Blog 17: Fourth Interview

• What do you personally consider the best means of motivating an employee in order for them to do well on an evaluation/review?
• As an operations manager, how are clear goals and expectations incorporated into a warehouse environment?
• Are there strategies involved when setting goals or expectations? If so, please explain how you go about enacting expectations and goals.
• Does Unical have a company goal that adheres to the overall functionality of the warehouse? If yes, please explain how that company goal could be used in your team (departments).
• What can an employee do to improve on an evaluation? If they’re rated low in a certain area, how does an employee go about improving?
• How do work-sponsored evaluations such as the Personal Values Inventory® and the Predictive Index® measure the competency of an employee and/or manager?
• Would you say these types of ‘tests’ promote positive behavior or change anything in an employee?
• For my essential question, my second answer is that an operations manager can best motivate their employees through communication. How can communication be used to address motivation?
• Generally speaking, what kinds of motivation does Unical offer it’s employees?
• As a manager, what do you do to motivate your employees? What do you do to make your motivation method effective?
• I’ve come across a number of articles stating that relationships between employee and manager is an important part of motivation. Why do you think communication heavily emphasized in motivation? 
• In your experience as a manager, what kinds of motivation drove you to be successful and get you where you are now?
• Before becoming a manager, what used to motivate you to do well?
• How many reviews do you typically go through in a day?
• Which evaluations (the good ones or the bad ones) have the most attention? 
• Are employees on probation (meaning they’ve done poorly in a certain area) more at risk and have extensive reviews? If yes, what can a manager do to ensure these employees are addressed appropriately (in terms of motivating them and assessing the issue)?
• Are employees with generally good performances devoted as much attention as those with issues? If yes, what should a manager do in order to ensure they maintain their dependability?
• How does a positive work environment help employees to be productive?
• What do you personally think invokes efficient productivity? Are there a number of factors to determine efficient productivity?
• Would you say team building creates motivation between a manager and their employees? If so, please provide an example from the warehouse and how an effective team is important.
• Why is good leadership important in motivation? 
• How does good leadership steer an employee in the right direction (in terms of doing well on an evaluation)?
• Is motivation clearly visible in an employee? What alerts the manager when they know their leadership is working?

February Blog Post

Hello, everyone. Cheers to yet another weekend. 

What I have for the monthly post is actually what I’m working on for the final presentation and independent component. My father/mentor recently attended a seminar for Unical Aviation Inc. titled ‘Strategic Planning & Objectives Workshop … Building an Even Stronger Team.’ What primarily caught my attention and related to my EQ and topic overall was a part of the seminar known as the Personal Values Inventory®. One critical part in particular was what motivates people.

The Personal Values Inventory® was developed by Elias H. Porter, Ph.D., founder and president of Personal Strengths Publishing, Inc. The PVI® is broken into context this way:

• Personal — “The PVI offers people the chance to learn about their personal strengths and about how they use them with other people.”
• Values — “Each of us has values that help us decide how to act. Our values affect what we pay attention to, what we do, and how we feel about things.”
• Inventory — “The PVI is not a test where your answers are graded as either right or wrong. It is an inventory for taking stock of your motivational values—the basis for how you feel and act in different situations.”

What I’ve started doing thus far was created this template:

It’s based on this placard, which my mentor completed at the seminar:

The only difference with the one I'm designing is the triangle; the whole thing becomes a little more confusing with it present.

The red, green, and blue colors represent three different ways that we can related to other people; there is even a special group that are in-betweens—hubs. Each color and the hubs, have preferences of treatment, motivations, effective/ineffective environments, and even how to be the most effective boss for the person and how to be the most effective employee. (I will get around to explaining the colors and hubs in detail.)

The numerical values on the PVI® placard my mentor derive from the PVI® booklet. Inside are 1-20 items, each with statements such as “I enjoy things most when I am…” and followed by three different responses. Here, the surveyor distributes 10 points between each response. At the end, the numbers are then recorded at the bottom; for example, in one column of responses, it could total to 58—hence, the 58 on my mentor’s placard.

I enjoyed working on this because I now have a good idea of what I want to do for my presentation and what will make it engaging. My mentor mentions that the Personal Values Inventory® is something not many people have the opportunity to take part in, and having other students take part in it could be inspiring. I’d like to think so too.

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

EQ:

How can an operations manager best motivate their employees to achieve a successful evaluation?

ANSWER #2

An operations manager can be motivate their employees to achieve a successful evaluation by being an effective communicator.

