HAIKU STYLE MANAGER

A GOOD MANAGER
IS FAIR BUT FIRM, LIKE WINTER'S
SNOW UPON THE GROUND.

I'M DC, WHO ARE YOU?

After taking the Personal Profile System test, I determined that I’m “D, C”, a “Dominant Conscientious” personality type. This means that my management type puts emphasis on “shaping the environment by overcoming opposition to accomplish results” in conjunction with “working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and accuracy.” I suppose I agree with these test results for the most part, because I feel that I am an active participator in most of what I do – whether it be at work or at school, or with a group of friends. I was never one to “sit on the sidelines” and always made an effort to take more active/challenging leadership roles wherever I could be creative and inventive. I’m bored by routine and I absolute despise being told what to do…I need my freedom, and although I understand that everybody answers to someone, I feel that I am fairly independent, self-motivated individual.

I do not wish I were another type – I am what I am, and I’m happy with myself – but I’m also glad that there are other personality types out there. If everyone were “Dominant” or “Steady”, there would be no social progress. We need leaders and need followers; we need intellectuals and we need workers; we need artists and we need inventors; variety is an integral component of our society.

Determining your management “type” does not necessarily indicate where you’re coming from or how qualified you would be for a specific job or function – it’s more of a personality test that reveals your tendencies and motivations. Although it is amusing to take the test and figure out what category you fall in to, I wouldn’t use it as a method to determine job placement. Do all managers have to be “D” types? This might be viewed as unfair profiling were it to become standard business practice for companies to hire employees according to their behavior profiles. The test may be helpful, however, in determining what type of field you’d be most comfortable in, but personally I feel that human personality is so complex and unique, that tests like these are hardly capable of telling you who you are.

Blog Topic #6: Communicating via Blog

When we were first instructed to begin keeping a blog for this class, I thought to myself that it would be a difficult task to sustain throughout the semester. Firstly, English is my second language, and I felt uncomfortable putting my thoughts on display for my classmates’ review (although it is good practice). Secondly, I’ve never written a blog before, and the idea of continually updating my activities while commenting on my colleagues’ was a bit overwhelming (Facebook is so much simpler!). However, despite my earlier outlook, I’ve found this method of learning to be surprisingly helpful, fun and insightful – particularly in regard to the Vision blog assignment.

I had never really given much thought to what my “vision” is…I’m 28 years old, and this was the first time in my life that I actually had to sit down and reflect on where I saw myself in the distant future. It was the most frustrating assignment for me, but what I found most stimulating were my classmates’ blogs on their own visions. It was a sort of measure as to where I stood, how lost I was, and how much I really had in common with them (this isn’t exactly a topic of conversation I typically has with my friends). So it definitely was an encouraging project, and I feel that I got a lot out of it.

Overall, I feel that these blogs were helpful on a number of levels: It forced me to write, and I put a lot of effort into using correct English and grammar during these posts; it exposed me to the diverse range of thoughts and feelings that my classmates shared on the same subjects; and it allowed us to express ourselves through our writing and activities in ways we normally never would – ordering exactly four pickles in McDonald’s? Trying to keep an egg from breaking with a straw? Brilliant!

I’m not sure if I will continue to post on my blog after the class has concluded. I suppose it depends on what my classmates will do. I will most likely check up on it every now and then, however, and should I feel particularly inspired to express myself or an idea, I very well may continue with my blogging!

Receipt McTrouble

In all honesty, I was a bit reluctant to go through with this assignment; the idea of walking into a McDonald’s and pestering some acne-plagued teenager on minimum wage with such an absurd request disheartened me to the point where I almost didn’t do it out of sheer principal. But those 10 extra credit points outweighed my principles, so with the support of my boyfriend, who was a bit embarrassed with the premise himself, we timidly strolled in to the McDonald’s located at 88-05 Astoria Boulevard in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York.
I expected to be denied my special order (and to be thoroughly embarrassed in the process). But after staring at the menu for a few moments to gather our bearings, we sucked it up and bravely walked up to the smiling 17-year-old Latina at the cash register.

“Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?” she said, or something to that effect.

“Hi, I’ve got a strange request, I hope it isn’t a problem,” I sheepishly asked.

“Sure, what would you like?” she cheerfully replied.

“I would like a hamburger with four pickles – four exactly – and an order of small fries, well done, with no salt. And I’d like a receipt showing it,” I stated as clearly and concisely as possible.

