Organizational Learning

For the past five years I’ve been playing basketball professionally overseas, which has presented me the great fortune of seeing new countries, experiencing different cultures, and adapting to interesting environments. Obviously, this is what I like to do during my spare time, but I also enjoy listening to music and staying up-to-date on current events. Besides working for an internship at the University at Buffalo for the Athletic sales and marketing department as well as in a factory packaging goods for a short period of time, I’ve never worked for an organization. The reason I decided to join this program, is due to the understanding that I believe it will help me transition into the corporate world, as I have asperations to work in the felid of sales in marketing. I’ve learned a lot so far within the course about being a leader within an organization and how-to mange employees as well as emotions. I’ve completed six of the courses so far and can’t wait to learn more about how to be an effective leader in working situations, as I stride toward completion of the program.

Objective Questions

What do you remember most vividly about the lesson?

What I remember most vividly about this lesson, is the question of does the organization lose critical knowledge when key people leave? Which I believe it shouldn’t because organizations should prepare themselves for the departure of employees, especially key employees. A level of talent may leave but the information should remain.  

Where does this lesson fit into the curriculum?

This lesson fits into the curriculum because it exposes why it’s important for leaders to make sure the company is preparing itself for all possible occurrences.

Interpretive Questions

What do these results mean to you in terms of future planning?

These results mean that communication is very important for leaders to have, when concerning employees and bosses. For a leader to be truly effective, they need understanding with the entire organization for the working environment may run fluidly.  

What other ways could you assess student learning?

Video presentation has always been a good way for students to learn and become more engaged within a lesson. Also, active learning which was discuss in the HR 651 course, is also a great way for students to learn, as it gives them hands on experience.

Reflective questions

How do you feel the lesson went?

I feel that the first lesson went well, as I learned more than I thought I would. I was especially engaged in the question, is the organization open to discordant information? Most employees are afraid of giving their bosses bad information or new ideas because the news or ideas may not go over well. Organizations who are truly willing to learn and listen to all information being presented will most likely be subjected to greater success    

Which activities do you think fostered high involvement?

Making sure that the organization is following a defined learning agenda, is something that takes high involvement from the leaders of the company. Knowing the vision of the company and how it should be perceived by customers, clients and employees, will be a very hands on job for leaders in the company.   

Decisional questions

Which skills will you further develop?

I will further develop my communication skills as well as my informative learning because I believe these are two key elements in being an effective leader. Having the ability to communicate with people and being informative on the workings of the company, will help me lead employees. Also, active listening as discussed in course 601, is a great way for me to learn and comprehend other’s viewpoints or teachings.      

What things will you do differently?

I will do more listening and less talking, while communicating with others and apply the 360-degree feedback method discussed in course 601 within my social life. This will give me some indication on how people are receiving me when I speak to them and what I can do differently to have more seamless conversations.    

These questions apply to my personal life because they allow me to look at ways to improve on my social skills. This lesson was about learning, not just individually but within a group setting. This takes an understanding of others and how they respond to my energy, behavior towards them, and the character that I display. Listening to comprehend is a key aspect to truly learning, which is something I feel I can always improve on.    

                

Project Management Week 1

Project management is a field of work that intrigues me and is something that I can see myself doing one day. Before week one of the course, I had a limited understanding of the project management position. I viewed the position as a general manger who needed to have a high understanding of the project being worked on. After the discussions and readings, I was enlightened to the fact that it’s more important the project manger has great communication with all involved with the project and is a problem solver. Also, that it’s very rare a project manager will have indebted knowledge of the core features within the project. A project managers job is to make sure a plan is established and carried out throughout the creation of the project. Understanding and managing financial responsibilities, social awareness, scheduled requirements as well as employee rights while completing the project, are some of the key aspects of a project manager.

One of the discussions this week, featured a case study between two candidates for a project manager position. Bill was well informed on the project and showed the ability to work well with others, but insisted on being hands on with the project’s inner workings. Andy was a proven problem solver and showed the ability to multitask understanding a little information about a lot of areas, but had limited information on the core elements of the project. I thought Andy was the best candidate for the job because he preferred to be hands off and observe the project from a far, understanding ways in which to improve all the facets of the project. A project manger too wrapped up in the inner workings of a project, may neglect the other areas of the project.

Dr. Cornel West 2

My thoughts about Dr. Cornel West are the same, as I believe he embodies everything that the course has illustrated about ethics and spirituality. It’s important to understand one key element about people, which is that no one is perfect. Everyone has their flaws and those flaws just show that we are human. I’m sure there’re things that Dr. Cornel west displays within his personality that goes against some of the principles discussed throughout the course in concerns to ethics and spirituality. What I’ve been able to further understand, is spirituality is a part of a person’s behavior, which is also a part of a person’s ethical values. These are concepts, feelings, and ideologies that are built into a person from personal experiences as well as culturally and religious teachings. Dr. Cornel West is a man that hasn’t changed his behavior since I’ve learned of his works and attitudes about societal issues. That speaks a lot to the kind of person he is and the kind of spirituality he uses to maintain who his values.                

