Blog! Blog!

This blog as a communication tool is definitely very useful especially for those like me that rarely express their opinion in front of class; since I am a very shy person it gives the impression to others that I have nothing interesting to contribute. This blog gave me the opportunity to express my ideas and give other a better idea about my personality and point of view. It was also a good way to learn about our classmates and get to know them a little bit deeper which made the class a lot more cohesive.
As to respect to the blogs about the class activities, I also think were very handy, not only to really think about the activity purpose and the lesson it was suppose to teach us, but I found it especially helpful for the exams since the topics that had an activity involved were a lot more clear and easier to remember.
I think that it would be nice if the professor had more blog entries about random topics. I am one of those people who does not enjoy reading even though I can write quite extensively, I think that shorter more frequent entries to the Prof. blog would have made our class a lot more interesting.
The blog has been one of the key tools that have made this class unique and a lot more personal and it should definitely remain as part of future classes. I believe that making the entries a little more personal with more relaxed topics that can give us a chance to express more freely, can make it more interesting and make look less as an assigment that some may feel forced to do. I also think that the professor should get more involved with the blog entries; he could share more personal experiences, it would be a great way for us as students to break the ice and get to know a little bit better about the professor that I am sure can give us great tips about real life situations.

I manage...

The word “management” brings to mind control, planning, leading…
Control in emotions, time, relationships, chaos,
Planning the outfit for a sunny day, a date out with friends, a wedding, the steps to follow to get a job done, your future…
Leading your pet, your way out of a problem, a conference group, your subordinates at work, your life…
But does management require being a leader? Being a leader demands higher expectations from others who look up to you… and at the same time opens up your mind, challenges your abilities and gives you power…
So Life itself requires being a leader…how good you are at it brings the question
Is it a Skill to learn or simply a talent?

I am a "C"...

I think the test accurately measured my management orientation. I am a "C", I believe I am totally a C type which means conscientiousness; according to the description, I can easily relate to the whole list especially in my systematic approach to situations and activities, being diplomatic, thinking analytically, and weighting pros and cons about every situation. Surely I desire an environment that clearly defines performance and expectations, opportunity to demonstrate expertise, and the recognition for specific skills and accomplishments. Even when it describes what a person like me would need to be more effective I particularly identify with my need to develop tolerance for conflict.

I am currently the floor manager of a restaurant I can see how must of these descriptions apply in everyway in my work environment such as the way I manage my staff, as what I expect from my boss and subordinates, and how I tend to handle conflict with both including customers.

I do not wish to be another kind. I think I have managed to be a good leader even though I am not the D kind. I would definitely loved to learn how to make faster decisions without thinking all the time about the consequences; it would save me a lot of time, that in some situations I just don’t count with. I can say that since I work as a manager I have improved tremendously in developing tolerance during conflict which I used to lack many times and have made the work environment very frustrating. I react a lot calmer when I have problems with the employees and it has helped me to communicate better with them and even avoid future conflicts; besides, I have been able to apply this in my personal life.

I don’t think you can become a total different “type”, I think you can improve many aspects about your personality by implementing qualities of other personalities or just by working on the weaknesses that you face in order to become a better leader; however, trying to become completely something else in my opinion goes against of who you really are and you may end up losing yourself.
It is definitely helpful to know other people’s type to understand them better. You can learn about their tendencies as a leader or simple characteristics of their personality and be able to understand why they behave the way they do and even clearly point out weakness they may have to work on that may not be up to their hands if they cannot even realize the qualities they are lacking.

I will make things happen.....

When I saw the video I did not really feel very inspired by it, but I think it gives a very good insight about how to turn your ambitions and expectations into a real goal with a set plan to follow what he called “vision.”

I believe that I have some visions, and although I might not have a whole plan mapped out to accomplish every single one of them, I think they are realistic and little by little I feel a step closer to reach them.

My first vision is to travel around the world; not only visiting, but actually being able to acquire work experience in different countries. This would allow me to experience varied work environments, be able to learn different languages, and have an open mind to other cultures. I love diversity, and even though I am an accountant major and we are usually categorized as boring people, and I am somewhat shy, I cannot picture myself working in the same place for 20 years and being around the same people for the long of my career.

My second vision is to own an accounting firm. I think big; I want to create a different kind of company, less uptight, with a more dynamic and youthful atmosphere. My goal is to make it “the fifth” (you know “the final four”) or at least be able to set the right grounds for the next generations of accountancy firms.

