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!

A520.1.6.RB.HoyeJennifer

The Five Core Aspects of Self-Awareness are as follows:
- Core Self-Evaluation
- Values
- Cognitive Style
- Attitudes Toward Change
- Emotional Intelligence

My level of self-awareness has changed since I began the MSLD program with respect to the "Five Core Aspects of Self-Awareness" by really forcing me to look at myself a little closer. Self-awareness helps me identify gaps in my management skills and leadership style, to help promotes skill development. Self-awareness also helps me find situations in which I am most effective, assists with intuitive decision making, and aids stress management and motivation of oneself and others.

When I can understand "what make me tick", I also have insight into what makes others tick! To the extent that other people are like you (and, of course, there are limits to the similarity), knowing how to motivate yourself is the beginning to knowing how to motivate others!

According to the February 2007 Harvard Business Review, there may be something to all this talk about self-awareness. Self-awareness has just been recognized as the most important capability for leaders to develop (Simms, 2007).



Reference:

Simms, Michelle. "Self-awareness important for capable leadership.(Personal Coach)." Bellingham Business Journal. Sound Publishing Inc. 2007. Retrieved March 25, 2012 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-164949709.html

A520.1.2.RB_HoyeJennifer

A culture of continuous improvement depends on open and honest feedback. Effective leadership periodically puts performance under the microscope by surveying employees at different levels. For this weeks assignments, I completed the Diagnostics Surveys for Self-Awareness. putting myself 'under a microscope' per say, is important to evaluate areas in which I can improve upon!



Please see the following results for the different sections of the Diagnostic Surveys for Self-Awareness:

Self-Awareness Assessment:
For this portion of the diagnostics, I scored a 60, which places me above average in the top quartile. This score didn't surprise me. I know that self-awareness and confidence are two different things, but I am am definitely a very confident person. Self-awareness means having a sense of I am, my place in the world and what I am all about. It's values, principles, ethics and morals all combined. Knowing who I am as a person, makes me feel better about making choices.

Emotional Intelligence Assessment:
For this section, I scored a 70, placing me right on target with the mean score, but in the third quartile. For this section, I was splitting the fence on issues, which didn't show definite emotional control.

The following is a list of three items derived from areas that I scored '0' points:
- I often rely on the other person getting an indirect hint.
- I do not acknowledge the different emotional commitments.
- I am not sensitive to the emotional climate of the group and my behavior may be inappropriate.

These things do not come as a surprise, though I am direct most of the time, I do expect people to just 'get' it. I often don't see outside the box when it comes to other people's feelings, or emotional commitments. I've been told that I can come off as being insensitive and think this quality has a lot to do with it!

The Defining Issues Tests:
This test, I did wrong. I thought I was only suppose to mark the top four, making all the rest of the answers a '5'. When I redid the test, I found my top answers to be on par, but a lot of my other answers tended to be more lenient than the test allowed. I can define an issue. I make my own decision about the issue, but quickly rule out the items I don't find important. I found this test quite ambiguous, to be honest, as the scoring was merely a comparison to the authors choice decisions.

The Cognitive Style Indicator:
This portion of the test, had three sections: knowing, planning and creating. I scored the following for each section:
Knowing: 4 ( above average for young managers, but slightly below the mean for MBA students

Planning: 3.8 (slightly above mean for young managers and slightly below the mean for MBA students)
Creating: 4.3 (slightly above mean for MBA students and young managers)


Locus of Control Scale:
For this section, I scored a '4', putting me in the second quartile, or lower levels. The data suggests I have a low locus of control, meaning that I don't think I have that much control over the events that affect me. I was very surprised by this. I think I am primarily responsible for everything that affects me, not the other way around. hmmp.


Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale:
For this section. I scored a '55' meaning that I have a high tolerance for ambiguity. This quality and score, however places me in the second quartile. I have a lot of patience, and like to think outside the box. Though I appreciate when work is specific, it doesn't make me crazy if it is not. I take it as an opportunity to shine!


Core Self-Evaluation Scale:
For this section, I scored a '4.6', putting me in the top quartile. Individuals scoring high on this scale generally have a high self-esteem, and generalized self-efficacy, which for me is pretty dead-on.