Leadership

The three most important characteristics that a leader must have in the 21^st century is being able to coach individuals, show respect, and most importantly have patience. I believe that a leader must truly know how to coach/teach individuals in the 21^st century because of how diverse society has become. This will require potentially going over basic concepts with employees in ways that are understandable to them. Also, properly understanding what methods work with what employees. I feel respect is a key characteristic for a leader to have in the 21^st century because of how easily people can be offended. It’s important that leaders understand what is culturally, socially, religiously and personally needed or expected when showing respect. Finally, I believe that patience is the main aspect that a leader needs in the 21^st century because of the continuous changes occurring within society. Leaders need patients more than ever when dealing with employees because society has created a system more in favor of employees and less for the owners as well as leaders in concerns to behavioral actions. Firing/replacing employees isn’t as easy or acceptable as it once was, which means patience will be required.

   

Playing basketball has given me a great understanding to an important element of leadership, which is having the ability to coach. Understanding the role that coaching plays for leaders is right up my alley, as I’ve witnessed coaching, been on the receiving end of coaching and coached others myself. Coaching has a huge effect on a leader’s ability to lead because it consists of observing, advising, motivating and being strategic. These are all traits that leaders must have to properly lead their team/organization. To coach someone is to motivate that individual to perform in a way greater than what they’re currently showing or to maintain the great level of performance that they’re displaying. Coaching also entails strategy, which means that sometimes encouraging someone to commit to a certain role may be for the betterment of the team/organization. 

There’s been so many times in basketball where I had to step up and be a leader. A time I can remember is when a team I was playing on was up against an opposing team that was undefeated. There’s only so much a coach can do to rally the team because he/she isn’t on the court as a player. This was a time where the coach couldn’t say anything, it had to come from the players. I rallied my team together and told them that the individuals on the other team put their shorts on one leg at a time just like us and they can be beat if we truly believe we can beat them. The game was tight the whole way through. During the course of the game, I noticed a mismatch on the court with one of our players and one of theirs. I keyed in on it and began to expose the situation, which gave us the advantage. Our goal as a team was to keep the game close until the fourth, then steal it from them in the end. I told my team as we were up by two with five minutes left, that we were going to win this game. I went out on the court and scored the next two offensive possessions, putting our team up by six with three minutes remaining. The look in my teammates eyes, was one of determination as we proceeded to finish the game on top, effectively beating the other team. Within this moment of leadership, I displayed the ability to be strategic, motivate and most importantly lead by example through my actions on the floor.       

Spirituality At Work

For me, as I’ve stated throughout this course spirituality is a part of a person’s behavior, which can’t always be seen. I believe it’s a part the calmest part of a person’s behavior. In the world of basketball, the time where I see spirituality the most is right before a game. Almost every team I’ve ever been on, players are either individually meditating, praying, or zoning out to get focused for the game. I personally pray before every practice or game, after zoning out to prepare. In sports, it’s almost a ritual to huddle up with your team, to become one unit and share the desire and aspirations to win, to have a strong practice, or to appreciate the time spent playing basketball.

Some teams I’ve been on, pray as a unit in the huddles before games, which is silently agreed upon by the players even if they don’t believe in religion or the religion associated with the style of prayer being established. They do this because it’s a sign of respect for the overall team and even if they don’t believe in religion or the religion being established, they believe in the team. This is how the team infuses spirituality within the players, because it’s a part of being on the team, just like wearing the same jersey. Spirituality isn’t the focus of the team, it’s just a small element associated with the team, which is why it works. If spirituality isn’t overwhelmed on people, then they will be more inclined to tolerate it with no complaints.

Virtual Communication

During my professional career as a basketball player, one thing that has been a common theme is the use of virtual communication. I’ve used skype and WhatsApp for video conferences with coaches, GM’s (General Mangers) as well as agents from different countries when completing contractual agreements. Virtual communication helps multicultural, diversity and global relationship in many ways. One way is with the difference of language, as technology within virtual communication, allows for translations to occur. This helps for a faster line of communication to take place, while allowing both parties understand each other. Another aspect that virtual communication brings is the ability to have face to face conversations without having to physically be in the other person’s presence. This helps for human reactions, behaviorism and a sense of comfort to take place. Most people find it easier to talk with someone that they can see, so they can read physical emotions.

Virtual communication has been a key aspect to successfully allowing me to travel the world playing basketball on a professional level. Without virtual communication, I’m not sure of how easy my journey would’ve been because of the possible miss communications or uncertainties build up due to lack of solid communication. Unfortunately, technology has corrupted tradition ways of life in some sense, but it’s for the best in my opinion because it allows for us to reach out and respond to people all across the world for various reasons. Businesses can successfully be run in other countries without the owner ever stepping foot in the country where the business is located. Although, this has been accomplished before the boom of technology, now an owner can do it while being there virtually. This way, all employees can meet and greet them on a personal level. Virtual communication has been a positive for multicultural, diversity, global leadership, and motivation strategies around the world. I’m looking forward to the advancements of virtual communication in the future, as I believe it will only increase its success.

Integrate spirituality

I personally believe that my spirituality is a part of me, it’s a part of who I am as a person and is a result of the region that I adhere to. I don’t believe in forcing or integrating spirituality into anyone or any situation. I believe there’s a difference between leaders being spiritually sound and applying that within their leadership skills than forcing your spiritual beliefs on a situation or person. Everyone has their own concept of spirituality, which could lead to some confusion and miss understandings. To me a person must be one with themselves in order to be spiritual because the big part of spirituality is the word spirit. That’s the inner soul of a person, the outer worldly concept that makes up a person existence.

