A631.9.2.RB Video Debrief of Team MA Reyes,Cassandra

            After watching the video on Steve Jobs and his attempt at creating NeXT, I was able to better understand the difficulties he and his team experienced throughout the course of their time with this corporation before Apple bought his company. It was clear from the beginning that Jobs was hungry to recreate the success he had achieved at Apple. Jobs and his team are seen struggling to maintain profits and figure out ways to compete with their new technology in the higher education market. Through their difficulties, one thing seemed clear, Jobs and his team needed to keep their lines of communication open and continue to think outside the box in order to hold together the NeXT mission and vision.

            After completing the Management Assessment assignment I was intrigued by the accuracy of the results. After speaking with Tom, it was amazing to hear his knowledge on my personality and attributes by answering just a few questions on the assessment. While I learned how I fit in with my current organization, it was also a learning experience as to how my talents and attributes would fit in with other companies as well. I started to think of what we learned this week and thought of how well I would fit into Steve Jobs company NeXT. Would the attributes I offered somehow make me an asset to the team or would I deviate the team from their missions or visions somehow?

            During my debrief I realized that while I had a number of strengths in my candidate attributes and characteristics placements, there were also a few things that were brought to my attention that I should work on. While I believe that my independence attributes would allow me to be confident and independent which would fit well with the NeXT team, I believe that my weakness would most likely be my goal ambitiousness, goal setting and minimal risk taking. I think these would be my weakness because it was clear that NeXT had to take a number of risks in order to become somewhat successful. It was a risk itself to begin starting a new company after Apple from the ground up. I believe that according to my personality and the results of the management assessment I probably would have not been very comfortable with all of the risks the team members that NeXT had to make.

While I understand there is a certain amount of risk that one must take in order for the business to be successful. I believe that some of the choices that were made would have held me back from wanting to continue with the company all together. It was clear from the retreats that there was a divide with how much risk Jobs and his team wanted to make. Jobs seemed to be very comfortable with risk taking and the challenges he would face while many team members seemed a bit concerned with the consequences of the decision that were being made. I would have most likely felt the same as these individuals.

            One area that I believe I would have been an asset to the NeXT team is with my problem solving ability and creativity. I think I would have been able to think outside the box and find solutions to the problems that NeXT was facing at the time. A major issue with the results of my attributes though would have probably inhibited me from continuing with the company at some point because my results show that I am less driven to create or invent products which is a major part of the goals of NeXT. I think that due to my motivation to create or invent services over products I would have been more successful in another part of the corporation which concentrated on these areas.

            Lastly I believe that my multi tasking abilities, tolerance for interruptions and focus on change would have helped me a great deal to fit well within NeXT as I have a strong desire for diversity which is needed in a business which is just starting up. My leadership style would have also been an added benefit as I fall very close to the middle of both the X and Y axis, meaning I am well rounded in understanding and recognizing other leadership styles and being able to adapt to the environment and the issues of that environment I may be expected to assist in solving.

            All in all, I believe that there are a number of qualities I possess that could have been an added benefit to the NeXT team however, due to some of the characteristics I hold, I do not believe that I would have been comfortable in the environment the startup of NeXT had to experience. I believe that once the company was well established I would have felt more comfortable with the risk that was taking place at the time.

Cassandra R.

A631.8.4.RB Reflective Analysis_Reyes,Cassandra

Develop a reflection blog describing how the MBTI might be useful to you as you develop your leadership capacity. In your blog, touch on your own self-awareness and also your knowledge and awareness of others.

            I had originally taken the MBTI test earlier in the program and had received results stating that I had an INFJ personality. I decided to take the test again just to see if my feelings on any of the questions the test provided had changed as it has been almost a year since beginning the program and in my opinion a lot can happen in a year that can change how people perceive things or certain situations, such as my professional experiences, my marriage and the birth of my daughter. When I retook the test, I did feel as though my answers to some questions had changed but overall I felt I had provided enough feedback to receive the same results I had received on the test the first time around. In my opinion I think that the test had very accurate results of my personality.         

