Diving In Head First

Currently I am sitting in the library working on what is currently 67 pages of my data analysis portfolio. In need of a study break, I thought blogging could be a good way to get away from numbers and back to words. I never really thought of myself as much of a writer, but I feel as though this portfolio has been a great outlet for me the past semester. In both Management II and Research I, I will have tangible, concrete pieces of my own work to show to the world. I am not sure if this is why Professor Bonica gave us SHOW YOUR WORK! by Austin Kleon but if its not it is quite the coincidence. I started reading the first few pages during another study break earlier today (ok yes I take a lot of study breaks) and Kleon opens by discussing how getting your work out there for others to see is effective than networking. I find this to be great timing as we have discussed how we now can show potential employers a blog (portfolio) and a primer (and a data analysis portfolio for those of us in the HMP major). This is the first semester I have ever had tangible products like these and its great to come out with not just one but three great pieces of work. Kleon made a funny point when he mentioned how cool it would be if the person who was interviewing you already followed your blog. I certainly don't expect this to happen to me any time soon but it certainly got me thinking about what I am putting out into the world.
Yesterday I had a really profound day. Yesterday was our last day of class and my end of the year performance review with my boss. I had a self review that I had to prepare before I got to the meeting. The categories are customer service, job knowledge, professionalism, communication/interpersonal skills, and risk management. The rankings are either does not meet expectations, meets expectations, or exceeds expectations. I got into my meeting and my boss asked me to tell him what I thought of the year and what I gave myself on my self assessment. He then started to tell me what he thought. The funny thing was I was actually harder on myself than he was. He gave me exceeds expectations for 4/5 categories and meets expectations for one. He explained I likely would have gone 5/5 had I not made a pretty key mistake a week before (which is absolutely fair). He went on to tell me how impressed he was with how quickly I emerged as a leader. He said that people often take time to adjust to being in our leadership position but that I jumped right in. Because of this, he knew he described me as his go-to employee for any shift. This got me thinking about Management II. I feel like this is exactly how I approached the class. Not in a formal leadership position, but by immediately diving into what we were trying to accomplish. With everything that I do, I try to put all of my energy into it. After an extremely reassuring performance review and a formal adjourning of our class, I felt both energized and at peace at the same time. I have never felt more purpose in my life. I feel both reassured in my ability to succeed in this career and extensive pride in what we have accomplished in Management II. I really am extremely passionate about everything we do in HMP and am ready to jump head first into being an administrative intern. While I do not fully believe in the idea of fate, I know right now I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

Time to Find a New Weakness

After completing my third and finally full class presentation, I think it might be time for me to pick a new weakness. Before this class, I absolutely hated public speaking. If you had told me that I was going to have to teach 3 full hour and twenty minute long classes, I probably would have looked at you, laughed, and immediately dropped the class. To be fair to myself I did know that I was going to have to do this before the drop deadline, but I saw how much this class could offer me and I swallowed my pride and stuck with it.
Even my first presentation I was extremely nervous. After yesterday, I feel so much more confident speaking in front of a group of people. I wondered if this was just because of how well I have gotten to know everyone. But yesterday I also had a presentation right after our class. Even in front of a class probably five times larger than ours, I felt astronomically more confident speaking. I can compare how I felt last semester in front of my whole major in a mock debate and how I felt yesterday. I feel like a completely new person. I certainly could improve my public speaking skills from here but this class has given me the foundation to finally feel confident.
I googled statistics on fear of public speaking. On statisticbrain.com, they cited a study done by the National Institute of Mental Health which found that 74% of people suffer from speech anxiety. I then read an article from Forbes called "Why We Fear Public Speaking and How to Overcome It". Nick Morgan says that 10 percent of people really love public speaking, 10 percent physically cannot even think about it, and the other 80 lie in the middle of experiencing some anxiety but knowing it won't kill them. Whichever of these two statistics you believe is more accurate, clearly a lot of people really do not enjoy it.
For the standard "what is your weakness?" interview question, I might have to find a new answer.

Toxic Leaders

As I spoke about today in class, I was involved in an extremely toxic team environment. When I was a senior in high school, I was recruited by a university to join their inaugural women's lacrosse team. I went to the school, and to be absolutely honest, if I had the knowledge that I do now I would have known it was not the place for me. I had been recruited by a lot of other universities but no where really clicked for me. This was a really unique opportunity and I knew if I didn't give it a shot I would always wonder what it could have offered me. They also had the perfect program for the profession I thought I wanted at the time so professionally it made a lot of sense for me. I decided to commit to the school. As many bad experiences as I did have, I do not regret taking this chance. The amount of growth I went through from this time until the beginning of my junior year was astronomical.
In the summer we went for a week long camp at the university. Almost immediately, those of us who had been recruited first and vaguely knew each other as the top prospects through social media and such formed a clique. As we moved in, we were all roommates with other team members and almost all of us lived on the exact same floor of the same dorm. I cannot stress how absolutely toxic this environment was. I became very close with a guy I met at orientation and as the year progressed spent more and more time hiding out away from my room as I could. I felt like I really had no safe space. The original clique was okay at first and then went down in flames, hard and fast. I will not admit that everything I did was perfect my freshman year as a naive 18 year old, but some of the behavior of my teammates was frankly appalling. One of our biggest issues was that our key leaders were actually some of the biggest contributors to our issues. My coach knew of the issues that were going on, and would admit this individually to other girls, but failed to address it even once. I performed much worse than I would have had I been put in an environment that I was able to succeed in. I was constantly worried about what my teammates were saying about me and had a hard time fighting the voices inside my head telling me that I was failing. This spiraled until the winter, when I decided to make a change. I ended up turning my performance around and becoming a key piece of our defense. For me, it was too little too late though. I knew that my coach likely would not change her ways. I also knew that a lot of my relationships with my teammates were already beyond full repair. I knew that this toxic environment was not going to improve any time soon. I loved the commitment of being on a Division 1 team. And I finally was performing at a high level and was in a great spot for coming back next season.
In my end of the year meeting, I literally cried in front of my coach because of the environment that I had been in the entire year. What really bothered me in that meeting was she acknowledged she knew what was going on. I knew she genuinely felt bad that some of us went through the conflicts that we did, but she took very little accountability for her role in the situation. Deciding to leave was the hardest decision I had made so far. Through all of the bad relationships, I also made a lot of really great ones. But I knew at that time that I was never going to be a professional lacrosse player, and I was likely never going to be happy on this team. I decided that what was best for my career long term and my overall happiness was transferring. The amount of girls who apparently agreed with me, and also left, spoke for itself. Fortunately for the current team, it seems like their culture has changed a lot since I left (I'm not sure it could have gotten worse though). But like they say, when one door closes, another one opens. I have found an amazing environment around me and countless people who support me. I have never felt more competent in my academics or more sure that I am in the exact place that I am supposed to be. UNH has brought me so many amazing opportunities and is the best decision I have ever made.
I learned so much about being a leader from this time. It is important to understand when there are issues among your organization. It is also important to address those issues and solve conflicts. As a leader, it is unacceptable to leave the people who look to you feeling like they are being left out to dry. Leaders can make or break a team. I know I have learned from her mistakes.

Making the Most Out of Your Internship

As the semester comes to an end, my classmates and I will each embark on our summer internships. This is something I am extremely excited to do because it really will be the first big step into my professional career. I had a lot of ideas about where I wanted to go and ended up picking an organization that I really didn't expect to choose. I connected instantly with my preceptor and an alumni who also works at the organization and am excited for all of the opportunities they have to offer. I came across an article in the Harvard Business Review called "6 Ways to Make the Most of Your Internship". Right off the bat, author John Coleman states,

"These experiences can be tremendously valuable, providing young workers the opportunity to build skills for their resumes and meet people who are working in their preferred industry. Increasingly, they are the likeliest route to full-time employment and are even offered year-round rather than only during summer months. But they can also be difficult adjustments for young people who have little to no experience in professional offices. It can be hard for someone to stand out and make the right impression during a three-month stint spent adapting to such a new environment."

 While I have had a lot of work experience, as I was employed as soon as I turned 16, I do not have a lot of experience in a professional office. My experiences mostly revolve around retail and restaurants where the environment is much more informal. I am hoping that I will be able to acclimate myself into the professional environment very quickly.

His first tip is "start with relentless punctuality". As someone who absolutely dreads being late, I do not see this being an issue for me. I am somewhat concerned getting my body/sleep schedule in sync with a typical work schedule on top of the time my commute will take me. Coleman also quotes an exective that mentions that "summer internships are for a short, defined period of time, so give it 100%." Our internships are only around 10 weeks which is just a little more than two months. I think that showing up on time shows both respect and dedication.
Second is "complete each task with excellence". This seems pretty obvious. You want your work to speak for itself.
Third is "take on more work without being asked". Luckily, this is something that has been drilled into me in each of my jobs. As a hostess, I often do things that really are not in my job description, but make the jobs of those around me easier. All year at my on campus job I am constantly the person picking up extra shifts or working in departments or areas that I am not familiar with. This has both helped my time management and has allowed me to not be afraid to try new opportunities just because they are not my responsibility or I am not familiar with them.
Fourth is "be resourceful". One thing a lot of the seniors stressed was keeping a notebook with questions or topics you were not familiar with. Coleman quotes an executive who discusses how asking too many questions can make it seem like you have not even attempted to find an answer by yourself. I think there is a balance between knowing when you need to ask for help and constantly asking for it instead of doing your own research first.
Fifth is "ask questions -- good ones". For me, asking questions shows you're engaged, whether that be in an interview, in class, in a meeting, or during a conversation. In the context of an internship, I feel that this is especially important when meeting with your preceptor. My goal for the summer is to "be a sponge" and soak up as much knowledge as I possibly can. Asking questions from a real professional is one of the best ways to do that. Coleman also suggests that when you hear a colleague ask a great question, write it down and consider what made it a great question. This tip can definitely help strengthen the quality of the questions you ask.
The sixth and final tip is "build professional relationships". Again, this seems pretty obvious. Networking is essential in a lot of professional careers, health administration is absolutely one of those careers. Relationships make experiences more memorable and strengthen professional development. Coleman also suggests learning from the great relationship-builders in your organization. It is often easy to spot the person in a company that has great relationships and I think there is a lot to learn from these people.

John Coleman makes a lot of valid points in this article. My key takeaways were giving it 100% all of the time, making sure you are asking the right questions, and trying to find answers yourself first instead of always asking for help. He states "doing only what's expected of you isn't enough to be noticed." This is a good rule in any position. Being a versatile employee and the person that often looks to go above and beyond is a good position to be in.

Hot Water

Today I really screwed up at my job. I apparently did not look meticulously enough at the schedule as I should have and had no idea that I was scheduled to work tonight. Because I didn't know this I switched shifts with another co-worker and ended up unknowingly double booking myself for the night. I went in early and put in some extra work to do some repairs that would benefit us for the night even though we will be done in 24 hours. I had another co-worker covering for me while I played in my hockey game, and when I finished I opened my phone up to a missed call and a text from my boss. I had no idea why he would be calling me. I then opened up his text and found out that I was supposed to be at a different facility than where I was.
To give you a little background knowledge, we often run (as we are right now 3 sports). People who come into my position are promoted from being a referee of any of our 3 sport tracks. Often supervisors work the majority of their shifts in the sport that they were promoted from. As this week is the final week and most crucial part of playoffs, I thought there was no possibility I was even scheduled for another sport. This mistake has been made by other co-workers of mine and I actually totally covered and solved myself this same situation in the fall for someone else, which fortunately for him and unfortunately for me my boss doesn't know about. He was able to find someone to go out to the field
I take a lot of pride in the work I do, that is why I blog about it so often. I really feel that what we do at Intramurals and organizationally at Campus Rec really does have an impact on a lot of students' college experience. So I was extremely upset at myself for making this big of a mistake especially at a crucial time for both sports that were involved. My boss asked if we could meet tomorrow to talk and I have thought over multiple times what I'm going to have to say. While this isn't a crisis situation, I actually learned some tools through our crisis leadership presentation that I can relate to this. A lot of our in class scenarios began with us fully taking ownership for the crisis. Fortunately, I don't even have to lie that this is entirely my fault, because it is. But at this point all I can really do is take ownership for it and make sure it doesn't happen again. But I am worried I will have to walk a very fine line, depending on my repercussions, between defending myself and the extensive number of great things I have done this year and just laying down and taking whatever my boss decides to throw at me. I have done a lot of things for my group this year and stepped up often when others wouldn't. I feel that my work speaks for itself. I just hope that my boss knows how hard I work in my position, so that I don't have to do a lot of defending, and that one mistake doesn't discredit how much work I have put in for the last 12 months.
Admittedly I am also pretty curious to see how my boss handles this. I made a truly genuine mistake, but I am both up for a promotion and in the running for Supervisor of the Year which will be awarded Friday. He does have a reputation for being lenient and a very small record of punishing people. But I still did make a stupid mistake. I am, lets not say excited, but eager to examine his leadership techniques. So will he know that I genuinely slipped up and recognize how much hard work I have put in for 12 months? Or will one night taint everything that I've done up to this point? Stay tuned I guess.

Beginnings and Endings

After reading Jess's reflective post about the end of the semester nearing us I found myself getting really nostalgic about what we have accomplished this semester. The first few weeks I think a lot of us were extremely apprehensive about being in a class with a structure that is unlike anything we have ever been exposed to. Being a thoroughly unstructured person, I had no real reservations about these changes. Reading what Professor Bonica had planned for us motivated me to want to jump in head first into everything that this class could offer me intellectually. I started off very early on this portfolio and have tried to maintain my pace since. The environment we created has facilitated the best learning environment I have ever truly experienced. The climate has changed exponentially since our first day in the epicenter of every Health Management & Policy major's world, Pettee 114. We have been vocal about what has worked and what hasn't. Every section our presentations have gotten better and better and I have seen everyone open up a little more each time. I have learned just as much from the presentations that we have prepared as I have from each one of my classmates. I have had the pleasure of getting to know each of my classmates, and Professor Bonica, to a point that I did not anticipate. Our discussions are extremely open and I have never worried about saying the wrong thing or being judged. They have kept me engaged in every single class and often made me reflect about our material outside of class. They have made me reflect on my strengths and weaknesses, my tendencies, my character, and my core values. This class has not only benefited me intellectually but it has pushed me to grow as a person. I really value the connections that I have made with each and every one of you and how much we have accomplished and grown. In the business world I have heard the saying many times: "its not what you know, its who you know." While I do think what you know and who you are are still important, I know that I have connected to some pretty great people who will be great professionals in a few years. I know that our futures hold bright things for each of us.
As this class nears its end, we will also have some important beginnings. This summer we will have the opportunity to examine the material we have discussed in a real professional setting. I only wish that I had an opportunity to take a class like this after having real professional experience. Lastly, I would like to thank Professor Bonica for his radical ideas and for allowing me to have this experience. This class would truly not be possible without you and I have learned so much from you this semester. I know I will use the knowledge this class has given me far beyond May of 2018. I look forward to giving my third and final presentation and the feeling of accomplishment that I will have when we turn in our finished primer.

