Professional Development Plan Essay

In order to develop a plan that will address the characteristics of my group and me as a leader; a thorough review of the completed DISC assessments much be completed on an individual basis and an overall plan can be derived thereafter. The individual analyses are as follows: Individual Assessments Jeremy Conner, Jessica Mills, and Brian Tuck are all predominately categorized as cautious in style. Their tendencies include: being tense with themselves and others when under pressure, having a natural curiosity about people, being concerned about what people think, feel, and expect, having strong attachments to their personal interests, underestimating the time required to complete tasks, being intuitive and observant about situations and people, associating their self-worth with their work, and being intrigued by concepts, ideas and processes. They are known as the assessors and tend to have strong opinions about people and groups with whom you do not identify or agree. Robert Mills was predominately categorized as interactive in style. This style’s strengths include: enthusiasm, charm, persuasiveness, and warmth. The cautious style is gifted in people skills and communication skills with individuals as well as groups. They are great influencer’s. They are idea-people and dreamers who excel at getting others excited about their vision. They are optimist with an abundance of charisma. All of these qualities help them influence people and build alliances to accomplish their goals. I was predominately categorized as a dominance style. My primary motivation is accomplishing bigger and better goals according to an internal timetable. I prefer to be involved in my chosen activities from start to finish, and I  resist people who are obstacles to my achievements. My tendencies include: disliking being told what to do, or when and how to do something, being reluctant to change what I think or how I feel, delegating tasks only if absolutely necessary, acting competitively, especially when pushing myself to new levels or in new directions, making sure that production is completed on schedule, depending on plans for action and follow-up routines, and becoming tenacious and focused when under pressure. Team Development Plan Based on the analysis of the DISC assessments, I would put myself in a leadership role on the team with Robert as my supervisor, and Jeremy, Jessica, and Brian as subordinates. My style is more fit to a leadership role due to my desire to accomplish bigger and better goals. This desire allows me to look bigger picture which must be done from an upper management perspective in order to keep the company ahead of the curve in all aspects of business to avoid pitfalls. Robert’s natural charisma and persuasiveness would make him great at motivating the rest of the team. This does not mean that Jeremy, Jessica, and Bryan aren’t just as important to the team success. All workers from top to bottom are needed for a business to be successful. I strongly believe in the phrase â€Å"you are only as good as your weakest member†. For this reason, I would make sure that they were given a chance to air their grievances and make suggestions on changes that should be made. I must make sure to allow every team member to have a say in the business processes because this is a weak point of my particular style. Flexibility on my part must be a focal point to ensure that all team members feel heard and feel like they hold value in the company. Conclusion All of the information in the above plan will be closely monitored and periodic meetings will take place to allow time for all employees to voice their grievances or concerns to ensure that full compliance is being achieved. It is very important that regular monitoring is performed to ensure that the company stays on track and will help ensure the long-term success of the company. Realizing each individual’s style as well as their strengths and weaknesses will allow a more personal and individualized  approach to be taken in regards to team dynamics and goal attainment. References University of Phoenix. (2014). DISC Assessments [Multimedia]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, LDR531 website. DISC Test and DISC Assessment: Explained. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.discinsights.com/whatisdisc#.VBMXGGOEzSg

