UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF BEHAVIOR

Here we are a class of “Ds” and “Is”, as professor mention he hasn’t had a class with so many “dictators”!! Now all in-class debates start to make sense as we have so many people who want their opinions to be heard…Well I guess I’m one of themJ

To be sincere I kind of knew the outcome for myself as I’ve taking a test on temperaments and turned out to be Choleric sub-Sanguine. If not everyone familiar with this test I would recommend you to try it on yourselves, it’s in a way similar to the one we took but, in my perspective, it gives a little bit more detailed and broadly oriented characteristics of one’s character.

So “Choleric is a person who is a do-er. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics; they like to be leaders and in charge of everything.”

”The Sanguine temperament personality is fairly extroverted. People of a sanguine temperament tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be quite loud. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean very sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when pursuing a new hobby, interest is lost quickly when it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. For some people, these are the ones you want to be friends with and usually they become lifelong friends. Sanguine can be sometimes emotional.”(Thanks to Wikipedia)

If you read it through you will find many similarities between these characteristics and the ones for D and I personality types. And I believe that using such a test on work place can be very advantageous for an employer as well as for an employee. First of all, an employer will be able to pace a worker on a position where he/she will be most effective and productive as different positions required different character specifics, on the other hand an employee will be able to perform on a position that will be involving one’s strong characteristics which will boost the results of performed tasks and increase satisfaction on the work place.

But a very important question can be raised: Can one switch from having one character type to the other…I believe one can shift come features or eliminate some of them by persistently work on it but I doubt a possibility of jumping from “C” to “D” type or wise versa.

I myself as “D” sub-“I” possibly would want to enhance my “I” side as I want to become less of Dominant toward Influential type as Dominant character from one point is a mover but from the other side is very directive character and I would like to be perceived more as a guider then a director. However, knowledge that we gained about ourselves is a treasure that we can use to improve some flaws in ourselves and also to understand what career path would be more suitable considering one’s personality.

Interestingly enough my friend Daria and I turned out to be the opposite, she is “Ci” and I’m “Di”…and I guess we complement each other, which can be another good thing to know at a work place.

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Jack Welch

Clear and powerful vision was a part of corporate culture in GE as well as its NBC as we found out recently, thanks to our ProfessorJ

And disagree with him would be difficult especially after the video we saw during the class. Interestingly enough I found the video inspiring with all the different examples that Joel Barker were so different from each other but leading a very powerful message. As I cannot resist I would like to mention that Barker is an outstanding speaker and his video is very popular outside the US as well (as I was looking for it on YouTube the only videos I could find were in Spanish!!). But Barker created a great motivating video breaking down to simplest details what vision is, how it works and what happens when you don’t have one.

I myself absolutely agree with Barker as I always believed vision can change a lot and its absence can be quite dangerous.  People who don’t have a vision or a goal in their lives do not have motivation and inspiration to move to the top, to improve themselves and the world around them so they do not move forward which leads, sadly enough, to regress and deterioration of human being.

Anything is possible! Very positive and uplifting claim isn’t it, and yes, it is not just a claim but the way we should approach the world around us. Our goals and aspirations change throughout our lives as we do on and I was not an exception, however, as I came to Baruch and engaged in the studying process I realized for myself that without a vision or a goal in front of you one cannot go far.

 As I major in Finance and Investment Banking and I’m a lower junior this semester I’m looking forward to graduate from Baruch in December 2012 (long way to go with BaruchJ) However, as I graduate I already would like to possess some knowledge and professional value so my first goal is to accomplish 2 more Internships in Investing before graduation (currently I’m interning at UBS Financial Services).

Meanwhile I’m working on opening a club at Baruch but not just another one, as we already have 160 Student Clubs and Organizations at Baruch, but a club that will help students to break into the industry knowing what they would face there and how to use it for one’s advantage. This is my second goal, sounds promising, doesn’t it? But all the details later as the idea is still in working process, however I would like to give more information to everyone as soon as it will be ready to go!

 My third goal is to graduate from Baruch with minimum GPA of 3.8 which sounds ambition and I realize that, but aren’t the goals supposed to push you as far as you can go and beyond that. Stretching goals is another good strategy used by GE.

My forth goal is more personal then business as would love to keep in touch with my college friends throughout my professional career and maybe work together with friends in the same company one day. I think this goal might be one of the hardest but I realized for myself when I started to work, that people are the once who make atmosphere around us and they the most important part of organization structure and working with people who inspire you is a great luck.

The fifth goal that I have is a long term as well as I would like to work as VP at a hedge fund with distressed asset management strategy in 5 to 7 years after my graduation.

The goals I set for myself don’t seem to be easy to fulfill but this what make them so appalling and challenging. And I believe I can achieve all of them if I put enough effort and smart work in it! As well as anyone who want to achieve something in life, it is possible but depends on how much you want it…

Good luck to all of us!