Building Relationships

Today I attended a professional panel focused on health care finance where we had 4 professionals talk to us about their careers and current policies. One of the biggest things that stuck out to me was when Dr. Bonica asked the Assistant VP of Finance about the stigma that so many people who work in finance are stuck behind their computers crunching numbers all day. I really didn't anticipate that her response would be that this is not the case, and the biggest part of her job is building relationships. Another woman who worked in insurance and the CEO of a small critical access hospital both agreed that this skill is essential to their job. The CEO came from a background of law enforcement and said that the reason he was an effective hospital CEO was because of emotional intelligence and his ability to connect with people.
This made me think back to my job and the skills that it has instilled in me. When asked in my job interview why I thought I would be good for the promotion my answer was that I had built extremely strong relationships both with my peers, my supervisor, and with those who I oversee. What drew me to my current position was how tight knit of a group we are. There are smaller subgroups in my position, grouped by what sports track you are on. And when I was answering why I would be successful at being a program coordinator I was able to speak to how good of relationships I have within my organization. I speak openly with my supervisor most days that I work. He has been there for me to rely on for any support and I have been there for him to keep day to day operations running smoothly. We often have bounced ideas off of each other for ways to improve our program or how to better train our officials. My sports have had the fewest amount of issues the entire year and I am certain that is because of how well my colleagues and I work together. I think that knowing how to build relationships is a hard skill to teach but I am very fortunate enough to be in an environment that has fostered such good connections in my life. The connections I have make my work more efficient and enjoyable.
The idea that your character and EQ may be more important than your IQ is an idea that we have been discussing all semester. Hearing that from professionals in the health care industry really reinforced that idea for me.

Lessons on Teamwork from Miracle

For our topic of Many, Logan and I will research teamwork. I really couldn't be more excited about our topic because I think that it is universally important no matter what job you are in. I have been on teams my entire life, starting when I was four joining my town's youth hockey program. Since then, between 3 different sports, I have been on countless sports teams on different levels (youth, high school, college Division 1 and club). Every single one of these sports teams along with the other organized teams I have been on in my life has been extremely unique. When I think about a good example of a great team, I automatically think of the 1980 Olympic Hockey team. If you've ever seen the movie Miracle, this is the team I'm referring to. Admittedly I've seen this movie enough times to quote the entirety of it so I am not even sure where to start for those of you who have not seen it. It even features Ralph Cox, a UNH alumni that was cut from the team at the last minute.

 

The team is comprised of players from all of the most competitive colleges in the country, which means many of them are rivals. Their biggest issue in the first half of the movie is even being able to tolerate each other let alone actually work together. In the picture shown above, the players are gathered in a circle. Cox actually says this because he knows whatever school he says hes from hes going to make an enemy. Eventually they actually come together to be a family. The big turning point in the film is this scene : Miracle on Ice. When they are pushed to their breaking point, they finally come together for one common goal, to play for the USA instead of as individuals. While most team environments may not have a goal that is easy to rally around (like winning a gold medal for your country) what I took away from this team and this movie was that having a defined goal or purpose is essential for any team. People knowing why they are there and what they are working towards creates motivation and creates a common bond among team members. If you haven't seen this movie, I would very much recommend it as it shows the journey of one of the greatest teams the world has ever seen.

Lightning Does Strike Twice

This semester we are enrolled in a class called Health Research I, essentially it is a data analytics class. Every other week or so we turn in a problem set, which is a small project that encompasses one topic of the class. This week we worked on forecasting and had been warned in the past that this was the problem set that ended up having the most output and also would be much easier to start early when learning the different forecasting techniques. I got started on it as we went along each method and then unfortunately, lost the entirety of my data around 10am on Wednesday (the day before it was due). This was mostly my own fault for forgetting to save my progress as I went along. I pretty much locked myself in my apartment and ended up getting back to where I was. Then again, at 9pm, my computer shut down. Of course I didn't learn my lesson and again didn't save my progress. I panicked and knew as soon as I turned my computer on I would be back to where I was at 10am. I ended up staying up until about 2am to finish the problem set and lost most of my sanity in the process. However, I was the most productive during this time. This got me thinking about procrastinating. While I did not intentionally procrastinate, I may as well have. I was wondering why I was the most productive the closest to my deadline. I may have been more productive because I had already forecasted this data twice so I had my bearings at this point. I have become much better about procrastination since high school but I remember the cycle of putting things off then scrambling to be productive in the last night. Now, I tend to start things much earlier and try to get ahead of my assignments.
I found an article on Business Insider about how procrastinating can make you more productive . A professor from Stanford University talks about his use of "structured procrastination". He says "

'Procrastination means not doing what you’re supposed to be doing,' he says. 'Structured procrastination means you don’t waste your time. When you’re avoiding another task, you do something else instead.' " I thought this was a really interesting concept. Putting things off to the last minute is really never a good strategy, but I think if you take something away from his strategy it should be that if you really are avoiding one project, at least get your work done on another one. Don't just sit and watch Youtube videos or scroll through Facebook. He also made the point that as long as you weigh your priorities you can still be efficient. Every person works differently when it comes to time management, the most important thing is finding a strategy that fits your personal style but still is a strategy that gets your work done on time and with a high quality. This is a very different way of time management from anything I have ever seen but I found he did make some good points.
At the end of the day I learned from this experience 1. I hate working right before a deadline so procrastination is just not for me 2. SAVE YOUR WORK multiple times as you go along on big projects 3. If it comes down to it, you will still be able to meet your deadline so just work hard and be productive.

 

Final Thoughts on Listening

I really enjoyed presenting on yesterdays topic. The presentation itself actually got me thinking about listening even more than my research did. While presenting, I noticed something I'm sure a lot of our professors deal with on a daily basis, the way electronics can create such a barrier for listening. I noticed throughout our presentation a lot of my classmates on their computers or from time to time, phones. While other classes computers may be essential, they really aren't in ours. I must mention that I certainly have also done this in our class more than I would like to admit. But I wondered how our class would have gone if we had asked everyone to put their technology away and actually actively listen. With how much participation we had, I think that everyone listened much more than I had realized. But there were certain people that stuck out to me that were really giving the presentation their undivided attention. Going off this in the future, I am definitely going to strive to keep my technology away during this class and follow the example of my other classmates. I think that participation is really the way to get the most out of this class whether that is in class or through this portfolio. I don't think that banning technology necessarily creates a class full of active listers. However, I feel it is our responsibility as students to not allow technology to be a barrier to learning and participation. 
Telephone was definitely my favorite activity of the class. I was actually kicking myself for not realizing this was a great listening activity earlier in my research. I also loved this video of Dwight learning active listening. I learned a lot about my own habits through my research. My mind tends to work extremely fast so when I am listening to a friend telling a story I tend to interrupt with clarifying questions because I like to have all of the information and if I don't ask when it comes to mind, I will forget the question all together or just focus on the question so I don't hear the rest of the story. Clearly this is a bad habit and something I need to work on. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed presenting this topic and will work to use my knowledge to become a better listener.

