Confidence

            In this video Prof. Baba Shiv goes over the importance of confidence and the effect that it can have on a leader and his or her followers. When a leader is put in charge of a group of people it is important that they act like a leader. People look at a leader for guidance, when in charge of a group Prof. Baba makes it a point to show us that we must transfer our own confidence to those below us.

            I think that Prof. Baba gives a good example of when having confidence is crucial. When he talks about a military commander be shows us the importance of confidence, someone like a military commander will have the lives of others in their hands so it is important that they do not fail to portray confidence. I often knew this when I was in the military but sometimes did not follow through, it was always hard for me to tell those which were older than me what to do and how to act. My military experience was in an air traffic control facility and not a battle field.

            Although an air traffic control facility can feel like a battle field it can be very different in some aspects. Overall the concept was still the same, we all had responsibilities and we all had the lives of others in our hands. I can recall a situation when I was new to working in the tower, on this day I was working ground control which consisted of controlling the aircraft which were taxiing through the airfield. I was still relatively new, I was bit nervous but I tried to sound as confident as possible. I remember having to ask a group of pilots to park their aircraft in a location which they usually do not for a temporary amount of time because we had a lot of foreign traffic in route. One pilot questioned why I was doing things differently on that day and I did not convey enough confidence so this pilot wanted to verify with their supervisor on what the issue was. This pilot slowed traffic down enough to where it became a snowball effect which caused the air field to get severely backed up.

            This is an example of what lack of confidence can do, when your troops no longer want to follow you mass delays can occur and people can be scared for their own safety to follow your lead. During this situation there were many emotional reactions which came with it but it seemed as though they all revolved around fear. During this situation I felt worried, stressed and inadequate, I felt at that young age that I was not good enough to be able to hold these types of responsibilities. This is a constant fear that comes with not having confidence, the feeling of not knowing rather you are good enough can take its toll on a leader and then be reflected through the performance of the group.

            As time went on I feel that I have grown as a person, confidence is something which I am much more comfortable with. Confidence is not always automatic but it is much easier to convey when I am an expert on the subject matter. As a T-ball coach I am tasked with the job of teaching my four year olds and transcending my own confidence to my team so that they want to get up and play. In this situation my job is to teach the kids they are capable of completing any task which they put their minds to. Many times I will instruct the kids on their task and for them to complete it I must sound confident and assure them that I am confident in them. Every age group is very different and you must learn how to push them in the right direction.

            I can recall my first game with my team, we had spent the last two months training them and assuring that they will be able to play well. Before the game started I looked at my team and told them to just have fun out there on the field, this game was all about fun and learning to love the sport. Throughout the season I made sure to never scold any of the children, I knew that it was my job to build their confidence in themselves first. In this situation confidence transcended into fun for my whole team and I could not have been happier with the result. During this time my confidence and my teams confidence brought out some special emotion in me which I had felt during other leadership roles. I had a feeling of honor, pride and most of all I felt very accomplished. It was important for me to feel this way because this last year coaching t-ball had to be one of the most rewarding things that I had ever done in my life.  

Collaborative-Decision Making

            Stewart Levine gives a road map towards resolution in our text, in this book we talk about the craft of resolution and different ways that we can work towards making a decision that everyone will be satisfied with. One of the seven steps of resolution is called “listening for a vision of resolution”, in this step we are taught to listen so that everyone’s concerns may be heard. When we are getting stake holders involved we are now listening to everyone that is part of the team and working towards the best decision possible. When we are listening for a resolution that benefits everyone, one of the questions which we have to ask is if the “preliminary vision fits everyone’s view of the outcome” (Getting to Resolution pg. 137)? This is an important question to ask because as stated before we want to make everyone a part of the team. It is important to get the opinion of everyone who has a stake in the organization because they have a different point of view than you might have and diversity has been known to create good decisions.

