Five DELTA Staff Graduate Pathways Leadership Development Program

June 1, 2017 was a special day for five DELTA staff members. Steve Bader, Breanna Collins, Shawn Colvin, Cathi Phillips Dunnagan and Arthur Earnest graduated from the Pathways Leadership Development Program where they engaged in professional and self-development.

Along with finishing the program, Dunnagan received additional recognition for demonstrating exemplary leadership practice with the “Inspire a Shared Vision” award. Since it is a peer-nominated award, Dunnagan noted receiving the award was “very special.”

The two-semester program is designed to “enhance interpersonal effectiveness and leadership propensity.” Components of the program material are aligned with leadership experts Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.” These specialists have identified five practices of extraordinary leaders: Modeling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, Enabling Others to Act and Encouraging the Heart.

Pathways Leadership Development Program consists of Path 1 and Path 2 with the first path serving as a prerequisite for the second. In Path 1, participants engage in courses focusing on interpersonal communication, decision making and problem solving, team fundamentals, conflict resolution and more. They also collaborate with other Pathways participants to create a team project and presentation.

In Path 2, participants complete “The Leadership Challenge Workshop” and other courses aligned with the practices taught in the workshop such as giving and receiving feedback, meeting management, ropes course and collaboration and other topics. In addition, participants engage in a feedback assessment to identify leadership behaviors and determine their leadership development goals. Participants also partner with a Pathways coach and mentor throughout the program.

Bader, Collins and Dunnagan completed both paths and were each involved in a team project with other Pathways participants. Colvin and Earnest completed Path 2 as they completed Path 1 last year.

For Bader and Team W.O.L.F (Win or Learn Fast), their project was the Wolf Rewards Program that focused on providing employees a platform for ongoing recognition. Employees earn incentive points when buying from campus vendors and attending events and activities, and the rewards program would serve as an avenue for driving engagement and satisfaction. It also would be a platform to streamline university activities into one place for easy access.

Collins was a part of Team Wolf and worked to create the Campus Pictorial Map project that proposed to present NC State’s campus in the best light by replacing an incomplete collection of low-fidelity digital images with high-quality architectural photographs. The project aimed to establish a cost effective and timely process for collecting images of campus’ architectural features to be made available for campus maps and other promotional and communication purposes.

Wolfpack 4 Wellness was Dunnagan’s team and project name. The objective of the project was to develop a mobile app that consolidates information about resources and activities that enhance the wellbeing of NC State employees. The app will increase participation in wellness programs by providing a platform through which employees can communicate and organize activities.

In the 2016 Pathways program, Colvin was a member of Team Wolfpack Travelers and created a program to utilize state-owned destination properties at a discounted rate. Earnest’s team, Team NCSU Connects, brainstormed a socializing and interest group application for NC State employees to give staff and faculty who share similar interests a chance to connect socially off campus.

Pathways is put on by Learning and Organizational Development and is available to full-time employees of NC State and Campus Partners and Affiliates. It is designed for individuals who identify as “high-performing individuals, emerging team leaders and program/project managers.”