Normally. I'm a better speaker than writer, especially since my work requires more public speaking skills than writing, which is more of a formal writing in my case.
I think that blogging as a social tool can be helpful in order to receive a feedback from the class assignments, I enjoyed writing about our class assignments which were interesting but I was not sure if they actually served the purpose of making the group think about the management topic itself.
It definitely made me think about the class assignments especially since they were related to them, my only problem was a poor management of time in order to keep up with blogging on a timely manner.
I found that blogging it was nevertheless a good experience in order to get to know the way of thinking of many Baruch students outside of class setting. It did help me to formulate my thoughts in a better way in order to put them in writing and got me into rethink our class interactions. The 20% input of this blog seems like a good input to the grade, the only concern I had it was that it was required to respond to 3-5 other postings, which did not help to have an adequate reaction to the whole assignment.
Overall, the blogging assignment part of this course was a good idea, even though best blogging is the one that is not assigned, nevertheless this assignment helped me to getting into the prospective of understanding others' thoughts and exchanging different ideas.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Can One Rely on Personality Tests?
I found the test pretty accurate in assessing the personality type. According to it I have a D type personality. Which is translated into someone who is eager to get immediate results, solve problems and overcome obstacles on my way to get the results needed. Sometimes is difficult to accept someones authority, especially if the person does not qualify to be in such position; however I enjoy learning from others' in authority and use some of them as role models for my own progress.
Having characteristics of an I type would help in my carrier as I believe that it can be important to influence or persuade others in order to get to the goal instead of using a direct exercise of power and authority.
It is not quite easy to become a different personality type as well as qualify to be just one type. They normally exist in a mix of two or more, but with one of them being more dominant. I think it is useful to realize that we can do adjustments to our personality but not change it completely since this is not just about being 1 of 4 types, but having certain qualities overall.
Finally, this test can be very useful in determining the approximate type, but used in a conjunction with other test can give a decent overall picture of the personality as a whole.
I visited the blog of my friend Elena, I think the test was pretty accurate to describe her personality, she was an I, which translates into her being very good working in a group and interacting with others in order to make her opinion count; well and she definitely makes a very favorable impression on others.
Unfortunately, I did not get well acquainted with many others, so it would be too subjective for me to make assumptions about their personalities.
Having characteristics of an I type would help in my carrier as I believe that it can be important to influence or persuade others in order to get to the goal instead of using a direct exercise of power and authority.
It is not quite easy to become a different personality type as well as qualify to be just one type. They normally exist in a mix of two or more, but with one of them being more dominant. I think it is useful to realize that we can do adjustments to our personality but not change it completely since this is not just about being 1 of 4 types, but having certain qualities overall.
Finally, this test can be very useful in determining the approximate type, but used in a conjunction with other test can give a decent overall picture of the personality as a whole.
I visited the blog of my friend Elena, I think the test was pretty accurate to describe her personality, she was an I, which translates into her being very good working in a group and interacting with others in order to make her opinion count; well and she definitely makes a very favorable impression on others.
Unfortunately, I did not get well acquainted with many others, so it would be too subjective for me to make assumptions about their personalities.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Unusual Order
Unusual Order.
I normally do not consider McDonald’s as a proper lunch option, but today I took a chance in experimenting with America’s largest fast-food chain. As I was walking on Park Avenue this afternoon I stopped by the local McDonald’s in order to place this rather unusual order.
I came up to the register and asked for the designated order of one burger from the dollar menu and a small order of fries with no salt. My order was taken by the manager of the shift, she was not extremely surprised by my order but she was very polite and only gave a smile and noted that it was an unusual order for them.
She placed the order on the computer and asked me to wait for a couple of minutes, while she went to personally supervise the number of pickles placed in my burger, then she made sure that the staff started cooking a new portion of fries while taking my portion before they could any salt on it.
The woman returned with my bag and handed it to me with a polite smile.
I would say in general the order was handled in a professional manner due to the fact that it was the shift manager who supervised my order.
The order did not take much time, therefore the organization was relatively efficient; since my order came out exactly as I wanted to it won’t be wrong to say that the communication was also effective.
