Lead and I Shall Follow

If you wish to lead me through the way
Let me show you the groundwork to be laid
Entice my eye with great precision
So I too can share your colorful vision

Lend me your charisma and I promise
Loyalty and trust will never be amiss
On this great big ship
Be the captain that celebrates my many gifts
Open my eyes, go ahead and delegate
Careful, don't forget to stimulate

Integrity must be key
If you wish me to believe
Should this all be laid out
I'm your follower without a doubt

To Blog or Not to Blog?

So I have to admit our blogging component has left me a bit empty. I totally get the idea of having us do something more practical. But for me something was missing. I enjoy writing by nature so when I initially learned about the blogging requirement I was excited. I think what I missed was the spontaneity that comes from blogging. Because we had specific topics to write about, it felt more like homework, which it was, than "blogging".

1. I didn't really connect with the people I blogged with. For me it felt forced, so outside of the blog I didn't really speak to them in class. Oddly enough I didn't blog with people I actually spoke to in class. I don't know why but I just missed the connection between the blog and the physicality of the class.

2. The blog did get me to think about the different concepts I learned in class. It was also interesting to see what others thought and how they interpreted things.

3. I felt your blogs were interesting, but I think you need to stress more that we need to read them. I also feel you should require students to follow your blog upon setting up their blog. It keeps it in their face.

4. It was definitely an easy way to earn 20% of your grade. I much prefer something of this nature over exams where I just memorize information only to forget it the second I walk out of class.

5. Sadly I doubt I will continue to blog. I will use a tired but sincerely honest phrase: I don't have time. I've actually tried blogging on my own, but I always forget to log on and keep up with it.

I think you should definitely keep the blogging component. However I feel it needs to be some how tied in more with the actual class. Maybe take 5 or 10 mins to ask student in class what blogs they found interesting. I know I know that's the point of the blog, to comment on other's work. But for me, I just would have preferred more of a connection. Actually it just dawned on me what was missing on the blog: YOU. It has crossed my mind in the last few days that you never comment on our blogs. WHY? I think for me that would have made a big difference in my interest to blog.

Who Am I Really?

I feel tests like the Personal Profile System should be taken with a grain of salt. One thing these tests don't take into account is how well different personalities mesh with others. For instance someone could be profiled as a leader, but if people don't like them for a b or c reason, they won't respect their leadership. Whether you've been profiled as a D, I, C, or S, how you interact with certain personalities will affect your leadership style.

Perception is a funny thing. How you see yourself will never match up 100% to how others see you. I took this test from the professional perspective. I wanted to see how I would be perceived at work. I failed though to realize that I was answering many of the questions within the constraint of my current position, administrative assistant. Since my role itself does not allow much autonomy, I found myself answering the questions in a more passive manner. I expected to be closer to a "D" profile, but instead was profiled as a "C". After looking at the tendencies and desires of a "C" I agreed I possess most of them. However, when I looked at "D", I also felt I possessed many of those traits as well.

In my life outside of work I tend to be more of a leader. I like to be in charge or at least have a say in anything I'm involved with. Am I a control freak? Absolutely not. But I do like to voice my opinions and I'm not afraid to go against the status quo. Although I expected to be a "D" I don't feel bad about being a "C". I think there are many jobs that require different profiles over others. I do however think I have the potential to become a "D" because it's something that I lean towards in my life outside of work.

Overall, I feel this kind of testing would be helpful to assessing someone's leadership / management style. But, I feel it should only be a supplement to scenario testing. If I were using this as a hiring tool, I would give the test, and see what profile is leaned towards. I would then place the applicant in scenarios that test the accuracy of the profile they've been given.

Don's just talk about it, TAKE ACTION, and Be About it!

Sometimes we dream of so many things we want out of our lives, so many things we wish to accomplish some day, but how do we get there? As I get older and learn more about business and management, I realize that it is very important to write down your goals and actually set out an ACTION PLAN to accomplish them. Below are some of my top goals in no specific order:

1. Market Researcher in the food industry
2. Own my own home
3. Get married
4. Continue enriching my life experiences

Goal 1: Market Researcher in the food industry

My vision to be involved with food has been with me since I was probably 8 years old and would watch Julia Child after school instead of cartoons. I've always been fascinated by food, perhaps because early on my mom inspired me on the subject. It's taken me a while to form a career vision, and it just came upon me this semester. Upon graduating I plan to embark on my journey to become a researcher in the food industry. Below are some of the steps I'm currently taking and plan to take to make this vision a realization.

1. I've been reading, talking about, watching anything to do with food for at least 2 decades.

2. I've taught myself to cook various cuisines and have learned the basics on what flavors go best together and what foods are best for certain seasons and occasions.

3. I plan to get my foot in the door some where anywhere at the Food Network company via some kind of internship. I feel this company's values align very well with my own. They promote a sense of family which reminds me of how I was introduced to food and cooking.

4. I plan to get my MBA with a concentration in research marketing.

Goal 2: Own my own home

Owning my own home is an important goal to me because of things I picture in my mind of happening in my own home. I picture having a massive kitchen where I can cook and entertain in simultaneously. I picture a sweet hammock in the back yard where I can decompress after a long day. I sense the smell of great barbecues on any given night of the week. I picture having friends and family over for warm get-togethers with enough room for people to sleep over if need be. This goal takes a lot mentally and financially, but I'll get there.

1. Right now I'm making sure I maintain a great credit score by paying my bills on time, not having two many credit cards, and saving money from each check.