I feel that people must first, figure out if they even believe in this concept of spirituality and then second, understand what it means to be spiritual in their eyes. In this era, spirituality has taken on different meanings but are all centered around the same concept, which is life beyond earth and preparing your mind, body and soul for it. If I absolutely had to try and integrate spirituality in a workplace, I would create meditation, prayer, or relaxation departments. Soothing activities, like yoga and massages while soft music is playing, this will relax the mind and body, which are key aspects to spirituality. I would also allow my behavior and lifestyle to show what being spiritual is doing for me and hopefully employees would inquire. 

Non-Verbal Communication

Seeing how I’ve never had business encounters that were done in person, I don’t personally know if certain tactics work better than others. What I’ve always been taught is, that when it comes to making business deals in person, is to show confidence, show professionalism, and don’t look too eager. Two physical traits I believe a person should show during any negotiation confidence and respect. Simple gestures such as a hand shake are one of the physical gestures in my opinion that can make or break a negotiation. Having a firm but inviting instead of a soft or overly controlling one, means a lot when dealing with someone for the first time. Also, standing up straight or siting up straight and most importantly keeping eye contact. You can read a lot off individuals eyes and facial expressions. Sometimes some of these tactics aren’t needed when dealing with the same culture, but I don’t feel this is the same when dealing with other cultures.    

When other cultures are concerned, it’s smart to learn the traditional or customary ways to engage in a conversation but when trying to strike a deal, depending on how even or uneven the deal is, some customary traits may not be warranted as they may show signs of weakness. For instance, a deal done between two kings, one king shouldn’t bow down to the other, although it may be the traditional way to greet a king. For modern day times, there must be an equal amount of respect for one’s cultural traits during business engagements, if equal value is being brought to the table, in my opinion good business deals can be accomplished.       

Spirituality And Religiosity

I am of Christian faith and my religion is where I get my spirituality from. Religion has always been a huge part of my life as I’m a big believer in prayer as well as having faith in God, knowing that he can do all things, which means anything is possible. I was raised up in the church and even though I hadn’t realized it until later in life, a lot of the principles rubbed off on me, becoming a true part of what makes up my character, behavior and overall personality.

Every religion has its own policies, principles or ethical tone, in which the members of it has to live by or at least try too. These rules aren’t always concepts that everyone in the world would be ok with following, but some for the concepts no one should have a problem with. These concepts all center around treating people with respect and fairness. In my religion the 10 commandments which are our guidelines in which we live by, I believe thou shall not still or kill are a couple universal principles because everyone knows are wrongful acts and done anywhere in the world usually comes with heavy punishment.

I personally don’t think about modification when following the policies of my religion, which is where my spirituality comes from, as I believe the holy bible was written for me to understand and follow the principles within it. That may make me sound somewhat like a zealot, but I just think that people try to modify their religion so that it may better suit their earthly needs, which may go against the spiritual guidelines set for them to follow. Being beholding to a religion can sometimes be a difficult thing to do, as it may make you give up on things that you like or want but these are the commitments you make to show that you believe and have faith. 

Coworkers With disabilities

I’ve never worked with a person who had a disability, but I’ve been around people with disabilities and the one thing that they wanted most of all, was to be treated like everyone else. Now some people have disabilities that need more attention than others, but those individuals still want to be treated as normal as possible, just like everyone else. After reading the Ten Commandments on how to deal with people that have disabilities, I found it to be very robotic and not too authentic.

Since I never worked with a person that has a disability, I don’t know how effective the commandments are, but I see a large emphasis of the commandments being placed on not disrespecting the individual because of their disability. So, there’s a lot of what I believe to be unnecessary elements being added, that make a social as well as personable interaction with a person that has a disability, seem very robotic and not organic. I do believe there should be an understand of how to treat people with disabilities because some people need help in working situation, as people can be flustered, ignorant, or simply jerks. So, it’s always a good idea for organizations/companies to have some policies that should be followed. I just believe two people having a natural genuine working relationship, disability or not is the best way to handle the situation.

The Concept of Diversity

The concept of diversity to me is exactly what the word is defined as, which is different. I think society has a hard time with excepting that people are different, people think differently, act differently, dress differently, and just are overall different. As a society, we must get to an understanding that it’s okay to be different, that we don’t have to find similarities to coexist. If we can first recognize that it’s okay for us to be different, I personally think that will go a long way with people uniting, instead of forcing people to be the same, which I believe is causing division.

I think of myself as being different than others, in the shows I watch, cloths I wear, music I listen to, viewpoints of societal issues and so much more. This has helped my leadership abilities because I don’t care what people think and I stick to the facts, no matter how unfavorable it may make me look. What this has taught me, is that more people are followers than leaders in the world. I believe today’s society is more controlled than anything, that people maybe different because skin color, religion or age but in the mindset of most people are programmed to think the same. To me, the most important diversity dimension is internal, because it deals with all the elements that make up a person’s personality. This must deal with a person’s experiences within the environments that they’ve been in. Diversity starts within a person’s mind, which is why a person’s free thought is so important because it lets the world know exactly who you are not what society wants you to be or agree with. 

Minister Louis Farrakhan - Spirituality

The person that I came up with who displays spirituality, isn’t so much someone I’m inspired by but someone who I’ve always thought was very persuasive. The Minister Louis Farrakhan is someone well known throughout the world as an American Religious leader of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist, activist and social leader. Louis Farrakhan has been the Leader of the Nation of Islam ever since it’s the original leader died in 1975 and is most recognized for his million-man march. A march in which he led one million men to Washington in protest for politicians that will see to better treatment for minorities in America.

