"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.