A520.7.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

I remember the day, I fell in love with the art of presentation. It was the first day of my freshman year. I attended my first high school assembly where Dr. Pheifer, the principle of the massive 5A Cooper High School in Abilene, TX (there were 500 people freshman in my class alone) was able to hold the ENTIRE student body attention for 45 minutes straight. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat because I couldn't wait for her next analogy. Dr. Pheifer, was a master at public speaking.

I was on speech and debate team throughout my entire high school years and always aspired to speak as eloquently as she did! During that time, Dr. Pheifer would step in to 'have a listen'. It was my Speech coach, Ms. Gary, that I consider to be my very first mentor. SHE was the one who actually TAUGHT you how to speak in front of people...'effortlessly'! Ms. Gary's lessons still ring in the back of my mind today, nearly two decades later!

The Significance of a Mentor
A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. Mentoring requires a willingness to share, listen, and provide advice in a flexible relationship. One can’t get through all those challenges without a little help and a lot of internal strength. Thus, a mentor is someone who can show that internal strength that each person presumably has. And though small as it may seem, a glimpse of the potential greatness that resides within each person is enough for anyone to believe in the future and continue to persevere.

The Impact of Having a Mentor
My first mentor, Ms. Gary exposed me to educational and social opportunities, which opened my eyes to all the different possibilities. She motivated me to seek out new experiences, which I otherwise would not have done! I believe a mentor can motivate by helping protege's set achievable goals and realize personally relevant outcomes. This is extremely important and 'sticks', carrying over into other areas of life. Moreover, the impact of having a mentor is as vast as the ocean dropping into the horizon!

Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.

A520.6.5.RB.HoyeJennifer

What is a task-facilitating role?

A facilitator is an individual who's job is to help to manage a process of information exchange. While an expert's" role is to offer advice, particularly about the content of a discussion, the facilitator's role is to help with HOW the discussion is proceeding. In other words, facilitating main purpose is in the journey, not the destination!

In the Foreword to Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner, Michael Doyle presents two important lessons learned. "Lesson one: if people don’t participate in and ‘own’ the solution to the problems or agree to the decision, implementation will be half-hearted at best, probably misunderstood, and, more likely than not, fail. The second lesson is that the key differentiating factor in the success of an organization is not just the products and services, not just its technology or market share, but the organization’s ability to elicit, harness, and focus the vast intellectual capital and goodwill in their members, employees, and stakeholders. When these get energized and focused, the organization becomes a powerful force for positive change in today’s business and societal environments."

How does this role enhance team performance?

The role of facilitator enhances team performance by helping teams to operate more efficiently. A facilitator must know what questions to ask, when to ask them and how questions should be structured to get good answers without prompting defensiveness.

I tend to relate as a team-member to the team and facilitating by the following:

• Offer perspective and ideas
• Actively participate in team meetings
• Adhere to meeting ground rules
• Complete assignments on time
• Support implementation of recommendations

I am definitely an engaging person in a team setting. I believe it is essential to accomplish the mission. Engaging people in a team setting, helps them understand that their work is important. I tend to believe that people want to contribute, so engaging people fully in their work to enable them to use their talents and have a sense of fulfilment is top priority!

My facilitation style definitely aims to improve team cohesion and collaboration! The best efforts of teams usually produce better results than individual efforts. Increased participation within the group definitely increases productivity. Once the team realizes this fact, they become unstoppable!

What is a relationship-building role?
Building relationships is just as important within the project team as it is outside. Good relationships can be the difference between outstanding success and dismal failure because it's all about getting people to like and trust you so that they will deliver what you need them to deliver at the right time in the right way. As with anything that involves people, establishing processes to encourage good communication and relationships and make clear expectations, provides the cornerstone for success in any project.

How does this role enhance team performance?
Anytime, relationships are being built, the foundation of team performance is being strengthened. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences.

I generally relate as a team-member openly to relationship-building! The type of relationship that comes from relationship-building is one that is open, respectful and motivating!

