees to enhance performance, solve problems, make decisions, and achieve ca- reer goals (Polemis, 2021). For the sake of this article, I will include some reflective questions highlighted by Polemis (2021) that supports a career goal approach.

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