Interview Questions

The interview process is a critical component of landing a good job. You should be able to demonstrate your ability to navigate life and show your ability to make good personal decisions.

Here are some sample questions to consider.

• Describe a situation in which you had to use your communication skills in presenting complex information. How did you determine whether your message was received?
• Share with me an example of an important personal goal that you set, and explain how you accomplished it.
• Lead me through a decision-making process on a major project you’ve completed.
• Have you ever had many different tasks given to you at the same time? How did you manage these?
• Give an example of a time you had to make a difficult decision.

Assignment: Write your answers to these questions in a Google Doc and submit it for your daily grade. Think about your answers. This will probably not be the last time you'll be asked these questions or ones which are very similar. Get prepared now. Good answers can be the difference between getting a good job or having your application tossed in the trash.

See the following web site for tips on how to answer these in an interview.
http://www.va.gov/PBI/Questions.asp 

Diversity

We live and work in a diverse country. List some of the things that make us different. Thse might include race, sex, household income. How many can you think of?

Now list some things that make us the same. What do we have in common?

Watch this clip from the movie Remember the Titans.

What does the coach say that the team must do in order to come together as a team? What is the foundation of teamwork? Why do you think he says this?

Try this. Take a quiz with two classmates.

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/9d0697b0-a8e2-4698-80ae-b74f4bcc77d3

Try to work with classmates who are totally unlike yourself.


Discuss: How does diversity affect your team? What difficulties does diversity bring? Why should we want to have a diverse team of people to work with? Name an area where your teammate was strong and you were weak.

Leadership Lesson 4 - Creating a Productive Workplace

Goals:

• Understand why companies create work rules
• Describe how managers use extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
• Describe how workers' desire for autonomy, purpose and mastery create job satisfaction

 
Work Rules

Work rules are not created just for the sake of having rules. Companies create work rules to stop behavior that hinders an effective working environment. Rules often include when employees must be at work, what they must do, and how they must perform tasks. The goal of the rules is not to make life more difficult for the employees, but to foster a more productive working environment.

Rules are often created out of necessity. Watch this clip from the movie Cool Hand Luke. Make a list of the rules then write a rationale for why you think the rule was created.

Motivating Employees

Stopping bad behavior isn't enough. Employees need motivation. We typically think that employees are motivated by money. As a consequence, managers have a tendency to create financial incentives for workplace performance. Watch the following video by Daniel Pink.

Discuss the following questions:
What types of work are encouraged by financial incentives?
What types of work are hindered by financial incentives?
What is the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?
How do autonomy, purpose and mastery fulfill workers' desires and managers needs?

Assignment: You are the new manager of a Footlocker in a mall in Memphis. Your job is to create a set of work rules and incentives to maximize sales and customer satisfaction in your store. To do this you'll need to complete the following tasks:

1. Write a set of work rules for your store. Keep the rules simple and understandable. Describe how these rules lead to a productive and successful store.

2. Describe how you will use extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to encourage employees to do their best work.

3. Describe how you will use autonomy, purpose and mastery to maximize employee productivity and job satisfaction.


Vocabulary - Study the following terms on Quizlet before the next class meeting:

• Work Rules
• Extrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Autonomy
• Purpose
• Mastery 

Standards: 
11.1 Analyze the needs of employees.
11.2 Discuss leadership skills integral to groups.
11.3 Evaluate strong leadership skills. 

Leadership Lesson 3 - The Marshmallow Challenge

Goals:

• Understand the importance of human relations to leadership
• Describe the five human relations skills
• Develop an awareness of ones own attitudes and opinions, leadership style, decision making style and relationship with other people

Challenge

Your class will be divided into teams of three to four students. You'll have 18 minutes to complete a challenge. You'll be given instructions along with all the materials you'll need. Follow the instructions carefully. The winning team will receive a prize.

Good Luck!

Reflection:

• How did your team approach the challenge? What method did you use?
• What did the successful teams do that the unsuccessful team fail at doing?
• Were there assumptions you made about the materials that turned out to not be true?
• What role did failure (prototyping) play in the success of your structure?  

Some surprising facts about this challenge:

1. Average height is about 20"
2. Kindergartners tend to do better than most adults. They tended to create prototypes.
3. Architects and engineers do the best. Thankfully!
4. Business students' project height is about half of the height of the average kindergartners'.
5. CEOs perform a bit better than average.
6. If a facilitator works with a CEO team, that team almost always wins.  A team needs someone to pay attention to the process of work, encouraging timing, improving communication, and sharing ideas. This has a huge positive impact on the outcome.
7. Monetary rewards actually hinder success. Incentives alone are not enough.
8. Teams which understood prototyping skills and given incentive produces superior results.

Discuss: Think of the role of a leader/teacher in this situation. In this case the teacher gave minimal technical instruction. Do you think this was a good choice or a bad choice? What more could the leadership have provided to help improve each team's performance? What style of leadership did the teacher employ? How do attitudes about the teacher influence job performance in this case?

Leaders must develop the following human relations skills in order to influence outcomes:

• Self-Understanding - An awareness of ones attitudes and opinions leadership and decision making style, and relationship with others
• Understanding Others - Know what motivates other people
• Communication - Being able to communicate goals and expectations 
• Team Building - Getting people to work together to achieve a common goal
• Developing Job Satisfaction - creating an enjoyable working environment

Assignment: Write a paragraph describing how a leader could use each of these aspects of human relations to help a team build a better tower. Make sure you address each of the five points and write in complete sentences. You should have one or two sentences for each point. 

Vocabulary - Study to following terms for the next quiz

• Human Relations
• Human Relations Skills
• Self Understanding
• Team Building

Standards:
11.1 Analyze the needs of employees.
11.2 Discuss leadership skills integral to groups.
11.3 Evaluate strong leadership skills.

Resources: http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/marshmallow-design-challenge/