Staff Spotlights
Katie Shoemaker: Resident Director/First Year Adviser, Dodds Hall
Katie is a values-driven leader at Miami who has worked in the Office of Residence Life for the past four years serving in dynamic roles. Courtney Wallace, the Wilks Leadership Programs Coordinator, was able to sit down with her to talk more about leadership and how she has effectively led here at Miami.
Q: What are the values that drive your work?
Making sure student development and care and concern for student needs are at the forefront (despite temptations for administrative work to seem “more important”); I believe in the autonomy of people, so I often take extra time to partner with students and student staff to make the best decisions for themselves without my providing answers.
Q: What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your office?
How I choose to spend my time. There are a lot of choices where we may not feel like they are choices, but in fact they are reflective of our values. It comes in small ways – not what I do but how I choose to do it. With any task, you can check the box, but that can be meaningless. I ask myself “Am I doing good for students? Am I doing good for the people I supervise? Could I have done a better job? If not, how could I have done it differently?”
Q: What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
The ability to think and reflect critically. Not only decision-making but post-decision-making. A lot of people think of leadership as a game-time decision, but when the pressure’s off and you are in the quiet space, this can be the hardest work. The willingness to delve deeper into reflection after the decision is where value and growth comes from. Followers deserve leaders who are willing to reflect after the fact. How else do you know what you’re doing is good?
Q: What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?
Pressure to conform. Some people see leadership as a specific type of thing – having a picture of who can be a leader, who fits in and who doesn’t. Even trying to determine what pathways are “correct” – being overly prescriptive in a way. Lacking that piece of authenticity and openness, you may not be able to lead fully as your true self.
Q: What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?
The difficult reflections – I do that every week. I think about “What have I done this week that is positive? What can use improvement?” I look back at my week, look at my calendar and reflect on if I did what I wanted to do and if I didn’t, then why not. I tend to share with others these reflections as an extra system of accountability. I want to think about things that are congruent with my values and what are things that are congruent with the theories I prefer to work with - particularly Marcia Baxter Magolda's Learneing Partnership Theory.
