About Me

Brian R Flores

Canary Islands

Coast of Canary Islands

Over three hundred years ago my ancestors from the Canary Islands were commissioned by King Phillip V of Spain to settle America.  Of the three hundred families appointed, only fifteen survived to settle what is presently known as San Antonio, Texas.  In many ways my ancestor’s journey parallels my own life’s journey. Although I will not have to travel thousands of miles across an ocean and rugged terrain, I will have to embark on an educational journey much like my ancestors by navigating unfamiliar territory full of unknown obstacles in order to reach my life-long desire to obtain a doctoral degree.

As a lifetime educator, I have had several highlights in my professional career.  My most recent highlight was when I was asked to be a part of the Lone Star College team. I was hired as the Program Director for Educational Talent Search (ETS) at LSC-North Harris. At the time of my hire, the annual funding of the ETS grant was being reduced considerably by the United States Department of Education for non-compliance violations. The administration at Lone Star College asked me to transform a failing grant program into a model program in a matter of a short few months. After a steep learning curve and a laser-like focus on reviving the grant, I managed to save the program and sustain its revenue by exceeding the prescribed goals and objectives set forth by the Department of Education, which enabled the college to continue providing the services for which the grant was written for.

Another highlight in my professional career was when I was a public school principal. I had the opportunity to elevate an urban, inner-city low performing school into a high performing school within five years. During my tenure as principal, my team and I were one of one hundred schools in Texas to be awarded the prestigious Governor’s Educator Excellence Award. The award was given specifically to campuses with high percentages of economically disadvantaged students that were cited for high achievement (rated exemplary or recognized by TEA) or showed significant improvement in the areas of math and reading (as measured by TEA Comparable Improvement).

Lastly, a career highlight included an opportunity I had to teach public school at all grade levels, kindergarten through twelfth grades. While I taught at the middle school level, I received Special Education Teacher of the Year and was nominated and awarded by my peers and supervisors to become a national lifetime member of Parent Teacher Organization of America whose purpose is to assist in creating a community of lifelong learners, creative thinkers and committed citizens. The amazing part of this highlight was that I was able to see and experience the entire continuum of educational learning from kindergarten through high school graduation.

In addition, I have had many experiences highlighting my leadership strengths.  For example, when I was appointed to my first principalship position, I entered a school where the teacher morale was low and the underrepresented student population was low performing. As the school leader, I had to find ways to transform a toxic school culture into one that promoted student success. In order to do this, I had to figure out what to prioritize in order to transform the school. I began by setting staff and student expectations. To do this I had to develop, convince and sell a vision for teachers, parents and students to become stakeholders into improving the quality of instruction at the school. One way I accomplished this was to share the school’s data with all of the stakeholders. Each stakeholder became aware of just how under performing the school was in all academic areas and accepted that improvement was necessary.

Secondly, I had to revisit the staffing of the school and the student’s daily schedule. I identified each staff member’s strength and placed them at the grade level relative to their talent. In addition, we added more language arts and math time to each student’s daily schedule so that teacher’s had time to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback, which was used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning (formative assessment).

Thirdly, it was evident to me that neither I, nor the staff clearly understood the underrepresented population for which we were serving. Our demographics were such that our population was largely economically disadvantaged with a high percentage of homeless families. In order to begin to improve our school, I developed a different framework for understanding poverty so that I could lead and teach employees practical, real-world support and guidance in working with parents and students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Lastly, I utilized transformational coaching to create a high-performance coaching culture in the workplace to create a performance-focused, feedback-rich organization. By utilizing transformational coaching, teaching teams worked together during common planning times so that there was a collective commitment to the organizational goals and student outcomes.

All of this did not come easy; I spent hours upon hours reading the latest research-based books on improving schools and took an “experimentation” attitude toward improving the school. If I felt that something wasn’t working, my administration team, along with our site-based decision-making team, would collectively meet, discuss the situation and reorganize our direction as a team.

In reflection, as to my experiences that led to my leadership strengths, I would comment that it took time for the team to trust me, trust my judgement, trust my authenticity, trust my passion for improving the lives of students and lastly, trust that I was there to help them improve as professionals. To this very day, former employees write me, text me or stop by and visit with me to tell me how much they enjoyed working with me and how much they learned from my leadership style. All in all, the truth of the matter is, I wasn’t smarter than any of them; in fact, I hired them because they were the experts in their content area.  However, I excelled in taking all of their individual ideas and collectively “packaging” them in a way that would improve student outcomes.

At this stage in my career, I continue to have professional goals that I desire to achieve. For example, it has always been my dream to earn my doctorate degree, so that is non-negotiable.  I also want to learn more about becoming a scholar-practitioner. I would like the opportunity to share my story, ideas and thoughts by publishing articles in educational journals and authoring educational books.  I also see myself improving as an educator and administrator by not being afraid to take risks and being at the forefront of experimenting with innovative strategies to enhance and improve the higher education experience for all students.  At the end of the day, my professional goals are ultimately to acquire the necessary skills set to be a college president or chancellor.

