Leadership Interview Paper
Leadership Interview Paper I interviewed Becky Hendrix, Executive Director for Professional Care Services. I recently had the honor of interviewing someone in our community who has had more than twenty years of leadership experience in our community. The interview ended up taking much longer than I expected because I was so influenced by what she had to say, I did not want to miss anything. Mrs. Becky Hendrix started her career as a CPA back in the 80 's for the World Color Press. Her leadership abilities were quickly realized, and she was promoted to head CPA. From there she moved on to the Professional Care Service where she remained for fifteen years serving as a CPA, and finally working her way up to the Executive Director. Becky was in charge of over 187 employees. My conversation with Becky took a direction that I did not expect. She attributes her success to the leadership traits that she has learned over the years, and quoted many of the very ideas and theories almost verbatim from our class lecture. That was an incredible experience to witness firsthand how these traits become behaviors and practices.
Throughout the course of our interview, Becky laid out the history of her leadership experience, and pointed out how she has learned many of her characteristics from watching other people. Becky heavily noted how leadership and management styles have made a drastic change over the last 30 years from the "my way, or the highway" (Hendrix) approach, to a servant leadership approach. Mrs. Hendrix recalled a plaque that use to hang in her bosses office in the 80 's that read "Beatings and hangings will continue until morale improves!" That was the strategy that was used back then, but disregarded the lingering question of "Why" in the eyes of the employees. Becky provided me with a great analogy that explained the concept of putting a screw into a board with a hammer. "You can drive a Screw into a board with a hammer, and it will go in; however, both she
Throughout the course of our interview, Becky laid out the history of her leadership experience, and pointed out how she has learned many of her characteristics from watching other people. Becky heavily noted how leadership and management styles have made a drastic change over the last 30 years from the "my way, or the highway" (Hendrix) approach, to a servant leadership approach. Mrs. Hendrix recalled a plaque that use to hang in her bosses office in the 80 's that read "Beatings and hangings will continue until morale improves!" That was the strategy that was used back then, but disregarded the lingering question of "Why" in the eyes of the employees. Becky provided me with a great analogy that explained the concept of putting a screw into a board with a hammer. "You can drive a Screw into a board with a hammer, and it will go in; however, both she
References: Hendrix, Becky. Executive Director Ashley Vance. 17 October 2014.