noelleey - Tumblr blog

noelleey · 3 years

Text

Personal Intent Statement (Part 4)

I have always grown up being interested in technology. The world is ever-changing so quickly and tremendously; all because of technology. Improvements to healthcare is extremely important as well as quicker ways to do tasks. It is my dream to work in an environment that works towards innovation with technology. But before I can attempt to do such, I must improve myself as a person for potential employers by looking at my strengths and weaknesses, and trying my best to change my weaknesses for the better of my future.

Firstly, I believe that I have excellent communication skills. I understand how words can mean many different things, and thinking before speaking is key to success. I also understand the various different ways people communicate, as well as some of the safest and quicker ways to get messages across. Listening skills are also one of my greatest qualities, which is why many people come to me for help whether they needed to vent or for advice. Adaptability is also one of my treasured skills, as I am quick to adapt to changing environments and I can quicky grasp skills that may take other people a longer time to learn. Due to my open-mindedness, I have also developed excellent teamwork skills and have rarely experienced people who did not like to work with me. I am confident that I can provide a comfortable environment full of trust, honesty, and empathy for others to work in as a group. I always do my part in a group, and try to contribute even more. All these strengths and advantages can be extremely useful in surviving the workplace.

However, great strengths come with great weaknesses. I find myself battling many things whether it is mental illness or because of the splurge of darkness in my soul. Either way, I have been an insecure person for my whole life. It is difficult for me to be confident in my work as I tend to overthink. It is easy to put a mask on in front of everyone, but it is not easy to keep thoughts in my head. Insecurity can be a threat to becoming a good leader, which is what I aspire to be. Low self-esteem has been bundled with my insecurity. Throughout my life I have been comparing myself with others and believed that I was not good enough. I have viewed many things in life to be a competition, and it has always been me versus the absurd world we live in. I hope that one day I can find a spark though something that I love doing, or simply just finding time to improve myself on my own. I also believe that I need to take care of myself more by developing healthy habits to change my pessimistic mind.

With my passion in technology, I believe that jobs in the engineering field interest me the most. I plan to study computer science in the future because I am mostly interested in making hardware able to be interacted with through programming. My strengths enable me to work in such an industry, as creating good technology comes with having multiple ideas from others and working as a team to achieve goals.

0 notes

noelleey · 3 years

Text

Real-World Connections in videos (Part 3)

Steve Jobs talks about managing people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg

One of the most influential leaders of the past few decades of developing technology, Steve Jobs talks about managing people in this two-minute-long video where he shares some secrets about the company’s management. As many people already know, Steve Jobs is the founder of Apple - the first trillion-dollar company. He created amazing inventions with computers and touchscreen mobile phones, which is what Apple is also known for. Each year, Apple creates new and better products through extensive research. Through Steve Jobs’ way of hiring and managing people, they are able to achieve many goals, contributing to the company’s success. He also explains his democratic leadership side in this video, though he is known to be autocratic.

Steve Jobs starts off by saying “Apple is an incredibly collaborative company”, hinting at use of democratic leadership. However, he then proceeds to explain how Apple has no committees, and that they are organized as a start-up. Only people – not groups, are in charge of certain parts in the company like a start-up, Apple being the biggest start-up in the world. Why is this effective? Well, in committees, a lot of valuable time is wasted in making decisions, falling short of their goals. They generally cannot act outside of what their group is responsible for. Decisions can be more effective with committees, but the main idea that Steve Jobs is trying to reciprocate in this video is to hire people who are skilled enough to make the same effective decisions on their own. He proceeds to explain that there is tremendous teamwork at the top of the company, which filters down to the rest of the company that then develops that same type of teamwork. He further emphasizes the main idea saying, “teamwork is dependent on trusting the other folks to come through with their part without watching them all the time”. We have learnt that in order to get others to collaborate with you, you have to trust them with their skills and abilities, so they receive a sense of autonomy also motivating them to work harder. It is also mentioned in the video that Steve Jobs regularly meets with each team to discuss certain ideas and says that everyone works on the same thing to bring all the ideas together to form a product. His autocratic leadership style comes into the question when the interviewer asks if people are willing to tell Steve Jobs if he is wrong. He proceeds to agree, and then explains that he has wonderful arguments. However, he doesn’t always go with his idea. In fact, he never wins these arguments, as you have to let others make decisions if you want them to work with you.

I definitely believe that this video is great to show students studying in business leadership, as an influential and successful leader is explaining how they manage a company. The video shows multiple connections to real-life of subjects taught in business leadership such as human resource management, teamwork, and leadership all in two minutes. I would rate this video an 8 out of 10 to show leadership students, as many leaders can be biased and different things work for different people/companies, so their advice may not work. However, the video is very inspiring and gives others an idea of what you can try to do when current management is lowering performance. This video shows perspective from a successful leader, teaching business leadership students about how content learned connects to real-life situations.

