3B. Assignments

9/21/2015 – Evening Session – Dale Carnegie Training

The same day as Dr. Kudisch came to speak to us, we also had an evening session guest speaker, Dan Parsons. Mr. Parsons came to give us advice on presentation skills as well as how to communicate professionally and confidently in different business situations. The session was centered on Dale Carnegie’s bestselling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. This infamous book has set the standard for effective interpersonal interactions. At the beginning, we all received the book as well as a packet that Mr. Parson’s presentation was based on. The packet was entitled “Dale Carnegie Effective Presentations Skills Workshop,” and we went over Effective Presentation Skills as well as the Triangle of Success for Presentations: Skill, Knowledge, and Attitude.

He also showed us a Ted Talk by Will Stephen in which the speaker talked about absolutely nothing, but did so in a way that was captivating and sounded as if he was giving a very important speech. He accomplished this through his hand gestures, a personal anecdote at the beginning, slowing and speeding up, as well as skillfully changing his voice to be louder and quieter to attract his audience’s attention.    

Mr. Parsons then discussed the basic structure of an impactful speech, starting from the opening, which is meant to favorably attract interest from the audience. Some good options for openings are to use an analogy, a surprising fact, a question, or a story about an incident that happened to you. Next, the bulk of your presentation, or the message, begins to focus attention on the subject. The purpose of the message is to guide the development of the presentation and keep it from straying away from the purpose of the talk. Finally, the closing of a presentation is extremely critical because often it is what the audience remembers and the lasting impression of your speech. Some tips for a successful conclusion are to conclude in a few words, dramatize, speak on a personal level, use a quotation, and to tie the closing back to your beginning points. If your purpose is to persuade, then it is also a good idea to give a final recommendation and appeal to a nobler motive in getting your advice across.

Finally, Mr. Parsons introduce the “Magic Formula”, a time-tested method that provides the structure to maintain the audience’s attention and increase the persuasive ability of the speech. The Magic Formula consists of describing an incident, calling up the audience to take a single, specific action, and giving them the benefit of that action. Keys to an effective magic formula include establishing who, what, when, where, and why, including animation and vocal variety, and narrowing the action and broadening the benefit. We all then created our own version of the Magic Formula and presented our story with our lesson.

Key Takeaways:

I thoroughly enjoyed this evening session because I thought Dan Parsons was an extremely fun and engaging speaker who knew exactly how to keep his audience captivated. In my opinion, the entire class was much more attentive than we usually are for such long evening sessions.

I thought Mr. Parsons was a fantastic public speaker himself because of his passion and knowledge on the subject he was speaking about, as well as his engaging body language. There were many adjectives the class could’ve used to describe him, but I am sure boring was not one of them. He jumped into his talk with a fire in his eyes and a clear organization and understanding of everything he was going to talk about for the whole session. I thought his use of demonstrative videos was a clear, direct, and engaging method to show us proper use of body language and nonverbal cues, because we got a direct visual of what to do and what not to do.

Additionally, Mr. Parsons clearly understood and empathized with his audience: college students. He tailored his speech so that it would be exciting to us because he understood that we got restless and stopped paying attention when we were forced to sit still in one place for very long, so he purposely threw in some tasteful jokes geared to appeal to our age group. He clearly did his research on whom he would be presenting to and tried his best to put himself in our shoes and be an engaging speaker. I appreciated his understanding of our attitude and experience as college students and I thought that this understanding greatly helped his message to get across to us and make his overall presentation much more effective than usual boring lectures that we receive from adults on a daily basis.

Furthermore, I agreed wholeheartedly with his motto of diving directly into giving a presentation instead of using lackluster phrases such as “Now let me tell you a story” or “Let me ask you a question.” Mr. Parsons told us directly to never use such an unnecessary phrase because it is totally extraneous to inform your audience of something you’re going to do before you do it; it is much more effective to simply dive right in and say what you mean to say. Phrases like that are simply to buy time and should be eliminated altogether. It is interesting because in so many talks that I’ve heard the speakers use those kinds of phrases and never thought twice about it, but now that Mr. Parsons pointed out the uselessness of the phrase, I will make a conscious effort not to do it in my speeches.

My favorite activity of the night was the concluding activity in which each student rose and told a story and concluded with a lesson he/she learned from the experience as well as advice for the audience. Instead of presenting in front of the whole class, we only had to present to our row so it was much less intimidating. The best speaker from each row went up in front of the whole class and competed by telling their story. I loved this activity because it gave me a chance to practice my public speaking skills in a low risk environment and in front of an audience I knew very well, my classmates. Also it was a great opportunity to get to know my peers better by hearing a bit more of their lives. I thought it was a smart closing activity since by then it was almost 10 pm and all of us were getting tired, so this interactive activity was the perfect way to pull us all back into the moment and grab our attention.

