Personal Competence Development Project

By Matthew Lee
Student #: 209630617 Course: MGMT 1000 Section: B8 TA: Luna Ramkhalawansingh Due: February 19th, 2009 Schulich School of Business

Table of Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Learning Goals/Objectives and Rationale .................................................................................................................. 4 Weekly Project Plan ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Content Studied ......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Teamwork .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Leadership in Action............................................................................................................................................... 9 Context Where Learning Was Applied ....................................................................................................................... 9 Learning Outcomes and Personal Achievements .................................................................................................... 10 BPTP ..................................................................................................................................................................... 10 DECA Training....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Next Steps ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 OMIS Food Bank Day............................................................................................................................................ 12 Agincourt Business Students Alumni Association ................................................................................................ 12 Other Ventures .................................................................................................................................................... 12 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 13

2|Page

Background
The personal competence development project is one of the most intensive assignments I have ever completed. When I first read the description I was intimidated by the sheer magnitude of it a 5000 word synthesis along with 20 pages of appendix are enough to make almost any student shake in their boots. Eventually fear turned into enthusiasm when I began to think about the assignment a little more. This is not just another essay or report; it is a legitimate way for me to make myself a stronger person by improving on my weaknesses and building my strengths. The PCDP has given me the motivation to strive for things I probably would not have bothered to attempt. From the completion of the CareerLeader self-assessment during the summer to the compilation of this report, this assignment has taught me many things about myself that I would not have learned from a textbook. At the end of the summer, I received an e-mail from the Career Development Centre that told me I needed to complete a self-assessment before school started. To be honest, I was very skeptical about it since I had taken many of these in previous business courses and found that they did not provide a very accurate analysis or any useful advice. I noticed the CareerLeader self-assessment seemed a little more credible than the ones I have used in the past since it has been used in other prestigious business schools such as Kellogg, Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, London Business School, and Tsinghua University. I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and complete it as honestly as possible. When I finished my self-assessment I was actually quite impressed with the accuracy of the results and the quality of the advice given to me. My strengths seemed to focus around skills such as teamwork, assertiveness, conflict tolerance and gaining trust. These qualities seemed to fit under the umbrella of teamwork very well, so I decided to choose that as my strength. In addition to the CareerLeader results, many of my peers have told me that I am an excellent person to work with because I always carry my weight. I also feel that I am a very sociable person that tends to add value to a teams chemistry rather than causing conflict. Although many people think of me as a nice guy I do still retain a level of assertiveness when I feel something should be done to create the best output for our team. Overall, being a pleasant teammate makes me someone people tend to trust and want to work with making teamwork my biggest strength. My weaknesses according to the CareerLeader report were attributes such as comfort with risk, multiple focus, time management, organizational priority and projection of confidence. Although it is not as apparent as in teamwork, I felt that my weakness topic should be leadership in action. A problem I have discovered with myself is that I have some great ideas; however, there are lots of times when I fail to execute them. I find I tend to lose interest or motivation causing me to move onto something else. The attributes listed identified by the self-assessment could be the culprits and I hope to explore them through the semester. The things I have learned in my first semester here at Schulich have helped me grow a lot as a person. I hope to continue this growth beyond this assignment and for the rest of my years here.

