“Lead an organization with the most inspired, motivated and committed team on the planet where we put people first”
Values
#1. Family Security-
As I write this paper it is almost 17 years since the passing of my mother on 11/25/2003. She passed away when I was 18 years old from Breast Cancer. My father left when I was 8 and it was me, my mom and my sister from there on out. Fortunately for me, I had learned what the opposite of family security looked like early on in life. I know what it’s like to watch my mother work 3 jobs while battling breast cancer and raising two kids on her own. I know what it’s like at the early age of 14 to apply for food stamps, apply for 25 cent lunches, go to school, play football, work and take care of my younger sister all at once. Last, I know what it’s like to watch your mother pass away and be left on your own at 18 with a 13-year-old sister and no money, and I mean no money to take care of yourselves. I had just finished my first quarter in college and my first year of college football. I won conference player of the year as a freshman and did not have anyone to celebrate with. I was challenged early on with a decision on whether to drop out and take care of my sister or stay in college and find an alternative. This was the day I decided that Family Security was going to be a strong value of mine in the future. I stayed in college and battled because I knew that education, sports and surrounding myself with great people would give me the opportunity to create family security for myself in the future.
Today, Family Security is my most important value because I know what the other side looks like and I don’t ever want my family to go through what I went through. My daughter and wife are the two most important factors in my life. Some would say that my vision is because of them, or my purpose in life is to always make sure they are safe and secure. The way I show this is through work ethic, financial security, long term vision and making sure that I set my family up for success financially. I would even consider saying that I fear not having financial security for my family. Financial Security is one of the biggest driving factors for me in my life. It’s safe to say that my past has shaped every value that is important to me. It also has helped me create my vision for myself which we will come back to later.
#2. Personal Development-
Senge (1990) noted “People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never “arrive”. Sometimes, language, such as the term “personal mastery”, creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a process. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas. And they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see that “the journey is the reward.”
As I read the book and saw this quote, it permeated with me to the point I knew this was a top 2 value of mine. My vision is to Lead an organization with the most inspired, motivated and committed team on the planet where we put people first. I must continue to value personal development if I ever plan on developing others. Flight attendants always tell you if the plane is going down to attach the oxygen mask to yourself before you help others which I always that was nonsense, however the shoe fits here. You must take care of yourself before you do others.
This value ties in with Family Security for me too. I owe it to my family to make sure that I am constantly developing my skills whether it be communication, leadership, education, spiritual or finance. How can I expect to keep my family secure if I don’t value personal development? How can I lead an organization and inspire others if I don’t value my own development? These are all questions I asked myself as I kicked around my values. To Senge’s point, I will never stop learning. I will embrace this journey as I know the reward is priceless. To leave you with another quote that I enjoy in regard to personal development. “Sharma (1996) noted “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life; it will improve the lives of those around you.”
#3. Ambition-
“We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” Cesar Chavez. Ambition is the engine that fuels me to never give up on my goals. I love this quote from Cesar Chavez and it fits perfectly with my other values and my vision. My ambitions go far broader than just my ambitions. My ambitions are to inspire and motivate others to reach for their goals and challenge themselves. I think that the more ambitious I am it will continue to create that curiosity that will force me to work on my personal development. The more ambitious I am it will force me to reach for goals that when met create more family security. Now don’t get me wrong ambition that is directed poorly can be poisonous. Sometimes ambitions can cloud one’s vision which may cause them to lie, cheat or steal to reach a goal.
My vision is ambitious and yes it will take more than just myself living and breathing that vision for it to come to life. Like Senge states “many people have vision but pooling that passion into a shared vision can bring outstanding results” My vision will forever guide my ambitions.
#4. Broad Minded-
Of all the best leadership traits discussed in the world today I believe there are two that stand the test of time, and that is respect and broad minded. As we prepare ourselves to head into a workplace with 5 different generations working at the same time, a leader’s ability to be respectful and remain open minded is going to be the life or death of that organization. I value this trait because in order to be effective in my own development and others I must embrace change and be broad minded. I teach my daughter to show respect to everyone, be open to different people that you interact with. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are a topic I am passionate about.