Even though the order was done correctly they could make more improvements in order to enhance the client’s experience. For example, they could be using headsets in order to communicate more efficiently with each other and not leave the client waiting alone. Maybe the company could encourage the employees to recommend good pairings that would complement the order and provide advise to customers who seem unsure or debating – all that could improve not only the level of clients’ satisfaction but increase the numbers of customers and potentially eliminate the extra waiting time. Ideally the waiting time in McDonald’s should be very minimal, but from the other side I can say that McDonald’s being a fast-food chain is oriented towards a standardized menu orders which can make challenging a preparation of a customized order like this. The organizational structure resembles an assembly line, which could be another reason of why there are might be some difficulties with special orders since every team member needs to know only his part of job.
As the result of the improved management strategy McDonald’s Corporation could benefit from more loyal customers and a higher generation of profits.
I normally do not consider McDonald’s as a proper lunch option, but today I took a chance in experimenting with America’s largest fast-food chain. As I was walking on Park Avenue this afternoon I stopped by the local McDonald’s in order to place this rather unusual order.
I came up to the register and asked for the designated order of one burger from the dollar menu and a small order of fries with no salt. My order was taken by the manager of the shift, she was not extremely surprised by my order but she was very polite and only gave a smile and noted that it was an unusual order for them.
She placed the order on the computer and asked me to wait for a couple of minutes, while she went to personally supervise the number of pickles placed in my burger, then she made sure that the staff started cooking a new portion of fries while taking my portion before they could any salt on it.
The woman returned with my bag and handed it to me with a polite smile.
I would say in general the order was handled in a professional manner due to the fact that it was the shift manager who supervised my order.
The order did not take much time, therefore the organization was relatively efficient; since my order came out exactly as I wanted to it won’t be wrong to say that the communication was also effective.
Even though the order was done correctly they could make more improvements in order to enhance the client’s experience. For example, they could be using headsets in order to communicate more efficiently with each other and not leave the client waiting alone. Maybe the company could encourage the employees to recommend good pairings that would complement the order and provide advise to customers who seem unsure or debating – all that could improve not only the level of clients’ satisfaction but increase the numbers of customers and potentially eliminate the extra waiting time. Ideally the waiting time in McDonald’s should be very minimal, but from the other side I can say that McDonald’s being a fast-food chain is oriented towards a standardized menu orders which can make challenging a preparation of a customized order like this. The organizational structure resembles an assembly line, which could be another reason of why there are might be some difficulties with special orders since every team member needs to know only his part of job.
As the result of the improved management strategy McDonald’s Corporation could benefit from more loyal customers and a higher generation of profits.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
A real vision for the future.
I've never really thought about coming up with a vision and a plan of actions in order to accomplish it. However, it doesn't mean I've never thought about my future in general.
I think one's vision about the future must be real and action oriented as well. At this point I rather disagree with the speaker from the video we watched in class. My vision about my life is more associated with a certain life I would like to have. Work for me is more of a tool in order to achieve my vision. I would like to be able to spend less time working and more time traveling and doing things I like. Therefore I need to be able to constantly improve my working skills. So I'm planning to graduate from Baruch and start my master degree, because I have the two years required in finance industry before I can apply to the business school. After finishing it I'm planning on enrolling in one of the International Manager programs that most of international financial institutions offer, so I can combine my traveling hobby with work and get to experience different cultures.
Well, I know this might sound slightly vague and seem ambitious, but I find it very achievable and long term enough make it a vision, but not too long to make it seem close enough.
I think one's vision about the future must be real and action oriented as well. At this point I rather disagree with the speaker from the video we watched in class. My vision about my life is more associated with a certain life I would like to have. Work for me is more of a tool in order to achieve my vision. I would like to be able to spend less time working and more time traveling and doing things I like. Therefore I need to be able to constantly improve my working skills. So I'm planning to graduate from Baruch and start my master degree, because I have the two years required in finance industry before I can apply to the business school. After finishing it I'm planning on enrolling in one of the International Manager programs that most of international financial institutions offer, so I can combine my traveling hobby with work and get to experience different cultures.