DETAIL 1

Communicating As a Manager

“Be a positive communicator.” A manager who can communicate with their employees in a positive manner tend to have teams that are positive and feel positive about their work. A positive communicator sets a positive tone, creates personal connections with employees, creates an atmosphere of open communication, and encourages people to be open and candid.

DETAIL 2

Why Is Effective Communication Important in Management?

A manager, which could be a manager in any field, understands that communication played an integral role in building alliances and productivity within the workplace.The ability to set a goal and provide direction promotes a collaborative atmosphere. Manager must clearly articulate strategies and plans; an operations manager should have a plan of action in this regard. Inability to properly articulate defeats the purpose of a “company vision”, which is the hope for a successful business.

DETAIL 3

Increasing Employee Productivity: The Strategic Role That HR Essentially Ignores

“Effective communications and feedback reduce errors and frustration.” A manager who doesn’t provide feedback severely hinders the success of their team as well as productivity. A manager should be able to identify the error made, assess it, and provide feedback for the employee. In this way, the employee can better avoid making the same mistake and promote productivity. Feedback mechanisms are an important component of effective communication.

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In conclusion, an operations manager should be an effective communicator in order to motivate their employees. Without positive communication a manager would be unable to build necessary connections with employees or create an atmosphere of open communication. Being a communicator helps to build teams and productivity; inability to articulate the “company vision” would become a defeated purpose should the manager be unable to clarify goals or ideas. Feedback mechanisms are a means of keeping employees in check and assessing errors. By spotting the problem sooner than later, the manager can better ensure that their employee doesn’t make the same mistake and improve efficiency.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For Independent Component 2, I plan to focus more on the psychological approach of employee motivation. Recently, my mentor went to a seminar and took an extensive examination that measured conflict/resolution ability and motivations. I will take this exam myself and I plan on using this for my activity. The work involved includes recreating templates and understanding what the examination is.

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

The work involved includes recreating templates and understanding what the examination is; there are booklets and examples I would have to look over and post evidence for.

3. And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

This component would better help me explore my topic because it is extensive and less difficult to gauge than the Predictive Index® survey (this one involves compute analyzation and all that), whereas this new test it can be conducted much easier. In addition, looking into this examination reveals what motivates different types of people and how to work with others. This is something that not only applies to school and work but overall lifelong achievement.

4. Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the Independent Component 2 log.

Done.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

LITERAL

1. Statement saying: “I, Arianna Nicole Cocjin, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
2. Cite source(s) regarding who or what article or book helped you compete the Independent Component.
• The first source that helped me complete Independent Component 1 were Torben Rick’s article 20 Tips to Improve Employee Engagement and Performance. Despite this being one of the many “___ Tips to Improve Employee Motivation” articles out there, I specifically liked how the author highlighted important parts of the tip. For example, in Tip #1, targets is highlighted; clicking on it directs to another article explaining the highlighted word. Because I based my answer #1 on this tip, the additional links were helpful in me better understanding what targets and larger organizational ambitions are.
• The second source was the Houston Chronicle-specific Work section; here, there are a plethora of helpful business articles ranging from how to grow a small business to managing corporations. I’ve used this website for a number of my resources and the one that I referred to within my Independent Component was Why Is Effective Communication Important in Management?. This article in particular stresses why a competent manager should have effective communication. The statement that is a particular driver in this article is that a manager needs the credibility to implement not only his employer’s objectives but also lead the team in the same direction. The best statement I read in this article in relation to the Independent Component: “…Managers are the linchpin of a company’s productivity efforts. Managers must clearly articulate strategies and plans, so that an employee team knows what to do…”
3. Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).

• Provided for. 

4. Explanation of what you completed.

• For my Independent Component 1, I continued to shadow my mentor at Unical Aviation and proceeded learn what motivates employees to do well. I was able to take the Predictive Index® survey, a survey that Unical implements for its employees—the survey measures strong behavior, management style, influencing style, and management strategies; I was able to find to find and read five articles that applied to my EQ and answer #1; I was also able to see employee reviews (conducted by the managers) and how employees are rated based upon their performance.

INTERPRETIVE 

1. Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work. Provide evidence.

• The significant parts of this component were certainly the official Unical employee reviews and taking part in the Predictive Index® survey.

This is what the front page of the Predictive Index® user manual looks like.

Front cover page of the Participant Workbook, apart of a three series pack.

2013 WH General Review

Here is one of Unical's General Reviews. The link shows the extensive six page review that is looked over not by one manager, but by a second. Each category (dependability, personal, job, resourceful, productivity) can be rated based on a Rating Scale—1 being Unsatisfactory and 7 being Outstanding.