3|Page

Learning Goals/Objectives and Rationale

The strength I have chosen to focus on for this report is teamwork. Teamwork is arguably one of the most important aspects to business since people need to collaborate all the time. In fact, one of the fundamental economic theories is that as an individual we are poor; however, collectively as a society we are able to enrich our lives and provide ourselves with things that we would not be able to produce on our own. This is a larger scale version of the 1 + 1 = 4 phenomenon found in the The Basics: Building an Effective Team module on New Mindsets. CareerLeader has highlighted teamwork, assertiveness, conflict tolerance and gaining trust as my strengths. Throughout the years, I have also solicited feedback from my peers about my teamwork skills and they always tell me I am a pleasure to work with. With that said, there is always room for improvement and for this project I want to learn how to take my teamwork skills to the next level. Although as an individual I work well in a team, maybe there is a way I can help make my entire team work more productively. The weakness I have chosen is leadership in action. Along with teamwork, leadership is a fundamental aspect to working in business. Every team needs to be lead whether it is formally, informally or both. We can use the analogy of an airplane here the airplane can be the latest bleeding-edge technology; however, if there is no pilot it will not go anywhere. A team can be full of talent, but if there is no one to harness and focus it then the team will not be able to accomplish anything. Although CareerLeader has identified a few leadership related attributes as my weaknesses, the most compelling evidence to me is from my own personal reflection. When I sat down to write my PCDP proposal I had an easy time picking teamwork as my strength. Selecting a weakness was a bit harder and it forced me to do a bit of thinking. I realized one of my biggest flaws was related to leadership. I seem to have a problem with execution; I get many good ideas, but I fail to follow-through on a good number of them. Throughout this assignment, I hope I can pinpoint why exactly I am bad at execution. I seem to do well in most of the other leadership qualities such as visioning and people skills, but when it comes to execution I need help. Once I have identified what is the cause of my weakness I want to develop a way to improve on it.

Weekly Project Plan

Week 1: September 7th September 13th During this week, I focused on meeting people and building relationships with other students. Since it was my second week of university, I was still getting used to the lifestyle. On September 13, my MGMT1000 TA, Luna, sent out the list of teams for the business plan team project. I added all my group members on Facebook as well as on MSN Messenger in order to get to know them before we met up as a team. Week 2: September 14th September 20th

4|Page

This was another week of transition into university. Schulich Club Week took place from September 15 -18. The first club I decided to join York Investment Club because investing has been a hobby of mine for a while and this is the club I truly want to play a large role in. I signed up for Schulich Information Technology Association due to my interest in technology. I also signed up for DECA York in order to gain more DECA experience to pass-on when I help train competitors at my former high school. Week 3: September 21st September 27th On September 23 and 24, I had my first DECA meeting and YIC meeting where I got to know the execs and what was coming up for the two clubs. I decided that YIC is definitely a club I want to get more involved with and found out that they recruit their execs earlier than the other clubs in Schulich. On September 25 my BPTP group had our first meeting in the Bronfman Library. I booked our room a week ahead of time and created a Facebook group to post our work and meeting schedule. So far our group seems promising, however, we are having a tough time settling on a business idea. Week 4: September 28th October 4th On October 2 my BPTP group had another meeting in the Bronfman Library. We still had to decide between two ideas for our project. We kept going back and forth between the two ideas because one of them was easier, but less rewarding while the other one was more difficult, but had more potential. After discussing feasibility and assessing our skills, we decided the more difficult idea would be the best choice. Once that was decided, we started working on the BPTP proposal together and assigned the remaining unfinished parts for people to finish before the next meeting. Week 5: October 5th October 11th On October 7 we had our first microeconomics test, so on the previous night I asked a few friends to come over so that we could discuss anything we were having trouble with in the course. Week 6: October 12th October 18th On October 14, my BPTP group met up. Everyone had completed their parts for the proposal so we put them all together and read it over together. On October 15, I attended an information session to join the Schulich Ambassadors. I really wanted to join because I wanted to be part of a team of students that would represent Schulich. I also wanted the opportunity to be able to interact with prospective students and give them some of the advice they need. On October 16, I attended the YIC stock selection meeting where they pitched different stocks the club should invest in and then allowed us to vote on which ones we liked. This really gave me a feel for what the club was all about and I really liked it. I want to be a part of this team because I feel that my personality, skills and knowledge of investing fit well with this clubs culture. Week 7: October 19th October 25th