            At my job I am constantly faced with many different situations, the job of a Rail Traffic Controller requires someone to move trains in the fastest way possible across America while still favoring priority trains. I have had situations in the past where I have needed to collaborate with many different people that had a stake in the mission. I was faced with a scenario where pushing a priority train would help us make this particular trains scheduled goal; the only down fall was that it would put into jeopardy making goal on about 8 non-priority trains. I gathered a team of individuals who all had a say in the matter and we began to discuss the issue at hand. Eventually we came to the conclusion that laying down the whole railroad for one train was not the most practical solution and decided we could make up some time on our priority train later on. This was an important decision because we saved the company some money and we increased all of the stakeholder’s bonuses in this instance. As a team we made a decision and stuck to it, we took a risk but it was a risk that we all agreed upon which made our resolution much better in the long run. Since we all came to the decision together there was no bad blood between our groups.

            There were many ways that including the stakeholders helped us out in this situation. As I think about it I realized that

-          We were not worried about any repercussions because everyone was on board with the decision.

-          We had the investors on our side and happy to comply with the situation.

 

-          We were given more leeway because all of the stakeholders knew what we were trying to accomplish at the moment.

 

-          We were much more efficient because we had a workable agreement, a shared vision and minimized conflict.

 

-          We were able to be much more creative with our options now that we had the blessings of the stake holders.

In the long run, throughout this whole ordeal I knew that our team work and collaboration helped us achieve our objective. When we brought in everyone that would be involved we all felt a weight come off of our shoulders, we no longer felt the pressure of making the decision on our own and having to face the repercussions later on. We were able to focus and make the best decision possible. The only other person I feel that could have added to the strength of our team was our liaison between the company who’s product we were shipping and our company, unfortunately he was not available on this day. Being able to keep everyone informed is a key part of the resolution process.

This resolution process has shed light on many ways that I have done business in the past. It has taught me many things I like to think that I will use it in the future when working towards a resolution; I will make it a point to have a positive attitude, listen to everyone and also include all members. Sometimes taking on all the decisions yourself can be very stressful and hurt everyone in the long run.  

 

  Reference:

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration (2^nd Ed.).San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

 

 

 

 

Ten principles of new thinking

            About seven years ago I purchased my first home at the age of twenty-two, I was extremely excited that I had the opportunity to make an important investment in my life. I knew that I wanted to get involved in real-estate since I was young and I saw this as my opportunity. I was in the military and at first I knew that this was where my family would live for some time.  Unfortunately I received the news that I would have to transfer to a new duty station a lot sooner than I had expected. I was a bit worried since I knew the home was not ready to sell since I knew it was a fixer-upper and I thought that I would have more time to work on the house.

            I figured that I would take all of the money that I saved from my last deployment and invest it into this home so that I might be able to make a profit when I sell the home. Eventually I figured that I would rent the home since the housing market had crashed and I knew I was not going to get my money’s worth. I found someone who I thought would be the perfect renter; I later found out that I was very mistaken by choosing this person to live in my investment. As soon as I moved out of state to my next duty station she was always late on rent, and I later found out that the furniture that I had let her borrow was destroyed by her cat. Eventually I was tired of her not being responsible and decided to evict her. This is when things got bad, she ended up becoming a squatter in my house and stopped paying rent.

            I was twenty-four years old at this time supporting two different homes and a new born on the way. This conflict was extremely costly, a lot more than I preferred and I eventually had to let the house go to foreclosure. This was a very costly conflict but it was a huge learning experience; if I had the Stewart Levine’s ten principles of new thinking I know things could have been different.

            I think that if I would have believed more in my product, which is my home; I could have sold it right from the beginning instead of trying to rent the home out until the market came back. “Believing in abundance” (Getting to Resolution pg. 47) is one of the ten principles of new thinking. When you believe in your product enough to where yourself and others can get what they need; your product will seem like it is worth much more.

            Another principle I could have used is the principle of “Creating partnership” (Getting to Resolution pg. 47) and “forming long-term collaborations”. These are principles that anyone in the real-estate business should definitely consider. By collaborating with others I could have found a way to get cheaper labor and probably have completed many more projects. If I would have been able to network to a more extensive level then I know that I could have gotten much more value out of my house then I originally thought.

            Throughout this whole process I learned a lot, the ten principles of new thinking require you to learn and be open. I feel that I should have been more optimistic throughout my process, I needed to be more open throughout this whole ordeal. I feel that the new way of thinking is a way to open up the possibilities which many times people in the past might have missed out on. Making decisions and handling conflict can be a lot easier to handle if we can adapt a new way of thinking. Stewart Levine gives us a good map to follow when pursuing a much more successful outcome. 