MSLD500_Activity9.4_HoyeJennifer

The concepts of this course were priceless in many aspects. I entered this course for a bit more insight into the completion of my Management thesis. I initially completed MGMT605, finished the course with a 98 and submitted my Proposal. My proposal was swiftly ripped apart by the Instructor. I was overly frustrated and confused. How could I get a 98 in a course which was to prep me for MGMT690,just to have it thrown in my face, as though I'd done nothing at all?!

That being said, I believe the MGMT605 course could learn A LOT from this one. I felt I learned more that would help my Proposal than I did at the end of that course. I registered in MSLD500 to re-group and evaluate my proposal topic. The course helped me do exactly that! I enjoyed breaking down thinking critically. I also grew to love the Brain software, which I was initially wary of! It is extremely helpful to have a resource which can save links, photo's, data, and word documents into specific, easy-to-find folders. I will continue to use the software in my future research!

So, in short...thanks so much for the 'direction'. Sometimes that's all one needs!

MSLD500_Activity8.3_HoyeJennifer

The ART of good presentation design is truly an art because some try, but not all succeed!

I compiled a small list of qualities that I believe all presentations must have to leave a lasting impression on the audience and result in a good presentation!(aside from rehearse, since rehearse is not a 'quality')

A-Appeal,Awakening
R-Rehearse, Reveal
T-Tantalizing, Touching

To appeal to your audience, you must first know your audience. You must make sure you are on the same page as your audience, or you will loose them before you even start. I always try avoiding 'talking down', or 'at' the audience, which is easy to do if you are presenting difficult material, or information they do not already know about. In this case analogies are a must, to make the information relatable!

Awakening is something that happens within the audience as a good presentation takes place. You want to awaken something within them, to cause interest, change and excitement! This can be done with enthusiasm, a little emotion and a presentation that is effortless and not crammed with too much information...which will do the opposite and put your audience into 'zombie mode'(sleeping with their eyes open)!



Rehearsing may seem silly at first, but is necessary. Going into a presentation without practicing, is the equivalent of going on a road trip without a map, or trying to run a marathon without first training for it. I usually rehearse in an empty room, until I have the information basically memorized, so that it flows. I then will give my presentation to whomever is at my house. I pay attention to the non-verbal cues that I am loosing them as an audience and tweak the presentation. Tweaking the presentation is when I'll take out information that is possibly too wordy or not working, then add hooks and stories where they need be added.

Reveal- Revealing is sharing, or announcing something that was before unknown. Any time, the audience feels they are being let in on a secret, you can be assured they are engaged in the presentation....this is VERY important!

Tantalizing- Being tantalized by something, is when something is desired, but is just out of reach! Having a tantalizing presentation is to keep the interest of the audience!

Touching- People remember what they feel, before they remember what you say. A presentation that is touching, is lasting. As part of the module this week, I watched a PowerPoint about Presentations by Steve Jobs. In that presentation, it was stated that when emotion is triggered, the brain releases dopamine, which aids in memory! (I joke that this is why, when my boyfriend makes me mad...I definitely remember!-ha ha)



I am re-inter rating my discussion post here because I think it definitely applies!
Presentations and speaking in front of people are two of my absolute favorite things. My father was a preacher and I am little bit of an attention hog...it all helps! ha ha

I fell in love with the art of presentation after I attended my first high school assembly. Dr. Pheifer, the principle of the massive 5A Cooper High School in Abilene, TX (there were 500 freshman in my class) 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 presenter. I was on speech and debate team throughout my entire high school years and always aspired to speak as eloquently as she did!

That being said, I've sat through a bazillion BORING PowerPoint presentations, many of them during my five year stint at RAF Mildenhall as Lead Travel Agent, ITT. The Air Force, in my opinion, has mastered the art of 'death by PowerPoint'. I feel there isn't much of a standard set, most people don't enjoy speaking in front of people and people don't practice!!!

I make my eleven year old practice her presentations every night for three nights prior to presenting. After each presentation, she comes home beaming with confidence and excitement, that HER presentation was one of the better ones. What's wrong with striving for the best?

We all should do so, our audiences will thank us!