5|Page

On October 23, my business history presentation group had our first meeting. We delegated sections of the report that needed to be summarized and set a date for the next meeting. As the last group, our presentation was not due until the end of the semester giving us a lot of time. After the meeting I went back to my former high school, Agincourt Collegiate Institute, to join their business council in training the DECA team. As an alumni, I had a lot of previous experience in DECA. I worked with the current business council to offer them advice on their training and I coached individual students to improve their oral presentation skills. In addition, I also offered to answer any questions about going to Schulich or university life in general. I returned to York that evening to have a meeting with OMIS execs regarding a party we were planning to have as a post-midterm celebration. We decided on a theme of Entourage and delegated some tasks. I was assigned the role of purchasing decorations. Week 8: October 26th November 1st On October 27, I had another meeting with OMIS execs to decide on ticket sales for the Entourage Party. I proposed the pricing structure, which everyone really liked. This was a huge step in gaining the trust of the other execs because it showed them I had the skills to contribute significantly. On October 28, I had a business history presentation group meeting. We discussed each part of the report and talked about what we did and did not understand. On October 29, I attended the Schulich Information Technology Association mix and mingle. I was able to work on my networking skills by meeting the exec members as well as the other general members in a pretty casual setting with video games and pizza. On October 30, I went back to ACI to help train the DECA chapter again. The training has improved my feedback skills. I usually get teams or individuals to present their cases to me and then I offer them constructive criticism and advice. Week 9: November 2nd November 8th On November 3, I had a meeting with OMIS execs to discuss the layout of the party venue. We then made a list of decorations for me to pick up before the party. On November 4, I had a BPTP meeting where we discussed our actual business plan. We figured out where everybodys area of specialization was and delegated the different sections of the report to people. We also discussed the venture to ensure everyone had the same vision of the final product. On November 6, the TDSB DECA Regional competition was hosted by my high school. One of my former teachers asked me to help with the registration of judges and advisors as well as judge a category myself. The whole event was really exciting because it allowed me to see some talented presentations from the students as well as network with the other judges in my category. As someone who was familiar with the competition side of DECA, I was able to provide some advice to the other judges in my team who had never attended a competition before. 6|Page

On November 7, OMIS hosted the Entourage Party at the Six Steps Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Toronto. The event was a huge success due to the large turnout partly due to the pricing structure that I proposed which gave the first 50 people who bought tickets a discount which would then entice them to encourage their friends to come. My main responsibility for the night was taking pictures; however, I also filled in working at the door whenever it got busy as a good teammate should. Week 10 and 11: November 9th November 22nd On November 17, I had a meeting with OMIS execs to debrief for the Entourage Party. Overall, everybody was happy and the party was a success. There were a few minor issues, mainly regarding the lack of communication which caused some confusion during the planning process. We decided the best way to fix this was to have a bonding-experience, so we decided our next event should be a Toronto Raptors game. On November 18, I had a meeting with my BPTP group to check on everybodys progress. So far, things seem to be moving at a decent pace considering the amount of time we have to complete the business plan. Many people predict a long strike so at this point our team still has not hit our stride. Week 12 and 13: November 30th December 13th On December 10, OMIS hosted a Guys Night Out at a Toronto Raptors game. I am familiar with the TTC and the downtown area so I lead the entire group of 25 people to the Air Canada Centre downtown. On December 13, I submitted my application for a spot on the YIC exec team. I was extremely disappointed that I did not receive an interview. Week 14 and 15: December 14th December 27th On December 20, I had an OMIS exec meeting where we brainstormed some future events. One event we decided on was a poker night to strengthen the bonds between our members. The other event we planned was a strike house party. This would be a large undertaking since we expected close to 200 people. One of the main purposes of poker night is for us to get even stronger as a team to allow us to work better when we host the Strike Party and solve any communication issues we had like during the Entourage Party. On December 22, I organized a street hockey session with my friends from high school. This is something I had wanted to do for the whole strike, but could not because most of my friends were still out of town. I had a great time and I am happy that I was able to take my idea and execute it instead of just forgetting about it. Week 16 and 17: December 28th January 10th On December 27, a few OMIS members met up to film a Strike Party Promotional Video. We decided one of the best ways to market our party is through a viral video that would spread through Facebook. Although I am the media director of the group, I let the marketing director, Minhaj, take the lead during the filming because he is the expert in video production. One of the things I learned in the New Mindsets readings is there are times when you need to relinquish control for the better good of the team and this is one of them.