It is important to me to actively engage my team to accomplish its mission because it feels really great to be part of something that is successful!

I definitely work to improve team cohesion and collaboration! Teams that are not committed to each other or a common goal, do not experience cohesion and are much more like to leave the team or even the organization.


Reference:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/citizenship/DH7429.html

A520.5.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

Compare and contrast the concepts discussed in the article titled: “ Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea” by Russ Forrester (2000), to those discussed in the text.

The textbook overviews 9 principles of developing empowerment in employees. Those 9 principles are as follows:

- Articulating a Clear Vision
- Fostering Personal Mastery Experiences
- Modeling
- Providing Support
- Emotional Arousal
- Providing Information
- Providing Resources
- Connect to Outcomes
- Creating Confidence

The textbook attests that helping others develop this feeling of empowerment is the very root of managerial effectiveness. Empowered people are trusting and therefore are confident.

Five attributes of empowerment are:

- Self-efficacy
- Self-determination
- Personal consequence
- Meaning
- Trust

"Empowered individuals are most inclined to empower other"(Whetton 2011).


The article lists 'short circuits' to organizational empowerment, whereas the book just tells of the power of empowerment and delegation! "The following are some of the ways that well-intentioned executives have drained the energy out of their own empowerment efforts"(Forrester 2000).

Six Short Circuits to Organizational Empowerment:

- Precipitous empowerment mandates
- Overreliance on a narrow psycological concept
- One-size-fits-all empowerment
- Negligence of the needs of power sharers
- Piecemeal approaches
- Distortions of accountability


In short, these six short-circuits show "the more power an employee has, the more accountability focuses unforgivingly on results produced. In their zeal to get on with empowerment, managers may not take the time to make other changes in their systems to enable empowerment to succeed."(Forrester 2000).The text doesn't just cover empowerment and how to empower employees, it goes a bit further stating that many manager, even when they are empowered, refuse to take the authority and run with it. The textbook list three reasons why managers have not been willing to empower employees.

- Attitudes About Subordinates
- Personal Insecurities
- Need for Control

All is not lost, however, "hope lies in the fact that there are strategies that managers can use to enlist the power of their employees while managing the dynamics of (empowerment)"(Forrester 2000). Lessons about the kinds of processes and pressures that have interfered with the acceptance and excercise of power by some emplyees are as follows:

- Above all, enlarge power
- Differentiate among employees
- Support power shares
- Build fitting systems
- Focus on results

The article caps empowerment off, as one size does NOT fit all! Managers must use the above lessons to learn from and fit each goal individually in order to be successfull! Empowerment is successful, buty only when applied correctly!



References

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(3), 67-78.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall/Pearson.

A520.4.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

Motivation Beyond Money

Yes, we all like to be paid, but money is not among the three most important reason why we work. According to Andy Mulholland, "Good HR is a cultivator of good working attitude. Good working attitude is a cultivator of good leadership. I think we have to change this idea that somehow, we're not responsible for HR. HR 'does all the awkward bits' and we have to remember that it does certain processes, many of them legal, so we need that skill, but it doesn't take away the primary need for you to be the human manager."



Andy Mulholland further, shares his insights as to what motivattes engineers where he works; those three things are:
- Give Me Interesting Work
- Expand my skill set
- Recognize me (the most critical)


1. How To Give Them Interesting Work!
Every individual is different. What works well to keep one interested, might not work on the next. You may have to try some new tactics, but learning how to respond to an individual person instead of treating people all the same will yield the best results. As a leader, it is important to be yourself and be adaptable!


2. Expand My Skill Set!
According to a recent study of 3,000 American companies by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, investment in development and human capital pushes productivity up 8.5%. Businesses that invest in training and expanding the skill of their workforce not only avoid costly mistakes, but reach better goals, improve profitability and efficiency, and have a leg up on employee retention versus the ones that don’t(Billikopf, 2001). These businesses take the time to communicate frequently to employees about the importance of expanding their skills and learning, and about how development is important to the organization.
In order to expand and employee skill sets, one must identify the employees’ current skills, determine the skills needed, provide training to expand those skills, and coach to assure the new skills are incorporated in the work!


