Leadership Motivation

While completing his MBA, UPIKE Coleman College of Business graduate Preston Poag ’21, MBA ’22 was more than excited to lead his first class as a graduate assistant last spring. Under the direction of CCOB Dean Howard Roberts, Ed.D., Poag created a course on leadership and motivation.

“As an entrepreneur, Preston was always interested in graduate school and research,” said Roberts. “As we discussed his options, his skills as a highly-motivated self-starter became more apparent. He possesses excellent interpersonal communication and listening skills, and his interest in accepting challenges has contributed to his transformation from an undergraduate student to a thriving, ambitious graduate student.”

The course provided students with insight into management versus leadership and developing leadership styles. Students were able to experience hands-on activities and learn about group dynamics, leading teams, barriers to effective communication and other issues leaders face. It also allowed students to learn about dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness profiles, which help identify a leaderʼs preferred behavioral style and how to motivate others.

“The class was set up around two main things, the speaker series, made up of leaders in all different fields, and the service project, which required the students to volunteer eight hours of community service around Pike County,” said Poag. “It was a semester-long project that helped students give back to the community, build leadership skills, add to their resumes and be good stewards.”

The speaker series explored leadership through stories and experiences shared by an impressive roster of guest speakers in various fields.

Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Charlie Bethel focused on the importance of leading in oneʼs local community. His guidance to students was to focus on service, the future and others. He advised them to engage with the world and decide, “am I going to approach this by trying to get value” or “am I going to produce value?”

“Charlie is a phenomenal public speaker, but surprisingly it is not something he is always comfortable doing,” said Poag. “He spoke of imposter syndrome and the fear of failure. It was great for the students to see someone as successful as Charlie be vulnerable and open up about strengths and weaknesses.”

Dancer and choreographer at The Juilliard School, Haley Winegarden, spoke to the students about adaptive leadership and shared her personal experiences as a young leader among seasoned professionals. Her key steps to leadership included staying connected with the team, being clear about a vision and expectations, reading the room, being aware, taking time to address matters in the moment and being prepared to take hits.

“I was so honored to have been invited by Preston to speak to his class,” said Winegarden. “I hope the students learned that leadership is not just about authority. Itʼs about serving the people you work with and valuing them.”

It was exceptional for the athletes in the class to hear from former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and 2011 World Series Champion Mitchell Boggs. His talk stressed the importance of topdown leadership and communication. He shared his experiences being on championship teams in high school, college and professional sports and both good and poor examples of the leadership he experienced.

“Anytime you can share your story with a group of young people driven and striving to prepare themselves for success beyond the classroom, itʼs significant,” said Boggs.

Featuring entre-leadership, where the passion of an entrepreneur meets the character of a leader, BrainSTEM University CEO Ricky Mason spoke on his entrepreneurial journey and past experiences working at the Department of Defense, CIA, NASA and EdTech at the University of Kentucky. He emphasized the power of a strong team and network. He reminded students of the importance of keeping their circle of friends small and having people around that they can trust.

Founder of Kavanah Media Jon Ralls’ life has taken him to serve in the Navy, serve as a missionary in Taiwan for seven years and even battle cancer. Leading successful campaigns in some of the most underrepresented areas of the world, Ralls also started and is growing his own business, Kavanah Media, a marketing agency that pushes Christian content all over the globe. He encouraged students to be resilient and expressed how to live life through uncertainty.

Sharing countless personal and historical stories, World Floor Covering Association CEO Scott Humphrey is a leadership speaker, author and musician who explained to the students about lifestyle leadership.

“Scott is an exceptional storyteller, and he connected his vision of leadership through the use of storytelling,” said Poag. “I was so thankful to have an expert of leadership speak to the class, and the students enjoyed his outlook.”

Dunwoody Baptist Church pastor, author, professor and former minor league baseball chaplain Allen Jackson, Ph.D., focused his segment around conflict resolution and time management, sharing his experiences in ministry, academia and professional sports.

“Dr. Jackson explained three forms of leadership: leadership by charisma, leadership by consensus and leadership by self-differentiation,” said Poag. “He used a four-quadrant chart to help students understand time management and how to improve it.”

Speaking about learning, leading and serving, UPIKE Provost Lori Worth, Ph.D., helped the class examine their true passions and “what makes you get up in the morning?” Noting that education saved her life and inspiring the class with her life story, some of her central points were to identify passions and center careers around those passions.

“Her family moved to the U.S. from Romania when she was a young girl. At first, the cultural and language differences were hard to navigate, but they made her into who she is today,” said Poag. “Dr. Werth is the embodiment of the American dream and showed the class that anything is possible with drive, passion and hard work.”

With 25 students in the class, graduate Josh Ervin ’22 participated to better understand how to be a motivated leader and plans to apply what he has learned in his home, community and workplace.

“We had outstanding, decorated people speak to us, and I learned from all of them that they are human. They make mistakes, go through fear, worry and everything else that humans go through. They are not superficial. They are very humble and have great stories. They have worked hard to be where they are,” said Ervin. “Leadership is about relationships. You canʼt just wake up and be a great leader, you must work toward it every day and never stop learning. To lead others, you must be able to lead your own life.”

Roberts and Poag both feel having access to this caliber of experienced leaders inspired students to broaden their horizons and think about pursuing a meaningful career with a realistic insight into what their futures may hold.

“Teaching a class of students around my age has taught me many things, and I will be forever grateful to Dr. Roberts for allowing me to teach this course,” said Poag. “This series gave students access to the best methods, successes and failures from business leaders, athletes, political leaders, fine arts professionals, authors, pastors and more. They have the opportunity to apply that information, learn from it and build from it.”

By Katie Ray