Similarly, the only concern I had about this session is how long it lasted. It is very difficult to maintain concentration and stay in class for four hours when the longest we usually might have class is two hours. I think the long duration of the workshop took away from its significant impact on the students. In the future, I think the workshop should be cut down to maybe two hours so we can still maintain a decent amount of focus that the speaker deserves.

The two biggest takeaways I took away from this evening session was to be confident, because you are strong and you own the room by standing up there and speaking, and to make sure that you are congruent, meaning that it is crucial to make sure your body language and words match up. It is confusing to the audience if you say you are super excited to talk to them while saying this in a monotone voice. Both of these important points for public speaking take practice because when I get up in front of a large crowd, my face immediately turns bright red and my teeth start chattering, which in turn causes my voice to shake and me to come off as unconfident. I know there is no solution to this problem other than repeated practice of speaking in a stressful environment and instead of shying away from such opportunities like I used to, I will seize those opportunities and try to improve upon my weaknesses.

9/23- Assessment Center: Illiad Assessment

Summary:

This was the second year I went in to complete the Illiad Assessment, a test that is designed to measure your aptitude to perform under pressure. Additionally, the test is meant to demonstrate self-awareness by accurately describing your strengths and development needs. The idea is that the feedback you receive on your behavior during the assessment will give you valuable information about your individual abilities, including skills such as presentation ability, persuasion, listening and teamwork skills, decision making, organization, and leadership. The procedure was pretty much the same as last year, with a couple components revised. Firstly, we all went into the testing room at 5:00, set our timepieces to 12:00 noon, and began the “day” as a Vice President of the Illiad Company. However, this year, instead of having to create a business idea for the section of the company we were assigned, we had a meeting on choosing the next business initiatives with the extra money we had. The other two meetings we had were the same as last year, presenting a plan for expansion into our specific global market and choosing the new CEO to lead the company. As usual, there were an abundance of memos we had to deal with, much more than was physically possible in the allotted time period we were given. After about 20 or so minutes of prioritizing which memos I was going to address, I prepped for my first meeting, the expansion presentation, and headed into the room. After my presentation, we had two more consecutive meetings in different rooms, first the CEO selection, and then the selecting the business initiatives we wanted to implement. All the rooms were on the fourth floor of Van Munching. After the meetings, the time was pretty much up, so we organized our memos in the correct order for grading and then turned them in.

Key Takeaways:

Overall, I think the Illiad was much more successful the second time around compared to my experience last year. This improvement was due to a multitude of factors. Firstly, much of my stress from last year’s assessment was alleviated when the business pitch component was eliminated. The business pitch was stressful last year because the instructions were vague and thus I was confused as to what exactly I was supposed to present and also it was another individual presentation during which I had to stand in front of all my peers and deliver a concise and well-planned 3-minute speech. This year, instead, I was able to participate in an additional team exercise, which was an easier experience for me because I work better in teams than just giving an individual speech.

Moreover, I think I improved a lot in terms of confidence and preparation as well as knowing what to expect going in because I felt blindsided freshman year. I had no idea what the assessment would be like and I didn’t read the critical preparation material before the assessment. I ended up scoring very poorly, especially on my confidence level. On the other hand, this year I was extremely enthusiastic with my business expansion idea and talked louder, as well as tried to be more confident by being assertive. I realized, after all, that I am a Vice President of the company and what I have to say should purportedly be valuable.

An additional reason this year’s assessment flowed more smoothly was because it was much easier to find the assigned meeting rooms this time around because I had a much better understanding of Van Munching as a building. Last year, because I didn’t have any classes in Van Munching and I was a freshman, it was incredibly tricky navigating the twisting hallways and offices of the upper levels and caused me to almost be late to my meetings. But this year I not only gave myself sufficient time to take the elevator and walk to the rooms, but I had a much clearer understanding of where the rooms were located, so the punctuality piece of the assessment did not stress me out as much as it did previously.

In general, from last year to this year, I acquired more public speaking experience and this time around, I was much less nervous when I had to stand up and give my presentation. Because I was better able to calm my nerves this year I actually remembered to ask for questions at the end and sound genuinely enthusiastic during my expansion presentation. I am actually quite proud of my progress this year because it shows I developed personally as well as professionally and that BSE has contributed to that growth.