Follow Your Heart | Jeff Bezos | Motivation | Let's Become Successful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RpRoCfr3Y4

This motivational video combines a few speeches of the richest man in the world; Jeff Bezos. As Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos started the company as an online bookstore in his garage. He now earns about $321 million a day, having one of the largest companies in the world specializing in online services such as online shopping coupled with an option for next-day delivery. In this video, Bezos explains how he followed his passion, took many risks, experienced failure, yet he succeeded. This video is inspirational for those looking to create a start-up.

Though this video may not sufficiently educate you about leadership, it is very motivational. When you learn about what makes a good leader which is having a passion and being intrinsically motivated, this speech shows a strong connection to the real-world and proves that following your passion can potentially make you successful. In addition, there is also a very strong connection between leadership styles learned in business leadership and in the real-world. Bezos has a transformational leadership style, where you are constantly inspiring others through vision—and if they understand that vision, they are more likely to work with you, staying motivated. This video shows a taste of being under his leadership. His speech makes you more motivated and inspired to work towards goals because his words allowed you to understand his passion and vision. When Bezos explains how he started the company through running a vision with his former boss, I believe that this part is the most impactful. His boss tells him about the idea, “that sounds like a really good idea, But it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job”, implying that Bezos didn’t have to create a start-up that takes a lot of work and is risky, as he already has such a good job where he didn’t have to worry too much about going through difficult tasks. However, Bezos—already being extremely knowledgeable in his craft and being extremely passionate—he decided to follow his passion with suspecting that he wouldn’t regret this decision. This is key for aspiring leaders; not having regrets. If you had regrets, then you would have not realized the amount of time and effort it takes to develop a company, especially when there are times that you may not feel motivated and wish to give up as passions may change over time as you discover new things. Around the end of the video, Bezos asks simple yet thoughtful questions that makes you really think about the lifepath you wish to take if you want to become a successful leader. “Will you choose a life of ease, or will you choose a life of service and adventure?”.

Anyone who has lost their motivation trying to become a good leader can give this video a watch to possibly be inspired again. This can also help students studying business leadership because some can already be aspiring leaders and this enables them start thinking about their future. They can also see how the content they learned applies to the real world with this video, as there are many underlying subjects such as leadership, motivation, and teamwork. However, I would give this video a 7 out of 10 for business leadership students as it may not be too educational, but rather inspiring. This motivational video, a collage of Jeff Bezos’ famous words, is better off to be watched when all studies are finished and may already be struggling with success.

Works Cited

“Follow Your Heart | Jeff Bezos | Motivation | Let’s Become Successful.” YouTube, uploaded by Let’s Become Successful, 1 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RpRoCfr3Y4.

“Steve Jobs Talks about Managing People.” YouTube, uploaded by ragni, 12 June 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg.

0 notes

noelleey · 3 years

Text

Current Articles about Business (Part 2)

Kristi DePaul

How to Find Out if a Company’s Culture is Right for You

November 30, 2020

https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-to-find-out-if-a-companys-culture-is-right-for-you

This recently published article talks about the various ways an aspiring employee could determine if a company’s organizational culture is right for them. Certain ways include: researching the company on the internet, paying attention to the interview process, and connecting with the company for more information and support. Human resource managers can read this article to understand where jobseekers tend to look when wondering if the job may be right for them so that the company can strengthen both their organizational culture as well as their listings for it to have a better appeal. This article also may suggest how to determine if the applicant fits in with the established business culture during the interview process.

According to the article, “majority of respondents (61%) to a Glassdoor survey said that they found aspects of a new job different than what they had expected based on the interview process.” This implies that many companies may not be as transparent over the internet, so it is important that companies provide as much information as they can about themselves, but also making sure that they have complete honesty over things that they do to provide a positive company culture. Conducting in-depth research on the company is an excellent way to determine if a company’s culture is right for someone. A job seeker can easily find things about a company that does not add up, and the article even explains that “You might discover that their culture doesn’t match the package they are trying to sell you. If their good intentions feel transactional rather than genuine, transient rather than impactful, or (even worse) only serve as a PR opportunity rather than a well-grounded policy – red flags.” As learned in the Business Leadership course, it is important for leaders and companies to show transparency to gain trust from applicants and employees, as well as to provide the most convincing yet truthful job description that also gives job seekers an idea of what the company culture is like.

