Megan Loggains

Negative thinking can surely bring people down. We learned about the 11:1 ratio, where it takes 11 positive people to take away 1 negative person's thought train. Negativity can exhaust those around you. It's good to have your "why" when going into your job for the day. My "why" is that I want to see students succeed and get an education to help them with their career!

I liked the section about EQ being important. People that have emotional intelligence experience success because they have a positive attitude, are acceptable to greater change, and understand that setbacks are not failure but just a part of life. They handle things in stride and this is something we all can continue to grow toward.

Students are essentially customers, they are paying for an education. We should have a customer service mindset when interacting with students. Often we might be the first person they interact with at the campus so it's best to be positive and give a listening ear to what they are wanting to pursue while here.

It's good to model for students what the expectations of the class are.  Students need to feel like someone is cheering them on or steering them in the right direction. Mentorship is important during this period of their lives.

Gen Y and Gen Z need to feel as though their work is relevant to their purpose in life and for the greater of humanity. They need to develop their critical thinking skills and problem solving skills so that they can be equipped for the workforce. It is important as an advisor to make note of this when guiding students through their career paths.

Technology is not a must to serve the Gen Y and Gen Z population. However, it helps them feel more connected and understanding of what content is being presented to them. It's good to be familiar with what these generations are comfortable with and what their expectations are.

I think it's good to take a step back and recognize that there's reasons and goals for how people learn. We also need to remember that there's socio-economic and regional differences for preferences and learning goals.

I know for my particular work that I have all kinds of generations that I interact with so it's helpful to see what preferences they have and what learning needs they have. Generations before and after me prioritize their learning or their goals differently than I do and that's perfectly ok. I have to be considerate and try help them in ways that are tailored to their experiences.

This just goes to show that there's so many varieties of personalities that we work with on a daily basis. It is good to keep an open mind and try to collaborate well with others.  We all have strengths and weaknesses to bring to the table. And you should be prepared that some will not be as open or as communicative as you might be.

It seems like everyone on my team are striving to collaborate, keep communication open, and are open to changes. We all have the same common goal and that is to help students succeed. Of course we don't agree on every single thing and that's perfectly ok, but we are respectful of each other and our backgrounds so we can effectively work together as a group.