11/2 – Everest Simulation

Summary: During this very interesting assignment intended to build teamwork, we were assigned to five person teams and given the task of climbing Mount Everest. Prior to the class session, we were given our teams and team roles. My team was Gerardo Espinosa, Ji Hwang, Jake Kram, Patrick Findle, and I. I was assigned the role of team leader, which I was excited to take on because normally I never assume leadership roles in group work. When we arrived in class we watched several video tutorials on how the online simulation worked and an expert talk about the real physical and mental difficulties of climbing Everest. These videos were designed to give us background information, which would be useful when actually completing the simulation. After we had an introduction, the five of us officially began the simulation. The simulation had six rounds, each round simulating another day and the opportunity to reach a checkpoint. There were five checkpoints so there was leeway for one day of rest. Each of us had different objectives as leader, photographer, environmentalist, medical provider, and marathoner. That was the whole idea of the simulation – how do you work cohesively as a unit when each of you have distinct goals as individuals but at the same time must work together toward one team objective? During each round, we would have Ji, the marathoner, predict the weather for the next day’s hike and decided whether or not to continue onward depending on each person’s health conditions and the next day’s weather. For example, on one day it was predicted to be negative degrees and there was a strong wind chill the next day, so some of us with weak health decided to stay behind and rest a day so we could recover our health and not have to be rescued because of critical health. Around the fourth checkpoint, we had to distribute oxygen tanks to team members in a way that everyone could reach the end. Finally, the simulation ended at the sixth round and everyone found out their individual score based on the objectives they accomplished and a collective team score all of us shared.

Key takeaways:

I ended up achieving 75% of my individual goals and 83% of team goals, which I thought was pretty good for my first try and figuring it out as I went along. However, others managed to score much higher because they had more streamlined goals and many less possible points to score out of. Since I was leader, I thought the simulation was more challenging because I had many more objectives to fulfill, such as making sure no one got rescued and ensuring as many people as possible made it to the top. It was incredibly difficult when everyone had different goals that did not align with mine and they would keep it secret so I wouldn’t know everything they knew; the information asymmetry made me distrust them more. Not everyone could win in a situation, so there had to be a give and take between all of us.

One of the biggest challenges for our team was figuring out what treatments different ailments required. Since none of us had experience climbing, we didn’t know which kind of medication to use on certain illnesses and Gerardo accidentally gave Patrick an unnecessary body bag when he was having trouble breathing. It didn’t end up helping and we wasted our only body bag. It was definitely difficult having a limited amount of resources available, only 4 treatments for 6 days and 5 people to share. Many of us kept experiencing weak health, so it was difficult to prioritize who needed which treatments when all of us had trouble breathing or weak mental acuity.

Another challenge was that we had to pool together information because each of us received different information depending on the day so there had to be clear and open communication in order to succeed. We didn’t realize that someone people had more information, such as weather and temperatures, than others and that we were supposed to share information until probably Round 3. The distrust generated from not sharing each others’ individual objectives and intentions probably caused a rift between us and in turn we were reluctant to reveal too much information on our personal screens to each other, which was detrimental to our group performance.

Overall, I enjoyed the simulation because it revealed many real life conflicts people experience, such as having different individual objectives but still having to collaborate together to accomplish a team goal. It was fun and interactive method to illustrate collaboration and was a good experience for me to be the leader so I could experience managing people. Sometimes successfully completing a team goal can become so challenging it is almost comparable to mentally trying to climb Mount Everest.

3A. In Class Sessions

8/31/15 – Introduction/Communication Process

The first class of the semester was basically an introduction and overview of the course. We first went over a description of class objectives and what came to peoples’ minds with the phrase “oral communication.” Some of these responses included public speaking/giving presentations, one on one persuasions, informative talks, elevator pitches, and communicating with other disciplines, cultures, and ages. I could see how all of these are crucial aspects of successful oral communication. Additionally, we went over the article entitled “What It Takes to Be Great.” This article debunked the myth that most people who are good at something are naturally talented at it and argued that hard work is essential to mastering something. It also emphasized the 10,000 hour rule that states that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be good at something. Not only is a lot of practice important, but deliberate practice is also just as essential. Deliberate practice is using the right technique to practice and setting specific reachable goals for yourself. Lastly, we went over the various components of the IOCSR and what each component would entail.

Key takeaways:

One key takeaway from my first class is how valuable oral communication is to being successful in a work environment and even getting hired at a job you want. No matter what major you are in nowadays, recruiters from companies always want a well rounded individual that is comfortable expressing themselves and communicating with others in a variety of professional settings. Although the content of what you are saying may vary, the way you say it can greatly impact your audiences’ reaction. Personally, I have always struggled with public speaking and get extremely nervous when I have to present in front of my classmates, so this class will definitely push the boundaries of my comfort zone. Because I know oral communication in a professional setting is one of my greatest weaknesses, I realized I must consciously work hard to ask for feedback and practice in order to improve upon this area before the stakes are higher. This is primarily why I was excited to start this course that would teach me to express myself more eloquently. 