10 Steps to Effective Listening

Today I read an article from Forbes called 10 Steps to Effective Listening while doing research for my presentation. I think that listening is possibly one of the most important skills to have. Being an effective listener is essential for communication. There is also nothing that annoys me more than people who are terrible listeners. When working tonight, I asked someone a specific question. Because they likely didn't value our interaction and were clearly not listening, they answered another question that I didn't even ask them. One thing I really liked from this article was that it mentioned being present. This is something I strive to always be. I think that this is important in listening and just in day to day life. If you are too busy at work worrying about your issues at home, how can you be productive? The same goes for a conversation. If you are stuck in your own head thinking about something else you are not fully engaged in the conversation. It also mentions keeping an open mind. You can learn something from everything you meet. I remember in class someone saying "everyone is an expert in something". We all walk different paths and have different experiences and through listening to others we can gain new perspectives. I've really enjoyed my research so far and am excited to present to the class.

Evaluating Performance Evaluations

Today's class really got me thinking about how my organization uses performance reviews. What I like about our environment is that feedback is constantly expected. Instead of making it one formal sit down, we constantly give it throughout each shift. I think this creates a really unique environment because its much less awkward to ask someone to sit down and talk about how they are doing. It also is important that there is meaning to the physical performance review sheets. We use them in deciding who will work playoffs especially when it comes down to the important games. That's one of the traits I noticed today that I think is important in a performance review. I don't necessarily agree with firing a certain number or percentage of your lowest ranking employees but I think that if you're going to take the time to do a performance review, it should have meaning for both the employer and employee. Something I may look to add would be to justify scores that are not 3's because I know I tend to give out more 4's and 5's than I probably should. We had these on our peer reviews and I thought this was really effective in stopping people from inflating scores. I am curious if there are any alternatives out there as opposed to the traditional methods. I know there are many people that argue that performance evaluations overall are extremely ineffective and may not really be benefiting us at all. Maybe they are, but what is the alternative? Doing nothing at all?

Performance Evaluations

Tomorrow Carly, Regan, and Caroline will be presenting about performance evaluations. I am actually really excited for this because this is actually one of the key components of my job at UNH. I would consider evaluation and risk management the two major things that I do on a day to day basis. Being so young in my career I do think it is unique that I am in a position where I am constantly evaluating and providing feedback to employees. My job is to evaluate referees as they officiate games in broomball, ice hockey, and floor hockey. While I am allowed to do it in regards to any sport, these are the sports I usually run and feel the most competent in and therefore can give the best feedback. I am excited to learn more about what makes an evaluation effective because I have also received a promotion at my job. I will now be at the highest position that a student can reach in my organization. It will almost be an administrative position where I will deal with scheduling employees, event scheduling, some data entry, ordering all of our supply needs, etc. In my interview, I was asked what one thing I most wanted to change if I was given the position. This is something I have been thinking about since then. What can I do to leave the program in a better place than it was when I came in? I think there is always room for improvement and I wonder if the evaluations we have now are the best that they could be. Our assigned pre-work for the class is as follows:
1. What characteristics do you think would make a good performance evaluation?
2. What characteristics do you think would make a poor performance evaluation?
3. What type of categories do you think would be found on a performance evaluation? 
4. If you have any experience with performance evaluations, come prepared to share in class. 
When researching performance reviews, I found this cartoon that I thought was funny:

I understand why some people might find performance evaluations awkward. I think because I have been exposed to it for a while in a somewhat low risk environment, they do not bother me at all whether I am on the receiving end or giving one. Evaluation is a key component for growth. I think that a good performance evaluation is fair. It must be well thought out and detailed enough to encompass what is expected of a position but not too nit-picky to create an environment where employees are set up to fail. They also should contain a portion that is dedicated to comments so managers can leave ideas in their own words. I think poor evaluations are very vague. I also think if the person giving the evaluation is uncomfortable, as shown in this cartoon, it will not be effective. The categories found in our performance evaluation are mostly focus professionalism, productivity, and competency. I think that this would be similar to what you may find in a professional setting. Ours rank various categories on a scale of 1-5. I don't have any specific situations about performance evaluations that come to mind. All experiences that I have had with it have been extremely positive. I have never received a bad evaluation. Any time I have ever had to deliver one, I feel that I did it in an effective way while still considering the employees feelings. One thing we often talk about at work, in the context of officiating, is first asking "What did you see there?" and giving the employee an open ended question to explain what they saw in their own words, and why they made the call that they did. I have found this to be extremely effective because a lot of the time they even realize what they missed before I even have to bring it up. Instead of just telling someone they are wrong, we should understand why they were and how to improve that. We are also extremely encouraging and do not shower employees with criticism. Creating an environment where employees expect feedback and know that even if they are critiqued, they are still supported has been really effective for our program. Our organization is much different though. We are much more lenient than a professional career will be.

Reflection

It's hard to believe we have already concluded the "One" section of this course. This class has been extremely valuable to me so far. Beyond the academic portion of having to write a contribution to a primer, teach a class, and write these blog posts I feel that I have learned so much about myself in the past few weeks. Especially through blogging. This class has sparked a lot of self-reflection for me. I find myself often thinking about what we have discussed outside of the classroom. I also feel like I really am absorbing the material instead of just learning it for a test and then forgetting it as soon as I don't need it anymore. The way we have been running the class is really engaging. Being in such a small group also creates a really unique classroom environment. In an interview with an HMP alumni, she asked me what classes I had done well in and enjoyed. I immediately gushed about how much I really am enjoying this course. And I feel that it is going to really help us all professionally especially this summer. Creating multiple pieces of work that we will be able to show after the class is also really fulfilling. I am really excited to see where "Two" will take us.

The Trouble Maker Becomes the Rule Enforcer

Yesterday I had one of the most stressful shifts at my job that I have had all year. It was the night of quarterfinals for intramural hockey. One of the teams playing was comprised of some of my closest friends. The other was one of the fraternities on campus. I had supervised a shift with this team the night before and knew they would bring a group of fans but I did not anticipate it would be as bad as it was. During warm ups, one of the referees came up to me and started with "I know this has already been a horrible shift and I don't want to make this worse but I have to tell you something" he proceeded to tell me that one of the players told him most of their fraternity would be attending and that they were coming straight from the bar. They ended up with probably at least 50 fans showing up and I can reasonably infer that they did indeed come from the bar. Before the game even started, I decided I was going to take action before the situation could get out of hand. I called over that team's captain and explained to him that having fans was fine but if they got out of line or created issues that their team would receive a penalty and I was not afraid to remove people from the venue. It was actually very effective. The captain spoke to his brothers and while throughout the game they were loud and admittedly didn't always use the most appropriate language, it never escalated to anything unsafe. Within the first few minutes I heard one of the fans using an air horn, which is never allowed in any of our sports. Since the crowd was so large I couldn't tell exactly who had it but I had a general idea. I immediately left the bench area and went up into the stands and confiscated it. My position always puts me in an extremely unique position because the people that I am disciplining or evaluating are my age. This type of relationship is an added challenge for me because it takes away the authority that adults can easily command from younger employees. There is also only one of me at any given time during a shift. So taking control of a situation that involves around 100 other kids between fans and two teams is pretty difficult. But what I have learned and tried to continually do is take control of a situation early. By talking to the captain and immediately going into the stands I showed them that I wasn't going to sit back and let the situation escalate. They were still difficult but the shift ended smooth enough. My father had sent my family group chat a picture of him reffing from the night. I told him, my mother, and my sister that I got to take a fancy new air horn. My sister immediately said "I'm laughing at the idea of you ruining someone else's fun" I replied that the trouble maker had now become the rule enforcer and my father said he was thinking exactly what my sister said. That brought me back to our idea of change. That class made me do a lot of self reflection. Yesterday I had a real breakthrough in realizing just how much I have changed over the years. My family has always seen me as a really easy going person and someone that isn't always the easiest to control or a stickler for the rules. Now I have really grown into my leadership position. I have gained a lot of experience in tough situations while also doing something I am extremely passionate about.