Louis Farrakhan is deeply spiritual in almost everything that he does in the public eye and his spiritual behavior is very persuasive, which draws new follower-ship for his religion. I’m christen so I don’t adhere to some of his religious views, but the two religions do share a lot of similarities. Being very spiritual is one of them. One thing that Louis Farrakhan does well, is speak, as his words carry a high sense of intellect, passion as well as spirit. His words are very persuasive because they contain nothing but facts regarding issues outside of religion. This, mixed with his spiritual nature, is how he was able to conduct a million-man march filled with people of the Islamic faith as well as other religious faiths.

I’ve always been intrigued by Louis Farrakhan because of the way he uses is spirituality and combines it with his intellect. When speaking to people, this is the type of approach that I’ve always tried to master and still trying. To be calm while another person is irate, to lay out the facts of a situation without confusing them with subjective thinking, and to stay intellectually sound always is what try to do. It’s a struggle, what helps is my spirituality and trying to understand how others, like Louis Farrakhan accomplished this. 

                    

High-Impact Business Decision

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/05/20/starbucks-policy-changes-local-reactions/

The business decision made by Starbucks has been a huge topic of controversy in latest news. Do to the unfortunate incident of two black men being arrested and escorted out of a Starbucks simply because they were sitting waiting for their friend to arrive but hadn’t ordered yet. Also, its assumed by some that the two men being African American was the main reason the cops were called. It was wrongly assumed that these men were controversial and fired the worker who made the call to the police. 

Recently Starbucks has decided to open its restrooms to the public even if a purchase isn’t made, to try and rectify the situation that occurred. This isn’t going over so well with some of the customers as well as the staff, complaints are that there are homeless people just hanging out around Starbucks and a lot of nonpaying traffic within the coffee shop is occurring, as Starbucks is a place where people like to do their work. Space in Starbucks is being taken up by nonpaying customers, which could possibly lead to paying customers taking their business elsewhere. Also, with the recent issues and now the bathroom policy not going over so well, this could lead to coffee shops such as Tim Hortons to become the front runner replacing Starbucks as number one.

Cultural Identity

Cultural identity to me develops within the environment in which raises you. Religion can be a part of cultural identity as well, as people can be born into religion or religious ways. A person’s behavior most times will reflect their cultural identity. I think cultural identity can be shown in the work place, by what a person may eat, how a person may dress or even how a person may speak. In the workplace, a person who brings fried chicken, macaroni, corn bread and speaks with a country accent more than likely comes from a southern type of culture, such as myself.

In my line of work, I often see religious culture come out of people, whether they are Christian, catholic, Muslim or Jewish in the way that they pray before a game. Some people just bow their heads, some complete a trinity sign across their chest and four head and others may bring their hands to the sky palms facing upwards. All these types of prayer give me a better understanding to their religious beliefs and backgrounds.

I personally think that some cultural displays should be controlled in professional settings as compared to personal settings because when you sign up to work for an organization or cooperation you represent them as well as yourself. This means that some of your beliefs may not be acceptable at the workplace in which you work for. To me an organization must respect an individual’s cultural identity to certain levels, but the individuals must respect the organizations that they work for.  

Global Diversity

Over the years, traveling and living in different countries for months at a time has truly had an impact on my life. The global impact of how people live in one country compared to another is truly interesting as well as humbling. One thing I noticed during my time in Europe was how conservative the people lived. In the states, I was a custom to going to the grocery store maybe twice a week for food and house goods, but in Europe because of the fridge size, I had to go to the store once every week buying only what I needed for that week. Now I’ve seen bigger fridges in Europe, but most people lived this way. Everything was much closer in every country I was in as well, causing most people to ride bikes or walk everywhere. This made me live more conservatively once I got back to the states and appreciate space as things seemed tight at times while living in Europe.  

Global diversity comes into play when language is involved as everywhere I’ve been I’ve ran into language barriers. Not having the ability to communicate is a crippling and isolated feeling that makes you very uncomfortable, especially being in a foreign country. It’s always challenging when you first enter a country, but then you learn to adapt by picking up a few words, remembering where places are and for me building camaraderie playing basketball. Food can be a globally diverse thing as well, as I’ve ran into my fair share of unique eating habits. For example, in central America rice and beans is a food eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast…..

Dr. Cornel West

The person that I’m choosing is Dr. Cornel West who is a famous author, philosopher, political activist and a professor at Princeton University. He was most recently known for helping in the elections, supporting Bernie sanders as well as Jill Stein. The reason I picked Dr. Cornel West is because ever since I’ve known about him, he’s always been the same, which is an exceptionally intelligent individual who cares less about materialistic things and more about humanitarian efforts. His passion for wanting to help the less fortunate is well document by is activism and fundraising. I look at Dr. Cornel West as a pioneer who is showing that you can be a public figure and use it for helping others.