Good Leadership Is More Important Than Good Management Essay

Leadership and management are crucial factors that determine the company’s further development. Management tries to control everything even humans, whereas leaders attempt to liberate humans and powers (Kotter 2001). Generally, the work management does is to make plan and budget, organize, control and solve the problem. The aim of management is to set up the rules. The leader’s work is to ensure the direction and target of the company, integrate all the resources, impel and encourage employees, its aim is to change, and it is obviously that this is the way leadership runs (Kotter 2001). More specially, leadership cares about the value and meaningfulness, whether the target the organization has achieved is worth or not. Leadership follows closely to humans, the dignity, value, potential and development. If management is concentrate on technology and means, procedures and methods, then leadership put emphasis on humanity and objective, the results and art (Northouse 2007). For example, management is focus on the function of power, but leadership cares the effect of enchantment. In fact, for every organization even country, they need both leadership and management. The aim cannot be achieved if lacking any one of these two. Since the leadership is playing the direction instructor role in the management process, this essay believes leadership is more crucial. Therefore, the essay will first have a literature review on leadership and management, following that, it will explain the interdependence of both two functions. Finally, it will illustrate the reason why leadership is more important through examples. Many studies have research on leadership and management from different perspective. According to Kotter (2001), the meaning of management is dealing with the assigned task, managers do key works such as planning, organizing and controlling, and then achieve the expected goal. Through management, the current organization performance can be maintained efficiently (Cuban 1988). It is certainly that in the management process, the leadership will always exhibits, but the main functions of management is preservation rather change (Bush & Heystek 2003). Both of management and leadership have their special value towards various situations, however, management deals with the technical issues while leadership deals with values (Bush and Heystek 2003). According to Kouzes and Posner (2002), leadership is the ability how the leader encourages others to volunteer to make efforts to the organization. As for leadership, it has five following styles: country club management, team management, organization man management, impoverished management, and authority obedience (Blake & Mouton 2003). Among these five styles, â€Å"team management† is proposed most. Blake and Mouton (2003) think the leadership is the ability to deal with both production and humans, and team management is the most appropriate one. In terms of Fiedler (1967), the situation has more influence on leadership. Three main situations are leader member relationship, the structure of the mission and the authority power. Different situation will show different leadership. Furthermore, all these three divisions also have impact on the leadership. Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) conclude four main styles, autocratic, known as the telling style, the leader takes the mission and let it known to the group; persuasive (the selling style), the leader would like to motivate the group without discussion, only through persuading them to believe the tasks is a good chance; consultative (the consulting style), the leader will consider member’s advices and their feelings when facing the decisions; democratic (the joining style), the leader will invite discussion, in this step the leader is not only a decision maker. Presently, how the organization can adapt to the fast changing society has become a critical problem for people to think about. In such a competitive era which is compete on knowledge (Bell 1999), an organization, particularly an enterprise which wants to gain the everlasting success should focus on both leadership and management, in this way to adapt to the changing world and keep the competitive advantage (Welch, J & Welch, S 2005). Although the leadership and management are diverse, both of they are very crucial to the organization and interact each other. Therefore, the organization needs both the objective view from managers and vision brought by the leaders (Bolman & Deal 1997). For achieving the vision and keeping high efficiency of the organization, it is necessary to pay great attention to both leadership and management. The interdependent relationship between leadership and management can be illustrated through balanced scoreboard (Kaplan & Norton 2005) shown in the following figure. The Banlance Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton 2005) According to the figure above, it looks into the key area of a business, external area like consumers, financial performance, internal one such as innovation and learning process. It clearly shows a comprehensive view of the two functions. Managers should use measurable methods to have a deep understanding of consumers’ demands, and leader should give the company goal with these demands. Managers are required to use any internal business strategy to let the consumer satisfied while leaders are give all the supports that reach that strategy. So under nowadays such a fierce globalized competition, every company wants to hold the consumers and market share. So the managers and leaders are pretty interdependent, with leaders are responsible for search the demand to adapt the change, and managers control the process and give advices. It is thus clear that good leadership and good management are very important aspects of an organization, however starts from the key esprit of the firm, leadership represents the excellence of the enterprise, and it could realize the value of every employee. Leadership needs sustained training and creation, it is regard as the key factors that influence the development, alternative and reproduce of an organization. Based on this understanding, compared with good management good leadership is a more critical issue. Following section will take Sony and P&G as cases to explain why leadership is more important than management. Sony is a leading firm in the high-tech manufactures industry, it first develops the memory stick and MP3 player, but its sales revenue did not performance well. And soon after the emerging of Samsung and Apple, Sony was soon surpassed by the two competitors. Samsung has more brand value than Sony since 2005, and the Ipod and Macbook from Apple are popular rather than Vaio (Chang 2008). Actually a firm like Sony who can perform on the international stage will of course have a good management within the company for until now Sony still do a very good job. And from the external environment, the different strategies Sony and Samsung takes will not lead to the different performance on its sales. Sony has the right strategy, the complete resources, the powerful energy, but the winner turns to Apple and Samsung. Why Sony could so easily be surpassed by the competitors? The main reason why such gap exists is because the company lacks of the leadership. Many enterprises failed due to the unsuccessful integration of strategy and operation. Take Sony’s competition with Apple as an example, Apple has no core technology on the MP3 player market, all the things they do is to implement the innovation with its computer processor technology. But in the contrast, although Sony has every factor to success, the wrong steps results in the lost in the MP3 player market. Sony took defensive strategy rather than offensive one, such strategy is not appropriate to its market and organizational management. There are two characteristic of current market: the rapid change of new