Good to Great

A company that wants to make the transition from good to great has to have a strategy to do so, and that process starts with the people and then with what they can do. Before a company can really do anything that have to have the correct people “on the bus,” a task that can take a long time. In doing so the author of good to great says that a company should not hire someone unless they are 100% sure that they are the right person for the job. While I understand that the concept that people are not the most important to a company, the right people are, I find it a lot harder to implement than the book suggests it to be. You are not always able to pick your people. For example, a lot of job tasks are assigned groups-like this class for instance. While our groups by no means were “companies” we operated as a group and had very little input as to who their group members were. Maybe some groups had the “wrong” people and could have been “greater” with a different class member. In my own life I have had to select leaders for my fraternity and needless to say my options were limited. Often times I was unable to find the “right” person for the job, and had to settle for “someone who could do the job.” Another concept I somewhat disagree with from the book is that great companies need to give the good people good opportunities, not the problems. While I agree with doing this in theory, I disagree how it is implemented. I feel that often your best people are really the only people who can truly fix the problems and be dedicated to it. While you want to reward them with giving opportunities, I do not feel that you can trust a lesser employee with fixing a big opportunity. So once again, I feel that companies often have their hands tied in jobs they have and jobs their employees can handle.

Unit 4

Building a Culture of Ethics
Being an ethical person is something I try to be all the time. I believe that honesty is the best policy. Because of this I am always blunt and will give a straight answer. I do not believe in dodging questions or giving vague answers. I try my best to be “on the record” at all times. I am the same person with everyone, never putting on an act to save face. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be too much for some, as they are not use to just getting open, honest answers. But, that does not make me want to change who I am, because that would not go along with the ethics I have established for myself. I believe in practicing what I preach.
The book mentioned how it is important for a company to establish an ethical culture in their organization. This is done in a several ways. The first way is for the management to be visible role models. People mimic what they see which is why this is an important step for management. This is walking the walk and talking the talk. The next way this is done is by communicating the expectations. I feel that laying out a clear list of expectations is a great way to do this. When I became president of my fraternity, I felt that the standards/expectations were unclear in the past. Due to this, I make a packet that laid out the expectations of each brother, each committee, and each committee chair. In addition, I laid out the expectations of myself. After this we had a meeting and each person signed a contract that acknowledged their position, duties, and expected behaviors. I really feel that this helped a lot. Not only was this step part of the communication process, but it also was a training of ethics. The training of the expected ethics is another step. The next step would be to provide rewards for ethical behavior and punish unethical ones. This is a hard step to do for me because I am managing my friends and while it is easy to praise them, it is harder for me to punish because friends have a hard time realizing that the punishments we hand out are strictly as managers and not as friends. Often it is taken to be personal and that is not the case. Lastly, you need to provide protective mechanisms. This allows employees to report incidents or discuss dilemmas is a safe way. In our fraternity we have a committee devoted to doing just this and it is very effective.
Working to create an ethical culture is very valuable, but takes quite a bit of effort.

Why I Enjoy My Team/Group and some other thoughts....

Why I enjoy being in my group/team

Due to the fact that this class relies so heavily on group work, I am happy that I am happy with my group. It is not a secret that our group is the loudest, nor is it a secret that I am part of that reason (mostly it is Rob). However, I feel that this group is very productive and the communication between us is clear. Most importantly I feel trust with them and know I can be myself and not worry about contributing thoughts to the discussion. I know when it is time to put the pedal to the floor, and I also know to slow down, relax, and build a relationship with my teammates. Our group is very diverse in personalities, but in my mind the blend beautifully. We have loud and quiet, procrastinators and overachievers, high and low strung, etc., etc. I am not usually a “wait to the last minute” kind of person, but for some reason it always seems like I do my assignments for this class at the last minute. And sometimes I feel like it’s my best work. I know that that would drive Liz and Ashley nuts. They like to have every detail worked out ASAP, me not so much. I very much enjoy going with the flow and seeing where my thought process goes. For example, I did not bring in any prepared questions for our interview because I had no intention of doing so. I have no problem fine tuning the questions we have and helping prepare our meeting outline, but I would rather see where the interview goes and then contribute. I may need to clear this with my team. I prefer to only have a vague or skeleton idea of what I intend to say. Whenever I have to give a speech or presentation, I never write out my speech word for word, never really use notecards with sentences, rather I prefer to use a single notecard with “key” words. I feel that I am much better speaker when I do this and it just feels more natural to me. Sure, I could write down some mundane questions for the group, but I would not see that as a real contribution. Of course I will though if my team wants me to do so, but I would prefer to actively listen in the interview and ask a question that presents itself after the interviewer has responded on something. It could simply be a clarification, asking for an expansion of the answer, or it could profoundly thought provoking.

