How I Did It: the CEO of Duke Energy - Coursework Example

Reflective Journal Name: Institution: Course: Lecturer: Date: Entry 1: Reflection on the implications of the readings of ‘How I did it: the CEO of Duke Energy’. Could we as individuals apply some of his 10 points of his environment Charter so our own everyday practices? Roger’s Environmental Charter is quite educative and insightful and can be used a guideline in our day-to-day lives. His first point which was to incorporate environmental considerations into his planning process gives us insight into the fundamental stages during a planning process. More importantly, Roger’s takes note of the importance of making prior considerations before commencing on a project. Examples of environmental considerations that Rogers made include the effects of his proposed project to the environment, stakeholders to be involved in his project and availability of resources to accomplish his mission. In the same wavelength, we should keenly reflect on any given course of action. For instance, when choosing a career, I could make several considerations such as marketability of my career, whether local universities offer courses in line with my career and availability of resources to develop the career. While making considerations, is important to get inspirations from people with prior knowledge and experience. Preferably, one can get a mentor to guide through the career search; he could be a friend, teacher, family member or even a community leader practicing in the desired career. In his second point, Rogers compared the environmental consequence of choosing certain suppliers and contractors when purchasing suppliers and services. The insight I get from this point is the importance of comparisons and contrasts in decision making. We encounter many incidences in our daily lives requiring us to compare or contrast. When taking a bus at the bus station, for instance, one would need to make a quick decision of the best bus to use; probably based on the prices, the newness of the bus or even the desirability of the driver. Another example is when one is making a decision on the snack to take for lunch. A hamburger would be a good choice but it closely compares to a sandwich which is cheaper. Comparing and contrasting basically entails drawing similarities and differences between variables. During this process, one explores various alternatives and thereafter identifies their advantages and disadvantages so as to identify the one with the best offer. Therefore, comparing between items enables one to make informed decisions before taking an action. Besides that, this process prepares one to tackle challenges that lie ahead of the decision. Rogers point on maintaining and enhancing internal procedures for handling environmental emergencies gives us the insight on the importance of developing strategic measures for contingencies. For instance, oil spills are inherent dangers in the oil and energy industry. What makes a company distinct from others are contingency frameworks that address steps that can be taken when such as eventuality takes place. Eventualities are unavoidable especially in the lives of young people and thus necessitate adequate planning (Ahmmad 2012). Separation or divorce is an inherent danger for many marriages in today’s world. In my opinion, one can alleviate the negative implications of divorce by having adequate knowledge about the legal matters pertaining to divorce. In such a case, one will avoid instances where the other spouse takes advantage of their legal ignorance. Developing and maintaining constructive relationships with people was Roger’s key principle. He kept contact with all his stakeholders and valued their contribution towards his project. According to Hooyman and Kiyak (2002), good relationships contribute to and are important to our well being. They provide us with people to share our joys and sorrows and one becomes psychologically satisfied to know that there is someone to count on. As we go through adult life, we gradually lose contact with family and friends apparently become our closest relations (Chris 2004). I have particularly found good relationships fundamental throughout my university life. They have offered me social support in terms of instrumental support (physical resources such as money), information support (sharing knowledge and information) and emotional support (value from perceiving others as caring and the sense of belonging). By being social and interactive, I was able to fit well into academic groups that facilitated my success in the university. Another scenario that I would cite is with regard to good relationships with customers. Being friendly to customers influences their general experience and they even anticipate for the next transaction. Networks are particularly important in today’s globalized world. With the introduction of social networking sites and other internet capabilities such as e-mail, people can give ideas, knowledge, experiences and financial support over remote geographical locations. Entry 2: Reflection on why it is important to think about career planning during the first year at university and where I would like to be in my career by the time I am 30. Career planning generally becomes apparent during the early stages of university and college life when an individual typically begins to explore opportunities, interests, values and abilities in preparation for career exploration (Magnusson and Bernes 2002). Although college students have a definite amount of self awareness concerning their abilities and talents, they have inadequate knowledge in locating careers that are most appropriate for them. As such, most of them end up being uncertain about their accomplished degrees. Career planning therefore, becomes a primary requirement during the first year of the university. The career planning workbook is a fundamental tool that helps students in preparing for their careers. I personally used the workbook to match my interests with potential career opportunities. The first step in filling of the workbook was to define my vision. This required me to identify a community issue which I felt I could solve though my career. My career vision was to change the image of media reporting that has recently been overly corrupted. Thereafter, I defined my purpose in the career which is to make media reporting trusted and credible even when I am retired from the career. I then defined SMART objectives of my career which included opening up my own media house, to lobby for reformulation of media laws that have overly exploited media people and to open up an international journalist schools that train credible and reliable media reporters who can serve competitively in the global market. As I proceeded in filling the career workbook, I was able to identify key values that I highly uphold: ambition, care, commitment and dynamism. To put all these together, I identified the absolutely essential resources that I would need to achieve my ultimate career goal. In so doing, I also identified what attributes I was missing and ways I could achieve