3. Recongnize Me!
According to Andy, "value me for what I can do, and how I can work. Overpaying someone to make them stay longer, won't work in the end! One of the best ways to motivate staff is to show appreciation and express approval, thanks and recognition for a job done well. Motivated employees are happier ones, and as a result, more productive!


Additionally, 3 motivators that have a major impact on me are as follows:

- Learn How I Learn
- Give Me Feedback
- Show How I Fit Into The Big Picture

1. Learn How I Learn
Every individual has unique characteristics as to how he/she learns and communicates. It is very important for organizations to help employees understand their learning and communication styles. This understanding helps employees utilize ways of learning that are more appealing and impactful for their development. You can tell me HOW to do something a million times, once I DO it, I'll never forget!

2. Give Me Feedback
Nothing is worse, than hearing you're not doing something correctly after MONTHS of doing it that way! Basically, feedback mechanisms are an intricate part of human systems; they are something we use daily to live our lives as best possible. Feedback is extremely important to me in the workplace, whether I am managing or a worker bee!

3. Show How I Fit Into The Big Picture
It is important for me to understand how the goals that I accomplish from day to day, contribute to the overall success of the company. If the company has a list of core values, I like to understand what they mean and how they relate back to my products and goals.


References:

Billikopf, Gregory Encina. Labor Management in AG: Cultivating Personnel Productivity. University of California, 2001.

A520.3.5.RB.HoyeJennifer

In order to be an effective manager in the work force today, one must have a very good understanding of the various ways in which people interact and communicate with each other. It is critical that good leaders display the ability to effectively communicate with their associates and subordinates, as well as train and encourage others to demonstrate those same communication skills. By effectively doing so, I have the ability to promote both a healthy and efficient work environment that everyone will benefit from. The perspectives of effective communication requires team members to meet the challenge of learning to effectively communicate and develop together for a common goal.

Supportive communication is the skill most linked with effective management. The text lists the eight principles of supportive communication are as follows:

- Supportive Communication is problem-oriented, not person-oriented.
- Supportive communication is based on congruence, not in congruence.
- Supportive communication is descriptive, not evaluative
- Supportive communication validates rather than invalidates individuals
- Supportive communication is specific (useful), not global (useless).
- Supportive communication is conjunctive, not disjunctive.
- Supportive communication is owned, not disowned
- Supportive communication requires listening, not one-way message delivery

As a result, supportive communication can empower, along with helping in collaboration and facilitation! Today, more organizations have adopted some kind of empowerment initiative for at least part of their workforce. To be successful in today’s business environment, companies need the knowledge, ideas, energy, and creativity of every employee, from front line workers o to the top level managers in the executive suite. The best companies accomplish this by empowering their employees to take initiative without prodding, to serve the collective interests of the company without being micro-managed, and to act like owners of the business.

Teamwork and cooperation greatly increase the efficiency of an organization, supportive communication is essential at a very basic level to creat this teamwork, or synergy! Synergy is a process in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Cooperation and teamwork facilitate communication by fostering an atmosphere of mutual support in which each member of the team feels supported by the others. This communication between team members increases feelings of solidarity as everyone begins to develop similar ideas about where their team is headed.

A520.3.1.RB.HoyeJennifer

Complex Decision Making

A few words that describe my decision-making style would be, well thought out, realistic, and non-wavering! While browsing the web, I came across a Ladies Home Journal Quiz titled : "What's Your Decision Making Style".

The questions were highly tailored to women (duh...it IS Ladies Home Journal), and according to the results, I am as follows:

You're Reasoned and Wise -- Atta Girl!

You know what you want, and you know how to get there. You have the ability to define your problems, and determine if the problem is real or merely a symptom of a larger dilemma. The secret of making good decisions comes from the knowledge of what you want to achieve, as well as a strong grasp of what you wish to avoid. You use a well-measured combination of information and intuition to develop a plan of action that usually leads to a good result.There are calculated risks in even the most reasoned decision. You are aware of the potential consequences of each path you choose, and often develop alternatives to create a "hybrid" solution. Once you have a clear understanding of what your goals are, you strive to maximize the probability that your decision will lead to the fulfillment of your dreams.

