Providing and receiving feedback

What are my two strong points in providing feedback and what are the two points I need to work on and why? What are my two strong points in receiving feedback and what are the two points I need to work on and why?

What part of the material covered thus far presents the biggest challenge for me?

        First weeks we were learning more about ourselves and our personality types. It was relatively easy but very interesting, as soon as I was curious about MBTI long before taking this course. However, this week we learned about giving feedback, and this became the biggest challenge for me. In fact, we also learned some points and strategies for giving feedback in the Online Education Strategies course. I gained an understanding that you must be supportive, honest, and your feedback should not be summative but must help to improve (Rabinowitz, P., n.d.). In theory, it is logical and easy, but in practice, I sometimes end up without any correct ideas and words that could be suitable to give meaningful feedback.

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The link between emotional intelligence and the MBTI types

What is the difference between Intellectual, Social, Cultural and Emotional intelligence? In your chosen profession (i.e. business, computer science, health science), what are the benefits of knowing your MBTI type? How would you use this information to be more successful in a professional setting?

Intellectual intelligence, also called IQ, is our intellectual potential and cognitive ability. It lets us solve issues, make plans, understand, and learn things (Reinaldo et al, 2021). However, it doesn’t matter how high your IQ is – it will not help you much to interpret emotions and perceive the feelings of others. Therefore, psychologists recognize another form of intelligence, such as the Emotional one, which is a mix of cognitive and emotional abilities (Emmerling & Goleman, 2003). Emotional intelligence lets us relate to other people and empathize with them, manage our emotions, and defuse conflict.

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Goals and objectives

In what ways do goals and objectives help managers control various processes within an organization? How do specific and measurable goals affect employee and promote organizational performance? Provide an example from your own experience of when a specific goal or objective provided beneficial control over a process. Explain what the beneficial control was and how did it positively impact organizational performance.

          “Goals and objectives provide the foundation for measurement” (Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B., 2010). If we cannot measure, we cannot be sure whether the organization is on the right track or not, if the work that is done is not a waste of time and is a small step towards the overall success. Managers set goals and objectives that are tied to strategy, mission, and vision; they help to measure the results, see possibilities for improvements, and optimize the workflow.

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Strategy, vision, mission, and values

What negative consequences can emerge when vision, mission, or values contradict strategy? Name a time where you believe strategy was not aligned with vision, mission, or values. How can leaders ensure that strategy matches the vision, mission, and values?

          To answer these questions, first, we need to remember what vision and mission are. As we could read in the textbook, they help us to understand the purpose of the organization, what it wants to achieve, and what are its values. A strategy, at the same time, tells the company what to do in order to achieve its mission and vision. Everything is connected.

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Stakeholders of a water utility company

Choose one of the companies below and identify three key stakeholders. Then discuss how the company caters for their interests and what may happen if their expectations are not met.

          When I started thinking about three key stakeholders of a water utility company, it became a challenge I would never expect. Too many people are interested in it – government, unemployed people, banks, local authorities, and probably I made a wrong choice trying to make a shorter list – please note, these are only my ideas and I will try to explain them.

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Measurements used to manage a process

Frederic Taylor applied the scientific method to management. In many cases, this meant measuring a process to determine its optimal possible output. From your own work experience, discuss a time you have seen measurements used to manage a process. Examples might include allowing a certain amount of time for a phone call or a project deadline. Do you believe the results were optimal, based on the measurement used?

          In theory, measuring performance sounds good: you work and produce more, you gain more. According to this method, the only motivation for employees is the money – the drawback is that any perks and benefits are short term, later people become stressed and demotivated (which, obviously, leads to unproductiveness and high turnover rate that, as we learned in Unit 2, causes additional costs and issues). Even though the application of the Scientific Method recently is often impractical, you can (at least) partly find it in any company used one way or another.

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Stress management

Why is stress management important? How does stress affect your life? 
Identify three stress management techniques you are going to use to decrease your stress levels. How can you apply these strategies to your life? How will these strategies help you manage your stress?

          There are many things that can cause stress in our daily lives one way or another and the biggest issue is the fact, that if you do not manage this stress, it will accumulate just like the snow in the snowball. This snowball can turn into the avalanche and this avalanche can cover the whole person without any chance to avoid it or cope with it somehow. Accumulating stress without any release or managing it can lead to poor job performance, depression, health problems, and many other issues that are unable to be fixed immediately. Being stressed also affects the ability to concentrate and can cause headaches, panic attacks, and irritability. 

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Self-directed learning

           A self-directed learner is someone who understands the goals and reasons of his studying, is ready to manage his time to be able to study all the needed materials and knows what he wants to achieve. Self-directed learners are responsible, motivated, and can work on their own, as well as in groups and under the guidance of their instructors. Self-directed learning includes: assessing readiness to learn, setting learning goals, engaging in the learning process, and evaluating learning. Speaking about the essential aspects of self-directed learning, these are self-development, controlling as much as possible in your learning process, learning to challenge yourself, self-management, and motivating your own efforts.

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Note-taking strategies

What note-taking strategy did you select? Why?
How will the note-taking strategy you selected help you study? How does this compare to other note-taking strategies you looked at this week? 

          I always take notes when studying. First of all, it helps me to remember what I read or listen and it is very convenient to look over notes when I need to recall something. Secondly, books always have much explanation and many examples – writing down only the most necessary things always helps to shorten the text or information.

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Active and passive learning

What does it mean to take ownership of your own learning?
What is the role of the course instructor in the learning process?  
What is the role of peer assessment in the learning process?

The modern world often puts us in situations when we need to be self-dependent because everyone has their own problems and things to do. We quickly learn that actually nobody but we are interested in our success and life in general. Of course, our parents want to help us, too – though they often do not know how to do it (for example, many fathers believe, that simply paying for education is enough) or we do not know how to accept their help (or even do not want to – we prefer to procrastinate, hang out with our friends and believe that one day the knowledge we need will pop up in our heads itself). So, taking ownership of your own learning is 1) understanding that you are the one who needs to learn and you are the only interested person; 2) taking initiatives for learning and getting new knowledge without waiting for any guidance and control; 3) managing your time and controlling your learning process.

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