The Student Becomes the Teacher

As mentioned, today was my first lecture in Management II. It was an extremely eye opening experience for me. Public speaking is not my thing. I do not know what exactly about it stresses me out whether its being the center of attention or the fear of making a mistake. Colleen talked about a theory that someone may be more afraid of public speaking not because of the actual act, but because of a sense of pride. I had never heard this before and immediately this clicked for me. I find our class to be a pretty low threat environment as we are first off a small group and also have pretty much all of our classes together. I try to speak often in class and offer my ideas whenever someone is lecturing but for some reason being in front of the room just doesn't settle with me. No one in our class is malicious and I am not particularly worried about what others think of me, but even being up there brings out a physiological response in my body.
We sat down briefly after I went through most of my slides and I felt my pulse. I thought my carotid was going to explode. For some reason though, after this brief break I felt much more calm. Most of my slides were over but even then when I did have to speak and when we had our open discussion at the end I felt much more relaxed. I saw a friend who was not in the class and when I told her I had been nervous she said "what? but you're so outspoken?" I really have no answer for why I am the way I am but just getting this exposure has made me feel much better about my ability to speak in front of others. Just another step in improving my self-efficacy.

Personality Pre-Work

Today I will teach my first Management II class. We will be speaking about personality which really excites me. I think it is a really fascinating topic and I am also excited to hear my classmates thoughts. Here are my responses to the pre-work that we sent out.

1.     Have someone who knew you during your childhood (preferably a parent or relative) and someone who knows you now (college friend, significant other, etc) take the MBTI test and answer the questions as if they were you. Reflect on these. Are they the same or different? Were you surprised by the results? Rank the personalities from most to least accurate. 

For this, I had both my Dad and my best friend take the test for me. My dad got ENFP "The Campaigner" and my best friend got ESTP. I thought it was really cool that my dad got the same result as I did when I took it myself. When I mentioned this to him he laughed and said he knew me well. Which was obviously true. When researching the ESTP personality, I was somewhat surprised when reading the description of this and how I did relate to it."They live in the moment and dive into the action – they are the eye of the storm" "But if they minimize the trouble-making, harness their energy, and focus through the boring stuff, Entrepreneurs are a force to be reckoned with." these two statements stuck out to me. I don't think I am as severe about rule breaking as this personality suggests but it talked about how formal education is a struggle. I definitely do not like structure and really really hate busy work. Homework was really hard for me in high school because I felt a lot of it was just busy work. I also thought the weaknesses of this personality were pretty accurate for me. Insensitive, impatient, unstructured. I am extremely impatient and I know that. It doesn't really hurt me but it can distract me. As soon as I hand in an assignment especially a big one like a paper or a test, I want to know my grade. Or as soon as I reply to an important email, I check my inbox every five minutes hoping for a quick response. Overall there were certain aspects of this that were definitely true, but if I had to rank them I would say that the ENFP is most accurate. However I see why my friend got this and don't think she was completely wrong.

2.     Look up your horoscope. Are the traits of your sign similar to the traits of the personality you were given when you took the MBTI? Do you have a similar horoscope with the people in your group? 

My birthday is August 21st making me a Leo. I have looked up my traits before and find it to be pretty much almost spot on. "Warm, action-oriented and driven by the desire to be loved and admired, the Leo have an air royalty about them. They love to be in the limelight, which is why many of them make a career in the performing arts." Positive Traits: Kind and big hearted, energetic, optimistic, straightforward, loyal. Negative Traits: Egoistic, possessive, dominating, impatient, arrogant. I think the only thing I don't agree with is the extreme egotistical traits of Leo's. I really do see the loyalty trait in myself. For the people in my life that I am extremely close to, there is next to nothing that I would not do for them.

3.     Which statement do you relate to the most?

I feel that I can control my own destiny and what happens to me is my own doing.

I feel that things happen to me because of fate, luck, or a powerful being.

I absolutely agree with the first statement. I think that there are certain circumstances or outside factors, such as the impact of the actions of those around us, that we cannot always control, but I fully feel that the actions that I make have an impact on my life and that I am in control of my own destiny.

4.     What Big Five Trait do you think is most desired by recruiters and why? 

Through my research I know the answer to this so I am going to skip over this one. 

5.     Who do you relate to the most from this list: Flanders from the Simpsons, Stewie from Family Guy, House, or Darth Sidious from Star Wars? 

This question probably stumped a lot of people because these are four very different characters that truthfully I am not sure I even relate with. I would say I am somewhere in between Flanders and House. We will be showing a video that will explain why we chose to ask this question and how it relates to personality. 

Interviewing with Peers vs Strangers

Tomorrow afternoon I have an interview for a promotion at my job at UNH. This will be very different than the interviews I have been preparing for with HMP. Mostly because almost if not all of my interviewers will be my colleagues. One will be my direct boss, another someone who has the same position I hold, and two that hold the position that I am interviewing for. One of the two holding the position I am interviewing for coordinates the sports I mainly work and therefore we work together very closely. All of this makes me consider if I am at an advantage or a disadvantage as opposed to interviewing with a stranger. On one hand, my colleagues really have a sense of how strong of a work ethic I have and how dedicated I am to my organization. On the other hand, I don't have as much control over what they know about me. Interviews are an opportunity to put your best self forward. With a stranger, they only really know what you share with them and what they can find out about you from your colleagues or what you have put out into the world on the internet. Strangers may be intimidating to sit down with though, especially the executives we may be interviewed by. I will be extremely comfortable with my interviewers because I do know them personally. As an extrovert though, being with a stranger does not tend to negatively effect me. Three of these people are also my age and know me outside of a professional setting. While going in and giving a great interview will certainly help my chances, the people making the decision will already have almost all of the information they need to decide if I am right for this promotion. In recent years, there has been one person who is a neutral party who comes in for the interview to help make the decision. This is the person I feel I will have to win over the most.
Overall, I think there are certain aspects that are advantages and disadvantages to this situation. With a stranger, it is an advantage to be able to control what you do and do not share with them. But because I have worked really hard and shown my capabilities, I think I am at an advantage by having my colleagues making the decision. Either way I am going to prepare as best as I can and give my best interview regardless of who is interviewing me.

