Follow the Leader

The following poem is a play on the different character traits that most leaders possess.  A leader usually has drive, self-confidence, creativity, cognitive ability, business knowledge, motivation integrity, and flexibility.   

The wounded deer, whose will is to live, 

even though it is to die;

A confident cat jumps from the ledge,

always to land on its hind.

There is no food, the desert is dry,

but the lion still tends to her cubs;

A bat in the night, finds its fruit ripe,

by echoing its voice above.

The bear eats till next spring - 

she knows where the salmon spawn;

An entire flock follows one's wings,

as soon as it starts to get warm.

  The elephant can not even tell a little white lie;

and penguins adapt, in order  to survive arctic ice.

Which animal are you like?  Even though I believe that I posess most of the leadership characterisitcs that the poem illustrates, I find it difficult to consistently implement the respective required trait into real-life situations.  I guess that's what separates us from animals...we have the power to deny reasoning, while animals act on instinct.  What do you think?     

Enlightenmnet via Blog

The following is my evaluation of using BLOGGER as a communication tool throughout the semester.


I can remember checking the syllabus on Blackboard at the beginning of the semester.  While reviewing it, I came up to the BLOG assignments section and first became curious and then enthralled - at the time I was already familiar with social media and therefore became excited about the possibilities it could bring to the classroom.  In my mind, I pictured an interactive on-line classroom - a community where my classmates and I enjoyed in wholesome conversation and discussed class topics and homework.  A major reason why I chose to enroll at Baruch was for its networking opportunities.  Now, my entire class and I were provided the opportunity to connect with each other, learn about management, and perhaps collectively do something great!

Our first Blog assignment was to post a profile about ourselves and to include a photo - so that we could get to know one another (we were required to comment on other classsmates' blogs).  For me, this proved to be an effective means of meeting and getting to know my piers since it provided an "icebreaker" for conversation.  By reviewing my piers' blogs, I found some personalities that I was naturally attracted to and thus saw myself as being friends with.  Looking back, this component empowered me to keep discovering new personalities and making new friends, then and throughout the entire semester...now there is a group of about ten of us who  collaborate together to make study guides (hey who's got chapters 16 & 17 anyway?!), eat chicken kabobs and hummus together at a no name restaurant, and enjoy drinks together at Fitz's after class.  If that's not "something great," I don't know what is.
I particularly enjoyed discussing my in-class experiences with my piers via the blog community.  Looking back,  a recurring learning process theme that I repeatedly experienced throughout the semester was: first I became aware of some management process and how I behaved from a managerial perspective via the class-exercise, next I compared it to myself and reflected on how efficiently I had been a manager up-to-date, and somehow through blogging, I became willing to implement what is required of me to become a successful manager.  The "follow-up" Blog assignments forced me to really sit down and be brutally honest (since this was to be published of course) with my behavior and decisions during the class assignments.  This learning process, which I'm calling "Kurpis-Enlightenment via Blog," is a viable means of delivering an efficient learning experience.
However, there were some drawbacks that I did experience while participating in this "new" learning process.  Each blog topic was due on a particular date.  We were then required to comment on three other classmates' blogs within, usually, three days of the due date.  Since I preferred to usually get the assignment completed as soon as possible, I found myself repeatedly commenting only on those students who were operating on the same early "blogging schedule" as I was throughout the semester.  Also, although I did really think of it as the beginning of the semester, perhaps because I could not have know how much work it was to entail, I now feel that the managing of a blog should count for more than only 20% of the final grade (we get 5% for usually a 20 minute research study).
In conclusion, I would be delighted to continue in on-line discussion with my classmates after the semester is finished, however, I fear that without a common goal, and us all being college students-all with different paths, time will simply not allow for such a sophisticated online discussion.  I will stay in contact though with those friends that I have met through this class and do share common goals and personalities with...friends and future professionals that I most likely would have met but never got the opportunity to know.  Keep it Kurpis!  I am grateful to be challenged so sincerely, personally, and brilliantly through this process.

Borderline Ethnocentric 2

The second installment of the journal I kept while studying abroad in China/Mongolia:

...My heart dropped.  How could I have been so careless?  It wasn't like I had a Louis Vuitton travel trunk that distinguished itself from all the other bags on the conveyor belt - it was just a typical 36 inch, black Samsonite bag.  It wouldn't have hurt to check the name tag on it before I left with the bag, which held my only possessions 12,000 miles away from Kansas, Dorothy!
Luckily for me, the concierge and Avic Hotel staff made it their top priority to retrieve my misplaced bag.  Never before had I ever experienced such hospitality.  It seemed as though every employee, including the custodial staff, was on the horn trying to resolve my impromptu dilemma.  After about a half hour, and ten chewed fingernails later, it was explained to me that the hotel had contacted the lost luggage representative at  Beijing International.  I was to travel back to the airport via taxi and rendezvous with the Representative who was to deliver my, apparently already located, luggage personally herself!

I felt almost uncomfortable about how well the entire staff went beyond their call of duty to accommodate me  - it was as though the concierge himself had lost his luggage.  Growing up in New York apparently has not conditioned me to expect wholesomeness in people.  Here, not only did an entire hotel's staff pause to accommodate a distressed American, they even influenced the lost luggage employee at the airport to look for my luggage, and once she had found it, she guarded it and delivered it personally as though I was President of the United States.  Is there that much a difference between how far an employee is willing to go to help you depending on which part of the world you are in?  I had lost luggage at JFK before and simply was given a customer service number to call.  Am I being treated biased here since I am indeed a tourist?
I returned to the Avic, luggage in hand, and now needed a drink.  I venture to the hotel bar.  By this time I had become quite popular amongst the employees.  The bartender Qi -Yi, whose name in English means handsome, had learned some English in training, and with the help of a pen and cocktail napkins, we conversed.  I learned that an iPod costs about 3200 yuan and that renting an apartment costs about 4000-7000 yuan.  Handsome was interested of Yao Ming and the Yankees...sports transcend cultures everywhere.  After taking a shot of "on-the-house" 56% proof Chines vodka, I was tanked and wished Handsome goodnight.  Surprisingly, as I was awaiting the elevator back to my room, Handsome came running towards me.  I thought to myself...First your luggage, now you leave your credit card at the bar too!  However, in Handsome's hand was money - the tip that I had left him for serving me.  Thus, I became aware first-hand that it is not custom to tip in China.  I learned earlier today that tipping is not accepted because the idea is to get entire staff is to act as a single unified team (communism ideal), and tipping implies that any one member in that team has more or has done a better job than another team member.  While at the restaurant...each waiter had a "number" on his or her name tag (as opposed to their actual name in the United States).  This was especially interesting to me since that I initially thought of it as condescending or degrading to address my waiter as "Number 312-478".  I am going to have to keep that in mind throughout my stay because back in the states, "its not tipping I believe in, it's over-tipping."

Next month's installment will desrcibe our 36 hour train commute on the Trans-Siberian railroad from Beijing, China, to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia!