Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

Big Five Relationships

March 29, 2016 by Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

When I think of a leader I cannot help but think of people such as famous politicians and individuals who inspired or revolutionized a group of people. However, as I was in the kitchen making dinner with my honey, I pondered at the thought of leadership in relationships. I looked around and realized we both have our designated roles but can also admit that we are both leaders in our relationship in unique ways. In addition, I thought about our lesson on leadership traits and the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The Five Factor Model of Personality distinguishes 5 dimensions of personality, including; conscientiousness (dependability), agreeableness, neuroticism (emotional stability/adjustment), openness to experience (intellectance) and extraversion (surgency). After performing an online search of traits needed in order to be a successful partner in a relationship I found the following traits to be most important: maturity, openness, honesty and integrity, empathy, and affection. Refer to http://www.eharmony.com/dating-advice/dating/seven-qualities-of-an-ideal-partner/#.VvQqoWQrK1s for additional information.

Below I will illustrate how the Five Factor Model of Personality relates to an individual’s success as a leader just as it illustrates an individual’s success in a relationship.

When high in conscientiousness or dependability, individuals are planful, hardworking and follow through with their commitments. In addition, individuals high in conscientiousness rarely get in trouble. Dependability is a major factor in a relationship and both partners must stick to their commitments and contribute equal work to the success of their relationship.
Those that are high in agreeableness are “empathetic, friendly, and optimistic” (World Campus, 2016). In addition, agreeableness is important in relationships because teamwork and cooperation are the vital in group functioning. According to Nauraine (2010), relationships, especially marriage, require team work. Teamwork is required in relationships for many reasons but becomes most apparent when individuals are trying to resolve conflict. Individuals that are high in agreeableness show success as a leader because they are able to discuss issues and goals with the group and accept input and feedback from others.
Neuroticism or emotional stability/adjustment refers to those who remain calm and also those who do not take mistakes or failures personally. As a leader, scoring high in emotional stability are able to help a group through difficult issues and can remain calm under pressure (World Campus, 2016). As a partner in a relationship, it is important to remain clam and be able to discuss issues and situations with your partner in a calm manner. Those who are unable to do so are likely to have longer lasting and more intense arguments with their partner.
Openness to Experience or Intellectance is high in individuals who are curious and seek out new experiences. Having a higher than average openness to experience score is common amongst leaders. According to McCrae and Sutin (2009), openness to experiences shapes many aspects of relationships including; marriage and parenting.
Extroversion (surgency) relates to individuals who are outgoing, self-confident and competitive. As a leader, scoring high in extraversion affects their ability to successfully influence a group (World Campus, 2016). In a relationship, scoring high in extroversion reflects an individual’s sense of trust as extroversion is related to self-confidence. See this article on Eharmony.com related to how extraversion traits influence the success of one’s relationship.

http://www.eharmony.com/dating-advice/dating/science-of-extraversion/#.Vvp2fmQrI1g

In all, it is important to recognize the many aspects of leadership and how leadership can be applied in a variety of settings and situations. An individual leading a group has similar characteristics to an individual leading a successful relationship. Please look at the chart below and compare low vs. high scores of the big five characteristics and how they would fit into a relationship. For example, do you think one with a higher or lower score for extroversion would benefit in a relationship?

References

McCrae, R. R., & Sutin, A. R. (2009). Openness to Experience. In M. R. Leary and R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior (pp. 257-273). New York: Guilford.

Nauraine, J. (2010). Chicago Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist, Johanna Nauraine. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from http://www.therapistinchicago.com/Chicago-licensed-psychotherapist-about-me.html

Pennsylvania State University (2016). Leadership in Work Settings—PSYCH 485. Online course lesson. Penn State World Campus. The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 21,2016from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/06_page.htm l

3 Day Start Up

February 19, 2016 by Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

This past semester I participated in a program called 3DS or 3-Day Start Up. Penn State’s 3DS was held this past year in October, although the program itself is held nationwide at many different universities and institutions. 3DS is an intensive weekend long program where teams envision a business idea, create the business, talk to consumers and pitch the business to a mini “shark tank”. Teams stay up all night long to complete their pitches, develop websites and come up with new ideas. As with any organization, creating a new business plan in 3DS is stressful and exhausting. You are assigned in groups with people whom you have never met before and are forced to trust and rely off of one another for the course of the weekend.

