Mentorship

As part of my internship this past summer I was assigned a mentor who was a senior employee at the branch in Quincy, MA. Usually I dislike forced relationships like this but I ended up appreciating this relationship more than any other one I had during the summer.

My mentor helped me throughout the summer by giving me projects to work on, allowing me to sit in on every meeting she had, helping me get out of the office if there was an opportunity, and personally coaching me through a tough relationship with my co-intern. She even helped me network into a position in Rockingham County during the school year.

Even now, I know I could call her with a problem and she will talk me through it until I think I am ready to approach it. Since my internship ended, she has left the firm and moved across the country. It was during one of her last days that I came into the office to interview for a full time position post-graduation. She greeted me with a hug and insisted that I come to her office after my meeting. No surprise, she wanted to know what I want for my future and what I have lined up to get there. When I told her my dream position and dream industry, she wrote down 2 contact she has at a high level in the industry and offered to make the connection if the current company didn't give me the offer I want.

So what makes her this amazing and how have I harbored this relationship?

Her qualities are what make her the perfect mentor for me. She is honest, smart, hard working, and doesn't let people's opinions affect her work or her day. The last quality mentioned is really something I need to learn from her, and think that I am on the right track in trying to. She gave me positive feedback when she thought I needed it and gave me no feedback when she thought I could improve or didn't want me to stop working so hard.

Maya Angelou said "In order to be a mentor, one must care." and I never questioned if Alyssa cared about my successes or failures.

Administrators vs Physicians, David Howard Article

Jason and Erin distributed a great article today during class called "Doctors and Nurses vs. Administrators on Patient Satisfaction. Who's right?" By David Howard for KevinMD.com. The article was about the difference in quality perception between medical and administrative staff. Their priorities are obviously vastly different. Quality standards can be considered treating patients as guests in a great hotel, or like their needs are based on health, giving them quality of care, ignoring excessive comfort needs.

So what is right? Which is better?

My mentor Anna believes in more grey areas in life. During our last call, I asked Anna several questions that implied a 2-answer structure. Instead of picking a side, she often gave a middle answer. We spoke about women in the workplace and government regulated health care systems, both of which she sees grey areas. 

To me, quality points, or a quality checklist, of a hospital is a grey area. Of course, without good medical attention, getting Splenda sweetener instead of Equal sweetener is not nearly as important. But also, without attention to detail and listening to patients, Splenda sweetener could be a scary omen for someone about to trust hospital staff to open their body. Quality is a give and take in a hospital and administrators and physicians alike should realize that.

LinkedIn Pulse: Sally Blount

Sally Blount, dean at the Kellogg school of management, wrote an article originally published on Kellogg Insight and then republished for LinkedIn Pulse. She writes about the 3 pivot points that keep women from rising to the C-suite. Those points are mainly time frames, or ages, where women make mistakes or devalue their career goals and replace with personal gain. She outlines first and foremost the attendee difference between men and women in business school. Women account for 60% of college graduates yet only 25% of MBA programs are female. She goes on to the second phase, where caregiving roles become focal, whether that be for children or parents. The third phase is when women are at the point of high status within their careers but see less value in money and more value in meaning. These women outweigh purposeful work for titles and raises, and therefore look to turn down more work and consider extracurriculars to find meaning, possibly quitting their careers.

The Dean of Paul College, Deborah Merrill-Sands, came to my Women In Business meeting last year to talk about women in the workforce, her own experiences, and ask for our input. She had some interesting stories of silent sexism such as being expected to keep minutes at meetings where she was of the same status and same workload but the only women in those meetings. She asked us why we thought Paul was decreasing in female attendance. I was more than happy to raise my hand and explain that often times in group projects, I feel that men expect me to do all of the work, and they rarely contribute even 30%.

At the time of this meeting I was in 2 different group projects. In one, I had never met 2 of my group partners. They never responded to my emails, never showed up to class, and never made an effort to connect. Of course, I was the only girl in this 4 person group. Luckily, the other group member met with me for the project. Though he was an exchange student that had difficulty understanding assignments, I gave him a lot of credit for trying to participate and always being more than willing to meet and discuss. I met the 2 other boys on the LAST day of the class when they came up to me before the professor arrived, and explained they were very busy and asked me to include their names on the project report. The other group I was in consisted of me and 4 boys. These boys were constantly, of course, "too busy" to get together. I wrote our first paper alone but asked if anyone else could print it for class because I did not have a printer. They agreed, however, the next day in class NONE of them showed up. The rest of the group work went as you would expect, with our final powerpoint presentation being incomplete after they told me to "take a chill pill" when I asked them to finish their respective slides before class.