Mentorship and the 24x3 rule

Today I read an article in the Harvard Business Review titled "What the Best Mentors Do?" This interested me because of the structure of our class (having a formal mentor) as well as discussing character. One of the traits I think of when thinking of leaders I admire is stewardship. Its something that I have seen my Dad do with many younger hockey officials. It also interests me since I will have a preceptor this summer. The author, Anthony Tjan, actually wrote this two days ago. He interviewed 100 of top business executives, and found they all worked to "imprint their 'goodness'" on others. Tjan states, "Put another way, the best leaders practice a form of leadership that is less about creating followers and more about creating other leaders." I loved this quote because I think often times people confuse the path to leadership as a cut throat and trying to get to the top no matter what the cost. Instead it shows that building up others is essential to also building up ourselves. Here are the four things he says the best mentors do:

Put the relationship before the mentorship. All too often, mentorship can evolve into a “check the box” procedure instead of something authentic and relationship-based. For real mentorship to succeed, there needs to be a baseline chemistry between a mentor and a mentee. Studies show that even the best-designed mentoring programs are no substitute for a genuine, intercollegial relationship between mentor and mentee. One piece of research, conducted by Belle Rose Ragins, a mentoring expert and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, demonstrated that unless mentees have a basic relationship with their mentors, there is no discernable difference between mentees and those not mentored. All this is to say that mentoring requires rapport. At best, it propels people to break from their formal roles and titles (boss versus employee) and find common ground as people.
Focus on character rather than competency. Too many mentors see mentoring as a training program focused around the acquisition of job skills. Obviously, one element of mentorship involves mastering the necessary competencies for a given position. But the best leaders go beyond competency, focusing on helping to shape other people’s character, values, self-awareness, empathy, and capacity for respect. They know in the long run that there is a hard truth about soft matters and that these values-based qualities matter a lot more than skill enhancement. There are many ways to mentor people around these values and to build greater self-awareness.
Shout loudly with your optimism, and keep quiet with your cynicism. Your mentee might come to you with some off-the-wall ideas or seemingly unrealistic ambitious. You might be tempted to help them think more realistically, but mentors need to be givers of energy, not takers of it. Consider why an idea might work, before you consider why it might not. The best method I know for thinking this way is the 24×3 rule for optimism. I’ve written about this approach and tried to practice it for years, but it’s very difficult to master. Each time you hear a new idea, see if it is possible for you to spend 24 seconds, 24 minutes, or a day thinking about all the reasons that the idea is good before you criticize any aspect of it. It’s been said that the world prefers conventional failure over unconventional success; good mentors should encourage exploration of the latter. 
Be more loyal to your mentee than you are to your company. Of course, we all want to retain our best and brightest. We also want our people to be effective in our organizations. That said, the best mentors recognize that in its most noble and powerful form, leadership is a duty and service toward others, and that the best way to inspire commitment is to be fully and selflessly committed to the best interests of colleagues and employees. Don’t seek only to uncover your mentees’ strengths; look for their underlying passions, too. Help them find their calling. Most of us have experienced people, such as friends, religious leaders, and family members, who serve as our anchors and guides outside our workplaces. Why can’t we bring this same high level of trust and support inside the workplace? In a lot of cases, we owe it to mentees to serve as something more than just career mentors.

 I think that the most important of these four is the second, "Focus on character rather than competency." Especially in the health management field there are many paths we may take and different roles we may grow into. Going into a career that will likely lead to a leadership role, it is more important to have a solid foundation than simply mastering technical skills. This gets back to the argument that we have been discussing for a few weeks, EQ vs IQ. Development of EQ and character is just as important as training and development of technical skills. A really important point he makes is that mentorship is about "helping others become fuller versions of who they are." It is not about creating another version of yourself or molding someone in your image. It is about using your experiences and expertise to further the development of another person and allow them to become the best version of themselves that they can be.
I also found his 24x3 rule for optimism to be intriguing. It is important he creates the rule about thinking about why something CAN work instead of why it WON'T work. Criticism is important for learning and development but mentors can learn just as much from mentees. Everyone has a different way of thinking and new unconventional ideas can lead to successful outcomes for both parties. Mentorship is a relationship that should have give and take from both sides.  
There is much more beyond these four rules that make mentorship work. It is not a one-size-fits-all relationship. But I really enjoyed the article and thought Tjan made a lot of really valid points. Mentorship is really what makes our course so unique. No matter where my career takes me, I hope to be a mentor later in life. I find giving back is extremely important and very fulfilling.

Character Pre-Work

Tomorrow, David and Colleen will be presenting to our class about Character. I am really excited to see what they have for us because I think as we have discussed in class knowing yourself and who you are is essential professionally and otherwise. For this pre-work, we took a survey from the VIA Institute of Character.  These are my top five character strengths:

I really was not surprised by any of these. Other more professional character strengths like leadership and social intelligence were high on my list but the reason why these were my top 5 is because of my values. I really value honesty and being genuine. One of the things that brings me the most joy in life is just being a really good friend to the people close to me. I value the connections I make with others and being true to the promises that I make. I enjoy being the person that my friends turn to when they need help or advice. I also think that this has pushed me in my professional career to always support my co-workers. In our pre-practicum class, Professor Lewis talked a lot about volunteering to do things out of your description as an intern being extremely important. I have always tried to do this especially in my job at UNH. To give you an example, I am working 3 different shifts tonight at my job (only one of them actually being mine) to help out my co-workers who had conflicts. I have continually been recognized as the person willing to cover my colleagues when they get stuck simply because I want to help them out. I also do a lot of things that are outside of my actual job description. This fall, my boss and I attempted to repair the boards we use for broomball. These boards split up the Olympic sized ice surface at the Whittemore Center into 3 separate ice surfaces. I had zero background or skill in how these boards could be fixed and do not consider myself to be particularly skilled in fixing things, but my boss needed help and I decided to give it a shot. This is something that can help and hurt me. My boss appreciates what I do but down the road I need to make sure not to take on too much of other colleagues tasks so I do not get overwhelmed.
The other part of the assignment is to think of someone that we admire. This was likely the easiest question to answer for any pre-work assignment I have gotten thus far. I won't spoil all of the traits this person has, but I think some insight into my background and where I come from is important for this blog. So to stay true to humility being the character trait I need to work on, I'm going to get personal and do a little bragging here. Not about myself, but about my Dad.

This is my Dad, Brian Murphy. He is the person that has influenced me the most in my life and the best role model I could have. In 1988, he worked his first NHL game. Since then he has worked 1,698 career games. He has seen two World Cups, more Stanley Cups than I can remember, and even the 2010 Winter Olympics. He served as the President for the NHL Officials Association in the 2000's and it was during that time that he showed me what a true leader is like. He is one of the most humble people I have ever met. Whenever I go to his games I constantly have his colleagues and friends come up to me and say "You know your dad is the best right?" He has supported me and been my biggest fan through every step of my life. He has been a mentor for many people including one of my closest friends. He spends his off time in the summer volunteering at various summer camps to help others grow as hockey officials. He constantly emails me healthcare news and leadership articles and pushes me to be the best that I can be. While having a full time job that also entails living out of a suitcase and in an airport terminal a lot of the time, he is currently pursing his MBA. It has been a cool experience being in school at the same time as him. We often have overlapping topics and he has given me some inspiration in Organizational Behavior. I hope to have even half of the success that he has had as a leader and a professional.

