Rest

This poem seeks to explore management in an ancient setting as a knight manages his battle plan and his troops of the task ahead. The Knight exercises leadership qualities by controlling his warriors, using different planning strategies, communicating fighting tactics and even setting definite goals and assuring success.   

Rest bewilder warrior, rest and take heed, for the battle is not won.

For we ride in the morn, to lead noble knights this victory we did sworn,

As hades feen do tell of mischief and demise, sacred preparations, and no jesters shall equip these arms two carry such sweat, belligerent thunder,

As lighting fall from heaven so too will this sword, on thy enemies’ chest, plunder,

Rest thy noble knights as the creator on the 7th day,

For in the morn we shall ride again,

Flamboyant bust of solemn victory manage thy fear, and hold fast

For we are knights forge from noble cast,

So rest bewilder warrior, rest and take heed, for tomorrow the battle will be won.

Its a new day, comunicate the new way>BLOGGING!

Prior to this class I always heard about blogs, this never drew my attention because am not a writing person I am more drawn to practical stuff like math and accounting, so any type of involvement that would call out my writing skills I tend to shy away from it. Having to do a blog for this class was a change, but I embraced it because it was part of my grade that was dependent on me.

It was indeed unique in that in my three years at Baruch there was not one class that this was a part of and I never heard any students mentioned it before. The style in this classromm was like no other so expect the unexpected.  This is one professor who puts time into his profession, it’s not just a night job, I can tell that this professor actually spends time preparing for classroom discussions and activities.

This blog was a new experience to me and it has become an asset because am going to continue to use it, this is because I can see that this form of communicating is becoming like emails and phones and as a student and professional it is a great networking tool if it is used appropriately.

This blog has definitely added value to this management class because now at the end of Mgt 3120 I have a new skill. A skill that I would not have expected to gain from a management class. The blog also brought an unusual twist with it, one learned about their classmate in an informal way. We were free to post whatever we liked on our blogs which was a good way for us to know about our classmate, since most of the times you either learn from your classmates if you’re forced to be in a group by having a group project or if you choose to be friends with someone in the class. Having said that I found that we as students did not utilize the blog effectively to communicate with one another or even with the professor. It was more a blog when you had an assignment.

Blogging after each activity did help reinforce what was done in the classroom ensuring that there were no gasps left between the activity and the topic of that day.

Stay innovative with your teaching concepts and keep the blogs and all those activities that there are in the classroom, management can be a dreary subject especially at night after a long day at work but with your interesting activities it help me stay attentive and look forward to class

DISC

Two letters depict my leadership/management style.  I’m an S with a base C, what does this spell out? According to the Personal Profile System leaders of this type are consistent, detail oriented, analytical and accurate. This test hits the nail on the head; it depicts my style to a “T”. I was surprised at the end of the test because during the test I thought that some of the words in the same category were my personal type.  I certainly don’t wish I was another style because I am who I am and I am satisfied with my characteristics. Each style does have their setbacks and advantage to leading so changing to another group will be incomplete, what I wish I can be is diversified. Each situation is unique in its own way so having a broad spectrum of leadership characteristics allows an individual to be flexible.

I believe that these types are not caved in stone and that if your one type you can change, again I would say that you have to be adaptable; in that depending on the situation you turn off and on certain switches. It is indeed helpful to understand people types so you recognize how they look at problems and situation. Understanding someone personal profile permits another to effectively communicate and hence be more effective.  The Personal Profile can be replicated in personal life because the workplace is just an extension of our homes, we interact with people, we work together, we have goals and objectives, and we have groups.

MY VISION

I have three visions for my life, in a broad category they are a spiritual vision, a career vision and a personal vision. I set goals from time to time that allow me to be closer to my visions. I use stretch goals because I feel like these goals ensures that one excise outmost persistence and commitment to achieve your vision.  These kinds of stretch goals also encourage one to continue because they are not far-fetched but actually reachable goals. I listed my visions in ordinal ranks of importance.

My spiritual vision is to be a God fearing individual, helping other people know about God (missionary), and leading an exemplary life and to go to heaven where I can have an everlasting life.  Spirituality means you have to maintain a relationship with God, in fulfilling this I must be a church going Christian, this will allow me to have a connection with my Lord and savior.

My career vision is to become a Chief Financial Officer in a well establish firm where my goals are the same as the firm. I have been seeking out this vision the day I first stepped into kinder garden. This is the longest vision I have been on because I was a toddler when I unconsciously began this journey. Though not the most important of my vision it indeed has its prevalence.

My last vision is a personal one which will stem from my first two visions when they’re well accomplished. I intend to have a paid of home, and not just a house notice I said a home that has all its necessities, it must be very comfortable with every appliance, furniture, décor that is needed. Now this is not lavish this is comfortable. I should have two cars and one truck in the garage. I should also have two seasonal homes one on an island like Barbados where after I retire I can relax when it is too cold in New York and another in the Hamptons to run away for a quick weekend break from the hustle and bustle of the New York culture.

I’ve been living the process of the actions taken to achieve these visions. Like the proverb rightly says, “You have to creep before you walk.” To achieve my spiritual goal I attend church, read my Bible, spread the word, adhere to the Ten Commandments, and lead a life where others can see God through me. In achieving my career vision I plan on graduating with a Bachelor degree in Finance after which I will pursue my Masters, and my PHD. Having all those education still does not guarantee my vision but it brings me a step closer each time. Lastly my personal vision will be achieved wants my first two are accomplished, having said that I could sum up by saying my last vision is a bargain ( work hard on two and you get one free).

