"Being A Leader" : A Poem About Management

Everybody wants to be able to lead,
But it is a process, like a plant growing from a seed.
There are six characteristics that you will need,
To be able to lead and succeed.
You must develop drive and ambition,
To reach the position to lead your coalition.
You must have the desire to influence others,
That will get you one step closer to leading and guiding them like your brothers.
You must act with honestly and integrity,
With this, your followers will trust you and help you towards prosperity.
Without self-confidence you have no chance,
Like a nerd asking the prettiest girl in school to the dance.
Last but not least, a great leader possess intelligence and technical knowledge,
So I guess that's why we are all here attending college.
Being a leader is difficult, but it can be done,
Do you think you have what it takes?
The personal profile test will tell you,
So take it and have a little fun.

The ABC's of DISC

The leadership/management diagnostic activity we did in class was one of my favorite of the semester. It is interesting how by choosing the word that describes you most and least 28 times can interpret the type of manager or leader you are or can be. According to my test results, I fall under the category of an S-type. The S-type's are usually better managers and emphasize working on cooperating with others to carry out a task. After reading the evaluation and descriptions of the category I fall under, I realized that the diagnostic accurately determined my management orientation. At my job, I am the manager/supervisor of the event that I am assigned for that day and am in charge of running that event and making sure all goes as planned. After assessing myself in my work environment, I realized that every description and action plan described under the S-type, relates to me directly. I am content with the manager type I am because I feel it is suitable for my personality and work ethic. I am a firm believer in hard work, team effort, and loyalty, all which are characteristics of an S-type. At times, I do wish i possessed a little more of a D characteristic in the sense of taking power and authority. I sometimes catch myself being too nice, which is not bad in my opinion, however certain circumstances call for stricter attitudes and I would like to be comfortable acting in such a way if the circumstance demands it. Before this class, I wasn't aware that such a diagnostic of managerial orientation existed. However, I learned that such a test is beneficial for employers because they can become aware of the type of manager/leader a future employee can be and if that personality fits into what the job requires. This diagnostic can also be beneficial to a future employee because they can be aware of their managerial preferences and thus determine if a possible job would suit their liking. Aside from the work environment, such an assessment as this can help you in personal interactions since we always have to act as managers or leaders even when we are not at work. In conclusion, it was interesting to discover what type of manager I am and even more interesting in discovering, through my own work experience, that the results from the test were very accurate.

Communication via Blog

Since the first day of Management class, Professor Kurpis told us that his goal for the semester was to get us to love management by teaching the class in an interactive and interesting manner. In my opinion, he has lived up to his word of making this course interesting by incorporating lively class lectures, in class activities, and finally this blog that we all have to write in. I have never had a blog prior to this course, be it as personal hobby or for school, but I feel that it is a creative way to encourage thinking and application of what we have learned throughout the semester. The blog assignments have been related to management concepts, but have also incorporated some personal factors that we have had to respond to and it has been interesting and fun to see other students' perspective on things as well as having them respond to my own. The blog has also served as a way for us to further use the information we've received from the class lectures. This blog has given us the opportunity to reflect on what we've learned and relate it to our own lives rather than just learn something and forget about it on the train ride home after class. There is obviously a lot about management that we cannot learn in one semester, however this blog has served as a learning tool about some of those aspects that we have not had a formal lecture about. Through Professor Kurpis' blog, we were able to learn more about management from a professional point of view as well as comment on his perspectives. On top of all the educational purposes that these blogs assigments have had throughout the course of the semester, it has also been the easiest 20% of a grade I've had. Studying for an exam is obviously tedious and there are some people who are just not good test takers and perform bad, but are very good students. This blog is a perfect way for students to control a chunk of their final grade simply by reflecting on management concepts and responding to the thoughts of others. Although I felt the blog assignment portion of our management class was beneficial to us in many aspects, I do not plan on continuing to write on it after the course has ended. However, if there ever comes a point in time where the interest of creating a personal blog arises, I will have had prior experiences with blogs because of this course. Professor Kurpis has done a great job of teaching management in a fun way rather than simply sitting in front of us for an hour and 15 minutes, twice a week, and lecturing about SWOT analysis and good leadership techniques, which we would all forget about hours later. The blog assignments are a great asset to his teaching style and our learning experience and I would recommend him to stick with it for his future classes.

