1 00:00:02,168 --> 00:00:11,378 Hello, everybody. My name is Maximillian Quiroz, and my capstone project was basically about helping to better new supervisors. 2 00:00:15,518 --> 00:00:22,778 I was inspired to do this project because I found that many of my students were provided varying levels of guidance before coming to my course. 3 00:00:23,228 --> 00:00:34,177 I was previously an instructor teaching a technical school for the military, and I found that many of the students who were coming through, 4 00:00:34,178 --> 00:00:42,218 they had been in the Air Force for a while, but during their time leading up to coming to the course, 5 00:00:42,218 --> 00:00:45,758 they had been giving just various levels of guidance. 6 00:00:47,078 --> 00:00:50,738 In addition to that, I have also performed as an interim first sergeant. 7 00:00:51,518 --> 00:00:57,638 They are basically somebody who can take issues that people are having within a military unit. 8 00:00:58,088 --> 00:01:06,158 And when that member has tried everything within their own power to do this. 9 00:01:06,938 --> 00:01:13,148 This position, the first sergeant comes in and basically their entire job is to take care of people. 10 00:01:13,728 --> 00:01:23,228 It's a wonderful job, but they come in and they have a multitude of connections and a large network throughout many military installations, 11 00:01:23,228 --> 00:01:32,257 and they can get things done. And I was I attended a training session to become an interim first sergeant. 12 00:01:32,258 --> 00:01:39,428 And I found that the information provided in that training would be extremely beneficial for supervisors of all experience levels, 13 00:01:39,818 --> 00:01:50,048 but mostly newer supervisors. Now, my project began with a pool of 24 junior airmen located throughout my squadron. 14 00:01:50,528 --> 00:01:56,257 I asked for a small list of ideal character traits for a supervisor to possess and a list 15 00:01:56,258 --> 00:02:00,518 of their most prudent life issues that their supervisor may or may not be aware of. 16 00:02:01,298 --> 00:02:06,338 These issues ranged from how to sign up for college financial issues that they were having. 17 00:02:06,818 --> 00:02:18,728 Family and work, stress and physical fitness. My main audience was new supervisors, supervisors who had been doing it for less than one year. 18 00:02:19,268 --> 00:02:28,958 And my stakeholders were the airmen that I polled, but my audience also was another set of secondary stakeholders. 19 00:02:30,128 --> 00:02:37,668 My stakeholders, yes, the airmen that I, I pulled, but also in a much broader sense. 20 00:02:37,688 --> 00:02:48,038 Airmen throughout the Air Force. For my resources, I put together a document containing a list of ideal leadership traits, 21 00:02:48,758 --> 00:02:53,318 leadership counseling techniques and programs available for U.S. Air Force members. 22 00:02:54,518 --> 00:03:03,698 And then lastly, my method for conducting my project was I conducted a presentation slash discussion. 23 00:03:04,388 --> 00:03:13,178 I call it a luncheon learn. That's a colloquial term throughout the Air Force with an audience of eight supervisors, 24 00:03:13,718 --> 00:03:17,228 we talked about leadership traits and rapport building techniques. 25 00:03:17,588 --> 00:03:25,688 We reflected on positive and negative leadership experiences within their own their own career. 26 00:03:26,288 --> 00:03:32,498 And we also discussed the types of programs available for airmen of all ranks and in all types of situations. 27 00:03:44,420 --> 00:03:53,000 which is what would normally happen in situations like this when airmen are having issues and leadership learns of these issues. 28 00:03:54,050 --> 00:03:57,439 Normally, leadership would just take it upon themselves to say, Oh, 29 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:04,340 we know what what our audience needs, what those those younger people need, instead of asking them. 30 00:04:05,210 --> 00:04:10,250 So instead of that, I chose to ask the types of people with the highest rate of problems or issues. 31 00:04:11,210 --> 00:04:15,980 As far as we know for creating my innovative approach. 32 00:04:17,210 --> 00:04:19,099 Most airmen that I pulled, 33 00:04:19,100 --> 00:04:24,620 they didn't think that their supervisor knew how to help them or they were too embarrassed to talk to their supervisor about it. 34 00:04:25,070 --> 00:04:33,770 And the reason for this is that it wasn't just because of the supervisors supposed lack of knowledge. 35 00:04:34,130 --> 00:04:38,900 It was also due to an inability to build a relationship with their airmen. 36 00:04:39,710 --> 00:04:46,820 That supervisor to build a relationship with their airmen. For my emotional intelligence, the awareness of self and others, 37 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,980 I'm not the only person who has had negative leadership experiences or faced personal issues. 38 00:04:52,430 --> 00:04:57,800 I definitely not the only person and I'm not going to be the last person, that's for sure. 39 00:04:59,930 --> 00:05:07,790 Consideration of the Audience. During my presentation and our guide a discussion, 40 00:05:07,790 --> 00:05:13,159 I asked each of my audience members to think of their own positive and negative 41 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:17,510 leadership experiences and how they felt when they were going through those. 42 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:25,040 And the value to others is that I wanted my audience to reflect on their airmen's issues and how they can help. 43 00:05:25,430 --> 00:05:32,210 So I also ask them to think back with those positive and negative leadership experiences. 44 00:05:32,510 --> 00:05:41,180 I asked them to think about a situation in their time, in their past, that they needed help from their supervisor, 45 00:05:41,570 --> 00:05:53,150 but they either didn't get the help that they were expecting or needing, or they got way, way more assistance than they realized they would. 46 00:05:53,990 --> 00:06:06,470 And that just provided a lot of value in bringing my audience or my stakeholders the airmen's situation to my audience. 47 00:06:10,510 --> 00:06:16,720 For my creative thinking, my creative framework, my idea centered around becoming a better leader. 48 00:06:17,590 --> 00:06:23,170 My upcoming work move that I have at the time of my proposal, which I've now completed, 49 00:06:23,950 --> 00:06:27,340 that helped me think of what questions or issues my new coworkers may have. 50 00:06:27,790 --> 00:06:36,760 I mentioned that the students that I was teaching before they had a rough a. 51 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:44,010 They had inconsistency with what they were being told. 52 00:06:44,730 --> 00:06:48,510 One person was told one thing. Another person was told something completely different. 53 00:06:49,950 --> 00:06:55,540 And I knew with that, if these people were facing that, 54 00:06:55,540 --> 00:07:03,060 then the the people that my new work assignment likely are going to have some sort of inconsistency as well. 55 00:07:04,230 --> 00:07:07,560 My unique approach to it at the time, 56 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:14,760 there was not a course or anything created that addressed new supervisors and how to become a more effective leader. 57 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:22,170 I asked who would benefit most from more effective leadership and that would be the airmen. 58 00:07:22,860 --> 00:07:36,150 They would get that consistency. They would be able to have their problems resolved or mostly resolved at a lower level of leadership. 59 00:07:37,530 --> 00:07:42,479 And for my accomplishment in my capstone, I created a luncheon learn. 60 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:48,150 As I mentioned, it was composed of three main discussion topics and presented resources. 61 00:07:51,330 --> 00:07:58,530 And then lastly, my innovative approach to the problem is that I address the issues facing airmen within my own military unit, 62 00:07:58,830 --> 00:08:01,440 which are also common among the rest of the Air Force. 63 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:08,430 The lunch and learn method, combined with discussion, seemed to be more effective in getting every audience member to interact. 64 00:08:14,340 --> 00:08:19,740 My results. I measure the impact of my results by taking the survey. 65 00:08:19,860 --> 00:08:28,680 I asked my audience members beforehand if they knew about any of the programs available. 66 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:37,320 The types of leadership traits that that a leader should possess. 67 00:08:37,830 --> 00:08:47,790 And I also asked them afterwards, five out of my eight audience members learned about programs available to themselves and the airmen. 68 00:08:48,510 --> 00:08:56,340 They had a little bit of idea that some of these programs were out there, but they didn't know everything that was out there. 69 00:08:56,940 --> 00:09:05,130 Some of these included financial counseling, education benefits, as well as like personal counseling. 70 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:11,610 Three out of those eight took the opportunity to think about their own style of leadership. 71 00:09:12,450 --> 00:09:26,010 I mentioned that we discussed radio leadership traits as well, and they reflected on their own, their own leadership. 72 00:09:27,540 --> 00:09:35,790 Now, the main benefit to my stakeholders is now that those supervisors know about those programs, 73 00:09:35,790 --> 00:09:40,500 they can share them with airmen who may be struggling in those areas as well. 74 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:46,860 And in addition to the leadership styles that they have, can be adjusted to more appropriately, 75 00:09:46,950 --> 00:09:54,870 the situations and the the actual impact on my stakeholders is that. 76 00:09:54,900 --> 00:10:00,300 Now their own supervisors are aware that simple issues are present even in their own lives. 77 00:10:02,100 --> 00:10:12,329 As I mentioned before, the these airmen that I pulled, they were most of them were okay talking to their supervisors about certain situations. 78 00:10:12,330 --> 00:10:27,210 But some of them didn't want to discuss, you know, financial or work stress because of the perceived embarrassment or or whatnot. 79 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:38,580 And now their supervisors also have a wider network to access if they feel overwhelmed with certain issues or situations that they're having to face. 80 00:10:41,460 --> 00:10:49,590 Now, I did think for my results, I, I thought that most of my audience would already know about most of the resources and programs discussed. 81 00:10:50,490 --> 00:10:57,450 I also didn't think that my audience would be too surprised at the list of ideal leadership traits listed by the German. 82 00:10:58,110 --> 00:11:00,870 The actual results were somewhat surprising. 83 00:11:01,680 --> 00:11:08,070 I was surprised at how many of my audience were unaware or had limited knowledge of the programs we discussed. 84 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:17,310 My audience listed many of the same traits that my stakeholders did when we talked about ideal leadership traits and characteristics. 85 00:11:19,590 --> 00:11:27,630 And one thing that surprised me the most that I probably should have thought of is that just because someone 86 00:11:27,630 --> 00:11:33,390 has been in a leadership role for a while doesn't mean that they have experience supervising or leading. 87 00:11:33,930 --> 00:11:36,390 That definitely wasn't something I was anticipating. 88 00:11:37,950 --> 00:11:51,690 Now, with this whole project, I think the biggest thing that I would do differently is just give myself more time to to go through my project. 89 00:11:52,170 --> 00:12:01,590 I had originally anticipated to start my project at the end of the proposal, giving myself about an extra two weeks. 90 00:12:01,620 --> 00:12:09,350 However, I ended up not being able to start it in that original timeline, 91 00:12:09,780 --> 00:12:17,640 and I ended up starting about the later portion of the first week of the capstone. 92 00:12:19,650 --> 00:12:23,640 If I had to do it again, I would totally give myself more time and start on time. 93 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:29,370 But I was in the middle of moving from Virginia to Florida. 94 00:12:29,580 --> 00:12:32,610 But that's okay. It's done now. 95 00:12:34,530 --> 00:12:41,850 I would also give myself more time to practice my presentation and guided discussion more. 96 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:48,750 With that in mind, my supervisor provided me with some great feedback, 97 00:12:49,140 --> 00:12:52,259 telling me that he thought the information I brought up and discussed is very 98 00:12:52,260 --> 00:12:56,340 important because it's something most supervisors don't think about or mentor on. 99 00:12:56,820 --> 00:13:00,540 It's just not something most people think about. I'm not sure why. 100 00:13:02,130 --> 00:13:03,660 Perhaps I can ask my audience. 101 00:13:04,980 --> 00:13:12,660 He did tell me that he could tell I was a little nervous, but I did a good job overall, and he also told me he would like me to get more. 102 00:13:12,740 --> 00:13:17,630 People from our squadron involved. The next time I do it, the next time. 103 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:23,270 So I will be doing it again now. 104 00:13:23,660 --> 00:13:27,470 Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I ended up taking during my project. 105 00:13:28,430 --> 00:13:34,730 I wish I had remembered to take more, but each person here is mostly within my demographic audience. 106 00:13:35,390 --> 00:13:40,430 They're either a new, newer supervisor with less than one year of experience supervising, 107 00:13:40,730 --> 00:13:45,770 or a more seasoned noncommissioned officer, but with minimal supervisory experience. 108 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:57,380 In addition to my eight, there's me in the full uniform standing up and then my supervisor is behind me to my right. 109 00:13:57,740 --> 00:14:01,580 The screen's left. Great guy. 110 00:14:04,890 --> 00:14:11,970 Now the link up above contains a picture of my audience, my supervisor and me, as well as the handout that I created. 111 00:14:12,390 --> 00:14:18,990 And the handout contains screenshots from my two references Military OneSource and Air Force dot com. 112 00:14:19,500 --> 00:14:26,670 It also contains a large excerpt from the supervisory document I found titled Taking Care of Your People a Supervisor's Guide. 113 00:14:27,750 --> 00:14:32,970 My original proposal contained a reference that I didn't end up using during my project. 114 00:14:33,540 --> 00:14:44,400 It's the one in the middle there. The basic construct, of course. But I didn't use it in a way typical to this project. 115 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:48,450 I, I didn't share it with my. My audience. 116 00:14:49,500 --> 00:14:54,420 Instead, I used that as a reference to to myself. 117 00:14:54,840 --> 00:15:02,460 I utilized the training that I received from the Air Force basic instructor course to assist me with the planning and presentation of my project. 118 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:15,780 That has been my capstone proposal and it was a very interesting experience. 119 00:15:15,790 --> 00:15:18,790 This whole program has been wonderful. 120 00:15:19,420 --> 00:15:22,570 And thank you for watching my presentation.