It was bittersweet when every girl in our 80 member group agreed. They all had their stories and wanted to be heard, because as females, we are told we are dramatic. If I was told before my enrollment as a business student that the sexism would start so early and be so brutal, I would have reconsidered my major.

UCHealth: A Morning in Their Shoes

  A Morning in Their Shoes by Kati Blocker for UCHealth shares the importance of doctors understanding the roles and responsibilities of RNs. First-year residents at Poudre Valley Hospital spend an entire shift shadowing nurses and learning their duties, patterns, and the difficult, in-depth caregiving nature of their work. The newfound appreciation for RNs help the residents be better doctors and better coworkers, "it fosters better communication and better patient care." (Blocker, 2017)

  For example, one resident noted during her shadowing shift that nurses are constantly traveling back and forth collecting medicine orders. She realized that timing her own order made no difference to her or the patient but could significantly reduce strain on the RN. The now second-year resident places all orders at once so that the nurse is not wasting time and energy having to constantly ping-pong between the pharmacy and patients.

  Although most standard hospitals have a pyramid or dual-pyramid structure, this type of matrix style communication opportunity is important for all stakeholders.

If you are interested in reading this short article, click here.

HBR: Firing Good People, Max Altschuler

Max Altschuler runs a tech startup and has had to fire some of his best people. He has a short guide to making it as painless as possible for employees that can still be trusted and haven't done anything wrong. He makes sure to address that firing is always painful, but his methods can make it easier to stomach and can end positively.

His tool kit includes: "Compassion. I care about my employees and want them to land somewhere great if staying isn't an option. Curiosity. I want to know what their goals are for themselves. A plan. I do my research before every firing so that I walk into the room with ideas to help the employee move forward."

Altschuler explains that helping his employees find somewhere new that is a great fit and a great company not only helps their personal career but also his reputation and the reputation of his company. He reasons that their success reflects well on his talent management and ability to hire star employees. Similarly, his planning ahead sets up a good personal relationship after the fire. If he can keep a positive relationship then he can count on an open door in the future for business opportunities for him personally or his firm.

Click here to read the article

How to Give Effective Criticism

Kyle and my topic of difficult conversations could go many ways. Difficult conversations could be around bad company/personal news, being laid off, employee reviews, or direct criticism. All of those conversations could be taught from either the employee or manager perspective.  I am not yet sure how we plan to teach but we both agreed to find 2 good articles/resources over spring break to get the juices flowing so we can hit the ground running with ideas next week.

I found this article from the Harvard Business Review. Deborah Bright has written books and runs an executive training program on effective criticism in the workplace. This article explains 4 ways managers can promote effective criticism and ensure that employees take note and make changes.

Those 4 steps are:
1. Engage the person in a specific solution
2. Link the criticism to what's most important to the employee
3. Keep your voice and body language neutral
4. Heed individual preferences

She takes most of her wisdom and examples from her time as a competitive diver. She contributes her success to her coach. I think some of her examples are a bit intense and aggressive, such as linking being late to work with someone who values their reputation among peers by saying "How do you think coming in late affects your reputation with your colleagues?" but maybe the directness is what will work with some employees.

If you have an interest in reading the article: The HBR Article

HMP 722- Bloom's Taxonomy

This class was a source of stress for me in the first couple weeks. I was super busy with my normal course load at UNH and a tough accelerated HMP course at Northeastern. As a type-A, the lack of structure and uncertain aspects of this course made me nervous and got me feeling deflated. Now that my Northeastern class is over and Prof. Bonica explained the nature of this class and the type of learning on Bloom's Taxonomy scale I am appreciating the course way more than I expected.

All of my classes so far have fallen under the remember, understand, apply, and sometimes analyze levels of the pyramid. I have not taken classes in the evaluate or create levels. As a second semester senior, this upsets me. It certainly makes me jealous of the juniors in the class who are having this experience earlier in their undergrad careers. This class is also pointing out to me that my Management major in Paul has not equipped me as well as I thought it had for day-to-day managerial tasks. The opportunity to learn about individual types that I may lead and the lectures ahead is very valuable. I am particularly excited to learn about Kyle and my topic of difficult conversations.

The closest learning I did in the evaluate levels were during my Business, Government and Society class in Paul. We did a weekly module towards the end of the semester called Giving Voice to Values by Nomadic Learning. This program helped us understand ourselves and dealing with others in the workplace and in personal lives. We learned about listening, understanding, constructing arguments, and tactful relationships. Of course, much like this class, that section of the class was my favorite and I found the most valuable segment of that semester.

For reference, here is Bloom's Taxonomy Pyramid, as attached to the google group by Prof. Bonica:

Our Presentation Last Week

Kyle and I presented our topic last Wednesday. I am absolutely not a fan of public speaking, not something you would expect from an extrovert, right? We had been preparing for a couple of weeks and definitely hit some stumbling blocks in the form of content. Luckily, we pulled through and had a successful class.