I don’t even know what religion Dr. West withholds to, if he even claims a religion at all, but I do know that his ethical and spiritual values are ones that everyone should have. This doesn’t mean that he is always right about the issues that he fights for or the ideas that he comes up with, but the simple fact that he is constantly on the front lines fighting against injustice acts done against the less fortunate speaks volumes for his character. Dr. Cornel West is a role model of mine and encourages me to seek the truth in all information and when I find the truth use it to help others who may not be as aware. Dr. West spoke once about truth being the means to freedom, that you must seek truth out, that it can’t be handed to you. Emulating Dr. west’s ethical values in a workplace will ensure that fairness is the number one trait, that workers won’t be taken advantage of and will be respected for the work in which they put forth.    

Reflection About the Group

Throughout this course I was fortunate enough to work with some cool group members, as I didn’t run into a single problem with any of them. The communication has been uplifting and informative most of the time. The communication methods that I found most useful was texting because responses would come right away. Phone calls would probably have to be the most difficult but not for any alarming or uncommon reason. We’re all busy individuals who may not have the time to sit down and make or take a phone call. Even when phone calls are planned, situations can occur that need are immediate attention, which could interfere phone call conferences. With texting we were able to stay in constant communication and get back to each other no matter what was happening in our individual lives. I personally prefer to communicate in person or over the phone, so that I can gain an understanding to how the other person is really feeling about things. I can do this by listening to the tone of their voice or watching their physical reactions, things I cannot do while texting. In our group we all took on the same roles from one time to the next, whether it was being the helpful, informative, assertive, or compromising member. I will say that early on, I was a bit held back on expressing myself but after a short bit of time, I felt more comfortable with my group and now freely communicate with them.

My Brand and Balancing Work & Happiness

My vision of my personal brand Control Your Mentality, is a cultural movement, that will lead to the marketing of my brand on various outlets. I want Control Your Mentality to be trademarked and used to express the freethinking spirit within each individual. I sometimes feel robots have already taken over and not the metallic kind. I think that many people have a robotic state of mind, that has been programmed throughout years of being spoon fed on how to think and act. If there’s no malicious intent or act, things should be freely discussed without anger or chastising. We don’t all think the same and that’s the beauty of being human, we shouldn’t close that part of us up, by trying to force people to think alike or act the same.     

I’m very fortunate when it comes to balancing happiness and work in my life, as basketball is my life and it’s brought me much happiness over the years. I’ve gotten to travel the world doing what I love and I couldn’t be more appreciative of that. Playing basketball professionally has had its ups and downs, as traveling, being away from family and friends for months at a time takes a toll on you, but it does have its many rewards. Rewards such as, winning games, experiencing new things as well as making new relationships. Now, I will soon be transitioning into the sales/marketing field where I believe I will find similar happiness because the field suits my personal traits. I know there will be difficult times ahead but feel as though I’m prepared to make the necessary adjustments to not only be successful but happy.     

Groups Vs Teams

I can recall a time I worked on a class project with three other people that required an entire presentation. A speech, poster board with labels and a power point guiding the way. The project was well done and received an A+. My group got along well, which is why we were able to do so good, as communication and understanding of what had to be done was not a problem. I would describe the experience as more of a group than a team. There were times when we worked together in class and times where we worked separately outside of class. I felt like we were working as a group when it came to individual task, as we all assigned ourselves different tasks to accomplish for the project. We could complete the tasks on our own, during our own time, which to me is more of an individual thing not a team thing. I felt that we worked more as a team when coming up with the order in which the presentation would be presented and when we gave our presentation. We had to be in rhythm so that the presentation would go seamlessly, which demanded a great deal of teamwork.  

The difference between being in a group and being apart of a team is completing a goal individually apposed to completing a goal in unison. In a group setting, task can be completed individually with out the help or comradery of others but in a team setting, it requires more than one individual to complete a single task. Basketball is a team sport, that requires at least five guys working together in unison to play and possibly win a game, where as a group project requires multiple people but not necessarily in unison to complete.

Ethics

Ethics is the guideline of how a business will be ran. The rules of how to treat one another, tactics used for successful dealings and the overall character of the brand all involve ethics. The ethical tone will be established by who I truly am as a person, which will be determined by the individuals in the relationships I obtain. People define your character by how you treat them, whether bad or good, it’s up to the opinions of the individuals in relationships I carry that will decide how successful I will be. I can’t do it by myself, the staff or team that will surround me, will have to respect and have confidence in me as well as belief in the consistency of my behavior. My personal ethical values will way heavily on the type of people I will not only attracted but maintain relationships with concerning my brand. The goal is to set an ethical tone that will be honored throughout the brand and spread to others who are fans of the brand.        

Caproni - “The ability to earn trust and create work environments that promote trust throughout the organization is becoming increasingly valuable in today’s global, diverse, and technology- driven economic environment. Managers must be able to help people who don’t share a com- mon culture (and whose cultural groups may share a history of animosity and distrust toward each other) learn to work together productively to serve organizational goals. They must be able to help employees involved in alliances, mergers, and acquisitions build trust and interdependence quickly. They must be able to develop trust and respect among employees who work in virtual teams and who rarely, if ever, see each other. They must be able to trust employees enough to provide them with the training, resources, and support that empower employees to take independent action so that their organizations can be responsive, flexible, and fast. And be- cause of the business and political scandals that have dominated the media in recent years, man- agers must work harder than ever to build trust. Undoubtedly, in today’s work environment, trust is a must-have, not a nice-to-have, quality.”.

References

Caproni, Paula. Management Skills for Everyday Life, 3rd Edition. Pearson, 20111121. VitalBook file.

