RE: Reflection Paper

RE: Reflection Paper

Concrete Experience:

I work for a small financial institution in Avon Ohio called XYZ. I started working for this company 5 years ago and I have worked my way up the ladder and have moved to various branches over the years. About 7 months ago I was promoted to assistant branch manager, which was a big step for me because I am only 22 years old and haven’t had very much experience as a supervisor. I went from being a supervisor on the teller line, which I did for a little over a year to an assistant branch manager. The supervisor on the teller line is someone who can approve checks, give overrides, and assists the assistant branch manager if they need help. So I had all the knowledge required for the job because I was running a teller window every day and assisting the branch manager with certain things. It was going to be supervising and dealing with staff that I needed help with. I was very excited about my promotion but also very nervous at the same time. I have never been in a supervisor’s position as high as this; the assistant branch manger runs the entire branch. They are in charge of operations, time off, write ups, security, monthly audits, monthly staff meetings, and so much more. Anything that goes on in that branch they know about and have to deal with. This is mainly because the manager is networking to try and get loans and then they have to process all the loans for that branch. Which can be very time consuming; they still help with the operations of the branch and are in charge of the branch but they rely on their assistant managers to run everything. One of the main reasons I was so nervous was because the people I was going to be in charge of were at least twice my age and dealing with people in general  can be a very big challenge. I was also responsible for getting my branch to work together as a team and required to meet quarterly and yearly goals. An additional thing that  I was concerned with was the fact that I was only going to get about 2 days of training before the old assistant manager was leaving, which was not a lot of time to absorb all of her experience and knowledge. Doing this job well was essential if I was going to continue to move up in this company. I needed to get my staff to work as a team and make sure we met all our goals, to show my boss and upper management that I possessed the skills to be a great manager.

Reflective Observation:

I was very excited about this promotion because I knew it would help me with future career and would look excellent on my resume. Like I mentioned previously I had never been in a supervisor’s position before this experience, it was a little rough in the beginning and required me to make a lot of adjustments. I had to really practice my people skills not only with staff but with customer’s as well, because I would be dealing with all the customers’ complaints.  I knew that getting everyone to work as a team was going to be my biggest challenge because I lacked experience in this area. Overall it did end up being one of the biggest challenged that I faced, because motivating people is extremely difficult and requires patience.  I learned a little bit from watching my manager deal with people but practice seemed to be the best thing for me. An additional thing that was difficult with my new position was that I had to write people up. I was at one point friends with these people and now I was their boss and I had to learn to put that all to the side and be professional and all about business. In the end writing them up proved to be extremely difficult.  It proved to be difficult because people do not like to get into trouble and they sometimes take things personally even when it just has to do with work. The first time I had to give a write up it was very nerve racking and awkward. Since then I have given quite a few write ups and it is still a little troubling for me to write somebody up. I tried to reflect back on how the previous assistant manager handles things and how she ran the branch, because she was obviously doing something right because we were a successful branch. I had big shoes to fill and I think that I did a very good job. I am still learning things as I go because I have only being doing this job for 7 months, but I am working hard and continuing to improve out branch.

Abstract Conceptualization:

When I look back now after learning what I have in this class I recognize some things that I could have done a little differently and recognize all the things that I did do right. My overall biggest challenge was working as a team in chapter 8 we learned about team dynamics which relates exactly to my situation. A team is a group of people of 2 or more that exist to fulfill a purpose and is mutually accountable for achieving common goals. In my branch there was a team that included 6 of us which was our entire branch and we were working towards the same quarterly and yearly goals that were set for us. I also learned that there were many advantages to having a team that I didn’t completely realize before; such as we make better decisions and that we have more knowledge and expertise because we have all been here different amounts of times and may have even worked in different departments. So working as a team we are able to come up with more ideas and ways to meet our goals. But there are also some major disadvantages to teams which I experienced first hand sometimes there is someone who slacks off because they are working in a group which is social loafing , or sometimes the tasks can get done a lot faster if only one person were working on it. I had an employee who didn’t want to do anything and was always doing less work then the rest of the group. I learned that there are ways you can try and eliminate social loafing. Some examples were to make individual performance more visible and to increase employee motivation. Additionally when I look back I can see how I was transformed into a leader by my boss and from studying other supervisors. I was also able to recognize of the 8 leadership competencies which are personality, self concept, drive, integrity, and leadership motivation, knowledge of business, cognitive intelligence, and emotional intelligence.  I was also able to recognize which one that I am strong in and which one needs work. Overall after seeing all these concepts I think I did a great job in my new position and possess the expertise and self motivation to continue to grow.

Active Experimentation:

Going through the process of becoming an assistant manager and taking this organizational behavior course has made me realize a lot about myself and my job. I am able to see the things that I really need to improve on and I am going to work on this every day. I feel that I learned a lot about teams and how they function and I am going to apply this when dealing with my staff. I have already applied some of the ideas to prevent social loafing and they seem to be working. I made individual performance more prominent even though we are working towards a team goal.  Employees realized that we are seeing the individual work that they do and that it is going to be rewarded and put onto applications. An additional thing that I am going to apply in the future is employee motivation. I’ve learned a lot through this class about employee motivation and how important it is in having a successful outcome. If the employees have nothing to work towards then they are not going to want to do a good job, there has to be some type of incentive. I have already talked to my boss about applying a rewards program within our branch to motivate employees to open new accounts. I have thought about having my staff take the personality test online just for fun to see what kind of personalities they have. I feel that even though this isn’t a complete reading it might help if we have some idea of what type of person they are. This could be very beneficial when we are dealing with them and handing out assignments. We would know what their strong points and weak points are. I also really gained from learning what type of leader I am and how certain things I do can be perceived in many other ways. Overall this promotion and knowledge that I gained from this course changed a lot in how I look at things and how I deal with everyday situations.