poem timeeeeeeee

I will be a manager;

I know, a manager has many responsibilities,

And must maintain many different relationships;

Yet, this challenging and evolving profession

Called management is what I hope will become my career;

A manager, with a positive vision, I want to be;

A manager,

I will become.

But as of now, I am going to stick to managing this class and others to come.

Blog Communication

At first, I was kind of feeling iffy about this whole blog thing. I had never done it before and I thought it was something not useful. Lol I think what played into my prejudice was the fact that I never really looked favorably upon blogs. I know that blogging is becoming a huge force on the internet but for some reason, I was not really interested in it. Even though facebook and myspace became big things, I was never really into blogs, I don’t know why. (suffice it to say, I did have a myspace which now I don’t use since I upgraded to facebook haha)

However, I am not going to be hating on blogging. In the context of this class, it was certainly a unique experience to learn more about the subject matter. Since we were assigned to do blogs, it actually made me think and analyze what I did during the class activity which did drill the point home about what we learned in class. So, as a studying tool, it has been useful. It was also a cool way to learn. It also was beneficial how we could talk to other students from class about the activities which generated an exchange of ideas and also let you kind of break the ice with other people in class whom you never really talked to before. For people like me, who are shy, it was definitely a great tool to interact with other students and get to know more about them.

One of the best things about the blog is that it is 20% of our grade. I think that is very generous and very helpful. Students do not need to stress out so much about the tests that we have since if you unfortunately do bad, than there are other opportunities to improve your grade, mainly the blog and the plethora of extra credits that we have been getting all semester. So that said, I think this blog should be included as a component of this class. Its an helpful and easy assignment for students for their own benefit: grade-wise and learning-wise. However, after this class is over, I would not continue this blog, honestly speaking. And that is because to my “prejudice” against blogs that I previously mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, I think blogs have really helped me through this class and I think they are a wonderful addition to the class, but I am just not really into it. I guess everyone has their own feelings and attitudes towards things.

The ABCs of DISC

After taking the diagnostic, I found out that I am an S-C, which stands for Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Steadiness means Emphasis is on cooperating with others to carry out the task while in Conscientiousness the emphasis is on working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and accuracy. After reading the detailed description of both these categories, I feel that this test has gauged me correctly. I have taken a similar test before, it was the four colors test or something like that which tells you what color you are. I do not exactly the colors I was (but I think it was golden and yellow or something) but they basically said the same thing as this test revealed, so I am glad that the two test results correlated each other.

As the category indicates, some of my tendencies definitely are showing loyalty, desiring to help others, being a good listener, and creating a stable, harmonious environment, not just at work but also in my personal life. I think its amazing how a simple test like this which asks random, yet related questions, and can show you what your personality is.

Now, even though I am an S-C and I am content to be like this, I would have like to either be Dominant or Influence. Maybe that’s because I know what I lack (I am kind of like an introvert) and I really want to improve that. Like Professor Kurpis, who is a C I think. When he told us that, I was surprised because I thought that since he is a professor, he would have to be a D-I or something since he is always in front of people and talking and has to be an extrovert and stuff. But, after finding that out, I think it is definitely possible for someone to be different than what the test entails. I think one of the greatest thing about humans is that your never restricted. We can do whatever we feel like doing and trying to put yourself out there in an attempt to be a D or an I is not exactly impossible.

But, this test is definitely an eye opener for everyone. It would really help if you know how everyone did on this test and where they stand. Especially from a Management perspective. If managers knew the “type” of employees they have, than they can adjust their behavior and their motivation styles to correctly encourage the employee. This would certainly state that the manager is doing a good job at his managerial position and can understand the needs and wants of his employees or team. After all, that is what a manager is principally tasked to do: to manage his team in such a way that they always succeed, to foster a good environment by playing on everyone’s strengths where the team as a whole can succeed.

Also, a test like this will also help in your personal life. If you know how all of your friends rate on this test, than you might have a better idea of them. Even though, it would kind of beat the whole point of getting to know a person. For example, I know how my close friends would rate on this test, without even making them take it. That is because I have known them for a while and interacted with them a lot so I know how they are and how they think. If we apply this test in our personal lives, than it would take away the whole point of getting to know a person, as I mentioned before. It makes more sense from a professional view but I would not like to implement it in my personal life, unless it is something really important, like MAYBE your significant other or something like that.

The Power of Vision

The movie that we saw in class today was very inspirational. The funny thing is, my dad always told me to have a positive outlook on life and look on the bright side of everything. I guess this concept can do a lot of good to a lot of different people and organizations and even affect countries. There are a few goals that I have that I would really like to achieve in my lifetime.