Similar to the other values this one ties in good with my other top 4 and of course my vision. My concern or weakness that I notice is as I get older my opinions become stronger and stronger. I must challenge myself to remember that opinions are just that. I have been open minded my whole life and I refuse to lose that value at such an important time in life when I and others must be open to change, ready for change and even ahead of the change. Out of all my top values this is my biggest area of opportunity and I believe will be the most significant and important towards my vision. I have work to do.
#5. Helpfulness-
This value forced me to dig deep into the Why part of What, How, Why from Simon Sinek. Most people know what being helpful looks like. Some people know how to be helpful to themselves and others, but I really don’t think many people know why. As I chose my top 15 values this wasn’t one of my first 10 choices. Then I picked the next ten and it was #8 on my list, however once I got to the top 5 it resonated with me on why it kept showing up in my values. One of the most rewarding aspects in life is when someone accomplishes a goal because of your help, someone can help others because of your help, someone feels inspired and motivated because of your help. None of us could ever be where we are at today without a lot of help along the way. I had more struggles than most growing up and would love to say I pulled myself up by own bootstraps, however that would be bullshit. My friend’s parents used to take me to and from practice growing up because my mom was working 3 jobs battling cancer; that helped. I almost had to drop out of college because my loan didn’t go through, so I called my best friend’s mom and begged her to cosign so I could stay in school and she did; that helped. When I took my first job out of college I moved to Cleveland and lived in the basement of my friend’s parent’s house; that helped. I have 2 great Mentor’s that I talk to once a month and their leadership is priceless and although they are my mentor’s, they reach out to me now also for advice.
Without a ton of hard work, a fair amount of luck and some help along the way nobody will find success. It is in my DNA to give back and help others achieve their dreams. I have been in senior leadership roles where I led 300 people daily and helped change their lives and accomplish their goals. I love that I will come out of this MBA well rounded and ready to tackle bigger challenges with ambition, an open mind, more personal growth and a vision to lead an organization with the most inspired, motivated and committed team on the planet where we put people first.
My Personal Board of Directors
This exercise was interesting to say the least. I was challenged in a couple of ways. I feel like my life has been broken down into different time frames. Childhood which is up until high school and around when my mom passed away. As I chose whom I wanted on my board, I knew I wanted someone that was a close childhood friend that knew me and what my values were when my mom was alive. This particular person is Brian. Second timeframe is after my mom passed away. Whom did I meet and who was influential in my life? I never latched onto professors, my college football coaches fell off after a couple years out of college, but what always stood the test of time are my 3 best friends. Dave, Roudy and last but not least Brian again. Brian and I chose to be roommate’s in college which was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had my childhood best friend by my side during the toughest time in my life. Brian may tell you that it wasn’t the best decision he had made; however, he chose to stay my roommate for 3 more years.
Today, Dave and Roudy are my two best friends that I left college with. I actually left with 3 best buds from college however our closest friend Espo died in a car accident 2 years after graduation. I would add him to the board of directors however, when the 5 of us get together things can get somewhat wild and we will leave that out of the board of directors for now. Rest in peace Espo, we love you brother! So now we have childhood and college board members. The third part of my life is professional and family life. Now this will be the majority of the board. We have My mother Deb, Wife Mary, Daughter Anella, Mother in Law Jill, Father in Law Mike, Brother in Law Rob, Friend and Mentor Britt, Friend and Mentor Duma, Neighbor Tom Wallace, Michael Jordan, Sue & Butch Roudybush, Barack O Bama, and Tricia Griffith CEO of Progressive. Wow, what a crew we have. I have to say that I am a bit embarrassed that 3 people on my board don’t know me whatsoever, however they have impacted my values and decisions. Also, while putting a board together I wanted a diverse team from different backgrounds. I can tell you we have democrats, republicans, sales people, physicians, athletes, engineers, CEO’s, Presidents, Small Business Owners, Truck Drivers, African Americans, Caucasians, woman, men, 4 year old’s, 67 year old’s, married people, single people, husbands, wives, daughters, sons, parents, college grads, post college grads, non-college educated, alive, deceased and on and on and on.
Now I could be wrong however I chose a team of close family, close friends, mentors and successful people for different reasons. If I am creating a board of directors to help my personal development and move a company in the right direction, I truly believe that this is the best team to do it. This board would know how to lead an organization with the most inspired, motivated and committed team on the planet where we put people first. This board is also diverse in a way that will hit each of my 5 values too. I don’t want to overthink this, so I am going to give a very brief description of each board member and what purpose they serve on my board.