According to Penn State University (2016), the path goal theory concerns how leaders motivate followers to accomplish their goals. The path goal theory assumes that in order to be an effective leader one much provide rewards for the followers and help them find the best way of getting there. The rewards in this case are considered “the goal” where the best way of reaching that goal is “the path”. It is absolutely imperative for a leader to be able to motivate their employees or followers in order for them to want to achieve their goal.

Watch the video below to get some more info and a better idea of 3DS (Plus, see sneak peaks of me participating!!)

The very first stage of 3DS is pitching business ideas to a room full of colleagues, after that happens, individuals must vote on whose ideas they enjoyed the most and which ones they want to pursue creating a business model for. Presumably, the person who originally pitches the business idea becomes the leader and their followers are individuals who believe in their model and want to join their team. In my case, I joined a team with a leader whose vision was a rental cell phone company to help individuals who are temporarily lost without a phone due to breaking it, losing it, or whatever other reason. Myself and four other individuals joined the cell phone group and our leaders name was Derek. Initially, Derek was responsible for explaining his ideas to us and really selling us on his business model.

Derek behaved with a participative leadership style as we were all thoroughly involved in the decision making process. The participative leadership style in the path-goal theory involves leaders who consult their teammates to get opinions and new input before making decisions (Northouse, 2016). Derek would write a big list of his initial ideas on the chalkboard and then have us all yell out new ideas or improvements to the ones already listed. We would provide feedback and criticism to each other while developing ideas and every decision we made was voted on as a team. Although we all started off together, we definitely looked at Derek as a leader, which is normal behavior for the path-goal theory as “leaders behaviors will be acceptable to followers to the degree followers see the leader’s behavior will lead to satisfaction for them” (Penn State, 2016; p. 14). In that regard, we all liked and trusted Derek and believed following his ideas would lead us to success in the end.

Around the end of the second night participating in 3DS, we were all exhausted and it was hard to keep the motivation flowing. According to the task characteristics of the path-goal theory, leaders should both motivate and try to help subordinates overcome obstacles. Our group was well aware of the times that we were losing motivation and Derek would usually let us relax for while and we would sit around and talk casually. The small break from working was a huge boost as we would typically start off talking and then somehow divert back into discussing our business plan anyways. Anytime anyone had a problem or something did not seem to be working, Derek was the first one to stop what he was doing and come over to work one on one with you.

Derek’s path-goal approach to leadership helped us to accomplish our work in a satisfactory manor. He helped us navigate ambiguous and unclear situations that forced us to work together and create solutions as a team. One of the strengths to the path-goal theory is that it “helps leaders see the important ways in which they can help subordinates” (Penn State, 2016; p. 16). At the end of the weekend, Derek mentioned that he was relatively high up in the Army and was used to leading others, developing plans and helping subordinates around obstacles. He was a really good leader who made everyone in the group feel important and useful in one way or another. He motivated the group over the course of the weekend during even the most challenging times.

I am not usually a follower in-group situation so this experience was new for me. I am definitely the type of person who likes to step up and lead individuals. From the perspective of a follower, the path-goal theory involves two different follower variables: the satisfaction of followers and the followers’ perception of their own abilities relative to the task to be accomplished (Penn State, 2016). I can honestly say that as a leader Derek made his followers feel both of these variables. As mentioned previously, he made everyone feel as though they were a valuable contribution to the team and we were also very satisfied with him as a leader and the work we did as a team.

References

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los
Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781483317533

Building Muscles

February 12, 2016 by Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

A personal trainer is responsible for possessing knowledge, skills and abilities to safely and effectively design fitness programs by both instruction and assistance for individuals and/or groups for the purpose of reaching personal health and fitness goals.

I first got the idea to blog about fitness training when I was at the gym a few weeks back. I go to a gym called, World Gym almost every day of the week. At first, I absolutely hated the gym as it was filled with what you called “Guidos and Guidettes” (very muscular, tan people who are dedicated to working out). I would go on the treadmill and run as fast as I could to get out of there while watching the fitness gurus interact with one another. However, after a few weeks of returning to the gym day after day I realized how many inspiring people were there and continued to push themselves each and every day. There are probably about 10-15 fitness trainers that walk around, mostly one-on-one with clients, but they are also willing to answer any questions you may about the machines or equipment. I watched as heavily overweight individuals were being trained and pushed by trainers half their weight but four times their physical strength. I observed female trainers push groups of girls to do one more set of push-ups before class was over. With all of that going on around me, I couldn’t help but notice how much the trainers were acting as leaders to their clients and also to members of the gym.

