Personal Introduction
About Me
I am a second-year master's student studying mechanical engineering with a focus on additive manufacturing and bio-diagnostics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I am looking for roles in consultancy on technology development and innovation management. As an engineer, I am fascinated by inspiring and game-changing technologies that can shape the world.
As a new graduate student from Turkey, I enrolled in the Leadership Certificate Program mainly due to two reasons. First, I wanted to learn more about different leadership styles and how people perceive leadership roles in the US. The second reason was to meet with open-minded people who share a similar mindset towards leadership and personal growth.
About My Leadership Coach
Jason is the manager of IT infrastructure and support who leads a team of 4 to manage data centers, production applications, systems, and services for the University of Illinois library.
He earned his Bachelor and Masters degree in Computer Science in 2001 and 2003, respectively. Since his graduation, he has been working on data center management and database administration while mentoring students participating in the Leadership Certificate Program.
It is my honor to thank Mr. Strutz for sharing his experiences, insights, and recommendations to make my leadership journey at the University of Illinois outstanding.
My Leadership Style
My Definition of Leadership
Shared Leadership is a leadership style that broadly distributes the leadership responsibility within a team. This model encourages team members to step up and embrace power/responsibilities that are well aligned with their strengths and expertise. This model still needs a facilitator leader, but it allows each member to exhibit leadership and lead the team within their domain of expertise.
This model is developed by Craig L Pearce and Christina L. Wassenaar. Feel free to read their publication "Leadership is like fine wine: It is meant to be shared, globally".
My Leadership Competencies
These are the competencies I developed over this program:
Systems Thinking: Creates sustainable standard processes for ongoing tasks; Organizes the work of others in a systematic and consistent manner
Via Ignite i-program, I had the chance to be introduced to Senge’s theory on how parts are interrelated and interdependent. This is a very critical competency to acquire because, as a leader, I need to anticipate the effects of change initiatives and loops ahead of time. With this program, I developed my systems thinking diagram creation skills to identify critical components and cause-and-effect relationships (feedbacks) within them. Now, I acquired the capability to map all shareholders, coalitions, decision points, and pain/gain structures of each stakeholder before starting any kind of project. Combing this approach with agile thinking, I regularly induce small changes (pilots) to determine the outputs and unintended consequences. Thus, I can fail faster to learn quicker and introduce necessary interventions into the system, whether it is my research projects or extra-curricular activities.
Change Management: Creates successful change in organizations with a planned and disciplined process; Engages others in developing a strategic future
A leader to me is the person who takes the following three steps: (1) realize problems around him/her, (2) imagine/think a better future without these problems profoundly, and (3) motivate others to solve these problems. Having a vision and managing the change for you, your team, and your shareholders to get to that point requires extensive change management skills. With this program, I learned how change can be perceived differently by shareholders. By identifying common reactions to change, I developed a strategy to differentiate between change and transition and take the necessary steps to manage them. For example, I started to communicate every change ahead of time to learn more about affected people’s perspectives and their potential responses to them. I learned change is hard, and as a leader, I need to create a safe and collaborative environment to deal with frustration, denial, and anger. Acknowledging and accepting the change requires everyone to be on the same page and confident about the next steps.
Innovation: Values continuous assessment and improvement; Challenges the traditional ways of doing things; Changes processes and structures with purpose and meaning
With this program, I master crafted my design thinking and innovation skills to come up with different ways to solve problems. Although it was hard, I accepted that there will always be iterations and changes to projects, and every project is an on-going prototype. As a perfectionist, I made peace with the design-prototype-test cycle to tackle complex and systematic problems. This methodology proved to me that I can find more useful and previously unknown solutions only if I accept that there will be additional changes. Thus, I started to prototype projects in smaller scales before tackling them on a system level. In addition to this, I started sketching, modeling, and prototyping concepts and hardware to undertake my daily problems. This developed my innovative and creative mindset and helped me with critical problem-solving in my professional life.
Reflection: Considers past experiences and current situations to inform current and future actions; Utilizes past mistakes and actions as learning opportunities to improve skills
One of the most tangible effects of this program on me is helping me to start with a reflecting habit. Before this program, I was confident that I can internalize all my learnings and actions by only thinking about them. I was more focused on my actions rather than the journey itself. With my weekly journaling program, I started to explore patterns in my actions and identify strengths/weaknesses located in the Blind Spot region of my Johari window. Reflecting on my actions and mistakes revealed my thinking mechanism behind decision-making. Moreover, it helped me to take steps to identify the root of the problem (usually a conflict of my values) in order not to repeat the same mistake. Overall, this program helped me to learn more about myself, my values, and my thinking mechanism.
My Leadership Journey
My I-Programs
Rolls-Royce Innovation Program - January 19, 2019
- Developed problem-solving skills related to innovation, creativity, and diversity of ideas
- Identified strategies to foster innovation within an organization
Petullo Insight Program - February 2, 2019
- Increased self-awareness and self-management through the personal reflection of strengths and weaknesses related to the workplace
- Engaged in a group discussion regarding the strengths-based philosophy of leadership
Intersect Program - January 26, 2019
- Identified strategies that foster positive team relationships and increased teamwork productivity
- Developed the ability to identify common behavioral signs that become counterproductive within teams
Ignite Program - February 9, 2019
- Learned different approaches to leading change initiatives, systems-thinking, and coalition building
- Mapped potential stakeholders and coalition partners and their interaction for a change initiative
Imprint Program - February 23, 2019
- Developed strategies to successfully manage personal and professional transitions
- Brainstormed strategies to manage transitions and sustain success with alumni and peers
Integrity Program - March 30, 2019
- Applied ethical decision-making frameworks to case studies and discussed the influence of personal values on ethical leadership
- Learned how to successfully navigate ethical challenges and to differentiate ethical dilemmas from moral temptations
My Leadership Trainings (Insight i-Program)
Insight program is one of my all favorite i-programs as it focusses on self-knowledge, self-management, and self-reflection. With this program, I had the chance to take the Gallup Clifton Strength test and become capable of explaining my strengths to others. The most outstanding contribution of my participation at this workshop is helping me to tell others about my strengths, weak spots, and how I like to work. To be more specific, this workshop made me realize that how everyone’s leadership and management styles differ from each other and how important to know about people’s preferred leadership styles in advance.
One of the most meaningful learnings that came out of this workshop was me discovering my strict maximizer behavior. I am always in search of geniuses in any form, whether that person is a scientist, politician, painter, or an athlete. I spend most of my time with people who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. I avoid well-rounded people and try to capitalize on gifts within other people and me. In other words, bringing the best out of people is my philosophy. I have learned that this perspective complements the strengths-based philosophy. According to this theory, maximizing your strengths while acknowledging your weaknesses is the best use of your time to develop yourself as a leader. Therefore, I decided to devote more time to cultivating and maximizing my strengths for my future endeavors. Fortunately, this also resonates with the “shared leadership” style, where every team member brings his/her strengths to the table while individual weaknesses are compensated by other members. I believe this kind of complementing behavior of strengths within a team unlocks the utmost potential of the team as a whole.
During this workshop, I also became familiar with Johari’s window to gain confidence in abilities related to strength. It made me realize that there will always be blind spots and dark spots, but if I continue to reflect on my actions and feelings, I can take a glimpse at these spots. Therefore, I introduced bi-weekly reflection times into my calendar. During this period, I started to evaluate what happened, what I felt, and why I acted/re-acted. After 1 year and two journal notebooks, these reflections helped me to identify trends among my actions and to understand what I haven’t noticed about myself. Thus, these reflections opened a window to my hidden passions, goals, and characteristics.
To summarize, this experience helped me to gain self-knowledge and self-management. I am happy to say that I know myself better than when I started this program. I am sharing this knowledge with my teams so we can excel as a united passionate group.
My Leadership Trainings (Intersect i-Program)
There is a massive difference between a group of people and a team. A group of people is just a collection of people, such as people waiting in the register line to check out their item. On the other hand, a team consists of people who trust each other and work towards the same goal. According to Tuckman, it takes five steps to evolve from a group of strangers to a cohesive team working under a vision. After the team members are identified, and the team is formed, there is usually a conflicting atmosphere between members. As the members do not know each other and their values and priorities, there is often a contradictory storm of conflicts and disagreements. As the power and value dynamics settle into place, the norming phase starts where people start to feel that they are part of a team. Subsequently, the interdependent collection of relations evolves into a capable team to perform before the adjourning.
One common resistance to team building is a lack of conviction. In other words, individuals may not believe in the team or team goals. This might be the case because they have different priorities and agendas of their own. I think this is the most common resistance against team building because people usually do not volunteer but are assigned to teams. If you are forced to be a part of a team or if you don’t have a benefit from this group, it is demotivating for the individual. As a result of this workshop, I found out that team leaders should shoulder the responsibility to make everyone feel that they are part of the team. Only if valued and respected by the team leader, each member can benefit from being inside this inner circle. This learning was vital for me because I noticed that pursuing the right plan is not satisfactory enough. The leader should encourage everyone to remain a part of the team to sustain the impact. Thus, I am taking the time to know every member of my team and their leadership styles before initiating a project. This helps me distribute work according to their interest, strengths, and key learning areas. Before delegating tasks, I encourage everyone to volunteer to pick items from our to-do lists.
To sum up, I learned the foundations and theory for successful and effective teamwork during this workshop. Moreover, discovering the most common resistance types to build team actually helped me to identify common behavioral signs that are counterproductive within teams in the long run. As a result, I feel that I can better strategize to foster positive team relationships and build more effective teams as a leader.
