ESCC holds IAA conference
April 3rd 2019
Enterprise State Community College was home to the Instructional Advisors Association conference on promoting the advancement and development of education programs in the Alabama Community College System on March 7 and 8.
ESCC Director of Workforce Development Ian Campbell started the conference off with a four-hour long leadership conference on March 7.
Each of the instructors introduced themselves along with Campbell and also spoke on their motivations as an instructor.
“If you’ve never thought about this (your motivation), it’s important to that because that helps you make decisions in your job and in your life and to juggle priorities,” Campbell said.
He spoke on knowing the limitations of yourself.
“It’s important to know our limitations not from a standpoint to be able to say, ‘No,’ and not complete something but to be able to know when you need to pull help on—when you need to go outside and find assistance and expertise in other areas,” Campbell said.
During his workshop, he spoke about how the movie “Dirty Harry” and how the title character Clint Eastwood plays, Harry Callahan, actually shows some good leadership qualities. These qualities are:
- Stay focused: Callahan never loses focus on catching the Scorpio killer;
- Honesty in advertising: Callahan honestly and accurately analyzed the risk/reward scenario for the bank robber in the famous “You feeling lucky?” scene and lets the robber make his own informed decision;
- Do what you’re good at: Callahan knows he’s not good at communication so he doesn’t spend all his time on it;
- Do what you have to: Callahan uses whatever methods necessary to get results; and,
- Never give up: Callahan never gave up on finding and tracking down the Scorpio Killer.
“It’s kind of a different way to look at leadership skills but obviously fictitious and we don’t need to—especially in education—tote a .44 Magnum around and pull stunts like in the movie, but I think there is some good stuff you can glean from that,” Campbell said.
Campbell also spoke of the importance of knowing yourself.
“If you know who you are and who you’re working with then you’re able to work together better,” Campbell said. “And often times you can navigate potential conflicts by knowing who you are and set blocks ahead of that.”
The second day of the conference opened with ESCC Dean of Student Services Olivier Charles greeting the group and wishing them a good day.
The rest of the day included workshops presented by the other colleges on other topics such as online classes.
Some of the other community colleges attending were Central Alabama Community College, Alabama Coastal Community College, Gadsden State Community College and Jefferson State Community College.