The Power of Vision

From the video we watched in class, we learned that vision of the future is a key ingredient for success. I am now at the point in my life where adulthood has begun and my future is something I must think about and plan constantly. Three of my main business and personal goals that I have for the future as of now are to be a successful certified public accountant at a major firm, travel around the world, and eventually have a family of my own. Although these goals are common amongst many upcoming adults, a mere vision is nothing without action. Therefore, in order to achieve one's goals, specific actions must be incorporated into the equation.

My primary business goal as of right now is to be a successful certified public accountant at a major firm. I visualize myself in a business suit everyday working hard trying to be the best I can be and to produce the best results for my company. Aside from graduating college, which is obvious, my first action must be to pass the CPA exam. Based on my knowledge gained in school and a lot of time devoted to studying and practicing, I plan to be prepapred for this exam when the time comes. Once I have the actual license, I will have to develop a strong resume and begin applying for jobs. If I can land a job with a major firm from the beginning, that would be ideal and I could begin the journey up the ladder of that company. However, if that does not work out, I will have to gain experience somewhere else until I meet the credentials to be part of a major firm.

Traveling around the world is my next vision for the future. I have actually already began acting on this vision as of last year when I decided to travel to a different country every year. Last year I visited the Dominican Republic, which was a great experience in paradise. This summer, I am looking into a trip to Europe. Since traveling is not cheap, my main action throughout the year is putting money aside so that I can make my vision happen. Saving is not easy, but I make a big effort to do so by keeping my objectives in order and prioritizing my wants and needs. I feel that traveling is a magnificant thing and everyone should try to get away and see what our world has to offer outside of "home."

My thrid goal is one that cannot be complete until the first two are, which actual re-enforces the concept that a vision without action is merely a dream. My third goal is to settle down and have a family of my own (meaning a wife and kids of course). This goal is probably the most important of all because at the end of the day, family and love is what truly brings happiness. However, before settling down and building a family, I want to have lived for myself to the fullest extent. I must have a good and successful career to be economically stable to support my family. Also, I must have fulfilled my personal goals, in my case traveling, before I can devote my life to a family. Once the time comes to settle, I have to meet or have already met the person whom I am sure I can share and build a life with no regrets.

These are only three visions that I have thus far and I am sure many more will arise as my life goes on. Some visions won't become reality since unfortunately we cannot do everything we want to in life. However, those visions and goals that are most important to me will have to be supported by actions in order to be achieved. The future all starts with a vision and from there it is up to each individual to transform that vision into reality.

Decision Making

The class was given an objective: Prof. K would do anything reasonable to favor the class for the first exam as well as formulate the second exam as we wished IF AND ONLY IF we as a class could come to a unanimous decision for both scenarios. From the start, I feel that the class went about the decision making process pretty well. One classmate got up and quickly took charge as the team leader and began to write people's ideas on the board. Given that our class is quite large, I feel we did a fairly good job communicating and when things began to get a little out of hand, the class leader quickly intervened and restored the order. After we went around the room and wrote down people's proposals for the first task, (what to do with the 1st exam) we began to vote and compromise where needed until we reached a unanimous decision. We repeated the same steps for the second task (how to format the 2nd exam), however we were not as successful. The class was not able to reach a unanimous decision based on the proposed ideas from students, but we quickly made a decision on how to handle it. We did not want to lose out on our decision from the first task, so we unanimously decided to allow Prof. K to format the 2nd exam. Keeping what we gained from the first task was more important than deciding on how to format the 2nd exam. I think this was a crucial decision made by the class.

I personally chose the Accommodation approach to handle conflict because I wanted to help in making a decision that would benefit the majority of the class. Since the class test grades were not so good, I knew that the majority of the students would base their decisions on what would either give them extra credit or nullify the exam grade completely. Therefore, I tended to vote for such proposals that would favor the majority. Knowing how the class reacted and how we communicated to one another, I could have also chosen the Collaborating approach to seek results. Bargaining and negotiation within a group is very important and is usually how decisions are made. It is unlikely that all members of a group will agree on the same exact things, therefore some things must be given up to gain others.