7|Page

On January 5, I went with two other OMIS execs to check out the house we would be hosting the Strike Party in and to map out an outline of where we would have everything such as the DJ booth. It seems like I am one of the more active members of the exec team since the others could not be bothered to come out. I also created the Facebook event page for the party and created the official poster. On January 7, OMIS hosted a Poker Night. I was in charge of photography and everybody was impressed that I was able to upload all the pictures and videos within the following day of the event. Week 18 and 19: January 11th January 24th On January 16, OMIS hosted the Strike Party which was a huge success. This night taught me a lot about teamwork and leadership. The bar was very busy serving drinks, so although I was only supposed to be in charge of taking pictures, I still lent a hand. I also had to deal with a crisis when we found out that one of our rented speakers had blown out. This time I stepped up due to my knowledge of speakers as an audiophile and promised I would come along to return it the following day. On January 20, my BPTP group met to put all our parts together for the business plan. I was pretty sick that day and I was really disappointed with my group during this meeting. I was clearly out of it, but no one was able step up and take the lead. Usually in our meetings, I am the one who does most of the talking and I hoped that someone could take over and let me take it easy this time. I guess I was wrong. We edited the report a few times and then picked a date to meet to finish off the presentation. Overall, this meeting was far less productive than usual. On January 23-24, I attended the DECAU Provincials competition. I coached my partner the night before and every spare moment we had because he did not have previous experience in DECA. I also used this as a learning experience because he has a strong marketing background and DECA is all about marketing. Week 20: January 25th January 31st On January 31, my BPTP group met to work on our presentation for the whole day. I took many business courses in high school so I tried to give and receive some constructive feedback about our presentation. Week 21: February 1st February 6th On February 1, my BPTP group met the morning of the business plan competition to go through our presentation a few times. I also took this opportunity to try to motivate them by pointing out that our presentation was extremely professional. I could tell everyone was nervous so I taught them a few tricks that I use to keep calm during presentations. After all the presentations were finished, I personally thanked each one of my group members for a job well done. This is something that my manager used to do at my last job and I found that it made me feel good about what I have done. On February 3, I paid another visit to my high school for another training session. The students were preparing for the provincial competition as 90% of them were able to get past regionals. This time I was able to offer some new advice because of my experience as a judge at the regional competition. As a leader it is really important to

8|Page

be able to give advice and share information so this was great practice for me. I also organized a few last-minute cramming sessions in the hotel lobby with other Schulich students. Week 22: February 7th February 14th On February 11, my business history group met up after a long hiatus. We spent the whole day working on our presentation by going through it many times. I was a bit frustrated over the past few weeks because it was tough to find a time when everyone was available, especially with the BPTP. Luckily our presentation was very straight-forward which allowed us to put it together the day before and still perform well.

Content Studied
I noticed that I did not choose the correct secondary modules to read on New Mindsets for my PCDP proposal so I have chosen different selections that are more relevant to my two development topics.

Teamwork
For the topic of teamwork, I decided to complete the New Mindsets modules titled Being an effective team leader, Being an effective team member and The basics: Building an effective team. I chose these two secondary modules because I wanted to look for a way to take my teamwork skills to the next level by finding ways to make my entire team productive instead of just being a good individual team player. To be a good team leader, you have to understand how to be a good team leader and vice versa. In many situations, team members become informal team leaders.

Leadership in Action
For the topic of leadership in action, I chose the New Mindsets modules titled Engaging people around a vision and a mission, Leadership in crisis situations and The basics: Leadership in action. The first module perked my interest the most because I was looking for a way to inspire myself with my own visions. My problem with execution seems to revolve around a loss of motivation and interest. If I truly have a good idea, it should excite me and motivate me to make it happen. On top of that, as leader it is important to sell your vision to your followers or else you will not be able to inspire them. I chose the module about leadership in crisis situations because crisis situations tend to bring out the true leaders. Crisis situations require leaders to perform all their duties only at a much faster speed. I was also inspired to choose this module after I faced a crisis situation during the Strike Party when one of the rented speakers died on us.

