8-2 Project Two: Feedback and Revision Reflection

8-2 Project Two: Feedback and Revision Reflection

Shanon Beck

ENG-122 English Composition I

December 14th, 2023

These past eight weeks have been extremely valuable to me, and I would like to think that I learned a lot about myself and refined my writing abilities quite significantly. I especially learned a lot about how to formulate a proper thesis statement, build supporting arguments and then revise that article in order to make it the best work you possibly can make. I would like to think I learned a lot about revision, and a number of revision methods will stay with me forever … especially re-reading my paper out-loud multiple times and checking each rubric-criteria off as I go.

When I wrote my paper, I tried to gear my writing style and tense to appeal to a formal audience in the workplace, especially other managers. Given that I am a retail manager, and I plan for that to be my career for the foreseeable future, my audience(s) will mostly consist of my management and the stakeholders in my company. As well as an educational audience as I progress in my college career and other educational milestones.

8-2 Project Two: Statement of Leadership

8-2 Project Two: Statement of Leadership

Shanon Beck

Bus-210 Managing/Leading in Business

December 13th, 2023

Over these past eight weeks, I learned so much about what makes someone a leader manager, as well as the differences between being a leader and being a manager. I really enjoyed this course as it has helped me develop a lot as a leader by learning about my personality traits, leadership style, and the many different ways of leading a team. My strongest leadership skills would have to be leading by example and serving my associates to the best of my ability. I prefer to lead from the front, and set the example of how I want something done, work side-by-side with my associates to inspire them to do the best that they can.

Being a strong leader is important as it sets the tone for the entire workplace, being a leader in the workplace, whether you are one by title or by action… inspires others to go above and beyond, keeps the workplace organized, and pushes the team towards the common goals. While being a leader is important, you also have to know when to follow. I myself, often learn from my associates and other managers, and that’s a good thing. Knowing when to follow and to listen allows you to grow as an individual and as a leader.

Additionally, my personal leadership style is democratic and participative, but I still ultimately have the final say when it comes to important decisions. I prefer to give my associates a voice in the conversation and hear them out when they have an idea that might be better than what I have them doing … I have found that to be very innovative in how my workplace runs and has led to my team adopting a lot more efficient policies than what I had originally intended. I plan to continue this leadership style into the future, but I would like to implement many more ways for my associates to be involved and feel like their heard … especially in the form of daily huddles and giving them more autonomy when it comes to day-to-day activities.

7-3 Project One: Organizational Evaluation Proposal

7-3 Project One: Organizational Evaluation Proposal

Shanon Beck

BUS-210 Managing/Leading in Business

December 9th, 2023

Speaker Notes:

Slide 1: 7-3 Project One: Organizational Evaluation Proposal

- Hello, my name is Shanon Beck, and I have been recently hired as the new manager of the SNHU Pet Supply Company. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce and implement my management style, as well as go over several concerns and points important to our employees.

Slide 2: Introduction

- The SNHU Pet Supply company started like any other small business right here in Manchester, New Hampshire, and has since expanded to include 200 employees based in Manchester, as well as a satellite office in Denver, Colorado, which employs 100 pet enthusiasts. Alongside our office staff, the SNHU Pet Supply company also employs an extensive digital workforce, numbering over 300 employees. These past few years, we’ve seen rapid growth and expansion due to consumer demand for our products.

Slide 3: Leadership and Management

- The goal of being in a leadership position is to influence employees to work towards the common organizational goals (Soomo Learning, 2023) by ensuring inter-communication for ease of information, developing employee relationships, and building a culture that promotes diversity and inclusion. I believe I am a strong leader because of my high level of openness, high level of conscientiousness, and low neuroticism. According to my self-assessment, I have a democratic and participatory leadership style that builds trust and confidence with employees during high-stress situations (Soomo Learning, 2023). Our company needs to put diversity and inclusion at the forefront of our goals to ensure innovativeness and competitiveness in today’s market, as well as implement an open-door policy to encourage our employees to speak up and share ideas or concerns.

Slide 4: Followership

- My personality traits are that I am highly open, have high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, and extraversion, as well as low neuroticism. These personality traits allow me to be heavily social, friendly and someone that people want to be around. Additionally, I am an active listener and have been told by many employees in the past that they felt heard by me. I am innovative and open to change but will be assertive when I need to be. I can be calm in stressful situations but know when to act quickly. These personality traits will allow me to lead our business in a competitive and inclusive way.

Slide 5: Decision-Making Models

- The two most used decision-making models are the rational and intuitive models. The rational model is the most used model by leaders and managers (Soomo Learning, 2023). The rational model uses an eight-step process to determine the decision, while the intuitive decision model is based on a gut instinct formulated by a leader's past experiences, decisions, and knowledge. Both of these models have their place in our company, but the rational model is the best fit to ensure that we are making the best possible decision for our company, employees, and stakeholders.

Slide 6: Emotional Intelligence

- Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand your emotions and those of people around you. (Soomo, 2023) Being able to practice self-regulation and self-awareness is a cornerstone to the goals of our company and to the fundamental need to be diverse and inclusive. I have scored a higher level of emotional intelligence, leading me to be a strong leader when it comes to understanding our employees and making them feel at home while working. But this does not end at me; all managers are required to practice an open-door policy under my leadership, keep their door open literally and metaphorically to our employees, by practicing this policy it will lead to increased morale and emotional well-being for our employees.

Slide 7: Forms and Functions

- The SNHU Pet Supply Company currently uses a heavily centralized organizational culture, which leads to most decisions being made by high-level managers, decreasing the innovativeness and morale of our employees. Decentralization makes employees feel more comfortable and empowered in their workplace (Soomo Learning, 2023), giving them more authority when it comes to the day-to-day operations of the company increasing innovativeness and the efficiency of our operations.