The cashier looked perplexed. I thought to myself that this was the end; McDonald’s security would be here any moment to drag us away to the manager’s office for interrogation

“Four pickles?” she asked.

“Yeah, exactly four. I know it’s weird, but it has to be exactly four,” I explained. She hesitated a little and looked around for support from her manager, who was across the kitchen by the fries.

“Well, uh, we can’t give you exactly four pickles, but I can give you some extra pickles,” she replied.

“I know it’s strange, but we really would like exactly four pickles…if you could ask them to make a special order for us, please.

“Okay, let me see what I can do,” she said.

The cashier then gave the order to the kitchen staff exactly as I had asked, and although the kid working the microwave seemed a little surprised, he nodded with a smirk and went right ahead fulfilling my order. I then watched her walk over to the fryer to give my “well done, no salt” order to the fry guy, whisper a few words to the manager, then return to us with a rather pleasant smile on her face. In retrospect, I think she was a bit entertained by the unusual order, or at least by our insistence of getting the order exactly right fused with our rather comical uneasiness at having to order it. Incidentally, this entire process was rather quick…I’d say it took well under a minute.

“Alright, not a problem. Would you like anything else?”

“No thank you, that’s all. Just remember that we need to have the special order written on the receipt.”

Now maybe it was a poor choice of wording, but she actually took a pen and wrote the special order on the receipt.

“There you go, that’ll be $2.17.”

We paid her for the order, but I didn’t like the idea that she wrote on the receipt. I wanted an actual printout to get the full credit for the project. So I asked her if she could print another one.

“You want another receipt?” she asked.

“Yes please, I’m so sorry. You see, I need to have the special order printed out exactly as I asked on the receipt. Please bear with me on this.”

Now this is where there was an issue. The special order, although unusual, was doable. A new receipt, however…

“I’ll have to ask my manager, hold on one second,” she replied.

She walked over to her manager, a middle-aged African American woman who looked a bit annoyed at the whole premise, and explained to her that we wanted a new receipt with our exact special order printed on it, word for word. After a few moments of inaudible discussion, she nodded her head and said, “We can’t do that, if they want a new receipt, they’ll have to order another meal.”

The poor girl turned to us with an apologetic look in her face and said that she couldn’t print a new receipt and that we’d have to order another meal, but she was ever so sweet about it. Now I didn’t really care about the meal – I wasn’t even planning on eating it. I just wanted a receipt that said, “4 PICKLES” and “1 SML FRENCH FRIES, WELL DONE, W/O SALT”. So I offered to buy another meal. $2.17, what the hell.

“You want another order?”

“Yes, please, I’m sorry, I know this is ridiculous, but the order isn’t even important. We just need the receipt to show the special order exactly as we asked, with the exact number of pickles and the well done fries without the salt. Can you have that printed on it?” we implored.

“Okay…$2.17. I’m sorry.” I almost felt bad for her.

I gave her the money and she reprinted the receipt. It was a little more detailed this time, but it still didn’t reflect the exact order. I tried to explain this to her, but I was so embarrassed at this point that I asked her to just write in the number of pickles and the well done fries, which she gladly did. When I got my food, I gave her a folded $5 bill as a tip for the whole ordeal – I just slipped it onto the counter in front of her – and then made a beeline to the door with my boyfriend. She was embarrassed to receive the tip, and I was embarrassed to give it, and as we were on our way out, she yelled, “Please come back, this isn’t necessary! Please, no! Come back!”

When we got to the car, I opened the bag to check if it was done correctly. There were exactly four pickles on the hamburger, and the fries were well done with no salt, exactly as I had ordered.

In retrospect, I think I may have overreacted with my feelings of shame and embarrassment. There really wasn’t anything incredibly odd about the order, and I’m sure the staff at this McDonald’s (or any McDonald’s for that matter) gets stuck with hundreds of peculiar requests every day. Not to mention this is a multi-billion dollar franchise that prides itself on fulfilling special orders (within their means, of course). The register girl was very sweet and willing to accommodate my request, and the only real issue here was the irritated manager (who, in my opinion, could have been more professional), and their inability to print a new receipt without placing a new order. I can understand how this could have been an annoyance if they were extremely busy, but we went at a relatively dead time, and I feel the manager could have been more accommodating. In conclusion, I was impressed with the accuracy of the McDonald’s staff in carrying out my order, and disappointed at the bureaucracy behind having to order a new meal to get a reprint of my receipt. I was also impressed at how delicious the unsalted fries were.

