Putting Leadership Insights into Action
In this video, Michael Vendetti describes how PCSCE’s leadership program shaped his perspective of what it means to be a leader and how it has contributed to his career growth as the director of property, safety, and security for Collette travel services.
See full transcript below
I was a career firefighter in Johnson, Rhode Island for 20 years. So I was fortunate enough to get hired on the Johnson fire department at 18. I rose to the rank of Lieutenant and I did a lot of work with the fusion centers, which is kind of a component after nine 11 of the sharing with the FBI state police and all different types of law enforcement agencies. So I retired in 2007 and then went into the private sector. My current responsibilities and my professional career as the director of property safety and security for Collette travel services. We are a global tour operator, I manage our property and our worldwide safety and security initiatives in the US and international operations. But I never had a formalized degree. And I knew that if I ever wanted to kind of pivot and grow within a role that it was important to obtain a degree.
I made a call to SCE and basically they explained, we do have a leadership program. And actually the PC SCE program was cheaper than URI. I had pivoted and went to Collette travel services and they had a tuition reimbursement program. Collette kind of what led me into the leadership program at PCSCE. It was appealing because in the initial conversations with the counselors at SCE that I learned you could obtain a leadership certificate or obtain your undergrad degree. So I knew that if things get really challenging for me, I could pivot and just go through the program of leadership and obtain that certificate, having a huge responsibility or full plate, you know, especially when I started in 2016 and in a leader, your program, it was challenging. But I will say that there is there’s a sense of community of adults that are in the same kind of boat that I was in. Trying to at obtain that degree, managing, you know, work life balance. I think that, you know, while it’s a lot of work, the professors always available to work with you. As an example, I was traveling extensively. I think my second year I proposed to use platform say FaceTime, to do some presentations as a class presentations that we were doing. And the professor was super accommodating to allow that to happen.
There is a lot of great aha takeaways that are offered and that I experienced especially through the leadership program, right. Adaptability, you know, being good listener, understanding how to overcome failures, right. I think what the leadership program does is view you as a leader or an aspiring leader. So my case being a leader for years is kind of break you down to understand who you are as a person first and then be okay with acknowledging your failures. Right? So I’ve had failures in my career, setbacks, and really kind of understanding how to learn from those setbacks and then build off that, you will have a lot of aha moments. So it’s exciting. It’s an process. No doubt a lot of work, but if you put the commitment and the time you’re going to have a really a nice result at the end. Certainly I look at looking forward to continue to use the skill is that, you know, I’ve learned from the program, from the leadership program and managing my team. I have a very diverse team, different age levels, really, it’s challenging at times to, you know, put yourself in their shoes. And I’ve learned a lot from the trainings that I’ve received, from the foundation that we built at the leadership program to really understand, you know, everybody, what they’re going through.
I have stayed in contact with some of the professors at PC I’m involved with, a lot of different government agencies for the work that I do. And I was lucky enough that have professor Eriksen come in December to sit on a panel. So I, you know, that, that was exciting for me because my roles reverse of being a student to actually kind of being a peer and then working along with professor Eriksen. So those are the types of things of I can leverage – my professors as mentors to help continue to build and help shape my profile and and make me a better leader.
If you’re thinking about, you know, pursuing any degree, especially if you look at the leadership program at PC, I will tell you that while it’s challenging, it’s definitely a pathway that you can accomplish if you have a goal and you want to pursue that goal, they’ll work with you to make that goal happen. The flexibility, the adaptability is super and that PC offers a great brand. At the end of the day, you want to build your brand and potential, your brand is having the brand of PC part of your brand. And that’s super, super important in my opinion, especially as a leader and in marketing yourself and all forward, just if you are pursuing a different career path or you want to you know continue on the career path that you’re in it’ll work either way and having great brand like PC is critical to in my opinion. I can’t say enough about PCSCE if you are going to pursue leadership. And I would encourage it for any leader or any aspiring leader.