My third vision is to have a restaurant in the city… I have always worked in the restaurant business, and I believe that when you have experience in a certain area, you should take full advantage and make the best of it. I want to be able to apply everything I have learned, and create something unique by applying what I believe all those restaurants I have worked for are missing, which is a blend of consistency and innovation.

My fourth vision is to go back to my country Colombia, and being able to help some of the many in need. I don’t believe in donations. Giving away money is not enough if not nothing. To really contribute and make a difference you must be really involved. My vision is to go to those little towns where the opposition groups and cocaine and marihuana plantations have destroyed and left their innocent, low-income, poor educated habitants with no hope of having a descent life ever again. I want to help rebuild their homes, make the land fertile again, and give them a way to earn a living and build a future for their families through agriculture. I want to promote education, and provide better technology to provide the children and insight of life outside these little towns that they have no idea of.

The actions to be taken to make my vision reality is to look for training after graduation abroad, expand my studies, and find others who share the same goals and pair up with them at the end...to heads think better than one!

How to handle Chaos...

I think I personally compromised to the decision making in class because I was not only thinking about myself, I was also thinking about what was best for the whole class and what would benefit the most people; so we could get to an unanimous decision faster I agree with whatever made most people happy.
The way I would handle conflict differently would be separating ourselves into groups and each group would have to come up with one or a group of possible solutions; I believe this would have worked better because people would have contributed more; as a result, we would have had a lot more choices to decide on; there were some who were afraid to express their opinions because everyone just wanted to agree on the limited alternatives we already had.
Unfortunately, we had a time constrain that worked against us and maybe separating into groups would have made it harder. On the other side, I think there would have been better communication between us therefore better results.

Our Planning Process...

We as a team went through not all, but some of the steps in the planning process: step one which is define your goals and objectives, two which is to determine your resources and current status vis-á-vis objectives and step four which was to make a tactical plan.
Our objective was to create a successful artifact within the time provided and we were looking for the fastest and the most efficient way to do so. We created a list of our goals and specific ways to achieve them. Our final goal was to make a canoe with the straws provided cut them in three parts to somehow make the most of our resources, tape the ends of each piece of straw so the air would stay inside and create a better padding, and put aside enough tape to hold tightly the egg to the canoe without covering it completely, among others. We were fully aware of the resources we had and tried to get the most of them. We also new our weaknesses which were the time constraint and availability of the scissors and our strengths which were that each one of us had a specific task to perform and everyone had the capability to do so; all of us had a role and timing to perform.
I say we passed by step three which is to develop several alternative strategies, although we brainstormed substantially about our different options, how to make our design better, and looked into how to avoid anything that might have gone wrong, we really did not get a straight forward solution to any of our problems, and we always ended up where we started. I also believe that we failed by not looking into each scenario separately.
By the time of the implementation which would be step five, we hardly did what we previously planned. We did construct the canoe but we were somewhat chaotic, we had communication problems during the execution process in the process and did not perform as we anticipated. We wanted to use all of our materials in order to make our canoe more efficient but we ended up with some spare parts, and we just placed them wherever they fitted due that we were all worried about the time limit.
We would have been better as a team if we would have taken each step into consideration; we should have evaluated our choices and found a way to communicate better.

My Boss and My Friend...

When I just came to this country my goal was to dedicate myself to study. After a while, I decided to find me a job, but since I did not speak the language fluently it was very hard for me to find a good one.
After looking everywhere, someone told me about a very fancy place that was about to open in the area. I went met the Manager and even though I could hardly speak to him, he appreciated my effort and gave me a chance. I started as a hostess, then waitress and after one year I was the assistent manager of the whole place. During this year I got very close to the manager we became very good friends, even more than that he treated me like family. He was also very patient; he taught me everything about the business and helped me a lot with my English and even with French.
After two and a half years of working in his restaurant, I left him to work for an accounting firm and went to school part time. Last year I decided to come back to school full time so I wanted a less demanding job; I thought of him and went back to work in the restaurant. He happily took me back, but since I new everything about the business he gave me a lot more responsabilities than I expected.
For the whole year I have not told him that I really feel overwhelmed with the amount of work because I know him very well and I know he is going to misinterpret my comment. I also feel that I owe him so much that am willing to make the effort as a way to pay him back.
Even though he pays me very well, even more than he would pay any other manager being a full time student and having to work for more than forty hours a week and having so many responsabilities is becoming way to hard.
I do not have the courage to speak to him about this issue because I know he needs me and I am concerned about his reaction; he trustes me very much and I am basically the only one he leaves in charge of the place when he is not able to be around which lately is very often, and since I think of him as family I do not want to let him down.