APPLIED

1. How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

• The component helped me to better understand the foundation of my topic simply because motivation and self-motivation are everyday drivers. At Unical, the stark contrast between the warehouse and the break room is purposeful—the pool table and the golf simulator are there to alleviate stress on the employees, whereas the warehouse floor is the place where employees are expected to do their jobs. My mentor, Brice Cocjin, often faces the difficulties of keeping his team on board. In life, there are going to be people who become unengaged with work or begin to slack off. It’s up to the manager to get them motivated and on track, whether it be through internal or external means. I really enjoyed learning about this because it has been a personal challenge to motivate myself to take care of what needs to. It’s up to me to motivate myself to keep going.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

1. Positive Statement

Of all the things to be proud of when the bulk of it went so sourly was the design of my keynote template. It was clean and simple, yet I did not present to the same degree as the design.

2. Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP -      CR       NC

b. Above all, I believe I deserve an AP-, despite knowing that wasn’t the grade I saw on the contract. I believe an AP- is adequate in terms of an Professionalism because I spoke at a relative volume, made eye contact with the audience, and asked for audience engagement. In terms of Organization & Creativity, I know I did not have the most stellar activity design—that’s on me and I take responsibility; however, I do believe that the activity itself did apply to my EQ. Audience Involvement is a given and I made sure I was able to complete that part.

3. What Worked 

Although I could have been more assertive with my activity, I appreciated that part of the class was able to understand the handout. When I chose certain people from groups, despite some not taking it seriously, it was nice to hear people try and apply what kind of motivation could be used (though, the vagueness of my answer is entirely on me.)

4. What Didn’t Work?

If I could go back (which I can’t), I would not have waited until the last minute to start this. A month’s time to complete this was more than enough. I admit that I was that person. I would have gotten what needed to be done, what needed to be emphasized, and made a much clearer representation. More importantly, I would have rehearsed what I planned to say so that delivery would have been much smoother. Additionally, If I’d used my time efficiently, without a doubt things would have been different.

5. Finding Value

I would definitely want to consult my mentor for further answers in regard to my EQ. What motivates employees is so vague, so I think the answer could be specific given it comes from an operations manager themselves.

January Blog Post

Hey everyone. Ever since the great EQ change, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on what defines an effective operations manager; the term “operations” is used implicitly in reference to the title — an operations manager manages all residing operations in a warehouse (try saying that twice). These “operations” are what keeps the company, in this case, Unical Aviation, alive (in part). To paint a picture, operations are blood vessels, employees the blood coursing through, and the organization is the heart, the core. Like the nervous system is to the body, leadership is quintessential to a company/organization. But without an effective leader, how is an employee going to work at their most efficient level? A leader should be defined first, before the employee is developed.

My mentor suggested this article to me: Top 12 Development Goals for Leaders

The article in its most general sense is list of developmental goals that leaders should use for their leadership development plan; the author, Dan McCarthy, Director of Executive Development Programs at UNH, suggests that the goals should not practiced all together, but rather one goal exercised explicitly. I decided to choose five of these goals as the most important. They aren’t in sequential order but by the number of which they’re listed on the article.

Strategic Thinking 

This goal is centric on the big picture. The big picture requires that the manager look at the business from afar with a broader, business perspective. Rather than expel energy on the minute details of a business, look at why things happen over the what and how. How I interpreted this was through the following questions:

“Why didn’t that plan work?”

“Why did that work out better than last time?”

“Why would an employee be confused about this?”

3. Coaching

Many other articles I’ve read ever accredit successful businesses to dictatorship leadership. Management is principally providing guidance for employees working beside you. This goal is about guiding and developing your direct reports, subordinates in the corporate hierarchy. In regard to my EQ, this is especially important because as an operations manager, you want to guide your employees towards the company’s goal and lead them the right way. Without that guidance, the employee won’t be motivated to do their best.

7. Leadership Presence

Having a voice in a business never hurt anyone, as far as I’m concerned. Commanding a room and communicating effectively, that is, delivering clear ideas and direction, inspires others. Employees feel motivated to do better when their managers see value in their work and want to see the company progress.

10. Collaboration

 Collaboration is defined as a successful partnership in which both parties understand their goals and needs and help one another achieve their goals. Teamwork is heavily emphasized in regard to employee motivation. By placing employees into teams, however small, strengths can be revealed and thus efficiency can be achieved.