1. TO get a good job in the field that I am interested in, mainly Finance, and hopefully get a management level position.

2. To be able to support my whole family and take the burden on my own shoulders.

3. Eventually, own my own business and be my own boss.

What I envision in my future is me earning enough money so that I can support my whole family. Ever since I was little, I was always grown up with the mentality that the young take care of the old. In fact, thats how my whole community/culture is. So my family means a lot to me and I would do anything for them. I plan on working hard for a decade after I graduate so that way I gain experience, become more mature and responsible and also build up my capital to eventually start my own business. I am still not sure about what my business would be but I know that I want to have my own business. It might not be in 10 years. Maybe, it might be a few decades later who knows? I hope that whichever company I go to work for, I end up at a top-level post. thats my ultimate goal. I am not afraid to work hard or anything because I know the driving force that makes me go out and do it. Maybe I might open up a business with a friend of mine but who knows?

Anyways, this is what I see for myself in my future. Being my own boss and supporting my family. These are the two big things which mean a lot to me. I will reach this end by working hard and doing whatever it is that is necessary.

Decision Making

In class, the professor had given us an option that if we all could come to 100% agreement on what should be done about the low scores on the test, than he would do it. However, it isnt as easy it seemed. There were people that got 100s and didn't want anything to do with it while there were others who got 40s and wanted a lot to be done, so you can just imagine the variety of ideas thrown out. But, the first step we had to accomplish was electing a leader. We were thankful that Bailey immediately rose up to the task and coordinated everything. Through out this whole process. a strong leadership is needed to get some successful results.

The ways that I used to come to decision that was agreeable with everyone were: Compromise, Accomodation and Collaboration. I used these 3 methods because nothing can be done without them. If everyone were stubborn and just stuck to their point of view, than nothing would get done. So, in order to reach some type of decision, everybody had to compromise, evaluate their situations, think about what their classmates are going through and from what angle they are coming from, and at the same time, see if they ideas thrown out are feasible and if the professor would actually implement it. Everybody had to cooperate and look at the idea from the point of view of the aggregate, instead of only thinking about themselves. Therefore, we all had to work together and hammer out a decision that would appease everybody and do good for the whole class, the people with As and the people that failed.

I cannot think any other way to handle this situation than the way it was handled. As I illustrated above, you cannot just choose one method and hope that it will work out. What I learned from this activity is that when trying to resolve a conflict, you have to implement more than one method to get the end desired result.

Eggs-cellent Way to learn

I think my group failed because of a few reasons. First of all, the design. We had good ideas for the design, as in we knew what type of design would prevent our egg from breaking, however, the constraints that we had, mainly time and materials, is what impeded our path to success. Due to these constraints, and keeping them in mind, we did the best we could and sadly, it didn't work out the way we thought it would.

Our group went through all of the steps in the Planning Process. We did define our goals and what we were trying to achieve, we identified our resources and the materials that were available to us, we had a back up/alternative design that we would use if at some point we didnt like it or didn't think it would work, we kind of a had a tactical plan as in we knew the steps that we had to take and in which order, and we implemented it accordingly and were able to evaluate our results in the end, when our device did not work. :(

Regarding my team's performance, I personally don't think there was anything lacking. We gave it our best and sadly it didnt work out. As I mentioned before, we didn't fail because we skipped one of the planning process steps. We followed all of them, since they made logical sense. However, where we did fail was the actual design of the device and the materials we had at our disposal. Other than that, our team was great and very cooperative with each other.

Culture Shock

Hey everyone,

I am Indian and one of the major differences that I have observed between my culture and American culture is with the concept of marriage. In our culture, it is perfectly normal to have an arranged marriage. In fact, we have been having this custom, or tradition or whatever you want to call it, for as long as I can remember. And the interesting thing about it is that couples usually have very peaceful, loving lives. I have witnessed and experienced first hand the results and effects of arranged marriage, and even though this idea is very foreign to a lot of Americans, even downright ridiculous, I have recently realized that it is one of the best ways to lead a happy and successful life. One thing I want to mention is that divorces are much greater in America than in India and this is due to the fact that people get married thinking that they are in love with their significant other but than after a few years, get divorced because of some issue or the other. However, you will not see this happening a lot in my culture. Yes, nowadays, more and more people are getting divorces and stuff in India but it is definitely no where near to the rate it is in America. I definitely believe in a person's right to choose and stuff, and arranged marriage doesn't mean that you are robbed of all rights. You do choose what person you want to marry, you talk to them, get to know them, and all that stuff, so in a sense, it is quasi-dating. I hope this has cleared some of the misconceptions that I have found a lot of my non Indian friends share. If you have any comments or anything, please state it and I'll be glad to discuss it.