There are many personal reasons I have for pursing a doctoral degree. First and foremost, I love learning and have this burning desire to become a scholar-practitioner and inquiry-driven leader at the higher education level. Not only do I thrive on intellectual growth and stimulation, I want the opportunity to work with others who share the same passion and love for education.

Another reason I have for pursing a doctoral degree is that I would like to advance my career. However, on a much more personal level and one very dear to my heart is to inspire all of the Latino males in our community who think that they can’t be successful because they may be first generation, or who think that they aren’t smart enough, or who think that they lack the emotional intelligence to earn a doctorate degree, that anything is possible. To be a role model for the Hispanic community and all Latino males would be an incredible honor and privilege.

I invite you to come join with me in “My Big Fat Journey” as a small town boy whose ancestors are from the Canary Islands (who also happens to be a first generation college student), embarks on a life time dream of becoming someone bigger than anyone thought he could be.  My first assignment was to take two personal inventory tests, the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strengths Leadership Report.  In addition a conflict resolution questionnaire was administered and analyzed.

MBTI

When I was a public school principal, I was required to take this same test. Interestingly, my type has not changed in the past ten years. I am not sure if that is good or bad, but it is what it is.  I am an ENTJ.  The extrovert and intuitive in me are my strongest types.

The extrovert (E) in me wants to connect to the outer world by surrounding myself with people who like to live life in a grand way. In the workplace, my extrovert type is evident by my management style. I tend to take on projects rather quickly. If there is a problem that needs to be solved I quickly assemble my team and we discuss the issue and how to resolve it before it gets out of hand. I have a propensity to communicate often primarily through phone calls, emails, and meetings.  I can get very impatient with long, slow jobs.  I like a fast-paced, quick fix work environment.

The intuitive (N) in me loves challenges. My supervisor calls me an eternal optimist and born leader because I don’t allow challenges in the workplace to defeat me.  I constantly look for alternatives and possibilities.  I tend to follow my instinct a great deal. I find that when I don’t follow my hunches, I end up making bad decisions.  I acquire information by looking for similarities or patterns and tend to be creative or experimental in my leadership style.  I am always looking for variety in my day.  I can’t live in the status quo.  I always believe that there is a better way to solve problems or get things done.  I am a firm believer that there is always room for improvement in my personal self and my professional life. I use my rationality, drive and determination to achieve whatever I set my mind to.

The thinking (T) in me tends to lend itself to being analytical.  I definitely am drawn to data, logic and reason when I approach a project.  In my mind, data doesn’t lie.  I try to remain as objective as possible until I have heard, read or seen all sides of the story.  Perhaps this is why I was chosen by my peers as the jury foreman in a murder trial this past year.  I firmly believe that if given enough time and resources I can achieve any goal.  Fulfilling my goals has not come easy, but I believe that I have a self-fulfilling prophecy and through sheer willpower I will move on and bring others along with me to achieve spectacular results.

The Judging (J) in me is dominant, unforgiving and relentless. This isn’t because I am vicious, but because I love challenges and like to be in control.  I need structure in my life. This is why self-paced classes are not my forte.  I am very organized.  My organization drives some people insane.  I am also a list king.  I use lists for everything. Particularly if I am hosting a charitable event. Often times I have pages of lists on my list application.  I am dearly afraid of running out of something and I don’t like surprises.  When I hire helpers to assist with a charitable event, I can become quite the task master.  This isn’t because I am mean spirited, but because I have a plan, I need to see the plan to the finish line and I expect everyone to follow-through.

All in all ENTJ’s cultivate an image of being larger than life.  I must always remember that often times my stature comes not just from my own actions, but from the team I surround myself with.  It is usually the team that makes me look good!

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.

                                                                                                                                               —Steve Jobs

STRENGTHS

My top 5 strengths are:

1. Learner:  I strive to be a lifelong learner by reading, experiencing, and investigating.
2. Arranger:  I like to figure out how all the pieces fit together.
3. Woo:  I attract people by being good natured and compliment deserving people.
4. Communication:  I enjoy sharing ideas, exchanging information and trading stories.
5. Responsibility:  I honor my commitments and have a reputation for precision.

Four of my five strengths are in the executing and influencing domains. One strength is in the strategic thinking domain.  Clearly my top two strengths coexist to support my lifelong learning passion.  The execution and influencing domains have been critical to my success as a public school administrator and to my current position.  In retrospect, it is clear how as a public school administrator I transformed a low performing urban school into a high performing school due to my strengths. To be a successful administrator you definitely need to be a lifelong learner, a person with the capacity to solve problems, a person who has the ability to influence and charm people, the ability to share ideas and in order to gain authenticity, the ability to honor your commitments.

 

Personal Conflict Management Style

According to the questionnaire, my conflict management style appears to be collaborating.  I have a tendency to enjoy discussions in groups and have no problems with giving my opinions.  I do have to watch myself at times and allow others to express their opinions as well. I don’t want to be perceived as domineering or assertive.  However, I do believe that the collaboration model works best for all involved.  It allows each individual to express their opinion and requires the team to reach a consensus.  I personally believe that working together we can solve more complex problems than working alone.  At work I find myself surrounding myself around people who are intelligent, and free thinkers.  It is interesting that a theme of collaboration has emerged with all three of the inventories I took.