Relationships

I feel the relationships that I have today can help me a lot in establishing my brand Control Your Mentality. I know individuals who share a similar vision of creative thinking as I do and can contribute towards the brand. When starting from a root level, thing won’t be perfect, so it’s key that good relationships are formed through this process of figuring things out. The relationships that are created in the beginning are the purest and if treated right will blossom into something amazing in the future of the brand.

A lot of my current relationships that will help, won’t be active members of the brand. This is because sometimes good relationships are strong enough to draw in other people off the recommendation of your friends. It’s important to create out side relationships when building a brand or any type of business, so that no bias is taken but only genuine actions and feedback. Having outside preferences, from trusted relationships, can help with difficult interior decisions being made within the brand.   

Caproni – “Although a well-designed task environment is critical to a team’s success, a team’s performance can be undermined by dysfunctional social relationships.47 A well-designed task can’t be expected to over-ride the negative effects of a team’s social environment in which team members don’t want to spend time together, don’t listen to each other, don’t support each other, and don’t develop supportive relationships with people and groups outside the team. Team members do not need to become close friends, but they do need to respect each other and develop mutually supportive relationships.”

The relationship that could hurt my brand are political relationships. Political preferences are aspects that I believe could damage my brand and is something that would have to be thoroughly watched for. With my brand being so out spoken and freethinking, it can’t help but have politics within it, but the key is to make the messages so subliminal that no side is clearly taken. Also, that one singular message doesn’t t trump the overall message of the brand. I believe this will be difficult but attainable, that people of all sides of the spectrum will take the art in its entirety and not in singular parts. This is also up to the artist to remain open minded with their material, which also falls on me regarding my judgment of who I decide to bring into the brand.

References:

Caproni, Paula. Management Skills for Everyday Life, 3rd Edition. Pearson, 20111121. VitalBook file.

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict mode results (TKI)

In which quadrant of the TKI did you receive the highest score? What about the results surprised you? What is one thing you can do to become more flexible in your style?

The quadrant I received the highest score in the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict mode was Collaborating and problem solving. I feel that these results resemble a lot of characteristics within myself because I’m constantly solving problems that arise in my life. Also, I like to compromise with others if the problem involves multiple people. Although, I do understand that compromising has its limits, I feel it’s the best way to solve a problem. Even as an individual with a personal problem, sometimes compromising with traits within yourself may help solve the problem.

What I was surprised with the most, is that my competitive quadrant wasn’t higher in the Thomas-Kilmann conflict model. As an athlete I’ve always been extremely competitive and know that it has transitioned into my life and personality off the court. It was shocking to me, that area of the test wasn’t the highest. I would contribute that to the type of questions that were asked, as being competitive can sometimes result in selfishness and a lack of teamwork. I like to believe that I try to display selflessness and teamwork while playing basketball or in my everyday life in general.

Something that I can take from the test is to become more inviting as an individual. Just because your friendly and sociable doesn’t mean that your immediately an inviting person. It’s not surprising that the quadrant mode avoiding was high in my scores within the Thomas-Kilmann conflict test results. I prefer to avoid conflict situation, unless they’re at a point in which they must be addressed. I don’t take pleasure in disciplining people but encouraging is a different way to address conflict situation. Like I’ve stated in multiple forums during this course, it’s not so much what you say, it’s how you say it.

NBI Results

Now that you've reviewed your NBI profile and had a chance to discuss it with your peers, think about each of the following areas of the assessment:

Job Fit: How does your NBI profile fit with your current job? Are you working within or against your preference?

The results of my NBI profile doesn’t really fit with my current job, as I’m usually around multiple people or on a team working together to try and win games. I also, place a lot of emphasis on my teammates emotions and how they’re physiologically responding to my verbal commands or critiques. The NBI results viewed me as uncaring and showing little empathy towards others, which is why I don’t believe it’s accurate to my personality as a leader.  

Decision Making: Do you rely more on the left or the right hemisphere when making decisions? What are the strengths and limits of your current approach?

The NBI results showed me to be more of a left hemisphere type of thinker when making decisions, which tags me as a factual realistic, statistical direct type of person. I believe there is a lot of truth to these results as, I tend to rely on facts and reasonable logic more than opinions and creative ideas. Although I don’t lack imagination and believe in new ways of doing things if it results in similar or greater success. These traits can be seen as strengths because of the accuracy associate with them. The understanding that thorough detail will go into any project or event, will allow the comfort of knowing that some type of success will be obtained at whatever level it can be. These traits can be seen as a weakness because sometimes fresh and new ideas can trump facts and old ideas, sometimes you have to look past what’s at face value and understand the emotions behind the reasoning. Being too detailed and fact based can cause you to be blind to other relevant factors to a problem. I like to believe that even though I highly value facts and logic, I’m not blind to emotions and other factors outside of the stats.      

Communication: When you communicate with others, what preferences do you rely on the most? How do you "show up" in social settings? What areas might you need to focus on to be more effective in your communication?

The NBI result declared me to be a loner who doesn’t like to work with outers or only a small team if needed. That I prefer to work alone as, I’m uncomfortable in different environments that make me share emotions or show empathy to others. All that is crap, I have traveled the world and been to multiple environments that were uncomfortable for me at first but I adapted and proceeded to live there for months at a time. I like to believe that I’m a very sociable as well as personable individual and do my share of helping others in need. I will say that I have shown myself to be an introvert at times but recently have been working on being more extroverted. If there’s an area that I would like to focus more on when communicating, it would be listening more to understand a problem from a personable level rather than just to gain the facts.   

