Studying for Career Success-Knowing What You Know

Everyone who attended formal schooling knows that studying is a grueling and often not so fun process. For a few out there who enjoy learning they seem to slice through their books like a knife through butter. Despite the motivated few the vast majority of students either don’t know how to study or don’t study to maximize their future potential.

Studying is one of those activities that comes along with attending any type of formal educational program. The professor typically steers the student to certain conclusions, but it is up to the student to do the leg work so they can learn the necessary background information to reach those conclusions. Understand what the professors says is different than understanding why he/she says it.

Not reading the text or outside sources is apparent in the level of depth in discussion and papers. Length is not the same thing as depth. Depth means a student can cover the required concepts succinctly and with enough substance to justify their main points. It is not a long winded explanation consisting of shallow and unsubstantiated rhetoric.

Without this effort, answers won’t have much meaning and graduates are unlikely to be able to apply this information to real life situations during the course of their employment. For example, if a graduated was exposed to best management practices during a course but doesn’t know how to apply those practices they will risk failure in their careers.

Success comes to those who put in the time and effort to learn. It can be frustrating, and it can take a long time but over the course of one’s career they will become more successful than those who didn’t study. It may not make sense to them while they are in class, but it will make sense to them when they have to rely on their knowledge to overcome challenges.

A few tips for studying:

-Read all required and supplemental materials.

-Search through the library and outside sources to support papers and develop a point of view.

-Engage in discussions to learn what others know about the topic.

-Question other students and expand on ideas they offer.

-Develop a method of studying  that can apply to most learning situations.

-Ask questions when you don’t understand principles.

-Incorporate feedback to continue to add the quality of papers and thought.

Poem: A Cottage of a Thousand Years

A cheesy painting I did. 
I know...its not that good!💁

Even though each of us are unique we are part of a larger collective of people. Our perception is limited when looking from inside a generation but when we stand back and get a wide angle view we can see a moving, living, breathing organism made of all the people within a society. Even though some generations are more successful than others all live within a chain.

Generation after generation is born and transfers information from one to the next creating collective knowledge. Newer generations build off of the knowledge of the old to develop a better world for themselves. It is the same with each generation and it will continue as long as we adapt and grow. Decisions at one time and in one area have an influence on the entire organism.

People may believe they are different and the values and characteristics they hold make them better than each other. In the end we are only one generation on a path of generations. In the collective nature of our lives we are all the same. Only our thoughts, hopes, and dreams make us unique. Together they push our species forward indifferent of our petty arguments. Abundance is waiting to be drawn when we work together to solve problems.

A Cottage of a Thousand Years

Fields of green blankets,
the smell of cut grass.

A cottage of history old,
spanning the time of our lives.

A place of multiple generations,
Solid stones of time make its walls.

A warm fire glows inside,
A pot of soup in hearth.

Kitchen conversation fills the room,
like a symphony of dreams.

Fish swim in the pond,
waiting to be drawn.

Nothing changes in his land,
An hour and a thousand years are the same.

The Heart of an Entrepreneur

 By Dr. Susan Sasiadek (March 13, 2015)

While working on my MBA it was clear to me that the number one goal for all companies was to turn a profit.  I remember learning early on that owning a business is much like the game of Monopoly; as long as you have money, you re in the game. Once you are out of money, the game is over. So why then wouldn’t the focus of owning a business be centered on profits?  For many companies this is exactly where the focus is. However, there has been a dynamic shift in the thinking as to why entrepreneurs set out to create a business and how to maintain a successful organization.

One of the beliefs that lies within the hearts of many entrepreneurs is to do what you have a passion for and the profits will follow. A similar concept I have often shared with young college students; do what you love and the money will come.  Although this sounds easy enough, many times people and organizations lose their focus of what it is they set out to achieve.  As the world is constantly changing so do companies and the people that work for them. How can one start a business they are passionate about, ensure it will be successful and keep the heart of an entrepreneur?

I believe there are four key ingredients that are needed in order to maintain one’s passion and create a recipe for success. 

• Create a mission that drives not only your company, but the employees that are invested in working for you.  
•   When you start a business always have a purpose. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to have the business product/service with the end result to the client as the goal, not the profit (Cited by Paul Mitchell, Case, n.d.)
• Incorporate a value system that is focuses on employees, giving back to the community and on your customers (Cited by Danny Meyer, Case, n.d.). Philanthropy needs to be part of your organizational culture.
•  Embrace rejections and failures as they leave an imprint on you of valuable lessons from which your business will grow (Cited by Paul Mitchell, Case, n.d.).

The greatest asset for any organization are the employees that work diligently to drive the mission, embrace the values and focus on each customer. In order to create an organizational culture in which the employees are driven to perform at this level, it is imperative to have leaders within the organization that create the dynamics of the culture in which, employees not only want to come to work each day, but look forward to coming to work. An environment in which the passion of the founder is passed on to all levels within the organization. Danny Meyer, the CEO and founder of Shake Shack once shared that the “best way to be greedy is to focus on your employee’s first, then your community and third, on your customers (Case, n.d.).

Taking the time to identify your organization’s focus, purpose and mission, will not only help to create the organizational  culture in which the values and passion come alive; it will also help to ensure a servant style of leadership that focuses on the people first and profits second.

Case, Jean . (n.d.) . Two years to build a billion-dollar brand – with meaning. Forbes under 30 Summit .  Retrieved on March 13, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/under30video/#/sessions-and-speakers/3855955367001

Grade Inflation: Rescuing Students from Unrealistic Expectations

Grade inflation has been a drag on the quality of education for sometime and sets students up for future failure. The artificial, and often accidental, inflation of grades persists and doesn’t appear to have an immediate resolution. Professors feel pressure to continue providing high grades despite its long-term damage to the student, the university, and future employers. Looking out for students requires holding the line on grade pressure.

