When To Let Go

Sometimes there is a time in our life when we must leave a job. Sometimes we move on for a better career, other times it is to relocate and begin fresh. Some of us leave because we need to be challenged more. Upon doing this blog, it has forced me to reexamine my life, and begin to ask myself, am I happy with my job. Does my job pay me enough for all the stuff I have to do and put up with? It goes back to my blog about personality in the workplace, and how self realization is the most powerful tool a manager has. It is overwhelming to think I was so ignorant. Having worked at my shop for four years, and it being my first job. I was under the belief that that is what a job is really like, stressful and sometimes overwhelming, and I cannot tell you how many times I have come home crying. Now that I am a manager, I am constantly stressed and under pressure. And quite frankly I am not the same I use to be. My boss has put a lot of stress in my life, and sadly it has had a chain reaction. I have lost friend because I work too much, and I am always on call. Seeing this now I am left with a big decision. I can either leave, or I can tell my boss what I need from him and if I don’t come to a compromise I like, then I will be forced to leave,

trust

Trust is a basis in any relationship whether it is in the workplace or in our personal relationship. When trust is questioned, it can hurt feelings and hurt relationships. One case where trust has is when I hurt me in a personal basis was when I was having Migraines. Back in December I hit a deer, to explain it easily; I had a pretty bad case of whiplash and some really bad back pain. I have had some problems ever since, including migraines, dizziness and light headedness. However, some days are worse then others.
One Sunday I went to work and I had the worse migraine. I didn’t want to call into work because I knew I was needed, and the one time I did in the past they gave me a bad time about it. Two days later I had to call into work. Because My migraine was horrible, My boss picked up the phone and said what ever and hung up on me, After that he calls me a few hours later and says, “Well are you coming in tomorrow and asked if I had gotten a doctors appointment.” I continue to say no, but I did have a doctor’s appointment. I went to the doctors and got a doctors note. saying that I needed a few more days off. I give the note to my boss and I then go home. Just by chance, my ex fiancé came back in town on leave, and I had been spending time with him. But my boss thought I was pretending to be sick, so I could spend time with him. It got to the point when my boss was driving by my house to make sure my car was still in front of my house. After going though this I was almost tempted to quit. That is because if my boss goes to this existent to make sure I wasn’t lying to him obviously he doesn’t trust me. It was humiliating and very hurtful.

Conflicts in the Work Place

Conflict is defined as a process that begins when on party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect something that the first party cares about. Conflict is very common in any work place and our personal lives. In many work places we face it everyday. For me I have will admit I have been in the middle of conflict, I have started then and I have ended them. As a manger at a shop it is my duty to recognize these conflicts and defuse them as quickly as possible.

But your probably wondering “What conflict can there be in an ice cream shop?” The answer to that question is, quite a few. The conflict I mainly see between the Manager and I. We will call the manager, Jon. Jon and I are both dominant personalities. Earlier on in this blog I have described him as a Charismatic leader. He always thinks he is better and that he is right. Now I must confess I can be that way at times also, it is not constant personality for me like it is for him. He will start off by saying “Well had I opened this morning this would have all been done.” (Things like cutting cakes and making ices, and filling machines.) I will then usually say something along the lines of “Well you’re full of it and that you wouldn’t have it done.” The problem with that is that I am provoking him. The thing I should have done was either let it go or, I could have said “I had a lot of things to do this morning.”

The first option would have been best, because knowing Jon he would have said I thought so, so go do it now. With option number two, he would have said something along the lines of “Ahhh, excuses, excuses.” And then he will continue on how I am slow. Jon and I do fight often. However, usually when I get ready to go at the end of my shift we make up. But there are times where we have been at each others throats for a few days and the owner will pull both of us aside and say cut it out. When I read this on paper, I think about what happened and how I was very Immature. But that is also how we learn.

Robbins, Stephen, and Judge Timothy. Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.

Motivational theories

Motivation is the process that account for an individual drive to achieve a goal. Motivation is important because a company wants to know that if, an employee is given a huge task, that the employee will stick with the company long enough to achieve the goals of the company. In business psychology there are eight different motivational theories and personally my favorite is Maslow’s theory.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a common subject in introductory psychology classes when discussing motivation. What is explains, is how we as humans have basic needs that need to be satisfied before we can begin to achieve the next level.

The first level we must achieve is physiological. This includes things like food, shelter, sex, thirst and other physical needs.
The second level is safety. This includes security, and protection from physical and emotional harm.
The third level is Social. The needs of being affection, belongingness, acceptance and friendship.
The fourth level is Esteem. This includes Internal which is self respect, Autonomy, and achievement, and external which are status, recognition and attention.
The fifth and last is Self awareness. The drive to become what one is capable of.

This theory is the most common looked at by managers, because of the logic and the easiness to understand. There are however other theories that compete with Maslows, such as the ERG theory which breaks down human needs into three groups: Relatedness, development and existence. This theory unlike Maslows, does not give us a hierarchy of what we need to achieve.

Robbins, Stephen, and Judge Timothy. Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.

