Executive Insight Report: Perspectives from the Viewpoint of the Experts - Term Paper Example

Executive Insight Report: Perspective from the Viewpoint of the Experts December Executive Insight Report: Perspectives from the Viewpoint of the Experts Introduction During this semester, we had numerous executive speakers for the class in a programme called the Executive Chair. This Executive Insight Report aims at providing an opportunity for articulation of what we have learned throughout the semester in the Executive chair from the many speakers. Consequently, the report will discuss and analyze three specific common themes touched by the executives while also providing a critical analysis of any two contradictory messages provided by the executives and lastly reconsider the insights provided by each of the guest executives. Common Themes How to Become Successful and How to Maintain the Success All the executive speakers in one way or another shared about being successful by also sharing their journeys to success and what they were doing in their personal capacity to maintain success. Meeler gave an insight on how we can be successful like him and the means of maintaining the success. His ways of being successful evolved around viewing every situation which opens doors of opportunities and advancements and which provided him with an opportunity which gave him his career breakthrough from his New Jersey job. Scott on the other hand gave emphasis on the importance of setting goals which is a necessity to anyone who aspires to become successful. Additionally, he argued that setting professional and personal goals enables one to proceed to set another goal and appreciated that sometimes setting goals may make one realize that life has taken a different path hence change of goals which he argues is quite normal. While Greg Lucier believed that case failures are a better teacher compared to success, he argued that the chance of success is very small hence we should not waste too much time. For one to be successful, he believes that you need to have self-confidence and that you need to get the right people around you and get suggestions from them and that one has to make good decisions when young in addition to building the foundation first, taking risks and lastly fitting into the environment early and getting success early. Dr. Haynes emphasized on the importance relationships as regards to success which he believes is important throughout any career path. Effective Time Management Some of the key points that Meeler mentioned as serving as standard rules and that were important especially at the start of our careers included clearer definition of “owning your time” exemplified by habits like arriving at the office early which goes a long way in bringing out a large difference both one’s productivity and the company’s productivity. Dr. Karen Haynes as regards to the issue of effective time management that that the success of everyone is anchored on how seriously effectively one balances his or her time between work and life and with a strong passion for student success and how one navigates through a crisis. He makes it rather interesting by arguing that as opposed to being a servant to his calendar, he owns it and advises that it is important to be resilient and unplug from work from time to time as finding balance is very important. Success does not imply that one is perfect The last theme that I found common among all the executive speakers was there belief that success does not imply that one is perfect. As a matter of fact, despite being considered successful, all the executive speakers at some point in time had found themselves in a crisis and failed in different aspects of their lives. Additionally, it was evident that taking risk and failing then later succeeding was cognizant with all the speakers and that all of them started at some point and made their way up to where they currently are. Differences While there were some common themes between what the executive speakers talked to us about, there also existed some notable differences between the beliefs of the speakers that contradicted messages provided by the guest. One such difference arose when Meeler mentioned about leaders needing to be comfortable with people in order to advance. To my understanding, this implies that success is mainly dependent on the relationship one has with other people where a comfortable relationship guarantees one advancing while uncomfortable relationship implies that one stagnates and fails to advance. Could this also boarder corruption! Or Favoritism! I believe that leaders can arise from any personality. Meeler also talked about a person being considered to have good work ethics if he or she works while attending college. Does this imply that one does not work while in college does he or she lack good work ethics? I believe that working while still studying should be considered as the yardstick for determining good work ethic as most students are unable to balance work and studies. To this regard, I believe that good work ethics should be determined from the way an individual works and his or her level professionalism on how he handles his daily organizational activities. As regards to the students who work part time while studying, I believe it is a matter of personal choice and largely depends on the goals of the students, his or her ability to juggle between studies and working and the ability to strike a balance on the two. I also found Scotts assertion that success was mainly dependent on remaining debt free which he perceives s a major decision factor when looking to bid new jobs in that if the company cannot financially back the project then they simply won’t do the project. First, I don’t believe that debts makes a company unsuccessful. This is mainly informed by the fact that any company is made up of different stakeholders who play different roles in ensuring the success of the organization. Since he emphasizes on staying debt free, does this imply that the company does not have creditors? Also, does the company have shareholders who have invested in it? I believe that to come up with any business one first raises capital, which is a liability and hence the management of every organization seeks to maximize shareholder equity. Additionally, considering the fact that the company operates in the construction industry, I fail to understand how the company can remain debt free when revenue is earned on a percentage of completion basis which means that the company provides services before it receives the payments for the services rendered. To this end, while I appreciate that staying debt free is the ultimate goal of any company, it is difficult to attain a debt free level in an organization. MVE/MVI After reconsidering the insight provided by each of the executive guests, Dr. Karen Haynes gets my vote as Most Valuable Executive (MVE). This is because I believe, just like she believes that work/life balance is a critical aspect of personal and professional development in any career. This is because personal and professional development complement each other has the success in one boosts the chances of the success in the other while the failure in one increases the chances of the failure in the other one. I also find it very encouraging that she has gone above and beyond in a bid to create a positive and comfortable learning atmosphere that helps in the provision of students with materials for education and tools for networking that plays a huge role in the growth of a student. The other reason as to why Dr. Haynes gets my vote is because she kept referring to the book “Good to Great” in the discussion of leadership and teamwork and her idea that you should get “the right people on the bus was right on point. Lastly, her willingness to give credit where it is due by acknowledging her team when talking about accomplishment. The Most Valuable Insight (MVI) that I gained from the course was becoming successful and maintaining the success. This is because everybody including me aspires to become successful in life. However, the course made it clear that the difference between being successful and not becoming successful lies with very minimal aspects of our livelihoods like how we manage time, the kind of company we keep and lastly the choices we make. Additionally, the fact that all the Executive speakers started off from humble startups and late became extremely successful is proved quite inspiring as it was essential and proving that each and every one of us has an equal chance of becoming successful, however, whatever we do with the opportunities we get is what determines whether we become successful or not. One personal implication of the insight that is the major take-away from the course was that as opposed to being slaves to our schedules and calendars, the schedules and the calendars should be the ones serving us. This brings us back to time management and finding a balance between work and one’s life. One key motivating factor was the despite being successful, the executive speakers alluded to the fact that they were not perfect, which made most of them humble and down to earth people with willingness to learn from others so that they can keep on improving on aspects that they find it necessary to learn and improve. Read More