Decision Making

When we make decisions about anything from buying an item to even deciding what we are wearing, we use heuristics. These are little mental short cuts that we use in decision making. There are many different heuristics that we use, even when making one decision we will use more than one sometimes. The brand recognition, the attribute recognition, and even take the last decision can be used when making one decision. For instance you could go to a store and need a new DVD player, so you first look at the one you replaced, why do you have to replace it? Was it a good brand name? Did it last a long time? So after thinking about what you "took the last time", you go for the attribute. Does this new DVD player have the capability to do blue-ray, or does it have recognized memory where it begins where you turn the player off at? When looking at these you will find some products that may have everything you need, so the last thing you may look at is the brand name. The brand name is something many may look at first but I don't even look at the brand names most of the time. The one thing that I know I look at before looking at anything else s the price. In class on Monday we didn't go over anymore of the heuristics, but I feel this may be the most important thing people look at this time when the economy is down. So my question is what exactly do you go to a store to look for first, how much it will cost you or what brand made it?

Crisis Leadership

The reason I think that Rudy was a leader from the beginning of his carrer. He was able to put so many people away will he was an attorney, then when becoming mayor he was able to lessen the crime on the streets, also cleaning up the city at the same time. He had prostate cancer, but at the same time he was cheating on his wife. Many overlooked that part because of his cancer, but they did see how he was a leader when 9/11 occured. He was acting as a leader that was more caring, wanting to make sure that the city was safe and that no one was flipping out and causing chaos. He was able to show people that he wasn't going to go run and hide when danger came, but to put out there that he isn't afraid of anyone and that he was going to make sure his people were ok before saving himself. He was able to make control out of the most chaotic even that had happened to New York in a while.

The fact that he was able to become two people at the same time and was able to not only put hiself after others, but to give more than he had before to his people when they need it is showing great leadership skills. To come in a crisis and be able to hold your self together is one thing, but to be able to pull a city together is another thing.

O Captain My Captain

In class on Monday we watched some of the movie the Dead Poet's Society. In this movie you have Robin Williams playing a outgoing professor at a school where it is more upright about it's teaching. He opens the minds of these boys up to a new world that is more understanding, and more "free". To the point of one boy finding a new passion for acting, and joins a play. After the disprovals from his parents his still participated in the play and ended up being taken out of school. The kid was so devastated that he ended up killing himself and the teacher was the one that was blamed for his death. The school let go of Robin Williams character and when he came to get his stuff the other kids in the class stood up for him and showed that he was a great teacher. This was to me the biggest part of the movie, when looking at leadership.

The reason I feel that was the best part of showing leadership is that you were able to see how he was able to open the eyes of kids at this school to show them that there is more than what their parents want them to see. He opened the eyes of the boys to where they could use the information in their lives to do other, greater things. To live for today, by the experiences of others in the past. To make something of yourself that you can look back on and say you are proud of what you did, and you didn't live one day of your life in regret. He was such an effective leader because he was able to communicate with the boys and get them to understand and follow the way he thought so that they could have a better life, one that they wanted. Being able to make someone decide that the way you are trying to get them to think is better than what they have been taught earlier in their lives, then you have become an effective leader.

Who do you admire?

When i say admire I mean in the context of looking up to? Does everyone have a certain person that they look up to? Is it always a good thing to have someone to look up to? What if that person let's you down in life? What if they treat you differently in person to what you have read? Is there someone that looks up to you some where in the world and maybe you don't know it. Do all leaders have to be a good person? Can it be someone that has done something wrong in life but you take it as a lesson of what not to do? How can someone they look up to if they haven't had a chance to meet them in person. I don't know for sure if I even have someone that i look up to but I guess this is what I am suppose to learn in this class. I have been thinking about it for awhile and I will have to make a decision soon since there is a paper to write. So can you truly look up to someone if you haven't met them in life?

Are you a struck follower?

I believe that many people are followers who do what they are suppose to but always put in our own way of thinking. I know whenever I do a job for the most part if I feel like I know of a way to so it better then I will try to implement my way. If it doesn't work the way I think it should then I will do it the way that I was told to, it may take a little more time, but it is beat to me to try to do something the way that will work best. So instead of being a follower that does the same thing as every other person, I like to be a little different. But is being different the thing that is holding me back in life? Should everyone conform to being just a follower? Would this make us a little more like robots that never improved on anything and we would all be living like cavemen? Someone has to take a chance and step out of that line, is it going to be you?

Step-down

The step down method is when you are trying to convience a person to buy or give you an item or money, they are more likely to say, "No" 5 times before they say "Yes". The way around this method is for you to start with the highest or most amount of items and work your way down by taking a little off at a time.

I did this in the job I worked with sellling knives. I would try to sell them a set that would cost almost $1000 and would work my way down to something that could cost as little as $42. While giving them the opition of dropping down, you also show them that there is a way to split the costs, that way it doesn't seem like they are spending all that money on knives, but also they are able to spread the 15 day money back for longer amount of days. The whole time you are in the process of asking them for their money if you shake your head in the motion for yes, they are also more likely to start doing the same thing. This all to me seems like a scam to me at times, also the reason I no longer work for that job.

Telemarketer

When reading about the telemarketer you can see how he has a certain way of making everyone get their stuff done. There were times when there were employees that felt like they couldn't make any sales, and that this was the worst job ever. There are times in every job that you may feel like this but unless you are able to pull through these times then that job may not be for you.

I had an experience that was like that I had to set up appointments on the phone with people that I didn't know too well and this was some what hard. To get someone on the phone and ask to come into their homes without knowing them while you are trying to sell them an item. It is difficult and if you cannot set up the appointments then you basically don't have a job. This was the reason I quit because I couldn't stand trying to go to someone I didn't know and sell them something I wasn't too sure was a good item.