Performance: What are two ways that your thinking preferences contribute to your performance effectiveness (e.g. planning, motivating others, using data analytics, delegating, etc.)? What are two areas that come to mind that would increase your effectiveness?

My thinking preferences play a huge role in how a perform as a leader, planning how I will attack a situation is what I do on a regular basis, as I never go into a problem without a game plan. I always try to think about what the outcome maybe if I approach an issue so that I can prepare myself with a counter. Motivating is a way that contributes to my ability as a leader, as I’m always motivating my guys to do what they know how to do on the court, know matter who we play. Placing that encouragement in them by whatever tactics needed, such as screaming, joking, or through my own actions, I feel this helps me as a leader especially when they have successes because of it. I would like to increase knowledge of the situations that I’m in, as you can never gain enough knowledge. Also, I would like to become even more personable with the people around me because the more you know the people around you the stronger the bonds with them will be.       

Teamwork: When working in teams, for what roles do you have a "valence" and what might be some of the strengths your thinking preferences might bring as well as some challenges?

While in a team environment I like to have a democratic type of structure, where everyone can voice their opinions and an idea is decided by the majority. I believe my thinking preference will work well in this type of structure because with a group of people joining together to find a solution to a problem, being detailed and direct will prove useful if the conversation goes off track or into un realistic views. My type of thinking can be challenging at times because It may cause friction for imaginative based thinkers.  

Communication Style

Communication is the key aspect of my brand Control Your Mentality, which means I must understand the ins and outs of communication. I must be aware of how the material within the brand comes off to the audience, as the brand is predicated to a subliminal approach, which will allow for people to take away whatever meaning they felt the material gave them. I also I must thoroughly push the concept of my brand as it’s built on the bases of communicating. It’s important for people to understand what type of communicating my brand is doing and how it’s different than other forms of communication.   

Something that can help me achieve this, is by enforcing Paula caproni’s concept of focusing on key performance issues. She declared in her book Management Skills for Everyday Life, “Focus on key performance issues, behavior that the receiver can do something about, and only one or two issues at a time. Frustration is only increased when the receiver is faced with too much information, concerns that are irrelevant to the job, or situations over which he or she has no control.”. To me, this means if I focus on the singular issue, which is freedom of thought, an area I believe a brand like mine is warranted, I can separate myself from others. The issue being freedom of thought, can have many who may come up with similar concepts like mine, but the idea in this era, is revolutionary in it’s simplicity, which won’t be able to be duplicated to its exact detail.

As I’ve stated before the key is communication, in the form of networking, elaborating with my future team, the material within the brand and the feedback from the audience. I understand that communication for me is vital to the success of my brand because it’s what will not only make it successful but sustain its success. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve worked even harder on becoming more of an extrovert by going out more, saying yes to joining activities whereas I would always find a reason not to go and being noticed more vocally. I know that becoming more extroverted will also contribute to helping myself and my brand’s communication style.    

References

Caproni, Paula. Management Skills for Everyday Life, 3rd Edition. Pearson, 20111121. VitalBook file.

Trust

Positive emotions and behaviors can impact my brand in a huge way, as my brand is essentially speaking to the true behaviors and emotions of people. If an individual’s emotions aren’t genuine and they’re representing my brand, it could have a negative impact on the message of my brand. Adding people into my brand isn’t just a job for them but a lifestyle that I see within them because the brand represents who they are always. If someone representing my brand, on their own time is behaving in a way that contradicts the message of the brand, then that can have a negative impact as well, even though they’re on their own time. That’s why it’s important to have individuals that live the lifestyle that the brand is predicating because it continuously pushes the brand’s concept by those individuals simply living their life.  

Trust plays a huge factor in this because I must trust that the individuals I hire to represent my brand are bringing true emotions and behaviorisms. My brand doesn’t work without other people being involved and bringing their art in whatever form they’re gifted with. This means weeding out people who just want to be noticed for their art but don’t really care about the message behind it. This will take some major trust, which is always nerve wrecking because these will be individuals who I don’t know at all and will have to build with.

Caproni - “Trust is necessary in situations where we do not have complete information about another person’s intentions. Therefore, our trust in someone is based in large part on our perceptions of that person’s trustworthiness. We base these perceptions on several factors, including the person’s reputation,38 our prior experiences with the person,39 and our stereotypes about that person’s identity group memberships (e.g., gender, race, religion, and nationality)40 and organizational group memberships (e.g., department or hierarchical level).41 Researcher Michele Williams notes that we are more likely to believe that someone is trustworthy and are likely to cooperate with them when we see them as belonging to the same group(s) as ours. Furthermore, we are more likely to rely on stereo- types about who we can and cannot trust when we are under time pressure.42”

I believe building trust for me within people, starts with me becoming more open about my life and the positive as well as negative experiences I’ve had. I think trusting people with your secrets will allow them to feel more comfortable with you. This type of growth is what I think will promote trustworthiness within my brand. My brand embodies trustworthiness, as everything is real, I would only want realist to contribute and be apart of the brand, as I seek to get people’s genuinely authentic thoughts and emotions through an artistic lens.     

