Behavioral Analysis Project

2

Lesson Learned Neil Tocher MGT 3312 The second I turned sixteen, my parents forced me to get a job. I didn’t want a job at the time because I was so busy with school and choir. But I also needed a way to pay for choir, tour, and any activities I ever wanted to do. My parents were done giving me money. As much as I didn’t like the idea, I was forced to accept it. I was able to find a job at TJ Maxx, but I didn’t really like it. The job I really wanted was at Deseret Book. I love to read books, plus they had the perfect hours to fit my schedule and they were closed on Sunday’s. Of course, I was not the only person that wanted to work there. They get ten to twenty applications a week, and there was some tough competition, and I was still in high school with almost no work history. Luckily, I had a friend that vouched for me and told the manager that I would be a great addition to the staff. It still took me two months to get the job, and I worked very hard for it. I had to call every couple days and bug the manager about my application, and he finally gave me an interview and offered me the job. I was so happy. I loved working at Deseret Book. I still miss it all the time. I started out working in the Lionhouse Pantry, which was in the back of the store. I would make the salads and bake the rolls. I quickly grew bored of that. What I really wanted was to sell the books. Each shift I would hurry and get my list of things done in the pantry so that I could go out on the floor and sell. They have a program called the Platinum Program, which is just a rewards program. The difference in Deseret Book’s rewards program was that customers had to pay $25 to sign up, so it was really hard to get anyone to do that. Only for me, it was really easy. I was a natural salesperson. I remember one time, a man came in to buy one book for his wife and I sold him the entire set, which was 10 books total, plus a Platinum account. I consistently sold quadruple the number of Platinum accounts than anyone else in my store, including the store manager. I was good. And I knew it. When I was nineteen-years-old, I finally got promoted to supervisor. I was really excited to finally be rewarded for my success and hard work. I knew I deserved that promotion. But I knew it a little too much. Before my promotion, I had become close friends with my coworkers. When I got promoted, I was arrogant, and I quickly lost their respect and friendship. The girls I had once laughed with and talked to now laughed and talked without me, but would quiet down when I walked up. They may have been a little jealous, but I over-exaggerated their jealousy and made myself believe that they wished they were me. I knew I was the best, and I knew that they knew it. The power quickly went to my head. I thought I was irreplaceable, an asset that the company would never want to lose no matter the cost. Soon, I was ordering my former friends around, acting like they never did anything good enough and rubbing it in their faces that I no longer had to do the daily chores that they did. I made special effort to tell them what they did wrong so they would know who was in charge. I made them absolutely miserable, and I knew they hated me. I wasn’t happy with my job anymore, I was just lonely because I had alienated the people that once made the job enjoyable. A few months after being promoted, I was called in to my manager’s office and they asked for my resignation. I was crushed, not because I was happy with my job anymore, but because I had honestly believed that they would fall apart without me. I was the star. How dare they even think they could survive if I left? I look back now and I’m horrified at the way I acted. I can’t believe how immature I was, and how rude I had been to my friends. Given the chance, I would do everything different now. One of the chapters from The Ropes that is like my experience was chapter 6: “The Sincerest Form of Flattery.” In this story, Stanley tries to run things the way Kerry Drake would. Yet he finds that when he demands that something be done, he doesn’t get the response Kerry did. His employees did not respect him enough to care what he said, and they didn’t have faith that he knew what he was talking about. When I was telling my employees what to do, they didn’t always listen. They thought I was rude and arrogant, and just telling them to do things just because I could, which was probably true. I didn’t always know what I was talking about, or take into consideration what would be in the best interest or most helpful to Deseret Book as a whole, I just wanted them to do what I said just because I had the authority to say it. I overstepped my boundaries, and I lost their respect for that. Another similarity in this chapter is that Stanley wasn’t really being himself. He was trying to be more like Kerry, and have more power and more control than he was really supposed to have. That is exactly what I did. They gave me an inch and I took more than a mile. I tried to control every aspect of the store. I told everyone not only what to do but when to do it. And I wasn’t really acting like myself either. I am the kind of person that really wants everyone to like me, even to a fault. But at this point in my life, I was alienating everyone at work and I knew it. It wasn’t good for me, and it definitely wasn’t good for my employees. I like to think that if I had been there a little longer, I would have mellowed out, just like Ted. After a while he realized that he wasn’t getting the respect that he was hoping, and that was his own fault. I hope that I eventually would have realized that and done some things to change my attitude and the way I worked. I think attitude made all the difference in this situation, and I think the novelty of the promotion at my age would have worn off, hopefully to reveal a smart and kind manager under my initially arrogant shell. The other chapter from The Ropes that relates to my situation is chapter 13: “Fair Day’s Work.” The part that struck home with me was actually one of the discussion questions we had. The question was “Why does Ted feel that the phrase ‘work smarter not harder’ will motivate the mill hands?” In my answer I talked about how telling the employees to work harder will most likely not work. It will actually probably just make them mad. I think that’s what I did, so in a way Ted had it right. I was just telling people to work harder just because I could, not because it really needed to be done. If I had really cared or been a kind and smart supervisor, I probably would have put more thought into how I told them to work. Working smarter, not harder would have actually been great advice because it would have showed that I care whether they do back-breaking work. It would have showed that I at least put some thought into the way they work, what needs done, and how they could do it most efficiently without becoming too stressed out and exhausted all the time. The theory that related most to my experience was Theory X versus Theory Y. I was definitely a Theory X manager. I viewed my employees as lazy, and I never thought they would get something done unless I told them when and how to do it. I thought they needed constant supervision or they would quit working and just sit around. I didn’t trust them at all, which probably made it so they didn’t trust me at all! I believe things would have turned out differently if I had been a Theory Y manager. I just needed to give my employees the benefit of the doubt, let them prove that they were good at their jobs, that they weren’t lazy, and that I could trust them. This entire experience taught me a lot, mostly because I have regretted it for so long. I absolutely ruined the chance I had to continue working at a place I loved. To this day I still have nightmares about what happened, and how I treated people. I was too young to accept that kind of responsibility and to handle it properly. I hope that given the chance, I would do it all differently. I believe I’m more mature now, and I would never treat people the way I did when I was nineteen. I also don’t think the power would go to my head. I have also learned so much through school about how to be a great manager. My regret aside, I think I now have the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about what is best for my store, rather than just doing what was best for me. I also have the knowledge from this class to know what kind of manager I would want to be. I would definitely strive to be more like a Theory Y manager. I think a huge part of management is trusting people. Otherwise it would be called “micromanagement.” I would try to give employees the benefit of the doubt, and give them a chance to prove that they are responsible and trustworthy. My favorite lesson of all is just to be myself. I’m not the kind of person that would ever intentionally knock someone down. Even once, let alone repeatedly. Yet this is what I did to my employees because I thought I was so much better than them. I thought that just because I had the title, that they were beneath me. This line of thinking made us bitter towards each other, and working against one another is never a good thing. The most important thing is to work together and realize what each individual brings to the table. After all, what is a team if there’s only one player? Grade:95 of 100 Comments: this is an excellent paper and you are better for both the experience and the exercise of writing the paper. remember, any ninny can wield the ax of formal power, but it takes faith and risk to trust others. Great managers hire good people and support them acting mainly as a facilitator and leading by example. You will be a great manager one day if you choose that path again and just do the opposite of everything you did in the past. Also, you make a great point about being yourself. Perhaps you are more of a sales type anyway and should stick with those types of jobs and leave the administration to those who are good at that aspect. Great job either way.