9/14/15- Elevator Pitches

In this second class each of us presented a prepared 30-90 second elevator pitch to help us land a job. The goal of the pitch was to summarize who you are, what you do, and why you are the perfect candidate for a specific position. Everyone went up one by one and presented their elevator pitches in front of the whole class while everyone else wrote down what they thought were that person’s strengths and weaknesses on a feedback form. Every person also got someone else to record his or her pitch so that he or she could rewatch the speech in the future. We were also told that we would be giving another elevator pitch at the end of the semester and would compare that one to the one we gave today to see how far we had come. As there were about 30 students in the class, this exercise took the entire class. At the very end, we all watched our own speeches and commented on what we liked, disliked, and wanted to change about the Elevator Pitch Presentation as a whole. Lastly, we distributed everyone’s feedback forms so that they could take it back with them and look over everyone’s critiques of their speech.

Key takeaways:

Although I think giving an actual elevator pitch to a large audience simply listening is a little unrealistic in the real world, I nevertheless really liked this class because it forced me out of my comfort zone. I hate public speaking and presentations, and get extremely nervous whenever I am forced to do either. However, I know these skills are vital ones in the business world and companies are always looking for effective communicators who are able to effectively convey their message to large audiences as well as to other individuals. Giving an elevator pitch to my whole class for 30-90 seconds may not be a big deal to others, but it was definitely a challenge for me. Before this assignment, I actually prepared and rehearsed my pitch repeatedly in front of a mirror to make sure I could get it just right during the presentation. When I was actually up there, I remembered everything, but I think the over-preparing may have actually worked against me, as some of the comments on my feedback forms said I sounded monotone or spoke too fast. I think I could’ve put more passion and excitement into my speech but it was hard for me to do so at the time because I was so anxious to simply get it over with. I actually really enjoyed the feedback forms component because it was helpful to get constructive criticism on aspects of my speech I could improve on for the final pitch at the end of the semester. Despite how much I hate listening to my own voice and watching myself doing something, I thought having a recording of my speech to play back and watch was a beneficial experience as well. This way I noticed that I was indeed talking extremely fast with almost no emotion on my face or intonation in my voice, and in the future now I know I have to work on those two components while I am giving a public presentation.

9/21/2015- Guest Speaker – Dr. Jeff Kudisch – (What Skills are Critical for Career Success?)

Summary:

During this class session, we had a guest speaker, Dr. Jeff Kudisch, come in from the Office of Career Services and offer advice on how to land a job and interview successfully. Dr. Kudisch is the Assistant Dean of Corporate Relations as well as the Managing Director of the Office of Career Services. He started the class off with a presentation entitled “Succeeding Amidst the War for Talent: Tips for Career Success.” After briefly introducing the Office of Career Services and their mission (to provide students with experiences and opportunities to begin their careers and to partner with employers), Dr. Kudisch began examining the top skills that employers are seeking nowadays. Many of the top skills were not surprising but pretty common sense, such as leadership, ability to work in a team, and problem solving skills. However, something new I learned was that executives look for the 5 Q’s, meaning not only do they look for the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) that gets your foot in the door, but are also seeking in potential candidates the qualities of Emotional Quotience/Intelligence (EQ), Cultural Quotient/Intelligence (CQ), Passion Quotient (PQ), and Courage Quotient (CRQ).

Next, we got to watch a video entitled “How to Get A Dream Job” in which a psychologist tries to transform the worst job candidate he could find into a great one in merely 3 days. The poor man who had the worst interview spoke monotonously, said he didn’t have his cover letter, and came across as bland, lacking drive, competition, and confidence. Although Andrew, the man, claimed he had inner confidence, he had trouble displaying that confidence in an interview as outward confidence. After the video, Dr. Kudisch asked the class if we thought it was real, and when Eddy said he thought it wasn’t, Dr. Kudisch actually asked him to come to the front of the class and gave him interview questions on the spot to answer. I thought Eddy did a great job of answering the questions how he did because he was confident, concise, and detailed in his answers, considering how nervous he must’ve felt standing up there in front of all his peers and teacher.  After Eddy finished the mini mock interview, Dr. Kudisch asked the class what he did well and points he could improve on.

Dr. Kudisch also emphasized that 70% of what you say is what you’re not saying, meaning that body language was extremely important in conveying a message to an employer of your personal brand and the kind of job candidate you are. Hand gestures should be used appropriately to accentuate your important points, not as a nervous tick or used to sign out what you’re saying to your interviewer. Eye contact is also crucial because it shows that you are fully engaged in the conversation and confident in yourself. Lastly, Dr. Kudisch explained how to successfully prepare and strategize for an interview, going into the situation having done research and prepared 5-7 questions to ask at the end to show initiative, engagement, and passion.