Storytelling

This week was very interesting because the stories that I’ve read about and listen to. I was at times wrapped up and very intrigued in the stories from my classmates. What I can take from listening to these stories without speaking or giving ongoing feedback, is that I found myself almost reliving their stories as if I was there. There’s an emotional connection when you get out of the way of the storyteller, by not interrupt or taking your attention off the story. It’s almost like being in a dream. I discovered that I was able to put things together within a story because I was deeply engaged in it. My focus was so intense that I was able to put pieces in a story that wasn’t explained to me during the story. Also, when you’re completely silent and engaged, you can feel the emotions within the storyteller intensify as they’re telling their story. I did however feel as though I was leaving the storyteller hanging at times, with me not giving any feedback.  

The stories I listen to, had a lot of passion and self-desire, as there was a will for things to happen in the story teller’s favor. The stories uncovered truths about the storyteller and at times an emotional release. The silence, although uncomfortable for seconds at a time, really pressed the story teller to go deeper within the story, which led to things that the storyteller may not have wanted to tell. I felt that the stories I listened to were unique and fulfilling to me because I was so engaged in what was being said. Even the beginning of the stories, carries its own suspense because of not knowing what the story will be about.

My story was about the time I was in Columbia and found myself in a night club with two drug dealers and afterwards saw a woman laying motionless on the ground from what I could assume being hit by a car. The start of this story seems worrisome and sad, which it was but the way I told it, brought some entertaining light to it. First, I don’t believe the woman died or know for sure if she was hit by a car or just drunk in the streets holding up traffic. It was a long night and I didn’t have much fun, but the strangest and uncomfortable situations kept occurring. I believe it made for a good story, not because of what happen but because of how I was telling it. I’ve told this story before a few times, so I kind of knew what type of reaction to expect, which is usually a shocked, humorous and relieved one. The listener was shocked to hear about these dangerous situations happening but relived that no harm was done to me and possibly the lady laying in the street. Also, the reaction of humor because of the humorous way I told the story.

I think its inappropriate to tell certain stories, in certain settings, such as a sad story in an uplifting environment. I think the setting matters and the way you tell a story matters to it being appropriate to tell. I also think that telling a story about someone else’s experience whether good or especially bad can be inappropriate if that individual isn’t ok with it being told. People must tell their own stories because no one will give a person’s story the amount of passion and emotion that the individual themselves will give. This is because an individual relives their experience when telling their story, another person doesn’t have the ability to do that, when telling a story for someone else, even if they were a physical witness at the time of the events. They wouldn’t be able to duplicate how that individual was feeling, which would be displayed in how they would tell the story.    

Personality Self Assessment

I want to start my lotus blossom out with the wordcommunication, as I believe this is the key aspect to getting my brand off the ground. I feel that Communication will be thepulse which starts my brand because with communication comes, networking, selling, marketing, strategizing, socializing, and mobilizing. Each one of those facets stem from communication, which is what my brand will need to get successful notoriety as mentioned in Tom Peter’s article The Brand Called You. 

After completing the personality assessment in the book, I realize that although I am a sociable, personable and outgoing, I still need work with being more of an extroverted type of individual. My brand won’t get off the ground if I don’t take chances and begin to put myself out there more. Even though I don’t think the assessment is one hundred percent accurate, it did uncover something that I do understand about myself, which is I can be a bit inverted at times. Instead of making the first move in communicating with someone new I sometimes wait for them to approach me. This is not good for maintaining a brand and certainly not when starting one.

An area in my life where I’ve been much more of an extrovert than an introvert is whenever I’m playing basketball, as it’s like another person is inside of me. I’m much more vocally active and look for communication with my team or even trash talking with the opposing players. I believe that I can take my personality on the court, tone it down a bit and transfer it to my personality off the court, regarding me being more of an extroverted individual. This in my opinion will also make me a better leader as well.      

Praise, Admiration and Appreciation

Two times in which I felt an expression of praise, appreciation and gratitude was required is, when I witnessed A boy give money and food to a homeless person and when my father decided to take some kids home who were stranded at a convince store.

All my life I’ve seen people give money to homeless individuals and I’ve given as well. This time was different for me as the person who gave the money and food was no older that thirteen or fourteen years old. One could assume that the kid didn’t have much money himself but recognized that his situation was betterthan the homeless persons. So many people walked passed the homeless person including myself because even though you may want to help, you can’t help all the time. The kid’s selflessness made me go back and give the homeless person some money as well as the kid. Also, I gave him my appreciation, praise, and gratitude for what he did. I didn’t get any names I just took the opportunity that was created by the kid to be selfless as well. 

Another time I witnessed a situation that deserved praise, appreciation, and gratitude, was when my father decided to take two kids home who said they were stranded at a convenient store. The two kids were no older than ten, with one being a boy and the other being a girl. They approached us and asked for money, to buy some food. My father because of the time of day being around 10pm, asked them if they were ok? They responded by saying, they were stranded but didn’t live to far from their home. My father then asked if they needed him to call someone to come pick them up? The kids called their mom, but she didn’t have means of transportation to get to them. So, he then asked if it was ok for us to drop them off? Their mother responded by saying yes. My father then bought them some food and dropped them off at their home. I never said anything to my father about that, as the gesture was something that I’ve seen him do in different variations many times before. I guess I was use to these acts of selflessness from him and for some reason felt weird giving him praise for it. I think another reason why I chose not to say anything, was the understanding that I was raised to always try to do the right thing, not for the praise but because you’re supposed to.