Leadership Application: Bridges MN HR Coordinator
In October 2021, I began my job as a human resources coordinator for Bridges MN. Bridges MN is a company that provides high level services to individuals with disabilities. In the Mankato region, we have over fifteen group homes that need 24-hour staffing. My role in the company has two main functions: staff compliance and employment mentor. The first function, staff compliance, involves ensuring all our region’s staff are up to date on license-mandated trainings and that our company can prove that each staff is “competent” to provide services to the people we serve. A large portion of this function involves working with our direct care staff and their supervisors directly to complete outstanding requirements. The second function, employment mentor, involves working one on one with an individual with disabilities to assist in their development of employment skills. Some of these skills are technical, such as how to use a printer/document scanner and how to use Google Sheets. Soft skills are practiced as well, such as critical thinking and decision-making. I have been paired with my “crew member” for over a year and currently work with her for 21 hours per week. My role is supervised by our region’s executive director, Brent, who completed my latest performance evaluation in November 2022.
My leadership experience at Bridges has been very different in comparison to my supervisor role at Walmart. At Walmart, I often worked as the sole supervisor with 20+ direct reports. At Bridges, my only direct report is my crew member, and I always work with my regional’s other two human resource professionals. One of the HR professionals I work with is very experienced in this field, and I have learned a lot from her leadership style, especially in comparison to my own. My coworker is very people-oriented and extroverted. Staff are drawn to her personality and find it easy to talk to her about anything. This is an aspect of HR with which I struggle. While I excel at data analysis and process improvement, as an introvert, I find it difficult to present a welcoming and warm personality. This is also reflected in my Strength’s Finder assessment; I have strengths in building relationships but not energizing others. I think in order to become more approachable, I need to show a more immediate interest in those I meet and show that I want to build relationships with them. I am working hard to address this weakness, but in the meantime, I am very thankful I have a coworker who can excel at this aspect. I have also learned a lot from working as a leader one on one with my crew member. My crew member looks to me for direction not only in what tasks to complete, but also how to complete the tasks and what attitudes to have towards them. Because my crew member is observing me even when we are working independently, I practice a role model leadership style. Meaning, I approach tasks and problems the way I want my crew member to, so she can observe that behavior and utilize it herself. While I had never used this leadership style before, it has been extremely effective for both my crew member and me. Many people learn best from copying others, so it makes sense that a role modeling style of leadership would work well. This leadership style also has benefited me as the leader. I am consciously thinking about how I operate and ensuring I act the way I want my crew member to. This has helped me avoid negative habits I have, such as perfectionism and frustration at mistakes. I do not want my crew member to be overwhelmed by mistakes but to rather use them as a learning opportunity, so I must take the same approach to my own work.
In November 2022, I received my annual performance review from my manager. Prior to receiving his review, I needed to review myself on the same metrics. When comparing my self-reflection to his review, it is obvious I underestimate my performance. Brent marked that I exceeded expectations in every aspect while I only put that I met the expectations. Brent and I then discusses these discrepancies in depth. It is not that I believe that I could be doing more, but rather that all that I do is what is expected. Brent confirmed to me that I often do go above and beyond my role responsibilities when asked and that I am always wanting to help. Although I am very successful in my career so far, I think I lack the self confidence in my performance sometimes.
I have two major takeaways from my experience working at Bridges that have adapted my personal theory of leadership. The first is that it is important that leaders work with a diverse team. A team with different backgrounds and strengths can utilize each other to cover individual weaknesses and develop unique approaches to problems. Everyone wants to be innovative and strong in every facet, but this is best achieved when working as a team. Until working with Bridges, I had no desire to work in a team. I believed that I was self-efficient and that working with others just complicated things. However, having worked with my own diverse team, I disagree with my younger self’s desire. Even though I still believe I work well on my own and that there are challenges when working in teams, the benefits of working with a strong team greatly outweigh these. I know that when I will be considering jobs in the future, a strong team will be one of my requirements. As an HR professional as well, I may oversee hiring and selecting teams in my future career. I know that I will need to place importance in making those teams diverse. The second thing that has developed my personal leadership theory is that it is important to use a variety of leadership styles. I do not believe there is one true leadership style that works in every situation. For example, at Bridges with my crew member, role modeling works well. But in a position where I have many direct reports that do not get to spend as much time with me, a different leadership style would be more effective. I believe that the most important thing for me to practice