Doctoral Demeanor and Accountability

Earning a doctorate means reaching the highest educational level in the field. As a member of the doctoral community, I assume a privileged role in society. My behavior, attitudes, and way of thinking all reflect my role—inside and outside of the classroom setting.

The following questions help the Doctoral process:

1.????How do you already demonstrate a doctoral demeanor in your personal, professional, and/or community life; and what aspects are you adding to your daily life?

Starting to read the assigned chapters in the course and the doctoral program outline before the course started, helped my doctoral demeanor to improve communication with my profession, family and community life. My communication prior to the doctoral program was defensive when issues arise because my belief was that others were attacking me. For example, my boss blamed me because a payment to a vendor was not paid on time, my family could not understand why during my master of science in accountancy studies limited to be at every family event, and, at the same time, how my community did understand why I did not attend some of the events.

My daily life, thanks to starting this doctoral program, has now changed in a positive attitude. The new aspects added include to sleep earlier and wake up earlier for reading and research. During the Master’s degree, my study time was after work but my job would sometimes require me to work over eight hours so I would stay up super late. The change to daily morning reading gives me time to reflect during the day what have I just learned. It also has helped me on learning betters’ ways to communicate.

2.????What would happen if you were to change your demeanor in your personal, professional, and/or community life?

It would be difficult to comprehend why would my demeanor change. Any change backwards would set me back from accomplishing my personal, professional and community life goals.

My life circumstances, probably can be the same as others or not, did not come out to be as one expected from the dreams of a youngster. At four years old, my parents divorced but my mom married again and my new household included two sisters from my stepdad. I grew up in a loving family environment. My life changed again when my dad, all of a sudden, showed up right before my high school graduation. I accepted his offer to go to college in Texas and I also accepted, in my second year, to be less than part-time student when he was assigned to a Germany station. I lost interest in school afterwards and was married at age of 25. My beautiful daughter was born a year later and close to the next year I was a single dad. Nevertheless, I went back to school part-time while working full-time. Completed my BA when my daughter was 4 years old, my BS in Accountancy when she was finishing high school, my MSA in her third year of college, and now starting my Doctoral while she is now a senior in college.

The change in my demeanor will only be one in an upward motion. Regardless of the life challenges and also being an Eagle Scout, I will push forward towards my goal and the demeanor will only change to the best.

3.????How do you envision your demeanor changing as a result of participating in the doctoral program?

I am looking forward for my demeanor changing to be more focused of what can be gained from the doctoral program. The start has already showed how my classmates share their thoughts and experiences. We all have life challenges. I notice how making a change in our thinking will overcome any obstacle and will prepares us to effectively help others.

Continuous participation in the doctoral program will help me to merge my scholar and practice experience to become a well-informed leader in my decision making and inspire others. It will lead me to create new ideas that will influence policy and predict organizational leadership outcomes.

It is to my understanding that continues lifelong learning and workplace experience will provide the leadership tools to exert a positive influence. My first week in the course has motivative me to learn more about myself and my personal life changes which will be needed to succeed in the doctoral journey.

4.????What behaviors will maximize your successful entry in the program?

The behaviors to maximize my success in the program seems to make me aware that my engaged doctoral approach needs to enhance my leadership skills and provide opportunities for others to create new knowledge. Creating opportunities for others was not in my mind when starting the doctoral program.

My new behavior is to consider whatever research and paper I do will impact others in their decisions. This statement may be argued from the executives of the accounting firm I work for. I am a Senior AP member who manages monthly cash disbursements of over $2.5M for a growing company that has over 5 locations nationwide and expanding. The executive team thinking, from what I have noticed, is to maximize the talented resources until somebody quits. The firm is very profitable due to new merger acquisitions of smaller firms. One of my objectives in the firm is to influence the executive team in showing them how to retain the talented resources.

5.????What expectations do you have of your classmates and faculty members in the program? What do you think your classmates and faculty members expect of you?

The expectations that I have with my classmates and faculty members in the program is that they are active and engaged with each one of us. This expectation is what I would believe my classmates and faculty members would expect from me. Each one of us should be accountable for our progress in the program and consider we are also a team that collaborates to succeed in the program.

My understanding of the doctoral community is one of ongoing involvement with others and creating new ideas together. To be active in critical research. And, build a community of collaboration to strengthen the team. At the same time, we can learn from each other when we share new knowledge recently discovered. This sharing provides additional opportunities in our learning culture. My classmates and faculty members can expect this and much more from me as we embark in this doctoral journey. It seems one with lot discoveries, challenges, awakenings, and continuous growth within.

6.????What changes do you need to make to move from passive thinking to active- and engaged inquiry?

One of the changes will include to stop thinking on how to memorize things without actually learning about them. This means I will have to understand what is the actual concept of learning. My thinking should be critical and in a scholarly manner.

Another move from my passive thinking to active and engaged inquiry will be to improve the way I ask questions and as well as the way I answer them. I will also share my perspectives on concepts that can promote ideas and / or inquires that engages others. And in my active learning, I too will also seek new ideas that can add value and provide a leadership voice on my studies. Continue regular reading sessions and practice writing sessions, and build my own electronic research library.

In addition, my online library will keep my inquiry mind developing new research questions and continue to build upon those to questions that I would have never thought about and discover new ones to keep me an active learner.

Salvador Soto