Robert Forto

strategic leadership

Week 112 of 186 (BMAL 780)

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Week 112 of approximately 186 is in the books in my doctorate program.

Another course in the books! Can it be?

BMAL 780 is done and the last coursework class is done for the program. I have been enrolled in college non-stop since the first Monday of August 2014 and today I submitted (hopefully) my last discussion board post!
Most of my peers hate the discussion board posts but I truly believe this is where the real learning happens through the collaboration of those in the class.
I also have the first break in almost eight years as I don’t start the next phase of my program until late October.
I will not be stagnant, however! I have at least 300 items on a to-do list that I just need to get done plus several projects around the Fort including a deck and 36 dog houses.
Thank you for all of the support from my peers that have read my blog and found it helpful. Especially to Derek for the kind words.
Hi Robert, I just wanted to drop you this note to personally thank you. You don’t even know it, but you have helped me tremendously through the Liberty program. Your answers in the groups are very helpful and I have read so many of your papers online as a model for each of my papers. So thank you very much.
I am looking forward to the next chapter and I will continue to update the blog as I move through it. Stay tuned.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Score: now 102/103

To read the paper:

Forto 780 Research Paper

Week 111 of 186 (BMAL 780)

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Week 111 of approximately 186 is in the books in my doctorate program.

We are just finished Week 7 BMAL 780 Strategic Leadership for the 21st Century. This past week was another literature review. This time on Measuring Effective Leadership in Family Business. It took me six hours from start to finish sitting in a chair at the local Starbucks to write this paper. I don’t know how many times I can re-write a paragraph essentially saying the same thing I have said in just about every paper for the last two years to avoid self-plagiarism!

Coming up is the last week of the term and there is a discussion board post and replies and a research paper due by Friday. I hate the short weeks. After that, I have off until late October before I start BMAL 785 which is essentially a pre-season game for my doctorate project. I am so looking forward to being done with the coursework!

My wife Michele and I are thinking of renting an Air BnB for me in Portland during my last sixteen-week term next year to really hone in and focus on the last steps of my project. I think it would be good for me to just have a place to write and think. It may be a pipe dream! What do you think? Let me know in the comments or on socials.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Score: now 99/100

To read the paper:

Forto 780 Lit Review 2

Week 109 of 186 (BMAL 780)

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Week 109 of approximately 186 is in the books in my doctorate program.

We are just finished Week 5 BMAL 780 Strategic Leadership for the 21st Century. This week we did our third annotated bibliography and they seem to be getting easier even though it feels like I am writing the same things over and over again from papers that I have written earlier in the program. It is a challenge because self-plagiarism is real and the university is very strict about it. It can be seen on my TurnItIn scores where all of the ‘dings’ are from my own papers.

We also had a discussion post and I responded to the fellow student with a reference to the Obi-Wan show on Disney+ and how Darth Vader is an example of negative leadership.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Score: 97/100

To read the paper:

Forto 780 Ann Bib 3

 

Weeks 107 and 108 of 186 (BMAL 780)

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Weeks 107 and 108 of approximately 186 are in the books in my doctorate program.

We are headed into Week Five of BMAL 780 Strategic Leadership for the 21st Century. Not a bad course overall even though it feels like I am re-writing every paper on leadership I have ever written. I can not believe all of these courses are coming to an end very soon and I will be knee-deep in my project for the next year or more.

Last week had a discussion post, replies, and another research paper. This one included ideas on how to train leaders for the future, of course with the name of the course being as such.

This week we have another annotated bibliography and another round of discussions.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Score: 99/100

To read the paper:

Forto 780 Ann Bib 1

 

Week 105 of 186 (BMAL 780)

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Week 105 of approximately 186 is in the books in my doctorate program.

It is the start of a new week, a new course, and a new term at Liberty in the Doctor of Strategic Leadership program. This course is Strategic Leadership in the 21st Century (BMAL 780) and is the last core course in the program for me. This week I also took a big step and enrolled in the first of the project/dissertation courses, BMAL 780 which is where we start to develop our research project.

With so many things going on in the next few months I decided to take the course in the D term (late October) so it will be the first time since 2014 that I have had a break of more than three months! It’s good because once I start the final batch of courses I have to be continually enrolled until I am finished.

The new course should be interesting. We are back to studying leadership and our assignment is a 5-page research paper on the Need for Training Future Leaders. Of course, I used my own two companies as a case study.

The course is pretty heavy on writing. We have a few of these research papers, a discussion and replies each week, two annotated bibliographies, and a lit review.

Join host Michele Forto as she starts her brand new podcast, Wellness Wednesdays. Please give it a listen and leave an honest review wherever you download your podcasts.

Oh, if you are on Twitter, I highly encourage you to follow the hashtags, #AcademicChatter and #AcademicTwitter both are great threads with advice, motivation, and a very supportive community and if you wouldn’t mind, give me a follow at @robertforto and send me a tweet letting me know you found my blog helpful!

Score: 101/103

To read the paper:

Forto 780 Research Paper 1