In conclusion, I feel that we performed well as a large group with a limited amount of time. We were able to agree on one of the tasks and although we did not succeed on the second task, we were quick to agree that the advantages of the first tasks were far too great to lose out on--hence we decided to give up our say on the 2nd task. The main objective for us was to see what would benefit us for the first 2 exams, but little did we know that we were learning how to make decisions in such a large group. I guess that's why Prof. K gets paid the big bucks.

The Planning Process

I was not in class on the day the egg planning activity was done, however, I do practice and put into use the planning process when I am at work. As i mentioned in a previous entry, I am a Maitre'd at a catering hall and my job is basically to supervise and run the event that I am assigned to on that day. Before the event even begins, I am in charge of indicating to my staff members how to set up the room for that particular event (room set up varies depending on the type of party). Once the party has begun, I am responsible for planning a schedule for when all the courses will be given out as well as making sure the staff is following the schedule effectively. Although I am the supervisor of the party, I like to think of my staff and I as a team because I would not be able to run the event without them. Therefore, as the team leader, I must effectively use the planning process to manage my agenda and times properly for the party I am running.
When I arrive at work and am assigned to an event, I have to determine my goals and objectives: how does the room need to be set up?; by what time does it have to be done by? given the hours of the party, what time should we serve the courses? which waiters should be assigned which sections? These are several tasks to attend to with a limited amount of time, which means that I need the assistance of my staff in attending to what they have to do in order for me to focus on what I must do. During the set-up of the dining room, I have my strongest staff members do the tasks that are most challenging or most time consuming and I have the less experienced members take care of easier tasks. Once i assign tasks to all the staff members, my job is to come up with a possible schedule for the courses and communicate with the kitchen staff to make sure they can be ready with the food by the time I need it. This time management task is one of the most difficult because usually things happen throughout the party that cause me to fall behind with my schedule. (i.e the bride and groom take too long to be ready for an entrance, speeches take longer than expected, etc). Therefore, when I come up with my possible schedule, I always make another schedule on the side with adjusted times in case I fall behind during the party. This strategy of the planning process has proven to be successful for me in many cases because the alternative schedule has already anticipated falling behind with time.
Being that we just learned about the steps of the planning process, I have actually been following them at work in the past without even knowing it. Due to experience, I feel that my planning process at work is very efficient and my team and I usually have no problem executing the plans for the events. If it were not for my planning ahead of time and communicating to the kitchen and my team members of how we will handle the tasks throughout the party, then everything would most definitely be a disaster. Planning is the most important part of the management process because it serves as a blueprint for achieving the tasks at hand.

Culture Shock

During a Sociology course that I took two semesters ago, we were assigned to visit and experience another culture and then write a paper reflecting what we learned and how it differed from our own. I chose to study the Greek culture because one of my close friends is Greek and he agreed to accompany me to Astoria(which is where the majority of the Greek neighborhoods are located in Queens) and teach me a little about the culture. Aside from that visit, the actual experience that I witnessed about Greek culture that shocked me as well as interested me the most, occured at work. I am a Maitre'd at a catering hall, and I have worked several Greek parties including weddings, christenings, birthdays, etc. In all those parties, I witnessed the Greek people do a cultural dance where they all hold hands and dance in a circle while other friends or members of the family throw money at them. This cultural tradition resulted to be very different, but very interesting as well to me because I am not used to any such traidtion in my culture. If I remember correctly, my friend told me that the throwing of the money signifies good luck and wealth for the honored guests. Based on my experiences with these parties at work, the actual money that is thrown, is later picked up and given to the DJ or band as a form of gratuity (I am not 100% sure if this is true in all cases, but it has been in my experiences). The dances usually last a pretty long time and there is often one person in the center of the circle who does a sort of solo dance as the others cheer. It is very interesting and fun to watch this dance and to see how the people really get into it and enjoy it. Cultures vary in so many different ways and it is important to acknowledge and understand the different cultures of the world. In our management course especially, we incorporate different people and cultures in order to learn how to manage people who's ideas and norms differ from our own, which in the "real world" will prove to be very important.