Monthly Blog - August

The month of August has been a brief period of time where I have taken baby steps in learning about my senior topic. So far I've obtained three articles, one book, and already looked up two other books on the internet. During this month alone, I've done 13.5 hours of mentorship. Ten were performed at Pomona Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and 3.5 were performed at the Pomona Fairplex. There was one good management lesson that I had learned at the Fairplex: taking initiative if you have a great idea of your own.

Three other volunteers, a staff member, and I were getting very few people coming to our informational booth. About an hour has passed and I just started to get annoyed of standing around and not doing anything due to the fact no one came or had any questions. Ultimately, I told two other volunteers we were going to run out of our booth into the Fairplex to advertise our booth and try to receive donations while informing the public about what our organization was about. We had a stud (a large, wooden 2x4 that is placed in homes), and we took it out there and had people sign it for a dollar. All-in-all, we picked up about fourteen dollars in donations and a bigger crowd started to come over to our booth, curious on what we were doing.

It was a good feeling to bring people in like that. I was bored out of my mind to be honest, but I really was skeptical about the entire idea at first. It goes to show that even when you are bored and out of your mind good ideas can flourish. A wise man once shared this nugget of wisdom, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results everytime." If your plan doesn't work at first, try something fresh and new!

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

My plan is to interview one of my mentors, Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson has been a ReStore manager for over three years and has worked with both customer relations and the organization aspect of management. Additionally, he works very closely with both staff member and volunteer alike and has firm visions and ideas on how stores should be ran and how workers should communicate with one another.

2. The Five Questions I plan to ask...

1. In a brief explanation, how exactly would you describe your management style?
2. How do you go about solving problems within the store when it comes to customers? Assume that a customer is quite angry with an employee. How would you go about dealing with that?
3. Can you explain in detail about one of the more frequent setbacks that happen within the work place when it comes to being a manager?
4. In what way should someone present themselves as a manager? Think along the lines of demeanor, stance, and tone of voice to start.
5. How does one as a manager keep workers in line and on task?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. List your topic here:

Store Management (Habitat for Humanity)

2. Write a question that helps to focus your research this month.

How can a store manager effectively divide responsibility among workers in order for their store to be as efficient as possible?

Summer Mentorship Component

Blog 2: Summer Mentorship

1. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-1zSl9SlZa7pf0DuCJkqTlP3QAbdMbKCopA-z5DPF18/edit?usp=docslist_api

2. The contact name of my volunteer place for my mentorship is Pomona Valley Habitat for Humanity. The contact number is (909)-399-0202.

3. The following questions were raised during the mentorship experience: how can I, as a worker, interact with a customer effectively to better enhance their shopping experience. Which of the following is the most effective way in leading a team: improvision and adaptation or following order by protocol? What exactly makes an effective team leader?

4. The most important thing I gained from this experience of mentorship was that interacting with customers on a polite and professional level made the sale go easy and effectively as opposed to just being quiet the entire time.

5. My senior project topic is going to be Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that centers on building homes for low income families. In regards to the topic, I intend to teach exactly what a volunteer and team leader does at Habitat for Humanity. Simply put, I love this organization. Habitat for Humanity has a noble cause, and I, as a volunteer, am happy knowing that what I do will possibly help benefit a person or a family. Additionally, I have been volunteering since November of 2013 so I have a bit of leverage and two mentors who agreed in advance to help give me the necessary resources required to successfully finish my senior project.