By Kerry Ann Wallaert
The truth is, I miss in-person conferences and workshops as a means to engage in professional development. I love visiting new cities, meeting with friends and new colleagues, and presenting sessions in person. However, professional development is not only about conferences and workshops. Professional development, at least how I define it, centers on growing my strengths and talents, stretching myself to meet new goals, and engage with colleagues who support my development. It wasn’t until recently when I realized how impactful coaching and the ETD Initiative have been to my growth and I am thrilled to share insight into our ETD outreach.
The Effective Team Dynamics Initiative was developed with the intention of reshaping team experiences in a positive way. Utilizing research driven methods and reflective evaluations, the ETD team has expanded to a campus-wide initiative which includes over 5500 students and 1250 faculty/staff that have been trained during the past four years. The ETD Initiative empowers Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches to engage our campus community in strengths-based development that is fully integrated in courses, workshops, retreats, and professional development trainings. Within our ETD team, we coach each other and continue to create new programming efforts to meet the ever-changing team dynamic needs of our campus community.
As a team, we create opportunities to reshape team experiences by asking three key questions: Who Am I? How Do I Team? How Do We Team? Interactive workshops focus on the unique characteristics of the individual (Who Am I?), what the individual brings to the table and how they interact with others (How Do I Team?), and how to understand and navigate team dynamics (How Do We Team?). In addition to workshops, we have certified coaches who meet one on one for individual strengths-based coaching sessions. In the coaching sessions, we explore your top five strengths with you as you begin to learn how your natural talents are utilized (or not) within your professional and personal life. These sessions provide an opportunity for you to set goals situated in your talents and strengths.
In these unprecedented times, personal and professional development may take a backseat to the daily tasks and unknown situations that come up in our lives and work. The silver lining is that you work on a campus where the ETD Initiative is thriving, despite the pandemic. We continue on with our mission to bring a strengths-based approach to our students, faculty, and staff. Our ETD Blog, provides insight into the impact of strengths-based team dynamics across campus. I welcome you to reach out directly to me, if you have questions about my coaching experience or personal/professional development plan, which is enhanced by my ETD coaching experiences. If you are interested in learning more about how to become a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, view the Gallup website here. I encourage you to schedule a workshop or a coaching session, or learn become a coach within the ETD Initiative. I look forward to connecting with you here!