As a job seeker conducts research on the internet, the article suggests to analyse certain words used in job descriptions. An example that they use might be that a company can explain all their important deadlines that need to be met and “happy hour” benefits, but it does not mean there will be a work-life balance, as they have not stated any workplace flexibility. Certain words can be put into a positive light, but can have an underlying meaning. The tone of the text can also be decoded to determine if it is gender-biased. Job seekers will also look at reviews on sites like Glassdoor to look at employee experiences. The article also suggests to look through social media about the company and its employers to see how they reacted to certain controversies which can also help you determine the possible ethical culture of the business. This also can suggest for companies to show transparency over social media by utilizing popular hashtags, showing their social responsibility, and supporting other people such as local businesses in this tough pandemic. Finally, the article also gives suggestions for those who are reading it but already got the job. They suggest to make connections and ask people the “unwritten rules and norms of the organization” to ensure that they can try to fit in as well as things to be mindful of.

Having a good organizational culture will make sure that your employees feel comfortable in the environment and make your job descriptions appealing so that more people would want to work for the company. Some may possibly wish to read this article and implement certain suggestions to when they are looking for a job. This can also help companies to ensure that their job description is as transparent as possible in the case that most people will look into the wording just as this article suggests. As learned in business leadership, transparency is important as a leader and company to provide a truthful company culture. This article can help human resource managers when creating job descriptions and creating interview questions. Though not every business can make a culture suited for everyone, an interview process is crucial to see if the applicant themselves, fits into the company’s culture. A certain business should have their own culture that not only fits with the employees but should also fit with the company vision and mission statement.

Dorie Clark

6 Ways to Convince Someone to Collaborate with You

December 15, 2020

https://hbr.org/2020/12/6-ways-to-convince-someone-to-collaborate-with-you

As taught in the business leadership course, a good leader is always willing to work with others to build synergy. A company can reach their greatest potential and performance by combining each person’s set of skills. However, it is not always easy, as some may be unwilling to work with you. This article suggests six different ways you can convince someone to work with you to better your leadership skills and to make others feel more comfortable in the environment. These different ways are: Sweat Equity, Subject-Matter Knowledge, Process Knowledge, Connections, Access to Funding, and Image.

The main way to gain trust from others is by showing your passion for your ideas and projects. Doing more work than others shows that you are well-organized and are not trying to make others do the work for you. In addition, collaboration will likely provide you more opportunities and access to resources that you do not have. This is the first way to gain trustworthy and invested collaborators according to the article; sweat equity.

Next, a very obvious way to attract potential collaborators is by having subject-matter knowledge. Your research shows that you are passionate about this project or vision, while also making your ideas enticing. With collaboration, you will also gain knowledge from certain areas that you have missed out on as your teammates conduct research as well.

You definitely need to have knowledge about your process to achieving goals and getting the job done, otherwise you will seem to be unorganized. However, if you understand how to do things that your potential teammates do not know how to do, you will seem to be very invaluable and can be an opportunity to show large contribution to a project as well as potential for the project to successful. Your collaborators may also wish to work with you again in the near future.

Having connections with others can easily gain trust from potential collaborators. Through mutual connections, the trust that you have established with someone else, can also establish trust in another person by having your connection to highlight your strengths – like a review on whether or not they would recommend working with you.

Though not necessarily efficient in most cases, money can be a great motivator and can lure people into a job and maybe an opportunity to work with you. Having access to funding shows that many people are interested in your ideas, which can lure someone in to help you out. However, some collaborators have conditions and may wish to make deals which involve money, and for the right deal, you can obtain a valuable teammate.

Finally, perception plays a key role in teamwork and leadership skills. Having a positive image of yourself and a transparent one can break through communication barriers as well as allow people to perceive that same positive image of you. The same way should go for potential collaborators: “If they’re well known and respected, you might try to collaborate with them in the hopes that their stature will help your project succeed. But this can actually go both ways. Even if you’re the junior partner in the equation, you might have more to offer than you might realize when it comes to burnishing a potential collaborator’s image.”

This article also provides many reasons why collaboration is important within each way you can convince someone to work with you. Collaboration can create valuable results if you combine all your strengths while also providing many new opportunities to keep everyone motivated. It is not easy to go through things alone, but it is also not easy to gain trust from others. This is why learning the importance of teamwork and collaboration is key to being successful in the workplace.

Works Cited

“6 Ways to Convince Someone to Collaborate with You.” Harvard Business Review, 15 Dec. 2020, hbr.org/2020/12/6-ways-to-convince-someone-to-collaborate-with-you.