 

 

 

Reference:

Levine, S. (2009). Getting to resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration (2^nd Ed.).San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

 

 

 

 

             

             

Protected Values

            Protected values, my way of understanding this is that these are decisions which I make that will never change. I will never have to think twice about making these types of decisions because these are part of my personal values. These values are imbedded into who I am and I can never waiver from holding these protected values to the highest regard. I know that I want to be a successful person but I also have limits to what I will do to attain these goals.

            This is a good subject to go over because it seems that many times once someone gets a taste of success they can become addicted to this feeling; avoiding the thought of selling your soul to become richer is one which must be talked about in business. We have to have boundaries which will not be jeopardized for the sake of some extra earnings.

            With that being said I have given great thought to what my own protected values are as I have become an adult. Some of these values I picked up recently and I think that as a humans, the older and more mature we get the more important our values can become. One of my values which I have gained and would like to have the strength to stand for in my future; would be to have any products which I ever produce to be American made.

            Far too often we forget the importance of having pride for our country and supporting our country. I do see the importance in participating in the global economy but I also see that our nation is weakening because more and more citizens no longer have a sense of pride for their country. If I was to ever become a manufacturer I would make it a point to make sure that I tried my hardest to have American made products. Many people see the negative in this because it might not be as cost effective and it might hurt some of my company’s profit; but there is also a lot that a company can gain from having American made products.

            If we think about which country has one of the largest populations with at least a high school diploma, I think that the USA would definitely be amongst the top countries. It is weird to me that we purchase so many items from countries which only have good educational systems in place for the wealthy. Another reason to support USA products would be the fact that many buyers do have pride in their country and like to rally behind a quality product even if it cost a bit more. It would bring me great pleasure if I knew that I was contributing to our economy and keeping more jobs in the USA to make us a stronger country.

            Another protected value of mine which I know I will not waiver from is being able to not take advantage of the less fortunate. We always hear about companies taking advantage of everyday people which do not have much to offer. How many times do we see these payday loan companies making a fortune off of people who are down to their last dime and their last choice? I think that it is insane to charge someone over twenty percent in interest for a loan that will be paid off within two weeks. This makes me sad because you see people and families who cannot get out of a financial hole because they are reduced to these types of options. If I could provide a service that would charge half of the interest that these other companies are charging, I think that I could make a huge difference by sticking to my values.

            Companies in today’s day and age are ruthless and business men can also follow suit. I have seen too many examples where people will make deals with others knowing that a bad business move will not only hurt this person but it will hurt those that should be left out of their loved ones mistakes. Many times we see families use their children’s credit to apply for loans and many times these creditors know exactly what is going on. One value which I would never compromise is brining family members into a problem which might go south. As business person I might miss out on a lot of money but at least I would  know that my conscious would be clear and I never let my strayed from my values.

            I think that many times we all need to stop and remember why we got into certain businesses and who we were when we were just getting started. In life, even outside of business there are certain values which do not even require a decision to be made because these are part of our values. Dan Gilbert talks a lot about the decision making process which we have, he talks about the irrational decisions which we might make. These irrational decisions are due to many of the values which we have, rather we make good decisions or bad decisions our values and our protected values play a large part in the decisions that we make.

 

Reference-

Hooch, S., & Keunruther, H. (2001). Values and Decisions (1 st ed., Vol. 1, p. 45). Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.

 

 

  

Deception In Negotiations

            Negotiating, this would be one of my weak points in life because sometimes I feel that I am just too nice to be a good negotiator. It is hard for me to lie or mislead a person yet I know that it has to be done from time to time to get an advantage when trying to make a deal. During negotiations there are many ways to try and evaluate information, it is important to evaluate all of the information so that others do not take advantage of you. I know that I am not the type to mislead someone in a negotiation but I do know that I have learned many lessons in life and I do not let others take advantage of me during a negotiation.

            In our Wharton text it talks about the different ways to evaluate information during negotiations; one that I found very important was establishing trust. This in my opinion might just be one of the most important techniques, I feel that this is important because if we do not trust the person we are making a deal with than nothing will get accomplished. This is why when you go to those small used car dealerships many times deals are not completed unless the buyer has their own issues like horrible credit and they need someone to sell them a car.