Key Takeaways:

So far, this class session has been my favorite in the semester because of the useful information Dr. Kudisch provided and how applicable this knowledge is to all of our lives. I thought the session was enrapturing and that the whole class was captivated by Dr. Kudisch’s presenting skills and intriguing powerpoint presentation. He had no trouble getting and keeping the attention of all of us because we all want and need to know the secrets to landing an internship or job, as that is what we are ultimately in school for. Getting goods grades and excelling in classes is merely a vehicle for achieving our ultimate goal, which would be to get a satisfying job after graduation.

First, in one scene of the video we watched, the psychologist asks Andrew, the weak job interviewee, to sell himself to him across a packed subway train. Andrew had extreme difficulty with this first exercise because he found it challenging to deliver a clear, concise pitch without including many um’s and uh’s, as well as hesitation. I empathized with him in this scene because I, along with many of my peers I’m sure, was able to relate to the uncertainty and throwing in unnecessary filler words such as like, um, and uh’s. This unprofessional talking habit is one of the biggest faults of my public speaking that I need to work on in the future.

After Eddy went up there impromptu and answered a couple typical interview questions, the lesson I took away from Dr. Kudisch cold calling him up there was that practicing your elevator pitch, interviewing skills, and overall brand was essential because you never know when you might need to impress an employer or forge a quick connection with a recruiter.

The part of Dr. Kudisch’s presentation that I found most beneficial was the section on Interview Preparation and Strategies because it introduced many tips that I know I will use in the future, such as that you should keep responses to questions in an interview 2-3 minutes in length, only talk about job related topics, and try to come off as authentic and humble, not cocky and arrogant, but yet remain confident. He also advised us to do research on the recruiter ahead of time if we knew who he/she would be because “similarity breeds attractiveness”, meaning recruiters unconsciously rate a person higher if they perceive themselves to have things in common with that person. Then, during the interview, we should ask questions that somehow tie in with our similarities and also try to get the recruiter talking about their own experience because they don’t often have the chance to do so.

The resources Dr. Kudisch introduced us to are also invaluable to me because I will definitely utilize them in the future to practice skills and look up information. Some of these include toastmasters.com, a community that strengthens oral communication skills, Interview Stream, The Virtual Interviewer that helps you polish interview skills through answering questions on an online video recording, glassdoor.com, Careerbuilder, InternMatch (all of which help you find out about interview and internship opportunities) among others.

He ended the class by repeating a quote, “Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room.” – Jeff Bezos. This saying deeply resonated with me because I realized its veracity, not only in professional aspects, but personally as well. How you present yourself is how people will think and probably speak of you when you aren’t there, because when it is when someone is not present that people are the most honest about their perceptions. I took away that is highly critical to stay genuine to your own personality, goals, and mindset while working on improving your personal brand by leveraging your natural strengths and beginning to work on improving weaknesses.

9/28- Strategic Self-Awareness/ Understanding Your Personal Effectiveness

Summary: In this class session we explored the power of public speaking. We viewed a video on how lucrative the public speaking business is as we watched talented and charismatic speakers cashing in on Americans’ desire for success.

Additionally, we discussed what made someone a good leader and what makes someone a good manager to their employees. One great example of how highly companies value the necessity of having a great manager is Google’s “Project Oxygen”, their operation to build better bosses and teams. In order to do this, they surveyed employees through feedback surveys, analyzed performance reviews, and used the information gathered to develop programs to train certain skills in their current managers. These 8 key skills include:

    1. Be a good coach.

    2. Empower your team and don't micromanage.

    3. Express interest in team members' success and personal well-being

    4. Don't be a sissy. Be productive and results-oriented.

    5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team.

    6. Help your employees with career development.

    7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.

    8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

Additionally, Google revealed that employees much preferred a manager to be accessible rather than be technically skills, and technical skills are at the bottom of the list. Therefore, contrary to what you might believe, having vast technical knowledge does not enable you to connect effectively with your employees. You need to be approachable and someone your employees would feel comfortable around. In other words, you need to demonstrate Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Emotional intelligence is how effectively you exercise your emotions to serve you rather than hinder you. Someone with a strong EQ shows strong motivation, empathy, self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills. The higher rank you are in an organization, the more important Emotional Intelligence becomes. Most people spend most of their time collaborating with others through meetings, so the oral communication piece is extremely critical to their communication success.

Key Takeaway Points:

I never realized that there existed entire days of motivational speaking sessions. I definitely underestimated the power of public speaking as an industry and never imagined that people would pay so much money just to get a few hours or a day of inspirational empowerment.

