Master of Business Administration Program - Essay Example

? Learning Journal Introduction The MBA program is one of the most important and magnificent degrees that enable most people to get higher positions in most corporations. This program has taught me many things directly and indirectly. This learning journal will explore the skills that I have developed and how my behavior and personality have changed positively because of the environment of this program. Networking My journey literally started from the second day of the orientation week. This is where I was asked to gather with a group of students who came from different countries and regions. Then the instructor asked us to kindly state our names and our home countries and I found it challenging for me to say even my name because I was afraid to make any mistake. Therefore, before my turn came, I was trying to reduce my heart beat by taking slow deep breaths. In fact, the same situation tended to occur when I was in my country and it is indeed the reason why I am not able to have a high level of confident in myself. Later on, I participated in another activity with other MBA students and this was a bit challenging for me because it involved the memorizing names. Basically, at the beginning, we had to make small groups to memorize slowly and then everyone stood up and attempted to mention the whole groups’ names. Memorizing Asian names was so difficult and frustrating for me but eventually it worked out very well, and I found that this game was incredible and full of excitement, especially when someone was trying to pronounce someone else’s name, and other people laughed. This created harmony and integrity between all students and it was really a great feeling. It is where I felt that I could make it and these students would assist me to achieve my goals. I think the main aim of this activity was to ensure that not all the individuals in the group gave up in doing anything just because it was hard. After we had been split into groups, we had to choose a leader based on his/her capabilities and we did this by asking about the background and experience of each person. Then we asked everyone about their hobbies and most difficult problem he/she had faced and overcome. We listened to everyone and discovered that all of us could be great leaders because of the skills that we had acquired. At that moment, I was reluctant to step up because of the skills that I have. In the end, we decided that everyone would be a leader and that we would work like one hand to be the best team ever in the class; a decision that had a great impact on me. Another reason, which made me want to be a part of that team, was its motivation as well as aiming to be number one in the class. Having a great conversation with my friends and group has played great role in changing my way of thinking. Before this, I used to talk mostly with my relatives more than other people which made it hard for me to communicate, even with people who were from my country. I am mostly a private person and am usually nervous to talk especially with people who I do not know. By communicating and having some lessons about the importance of leadership, my personality and thinking level have changed, I have become much better in understanding other people’s situation. Teams The team aspect was the most uncertain part in my entire MBA journey and I suffered starting from the first teams that I had in the first module. The first problem occurred when a member of my group was telling another to choose a regular day for meeting. Basically, everyone agreed that any day except the Friday and Sunday was fine, while the second member refused all days that had been proposed to her. The reason why she refused was because of some family commitment that she had to take care of. Although she said that if I agreed to meet on Saturday, the bus would come every hour which would have made it difficult for me to get back for my father. From that day and until the end of the module everyone in the group told me that she was a spoiled and indecisive person. In this situation, I thought the best solution for this problem was to put myself in her position and see what her best alternatives were. Then I realized that a person had to put some pressure and sacrifice himself/herself to achieve the team goal. In contrast, we tried to keep back that negative feeling and be nice with her and treat her like everyone in the group. In addition, we kept encouraging her some days to come for the meeting and because of this, all team members got united and cooperated as a group. Changing someone, feeling is hard especially for women who are from different cultures because they are so sensitive. Another thing I have come to learn is that sometimes one has to sacrifice and do one’s best to achieve outstanding results. However it is not all the time that one will get a good result especially when working with an uncooperative group that may not be qualified to support your goal and take it seriously. I came to experience this in the second module where I was included in a group that came from the same culture. This was not the problem but the biggest problem was when I discovered that everyone was relying on me to do all the work and that nobody wanted to work. At the beginning, it was a bit challenging for me because nobody knew about the subject specifically the first assignment we had, it was about creating a business model for the Google Corporation. I used to ask whenever I did not know something but the other groups were not helpful for me. Therefore, I relied on different literatures to understand the topic and clarified that for my team members and fortunately, most of what I understood was correct, so I shared it with my team members to gather all information it needed for this assignment because we had to present it the next day. When it came to presentation, everyone in my group was nervous because the instructor was very strict and eager to meet his expectations. In the end, when we asked him what the problem was, he said it seemed that we did not understand the assignment very well based on the information given in class, and in the end, we got a B minus. I was not really satisfied but when I looked what the group had done I realized that I was fine with that, after I said it seemed that I would fail this module, I tried to convince the instructor to change my group but he said no. Then I dealt with my group by stating that we had to work as a team with the next assignment. I reorganized myself and I chose new approach with my group to motivate them because if they did not care about me, we would have a problem for all of us with marks. The next assignment was a surprise for all of us because we had to audit a certain company that all of my group members did not have a clear idea what it was. We created a group on Facebook to share all information that we thought it needed and made the communication much easier. This helped everyone to arrange meetings and share our parts and the next thing I did is making plan and divide the work between all of us. At that time, one of the members stepped up to lead the team and from past experience and what people said about her performance, I discovered that she was not a good leader because she was not doing what she said. In my perspective, a leader has to be capable and productive in leading any team. Later on I discovered that she was not productive and all members in the groups had a negative attitude concerning her behavior and performance in the group. I was not really concerned about her behavior but the biggest problem was when she told the instructor that we did not work really well. At that moment I talked with the team members to discuss with everybody and make sure about what she had said to the instructor. We decided to put that away because we do not have much time to discuss it and have a problem with her because what she had said was not right. Basically I tried to put all that I had and help the group with articles that were related