My Leadership Experiences
Consultant at Illinois Business Consulting
Feb 2019 – present
Illinois Business Consulting (IBC) is the largest professionally-managed, student-run university consulting organization in the country. IBC conducts more than 70 projects every year with Fortune 100, mid-sized and startup companies and nonprofit organizations.
- Work on a paid consulting project for a Fortune 100 Company as a part of a diverse team of nine consultants to identify and assess capabilities, opportunities, and threats of quantum computing
- Research and conduct interviews with 10+ industry experts to analyze the effect of quantum applications on manufacturing & industry trends
- Develop a quantum computing implementation strategy suited towards both short- and long-term goals with predicted future milestones
Graduate Researcher at Nanoengineering Laboratory
Aug 2018 – present
Since the start of the Fall 2018 semester, I have been working as a graduate researcher at the Nanoengineering Laboratory under the roof of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. This program asks requires me to work 20 hours per week to analyze data, design, fabricate and test devices, collaborate with other researchers, and prepare presentations and journals for publication.
- Research the feasibility, applicability, and initial stage development of future applications in additive manufacturing, disease diagnostics, biomedical, and heat engineering industries
- Plan and develop system-level designs though agile product development cycles by facilitating conversation between 3 research laboratories and two institutional partners
My Leadership Course
Introduction to Finite Element Analysis
Aug 2018 – Dec 2018
Instructor: Dr. Masoud Safdari
For the course project of this course, I worked in a team of 5 students to develop and implement a cooling system (plate-fin phase change heat exchanger) to cool next-generation high power electronic devices such as smartphones.
- Designed, implemented and compared four novel designs with different number of fins
- Utilized finite element simulations to mimic this real-world structural problem and analyzed performance metrics
- Delivered a final project report in a journal paper format
Systems Thinking: We subdivided this massive problem into subparts and collaboratively tackled each interdependent part. We differentiated system parameters, constraints, and performance metrics to identify the best possible design and worked in teams to address different parts of the project.
Innovation: After conducting the literature review, we picked a novel problem and generated different innovative design concepts to maximize cooling power and power density
Here you can find my waiver for the AGED/LEAD course.
My Cumulative Reflection
Overall, I am delighted and honored to take part in this certificate program because it helped me to spend time and effort on my leadership competencies systematically and continuously. With this program, I had the chance to work on my four leadership competencies and prepare myself for a leadership position in my future job. I believe two critical components of this program were the I-programs and the interaction with my mentor. With I-programs, I had the chance to explore the theory and literature behind these competencies and learned practical strategies to develop them. I-programs worked as a good starting point for me to think about topics I have never been exposed to. After learning more about these concepts, I faced some challenges in applying these learnings to my life. At that point, my coach helped me to understand the concepts more genuinely by providing his insights, experiences, and recommendations. As an apprentice, I learned much from our discussions about values, leadership styles, and daily lives.
Throughout this program, I grew as a leader on so many levels. On the organizational level, I developed my systems-thinking, change management, and innovation skills to strategize my actions to introduce change into the system methodologically and consistently. I learned how to plan and take action to achieve your vision while facilitating the change for all shareholders. Now, I feel more prepared to lead more futuristic and collaborative projects, thanks to my comprehensive and innovative experiences. With my extra-curricular leadership activities, I discovered effective team building, followership, and team-working insights to build personal, authentic, and productive relationships.
On the personal level, I found more about my personality, thinking mechanism, interests, strengths, and weaknesses. By reflecting on my actions and mistakes, I managed to find patterns in my attitude and set actionable goals to change my perspective when necessary. Finally, I implemented the design-prototype-test cycle to every aspect of my life to design a better experience for me. Now, I see my life as a prototype project to achieve my goals in smaller but concise design iterations.
My style of leadership, namely ‘shared leadership,’ has flourished within this program. By practicing followership and leadership positions in many activities, I learned how important to collaborate with each shareholder under a vision to manage change. My experience is most impacted by learning more about empathy, group dynamics, and motivation. Previously, I was more concerned about taking the most effective steps to introduce change to a system. However, I learned about different leadership styles. I recognized the emotional context of interactions to conduct more open, “right,” and inclusive plans. I also acknowledged that the leader should not only facilitate the change but not also should motivate all shareholders to embrace it. Noticing the importance of encouragement and communication to build a sense of commitment under the common purpose was vital learning for me to become a more empathetic and social leader.
If I must pick an item to represent my Leadership Certificate experience, it will be the following artwork. This leadership journey helped to
- discover my values and passions to reveal what I love
- develop my strengths and skills to build what I am great at
- organize the work systematically and innovatively to prepare me for what I am paid for
- develop a long-term vision and change management plan to identify what the world needs
- constitute my internal purpose as a leader.