- My Mother Debra Zuccato-Taught me to be the man I am today. Instilled the most impactful values in me early on and did it as a single mother who battled cancer. My life goals have been pursued because of her. Her resilience, tenacity, kindness and honesty will serve me and the board well.
- My Wife Mary-My partner in life, my closest friend, and leader of the family. She influences every decision I make. She is why Family Security is my #1 Value. We make all decisions together. My wife grounds me and challenges me in a way that nobody else does. She is courageous, passionate, adventurous and very smart. She is a Physician’s Assistant at the Cleveland Clinic and knows healthcare more than most. Her background in healthcare and intelligence will make everyone on the board stronger.
- My Daughter Anella-My driving factor in life, one of the sole purposes behind my ambition and resilience. Very witty and intelligent for a 4-year-old. Her eyes and ears with the younger generation will come in handy on this board for our 30-year goal. Plus, she can learn a lot from Tricia Griffith and Barack Obama. Not to mention she is cute as hell so who’s going to yell at her. Your fair game when you’re on the board though.
- My Mother in Law Jill- Jill has been so impactful in my life the last 12 years. She has treated me like her own son and made me feel more welcome into a family than I could have ever imagined. She is my mom now and It’s amazing to have that person still in your life. She has shown me the importance of broad minded and helpfulness. Jill has run her own business, raised an amazing family and graduated from Ohio University. Her diverse background in business will provide great insight on the board
- My father in law Mike Frings- Mike is the dad I always wanted. We laugh, we fight, he tells me how it is, he teaches me awesome shit, we talk about finances, politics, sports, life. One of the best men I have had the pleasure of being around. Mike has taught me the values of being a family man, provider and great husband. I will be better father, husband and leader because of Mike. This is why Mike is on the board. He also owns a small business and will be our eldest member of the board.
- My brother in law Rob-Rob is the brother I never had. Rob is someone that I have the ability to share real life challenges with and as does he. He is someone that I reside in and ask questions too. Rob has definitely taught me the value of being open minded. Rob is an adventurous physician that travels the world. He is extremely smart and is very in tune with the world and its strengths and weaknesses He will bring great insight to the board which will be needed.
- Brian L-Brian is one of my childhood best friends who I roomed with throughout college and my freshman year. Right hand man during the toughest time in my life with my mother passing away. By my side, step by step. Brian is a very intelligent engineer that lived in LA, Houston and San Fran. His attitude is contagious and his care for others is awesome. Brian brings a great outlook to life. The last words. I heard my mother say outside I love you to me was a comment to Brian about how he makes everyone smile. I will never forget it.
- Dave-Dave was one of the first people I met in college. He was my locker room neighbor. Now locker room neighbors carry on some interesting conversations. We will leave that for another time. Dave is a famous model, entrepreneur and extremely smart businessman. Dave is someone that inspired me to go back to school and get my MBA. He was finishing his executive MBA when I made the decision to apply. Dave is the most genuine, passionate and caring friend a guy can ask for. Loyal beyond all means. I truly cherish his friendship and brotherhood. Dave has and will continue to bring tremendous guidance to my life and that is why he is on the board. Not to mention he is the best drinking buddy to have around.
- Roudy-Now this guy is someone that can and will change your life forever for the good. His last name is Roudybush, so we call him Roudy. Roudy is someone I forced my friendship on early into football camp our freshman year. Ironic enough he was Brian’s roommate during camp. This is how we met. Roudy introduced me to my wife, however he said she was out of my league. Glad I proved him and my wife wrong. Roudy brings a true happiness to my life. I look forward to the opportunities to bullshit with him, visit him and laugh with him. Roudy is someone that brings a raw honesty to our friendship and always shoots me straight. More important he does it while always putting me first and has always looked out for me and my best interest. Another brother that is loyal beyond all means. Retired football coach, super salesman and leader and best bullshiter you will ever meet in your life. He is on the board because his interest in my life is genuine, honest and impactful. As a person and leader, you can only trust 1-2 friends with your life, and he is that guy. Amazing father and subpar husband similar to myself.
- Duma-Paul was a previous leader of mine in my prior organization. Paul is someone I admire deeply for his outlook on life, his values and his genuine passion and care for others. Paul is on my board because he is someone, I feel confident I can always call on for advice both professional and personal. Amazing father, husband, leader and role model for all. I must point out he is a great buddy to get milkshakes with as well.