Its easy to give high grades when the benefits significantly outweigh the costs of holding students accountable for learning. Professors mentioned that grade inflation is a result of poor student evaluations, poor student-teacher relationships, financial aid requirements, and excessively high student expectations (Caruth & Caruth, 2013). Giving accurate grades comes with internal and external pressure to lower the standards.

On the first day, students walk/ log into a class with preconceived expectations of what grade they should have regardless of their actual performance. Based upon studies of undergraduate and graduate students the average undergraduate student expects a B- while graduate students expect a B+ (Schwartz, 2009). This expectation sometimes leads to disappointment and anger if they do not get what they thought they should.

Perception vs. Market Performance

One problem with giving into student demands is that eventually reality will hit the student in ways they don’t foresee. At some point, they will need to show their mastery of the material and will experience serious disappointment from job loss, lack of forthcoming opportunities, and inability to overcome challenges. Today’s false perception of their performance can lead to serious job market consequences tomorrow.

An employer may consider the merits of hiring a student on the honor roll but will become disappointed with the value of the degree if the student has lower performance than expected. The problem of high grades with low performance becomes a detriment that can take students years to figure out once they reflect on their failures. The costs to the employer and the student can be substantial.

Reserving the Independence of Faculty

There is no doubt there are good and bad faculty. Faculty should be held accountable when they are miserably not engaged in the educational process but should not be held accountable for student misperceptions of grades. Faculty evaluations should have only a limited amount of performance influence as they can at times be conduits to express anger stemming from disappointment than an actual reflection of teaching quality.

Peer reviews should weigh higher on these evaluations as they offer a better reflection of performance. This doesn’t mean that student evaluations are not important but that they sometimes don’t reflect accurately the job that high performing professors are doing. Peer reviews offer a method of seeing if the professor is actively engaged in the learning process from the perspective of people with industry knowledge.

It is better to use a battery of measurements that include peer reviews, student evaluations, basic class metrics (i.e. postings, engagement, etc...), and quality of content to evaluate professors. If the goal is to create more accurate assessments than a well-rounded report with multiple measurements may get a better total picture. Each university will need to determine if that "accurate picture" is worth the time and cost.

Setting the Tone Right From the First Day

Universities should stand by their commitment to high quality learning to create relevance in the modern market which will be the truest judge of performance. Student disappointment is often a result of misperceptions fed by grade inflating, misinterpretation of the value of grades, and the overall academic culture. Students should consistently be told they need to earn their grades and must challenge their existing assumptions to move to higher states of adaptive learning.

Forcing students to reach higher levels of performance should be a fundamental goal. A’s should be difficult to obtain and a valid measure of actual performance. The average student should be in the C and B range with areas of improvement apparent. Continually pushing students to get better may create frustration but often leads to higher long-term performance. If the student see where they can improve it is up to the professor to show them. Rescuing students from drowning themselves in the misperceptions of what is needed to be successful in life may be one of the most valuable higher education lessons.

Caruth, D. & Caruth, G. (2013). Grade inflation: an issue for higher education? Journal of Distance Education, 14 (1).

Schwartz, D. (2009). The impact of more rigorous grading on instructor evaluations: a longitudinal study, 2 (1). 

Streets of Gold or Pathways to Poverty: Reviving America's Cities

Streets of gold look a little more like pathways to poverty. American cities have been on the decline for decades as investments diverted from urban areas to emerging countries that rolled out the red carpet. The infrastructure that was built when American cities were at the height of their economic might is still mostly intact waiting for visionary investors. Getting investment interest and better city governance can lead to mutual growth for business and job-hungry residents if the two can come to a mutual understanding.

Pick any major city in the country and follow its historic rise and fall. You may notice that as people moved to the city, built homes, and invested their resources these collections of people grew in wealth and influence. The collective action of small and large investors created a synergy of growth that pushed profit margins to higher levels. Money, government, and people had a mutual self-interest in development.

As international competition rose, technology changed, and poor government policy stagnated these cities; they became ghost lands that are a pale comparison to their previous glory. Where opportunity flourished a few decades ago, some cities have grown dilapidated virtual prisons. The poorer a family was, the more likely they were stuck in a cycle of poverty. American men, women, and children were left behind.

Bleakness doesn’t need to be the norm. Cities that still retain their basic infrastructure are ripe for renewed development that not only produces higher returns on investment (ROI) but offers new opportunities for residents. When opportunity grows, hope also grows, and new economic life is born with it. The marriage of investors and government  into pro-growth policies can nurse new opportunities.

Consider the mass investment draws to places like Eastern Europe, India, China, and other emerging nations where red tape restrictions are little but returns are high. American cities offer many of these same opportunities as the low cost of buildings, motivated work force, and reliable infrastructure found in combinations will grow once the right capital levers are applied.

Stakeholders will need to look at the global market and existing local competencies to determine where the best investment growth potential can be realized. When capitalists engage in pack investments and create spawning clusters of business activities to capitalize on existing competencies and infrastructure, growth is not far over the horizon. Economic wastelands can become investment wonderlands with a little good old fashion spit shine.

Many proposals such as new recreation centers, additional funding, tax allocations, etc...have been tried at one time or another. They were short-lived because they were not profitable and often came with long-term commitments with difficult to measure results. Building investment hubs fixes the foundations of poverty that lead to better housing, additional tax bases, better education and more community support.

The problem isn’t so much that investors are not willing to invest in these cities but that awareness is lacking, and local government is often short-sighted in their policy development that inadvertently restricts future opportunities. Revamping the way we think about investments, government, and education/training helps to ensure that struggling cities look more like diamonds in the rough. Enlightened government starts where partisan politics ends.