"8. You don't know your triggers"

The article I posted about Tuesday is something I have continued to think about. It was an article on 11 signs you lack emotional intelligence and #8 was "You don't know your triggers." On Wednesday morning, I found one of my stress triggers. This point in the article was more about triggers that make you act impulsively, but I think it is important professionally to understand your triggers for that as well as anger, stress, etc. Something that stresses me out is being late. I worked the late shift on Tuesday, the night before my interview, and did not get home until past midnight. When I finally got in bed, I went to set my alarm extremely tired and probably not thinking very clearly. When I woke up in the morning, I realized I completely misjudged what time I needed to get up and instead of having about an hour and a half to get ready, I now had a little less than half an hour. I was able to get myself from looking like Ana in the movie "Frozen"

to at least acceptably professional in about 15 minutes. I was extremely stressed from the time I woke up until I was about half way there and realized I would still be about 20 minutes early. I like to go with the rule of thumb, "if you're early, you're on time. if you're on time, you're late."
Luckily this is something that is completely in my control. In the future, I will try to set my alarms for important events earlier in the night so I don't make the same mistake that I did. Because I can get ready extremely quickly, I was able to fix my mistake but I hope to avoid having to use this skill often. Long story short: math is important, set alarms when mentally capable, and being able to get ready quickly is definitely an asset. Everyone has triggers and understanding them and how they affect you is important to either help avoid them or learn how to react more appropriately when they do arise.

Emotional Unintelligence

Chris Armijo sent us an article in our google group, titled "11 Signs You Lack Emotional Intelligence." The author is Travis Bradbury who is an Entrepreneur. He talks about how emotional intelligence shocked people when it was shown as the reason that people with average IQ's can perform better than people with high IQ's. He examined data and came up with these 11 signs that show you lack emotional intelligence:
1. You get stressed easily
2. You have difficulty asserting yourself
3. You have a limited emotional vocabulary
4. You make assumptions quickly and defend them vehemently
5. You hold grudges
6. You don't let go of mistakes
7. You often feel misunderstood
8. You don't know your triggers
9. You don't get angry
10. You blame other people for how they make you feel
11. You're easily offended
We've talked a lot about the qualities of emotional intelligence but not as much about emotional unintelligence. First, I just read the list not his descriptions, and one of the first things that really stuck out to me was #9: You don't get angry. I had actually been thinking about this after our class discussion. I had gotten angry with someone and was not acting as friendly as usual which made me feel a little guilty. This was the same day as the EI presentation so it really got me thinking. Bradbury says under this "Emotional intelligence is not about being nice; it’s about managing your emotions to achieve the best possible outcomes. Sometimes this means showing people that you’re upset, sad or frustrated. Constantly masking your emotions with happiness and positivity isn’t genuine or productive." Some of my top values are honesty and integrity but I never really thought about emotional honesty and integrity.
#6: You don't let go of mistakes. This is something I have been working on for a long time. It mostly affected me in sports, especially when I got to the higher levels. My freshman year I played Division I Lacrosse and was extremely hard on myself my first semester in this new environment. It was really hard going from the New Hampshire high school level and trying to transition into the mentality of Division I. I was focused on the mistakes I was making instead of my progress which only made me perform worse. My second semester I made a big change and really tried to work on my mentality which was when I finally starting to produce. I haven't faced this challenge yet professionally but I tend not to be too hard on myself academically when I make mistakes. I know I still have a lot to learn in the health care field and am nowhere near close (hopefully) to my potential. This will be extremely important to remember this summer being an intern. I am sure that I will make plenty of mistakes but moving past them and working to correct them is really what is important.
Luckily, Bradbury says that emotional intelligence is possible to work on. He says that you can train your brain to practice emotionally intelligent behaviors. I feel there are probably some behaviors that are easier to influence than others. For instance, I think it would be much easier to figure out your triggers or work on your emotional vocabulary compared to working on not getting stressed easily or working on being more assertive. These may be harder because assertiveness and stress level are also more closely linked with personality.
This article was particularly helpful because it took a different approach than I had seen before in previous research. It really got me thinking about the many different components that encompass emotional intelligence. I read this list to both of my roommates and they both knew emotional intelligence was something they could work on. I'm glad the article concluded that it is a skill that can be improved. We discussed this in class and didn't come out with a clear answer of if it could be changed or not. Emotional intelligence is absolutely a key skill to have in a professional work environment and something I hope to continue working on

How Does One "LinkedIn"?

A week or so ago, mostly so I could educate myself for interviews, I created a LinkedIn. A week later I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing (admittedly I haven't really put too much into it yet). Today, I have tried to browse around a get a better sense of how the website works and it is actually extremely helpful. I was able to find the woman I will be interviewing with tomorrow which has given me a few talking points or possible questions for her. It showed me that she did her internship where I am interviewing. I know very little about the specifics of what I would theoretically be doing there so it'll be nice to be able to ask her about her experience.
Overall I think its a cool profile to have. It strikes me as a professional facebook. I even see that there's an HMP Alumni group. One of the things that really drew me to tranferring into this major was the sense of community and how alumni stay connected even after graduating. I think is something pretty unique at UNH to HMP. It'll be nice to graduate, be able to join the group, and give back to the program. Anyway, if you don't have one I would totally suggest making one even just to do a little "professional stalking" as you can't see profiles without making one (pretty much the sole reason I made it). Hopefully at some point I will actually get the hang of it.

Emotional Intelligence Pre-Work

Today in class we will be discussing emotional intelligence. We were given a quiz to take before class. Here are my results:

I tried to be extremely honest and objective when taking this quiz because I think this is a really cool and important topic. The only thing I was surprised about was that emotional self-awareness was not my highest scoring category. I did score highly but if you had asked me one of my strengths as far as emotional intelligence I would have thought this was my best strength. One statement that really threw me off was "I'm patient." I definitely didn't think that patience was linked to emotional intelligence and I had to be honest that this is one of my weaknesses. Blame it on my generation of wanting things "at the click of a button" or maybe its just me but this is something I know I struggle with. When I want something I go for it and I like seeing results.
Another score that stuck out to me was my highest score on empathy. I remember reading Colleen's post about empathy and how when she spoke to her mentor one really great piece of advice he gave her was that great leaders are empathetic. A video that she posted describes empathy as something that drives connections. If you haven't read her post or watched this video I would seriously recommend it. I think being a very social person and someone who really values having meaningful connections with others may be why I scored so high in this. I have always been very interested in psychology and why we are the way we are. I genuinely am curious about why others act the way that they do, how their experiences have shaped them, what motivates them, what stresses them out, what makes them happy. I find a lot of fulfillment in understanding and connecting with others. After watching the video and seeing the interaction between the deer, the fox, and the bear I thought that was a perfect visual representation. I think a lot of people will watch the deer and see why those actions aren't as favorable as the bears are yet not see that they themselves may often act like this. I think this has connected a lot with my initial research into personality as well. I wrote about a quote that said the way we construe others reveals just as much as us as it does about the other person. The video talked about one of the key ideas of empathy being judgement. A lot of times we can be quick to judge others, especially strangers, off a single experience or appearance. There are a lot of underlying factors for why we behave the way we do and getting to understand someone before we make assumptions about who they are is really important.
Overall I am happy with my results and really excited to see what Regan and Caroline have to present today.

Class #1: Motivation

For class today we were asked to take a test similar to the personality test but based on Motivation. My result was a score of 51:

We were also asked to write a list of 5 things that motivate us and 5 things that distract us.