technology and the fast depreciation of old ones. Sony actually do little effort to face the two emerging companies, the new leader team organized by the formal president of Sony could not meet their new visions. Why Apple and Samsung could win is not only because they know the market trend and importance of innovation, but also because the right vision from the leaders. The vision is not a dream but based on the careful market analysis and knowledge of current organizational situation. This is the reason Sony failed in the competition and meanwhile it also shows the more importance of leadership than management. Senge (1994) said that an efficient leadership is that the leader could change the path of an organization’s development and destiny, because every success eventually depends on the leaders. P&G, a global successful company in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry, their leadership management is a good experience to learn. There has a rule in P&G, inter-dependence is a lifestyle (McDonald 2009). Every department, products and areas among the company should trust each other and closely cooperate. P&G is proud of getting the success if take other’s advices. The rule shows P&G has make a closely partnership with their suppliers, consumers, communities and employees. In this way, P&G has built an entire smooth value chain and leads to a multiple- win situation. Good leadership shown in P&G Company as following: Friendly and long-term cooperation with partners. P&G’s leadership with partners could be shown as they always built a long-term relationship. Many partners think P&G has enough respect toward its partners. The reason P&G seldom change partners is due to two reasons: first is in this way to keep the brand image, second is P&G hopes the partners should be familiar with P&G’s business, thus they can reduce lots costs and time. Innovative cooperate strategy. P&G’s another leadership performs to be creative cooperation with Wal-Mart. When many manufacturers are complained about big retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, P&G always take an initiative position in the bargaining with the retailers. P&G make an evolution on its supply chain. They use the information technology to realize the continuous replenishment program,which manage the products by categories. The team from P&G and Wal-Mart are from many departments such as sales, marketing, operation, IT and finance, but they share the same goal. In the cooperate process, P&G carefully absorb the advices from the retailers and at the same time, P&G design some products for Wal-Mart. The two companies also intend to expand their business into other areas. Provide training and communication with employees. P&G regards people as their wealth. P&G provide systematic training program, internal promotion. Most of the management is recruiting internally; this basically increased the employee’s loyalty. Besides, P&G not only provide a competitive wages, but also its comfortable working environment. All these are the elements that can show P&G performance on leadership. P&G takes more social responsibility. Aims at sustainable management and environment protection, from 1994, P&G would release its global environment reports to the public annually. Its target is to show a clear vision of the company’s work for improving the global environment. Commitment to consumers. P&G’s belief is they produce and offer best quality products in order to improve the life of global consumers. As returns, they will first gain the leading market position and increasing profit, thus to make the society prosperity which our employees, stakeholders works and lives in. P&G put customers as the first position; they listen to their suggestions, including sales and R&D. P&G set the free call for consumers in order to keep connection with consumers, they always think and solve the problems from consumers perspective and explore the potential demands. 3E model. The 3E model of P&G is ultimately an excellent indication of their works on leadership. The 3E model includes: envision, energize, enable. Envision encourages people to have a clear plan and strategy toward their targets, concentrate on achieve the goal; find the possibility and not the limitations. Energize inspire employees to listen, understand and trust, approve the employee’s performance. Enable improve employees productivities. And also create possible conditions for employees to get success. The 3E model seems very simple but it has included everything related to the leadership. In this model, leadership is a behavior not a job. It clearly gives three missions to the managers: setting the goal, inspiring the employees, provide any helps. From all these aspects of P&G case, people can know that leadership is not just depends on one person or one group, it rely on the whole organization. And leadership not only considers for small aspects such as company strategies, but also considers more about the social responsibility it have in the society. Generally speaking, there are three outcomes of excellent leadership: -The productivity. The only results when the employees cannot finish his job on time are the waste of time and the reduction of quality. The main reason of such consequence is the uncertain guidance and follow-ups. If the leader cannot offer guidance the employees need, then the job cannot achieve the expected level. So lots of time and strength are wasted thus reduced the productivity. -The stability within the organization. As said above, the current society is based on knowledge. If the organization wants to approve the value of the employees, it should provide continuous training and developing opportunities for them. In this way to show the organizations confirmation on their value through spending time and money invest on the knowledge. The company could use such method to increase the stability of the employees and improve the efficiency. -The consumer’s satisfaction. The excellent external consumer services are based on the internal customer service. If the company could realize that the employees are the key customers for them, then they could get the chance to earn huge profit. As a leader, the company’s attitude towards the employees mainly determines whether they wish to work for the company. To care the employees give the company a chance to provide an excellent consumer services from inside-out. Bass and Avolio (1994) mentioned that the leadership should include behaviors like inspiring others, intellectual stimulation, coaching and development, respect and faith. This paper thinks, the leadership is, under the organization’s process of implement its target, the ability of the leader influence other related be led and the interaction between leader and the one to be led. The leadership itself is not only a capability but also a process. In the process, it includes the process of onstruct a binary relationship between the leader and followers, and also includes the functions leader set the organization, improve the efficiency, and leaders help organization adapt the environment, develop and innovative process.? Conclusion To sum up, good management is also an important issue concerning the organizational development. The reason why leadership is more important is that leadership is on a higher level. Take riding the horse as example; if the stableman has an excellent technique to control the horse, perhaps the stableman has management talent. But if he always goes to the wrong direction, that is to say, though the high technique of his management, but still cannot achieve the target, then he is doing the incorrect thing. Clawson (2008) said that leadership is nothing if without changes. So under nowadays a fiercely global trend competition and rapid changing of information and technology, leadership becomes more important for the organization. But only integrate the power of these two functions can, the organization develop on the right way.