Slide 8: Communication Practices

- In the past, the company has had a very decentralized network of communication methods, leading to each department and branch relying on different forms of communication. This has caused a delay in communication, impacting morale and productivity. My recommendation is that communication standards be set for all branches and departments, as well as standard communication medians. I suggest that G-Suite becomes our primary communication medium due to its vast number of communication possibilities, from text-based to conference-style meetings, as well as how innovative it is in today's world. Additionally, we must ensure team huddles are taken place both between managers as well as with employees to ensure inter-departmental communication.

Slide 9: Organization Mission, Vision and Goals

- Our company’s mission is to provide high-quality products of all types to our customers and their pets, which ties into our organizational goals of making products more affordable for our customers, increasing the efficiency in how our products are delivered, as well as increasing employee satisfaction. The importance of our mission has brought together a large and diverse group of pet owners dedicated to providing high-quality products for the sake of the pets that we are passionate about. --- Having a rich organizational mission, vision, and goals is important to our employees, as it makes them feel proud to work for us. It’s also important to our customers, as it lets them know what kind of company their money is going to, and the cause behind our company.

Slide 10: References

Soomo Learning. (2023). Managing and leading in business (2nd ed.).

    https://www.webtexts.com/

7-2 Project One Critical Analysis Essay

 7-2 Project One Critical Analysis Essay

Shanon Beck 

English Composition I 

December 4th, 2023

The article I chose to analyze is “Managing Virtual Teams” by Yendor Felgate, the author’s main claim is that managers need to adapt and tailor their leadership style to the needs of the new digital workplace; this claim is incredibly strong. I agree with this claim and find it incredibly effective because of the rapid and unprecedented rise in work-at-home jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the unbelievable stress that comes with trying to manage a team at a distance, as well as employee engagement primarily relying on management style. Additionally, as a manager myself, I have also found myself in the same predicaments mentioned in the article … rapidly advancing technology has led to significant changes to how I manage my team, how I lead my team, and I have adapted to them.

The author states that we need to re-think our approach to the workplace in order to adapt to managing digital teams; as a frontline manager, I have found myself needing to adapt to the ascent of new technologies every day in order to best serve my team. We can achieve this reality by making individualism a cornerstone principle of our workplace by being intentional in our approach to employees (Felgate, 90) through one-on-one meetings and direct coaching sessions in order to get to know our employees and what they need to succeed. But at the same time, expectations must be set straight and clear for all employees in order to establish a baseline of “what good looks like” within our workplace. Without expectations and a baseline of what each employee should strive to complete in a given day, workplace standards cannot be set and can lead to an additional workload being placed on one or two individual team members.

We need to re-engage with our workplace in order to ensure inclusive and accommodating workplaces in the digital era. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, that’s being human, and we have to do our best to accommodate those differences to build a highly productive team. We can achieve this by a) holding regular meetings with employees in order to get their feedback on our leadership style, b) ensuring that employees feel heard and accepted within their workplace, and c): setting time aside for social activities and gatherings (Felgate, 90); socializing is a vital part of any workplace, by intentionally scheduling it into the day-to-day workflow it allows your whole company to grow as a team. As a manager myself, I set time aside to talk to my employees on a daily basis, small talk here and there has allowed me to understand their concerns and troubles a lot better than I otherwise could … allowing me to build a better and more inclusive workplace culture.

The author states we need to reimagine our workplace by providing the right tools so employees can do their jobs (Felgate, 90). In this digital world, having the right tools is perhaps the most important thing; think about it, how far has technology come in the past twenty years, and how often do you use it at your workplace? If employees are not provided the right tools and the right accommodations to do their jobs, then expectations can not be met, nor can communication be properly had between employees. Additionally, with how fast-paced and innovative the modern world is, if you aren’t staying up to date in your technology and practices, then you really won’t be able to function as a company.

In conclusion, the author’s claim that managers need to adapt and tailor their leadership to match digital workplaces is incredibly strong. “We need to re-think, re-imagine, and re-engage with our employees” (Felgate, 90), not only in the digital environment but in traditional workplaces as well. Innovation and change are inevitable, especially in today’s world, where technology continues to advance rapidly and the job environment changes to meet new and challenging demands. Adapting to the new realities of the modern age is vital in order to ensure high productivity, not only in technology, but also in your company culture and practices … inclusion and diversity are cornerstones of our modern world, and if you aren’t meeting those expectations then employees will surely look to workplaces that do.

Works Cited

Felgate, Yendor. “MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS.” African Business, no. 479, Jan. 2021, pp. 89–90.

6-3 Assignment Organizational Structures

6-3 Assignment Organizational Structures

Shanon Beck

Bus-210 Managing/Leading in Business

December 1st, 2023

I have been asked by the HR department to design a new organizational structure to combat the various issues that have arisen from our current structure and company processes. These issues are communication between departments, inefficiencies in completing projects on time, and managers feeling overwhelmed due to the scope of their responsibilities. In order to achieve the desired outcomes, I moved the structure around to give each department rapid access to a variety of specialty roles, as well as decrease the workload of the department manager.

By giving each department, except the HR department, an employee of each role, it allows for quicker access to each of their specialties, improving the communication and on-time completion of projects. Additionally, I moved the project manager role to be directly under the department(s) manager, to relieve the manager of some of the work involved in supervising a project, which requires the knowledge specialty that a project manager has, as well as freeing them up to focus on the back-end of the department and ensure communication between teams is efficient and lively.