            Paying attention to non-verbal cues, so it is said that some people are able to detect when others are lying. This would be a very great tool to have when in the process of negotiating, clues to look for would be increased blinking or changes in respiration. If we had the power to tell if someone was lying this would increase the chances of establishing trust and it would also increase the probability if making good deals throughout life.

            Keeping records and getting things in writing, if we lived in a perfect world this would not be necessary. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and it is very hard to establish trust with a complete stranger during a negotiation. This is also a way to keep future negotiations from going sour, if everything is in writing than there is no confusion and no room left for arguing about a past negotiation.

            Ask direct questions, this technique might have saved me a lot of grief in the past, sometimes it is important to drop the barriers and ask direct questions. We all try to be as polite and as nice to people during negotiations as possible but there does come a time when it is best to ask honest questions no matter whose feelings get hurt.

            I recently purchased a 25,000 dollar car from a used car lot, they seemed credible and they only sold high end cars which made me feel more comfortable. As soon as I drove twenty miles off of the car lot my brand new car showed the transmission was malfunctioning. I was told that this repair would cost me 8,000 dollars, I was very upset by this. The person who sold me the car at the used car lot was unwilling to work with me at first, this made me even more upset. The next day I called the owner and told him that they were not going to rip me off and I told them that I would have every news station from the Dallas area in front of their lot and that they would never hear the end of this.

It seemed that my negotiating tactics worked and they decided to fix my car, I did have to go to great lengths to get my point across but it seemed like I was left with no choice. Negotiating can be difficult but sometimes it is a necessity, to avoid situations like the one from the used car lot I will keep these techniques in mind to get the fairest deals possible.   

 

 

Reference:

Hooch, S., & Keunruther, H. (2001). Deception in Negotiations. In Making Decesions (1 st ed., Vol. 1, p. 196-197). Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.

 

 

 

           

Frame Blindness

 

            Frame Blindness, this most likely occurs a lot more often than most people would believe. To have frame blindness means that you are most likely not seeing yourself or your organization how others are viewing you. This can lead to catastrophic failure, to not see what you are doing wrong with your organization is the true meaning behind frame blindness. When an executive thinks that there work is complete and is overconfident with their work this can lead to an organizations growth stalling.

            What I am taking from this week’s reading is that according to the “Wharton” text we need to continue to understand that our organization always has room for growth and it can sometimes be good to never feel like you work is complete. I have seen it all too often in my life when people who are over confident usually end up losing because they cannot see their flaws or they lack the ability to ask for someone else’s opinion.

            Fortunately for us; Wharton’s text on making decisions comes with a solution to this problem which we call “frame blindness”. There is a way of managing these frames to avoid the “traps” of frame blindness, for us to manage these frames we need to take a step back and understand that we must analyze our own work from time to time. To avoid these traps one step which we must take as leaders is to see the frame by conducting a frame audit. As I mentioned before this is when we take a step back and create a picture to see our frame, I see it as a critical thinking session on paper.

If we can surface our frames than we can understand the elements, the important features and the optional features of our frame. Taking the time to create an illustration of our frame will put our ideas and our work into perspective. I recall a time when I was a lot younger and I was going through an intense air traffic control school in the military. I had eight hours a day of air traffic control being crammed into my brain for ten straight weeks, it was a very tough school with a test each week which decided rather or not you would be able to advance each week. I knew that I needed to create a strategy so I made a chart that would surface my frames and present my different challenges visually. Creating this chart helped me organize my thoughts, find what was important for me and then put my plan into action.

Creating this frame audit helped me in many different ways, this frame audit also helped me Identify and change inadequate frames. Not only did presenting my work see what I was doing right, it also helped me see what I was doing wrong; by seeing what I am doing wrong I am avoiding the trap of running into overconfidence and the illusion of completeness. I feel that many times I am lucky in life, I feel this way because it is easy for me to see and admit to my mistakes. This has not been an issue with me I can remember many times in life where I have been put in charge of a situation and I still ask for the opinions of my subordinates. At my job I am in a unique situation because my title has given me the opportunity to be in charge of people that might have been working for the company since I was in diapers. I do understand that I am in charge but I am also able to lower my pride and ask the opinion who has been working in the field for a much longer time than me. If we can identify and change inadequate frames than we are avoiding many of the traps which people in charge can fall into.