Context Where Learning Was Applied

Teamwork and leadership are two qualities that tend to go hand-in-hand. Almost all the situations I faced throughout the semester proved to be a good context for both development topics. Sometimes being a good team member means stepping up as a leader and sometimes as a leader it is necessary to let others take control. Throughout the semester I have come across a diverse mixture of contexts to apply the theories I have learned in class. 9|Page

The most useful context to me was the BPTP. Due to the sheer magnitude of the project, careful teamwork and leadership skills were required to achieve the highest level of productivity. We spent a lot of time together with all of our meetings which gave me a chance to try some of the things I learned from class and from my New Mindsets readings. As the person who designed our product, I had a clear vision of what our business plan would look like which put me in an ideal position to lead. At the same time, we were all considered equals which meant I had to limit the amount of control I took. My business history presentation team proved to be a less than satisfactory context because we did not spend too much time together. The assignment was more simple than I thought at the beginning of the year so I was not able to try out the new skills I learned to the same degree as with my BPTP team. In my proposal, I also chose the clubs that I am a part of to be some of the contexts for my learning. Unfortunately, this plan did not work out as I had hoped because I failed to make it into any of the exec teams of the formal clubs at Schulich. Luckily, a new opportunity arose with OMIS and it allowed me to practice teamwork and leadership concepts in a more informal setting as opposed to the BPTP. Another context for my learning was when I helped train my high school DECA team. As one of the trainers I worked as a team to coach the chapter of almost 100 members. As an alumni I was able to provide advice to my team members by telling them about my experience as both a competitor and a judge.

Learning Outcomes and Personal Achievements

Although I was fortunate to encounter a large variety of contexts to apply my learning, I would like to focus on the most effective ones and show what exactly I was able to get out of them.

BPTP
As I previously mentioned, the most important context to my learning was the BPTP. I was able to take many of the theories I learned in the course and apply them in a practical sense with my team. One of the biggest challenges I faced was creating a universal vision of our final product. In the beginning, only a few of my teammates understood how exactly our product would work because it is a high tech cell phone. I knew that creating a shared vision would be vital to the foundation of our group so I made sure that we took the time to ensure that everybody knew the product like the back of their hand. I also noted from a leadership perspective that all my group members seemed to be motivated by marks. When I asked them what they wanted out of this project they unanimously agreed their goal was to get an A. I paid careful attention to that and used it throughout the assignment as a way to motivate my teammates when I felt they could be working harder. Another issue I had to address was our team chemistry. Without any chemistry, it is hard to create the synergy that allows a group to output a sum greater than its parts. Although my teammates were all very nice people, meetings seemed a bit awkward in the beginning because they needed to warm up to each other. I noticed this and tried to make everybody more comfortable by discussing some more casual topics during our meetings so we could all get to know each other better. I also like to make people laugh by nature so I like to think some of my jokes helped make everyone more comfortable too. Another thing that is important to a group is 10 | P a g e

infrastructure, namely communication channels. I addressed this by creating our own Facebook group as well as getting everybody to add each others cell phone numbers and MSN Messenger e-mail addresses. The Facebook group proved extremely useful since it allowed us to have group discussions, post items of interest, and list the previous and upcoming meetings. The next thing we had to do was discover everybodys area of specialization. This not only added to the teams synergy, it also helped us create an organizational structure which clearly defined what sections everybody would be primarily accountable for. A sense of ownership was also created by doing this since everyone wanted their part of the project to shine. Throughout the project I noticed my group members had a fair laid-back approach to things. Each one of us seemed to fit in our team culture perfectly which is probably why we worked so well together. The norming and storming phases of team development seemed to pass relatively quickly for us which allowed us to hit our stride. As a leader, I recognized the only my teams only real need was a guide, or someone to light the way with their vision.

DECA Training
I was able to apply some leadership and teamwork skills during my time spent training my high school DECA chapter. While I was in grade twelve, I noticed our school did not have a very strong bridge between alumni and current students. I had a lot of questions to ask about university; however, I did not have anyone that could really mentor me since I did not have any older friends in high school. On my first visit back, I noticed the current business council seemed unfocused. They were really pessimistic about how well the DECA team could do this year because many of the top performers graduated last June. I began to adapt my leadership style to the situation by taking a more emotional approach than a rational one. I motivated them by creating a challenge sure most of the experienced competitors on the team were gone, but maybe you can prove to everyone that they new competitors are just as good? Most of the training team seemed to buy this, so the next challenge was to motivate the rest of the competitors. I tried to recall what I was looking for back in their shoes. I remember joining DECA because I wanted to apply my business skills in a more competitive environment and to try and achieve something that I could be proud of. After talking to many of them I also noticed that the students were also a very ambitious group since they were all applying to prestigious business programs at Schulich, Ivey and Queens. I decided that I could motivate them by explaining the rewards to working hard a great performance at a DECA competition would look great on their resume or a supplementary application for university. I told them if they listened carefully to my advice and training, they would succeed just like I did when I was in their shoes. Along with great communication and conflict management, being able to give good feedback is essential to be an effective team leader. The people who were training the DECA chapter did not have anyone to train them so I decided to be their coach. When they presented their mock cases to me, I gave them constructive feedback by telling them what they did well and what they needed to improve on. One technique I learned from the New Mindsets reading was to get them to ask questions. Before I did the readings I would just tell them what they did right and wrong; however, I was able to take things to the next level by getting them to ask me questions. This