with everyone’s part. Then I asked them to prepare an outline for each meeting to figure out what was needed to be completed. By following that process, we thought that we had done a great job in exploring the industry, however, when it came to results, it was really as bad like the previous one. I was not sure what the problem we had was and because of this, I went to the instructor to ask but he was not really cooperative with me and simply said that we did not do research for the industry. Actually this really upset and put me down and it was really a troubling experience. Sometimes working alone can be the best way to success because the latter comes from efforts and when it comes to success, one thinks about planning, leading, executing and timing. Someone said in a presentation during a certain course that one only feels the taste of success when one does not sleep for three days pushing oneself to do all one’s best to get a high mark, and in addition, one’s success could be increased when he/she consults other people. My improvement through Skills development course One of the skills that I acquired was being able to set a measurable plan for myself as well as identifying my learning style. At the beginning, it was challenging for me to set a plan for myself because my goals and my actions have to be accurate, measurable and visible. Fortunately, it worked out very well, for instance, I planned to enhance my confidence in presentations as we went through the semester. One of my actions was to read a book and an article that talked about confidence. Not only did I read that book but I listened to many videos that talked about motivation, such as Tony Robbins work and this ensured that there was plenty of improvement especially in the last presentation and I felt that I was not afraid of everyone. Another interesting thing that I came to discover in my personality was that I have a tendency to be a converter. I am satisfied with the test I did because one of the limitations and features of Converter group is getting things easily, for example, two weeks ago I was assigned to do an assignment in operation management course. My friend had asked me to send him mine but I told him that I could not give him mine because I had put too much effort on it, and eventually, he understood my situation because I was afraid he might copy my assignment. Another factor I have looked at is that cultures can have a great impact on our behavior toward others. The first thing that I learned is that jokes can be sensitive in some cultures and not in other cultures. For example, one of the problems that I used to face is my left hand would shake while pouring the Arabic coffee for guests. One day, I had guests in my home and my father asked me to be responsible when pouring the coffee, once I started pouring the coffee to the guest, my left hand started shaking. Ultimately, I dropped the coffee pot on the guest who was my friend and as a result, everyone started to blame and laughed at me. Also, one of the things I acknowledged in this class is that gestures can have a various meanings, for example, during a previous module; I dealt with an Indian guy. I had difficulty understanding what he meant by shaking his head to the right and to the left; basically, I was discussing the assignment with him, and for each point I was making, I had asked him his opinion. However, he just kindly moved his head and I was afraid of asking him because I thought it was offensive to his culture and eventually, I ended up asking one of the other Indian students about nodding head all the time. He said that if they nod once it means agreeing and nod in both directions it means disagreeing and this I found to be astonishing and stunning because I was doing that with other Indians even though I did not know what it did actually mean to them. Another two concepts that are beneficial to me are communication styles and active listening tools. I have understood that communication styles can be used differently from person to another person. Communication contains three types which are passive, assertive and aggressive, for example, one day I had a problem with my brother and he was shouting at me, even though, I was not the one who started the problem. Basically, I said I am sorry for what happened to his stuff, but that I was not going to pay anything because I did not do it. However, he was not convinced by what I said to him and after a period of time, I thought about it and discovered that the problem was not solved because I was using passive communication style. Active listening is another new tool that I acquired in this class and it is about giving the space to the other person to release their emotions and express their entire problem while one is carefully listening. One of my friends used this tool with me because I used to be a sensitive person and have a phobia about dogs. I went to my friend and I complained about his dog and he was thoroughly listening to me and was not moving his hands or even making jokes at me. We ended up by taking the fear from me because he just listened to me and gave me some stories. In another instance, I played a video about Obama giving a speech to American audience about guns. He applied assertive communication to the audience who was carefully listening to the president and in addition, he paused in a more special way and he did not moving his hand a lot. He gave the story of the girl who was shot close to the White House and said we are not safe and through this scenario, we can see how these two tools have been integrated and played a good role in solving problem. These two tools are communication style and effective listening and when showing the other person how much you are eager to listen to him, the talker will strive to convey and express their feelings and problems carefully, so you can understand. Coaching is one of the techniques that I am known to have; it was an incredible new experience for me, which is about leading, motivating and encouraging people using different strategies to guide him/her to the right thing. Questioning and telling stories are two of the most important techniques to apply and I have tried that on one my friends who has a lack of initiative in doing assignments. I went step by step asking him “what” questions and eventually he discovered the solution by himself. Critical thinking is a mechanism that I have developed during learning in this course. It is about analyzing, assuming and developing questions that have different answers from different perspectives. However, these questions should respect different beliefs and they are a way to solve community issues. It is where we can explore our knowledge, for example, one day; someone asked me a critical question why Muslim men can have four wives, and this question could have various answers. Moreover, in the MBA program I asked one of my colleagues why he kisses his hand after eating, another example, someone asked why we are teaching our children by using education fun shows on TV. In short, I think it was a great experience and a valuable knowledge that I acquired by working with these professional trainers. Undeniably, I developed lots of skills in my personality that I was not aware of. All of them are important but one thing I would like to accomplish is being coach in a company. Conclusion I believe that our diverse cultural backgrounds played a significant role in the formation of the bonds of work and friendship which made our team such a success. One of the greatest benefits that I personally reaped from being within this team is the confidence in my ability to do all the tasks that are assigned to me, most especially those concerned with the principles and practices of business. This new confidence in myself has enabled me to think of a greater role for myself in future than I had previously considered. Moreover, through the team work, I have managed to attain the skills which I think are necessary for dealing with prospective issues concerning business. Read More