Speaker: Rodolfo Longoria, Jr., Supervising Probation Officer, Santa Clara County Juvenile Probation Department
Please introduce yourself and tell us about your current role.
Rodolfo Longoria, Jr.: Hello, my name is Rodolfo Longoria Junior. I am a Supervising Probation Officer for a Juvenile Probation Department. I've been a Probation Officer for 17 years, and I recently promoted to a Supervising Probation Officer a little over a year ago.
How are you using what you learned within your organization? Tell us about any specific success, improvement, or change.
Rodolfo Longoria, Jr.: This is what happens, you promote to a position of leadership and oftentimes you ask yourself, am I supposed to be doing this? Is this the right decision? Who's supposed to help me? How do I do this? And so luckily, thankfully, I was able to participate in the Emerging Leaders Development Program (ELDP) at the same time that I began my tenure as a Supervising Probation Officer. And let me tell you, it really helped me in terms of being a better supervisor. It really improved my confidence. It really helped me understand the ins and outs of being a supervisor. So, I'm very grateful for that. Some of the things that I really enjoyed about the Program (ELDP) are the different topics and themes and exercises and instruments that we were given. So for example, the Clifton Strengths you're given those right from the beginning. And I was able to take this Clifton Strengths, you're given the themes that you are. And it was interesting, for example, Achiever, and then what that means. It was interesting to share that with my staff, because my staff agreed. They're like, oh my God, Rodolfo, that is you. I did the Learning Styles Instrument with my unit. We did it together during a unit meeting, and it was really beneficial because it really showed how each individual PO likes to learn or prefers to learn. And then as a unit together we learned, oh wow, I did not know that this PO learns this way. That makes a lot of sense now. And so, moving forward we were able teach someone new coming in or the the staff that I have, OK, I know that for you, I have to teach you this way, and for you, I have to teach you that way. But it was a good discussion for all of us to have to really be on the same page with respect to our work. Some of the other things that I really liked was just the homework you had to do before or after. The books that you received I thought were really beneficial. And just the whole setup of the program in and of itself. So for example, you have once a month, you go and you go into this large group and Jessica facilitates the session. And she does an excellent job of discussing the topic. And so what I liked about it is I'm thinking as a supervisor, man, there's no one that's going through what I'm going. But the reality is everyone's going through what I'm going. Everyone is feeling the same way, whether you're inadequate, whether you're not sure if you can do the job, whether you're struggling with someone that you're supervising, or whether you're just questioning yourself as to why you did this. The truth is everyone is going through the same thing. So it was really refreshing to have a large group, let's say 30 individuals going through the same thing. And keep in mind, that was the large group, right? And we had a topic, and then we discuss it or sometimes someone would ask a question and we'd all chime in, in terms of, "Hey, have you thought about this? "Hey, have you done this? The other thing that I enjoyed too was breaking down into your accountability group. So you have the large group format, what you're learning a topic or a theme. Then you have the accountability group where maybe you pose a question (one or two) and you discuss it. What I liked about it is that you go from a large group to the small group, it makes it a lot more private, a lot more secure. And so we were able to have a really good discussion about what was going on. Interestingly enough, my accountability group, we're still going to meet once a month after we completed the program.
Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
Rodolfo Longoria, Jr.: I like the fact that regardless of where you were in terms of northern California, southern California; where you were in terms of number of years in the position; a type of position – a County position, a city position, a community-based organization position; everyone was going through the same thing. But, we all went through this Program (ELDP) together and I can tell you that I think we all got that much better. We all became a better supervisor, a better leader. And I'm really grateful, I'm really happy that I participated in this Program and I can't wait to refer some of my other new supervisors to this Program as well. Thank you.