HPLC analysis of caffeine and benzoic acid in diet coke Lab Report

HPLC analysis of caffeine and benzoic acid in diet coke - Lab Report Example Many beverages contain caffeine and benzoic acid. Caffeine can be classified as a drug and can be extremely addictive. Diet beverages also contain aspartame and saccharin. Aspartame and saccharin can be used to instead of sugar in the diet beverages. Aspartame and saccharin taste more than the normal sugar. The reason that many of these beverages contain aspartame and saccharin is because manufacturers prefer to use aspartame and saccharin instead of sugar. This has been because there are people who cannot take sugar due to health issues. To meet the demand of their customers, the manufacturers of the beverages see it fit to use saccharin and aspartame instead of sugar. Aspartame is the most commonly used more than saccharin. It becomes commonly used because it can be digested. When it gets digested, it breaks down into methanol, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartame has an effect on brain. It can therefore, cause some mental disorders due to its effect on the brain if taken in excess. Saccharin cannot be digested hence it is not commonly used. To avoid the danger associated with high intake of the two sweeteners, they should be used in small quantity. The function of benzoic acid is to conserve the beverages. Benzoic acid preserves the beverages by making some bacteria and yeast grow. The growth of yeast and bacteria ensures that the beverages last longer without going bad. Therefore, the shelf life of the beverages becomes increased. Companies that produce products that contain benzoic acid should make sure that the concentration level of benzoic acid is standard. Though benzoic acid is essential in preserving the beverages, high concentration of the acid can be dangerous. Concentration of benzoic acid in beverages normally varies from 0.05 percent to 0.10 percent. In a day, a person should take 5mg per kilogram of the body weight. If human beings consume too much of the acid, it can cause destruction to the liver and kidney. Liver and kidney are supremely valuable organs in the human body hence people should observe their intake of benzoic acid. Manufacturers should take into consideration the effects of the benzoic acid and pu t their customers’ life first. Some manufacturers often produce beverages that have a high concentration of benzoic acid because they want their products to stay longer. By doing this, they endanger lives of many people. Even though benzoic acid can be used as a preservative, if beverages stay for longer, they lose the original taste. Caffeine can be classified as a drug. Caffeine can be found in plants. In plants, caffeine may be used as a pesticide. It helps to kill pests in plants. This does not mean that it should not be used as it is beneficial if taken in the right amount. In diet soda and other beverages, caffeine can be used as a taste additive. Because of its bitter taste, caffeine enhances other flavors. Caffeine is also a stimulant. Because of its stimulant effect, many people take products with caffeine so that they can be alert. Also, caffeine decreases tiredness hence many people who are always busy consumes a lot of caffeine. Too much consumption of caffeine ca n cause restlessness and headaches. Normally, a person should consume around 250 milligram of caffeine in a day. More than that amount can be dangerous. It could be noted that individuals who consume much caffeine are likely to suffer hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases compared to those who take less caffeine. In addition, caffeine can be highly addictive, and that can be one of the reasons that caffeine became classified as a drug. High performance liquid chromatography (hplc