I also learned that the number one reason people leave companies is because they hate their boss. This did not surprise me in the least because it is impossible to continue to work for someone you dislike and who doesn’t understand how to communicate effectively with you. Through my personal work experience, I can also see how crucial of a role the 8 key traits of good managers play into employee satisfaction. Earlier this year I worked at a law firm in the College Park area. My duties included proofreading legal documents such as wills and estate contracts, as well as looking up statues on a legal database. Since I haven’t taken Business Law yet, it was challenging because I did not understand much of the legal jargon or what certain words or phrases meant. However, my boss was a good coach and always taught me the skills necessary to complete the task. He also expressed interest in my well being by always asking me how school was going and how my weekend was, so I knew he cared about me more than just a worker. Additionally, he never micromanaged me and gave me the space I needed to complete projects. The reason I left was to pursue a more relevant position for my future career, and when I gave him my two weeks notice, he was extremely understanding, which showed him that he valued my personal career development, and I think that is very rare in a manager because usually they just care about how you can help them.

10/5/15 – Strategic Self-Awareness/ Understanding Your Personal Effectiveness Part 2

Summary:

This class was about the puzzle of motivation and what drives employees in a work setting. Motivation is defined as forces that energize, direct, and sustain a person’s efforts.

I learned motivation is internal, complex and different for each person, and that fear may be an effective short-term motivator, but if you want to motivate someone in the long term, you must do so through joy. In the Change or Die article, a point that I thought to be interesting was that patients with unhealthy lifestyles who were suffering serious health problems because of their unhealthy habits were more likely to change if you emphasized the joy of living and being with their loved ones rather than instilled the fear of death in them.

Moreover, Dan Pink explained in his Ted Talk about the puzzle of motivation that contingent motivators are fine when there is a simple set of rules and the task is cut and dry, but they do not work well for tasks that require creative thinking and innovation because such rewards narrow focus and restrict possibility. As long as the task was purely mechanical, the higher the reward, the better the performance. However, when offered a reward, people actually take longer to figure out a task that requires them to use their brains as opposed to not given a financial incentive. Instead, he argues that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the building blocks for motivating business people.

Next, we delved into the topic of change and the complexity behind the factors that drive someone to actually change. By watching the Who Moved My Cheese video, we learned that sometimes people may dwell more on their losses and linger unhappily on their misfortunes instead of adapting to the situation and looking to move forward (Hem refusing to venture back out into the maze in search of new cheese). I believe that cheese in this scenario represents our personal happiness and success. When Hem and Haw (the little people) were happy and content, they never noticed any small changes in their cheese supply, however, the mice (Skip and Scurry) monitored every little detail so they would be prepared when one day all the cheese disappeared, and they would be ready to venture back out in search of more cheese.

Key takeaways:

Two shocking facts that I learned from this class were that most people in an organization are either not engaged or actively disengaged, and that business majors score lower and study less than other majors. I would have imagined that most people are interested and involved in their organization because they choose to work there, but apparently much is needed to retain an employer’s interest. The specific piece that business majors work harder and score lower than our counterparts is also surprising to me because personally, I know a lot of my peers who are extremely conscientious and ambitious. Overall, however, the message I received was that motivation is an individual process, and I have to make that active decision to push myself.

Some myths about change I learned include that crisis is powerful impetus, change is motivated by fear, the facts will set us free, small gradual changes are easier to sustain than large ones, and that we can’t change because our brains are hardwired to be a certain way. The main key takeaway point I gained from this section of the lecture was that the best inspiration comes from leaders who can create compelling and positive visions of the future. Narratives are what matter, not facts, and radical changes may be riskier, but they are more effective at the end of the day.

I think the narrative of “Who Moved My Cheese” truly illustrates how stubborn and stuck in their way of thinking many of us can be in an easy to understand way. Much of the time, I feel exactly like Hem, staring at what I have and reluctant to move on in search of improved conditions. Recently, I had to make a decision to quit my current job to pursue a new offer that would be more beneficial to my career in the long run. One simple catch: I do not like change and was already comfortable in the daily routine of my old job. It would be scary to start all over again in a new place with a new boss and new assignments that I might have no idea how to do and risk embarrassment. At the end of the day, however, I finally pushed myself to make the switch and gathered up the courage to tell my boss that I would be quitting. I recently started my position working as a Business Process Analyst for the Division of IT and it has been every bit as promising as I thought it would be: I am much more interested in my actual assignments than my prior job working for a law firm because it is actually want I want to do with my future, whereas while I was content and settled into my previous position, I had no real passion for law.