The Negotiators- Decision Made!!!

 As a professor whose always trying to enhance the student experience in the classroom I try to make my exams as fair as possible and to reflect the materials we went over in class, I would like to get honest feedback of what you guys thought of the midterm.” These were the words of the professor at the beginning of class. A few students raised their hands to give their honest opinion of the structure, the level of difficulty, time allotted among another reasons why we all thought the exam was to intense. After the professor posted the statistics of the exam ( 59.99) the class average)there was a different outlook a lot of students now started to voice their opinions whether or not they had those opinions before am not certain but the variance on hands raised at the beginning and after the statistics was given was at the end of both spectrum.

After I saw my score and the professor give us the option of negotiating our grade I chose to be collaborative. I quickly analyzed the situation after I saw my grade and realized that the entire class had to agree upon any proposal made. In the classroom I noticed a combination of other methods in practice for example, now I don’t know the students name but am almost certain you’ll understand my point here-the student that got the highest grade in the class exercised accommodation because he did not have to agree on any proposals that we made because as is his raw grade was good as gold but he stood in there and went along with our decisions because most of his classmates were in dying need of extra points so he put his interest at the side cause his classmates were more important and I totally thank you for being selfless. Another incident that I observed were a lot of students just sat back and made other people make decisions for them that would affect their grade this was an example of avoidance. I thought that the students who withdrew themselves were afraid to voice their opinions in the event that they thought that the class would be upset with them because of the fact that 100% as the professor clearly stated had to agree with whatever proposal made, and I think the professor realized this to, this is why he kept reiterating, “I would do whatever it takes to protect whoever don’t agree with the majority.”

Overall given the circumstances, the time, and the stakes up for grabs(improving our grade) I thought that the class handled the situation quite efficiently and our results were remarkable given the amount of players in the decision process and what was up for grabs(our grades).

Every situation that our professor asks of us duplicates the real life and gears us up for when we become managers some day.

AN EGG-CELLENT WAY TO PLAN

Our group was well organized from the beginning of the egg-cellent activity to the end. The goal was to build a three dimensional looking triangular contraption using materials provided (1 egg, 2ft tape and 8 straws). We drew a sketch of our figure to keep in mind and stay within the guidelines.

The twenty five minutes was the most important of this activity, more important than the ten minutes to actually build the egg contraption. This is so because we used this time wisely to plan every detail of our project inch by inch. We believed that excellent planning is more imperative and would guarantee great results. The ten minutes was just enough to realize our goal. The planning phase was thorough allowing little room for marginal error.

The group treated this activity as a real life situation and so we had a plan B if our major plan was undermined. We took into consideration a lot of constraints for instance, “what if the tape was not enough” the idea was that we were going to place the straws one inside each other to avoid using tape, which allowed us to have sufficient tape to reinforce and secure the most important part of the project (the egg). Another constraint that we bear in mind was, “whether we should cut the straws or leave them as is” we decided that less is more and that using just eight straws will save time.

Constructing the triangular three dimensional looking figure was the most efficient way in keeping our egg from cracking and accomplishing our goal. For our plan to be executed in the best possible fashion every student was allocated a role. We chose a leader who then delegated a specific simple role to each student.

Student 1- construct the front triangle

Student 2 – construct the back triangle

Student 3 – cut the tape into pieces

Student 4 – protect the egg from breaking

Student 5 – assemble all parts to complete our project

Student 6 – keep group abreast of time

Our leader was in front of the class with our plan in his hand on time. Although our egg did crack our planning process was very thorough allowing our execution phase to run smoothly without doubts and even without having to modify our plan. We stuck with our plan A and completed our three dimensional triangular egg contraption.

As in our book with the example of Oprah Winfrey and any other company thorough planning almost always promise great outcomes and if the plan needs to be modified identifying the problem in a critical time and working around the problem is fundamental to being successful.

Culture Shock

I am of West Indian culture, the West Indies or the Caribbean as it is sometimes called is a group of islands consisting of the Caribbean sea. It is situated to the east of Central America and North of South America. The beautiful beaches their create a culture that is extremly warm and welcoming.

In the West Indies the most significant holiday is The New Year, celebrated on January 1st of each year. The holiday is not just a day but rather its a season starting from early December to late January. This time off the year its a totally different atmosphere, it is a time to parang (folk music where parrenderos visit house to house in the village singing merry songs that goes along with this time with any type of instrument at hand). This holiday is a time to create ones local dishes like Sorrel and Black cake to share with friends and family. However the very same New Year is celebrated in a different light in the Chinese culture. Celebrated on the first day of the first month according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which tends to be anytime between January and Feburary. At this trime the married couples distribute new money in red envelopes to umarried familes and friends it is believed that this will bring luck and prosperity to unmarried family and friends for red represent luck in the Chineese culture. Also their are dragons that visit house to house with the same concept as bringing happiness and proseprity to the visited home.

Despite the difference between these two cultures celebrating the same holiday what remains constant is the importance of the festival it is a time to be with friends and family to celebrate ones norms and custom and to bring happiness, health aand strenght to everyone.

The American culture is very individualist where everyone is to themselve, most families consist of parents and children ( Nuclear Family) when the children reach of age they marry and move out to form their own Nuclear family. On the other hand in West Indian culture the old proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" is eminent. Our villages are an epitome of what a community should be, we are a very united people and everyone in the village knows each other. Most familes comprise of parents, children, grandparents, aunts and uncles (Extended Family).

Our culture may set a boundary between us and define us but we are all Human Beings.