Issue of medicalization, the social construction of difference through Essay

Issue of medicalization, the social construction of difference through science and medicine and power - Essay Example Several differences are medicalized. Due to scientific conquest and development of new knowledge, several aspects of society are affected. With this, what are aspects are medicalized in the first place? The most affected in this case are the cultural beliefs and value systems that are embedded in an individual. Since there is cultural diversity, it is really problematic to impose a certain a cultural ideology towards a certain group of people that have a different cultural grassroots. There should be a thorough understanding of the culture from both sides of the spectrum. However, in the case of Lia, from the work of Anna Fadiman entitled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the doctors of Merced Community Medical Center have not taken into consideration the spiritual culture of the Hmong people about childbirth. In her work, there is a quote that deals about the frustration of the parent due to cultural indifference. â€Å"It took all the autonomy of being a parent away, even for folks who have had a lot of medical experience. It would be that much harder if you were from another culture and didn’t understand the purpose of these things.† (Fadiman, 1997) This quote manifests the clear problem about medicalization. Modern medical science and its practitioners have the tendency to bypass the concern of the people they are dealing with since they always exercise their expertise. Even if the concerns are valid for the Hmong people because of their culture, the medical professionals did not comply and understood the necessity of such cultural practices for the Hmong. Cultural Indifference has indeed occurred and has yielded several detrimental effects. On the second level, what seems to be the theoretical framework used by the authors to discuss the issue of medicalization? In the essay entitled Of Gender and Genitals: Use and Abuse of Modern Intersexual from the book Sexing