Myers-Brigg

What does Apple computers, AT&T, Citigroup, GM and 3m and Co. Have in common?
Besides being multi- million dollar companies, each of these use the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator when deciding to hire a person, in management. Myers-Brigg is a personality test, in which puts everyone into 16 different categories based on four classifications.
They are:
Extraverted vs. Introverted
Sensing vs. Intuitive
Thinking vs. Feelings
Judging vs. Perceiving

The test is an interesting one and can really show employers what type of candidate you might be for the Job. I found a great test online for free that you can take and I really like the way they explain your results. They are easy to understand and give you examples of people who are of your same subtype. I was an ENTJ. This meant I am Extraverted, iNtuitinve, Thinking and Judging. Only 1.8% of our population is a part of this sub type. This test basically tells me that I am the field Marshal. I am a natural born leader, I am very structured, and I follow procedure and regulations to a “T”. I find this to be very accurate about me. Jobs that would be excellent for me include: education, business management, finance, politics and computer programming. What I find amusing is that I have taken different test, and all of them have said I would do great in computer programming. I just have no interest in it.
People who are in my Subtype include, Bill Gates, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard M. Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, Al Gore, Lamar Alexander (former governor, US Secretary of Education), and My favorite Napoleon Bonaparte.
With a list of people like that, that must mean I a guaranteed for success right? Unfortunately that isn’t the case. It is how a person goes about achieving goals and if they find a job that is best suited for them. Success is never guaranteed, I believe it is something that is earned.

Problems in leadership

Leadership is defined by Webster’s as the capacity to lead. In business psychology a lot of things affect leadership, but first we must recognize there are two types of leadership charismatic and transformational.
Where I work in an ice cream shop, I am the morning shift manager. I am responsible for cleaning machines and such and preparing food. The general manager is responsible for the entire store. As far as our leadership Skills, I recognize that he is a charismatic leader, he has a strong following and people naturally respect him, and when he works, he will do stuff many other workers won't do. However some charismatic leaders have a superiority complex about them. What I mean by this is that, the leader will sometimes find themselves to be Larger-than-life, and very egotistical. They do not always act in the best interest of the company and will put there wants and needs before the needs of the business. If things like this get to out of hand, it can lead to charges ranging from grand larceny and security fraud to conspiracy.
In that aspect, I find myself to be more of a transformational leader, my leadership skills are something I have been developing since early high school. Transformational leaders have to have some charisma because it is the ability to reach out to employees, and fellow business man. I strive to make the shop a better place to work and the people who work under me I try to get them to better themselves to be better workers and to be more speedy making products and be more efficient.
I believe everyone has leadership potential, it is just a matter of having confidence, and trust, as well as respect, among the employer and employees.

"Merriam-Webster." Merriam-Webster Online. 2006-2007 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. April 17th 2007 .

Personality in the Work Place

Personality is one of my favorite topics in general. It is how an individual represents and defines themselves. And when it comes to organizational behavior can make or break a leader. With that said, I am reminded of my tenth grade geography class, when we were learning about Buddhism. My teacher said that to achieve enlightenment, one must be self aware. The reason I bring it up is because, I can see how a person whose runs a company must know how they are come off. CEO’s and other business leaders are aware of the fact that it is important how, they come off, as far as discipline, and getting things done. So, a lot of business people will hire a business psychologist to give them a personality test, these test will tell the applicant, if they have leadership abilities, how they disciplined there employees, and how they work oversee employees.
I had the chance to take a sample test, and it broke down into the big five. The big five is the general base of most personality theories, and includes negative emotionality, agreeableness, extraversion, openness and conscientiousness. I will admit, I was very intimidate by this, and I was almost embarrassed, at my results for it showed my positive marks, but also my negative marks. But I feel it would be good to use myself as an example.

I scored High in the following:

In openness, which means I am more creative, innovative, inquiring and, imaginative

In conscientiousness, which mean I am prepared, reliable, precise, and ambitious

In extraversion, I scored high with it saying I am talkative, affectionate, and optimistic, outgoing

I scored Low in:

In agreeableness where I was more good-natured, helpful, trusting then rude, obstinate, irritable

And finally in negative emotionality, where I am always worrying, emotional, insecure, nervous, and I am usually not calm, secure, unemotional, relaxed.

Basically after taking the test, I realize I need to relax more and not be so stressed, because if the manager you worked under was always stressed, then that mean the environment you work in my be more stressful. The nice thing about these tests is, that you can take the sample ones, which are usually free and broader, but if you choose to pay the 40 to 200 dollars for the test, it will give you more in depth criticisms, and usually a consultant can better explain the answers to you.

Diversity

Diversity is by far one of the most complicated topics business psychologist must take. When I was looking at you tube, I never thought I would find a video for my blog, but then I remembered the TV show "The Office"(a comedy which has a strong basis of psychology in general). Diversity is often followed by profiling which is where people are singled out based on race, ethnicity, genders, and even sexual orientation. Even though the example from You Tube is pretty funny, in the office place it can be a serious issue.
Denny's years ago had acquisitions claiming they did not treat there customers of color well, and didn't hire people of different ethnicity's. Because of that, Denny’s started training the managers of the restaurants, different exercises to help ease and eliminate the bias.
The video from you tube is an example, of an exercise an owner might do with its employees. The idea is to get ones bias about the other person out in the hope and to help them realize why they feel that way. Then after resolving the issue they with demonstrate a change in behavior where they won’t show the bias as much, which ultimately will mean better customer service and inter group communication.

When I first entered college, I started off as a double major in education and studio art, The education major changed to a psychology major, and after two semesters, of taking my general required courses, I decided I wouldn’t get anywhere with my major in psychology unless I had at least a masters. So I wanted to find a specialization to really market myself to employers so I can pay off my bachelors before I start my masters. After many classes, I found my love in business psychology.
Business psychology is the studies of the way humans think in a business aspect, from how employers treat their employees, job performance and job satisfaction, as well as leadership, training, communication, inter-group behavior, and conflict...
In this blog, I hope to share my passion of business psychology with everyone and also show why it is important for anyone who is a business major to have at least one class in this. I also hope to educate others on the work and cases that business psychologist do, because business psychology is a field not many people have heard about, and I believe with a basis in it that a person can really succeed in being a great boss and be happier as an employee.

My practice post.....