Unit 2

Hello all! Welcome to my Unit 2 Blog! To me Unit 2 was jam packed with lots of useful, interesting information/concepts that I would not have thought about on my own. My interest was caught by the book's discussion of the individual's personality. I have always wondered what has made me the way I am today, and now I know. I got to be this way from my environment and the genes I was given at birth. I think that I am a lot like my parents, but also I am way different from them too. The book said that a majority of our personalities is formed from our genes, and I really see that expressed in me and my three sisters. We each have very unique personalities, but each of us express in different ways of our parents genes. My mom is a worrier. I often refer to her as a helicopter mom, always hovering above me and always concerned with what I am doing. Two of my sisters are very much like this, so they must have gotten the helicopter genes. My sister Emily and I are much more go with the flow, outgoing, and not really concerned with stuff ever. This is more like my dad. However, my mom and dad both are always prepared well in advance, my sisters Elizabeth, Erin, and I are a lot like this, but Emily is not. So I think that since she is the oldest her environment was shaped to put stuff off to help out with the younger kids and that she would eventually get around to the stuff she had to do. I will say that I am the most free spirited of the bunch, and I think that it is because I was the baby and my parents had seen/dealt with just about everything by the time I did it, and also I am the boy; therefore, I am the favorite and can get away with anything. Hope you enjoyed my blog today!

Reaction to Exhibit 1-2: Managers Allocation of Activities by Time

                After nine months of being the president of my fraternity, the most frustrating part of the job deals with communication. My frustrations with communication come from lack of communication and useless communication. When someone calls me to ask if it is a snow day, I become annoyed with my lost time. I DO believe that it is possible to over communicate, but I also believe you can never have too much information (these beliefs may be contradictory). While I do not wish to know nor expect to know what every brother is doing at all times (and some give me these updates), I do like to at least have a nuts and bolts version on what he is doing.

            The study in Exhibit1-2 breaks down the major tasks of managers and the amount of time spent on each task. The average and successful managers spend about 28-29% of their time communicating, but have a much different time allotment spent on networking. An average manager networks for about a fifth of their time when a successful manager spends about half of his time networking. The difference that I feel the networking has on their effectiveness is that by spending time networking, the successful manager has learned better communication skills. The better communication skills that the successful manager has allows him to spend just a little bit less time on communication, but be much more productive with his message. The effective managers however spend nearly the complete opposite amount of time on communication/networking than the average manager, and more time communicating and a little less time networking than the successful manager. I think this is like the book Good to Great. To move from a successful manager to an effective manager the person has to make some changes. They have now most likely mastered the skills of communication and from his networking knows which people to keep in his inner-circle. By knowing which people to keep in the circle, the effective manager has eliminated time spent on people who cannot help him; therefore, he no longer needs to network with them. Because of this, the person will need less time to network because they are better at knowing who/how/when to network. I feel that they spend more time communicating because they have developed the skills to know how to best communicate with each employee. If you have to communicate similar messages but in a different manner, it will take more time, but the results will be much, much better.

            Depending on how a person’s communication skills/tactics are (poor, average, good, great) shapes how I personally communicate with them. I have to communicate with some people in person, some through other people (roommates), some via phone, some through texts or email, and others by combinations of the above tactics, and some by all of the above until they respond. For example, if a person is extremely long winded, and a five minute conversation will take half an hour, I will communicate via email asking them to respond in bullet points. The reason I started doing this was the conversations with these types of people were exhausting-they would first tell me what they were going to say, then say what they wanted to say, repeat, get off track, re-cap, and then get off track some more. Every time I had a conversation that went like this I would become agitated as I felt the conversation/communication became devalued by the waste of time. However, if I feel that a person has great communication skills I may not contact them until they contact me because they are effective and handling and reporting tasks, or I may just give them a quick call and see the progress they have made and ask if they needed any help.

            The effectiveness of a manager depends on his ability to communicate and have people communicate with him.