The most important step to avoiding frame traps in my opinion is to master techniques for reframing. When I left for boot camp at the age of eighteen I was thrown into a world which I did not understand; I know that the first couple of weeks of boot camp are meant to break me down. After boot camp was done I then understood that I was broken down to the core and the remolded to become the person that I am today. This is what we need to do when reframing, we need to find the good and the bad in the work which we are doing and then master the technique of reframing ourselves and our work.

When I think about what this exercise has taught me about myself I think about what has made me who I am. As I mentioned before I am not the type of person who is not overconfident or blind to my mistakes. I usually am the first one to admit when I have done something wrong and I am always looking to hear the opinions of others. Some might see this as a weakness but I see it as a strength, I am constantly challenging myself and trying to improve myself as a person and a leader. Every year I have improved myself and my goal is to never have the illusion of feeling like my work is complete.

 

Reference

Hooch, S., & Keunruther, H. (2001). Reflective Versus Expedient Decision Making: Views From East and West. In Making Decesions (1 st ed., Vol. 1, p. 109). Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.

 

 

 

 

Too Many Choices

            Sheena Lyengar goes over something which I feel closely relates to my current life, Sheena goes over the obstacles and disadvantages of having or making too many choices. At my job I am in charge of moving America’s freight in the form of trains across the country, one would think that this would be a simple task mixed in with a couple of intricacies. Sheena said that the average American makes about 70 choices a day, I on the other hand feel like I am making about three to four hundred choices in an eight hour period. There are so many decisions and choices which need to be make at work that by the end of eight stressful hours I am losing my focus and I feel a mental strain. Incorporate this mental strain with the amount of choices which need to be done outside of work and this can account for me wanting to skip the world market food emporium with 100 different types of jams and drive me straight to the Aldi store with only one type of strawberry jam.

            This busy and choice filled way of working is a typical day in the life of many professional Americans and this is why Sheena’s presentation makes so much sense. In the study that Sheena completed she realized that when we are offered or forced to make too many choices and decisions our brain can only keep this up for so long. Our mental capacity for the day can easily be reached if overwhelmed, once this point has been reached I make it a point to head straight to my couch and stare at mindless television until my mind has relaxed enough.

            So as aspiring leaders and future business professional we have to ask ourselves; how can we stop our consumers from feeling this way? Sheena Lyengar gives us four methods for helping businesses avoid causing their consumers to make a mad dash for the store exit and hang around a bit longer to spend some extra money. Her four methods consist of cutting the amount of choices at the store so people can hone in a lot easier on one product to purchase. Categorize items to help consumers make easier choices, Sheena believes that this will help us tell items apart. Concretize items to make them real; Sheena believes that if people can understand the ins and outs of a product and they can grasp the concept of the item than it becomes something real and perhaps something worth spending money on. Sheena’s fourth method is conditioning, if we can condition people to hang around longer by slowly working them up to more choices than we might not lose them in the process.

            I think that these are all great methods, I can truly see myself putting these methods into practice and saving a business extreme amounts of profit. If I could use two of these methods for my own decision making purposes and finding a way to utilize these methods of my own organization; I would look for ways to cut the amount of choices and condition people to want to make choices. I think that if I can cut the amount of products available so that I can provide a lower price to the consumer; in the long run I will condition them to buy more because the less things cost the less amount of decisions need to be made. When you are spending less at a store you are not as worried about staying within your budget, there are less choices to be made for the average American if they do not have to think how a shopping experience will affect the rest of their week.

            I feel that today Sheena has provided me with four new tools to use in my everyday life. As she mentions in her presentations these are all methods which we can use for ourselves not only for business purposes. I see myself heading to the nearest Aldi from now on after a stressful day at work; I think I have found my solution for those days when I have reached my “making choices threshold”. I will no longer spend that extra time at the store making choices for things that do not matter too much for me. From now on I see myself going to the World Market Emporium only if I am in the mood to take a stroll around the store and kill some spare time wine tasting and perhaps buying some specially aged cheese from Italy. My days of making too many choices will be cut down when necessary and enjoyed only when wanted.   

 

By: Alberto Gil

MSLD 632