5 Things that Motivate Me:

Independence: I want to work hard so that I will never have to be dependent on someone else. It motivates me professionally to work hard to have a meaningful and successful career. It is really important to me and is something that motivates me day to day.

Peer Pressure: We've all heard of it throughout our lives as something that can be both good and bad but I have taken it as something to push me to work harder. I definitely have a competitive nature and am likely to work a little bit harder if I know someone is watching the work I am doing. 

Happiness/Enjoyment: If I really love something or it will make me happy to do it, I will put my all into it. That doesn't always even mean the task itself will make me happy but the end result as well.

Proving People Wrong: I looked around a few articles for some ideas because I got a little stuck here. I saw this one and I can definitely identify with this. I don't think this is one of my every day motivators but when it comes around it definitely motivates me with force. I think adversity in doses can be a great thing. 

Being Comfortable: Feeling comfortable and competent in a situation or task is when I really do my best work. This also applies to my personal relationships. Once I am comfortable with someone is when I really work and communicate best.

5 Things that Distract Me:

Social Media: I am an extremely social person and I enjoy making meaningful connections with people. I enjoy sharing things with others but I have to police myself on when to log off.

Bad Relationships: One of my MBTI traits was "holding on to bad relationships for far too long." and that really struck a cord with me. This applies to both my personal and professional relationships. I find myself to be pretty easy going but if I am working with someone that I don't connect well with this can distract me. I think early in my career the leadership I have guiding me will really affect the work that I produce. If I am having issues with a friend this can also tend to take up a lot of my thoughts and distract me from being on task. I tend to want to keep everyone happy and if I am unable to accomplish that I can be discouraged. 

My Phone: Certainly this ties to social media but it can be its own monster. If I have something very important I often have to hide it or just shut it off. I really enjoy days of just going off the grid and not having it on me and I often force myself to do this because I feel so much more free without it. 

Unclear Expectations: I like to know what is expected of me and what my role is in a project or task. As long as I have clear guidelines I know what I am working towards I will have a clear outlined path. If it is not clear I can tend to get distracted or deviate from my work.

Dishonesty: Honesty is probably the value I hold in the highest regard. If I feel that I cannot trust someone that severely affects my relationship with that person and can quickly demotivate me from working to my potential. 

Being on the Other Side of an Interview & 30 Day Challenge Update

So I recently challenged myself to 2 goals for 30 days. Overall it has been going very well. I have definitely pushed myself to take this seriously in hopes of learning a bit more about self management and habit formation. Ive been very good about carrying my water bottle around but I did give myself a bit of wiggle room with my second goal. Instead of only allowing journaling before bed I have given myself the loophole of that or reading as I have been reading a book on personality and as a Junior in college between my job on campus that I love and dedicate a lot of time to, I don't have a ton of time for some non-required reading. But this book has really intrigued me and I don't feel I am cheating anything by allowing this. I hope to keep it up for the remaining part of my 30 days.
I procrastinated on this post for a while because this was a very interesting opportunity for me. As I mentioned I have a job on campus. I am a Supervisor for UNH's Campus Recreation Intramural Department. It is a job I really value and if I wasn't so sure HMP is where I belong along with it being not particularly feasible, I would make a career out of it. In short, I provide feedback and educate officials. At games, I am there to back them up if there are any disputes, issues, or things get out of hand. I specialize in broomball, ice hockey, and floor hockey as well as working the many other sports we run such as basketball, flag football, and even innertube water polo. If there is any injury I am the one responsible to deal with it and call an ambulance or if its serious enough, administering CPR. A little less than two weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to be on the hiring committee for officials applying to be promoted to my position. I was extremely excited to pick who I would be working with/who may possibly be working for me if I get the promotion I am applying for. Intramurals is an extremely tight knit family of around 15 or so people and our decision process is as much about the interview answers as well as overall personality. We all have to work very closely together and part of the interview process is making sure we are bringing on people who will fit in well with our little family. While this process is a bit different than what we are going through now with HMP since it is an internal hiring process, it was a very eye opening experience for me. If I can give you all, and anyone reading this, any advice as far as an interview, seriously prepare. The one biggest thing that stuck out to me is people had HORRIBLE answers to the question "what is your weakness?". If you haven't thought about this question or read any articles that give tips on interviewing, the answer is supposed to be honest enough that its not a lie such as "working too hard" but its not so bad that people don't want to hire you. To give you an example, I was asked this in an interview. My answer was that my weakness is public speaking, however that I feel this is due to my lack of experience within public speaking and that I am currently taking 4 courses that all require me to present in front of a class and one requires me to even teach 3 classes with a partner. While I wish this wasn't my weakness, it is honest and I have explained how I am working to improve on it. It also (for most internships) is not a deal breaker. Really think about the types of questions someone is likely to ask you. A lot of our questions were not out of left field however I felt a lot of the people we interviewed didn't sit down and think of the types of questions we would be asking. We tried to catch this as well by asking "what is one question you thought that we would ask you today but didn't?" The other thing is to ask questions. We've all been told this but it really does make a difference. In our interviews, we asked the candidates what they thought we did as a Supervisor. Some answers were okay and some were just flat out wrong. We work side by side with officials so not having even the most basic understanding of what we do is pretty inexcusable. But the one person who stuck out the most gave a pretty decent answer to the question and then at the end asked "So you asked me and I'd like to hear in your words, what do you guys do?" He stuck out because almost if not a little more than half of the candidates did not even ask a question even though they themselves were pretty unsure of what we actually did. It was also nice to brag about how hard we work and how much we really do love the job. They sell themselves to you and its nice to sell your position back to someone who did a good job. Asking questions shows you are interested in the position and that you are really engaged in the process. On my first interview I almost prepared a little to much and had no reservations about the program, however when asked if I had any questions I still asked two good questions.
Overall I really valued the people that gave well thought out answers and even if they weren't exactly what we had in mind, were genuine and engaging. We also asked a few fun questions like "what would you do with a million dollars?" and "what superbowl appetizer are you?" and the answer to those also told us a lot about the people we were interviewing. It's very important to stay calm even when you may be intimidated by your interviewer because body language and tone can quickly throw off an interview. I wish I had had this experience before my first interview because I think I gained a lot from being on the other side of the interview process.

Seeing the Best in Others

When reading a book called Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being the other day, right off the bat the book struck me. One of the most important quotes I read, author Brian Little stated, "We will find that how you construe others reveals as much as you as it does about them." He explains this with a situation of if you were in a restaurant and saw a man a few tables over send back his meal for the 4th time, what would you think of him? Would you automatically assign traits to this man (rude, perfectionist, etc)? Would you assume he is acting out of his norm and possibly just had a bad day? What I took out of this is what we see in others can reveal a lot about who we really are. It does make sense because I feel that often times people with a positive outlook on the world tend to see the best in people. I think that this can be a weakness and a strength. Having a negative outlook on life is toxic and unproductive. However assuming that everyone around you has your best interests in mind or treats you as well as you treat them can also lead to disappointment. I think there is a balance between seeing the best in people while also understanding that not everyone makes the right decisions all the time. As managers, there is a time and place for seeing the best in others. It is important to trust your employees and set them up for success but it is also important to recognize failures and when a team member is just not working out. I am super excited about what I've read so far from this book and for what is to come.