"Effective decision-makers reexamine all the information they have gathered before making a final decision. They also figure out how to implement their decision and make contingency plans just in case any risks materialize," say Daniel Wheeler and Irving Janis, authors of A Practical Guide For Making Decisions (The Free Press, 1980).Sometimes the decision you have to make is not your first choice, but you know that you also have to consider the long-term consequences. When something really matters, it can affect your life for far longer than the mere moment. "If we don't care a fig about the consequences, we don't have a real decision problem, but if we want to do better than just going along for the ride, we have to be able to say what we want, and how badly we want it." advises H.W. Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara and author of Why Flip A Coin? (John Wiley & Sons, 1997).Keep using your well-honed intuition skills; they are definitely helping you achieve the success you deserve!


This section asked me to describe the opposite of the words picked to describe my decision-making style. Those opposites, are listed below:

Well thought out: Impulsive, neglectful, dismissed

Realistic: Unrealistic, impractical, irrational

Non-wavering: Changeable, wavable, inconsistent

I could see a benefit to making a decision using an approach that is based on either the opposites or somewhere in-between in the sense that, sometimes decisions need to be flexible or changeable. I also believe that maybe an impulsive decision, is sometimes better than one that is over-planned!

A520.2.6.RB.HoyeJennifer

My father would say, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein!” When I asked a group of my peers what they thought about critical thinking and time management, the phrase that triumphed was this, “Life Skills”. Both seemed equally important during the conversation. The interesting thing most didn’t think the two were related.

Constant interruptions can significantly hinder effort, curtail creativity, and decrease productivity by disrupting thought processes and work flows, causing individuals to lose focus and take longer to complete tasks. Poor time management has been associated with high stress and strain emotional exhaustion (Peeters and Rutte, 2005), and health issues (Bond and Feather, 1988).

Assessing My Time Management Skills:
For one week, I kept a journal about the specific details of my day. I used a simple notepad as a way of tracking my activity throughout the days. Every detail was significant to the record. Doing so helped me become aware of how long I was taking to achieve goals. At the end of the week, I reviewed what I spent my time on; tracking exactly where time was being spent. This was an eye opener for me. I asked myself, where am I spending my time? Is the majority of my time spent on catch up activities? Could I have planned better? It was pretty obvious that my time could be managed significantly better. Personally, when I don’t manage my time well, it affects everything, particularly my critical thinking skills. Rather than being organized and devout, they turn to being rushed. Rushed thinking, is not critical thinking!

That being said planning ahead, planning on interruptions (rather than playing catch up when they happened), really played a role in increasing my time management skills!


An Evaluation of How These Skills Have Increased Locus of Control:

Time is the most precious resource in business and society. Unlike other resources, like people and capital, time is often considered fixed. Time management skills have increased my locus of control by allowing me to better plan which inevitably helps me take control!

Personally I am struggling with managing my time, because I am a single momma of am 11 year old and 5 month old. Though I am able to stay home with my baby, I am not lucky enough for him to be a good sleeper. I have tried EVERYTHING, but so far have been pretty unsuccessful at getting him to go down at certain times, for longer than 30 minutes at a time during the day (unless it is after 11pm, in which case he will finally sleep for a 6 hour stint of time). That being said, I have short periods of time in which I need to get everything done (homework, laundry, taking my daughter to and from school, etc.)

Constant interruptions can significantly hinder effort, curtail creativity, and decrease productivity by disrupting thought processes and work flows, causing individuals to lose focus and take longer to complete tasks.Increasing my locus of control in this sense, is planning on more interruptions than not, so that I CAN get things done, giving me more control!