Well, I know this might sound slightly vague and seem ambitious, but I find it very achievable and long term enough make it a vision, but not too long to make it seem close enough.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Effective decision
Coming up with a solution to the problem that would be beneficial to a large group might be very challenging, especially in a diverse group environment with people that have different values and goals.
In terms of choosing the grading system and the format of the next test the absolute majority was using compete to win technique and it was very difficult to come up with the point that would accommodate each of us. In the beginning I thought for a moment that we would never get the entire group to agree on anything, especially towards the end, when we had to come up with the test format.
I personally used collaboration as my method, because in order to come up with a beneficial for me and the rest of the group decision I had to agree at some degree to a less beneficial decision than I would accept under other circumstances.
Finally, if everyone would be using this way of handling the conflict we might have come up with more and better points. But I find that many people were thinking about their individual profit only and did not want to accept a decision that would compromise their own benefit in any way. Another benefit of the collaboration process is that by splitting into small multiple groups we could come up with more well thought points that we could accept as benefiting the entire group.
In general it was a very interesting assignment and I think that we did relatively well, because we managed to come up at least with a few ideas that we all agreed upon.
In terms of choosing the grading system and the format of the next test the absolute majority was using compete to win technique and it was very difficult to come up with the point that would accommodate each of us. In the beginning I thought for a moment that we would never get the entire group to agree on anything, especially towards the end, when we had to come up with the test format.
I personally used collaboration as my method, because in order to come up with a beneficial for me and the rest of the group decision I had to agree at some degree to a less beneficial decision than I would accept under other circumstances.
Finally, if everyone would be using this way of handling the conflict we might have come up with more and better points. But I find that many people were thinking about their individual profit only and did not want to accept a decision that would compromise their own benefit in any way. Another benefit of the collaboration process is that by splitting into small multiple groups we could come up with more well thought points that we could accept as benefiting the entire group.
In general it was a very interesting assignment and I think that we did relatively well, because we managed to come up at least with a few ideas that we all agreed upon.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Culture Shock
Moving into the U.S. has been a challenge for me. Not only because of the distance, but because of the cultural differences between Russia and U.S. First thing I noticed that the Americans have a different attitude towards work, specially on the Eastern Coast. People here value the work time much higher above the personal time. Normally people with 2-3 jobs who work 10-12 hours a day are considered as an example for the rest. I've been to the West coast too and the relationship is conceptually different. When you come to Los Angeles people give an impression that nobody works there, which is another extreme. In Russia people normally have more vacation days and holidays which shows the value of the personal time.
Another striking difference are the interpersonal relations. For example, when I was first asked the question: "How Are You?", I had to think what to say as I didn't know that "Good, Thanks" would be the more or less standard answer to it, which on one hand shows the positive attitude towards life, but from the other - some degree of superficiality in interpersonal relations.
Living here has changed my rhythm of life drastically. Before, I used to see the fridges with many different magnets on them with all sorts of notes only on TV, but now - is reality, as I wake up and see my own fridge door covered in all sorts of same notes I've seen in movies, as my life is being fit into this tight schedule.
Another big difference I observed, is that many people here do not cook at all because of the lack of time and the abundance of cooked food and fast food sold on the streets. While living in Russia, the absolute majority of my meals were homemade.
But as time goes on I can say that I see less differences and less things seem unusual as I accept them as a norm.
Another striking difference are the interpersonal relations. For example, when I was first asked the question: "How Are You?", I had to think what to say as I didn't know that "Good, Thanks" would be the more or less standard answer to it, which on one hand shows the positive attitude towards life, but from the other - some degree of superficiality in interpersonal relations.
Living here has changed my rhythm of life drastically. Before, I used to see the fridges with many different magnets on them with all sorts of notes only on TV, but now - is reality, as I wake up and see my own fridge door covered in all sorts of same notes I've seen in movies, as my life is being fit into this tight schedule.
Another big difference I observed, is that many people here do not cook at all because of the lack of time and the abundance of cooked food and fast food sold on the streets. While living in Russia, the absolute majority of my meals were homemade.
But as time goes on I can say that I see less differences and less things seem unusual as I accept them as a norm.
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