“How to Find Out If a Company’s Culture Is Right for You.” Harvard Business Review, 30 Nov. 2020, hbr.org/2020/11/how-to-find-out-if-a-companys-culture-is-right-for-you.

1 note · View note

noelleey · 3 years

Text

Interview From a Tutoring Center owner (Part 1)

Interviewee: John Filippeos

Occupation: Owner of York Region Tutoring. https://www.yorkregiontutoring.com/

Interview Question and Answer

1. What do you do for a living?

I am an Ontario Certified Teacher and Founder of York Region Tutoring.

2. What were some obstacles that you had to face as a leader?

There are several obstacles to opening, growing and maintaining a business. Initially, playing the role of administrator, secretary and tutor simultaneously while growing the business to a point of profitability where I could hire then employees. Then, hiring the right employees was in an of itself an of itself was an obstacle, as younger tutors, while more relatable to students, tend not to have the same skillset as educators with more experience - even to this day, it can be a challenge to find the right balance. Most recently, transitioning or tutoring program to online in response to COVID, but we were mostly set up for that anyways.

3. How do you motivate your subordinates to work harder and better?

For my tutors, I give them a lot of creative licence to conduct lessons autonomously than most other tutoring centres might. Too much oversight, especially with younger tutors, creates anxiety and vitiates their quality of work. We provide a comfortable communal environment for tutors to work with students so that their experience at the centre motivates them to work optimally.

4. What was the most difficult thing you faced while running this business?

Definitely the fiscal side of things were dreadful in the first couple years of opening. Rent, renovations, utilities, furnishings, and other expenses - they really added up, and a lot of these costs are running overhead costs so they don't end. I was essentially keeping the centre over water with my own tutoring for about a year before our revenues comfortably surpassed our costs.

5. How do you believe your leadership style differs from the other businesses that run the same one as you? How effective is it and why?

Hands off yet wholly involved. Unlike most other tutoring centres, I operate mine with strong background knowledge in every subject Grades 8-12 aside from French, History and Computer Science. I demand that my tutors email or text me with any questions that they have difficulty with during class time with students. But in order for them to feel comfortable asking their boss for help, I have to make them feel comfortable - and so my interactions with them are completely non-judgmental and hands off so that they're in a headspace that they can ask me for help. It's a really sensitive thing.

6. Since you run a tutoring center where there are one on one tutoring services, what are ways that you collaborate as a team to help students?

When I hire employees, among other requirements is one where they have a strong desire to help students, and even though tutoring is one-on-one, helping students is very often a team effort. If I, for example, don't know how to do a particular problem, or I want fresh eyes on a problem so that I can maybe glean a different method, I'll call or email a tutor who specializes in that grade and subject for some help. That help is definitely reciprocated when a tutor needs help as well. Actually, in 2019, I began providing tutors with yorkregiontutoring email accounts so that they can interact with each other and not just myself.

7. While collaborating with your team of tutors, what types of conflicts have you faced and how did you deal with them?

There are some individuals who let pride and ego get in the way of learning and growing as tutors. This is especially prevalent when a tutor does not want to accept that their method to approaching a problem is not viable, and when I say viable, I mean a teacher at a school will not accept it as a solution. Teacher's often want solutions worked using a particular method, and there have been a number of occasions where tutors refuse to indulge in those methods because they feel that they are not the "best" method. It's interesting because corresponding with a tutor who has this mindset, it's often near impossible to have them understand the difference between the "best" method, which theirs may be, and the method the teacher wants. At this point I can only chalk the unwillingness to appreciate this difference to ego. How do I navigate these situations? Sensitively. In the end, I only care that the tutor complies and follows through with the teacher's method in the future, and if I have to stroke the tutors ego, then I will.

8. How have you, as a leader, changed ever since you have started the business up until now? What caused those changes?

I was far less flexible when I first started the business. I think that was a result of the stress I experienced in order to make ends meet. I had my vision regarding how we would become successful, and I'm sure that, to some degree, I imposed that vision onto my secretary as well as my tutors. My secretary once told me, when I sought some constructive criticism about the centre, that the environment would feel a little tense. While I didn't actively micromanage anyone, I think my demeanour as well as perhaps the tone in my voice when communicating was responsible for creating that atmosphere. Form that point, about a year a half into opening, I begin actively tempering myself, behaving overtly at ease so that that sense of stress would not transfer over to the people around me. I think that's also partly responsible for how I currently conduct business.

Explanation

I asked these questions for a very simple reason: to gain insight on what it is like to be a leader from someone who has taken time and effort to make it up to that level. I asked multiple questions on leadership, motivation, resolving conflict, teamwork, and change; all of which are important to understand to become a great leader. John, who is the owner of a successful tutoring center has decided to partake in this interview. His answers show the importance of learning about business leadership, and how it actually connects to real-world situations whether it is the largest and wealthiest leaders in the world or not. To become a successful leader, you need to accept change and have the ability to solve problems by working with others as a team.