- Britt-Britt is another previous leader of mine in my prior organization. To this day Britt is still the best leader I have met in my life. The values and leadership traits that Britt instilled in me early on are the staples to how I lead my life, family and teams. Even when he isn’t around, I always consider, how would Britt attack this. Britt is an honest, loyal and inspirational friend and leader of mine to this day. We don’t talk often but when we do it’s like we never stopped, and we pick up right where we left off. He is on the board because I value his leadership, opinions and friendship both professionally and personally.
- Sue and Butch Roudybush-Sue and Butch are my Best Friend Roudy’s parents. Since meeting my mother and I in college, Sue and Butch treated me like a 3rd son, regrettably a couple times I’m sure. These two people clothed me, gave me food, shelter and more important hope and a fresh start to a real life. They may not know today, however the little ways they made life a bit simpler for me made the biggest impacts and gave me opportunity for success. A good example that sometimes a little help and hope is all people need. I consider these two my parents to this day. They are on the board because without them I don’t think I am here today.
- MJ/Barack Obama/Trish Griffith—These are 3 people I have not met in life; however, I did have the opportunity to join a conference for work where Trish Griffith was a speaker. I chose these 3 people specifically for their value’s professionally and a bit personally. Michael Jordan-I value his determination, ambition, leadership and ability to challenge others to meet their full potential. I attack my professional career similar to the way he attacked his career and seasons. Barack Obama-I think Barack Obama is one of the best leaders our world has had in any industry. His ability to bring people together is inspiring and I mirror my leadership off his. Inspiring and motivating are two of the most valuable traits in leadership. Trish Griffith is CEO of progressive. Her work at progressive to change the landscape and results for Diversity and Inclusion are amazing. I was on the inclusion and diversity team at Enterprise Rent A Car and this team is important to me. One of my values is Broad Minded and this area is something one must excel in to live out that value. It’s also important that I show my daughter that Female leadership is important to me and having a female CEO on the board is an active example. These 3 bring tremendous value and years of leadership for me to learn from and pull examples.
My Personality Style
I enjoyed the MBTI assessment; however, I enjoyed the Achiever much more. My MBTI results show that I am a Consul. I disagreed with a lot of the results and I will tell you why. I agreed with a couple of the strengths of the consul such as loyal, strong sense of duty and good at connecting with others all of which I do relate well to and believe are strengths of mine. On the other hand, the weaknesses are worried about social status, inflexible, reluctant to innovate or improvise, vulnerable to criticism, too needy and too selfless. I admit I sometimes do think about social status. Not in the way of I want what others have, but more often I am confident I can do a job better than someone else. I get shocked that some people have their job within organizations when I see the decision making and leadership they provide. I do not relate at all to reluctant to innovate or inflexible. I changed my whole career and charged on towards an industry I had little to no experience in. That is an example of someone that is willing to change and improvise. I do not relate to being too needy. I am a very self-motivated person that does not ask for much out of other people other than 100% attitude and effort daily. I agree that I am too selfless.
The Consul career path suggests that I would make a strong administrator or accountant. Also, that Consul’s feel accomplished when they know they have done something valuable for another person. Social work/ Religion was another career path. This part I had to really dive into personally because I am 100% confident that for a career in social work and religion are not an area, I would want to make a career, however I do like to volunteer and provide assistance to those organizations. I also like to partner with organizations that need financial assistance to help them achieve their goals. However, I have no desire for a career in social work or religion. As for Administration and accounting. I must work with others and help impact others in a positive way. I enjoy leadership and being innovative with processes and people. I also enjoy the financial impact that my team and I bring to the organization. I like to find ways to impact a financial statement in a positive manner whether in regard to costs, revenue and growth. I also like to impact others financially and help them reach their goals. So, I understand the accounting part and administration part. With that said, I could never be a personal accountant because I find that undesirable and does not interact enough with others. I can see myself being head/President/CEO of administration for an organization, hospital or company.
