Hello, I am Madison Foster from Southwest Florida. I grew up in Massachusetts and decided to move to Florida in 2020 to start my career in human resources; as well as be close with my parents. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources from Salem State University in 2020, I began working
as the Human Resources director of a small concrete company in Fort Myers and have remained in HR
ever since.
Over the course of my career in HR I had a total of 3 drastically different bosses. The one that I believe motivated me the most was more of a command and control style leader, though she exemplified many behaviors consistent with an inspiring leader. She was tough, blunt and passionate though remained honest and optimistic for both my role within the company and the future of the company. She taught me to trust in myself and my work, having been new to both the industry and Human Resources, I was not confident in anything I created. She very harshly reassured my importance to the company (having an education in HR) and how my work impacts all members of the team, allowing me the freedom to create, fail, learn and grow with the company. The most important lesson she taught me was that everything is trial and error; explore all avenues before creating and improve as we go. In order to achieve organizational success we must all learn from each
other and through our day to day experiences. As long as we learn from our mistakes and improve after that, then can we achieve the goals of the company as a team. The positive skills she exemplified that I would incorporate into a leadership training program is the ability to have open and honest communication while being able to hold both positive and negative discussion with employees. Being honest allows both parties to trust one another, ultimately fostering a collaborative discussion that essentially motivates employees to align themselves with the
company’s expectations. She would address the positive or negative, listen to the employee and provide a multitude of ways one can align themselves with our expectations; making sure she mentioned what the employee is already doing right. The ideal leader to work for in todays VUCA would have characteristics consistent with CAL. Someone
who is ethical, competent, inclusive and forward looking I believe are ideal traits to have as a leader in todays VUCA. Volatility and uncertainty can be mastered by a leader who makes ethical, well-
though out decisions utilizing not only their own KSA’s but also the KSA’s of their peers across the organization to explore all possible avenues to achieve organizational goals. A leader who is competent and experienced I believe will assist with todays ambiguity and uncertainty. Someone who
understands the company and the industry, in combination with their experience as either a leader or
within the industry/company itself allows leaders to clearly outline the goal and possible ideas/outcomes while attaining that goal.