them. After fully filling the workbook, I was able to assess my potential in becoming an international journalist. With particular interest in the world of business, I hope to be the director of business department in one of the international media houses. Through the career planning process I learnt that a career is a process that requires planning for successful results. Besides that, I learnt that developing a career is not teacher’s or parent’s responsibility but rather a student’s personal responsibility. Career planning should be systematic and preferably by use of a formal workbook to direct one into selecting the best career that best matches their interests. This will not only avoid people engaging in regrets after their university education and unemployment but will also enable them to live their life purpose to the fullest. In addition, I would highly recommend career counseling where other people’s journeys of career successes and experiences enable one to discover his/her career potentials. Students should make advantage of career workshops organized in universities to learn more about career choices. Although career planning has been emphasized on college and post-secondary school students, I would propose introduction of the process in junior high schools. Students during this stage have the ability to project into their future and construct possible scenarios of hypothesis. Besides that, they have a deep concern about their future and they would go to any length to see that it is bright (Bardick et al 2004). At this age, students prefer their parents to answer their career related question rather their teachers. As such, parents should highly invest in developing their children careers including assisting them to select the right universities and providing the relevant resources. Entry 3: Reflection on the relevance of ethics in my university life as a professional in training I strongly agree that ethics play a fundamental role in preparing and shaping an individual for the work environment. Ethics is particularly important for, me putting in mind my career prospects of becoming a business/ organization manager. Business ethics are regarded as crucial ingredients in today’s dynamic world of business. For instance, lack of trust and commitment has indulged many organizations into ethical crisis. As such, learning ethics at the university level enables students to explore their own morality juxtaposed with the viewpoint of an organization towards ethical behavior (Weegar 2007). Ethical studies that I have learned through different units in my course have greatly influenced my perception about ethics in business. Introduction of these ethical studies during my first year in the compass were particularly helpful as they enabled me to understand my own ethical principles and values. Through this understanding, I was able to assess how my personal morals can positively assist an organization. I realized that personal ethics could easily coincide with organizational values and its code of conduct. Some individuals of the organization experienced ethical conflicts when they thought that organization values do not align to their own. In that regard, I highly support ethical studies in the university as they open up students to knowledge required to deal with complex business ethical issues. Even so, I propose introduction of elaborate mentoring programs within universities. A personal professor-student relationship plays a fundamental role in shaping the ethics of s student as he is directly accountable to an older and more proficient individual who can offer credible advice. Maturity is imperative in any profession. This basically means putting oneself at risk to embody the principles of society. An element of sacrifice is therefore, an ethical consideration for any professional in training and in practice (Jim 2003). In philosophical terms, sacrifice has been termed as giving up something. Nevertheless, I perceive sacrifice as the act of putting on hold or doing completely away with things that are irrelevant. This is an ethical principle that I proved during my university life. Being part of a discussion group, I had to forego most of my entertainment and leisure activities to create time for academic discussions and presentations. Discussion could only be possible during weekends and evenings since they would collide with lectures if scheduled for weekdays. The sacrificed time paid off in good grades and I was able to complete my course within the required time as I never encountered any supplementary units or retakes. Besides that, working in a group reinforced my abilities to work in teamwork. Sharing ideas and tasks as well as being trustworthy, honest and punctual are the key concepts that I developed from working in the study group and I believe they are fundamental requirements in successful business. Joining college presented me with a totally new environment where I was typically free from parental influence and I would basically live among peers who had differing belief structures. This appeared to me like the exact time to establish my own identity. Unlike my high school years where I had close contact and supervision from my teachers, the university faculty and staff had little to no impact on the process of identity formation. Although ethical teachings were quite helpful, I feel that ethical training for sustainable professionals is just not in teaching; it is in establishing long-term relationships between tutors and students. This is in agreement with Plato’s Athenian recommendation that older people should actually attend youngster parties to help them learn how to drink responsibly. In this respect, each university fraternity should select a given number of staff or faculty members to be present for compass bacchanalia. Similarly, students will undoubtedly benefits from compulsory discussions about their romantic lives with staff members. References Ahmmad, Z 2012, Planning for the uncertainties in future. Retrieved on 6th September 2012 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Planning-for-the-Uncertainties-in-Future&id=7184870. Bardick, A, Bernes, K, Magnusson, K, Witko, K 2004, Junior high career planning: What students want, Canadian journal of counseling, Vol. 38, No. 2. Chris, P 2004, Guanxi, relationships and ethics, Australian journal of professional and applied ethics, Vol.6, No. 1. Hooyman, N, and Kiyak, H 2002, Social Gerontology, Boston: Allyn & Bacon. James, R 2011, How I did it: The CEO of Duke Energy on learning to work with green activists, Harvard business review, Vol. 89, no.5, p.51-54. Jim, P 2003, Developing competence and trust: maintaining the heart of a profession, Professional ethics, Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 3-18. Magnusson, K, and Bernes, K 2002, Comprehensive career need survey: An overview. The school Alberta counselor, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 12-15. Weegar, M 2007, Promoting ethical practices within institutions of higher education. Proceedings of the 2007 association for business communication annual convention. Read More