Blog 10: Senior Project - The Holiday

1. Prior to the break, I had to change my essential question. My new EQ asks how an operations manager can best motivate their employees to achieve success in evaluations. The majority of my research is grounded in what qualities make for a good leader and I’ve had to transition to research aimed towards improving the work environment, thus motivating employees to work efficiently. What I have physically done over break is find new research on how a manager can effectively make successful employees.

2. The most important thing I’ve done, per say, is to reevaluate and find new research. Since I had to revise my essential so that it was less career oriented, I was glad to find that some of my older research does support my new essential question. What I found is that a business is only as good as the relationship with the employee. “...Executives who treat businesses as a series of relationships (not just alliances) tend to focus on managing the complexity of … different organizations and people all trying to accomplish different things.” This excerpt in particular corresponds to my EQ as it states that effective business is a result of taking ‘different organizations and people’ and directing them towards a common goal. All employees are different, therefore motivation is different from person to person. From what I understood of this article, Five Management Concepts That Really Work, was that a common goal serves as a point where the employee wants and needs to be; if success wants to be achieved in the workplace, the individual must be motivated to do so.

3. My father, Brice Cocjin, would be a candidate I would interview; I have already interviewed him on the success of an operations manager. As an operations manager, you are also in charge of hiring, firing, and employee evaluations. My mentor is one of the few managers who reviews employees and writes up evaluations. These evaluations cover how the employee works with others, their conduct, work ethic, and other areas. As such, I would definitely ask my mentor what to look for in these evaluations and what should the manager do in order to motivate them. 

All of the employees are interconnected somehow — 

which supports the concept of sharing a common goal.

Research & Working EQ

1. What is your working EQ?

My working EQ at the moment is — what qualities make for a successful operations manager?

2. What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write answer in thesis format. 

Any successful manager must have self-motivation and maintain honesty in their team. Yes, a leader can be well-spoken, have an authoritative presence, and lead their team in whichever direction they please. However, they are virtually nothing without motivation and honesty.

• Self-motivation is important for anything you plan to accomplish in life. You can’t wake up one day expecting something to happen without effort on your part. In the words of my mentor, an operations manager, “If you’re not self-motivated, the rest of the team will follow suit and lack the energy and enthusiasm to successfully complete the project or job.”
• Honesty. Scott Berkun’s article “The Art of Project Management: How to Make Things Happen” emphasized honesty among a number of other tasks a manager be on top of. If an employee is doing something wrong or they are mistaken, call them on it. How will they be able to learn from it otherwise, or better yet, how could the employee better improve work flow? Honesty is a huge factor in management, especially in a warehouse where you see a number of faces coming in each day; there must be that level of trust between the manager and employee that things will get done and done correctly.

3. What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ? 

I would say that the most helpful piece of research I’ve encountered “The Art of Project Management: How to Make Things Happen” by Scott Berkun. Operations management and project management may differ in principle, but both require that the manager be on top of things. Berkun emphasizes honesty, as I mentioned earlier, and how it’s important for a manager to sort the priorities for the team in order of importance. It has helped me answer my EQ in part because I know how important honesty is in a team; for example, if the employee fails to follow protocol, it’s the manager’s job to pull them aside and tell them. As such, this article is one of the few pieces of research that really captured my attention.

4. Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ?

My mentor is Brice Cocjin and I am continuing to volunteer at Unical Aviation, Inc. My mentor is in charge of four departments, his “main” department being in charge of EISP (Expendable Inventory Surplus Program). I have yet to see him reprimand an employee — I go in on Saturdays, the only day I can make it — but I’ve heard say how difficult it is to not only tell someone “Hey, what the heck are you doing?” but also how a manager can never know if the employees are actually working. Executive decisions would be impossible to make without motivation on the manager’s part and fulfilling the part of operations manager would be impossible without honesty.

Blog 5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1.) Positive Statement: What positive thing happen as a result of what you have completed so far?

One of the positive things that I learned during mentorship and conducting research is that management of any kind cannot be simply broken into just working a computer or holding a title. With anything, there are many components to what makes it whole. I found that in warehouse distribution management, there are quite a few things involved than just keeping cycle counts of inventory. I consider the leadership required for the job one of the most difficult but fundamental aspects of this job.

2.) EQ Content: Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?

The most influential piece of research I’ve gathered thus far has been the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Despite having been in so many groups during my time at iPoly, I can’t admit that any them were as successful as they could have been; points were made on a consensus basis and things were done because they had to. This book is written in a fictional setting where there is a dysfunctional team led by one, single influential character. In this book, I learned that reaching a consensus isn’t necessarily a good thing and conflict amongst the group is healthy for a successful team.

3.) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?

As of late, I feel that what has worked out the most for me is going with my dad for mentorship on Saturdays. I’ve been to the building enough times, but walking through the warehouse offers breadth on how much happens in a single day. This way, I get a lot of perspective on what a operations manager deals with, i.e. when there is a missing part (which has happened twice already) or when a bin needs to be located.

4.) What hasn’t worked so far?

What hasn’t worked so far is how and what other research I can find. The first articles and books I picked up helped wonders, but there is only so much reliable information I can find online. Many of the articles on warehouse management has do with the technology involved and little else on the actual managerial part involved. A few books I’ve been reading are more self-help oriented and less about application into a warehouse.

5.) What is a potential question you would like to study this year? (Working EQ)

“What qualities make for a successful operations manager?” / “What factor determines successful warehouse operations management?

What do you plan to do for mentorship? If you haven’t found a mentor yet, then discuss where you are currently looking and who you are talking to to find it.

I plan to continue my mentorship at Unical Aviation with my dad and possibly  with a few other managers working in the same department.