Two Events Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two Events - Essay Example It acted as a wakeup call for USA to defend its citizens. The following paper looks at the above two events and how they have contributed to the current state of America. Attack on Pearl Harbor On 7th December 1941, the United States of America was intentionally and abruptly ambushed by the air and naval forces of the Japan Empire. The location of the bombing and sinking of American ships was the Pearl Harbor Naval and Army base in Oahu, Hawaii. The US eventually entered World War II due to this homeland assault (Takaki, 2008). I believe that the effects of Pearl Harbor were mostly positive for Americans. Even though the attack terrified the nation, it also united a nation that had been divided due to the war in Europe. After the attack, there were various drives launched such as scrapped iron drive, united paper drives and recycled items. These were used to make items vital for the war such as machine guns, flame throwers, binoculars, and hand grenades. Even the youngest were helpfu l as school children had coin drives in which they gathered coins to purchase war bonds to support the government (Dower, 2011). The second positive effect is that it assisted in ending the Great Depression which had started in 1929. It brought a great need for an industry that provides materials for war-times like ammunition, guns and uniforms for the troops. At the end of the war, citizens purchased all they could not during the war period. There was also a decrease in the rate of unemployment as ten million men and women joined the army while those left at home took jobs in factories. Another positive outcome was that as a resolution not to permit a repeat of World War II, the United Nations was born. The Senate that had declined to sanction the membership of America in the League of Nations following World War I, eventually irresistibly sanctioned US membership in the UN after World War II (Stone, & Kuznick, 2012). There however were some negative elements of the attack in that over 2000 citizens died and 21 ships were sank or damaged seriously. Japanese-American citizens were placed in relocation camps as a measure to ensure that there was no risk of a Japanese descendant acting as a spy for Japan (Takaki, 2008). They were forcefully evicted from their homes within 48 hours and lived in poor conditions. However, in 1988, congress gave a formal apology to the affected and gave the survivors compensations of $20,000 each (Stone, & Kuznick, 2012). After this gesture, America has now turned to be one of the most democratic nations in the world. Its citizens and government became more appreciative to human rights of foreigners and citizens. Conclusion It is clear that if we forget the past then we are bound to repeat its mistakes. The two attacks, even though devastating, shaped USA in their own capacities. They served to bring the nation together in times of crisis. We would not be the strong united superpower we are today without such occurrences. As a count ry, we should take precautionary measures in future and also arrest perpetrators of such attacks while still maintaining socially correct honor to the opinions and rights of mankind. It is right for us as a country to defend ourselves against future attacks but we should do so without destroying our civil rights and values as we do. References Didion, J. (2003). Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11. New York: New York Review Books. Dower, J. W. (2011). Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 /

Double Feed Induction Machine (DFIM) model in d-q coordinates system Research Paper

Double Feed Induction Machine (DFIM) model in d-q coordinates system. Induction Motomr example of application in practice (variable speed drives) - Research Paper Example The stator is fed by a fixed voltage sources while the rotor is fed by a variable source. Both the stator and the rotor are connected to a three phase power frequency. Mathematically it is convenient to express the three phase voltage concept of DFIM in a dq coordinate system. A (d, q) coordinate system refers to direct and quadrature axes along which current is aligned. A good example that shows the application of an induction machine is the Growian wind turbine that has DFIM as part of its energy regulating system (Anahua et al, 8). A Growian wind turbine which was first used in Germany the year 1977 could be among the first induction models in a (d, q) coordinate system. It came about as a result of three German utilities forming the Growian Company whose function was to design and test a huge wind energy alteration system. It had a variable speed drive with a teetered rotor that had full-span pitch and variable speed force train made of power electronics. The engineers came up with a trade-off between a generator whose frequency converter is in the stator circuit and a doubly fed induction machine whose frequency converter is situated in rotor circuit (Anahua et al, 56). It is characterized by the magnitude of aspect such as amount of voltage, speed, and flux. It is based on the assumptions the stator and rotor voltage acts as the input regulators depending on the flux density distribution, as well as, the electromagnetic condition. Additionally, the rotor current and stator flux also work as the variables. The converters control the rotor voltage to acquire the desired floe of current and the reactive power. The power reaction and resistance is viable in managing the magnetic saturation a transformation is clearly indicated by a mathematical equation. Disconnecting the machine from the grid, lead to a reduction of stator current to zero. This breaks the circuit which is an indication that DFIM model

Sociology class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sociology class - Essay Example The body is an aggregate of groups like the hands performing its tasks, the feet performing a different job, the head of another and so on and the different parts do not perform the same functions but are still interrelated with each other that one part cannot survive without the other. The same is true with human existence wherein people may be grouped in one way or another like the differentiation of jobs, interests and specializations but still each group can not tell the others that they are to live independently from them. Likewise, in the smaller scale, individuals are not able to do so because it is the characteristic of a human being to have a social life as the old adage goes, ‘no man is an island’. The study of human relations is given so much attention because somehow, all aspects of our lives are closely knit. There are principles in parenting that can be applied in being the father or leader of an organization or a manager of some business. Likewise, what is learned from a successful businessman can be learned by the laymen for him to apply in his parenting skills and improve his family’s financial status. Individuals may have their own lives but are still linked to others because of their need and so with social systems.