Three Areas in Which Improved Time Management Skills Would Reduce Stress:

1. Planning of time and efforts
2. Measurement of time and efforts
3. Control of time and efforts


An action plan to integrate these areas into my daily routine is as follows:

I often know what I would like to accomplish for the week, but don’t plan when I will do it, before I know it, the week is over and I have that dreaded ‘rushed’ feeling. By identifying the unnecessary steps in my current activity, I could save a lot of wasted time and effort.

Often I will allot a certain block of time for something, without spending the time to first, realistically evaluate just how long it will take. Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement (Lamendola, 2012). Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand and falling short on the other. It also opens up time, which would otherwise be wasted, whereas I can spend more time thinking things through!



References:
Bond, M.J. and Feather, N.T. (1988), “Some correlates of structure and purpose in the use of time”,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 55, pp. 321-9.

Lamendola, M. (n.d.). Time Tips: The Elements of Time Management. Mindconnection Smart Products Store. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from http://www.mindconnection.com/main/timemanager

Peeters, M.G.A. and Rutte, C.G. (2005), “Time management behavior as a moderator for the job-demand-control interaction”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 10, pp. 64-75.

A520.2.3.RB.HoyeJennifer

A successful conflict resolution that I participated in was in my last job function as a Merchandising Manager and Trainer with ULTA Salons, Cosmetics and Fragrance. We had just hired a new CEO, whom acquired feedback from several departments over the first few months in his job function.

One of the first 'orders of business' was to completely change the way in which weekly shipments were received, scanned, and unloaded. Before this change was implemented, each store was free to operate the shipment process as they wished, as long as the bill of lading was properly documented, filed and the boxes scanned. ULTA had 600 stores at that time, each with a shipment team ranging from 3 to 10 people.

The change was to standardize the process, eliminating a lot of repetitive motions. An example of this is boxes were unloaded from the pallet directly onto the sales floor prior to store opening. The boxes were sorted and items put away directly from that point. Previously, the pallets were unloaded in the back holding area, sorted, placed on carts and THEN put on the sales floor (a lot of extra work).


The conflict: Anytime, you have a group of people used to doing things a certain way, change is usually met with resistance. I knew I had to be creative as a trainer! The conflict arose in the way the change was brought up by top management. I remember hearing, 'shipment procedures are changing, they will be inspecting the process after implementation, to make sure each store is complying and 'good luck with that'.

This sort of mind-set seemed a bit toxic to me. So what, if it was changing, WHY is is it changing, is all I wanted to know. I knew if I could get to the bottom of 'why', that I could sell it to the teams a hell of a lot better than Corporate 'sold' it to me.

My Role: As stated above, anytime there is a group of people used to doing things a certain way, change is usually met with resistance. I knew I had to be creative! My role in this aspect was to be a master negotiator, though I joked at the time that I was just a con artist masquerading as a Manager at ULTA!

The key to my role being successful was to make sure the subordinates knew I was in it with them and that in the end, this process was going to equal less work for them. The key was being more efficient and eliminating extra steps.
Part of my negotiating process was showing the trainees that the new process would take them less time, and was actually less work in the end!

I bought pedometers and for the fun of it placed them on each employee during the last week of shipment using the 'old system'. Then again on the second week of the new, more efficient, system. Once they all SAW how much more productive they were, while doing less physical work they were SOLD!


The other participants in the negotiation were the Merchandising teams in the Midwest region (20 stores) responsible for shipment each week! (about 120 employees)


The result: I realize, as stated in the video, "Just because the subordinate agrees, does not mean they will do the work to the best of their abilities". This challenge was eliminated when members of the shipment teams pulled me aside, telling me they were initially leery of the new process, but now couldn't imagine any other way! They also said, "Why didn't WE think of that"? ha ha


The room fror improvement was definitely on the upper management side. It was completely up to me to get my teams excited for this change, because it was obvious that upper management wasn't excited about the change at all. I feel the change would have been accepted EVEN GREATER had the negotiating style been used from the very tip top, down to the very bottom.

ALSO, the 'inspection' statement was just a threatening measure to get the regions to comply (I never told my team there would be one)...there was never an inspection. Frustrating!