Management from a Teacher

We are three weeks into a new semester and I couldn't be more excited for one of my classes. I know that is very rare for students to actually like their classes, but their is about 100 to 200 people in this class and I am pretty sure everyone loves it. This class is not what you are thinking it is. It is not a blow-off elective. It is HTM 312 Hospitality Management in Human Resources. As a 300 level course I was expecting long boring lecture with mind numbing difficult exams. But on the first day everyone was pleasantly surprised. The secret to my professor's success is that he made sure we felt important. My professor, Dr.Lalopa, also taught us one interesting managing technique on the very first day. 

The first thing he the first day of class was stand on top of his desk. As you can see in the picture above we are in a very large lecture room. He then told us to sit on top of our desks. We did as we were told with excitement. It was a little exciting because I felt like we were being rebellions. Then he told us that we get to decide as a class what the structure of the class would be. We got to decide the syllabus. As students of course the first discussion was no exams and no final. When the professor said alright and told his teaching assistant to write that down, I was in shock. By the end of the day, the class had decided that the course would consist of.

As a student I can count on one hand the number of classes that I am actually excited to attend and this is one of them. But I am not writing this to brag about a really cool professor. I am writing this to discuss what he taught us from the very start of the class.

One really difficult job for a manager in the hospitality industry is to motivate employees. How do you get a person to come to work everyday to clean rooms for eight hours straight or to wash dishes in the back of a kitchen all evening? To do this yo must make them feel important remind them that their job matters. One of the best way to do that is to have your employees be involved in decision making.

In college, students skip class everyday and if they do show up to class they text or play games on there phones. They do the work take the tests and get by with decent grades hardly learning anything. By making us feel like we were involved in the planning and organizing of the course we are excited to go to class and to leaner the material. I wish that more professors were more like Dr. Lalopa. I think that the whole class will actually learn a the materials in this class. As a manager in the future I hope I look back on this class and remember this valuable lesson.

New Years Resolutions

Every January brings hope. The new year means a new beginning, and most people make a lot of plans to make changes. Whether it be to lose weight, be organized, volunteer, work harder, etc they often seem to lose motivation after a few months or so. I think this is mostly do to the fact that people are making wishes instead of goals. There is a method to making goals that are easy to achieve. This goals are called SMART goals. There are various of what this anagram stands for but I think this one is the most simple and clear.

Specific

If your goal is vague it will be difficult to achieve it. You need to be able to break your goal into smaller steps. You need to be able to include details like dates, resources, dollar amounts, etc that you need to accomplish your goal. Your goal should answer the following "which,what, where, who, when, why?". 

Measurable or Motivation

Your goal should be measurable by a date, time, dollar amount.  Having it be measurable also makes it easier to track your progress. By keeping measurements you can determine if you are going in the right direction and make adjustments along the way if necessary. Be able to ask yourself "How much, how many, how long"

I think another important thing to setting goals is keeping up motivation. Seeing results is a big motivator. Awards are also good for staying on track. Another good form of motivation is having friends that are trying to achieve the same things as you.  Without motivation you will easily lose track of the big picture and fade away from the goal. 

Achievable

You don't want to set yourself up for failure. You need to be able to develop a strategy of how you are going to achieve your goal. You don't need to know all the details at first, just start with a general plan. Focus on actions you can take that are in your direct control. 

Realistic 

The actions you need to take to achieve your goal are things that you can actually do and control. Your goals also need to be relevant to yourself. They need to be meaningful and significant, in order to make a difference in your life. 

Timely

This was touched on under measurement, but it is to important not to have it's own category. If you do not but a time limit on the goal you will mentally be able to push it aside and there fore never achieve it. 

My New Years Resolutions

I'll use one of my own resolutions as an example of how to set a SMART goal.

BAD :I want to lose weight.

GOOD: I want to lose 20 pounds in 4 months by counting calories and exercising at the gym 3 times a week. I will eat only 1200 calories a day and keep track of this on my iPhone with an app I downloaded. Every Tuesday I will weight myself and have a goal of losing between 1-2 pounds a week. I will also limit myself to 3 alcoholic drinks a night only 2 nights a week. These drinks most be under 150 calories each. (This is a large change since I turned 21 six months ago.)  If I make this goal I will reward myself with a at home spa day or a mini shopping spree. No food rewards!