            The Myers Briggs test builds self awareness and emotional intelligence and can be used to enhance and develop leadership skills, coaching mechanisms and team building strategies. I think the MBTI will be useful to me as I progress through my career and whatever leadership roles I may hold in the future because it makes me aware of my personality traits and characteristics so I always have a reminder in how I perceive certain situations. I believe that to some extent I have always been self aware of others emotions. However, as I got older I realized that in a work environment, it is that much more difficult to recognize others emotions as many individuals do a good job in hiding their true feelings in a professional environment. Once I became employed in my first official office job as a file clerk, I began to truly tap into the emotional intelligence of others. The non verbal cues of stress, anger, and frustration of my co workers were at times very hard to recognize as I could tell many of them were trying very hard to hide their sentiments. I began to observe my coworkers and noticed that if I looked closely enough, their emotions were written all over their face passed the forced smiles and kind words they projected.

            My whole life everyone has told me that I wear my heart on my sleeve. It didn’t matter how much I tried to hide my emotions, people knew how I felt by just taking one look at my face. This didn’t help me much considering there were times when I didn’t want others to know how I was feeling or how my day was going because it wasn’t going well. As I continued to hold other jobs, I did my best to become a bit better at hiding my emotions and refraining from being too outwardly emotional. I thought I was doing a great job at achieving this until my current position. One month a year every department’s manager holds an evaluation with each member of their staff. This year’s evaluation went well for me; however my manager did have one minor suggestion. He stated that I needed to be a bit more conscious of my facial expressions in the work environment. I was blown away! I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. Just as I thought I had mastered the art of self awareness, I was being told I needed to work on it. I couldn’t imagine what was different this year than last. Then it hit me. I had been pregnant this year.

            Looking back, I didn’t realize how my actions and personality had changed during my pregnancy. I felt I had done fairly well with the mood changes and felt I had even become less vocal on opinions as I knew my mood might alter them. I asked my boss to elaborate on his suggestion. He stated that because he knew me personally he understood that my facial expressions were not negative and that he understood during those times, I was working really hard or concentrating on a project or other work related tasks, however he informed me that those around me who do not know me as well as he did could possibly take my facial expressions in a negative manner as I could sometimes appear angry instead of concentrated. The  goal he provided to me for next year’s evaluation was to work on my self awareness and awareness of others. When I thought about what my boss said, I felt a bit bad for giving off the wrong impression to my colleagues even during my pregnancy. It was clear I did not have as much control over my emotions as I thought during this time and in turn, self awareness of myself and awareness of others had become nonexistent. I was so in tune with my own feelings of being sick and tired and overwhelmed with what the future of motherhood had to hold, that I had completely lost all sense of my surroundings and the people in them.

            I took what my boss told me seriously and told myself that I was going to work hard on not letting my personal experiences and life interfere with my professional environment. Toward the end of the pregnancy, I could already see and feel a change in the way I was acting and how I was handling my interactions with others. I must admit, some days were difficult, but I had to remind myself to always be conscious of how I was dealing with others and handling difficult situations in my place of work on top of the emotions and changes I was experiencing in my personal life. It has been five months since I have had my daughter and I have recognized the importance of maintaining self awareness and awareness of others in a major way. However, while it was my duty to ensure that I was able to be aware of myself and my actions, I can’t help but feel as though, some of my colleagues needed to work on their own emotional intelligence and consider that my dispositions at that time stemmed from my pregnancy and nothing more. I believe even veteran mothers sometimes forget the difficulties of pregnancy and how it can change someone’s mood. In my personal opinion the men I worked with were more understanding and emotionally aware of my changes than many of the women in my workplace. They did not seem to take my changes in mood and energy toward them personally. Either way I am grateful that my boss informed me of the energy I was giving off and how that energy was being perceived by other people. I am glad I was able to listen to what he had to say, take note, and be able to make some positive changes. Our conversation has made me fully aware of preventing misunderstandings or preconceived notions all stemming from ensuring my own self awareness and that of others.

Cassandra R.