The styles approach focuses on what leaders do and how they act. According to the styles approach, leadership is made up of two kinds of behavior: task behaviors and relationship behaviors. Task behaviors are “those that are focused on the accomplishment of goals” whereas, relationship behaviors “help followers feel comfortable with themselves, each other, and with the situation” (Pennsylvania State, 2016). In addition, both initiating structure and consideration are technically the same as task and relationship behaviors, those that drive the styles approach.

In the styles approach, leaders provide structure for subordinates and they nurture them. A physical trainer is responsible for the physical fitness, motivation and overall moral of the clients they are working with. Think about it, no one likes or going or is motivated to go to the gym for themselves, imagine how hard it is to get OTHER people motivated to go to the gym for them? According to Pennsylvania State University (2016), in a study conducted by Ohio State, initiating structure and consideration are two main behaviors of leaders. Initiating structure involves organizing work, giving structure to work context, defining role responsibilities, and scheduling work. A physical trainer is responsible for coordinating exercises routines such as amounts of reps and sets, defining the role the trainee plays in their physical fitness regarding healthy lifestyle changes such as eating habits, and creating a schedule of both workouts and food logs.

Both initiating structure and consideration play a huge role in the styles approach. Consideration involves a relationship between the leader and the follower, or in this regard, the physical trainer and the trainee, the physical trainer is responsible, as a leader would be, for “building camaraderie, respect, trust, and liking between themself and [the trainee]” (Pennsylvania State, 2016; p. 5). In addition to the studies conducted at Ohio State University, further research on the similar subject was conducted at the University of Michigan. The difference between the two studies was that the University of Michigan was primarily concerned with studying leadership based on the behaviors of leaders in small groups. The Michigan researcher identified two behaviors related to the styles approach: employee orientation and production orientation. Employee orientation “describes the behavior of leaders who take an interest in workers as human beings, value their individuality, and give special attention to their personal needs” (Pennsylvania State, 2016). A physical trainer takes the upmost pride in their job as they are helping individuals to live a better and overall healthier lifestyle. They take interest in their clients both based on their individuality and give attention to their specific needs and the goals they are trying to achieve. A physical trainer must focus on each client as an individual because each and every person is different and handles physical stress differently. At the end of the day, a physical trainers job is to improve their clients’ health, help them lose weigh and gain strength and confidence. This is where production orientation comes into play as production orientation described the behavior of leaders who view their followers or works as a means of getting the job done. In all, a physical trainer is a great representation of someone following the styles approach.

The following link described the role of a personal trainer, their qualifications and the job they perform. The article describes the relationship physical trainers have with their clients and a day in the life of working to improve the lives and fitness of others.

The Role of a Personal Trainer

References

You’re just a waitress

February 7, 2016 by Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

I am 21 years old and have spent the past four years of my life as an undergrad student attending Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. I did not come from a family of wealth or money, I was just your average out of state paying, non-financial aid receiving undergrad. In order to pay for gas, groceries and an occasional Café Tea at Café 210, I starting waiting tables.

I’ve worked at several different restaurants and have experienced a vast array of management styles, as I’m sure any one else working in the restaurant industry has. Restaurant managers have a lot of responsibilities, and the ones that they themselves do not take on, are the responsibilities of individuals under their direct supervision. In order to be a restaurant manager, you first have to be a leader, as you are the leader of employees who probably work other jobs, have families, go to school, and all around have other commitments. Restaurant managers are responsible for everything from menu prices to employee morale. This short YouTube video provides a great example of the tasks a restaurant manager is responsible along with the difficulties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm50TuwXk5c

There are many different styles of restaurant managers and I’ve taken the time to coordinate them into categories that I’m upmost positive anyone will appreciate. Below are the following types of restaurant managers:

The Inappropriate Manager- typical behavior includes; making sex jokes, trying to hook up employees and occasionally taking one back during eat in hours.
The Strict Manager – typical behavior includes; “this is the nicest restaurant you’ll ever work for”, triple checking your side work, walking around “talking to tables” (aka trying to see if you did anything wrong)
The Disappearing Manager- typical behavior includes; opening the restaurant, going into the office, coming out during rush hour, doing a lap around, going back into the office, coming out for check outs
The Overly Involved Manager – typical behavior includes; caring way too much about your personal life, talking way too much about their own boring life, treating work like a social event
The Chill Respected Manager – typical behavior includes; performing manager duties quietly, walking around with the phone, random outburst of seriousness that everyone seems to listen to
The Power House Manager – typical behavior includes; talking about being a manager to employees, talking about being a manager to kitchen staff, talking about being a manager to guests, talking about being a manager to rats in dry storage, creating aimless busy work for you to do such as “go dust the salt canisters” or “go hold the bathroom door open for old people”.
The Five Star Manager- typical behavior includes; reiterating how successful the restaurant is, constantly changing the menu, requiring absurd tasks such as recommending a drink to tables before they even look at the drink menu, staying open later than all other local restaurants, letting customers in at 11:59 PM when we close at midnight.

With all of that said, you can see that there really no “normal” restaurant managers. I will tell you, I’ve worked for just about all of the above. I will also go on to tell you what skills of managers and management strategies, in reference to the skills approach, I think have worked and would be most likely to work the best for restaurants. Looking at the skills approach, it is necessary to have certain individual attributes to be a successful manager.

General Cognitive Ability: general cognitive ability is basically an individual’s intelligence. General cognitive ability, unlike crystalized cognitive ability, cannot be gained by experience, as it is linked to biology (IQ). I think this is an extremely important attribute that all restaurant managers should have. Unfortunately, this does not often happen, as most restaurant managers are individuals without a college education or lack thereof (from personal experience). However, most of the employees are individuals in their 20’s-30’s trying to work their way through school and being bossed around by someone who has very low general cognitive abilities can be difficult.

Crystalized Cognitive Ability: This is the second individual attribute that is based more on a person’s intelligence based on experience rather than biology. This is extremely important in the restaurant industry, especially as a manager. A restaurant manager should come into a new restaurant with loads of previous experience and learning tactics. With that said, I also think it is beneficial for a restaurant manager to be older than most of the employees. A lot of times restaurants will promote from within such as promoting a hostess to a waitress or a waitress to a supervisor. This can cause tension within the organization for many reasons, one of which being age. According to Northouse (2016), crystalized cognitive abilities continuously grow with age and do not taper off into adulthood. These abilities strengthen with age and include “being able to comprehend complex information and learn new skills and information as well as being able to communicate to others in oral and written forms” (Norhouse, 2016; p. 52). These abilities are vital for restaurant managers as they are not only communicating with different types of guests, but different types of employees as well, from wait staff, to bartenders to the kitchen line. Proper communication, both respectful and intelligent is important on many different levels.

Motivation: According to Northouse (2016) there are three central aspects of motivation in order to develop and maintain leadership skills. The first one is a wiliness to take on complex organizational problems. There is nothing worse than a manager coming into a place saying, “well, we have to leave this mess the same, I had nothing to do with it” or “this policy is horrible but we have to follow it”. The second aspect is a wiliness to express dominance and exert their influence. This is certainly true for restaurant managers. I have had managers in the past that let their employees walk all over them, which they will! Of course it is entertaining at times, but for the most part you want a manager that you can respect and that deserves your respect. You want someone who you know will be able to handle things when the place gets hectic and a manager who is supportive and appropriate when dealing with customer dilemmas. The last aspect is a commitment to the social good of the organization. This is important as well in a restaurant manager. If they were not committed to the organization, they would be perfectly happy to manage at any other restaurant, wouldn’t care about the sales, or even the success of the staff. It is necessary for a restaurant manager to care about the satisfaction of guests from the way they are greeted when they walk in the door, the service they receive from the waitstaff and also the tastiness of the meals they are eating.

Personality: Having a certain personality is significant to leadership as it has an impact on the development of leadership skills such as tolerance, ambiguity, curiosity, which all may in turn effect a leaders motivation (Northouse, 2016). Other personality characteristics, in comparison, may be beneficial to the leaders performance within the organization such as adaptability. There is nothing worse than having a boring; strange restaurant manager who is not only awkward talking to you, but makes your guests feel uncomfortable as well. Personality is key to maintaining a good relationship with peers, subordinates, competitors and customers.

