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I have been studying since February, off and on. I tested for the first time earlier in the month to get a feel for the test and see where I stood, not quite passing. I took it again yesterday and was so close - 3 questions away from passing! I spent an hour skimming the material again, adding to my notes and took it my third time - yes twice in one day. I felt really good about it, clicking through without needing my notes for a lot of it. When I hit submit with a minute left, there was a technology hiccup or something and it spun and spun so I said a lil prayer & clicked it again, it said 85% and then guess what!! Another window popped up and said I was out of time! Oh the disappointment! Ach! I messaged ASAP last night and explained what happened. Also, guess what!! ... ...This morning I got an email and as it turns out ....I PASSED!! Not an easy test, but if you study, take good notes you can do it! 2 tips for those working to take the certification: note the names behind the management approaches - who they were and what their approach was 😉 I had a lot of those questions. I found that some questions are very relevant to my day to day but some not so much - pay attention to all of the material regardless if you think it applies to your day to day or not. Good luck!

After seven years with my current boss, I can't say we have a 'norm.' We frequently communicated in the office. He is an encourager and does not hesitate to share feedback, which is excellent. However, working from home, email communication has increased but has been primarily about the work itself. The personal interaction varies and occurs at staff meetings or when he has a specific assignment where verbal communication is necessary. With our recent conversion to Teams, I utilize the components to communicate, especially the video component. I do manage his calendar, even though he is very independent. Therefore, I schedule myself on his calendar to ensure our interaction remains constant. Items are work-related, personal development, performance goals, and status, etc. I find adding things to his calendar a beneficial tool. Sometimes it is essential to take the initiative and put questions on the table. Believe it or not, we do quite a bit of text messaging.🙂

Kaylon, At the beginning of the pandemic when we were all on "Stay-at-home" orders, keeping in touch with my boss was pretty difficult. He is so used to just having me outside of his door that he has never felt the need to schedule regular check-ins with me. I think at the beginning of the pandemic, it was almost 2 weeks before we had a long conversation that was not a text conversation. I just tried my best to copy him on work I was doing, not everything of course, but anything I did on a larger college level. But I think the thing that helped me the most was hosting regular meetings with staff, since we were the ones doing most of the work. I would definately let your boss know that you feel like you need a regular check-in scheduled and do it over Webex, Zoom, Teams...what ever you use.