2. I plan to do extensive research on what it takes to fix up a home. I don't mind buying a home that needs a little re-doing if it means saving a bit on the price.

3. I plan to take my time in organizing and looking for furniture and accessories that meet my needs and wants.

4. I plan to buy a home I can actually afford and not have to struggle each month to cover the mortgage and jack up my credit.


Goal 3: Get married

Ok so who calls getting married a goal??? I certainly do! I've always known I want someone swinging on the porch with me besides a pet. Getting married in my opinion is not something to go into lightly so it takes proper action planning.

1. I have dated and have learned a lot about myself and who I want to share my time, my dreams, and my loyalty with.

2. Right now I'm with someone who I truly admire, respect and love.

3. I plan to continue dating this person and having the serious talks about money, commitment, children, in-laws, day-to-day responsibilities, and make sure we have some kind of semblance of opinions in those topics.

4. I DEFINITELY plan to live with this person prior to getting married. I'm a firm believer of testing the car before you buy it!

5. I plan on having an affordable well planned and thought out wedding. I don't need fanciness, just need GOOD FOOD...LOL

Goal 4: Continue enriching my life experiences

I love to learn! I like the feeling when you discover something new and it makes you want to know more about it. I truly believe that when you keep learning and challenging yourself you only enrich your life even more. You discover new shades of yourself and even new strengths you had no clue were there. Two of my passions in life are FOOD of coarse and dancing. I have loved dancing since I was 3 or 4 years old.

1. I plan to take cooking classes to learn professional techniques. I like perfecting what I enjoy doing.

2. I plan on taking many many dance lessons: Tango, Salsa, and Ballroom to mention a few.

3. I plan on taking art studio classes. Art has always been a turn on for me. It's a great thing to know anything can be art and so many people can interpret it differently.

So there you have it boys and girls...My Top Goals.

Ciao,
Candice

What to do, what to do...?

Decision making can be a difficult task for individuals, let along an entire group of people. So what do many of us do when faced with decision making that involves others? Some of us fight to the death and do not budge; some avoid the decision making all together out of laziness, fear, or just simple frustration; some compromise, you give a little, you get a little; others sacrifice to accommodate the group, and then we have others who try and come up with various options. So what happens when you have a classroom full of students in which half did very well on an exam and the other half not so well???

While we tried to come up with a solution to our exam grading system it became clear we had a room full of all kinds of decision makers. Baily, thankfully, took the lead and guided our decision making process while the rest of us fell into one or more of the descriptions mentioned prior. I for one was definitely not going to be the avoider considering the final decision would have the potential to affect my grade. I can safely say I was one of the students who was in the "did well" side of things so I wasn't too boisterous on my demands, so I decided to take the route of the collaborator. I threw out there some suggestions that could possibly help out those who really needed the help but at the same time fairness would be taken into consideration for those who really didn't need the help for a better grade.

I think with the specific demands Kurpis placed on our final decision we did pretty good in coming to a well rounded conclusion. However, after going through the process and lecture, I feel breaking up into smaller groups could have sped up our process. Within these smaller groups each person would have the opportunity to speak. We could have had sub-leaders who would then voice out each groups top concerns. In using this kind of decision making we probably would have noticed quicker where the majority stood on certain suggestions. We also could have established which were the overlapping ideas and possibly combine them to make a better thought out and concise option.

Decision making...it's a work in process!

Ciao,
C.

Eggsperiment...

Who knew handling a little old egg would take so much team work??? Our team work did not go without effort, but we also missed a few of the key points in the planning process. We all had our ideas on what type of contraption would protect George (aka our egg).

Below is an analysis of what went wrong and what went right:

Step 1: We failed to first and foremost pick a leader. I think we may have focused on the team effort too much and forgotten that it is important to have one key leader.

Step 2:
After we found out what our resources would be, we began discussing how we would use materials effectively. We decided not to create our contraption depending on the scissors. We figured waiting for the scissors would take up to much time. I feel this was a smart way to go because in the end time proved to be a very crucial part of the planning.

Step 3:
We came up with two options on how George would be protected. We were in between our options and failed to make a decision prior to receiving the egg. I think this indecisiveness led us to have a weak plan on building the contraption. We didn't truly assess the strengths & weaknesses.

Step 4:
When we finally decided on our preferred option we each took roles to assist in the building process.

Step 5:
Due to the short amount of time we really had no time to come up with new corrective measures. Some of us dealt with prepping the tape. Two of us worked on holding the egg while straws.

I have to say the 3 key issues we had were not picking a leader, lack of assessing weaknesses and strengths, and also TIME. I think if we would have had time to assess our strengths and weaknesses, we could have done a better job.

My space...

One culture that has impressed me in many ways is the Japanese culture. I visited Japan on a week's vacation. I visited Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Kyoto, and Osaka. One thing that truly stuck out about Japanese culture is their concern for space. Upon exploring Tokyo not one inch of space was wasted. In the bustling city you could see tall skyscraper buildings with tiny buildings etched next to them. It was like looking at a puzzle with space interlocking around each corner. Space was even a concern at local restaurants where you could find a hook or a small compartment under your table to place your coat and purse instead of placing it in the seat next to you. What truly shocked me was when I went dancing at an average club. We actually received keys to personal lockers to keep our coats and shopping bags in. It was definitely an experience. You always seemed to have enough space of your own to keep yourself and your belongings so as to not disturb anyone Else's space.

Ciao,
Candice