MY VISION

I am going to list three goals that I have had since moving to the United States: Firstly, I plan to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Baruch by the summer 2011. Secondly, I plan to find employment in this field, hopefully in financial accounting, however I understand the job market is tense, and I’ am willing to broaden my perspectives should this vision not materialize. Finally, , I plan to get a CPA license and start my own accounting firm.
In regard to my first goal, the specific actions I must take are to continue to pass my classes, maintain my high GPA, and pay my tuition! Other than that, it is only a matter of time.

The more difficult goal to realize is finding employment in the financial industry. New York is perhaps the most competitive city in the world in this field, but there are also thousands of opportunities. I plan to keep in touch with my advisor at the career office in Baruch, apply for internships, and hopefully make enough contacts in the process to get my foot in the door at a large financial institution like Deutsche Bank or Morgan Stanley.

As for my goal to start my own accounting firm, I understand that it is a long process that can take up until a decade to realize. However the previously listed goals suppose to create a solid foundation for the realization of this vision. This last goal I consider the most important. I have a type of personality that hates obeying and following the rules, I hate an idea to be just an element of the mechanism (what happens often in the large corporative businesses) thus I feel that I will be more comfortable working for myself, making up my own schedule, being responsible and report to myself for any failures and success. And with a little study and patience, I should realize all three of my visions in the near future!

MANAGING THE CHAOS

Firstly, this was a very generous gift to all of us as well as a very difficult managerial project. My first response was a sense of agitation…I was dissatisfied and a bit depressed when I received my exam, and I also felt skeptical toward the plausibility of the project. I anticipated that due to the large group of students in the class and the vague task assignment outlined by our professor, it would be difficult if not nearly impossible to succeed in producing a “reasonable solution” to the project. Then when the chaos that I had expected began, I took two behavioral positions: Compete to win and Compromise. Naturally, I hoped that everyone in the class would support my ideas, however as there were 50 other students with the same objective as I had, I needed to compromise for the common wealth. I made two propositions regarding solving the dilemma of what do with the exam, as well as using organizational techniques to determine a class decision. I tried to be respectful and listen to the other students’ ideas, however I did shout a few propositions from my desk when we began to run out of time. Generally for the tasks like this the model when a big group of people divides into smaller groups for decision generating purpose works better, but the time factor didn’t allow us to use this strategy. Even when such proposal arose our group used the common sense to reject this idea and we managed the project quite effectively.

An Eggs-cellent Way to Plan

Step 1. Define your goals and objectives

Our goal was to create a device and method by which a representative from our group could drop an egg on the floor without breaking its shell, standing on a table from a height of approximately 10 feet, using only six straws and a piece of electric tape.

Step 2. Determine your resources and current status vis-a-vis objectives

Our resources: One uncooked egg with shell; six straws; one piece electric tape; one pair of scissors; seven human brains; and one android cell phone with internet access. Our strength was our number and access to google.com. Our weakness was the limited resources with which we were provided for the experiment.

Step 3. Develop several alternative strategies

We discussed a few strategies that didn’t seem very viable until we decided to search what the best method of protecting and dropping the egg would be via google search. Our weakness was our failure to brainstorm more strategies, as well as the skill with which we imitated the strategy found on the internet. The instructions we found were not very descriptive and lacked diagrams and clear instructions, so we still had to improvise a bit.

Step 4. Make a tactical plan

We chose to replicate the method we found on the internet, as it was guaranteed as the most practical method of transporting the egg. The plan called to tape two of the six straws around the circumference of the egg (in a cross pattern) so that it would act as a brace/shock absorber. The remaining four straws were to be taped together into a “mat” to drop the egg on.

Step 5. Implement the plan and evaluate results

We replicated the method to the best of our abilities, however the “engineering” apparently was not as sound as we’d hoped. It was a fun and useful lesson, however. Our strength was our groups cooperation, efficiency and organization. Our weakness was, obviously, the engineering, as well as our reliance on google to provide us with the most accurate method. We did brainstorm, but we couldn’t come up with any valid plans or ideas – I do believe if we were able to better execute the instructions we found from our google search, we would have succeeded. Everyone worked perfectly together – we were each occupied with our specified roles in the project: one member was in charge of blueprints and design; one managed the resources (and even managed to “steal” a scissor for us!); another member kept inventory and named our egg; we had our engineer, who constructed the apparatus; and last but not least, we had our official egg dropper, whom we chose on account of her height (we assumed the shorter she was, the better chances there would be of the egg not shattering). We were all very coordinated and timely, and adhered to the plan to the best of our abilities