Mo Goes…to Miami

I was accepted into a Leadership Development Program through work. The application process was harder than applying to college. As a part of this program, I've had to travel for a few weeklong sessions to focus on various leadership skills; I have to do a 3 month rotational assignment with a different Federal Agency, leading a major project; & I have to do a ton of additional trainings & reading.

Session 1 was in Washington DC, this was mainly an introduction to the program. We spent a week getting to know our cohort (about 25 people), we were told what to expect, what is expected of us, the main things we would learn through the program, & how to manage our workload with the program workload.

Session 2 was in Washington DC, Steven Gaffney came to talk to us about honest communication. We also took a couple different personality tests; we learned how to identify other people's personality types & how to manage & work with the different personalities.

Session 3 was in Washington DC & was a complete bust. For some reason, DC can't handle getting a small amount of snow. Literally, all of DC shuts down for an inch of snow. It's amazing because they seem to go through this every year, & they still struggle. Anyways, a few flurries caused this trip to be canceled while I was in DC. But, we did meet for one day & a speaker came to talk to us about dynamic email writing.

Session 4 was in Miami, FL. It went a little something like this:
Monday - travel to Miami, eat dinner on an oceanfront restaurant with the cohort.

Tuesday - in the morning, meet with NOAA at the National Hurricane Center to tour the facility & had a leadership discussion with senior staff. In the afternoon, meet with Florida International University's Leadership Program where we identified personal core leadership values & assessed the role those values play in leadership & decision making.

Wednesday - in the morning, we met with the hunks at US Customs & Boarder Patrol at their House of Pain (dubbed that due to all of their hard labor) to see tactical operations at the Seaport. It was amazing to hear the different stories of how people try to smuggle illegal things (mostly cocaine, but sometimes people, other drugs, cash, etc.) into our country. In the afternoon, we went to Miami International Airport to see baggage control, passport operations, and K9 demonstration.

Thursday - in the morning, we met with more hunks at US Coast Guard, discussing their role in hurricane season & toured marine operations. In the afternoon, we met with the Miami-Dade Police Department & saw their Emergency Operations Center - which gets stood up in a disaster.

Friday - we were supposed to meet to discuss a case study about Walmart's success in Hurricane Katrina, but some people (myself included) had to skip this day so we could fly home.

Miami was nice. There are far worse places that I could have traveled to for work. I got some awesome experiences, & saw some behind-the-scenes action that I wouldn't normally get to see. I work my ass off to be a part of this program, & I'm grateful for the experiences I had.

There are 2 more sessions, that will take place in Washington DC & Boston. Then, I graduate in Washington DC, where I present my rotational assignment project in front of 300+ Senior Executive Service government employees. No pressure.