I felt that my Role: Sentinel fits me well and is a good depiction of my values. 16 Personalities states that the Sentinel role feels comfortable with who they are and take pride in their good character and competence. These personality types seek order, security and stability and they tend to work hard. This leads to a deserved reputation as the cornerstone of any organization. Sentinel personalities tend to be self-motivated. This means that they rarely need external inspiration to be productive and focused. They work hard and aim never to let anyone down, and they expect other people to embrace this same ethic as well. A couple of my values are Family Security, Ambition and Helpfulness. I believe that my role as a sentinel hits all those core values. I do see security for both my company, team and family. I believe as a cornerstone or head of a company I can help more and more people. Again, the more impact I can have on others and help is what I strive for. And last, ambition. I will always remain ambitious and self-motivated as stated in the sentinel.
The last part of the profile is Strategy: My strategy is people mastery. I felt that this part of the profile was pretty spot on except the part that states this type of person may get to confident where they don’t feel like they have something to prove. Unfortunately, I feel like I always have something to prove and I often don’t know why or whom I am trying to prove it to. Maybe, I should take this as a sign that this is something I should embrace. However, currently I still feel like I am always trying to prove myself. People Masters are bold and confident, great at finding balance, speak up and 79% of master’s say they see problems as opportunities. The 2 that stand out to me that I agree most are that I am good at finding balance and bringing people together and second I always see problems as opportunities. These two areas that I excel in are areas that I feel every company and organization should look for in leaders.
I think the majority of my career has been spent in leadership. Most recently I moved to sales which is something I enjoy a lot; however, I miss the management part. Right now, I am a Regional Account Manager which is majority sales and account management for 3 states. I have a couple people I oversee. When I was a Regional Manager with Enterprise, I oversaw 300 people, 36 locations and a $130 million-dollar P&L. It did encompass all aspects of business that I enjoy. I made a change for personal reasons and now have set my goals for the same but within the healthcare industry. Moving forward my strengths will be best put to use as a President/CEO/Leader within a healthcare organization. Healthcare is behind the ball when it comes to transparency, member and patient satisfaction, employee engagement and processes. I am confident that I have the ability to help transform a healthcare organization into the mission statement I have stated. So, all in all, I believe I will utilize my strengths in sales but on the other hand it doesn’t match to my goals and ambitions.
Career Vision
My top two career Anchors were GM-General Manager Competence and CH-Pure Challenge. I think out of all the assessments and exercises I did, these two were the most accurate about myself and where I’m headed and where I want to be long term. I scored highest in the GM column which says I would not give up the opportunity to climb to a level high enough in an organization to enable myself to integrate the efforts of others across functions. Also states that my ambition is to get to a generalist job as soon as possible. I think it is clear from my goals, my vision, my strengths and my values that this matches with all of them. This was refreshing to see this when I completed the career anchors exercise. I scored 2nd highest in the CH-Pure Challenge column. This column is for “pure challenge” which means I would not give up the opportunity to work on solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, to winning out over tough opponents, or to overcoming difficult obstacles. For me, the only meaningful reason for pursuing a job or career is that it permits me to win out over the seemingly impossible. I have established that I am competitive since I received a 9 on competition in my achiever assessment, one of my values is ambition and to overcome unsolvable challenges one must be ambitious and last, I have stated that I want to help others reach their goals. I think these anchors fit right in with my expectations and future career plans of leading an organization and team.
Ironically enough, for the genie exercise I chose a smaller company with about 1000 employees struggling in their industry with growth, profits and morale looking for a new president/CEO/leader that was up for a challenge. I would like it to be in healthcare, operations, consulting but one requirement is a for profit company. I say ironically enough because this meshes perfectly with my two career anchors of GM and CH. I want to lead an organization and take on an unsolvable challenge. For some reason that is my dream job. I don’t want the easy transition or the best company in the world. I want the best company in the world starting or getting into a new line of business such as Amazon in healthcare. That intrigues me. I am interested in that opportunity that when you outperform the expectations and goals it sets you up for the future. An opportunity that everyone says, “it can’t be done” That is what gets me going.