My favorite parts of teaching this class were the first 5 minutes and the last five minutes. We chose to assign seats- conduct a social experiment and turn it into a discussion to wrap up the presentation at the end. We placed students in the opposite location of their usual spots and with different classmates than their usual clusters. Jason greeted students by the door and alerted them to the switch. Some looked confused but remained quiet, while others said "I haven't sat anywhere else in three years" or the blatant "I hate this"

I turned to Kyle while the misery unfolded onto our unsuspecting classmates and I said "We have to write these responses down" I knew that some students would later say that they didn't mind- and I wanted those raw responses to prove the resistance to such a small temporary change.

We continued the presentation like nothing was different.

To wrap up we asked the class a series of questions on our last presentation slide. "How did it feel to be asked to change seats? Did you view changing seats as an opportunity to sit with someone new or as an uncomfortable or undesirable change?" Kyle then read aloud the quotes we had saved. Everyone laughed and further explained their reason behind resistance. As we expected, most like tradition. We didn't blame them for feeling this way, change is new and new is unknown and unknown is scary. Perhaps they even internally went through the Kubler Ross change curve of grief/loss. I hope the class took away what we hoped they would.

MBTI- Shayna + Logan's Class Pre-Work

For Shayna and Logan's class today, our pre-work involved having others take the MBTI in our place.  We were instructed to choose someone close to us and someone more distant. I chose my mom and dad because my mom and I chat everyday, we are very similar to each other (almost too similar) while my dad and I chat, but not as often and not as deeply.

Just as I expected, my mom guessed my letter combination almost exactly. I test myself as an ESFJ-A and my mom got ESTJ-A. Even though there was a variation between F and T, my test said I was 56% an F, so basically I am on the line between F and T. Way to go, Mom!

As for my dad, he got ISTP-T when he answered for me. At first I was not surprised. My personality's nuances may be lost on him due to lack of stimulating discussion. However, the more I considered it, I find myself similar to him. I would describe him as an extrovert and a judger. So why did he answer so differently for me? Does he not see our similartities? He called me after taking the assessment to discuss his answers. I immediately told him he only got one letter the same as and grilled him on thinking I am introverted. He said something surprising to me- things I didn't consider part of my personality- but maybe should. He said "You are extroverted with me, but otherwise you are shy. This is the girl that doesn't want to visit a bank teller or ask for honey mustard at a restaurant." He added, "There was a question asking if you're organized, I thought about that pile of clothes between your bed and the wall and I had a good laugh. It asked if you care about other people's feelings and I remembered how last week you ripped apart that guy at computer services when he was dishonest about your laptop. By the time I finished the assessment I was howling"

I can't lie, he's not wrong. But do those incidents really define my personality traits? Maybe my mom knows the traits that I think I have, because that it how I present myself. My dad, who doesn't receive the same amount of communication, sees me in situations more than in direct communication.  This makes me think about Hersey and Blanchard's theory of situational leadership. We act according to the emotional intelligence and maturity of those around or under us. My dad is not someone I go to with problems because he doesn't have the same experiences and often doesn't know how to respond. I act differently with him because of this. I am not frustrated with his vastly different assessment of my personality. This was a great opportunity for me to understand my relationship with him and my personality traits that I never consider as part of who I am.

Johnny Cupcakes- Resilience

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by Johnny Earle, better known as, Johnny Cupcakes. He spent from 8-9:30pm talking about his upbringing, his entrepreneurial spirit at a young age, his progression into his brand and business, and his failures along the way. He was an amazing speaker that has lived a wild life so far.

One thing that struck me during his presentation was how much of a risk taker he has been since he was 10 years old. Sure, we all make some risky decisions at age 10, but the stakes are not as high as when we are 25. He discussed failed products, ideas, business relationships, warehouse decisions, and even his mistakes with friends and family. After a few questions from the audience, he said that discussing these failures is therapy to him.

Of course, I raised my hand. I asked, "You've been an entrepreneur since a young age and you've bounced back many times with little hesitation. Do you think resilience is something you have learned along the way or were you born with it?" He took less than a second before saying "I did not learn it" He went on to explain that he has always had it, even as a kid. To quote, "My best ideas have come from my biggest screw-ups."

Johnny has lots of confidence and thrives on risk taking. He founded, owns, and operates in full Johnny Cupcakes which has held over 400 pop-up stores worldwide and has many permanent retail locations in sought after cities like SoHo, LA, and Boston (on Newbury St, I have visited!). He is a dedicated leader, a marketing genius, and a loyal community member. His resilience has kept him climbing up a social and professional ladder and will continue to lead him to amazing design and marketing ideas.