In all, restaurant managers are essential to the satisfaction of employees, the success of the restaurant and the experience of the customers. They play an important role in the restaurant business and can really make or break one. You see so many restaurants that go out of business, and one of the central factors was probably bad management that did not have the motivation to make the company successful or the cognitive abilities to sustain the restaurant with furious competition.

Here is a link I found that discusses some of the things to do in order to be a successful restaurant manager:

http://www.themanagersoffice.com/category/restaurant-management-skills/leadership-for-restaurant-managers/

References

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los

Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781483317533

LEADing Coffee one Café at a Time

January 26, 2016 by Nicole Alexandra Dwyer

Starbucks Marketing Manager Michelle Gass

We all love coffee, heck, I would even go as far to say most of it need coffee to get through our day. But as much as we love coffee, we all have our favorite kind, brand and coffee destination. According to Goudreau (2011) in Forbes’s magazine, Michelle Gass is considered the “secret weapon” of Starbucks coffee. Pioneering the coffee industry, Starbuck’s is leading the market along with Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds new, Mc Café. In response to the economic decline in 2008 and the competition from other coffee brands, for one of the first times Starbucks was at a major collapse in sales. In order to jump-start their astonishing halt in sales, Starbucks Chief Executive, Howard Schultz reached out to marketing manager Michelle Gass to turn things around (Goudreau, 2011).

The three-skill approach depends on three basic personal skills: technical, human and conceptual. According to Northouse (2013), conceptual skills “are the ability to work with ideas and concepts”; they are necessary to creating vision and strategic planning for organizations. Conceptual skills involve having vision in formulating new ideas for the business and “shaping the meaning of organizational and/or policy issues” (Northouse, 2013; 45). Looking back at the example of Michelle Gass’s work for Starbucks, in order to turn business around Michelle helped to “restructure the operation and reinvigorate 137,00 employees in 17,00 stores” (Goudreau, 2011). She filled a very special role for Starbucks with a “transformation agenda” and seven big moves to get Starbucks out of their slump.

Michelle was responsible for both decreasing costs, improving coffee quality and creating new revenue streams. She cut costs by decreasing spending by almost $600 million in costs and closing each café for three hours to save on operating costs (Goudreau, 2011). Michelle improved coffee quality by coining the term “ready brew” for Starbucks instant coffee. Starbucks did a wide array of advertising for their new brand with commercials, free coffee samples and special promotions to Starbucks loyal customers. In addition, Michelle created new revenue streams by buying out Seattle’s Best coffee and partnering with corporations such as Burger King, Subway, supermarkets and Delta Airways (Goudreau, 2011). A short ten months after Michelle Gass was brought into Starbucks, sales rose by 100 million.

Chief Executive Howard Schultz described Michelle as “a courageous leader with a rare combination of business and interpersonal skills” (Goudreau, 2011). Whereas conceptual skills describe the ability to work with ideas and concepts, human skills describe the ability to work with people. In order to be a successful manager, Michelle Gass used both human and conceptual skills. She had to use her people skills to interact with consumers to discover what Starbucks was lacking and how to improve operations. She used her strong interpersonal skills to communicate with team members, management and subordinates to cut costs and improve coffee quality. According to Northouse (2013) career experiences also have an impact on the characteristics and success of leaders. Career experiences can positively affect the individual characteristics and “can influence their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems” (Northouse, 2013; 54). Before becoming the secret weapon of Starbucks, Michelle Gass was recruited by Proctor & Gamble to perform product research. She spent a great deal of time with Proctor and Gamble gaining experience and knowledge within the marketing world before being hired as Starbucks Frappuccino marketing manager.
One of the outcomes of leadership is effective problem solving, with problem solving being the “keystone in the skills approach” (Northouse, 2013). I would say that Michelle’s transformation of Starbucks was both an effective way of solving their problems and also resulted in high company performance. Chief Officer Howard Shultz speaks extremely highly of Michelle, describing her as a successful and smart leader (Goudreau, 2011). Performance of Starbucks improved by 100 million in sales shortly after her being recruited to help. In all, it is leaders such as Michelle Gass that navigate companies to success and pull them out of the weeds with their unique visions, innovative ideas, background and interpersonal skills.

Reference

Goudreau, J. (2011).Starbucks Secret Weapon. Forbes Magaine, Forbes Women. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/11/02/starbucks-secret-weapon- michelle-gass/#28e60d4c2841

Northouse, Peter G. (Ed.). (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th Ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.