After graduation I will have been in healthcare for about 2.5 years and had 10 years of leadership and 7 years of executive level leadership in charge of a decent size enterprise. I think this MBA is going to open the type of opportunities that I am interested in, I think this MBA will give me looks that I would not have had without it. I am passionate about healthcare and plan to stay in it. My concern is that in today’s world in healthcare the industry is very narrow minded. The industry thinks a candidate for upper level management needs 15 years of experience in healthcare. Let me tell them something today, you can hire a candidate with 15 years of experience in healthcare and 0 experience in competition, people management, ambition and results. When I look for a leader or someone, I want to win with it is someone that is resilient, passionate, honest, committed, accountable, competitive, results-oriented and someone that has high ambitions. If and when I surround myself with those people, the sky is the limit. We will hit every BHAG imaginable. So, after graduation I will be pursuing an executive level leadership role within a healthcare organization. I will also look into consulting jobs that are correlated with people management and change management within healthcare organizations. The reason being is healthcare is going to be an industry that must change and adapt and do it faster than they want in both their P&L area and also their team management.
I am inspired and motivated by the findings for my career and vision for the future. Of course, I found areas I disagree with in my personality traits; however, this could be an area that I may need to work on and develop more. Overall, I believe that my 5 values, my vision, my personality and my career anchors fit well within where I personally see myself and my own expectations and goals for the future. As much as I do not enjoy writing a long paper, I have gratitude that I engaged passionately into this paper because one big step to achieving a goal is writing it down and envisioning it. I believe I have a strong personal awareness of where I am today and where I want to be. I am aware of what it will take and know that my vision and goals are not by any means going to be easy to achieve. I know I will fail multiple times along the way; however, I have learned when you fail do it fast. I know others won’t see in me what I see in myself. I know that disagreements and challenges will present themselves along my journey. But, when they do, I will remind myself what my core values are and take a moment to make sure that I am pursuing and acting in a manner that represents those values.
Strengths and Areas for Improvement
It again was reassuring learning and understanding my 5 strengths. Competition, Achiever, Maximizer, Relator and Self Assurance were my 5 strengths. I was pleasantly surprised and relieved to see that my values and strengths in my eyes lined up with the StrenghtsFinder. This could not have been more accurate to my vision, goals, what I see in myself and how I perceive that others see me. I think the 3 most important strengths of mine that must co-exist for me to be successful and lead an organization are Achiever, Maximizer and Relator.
Achiever-This goes hand and hand with my ambition value. I am always looking to achiever more. StrengthsFinder states “Achievers have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, achiever more.” I have strong ambitions and goals and the only way to hit them will to always set the bar higher and look at challenges to achiever more.
Maximizer-StrengthsFinder states, “Excellence not average is your measure” Idea for action is to seek roles in which you are helping people succeed. Another idea for action is to study success and be deliberate about maximizing strengths instead of hone in on weaknesses. I found that the maximizer is such a rewarding strength to have because it is a trait where I will help others and myself maximize one’s strengths opposes to tearing apart their weaknesses. I agree with Strength Finder and believe that is not productive. I also think this trait will help me in my vision to be a leader of a company. And the value it most connects with is my value of personal development. I will always continue to achieve more and maximize my strengths.
Relator- One of the ideas for action in StrengthsFinder is to Let it be known that you are more interested in the character and personality of others than in their status or job title. This is one of your greatest talents and can serve as a model for others. Relationships have always and will always be the core of what is important to me. You see that in my top 5 value helpfulness. I am inspired by learning what makes others tick. What is important to others, why do they go to work every day, what motivates them, what are their goals. It’s not about me, again it’s about helping others achieve and maximize their strengths. I believe that as a leader one must find individual motivators and apply them which in return will drive the results of the larger enterprise. I Invest in people, not in a company!
I know this paper asked for my 3 greatest weaknesses and I will state them however, it has been made clear that I am a maximizer and do not spend much time harping on weaknesses. What’s important to me is to be self-aware and to always work on self-development. I believe a couple of my weaknesses are stubborn and lack of empathy and a tendency to push myself and others to hard. These weaknesses stem from how I was brought up in this world. I lack empathy because I don’t like to make excuses. However, I find myself more empathetic to those with real challenges. I believe I have a great ability to decipher excuses compared to challenges. I am stubborn because that is who I am, and I must work on it. That is that. And last, I push myself and others hard because I am a maximizer and I also see more in myself and I often see more in others than they see in themselves. I always write down my teammates goals as well and remind them what they told me as a goal and that sometimes to achieve it one must challenge and push themselves harder. I believe that my weaknesses are can be strengths if directed in the right direction. That will be my goal to make sure that I direct my energy for positive results. As far as being stubborn I stated a couple times in this paper that I must understand that my opinions are opinions. I know I am self-assured; however, I must learn to take in different points of view. This is why I value Broad Minded. I plan to overcome these weaknesses by writing down one example weekly where I took a step back and spent time understanding others and why they feel the way they do. This will help me with empathy and stubbornness.
