Week 7 Post 2: Reflection of Performance Evaluation Presentation

Yesterday in class, Caroline, Regan, and Carly had a great presentation on the topic of performance evaluations in the workforce. A performance review identifies strengths and weaknesses of employees to allow managers to target areas that require improvement. Performance reviews are used for growth and development of the individual, as well as allocating bonuses, raises, and promotions. There are five different types of performance reviews; numerical ranking, forced ranking, management by objectives, 360 degree appraisal, and critical incidence.

- Numerical Ranking is the most common type of performance review. Employees are evaluated on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10. This type of review gives managers a tangible number to work with when evaluating employee performance.
- Forced Ranking is typically used by larger companies to simplify their human resource decisions. This system is used to identify the top and bottom percent of employees. In most cases, the bottom percent of employees will either resign or be fired and replaced with better performing individuals.
- Management by Objectives is the most black and white system used to conduct performance evaluations. This system is based on specific goals and deadlines given to the employees. Managers evaluate employee’s performance simply by seeing whether or not the goals are met.
- 360 degree appraisal is a performance evaluation system that is used by gathering information from multiple parties such as, managers, coworkers, customers, and even vendors. The more information that is collected, the better the evaluation will be. The appraisals are filled out anonymously by multiple people depending on the size of the organization.
- Critical Incidence is used by identifying and describing specific events or incidents that can be either negative or positive. A positive incidence would be when an employee does something extraordinarily well, for example an employee could have acted very well in a stressful situation. A negative incidence would be when an employee needs to improve their performance, for example an employee could have made a serious mistake that could have caused damages to a patient. Detailed records are kept in order to evaluate the effectiveness of employees.

Pros and Cons of performance evaluations

Pros:
- Allows managers to enhance the quality of their employees and workplace.
- Gives employs feedback on their personal performance, and encourages hard work.
- Allows employees to improve their performance through constructive criticism.

Cons:
- Could cause conflicts, and result in damaged morale of employees.
- Could not be taken seriously by either party, or both.
- Could increase negative competition and lead to aggressive behavior
- Could obstruct teamwork

Week 7 Post 1: Reflection on Communication Presentation

In class on Monday, Jess and Sarah had a great presentation on the topic of communication. Having good communication skills is a very important attribute, especially as a future healthcare manager/leader. The study of communication is important, because every administrative function and activity involves some form of direct or indirect communication. Communication is defined as the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another. It is important to note that unless a common understanding results from the exchange of information, there is no communication. The article Jess and Sarah had us read before class did a good job of describing communication and how it works. The article explains the two common elements in every communication exchange, which are the sender and the receiver. The sender initiates the communication, and the receiver is the individual to whom the message is sent. There are certain responsibilities of the sender and receiver.

The sender’s responsibilities are as follows:
1. Clarify ideas before communicating
2. Take into consideration the total physical and human setting
3. Examine the true purpose of each communication
4. Consult with others in planning communications
5. Be mindful of the tone and basic content of the message being communicated
6. Take the opportunity to convey something of help or value to the receiver
7. Make sure they follow up with their communication
8. Communicate for future as well as the present
9. Make sure their actions support their communication
10. Seek to be a good listener

The receiver’s responsibilities are as follows:
1. Stop talking and listen
2. Put the talker at ease
3. Show a talker that you actually care about what they are saying and want to listen
4. Remove any possible distractions
5. Empathize with the talker
6. Make sure that you are patient with the speaker
7. Go easy on argument and criticism
8. Ask questions when appropriate

I believe that Jess and Sarah did a great job in their presentation, they kept the class engaged and explained how communication works and why it is important. I specifically liked the activity they included in the presentation, in which they made use tell a story to a classmate. As the listener, you were not allowed to communicate with the speaker in any way so just had to sit there and listen. This was pretty hard for me because always like to communicate with speakers when they are talking to me. I will usually say words to agree with them or nod my head, which shows that I am actually listening and not just daydreaming or looking off into space.

