The week started as expected with work schedules. Work was hectic with meetings and presentations. This was also the time for staff appraisal for the year, and I had to carry out appraisal exercises with key staff personnel. The appraisal process can be emotionally draining as well as mentally draining. The staff sits across the table, and you both go through the appraisal form with discussions back and forth on how the staff performed during the year under review. After scoring the staff, you set SMART objectives for the forthcoming year. As senior staff, you must defend the appraisal before the Executive Committee (EXCOM) with emphasis on promotions and allotted increments in salary. The gravity of appraisal is further espoused in my personal appraisal of myself regarding how well my subordinates were appraised and if they met their key performance index during the year. In my discussions, I applied the assertive and persuasive communication style. I adapted the persuasive communication style with the EXCOM when defending the appraisal of my subordinates but was assertive when discussing appraisal results with my subordinates.
I held presentations during the week and was able to input into my slides effective communication skills. My slides were not wordy but contained bullet points, and I think I made eye contact with the audience. I did not start with any particular attention-grabbing phrase or statement; I launched straight into the topic. The Presentation lasted for about 15 minutes, and thereafter, a question-and-answer session for the next 10 minutes. Basically, I was able to apply key learning points from Management Communication in preparing my slides and making the presentation.
Then, there was the Capstone Project assignment, which was a group assignment from my MBA class. It was a review of data from ten years and a write-up on the investment appraisal of a selected company compared to another company as the benchmark. It involved a lot of graphs and explanations on the movement of financial ratios over the years under review. Talking about financial ratios, I had to do some research myself to understand key financial ratios and know how to calculate them. This is still a work in progress, and I expect to finish before the week runs out. Regression analysis was also a subject of study during the week, with Internet searches for data on which to perform regression analysis. My research did not succeed, and now I am at a loss as to where to obtain such data on variables for my analysis.
Still, on work-related matters, I was able to apply the financial ratios to the financial statements of my company. The Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), which measures the profitability of a company to its capital, was quite high. However, to determine how well my company performed, I would have to make comparisons with other companies in the same industry. Other key ratios applied include the Return on Asset, which measures the profitability of a company to its total assets. I aim to understand the all the key ratios and apply them to my company.
Modeleola JEGEDE
#MEMBA 12