10/12 – Leading with Communication

Summary:

This class period was all about how to lead through effective communication. A key trait effective communicators demonstrate is charisma, the ability to communicate a clear, visionary, and inspirational message that captivates and motivates an audience. Most importantly, charisma can be learned; anyone can be trained in what are known as “charismatic leadership tactics.” There are 12 tactics in total, 9 verbal and 3 nonverbal. The verbal tactics include metaphors, similies, analogies, stories and anecdotes, contrasts, rhetorical questions, three part lists, expressions of moral conviction, reflections of group sentiments, setting high goals, and conveying confidence that they can be achieved. The three nonverbal tactics are animated voice, facial expressions, and gestures. In Olivia Fox Cabane’s speech at Google entitled Charisma, Leadership, and the Imposter Syndrome, she states that there are three main components of charisma: presence, power, and warmth. Presence is achieved through maintaining eye contact, and even focusing on people’s pupils and your own toes to increase self-awareness. Power can be attained through strategic positioning of your body, aka Alpha Gorilla body language: making yourself as big as possible like an alpha gorilla would do. Warmth is perhaps the hardest of the three because it cannot be faked. Key tellers of warmth are eyes and voice.

Lastly we also discussed the concept of Tipping Point Leadership. The idea of “tipping point” is the concept that once beliefs of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea then spreads like an epidemic. There are usually four hurdles that discourage change: the Cognitive Hurdle (how to find new ways to communicate?), the Resource Hurdle (how to focus on hot spots and bargain with partner organizations?), the Motivational Hurdle (how to frame the challenge to match an organization’s various levels?), and the Political Hurdle (how to identify and silence internal opponents while isolating external ones?) A real life case study of Tipping Point Leadership in practice is the case of police chief Bill Bratton who transformed New York from an extremely dangerous place to the safest large city in the nation through overcoming these four hurdles to bring about transformative and long lasting change.

Key takeaways:

Although I also felt that all great speakers had something in common, I could never pinpoint what that characteristic or skill was. After this class, I became confident that it was charisma. I thought it was valuable lecture because not only did we learn what charisma was, we also learned the 12 Charismatic Learning Tactics we can begin to insert into our speeches in order to give more captivating and impactful speeches. One trouble I sometimes have when giving a presentation is really connecting to my audience. I feel that often I am just giving them a talk and they are bored listening to me drone on and on, because there is they think there is nothing in it for them to be sitting there listening to me. Now I know if I can exude presence, power, and warmth I will be greater able to command an audience’s attention. A small but critical point that I can make an effort to improve is my own body language when giving speeches. I realized sometimes I shrink or hunch my body while looking down. This is a clear sign of insecurity and in the future I will try to adapt the “Alpha Gorilla pose” into my speeches – stand up tall and straight and show the audience that what I have to say is content worth listening to. This small improvement in body language, combined with sprinkling my speech with verbal Charismatic Learning Tactics, such as including metaphor, stories, and lists, will greatly improve my future presentations.

10/19 – Ira Koretsky, Chief Storyteller (Giving Presentations)

Summary:  During this class, we had the privilege of having a guest speaker, Ira Koretsky, come in and talk to us about how to “Speak Like Ted”, or offer strategies to become as inspiring and memorable as the world’s top speakers. Ted is about vulnerability and authenticity, and they do not invite smooth or slick and polished speakers. The key to preparing a successful speech is to consider the overarching question: what do you want to be known for?

The 8 keys to great talks are as follows:
1. Promise a better tomorrow. What’s in it for the people listening to your speech? What should be their biggest takeaway?

2. Turn their world upside down. Offer a twist to the normal presentation, show a different angle, and just be interesting.

3. Develop a catchy Call-2-Action. Your action should be easily repeatable, inspire action, and less than or equal to 7 words.

4. Make memorable moments.

5. Tell great stories – induce as many laughs as possible, because humor makes people warm up to you as a speaker.

6. Show only compelling visuals.

7. Practice like an Olympian.

8. Paint your presentation.

Key takeaways:

My main key takeaways from Ira’s first presentation were that the three most important factors that will determine a speech’s success or failure were the content, your voice, and your body language. The second piece is that it is absolutely essential to make your PowerPoint slides great because bad PowerPoints detract from presentations. In the future, I will definitely need to consider this piece with more weight, because I know I have had some plain and boring PowerPoint slideshows in the past to accompany my oral presentation. No wonder why my peers fell asleep during my speech! I would always cram too much text onto each slide and now I realize that is not a smart way to give a presentation. Additionally, I would read off my slides while presenting and in retrospect, I should’ve realized that people are capable of reading for themselves.

10/26 – Ira Korestky, Chief Storyteller (Personal Branding)

Summary:

Ira’s second session with us was all about personal branding and how to land the job you want. All of us wonder how we can wow hiring managers with effective personal branding. At this point, most of us lack much work experience, so what do recruiters hire on? The answer is potential. What you have to offer the company is tied to your value proposition, or promise. 