Week 6 Post 2: Mentorship

For our next class presentation Colleen and I are going to present on the topic of Mentors and Mentorship. I started to do some research on the topic and I found an article in which the author gives advice on what kinds of mentors to look for and how to use your mentor as a helpful guide.

The five pieces of advice are as follows:

1. A good mentor breaks you out of your comfort zone. There will always be people around to comfort you, but a good mentor is one that encourages you to keep improving and pushes you into new experiences

2. A good mentor knows your personal strengths and weaknesses. Try to improve upon your weaknesses by finding the mentor who will complement them. You don’t always have to be exactly similar to a mentor to get along. In fact, finding someone with different skillsets than you will be helpful since you’ll have even more to learn from this person.

3. Know how to utilize your mentor. You’ve finally found your mentor leader, but now what? A lot of time, mentees asked the mentors, “what do you think I should be doing?” or “what are the hottest trends in companies?” Those are the wrong questions to ask as a start before sharing who you are.

4. Perception vs. reality. Your vision might differ from the reality of things — be specific and know how to make the most of your mentors by asking those hard questions. If your relationship with your mentor still doesn’t align with what your goals, try to take the leap of faith by asking your mentor if there is anyone else you should connect with or network with in a certain field.

5. Don’t feel like you have to find someone in your industry or in the same location. And yes, you should have both men and women as your mentors. Find those who are very different from you because you’ll get the best range of possibilities and perspectives. Also, remember that in this new digital world, you could foster a mentor-mentee relationship via Skype, Face time and other virtual online tools. This will help you find an even wider range of mentors to complement your work and give you fresh insights.

I believe that these are good pieces of advice for a young person looking to pursue a career in any field. I also believe that every person beginning their career should have a mentor that they can go to for advice or help, this will allow you to develop into a better professional but also a better person in general. It is important to find a mentor that you can just talk to when you might be feeling down or are going through tough times in life.

Week 6 Post 1: Reflection on First Section of Class

Now that we have finished the first of three subsections of this course, I would like to reflect on what I have learned as well as my experience in the class thus far. The first section of the class was titled “One” because it focused on the individual and its behavior in the workplace. The topics that my classmates and I taught each other about were Motivation, Emotional Intelligence, Professional Identity, Character, Change and how to deal with change, and Personality. I’ve learned a lot of things about motivation and many useful techniques to use to motivate me when I might be feeling unenthusiastic or lazy. I also learned how important it is to have a good sense of emotional intelligence in the workplace, especially in a healthcare setting, in order to better connect with your employees and colleagues. I’ve learned the difference between an individual’s identity, personality, and character. As well as how important it is to have good character as a professional in the healthcare field. One of the most important things I have learned so far is how to deal with change. I believe this is so important due to the fact that once I get out into the workforce I am going to have to deal with change on a daily basis because the healthcare field is very unpredictable.

           

I have had a great experience in this class so far, even though at the beginning I was a little hesitant and wasn’t too sure how it was going to work out. I believe that my fellow classmates and I have done a great job of taking on the responsibility of running the class and making sure everything is coordinated. So far all of the presentations have been great and have allowed me to learn many new things that I will certainly use in the future. I am looking forward to the next section of the class as well as getting to read the final version of the primer at the end of the semester.

Week 5 Post 2: Resilience

In class yesterday Kyle and Erin discussed the topic of change. Before class they had the class read an article in the Harvard Business Review titled, How Resilience Works, by Diane Coutu. I really enjoyed reading this article because I gained a lot of knowledge on resilience, which I wouldn’t have learned if I didn’t read it. Resilience is a key characteristic of successful individuals. The thing that stuck out to me the most was when Dan Beaker, the CEO of Adaptiv Learning Systems which is a company that develops programs on resilience training, was asked if resilience matters in business. He responded by saying. “More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That’s true in the cancer ward, it’s true in the Olympics, and it’s true in the boardroom”. I liked this quote because it shows that you don’t have to be the smartest or most experienced person, but if you have resilience you can still be a successful individual. I also liked how the author describes resilience. He says, “Resilience is neither ethically good nor bad. It is merely the skill the skill and capacity to be robust under conditions of enormous stress and change”. The author also explains how resilience is usually shown when an individual has to face a hardship or tragic event in their life. Unfortunately I can directly relate to this. My oldest brother unexpectedly passed away about 3 and a half years ago. This was a tragic event for me and my family and certainly one of the biggest changes in my life. I consider myself a lot more resilient because I could have felt sorry for myself, however I used it as motivation to pursue my dreams. It has also taught me to never take anything for granted and appreciate the little things in life. I believe that resilience is an important quality to have because you are going to be faced with hardships at some point in your life and resilience makes it that much easier to get through them.