11 | P a g e

was very effective because that ensured that I gave them the info they were missing instead of giving them info that I thought they were missing. It is as if I have been given x-ray vision allowing me to see how each element of a team works; similar to how each gear of a transmission works together.

Next Steps
I am truly proud of all the things I have learned in MGMT1000. I have a few ventures lined up to continue to put my management skills in use and I cannot wait to see what I can do with them.

OMIS Food Bank Day

This is a venture that means a lot to me because of the social impact. After learning about corporate social responsibility I wanted to apply it to one of my life scenarios. As an executive member in OMIS, I suggested my vision of taking a group of guys to the food bank to spend the day volunteering. We have spent a lot of time having fun and partying; however, it is important that we recognized that we are extremely privileged and that we should give back to the community. I am currently in talks with the Daily Bread Food Bank along with another OMIS exec member and plan to hold the event after final exams.

Agincourt Business Students Alumni Association

During one of my many visits to my former high school, I kept reminiscing about my time in my final years there. I realized one thing that I really needed back then was an older mentor who could answer my questions about the university life and business programs. I began to chat with one of my former teachers about it, but I kept it informal by telling her to forward any questions the students had to me and I would answer them. Eventually I decided a formal organization would be a great idea because of the potential for networking. This organization is still in its infancy stages as I am trying to contact other interested alumni; however, I am confident that my idea will be executed. I am planning to make this venture official in the spring of 2009.

Other Ventures
I am constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to try new things. One of my goals is to become a junior analyst for YIC which would allow me to work with a whole team of analysts that would research stocks together. I have also applied to work at the Ontario Place business office where I will work with a team of clerks to do the parks daily bookkeeping. I have noticed through my experiences and through my updated CareerLeader report that I seem to have an interest in coaching and mentoring. Assisting with the training at my high school DECA chapter was very fulfilling for me because I enjoy being able to pass on information and allow others to learn from my trials and tribulations. I have already begun to capitalize on this by mentoring a few high school students who have a strong interest in attending Schulich for their post-secondary studies.

12 | P a g e

Conclusion
As I stated in my introduction, at the beginning of this assignment I did not understand the true reason for the PCDP. I was still stuck in the high school mental model and assumed that this project was to test how well we could write a report about the concepts we learned in the course. I was wrong. This project has been so much more than that. I totally underestimated the amount of learning that this assignment proved to be a catalyst for. Without the motivation of the PCDP I would not have undertaken many of the things I have achieved in my first semester here at Schulich. I started the report by analyzing my CareerLeader results. Now that I have completed the assignment I have retaken the test. The results are located in the appendix. Apparently my experiences this semester have changed my personality a great deal. Some of the strengths I have grown are counseling and mentoring, motivational ability and strategic thinking. Many of my previous strengths have remained such as teamwork and gaining trust. I have also been able to improve a few of my weaknesses such as managing people and relationships, projection of confidence and organizational priority. Although it was nice to see the changes that I have gone through, I could have easily observed them with all the achievements I have written about in this report. Prior to this assignment I could never sell my own vision to myself in order to execute an idea. I now have an event planned for almost 40 people and an organization that will reach out to all the past business students of my high school. Before the PCDP I was a strong contributor to every team I was part of, now I am able to make my entire team stronger. This project is merely a stepping stone to my lifelong journey of personal development and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for me with the skills I have gained in this course.

13 | P a g e