An important question that I have asked him would be number 6, which proves that teamwork skills are beneficial to any company. You would think that business that offer one on one tutoring or and one-on-one service where each employee deals with one client at a time, would require little to no teamwork. However, teamwork is extremely important, because, as what John said, “helping students is very often a team effort”, and goes on to explain that when he has a particular problem brought by one of his students that is out of his skillset, he approaches his subordinates and works together to solve a problem. This is almost a great example for synergy, where the company uses their resources to the fullest no matter how many tutors John collaborates with, leading to greater achievements that allows them to solve many different problems. John promotes an amazing culture of synergy, which is how they can easily solve a problem that a student needs academic help with, and providing his subordinates with company emails to chat to each other about work-related things if they do not want to have the pressure of their boss always having an eye on them. In question 7, I address that there may be conflicts in a team, but a good leader is able to workaround those conflicts. John explains that the type of conflicts he faced were the tutors’ “pride and ego”. His answer basically suggests that the tutors, who are young university students have difficulty accepting change and flexibility. He explains how they are so filled with their pride and ego that they are unable to explore different approaches to certain problems simply because they have only practised with a method they are familiar with. Due to this conflict, they may teach the student the wrong things that is out of the student’s expected skill, or if it is mathematics, that specific method to solve a problem that the tutor taught would not be allowed to use on the tests and exams as per their teacher’s requirements or curriculum. The way that John tackles these problems is by approaching his tutors and explaining the importance of flexibility when teaching methods that a teacher specifically wants the students to use. He would then go on to “stroke their ego” if they do not comply and thus explains the consequences such as being dismissed if his tutors continue to do those actions.

The next set of important questions revolve around leadership and change. Change is the most important thing whether you are new to a company or if you are starting up a business. It would be most prevalent when you are new to a totally different culture, however, as a rising leader and business founder, it is a different story. Business founders have to be the one to change the culture and possibly their leadership style as well, depending on what works best through many months of experimentation, looking closely at profits. In question number 5, he explains that his leadership style is unique in a way that it is “hands off, yet wholly involved”. This suggests his leadership style would currently be a mix of laissez-faire and autocratic, however, it seems quite contradictory. To look more into his answer, he is open for tutors to come to him for help and support which shows that he can inspire his subordinates to teach students in many different ways to ensure that they are providing the maximum amount of performance no matter what client it is and what their situations are. Transformational leadership seems to be prominent based on his answer, due to how he inspires tutors with his knowledge to do much more, even knowing that they have intrinsic motivation. On his laissez-faire leadership style side of him, Transformational leaders can be known to be called “quiet leaders”, which makes sense because laissez-faire leadership style is all about being apart from the team. However, John still works with others due to the importance of teamwork and motivates them through inspiration. He is definitely strict with his rules and does not change things based one one’s input, but it does not make him an autocratic leadership due to John providing the same type of tutoring services as his subordinates, and ability to work as a team and providing a culture of empowerment. He does, however, explain in question 8 that the major changes that he had to make as a new leader was his flexibility and communication skills. He created communication barriers within himself by explaining his tone of voice and stress which might have shifted the employees’ motivation, and made it seem he simply did not want to communicate with others. It showed that he did not want to work as a team, which could suggest that he was more of a laissez-faire leader back then, and then decided to change it due to his tutors possibly being unmotivated and uninspired to achieve a high work performance.

As for motivation, John hires people who show that they are intrinsically motivated, which was also one of Google’s motivation strategies so that they don’t have to resort to using money for motivation. Another way that John motivates his employees is through external motivation, which is providing them with full autonomy when they are tutoring a student. This motivates the employees because if they are given freedom to approach the job in their own preferred way, it makes them feel comfortable in the workspace and feel a sense of accountability. He even explains how putting too much pressure on his young tutors who are still in school can make them feel stressed in the workplace easily and lower their work performance. This is evident in many different jobs and workplaces.

This interview with John proves that understanding how to become a good leader can lead to success in the business whether you are a manager or business owner. You definitely need to adapt to change and make sure to take note of what is bad for the business and what is good. Motivation is key in the workplace, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Knowing what leadership style that is suited for the firm, can allow leaders to be successful as they work out the best way to lead their employees who have different perspectives on the company. Lastly, teamwork skills can provide a positive culture of synergy in the workplace, allowing the team to maximize performance based on each individual’s set of skills.

0 notes