Week 5 Post 1: From a Follower to a Leader

I am interested in how to improve my skills as a leader, so I read an article on Entrepenuer.com called, “4 Ways a Follower Can Become a Leader”. I liked this article because it explains how you can transform yourself from a follower into a leader. The article starts off by explaining some good characteristics of a successful leader. The author lists qualities such as confidence, decisiveness, respect, communication, and commitment. Which I agree are all important traits to have as a leader. What I liked was that the author mentions how all of the listed attributes are ones that can be developed by any person with the right amount of motivation. The author then goes on to explain four different ways to go about attaining leadership. The four ways are, experience, incremental growth, sheer will, and necessity. Experience is one of the most important and valuable ways to attain leadership in my opinion. The more time you spend on whatever you want to become a leader in, allows you to gain more of an understanding of it each day. You will eventually gain the knowledge, communication, and confidence it takes to be a good leader in the specified area. I also think incremental growth is a good way to look at attaining leadership. It shows that you don’t have to go from being a follower to a leader overnight (even though I wish it was that easy). The author states that if you start seeking intermediary “leadership” roles and inch your way up the ladder, you will start feeling more comfortable in your leadership abilities. I never really thought of sheer will or necessity as ways to attain leadership, however I find it interesting how the author described the two methods. For sheer will the author explains, “Of course, it’s also possible to develop your abilities as a leader through sheer force of will, strange as it may sound. If you spend some time introspecting and evaluating what it takes to be a leader in your industry, you can make a list of all the abilities, skills, or points of knowledge you need to acquire, and slowly work to acquire them. This method takes significant time, energy, and will, but it can lead you in the right direction for development”. I agree that this is definitely a way you could become a leader but I do not think it would be an effective or successful approach. As for necessity the author says, “Sometimes, the best way to learn how to swim is to be thrown into the water. As leadership abilities reliably develop with experience, in some cases the best thing to do is to adopt a leadership role—such as starting your own business—regardless of how “ready” you are. You’ll sink or swim by necessity, and the pressure of the situation will help you develop your necessary skills faster. It’s a scarier method to become a leader, but a faster one”. I found this method interesting based on the fact that the author believes the pressure being put into a situation that you don’t have much experience in will ultimately help you develop the needed skills. I think the method could definitely work but I also think it could result in failure.

Week 4 Post 2: Character Leadership

For our class presentation Colleen and I are presenting on the topic of Character. There are many different definitions of character, however it can broadly be defined as the mental and moral qualities and behaviors distinctive to an individual. I was particularly interested in leadership character so I found a good article on the topic, http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/developing-leadership-character/. The article gives the readers ten leadership virtues to consider. 
I believe that this is a good list of essential characteristics to have as a leader, as well as a healthcare administrator. Another thing that I liked about the article is that it goes on to show how these characteristics can be used in a positive way as well as a negative way.

I found this chart very informative and will continue to use it in the future in order to develop my leadership character.

How does one go about developing their character? This is an important question that a lot of people want the answer to. First off some dimensions of character, specifically traits, are inherited at birth. Virtues, values and many other traits are developed during early childhood, and modified as a result of education, family influences, early role models, work and social experiences, and other life events. The article includes a great quote regarding character development. The quote is, “Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny”. This shows that the way you act and the habits that you form are ultimately what your character becomes. If you are not aware of this you could potentially become someone that you do not want to be.