To grab peoples’ attention, tell a story in the beginning of a presentation and use body language as an indicator. Giving a talk is all about the intersection between the heart (emotion and connection), delivery (pacing, tone, body language, and figures of speech), and mind (factual, believable, and trustworthy).  Moreover, to become more eloquent, you should also use speaking enhancements, such as repetition, alliteration, and metaphors. Speeding up or slowing down your pace and raising your volume or lowering it can also keep the audience on the edge of their seats and listen closer to what you have to say.

Key takeaways:

 The ultimate question from both last week and this week remains, what do you want to be known for? An exercise Ira had us complete that I found engaging was to write “I want” statements – statements that illustrate in which direction we want to take our career in.

Ira also told us to spice up our Linked in profile and change the headline to something unique that would catch employers’ attention. My profile picture on LinkedIn was still my high school yearbook picture and about two years old. It was not an accurate portrayal of the person I was today; it was blurry and outdated. I finally stopped procrastinating and got an official LinkedIn portrait taken for me by a friend and uploaded it. I’m so glad I finally did because now my profile looks much crisper and cleaner.

Ira also made the point that you should always send a real invite to connect on LinkedIn with someone, never the generic message. This was something new for me to do in the future, because I would usually always send the generic default message without thinking twice. Now I will always make sure to customize my requests to colleagues, professors, or employers.

Another key takeaway was that every life experience can be a business story, and that “chance favors only the prepared mind”, meaning that you can spin anything that happens to you to be a business lesson and learn from it.

A couple miscellaneous helpful tips I will take from the presentation are to run an Internet search for your name for 10 or more pages because you never know what could come up, and you want to make sure you are only represented in a positive light online when employers perform a background check. To build further upon your professional social media presence, I will “deliberately” share my content on any blogs or on LinkedIn, as well as post meaningful comments on others’ blogs in order to forget lasting relationships and use the Internet as a vessel for networking. Part of using the Internet to network is ensuring that my LinkedIn is top notch. I made sure that it was through uploading a professional

Additionally, an excellent way to figure out what your personal brand is is through running a Wordle on different documents, such as your resume, to figure out which words you use the most to describe yourself. Also, I will use the phrase “I am a student liberally”, because I know it will open many doors and opportunities for me, since people are more willing to help out students.

Introduction

My name is Jasmine Zhu and I am a sophomore studying Information Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. I am also part of the Business, Society, and Economy Scholars Program. This is my second year participating in the scholars program. Outside of BSE, I am also involved in the QUEST Honors program, Phi Chi Theta co-ed business fraternity, and  two Smith Fellows programs - Social Innovation Fellows and Technology Business Transformation Fellows. Since freshman year I have gotten involved in many more activities within the business school in order to increase my network and build my personal brand to find out who I really am and what I want out of my future career. I have definitely grown extensively as an individual both personally and professionally, and I believe my project this year will reflect that.

^A picture of me and my Phi Chi Theta family

I decided to do a blog again because it allowed me to compare my progress this year to last year and see how much I grew as a result of going through one year in college. Moreover, I enjoyed revisiting my PCR blog page last year after I turned it in because it was a documentation of my experiences and growth my first semester of college. I could really look back and see the experiences I underwent that shaped me into the person I am today.

First, after surviving my first year of college, I have grown a lot professionally and streamlined what I want to do with my professional career. Through my experiences last year I decided I want to go into technology consulting because it combines two things I am passionate about: Innovative technologies and helping others. This realization has given me much more direction compared to when I was a freshman and felt lost, not knowing what I was interested in or wanted to do. Having a professional career has also narrowed my job search because I know exactly which positions I would like to apply for.

In regards to this course, communication has not always been my forte. I am naturally an introverted person who is shy when meeting new people. I know I need to work on my communication skills because I absolutely detest giving public speeches and it is one of my greatest dreaded fears. I get up there and my face immediately turns bright red when I begin talking, I start stuttering, and lose all self confidence. This causes people to not take what I am saying seriously, which causes me to lose even more confidence. It is a self-destructive cycle that harms peoples' impressions of me when I give speeches. When it comes to communication I tend to be more passive, letting the other person do most of the talking. While this is effective sometimes, I know I need to be more proactive and outgoing if I want to be successful in the long run. That is one of the primary reasons I am excited about taking this course: it will force me out of my comfort zone and make me do things that will make me uncomfortable, but if I remain comfortable all the time, I will never grow as a person and get better at my weaknesses.

I hope you, the reader, enjoys browsing this blog and learning a little more about my personal journey. I believe it is a truly accurate representation of how I developed my communication skills this semester. Once again, I numbered my posts based on the assignment descriptions and in numerical order.