My winning formula are the 3 strengths I mentioned from StrengthsFinder. Achiever, Maximizer and Relator. My vision to lead the most inspired, motivated and committed team on the planet where we put people first will only come to fruition if and when I focus on these strengths. I must plan to always achieve more, I must plan to maximize the efforts and strengths of individuals, teams and organizations and last for either of those to happen I must create strong relationships. People are the foundation of any organization and relationships are the key to the foundation. I am confident that as I put my energy towards these 3 strengths that will be the winning formula. And although it’s my winning formula I believe it’s THE WINNING FORMULA.
Goal Setting
It was tough to think about my 3 most important dreams. I want a lot of stuff but most of want I desire in life is professional and health and security for my family. I rarely desire things, cars, toys etc. I desire career advancement, challenges, life and family experiences, financial opportunities. Of course I would love to hit the mega millions and have $250 million dollars and travel the world with my wife and daughter however that’s not realistic, and even if I won the lottery I would use that opportunity to start my own company so I can live out my vision. See, I don’t really have dreams because through this paper we have realized that I will always want to achieve more, maximize potential and I’m too ambitious and believe that one’s development is always a work in progress and never a final product.
If I had to pinpoint a dream of mine it would be my vision. My dream is to lead and inspire others. My dream is to work with others and help them achieve and reach their goals and dreams. I know when I reach that dream and goal of mine that all 5 values that are the core of what I am will have been fulfilled and met. One goal that must be met in order for me to achieve my dream is to excel and complete my MBA. I entered into this MBA program so I could learn and work on my personal development but also to create opportunity for myself to advance my career and achieve my dream and goals. This was a goal and strategic decision of mine or a steppingstone if you will to achieving the dream and vision. A second goal of mine in the next 3 years is to start to facilitate and execute the steps in order to achieve my vision and goal. A couple action steps to attain these goals are 1. Utilize the resources in my MBA program to help me network, learn and navigate opportunities. 2. Win each semester of my MBA. It will be a long two years and I must take it in bite size pieces and control what I can. 3. Learn the landscape of healthcare and where can I fit in best to achieve my vision. 4. Meet with 2 CEO’s quarterly to learn their responsibilities, challenges, successes and how they attack their vision.
Synthesis and Optimization
Systems thinking are a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.” It is a set of general principles, distilled over the course of the 20th century, spanning fields as diverse as the physical and social sciences, engineering and management. It is also a set of specific tools and techniques originating in two threads: feedback, concepts of cybernetics, and in servo-mechanisms, engineering theory dating back to the 19th century (Senge, 1990)
As I looked at the underlying spirit of a systems perspective in regards to my Personal Mastery Paper I found that if you break down your vision, goals, values and personality traits into bite size pieces or “sub systems” it allows you to see the framework for the system as a whole. This paper has allowed for me to see if my goals and dreams match up with my values. It forced me to look into my strengths and areas of opportunity to see if they align with my career goals and roles of choice. Of course, throughout the time I wrote this paper I noticed some areas where my personality traits may contradict where I see myself within an organization, for example I am not very empathetic, however I was clear that I am a leader that wants to help others succeed. So, I may lack empathy, but I do find ways to help others. This paper was also very reassuring for me because I believe I found a lot of synergies between my end vision, current and future goals and what my values are in life both personal and professional.
After writing this paper I believe I have a strong framework to interrelate and integrate my educational, personal and professional life together. Identifying an overall vision was important to me because it forced me to look at my values and goals to see if they lined up with my vision. Creating a strategy that is thought out, written down and simple to execute was also important to me and now I have one. More important I have a plan that fulfills my personal life and professional life that reinforces my values. Last, reflecting on my life as a whole was also important to me when writing this paper. I reflected on some areas that I have bottled up and not looked at for a while such as my mom passing away and what was important to me than. I looked at how did I end up where I am today and how will I get to vision in the future. When a person has a vision that reinforces their values and goals, they will be hard to stop. When that same person uses their ambition to take on challenges that others won’t it makes them even harder to stop. And last, when that person remains discipline, open minded and directs their energy and resources to inspiring and motivating others, this person will not lose. I am confident I am that person.
