Management my way

Before this class, i would watch my managers from each job i had, and think what i would do differently in sticky situations. I used to think, "I could make a better manager then them." Now that I have tapped into the mamangement process throught this class, I've slowly realized, maybe i was wrong. At somepoint, i am sure i could make a great manager, i'm fair, i like being in control, and i love the leadership postion. However, i've also realized, that I don't deal well with people that don't want to do their job, or what their expected to do. I'm a loose canon if you will, i march to the beat of my own drum, and if you dont march with me while we work together, I'm not a happy camper. Managing people the right way, comes with paitence, skill, knowledge, and communication, which i am still slowly learning how to deal with from this school. Knowing more of my skill is in the culinary side of my career, i decided to take path down the long windy road of baking and pastry, because i like to push myself. I like to put myself in situations where i know i will come out strong, or i know it will be 10 times harder, but i will learn new skills. With my personality as of right now, i figure i would not make a good manager,. I'd be fun, i'd get my work done, i'd try to motivate my workers, but my decision making skills rely on my gut opinion, not the clear decisive process of problem solving. Since i started culinary (before i picked up baking)
i've had this goal of being the sous chef in the kitchen, being able to run my line, motivate people to do their job, and try to have fun with my career. However, from this class i've learned i'd make a better boss/manager to myself then others, making me have yet another career goal of being a personal chef. I really enjoyed this class, and what it has taught me, and i believe it's a prime class we need.

This Class

Before I came to this class I hated having to take control, and be in charge of something. I would avoid it and the responsibility to avoid failure. However, after now taking this class I do not think I will be avoiding taking control, and management positions in the future. This class has taught me how to manage people, the do's and dont's in the business world, and how to effectively motivate employees and coworkers. I now think it is important to be a leader in the workplace, even if you do not have the title. I know while I was on externship many people without the actual title to be leader, directed me and helped me along the way. Without these people my extern would have been a disaster, and that is why I now see that leadership and management is so crucial in this business to keep everyone on track, motivated, and in-line.

Management Overall

As we ready ourselves to move on towards the next block, saying goodbye to our professors and taking that last final; some may wonder what is to come next or will happen. Whether it is moving on to our next class here at CIA or going on a different path in life, management will follow us everywhere we go or at least to some extent. Many of us will find ourselves in the position of making hard decisions and governing people in the class room as part of the group leader responsibility while others may simply just be working on interpersonal skills out in the real world at a different job. Here at the Culinary, I believe that there are a couple of say, “bogus” classes or ones that just really do not seem necessary for our advancement into the culinary world. However, I believe the one skill used most next to knife and cooking skills in our industry will be our people skills and management skills. People are always changing, always different then the last one and part in time. I think it is not vitally dire, but rather for the better of the doubt for all of us here at CIA to have somewhat of a grasp on these management skills and people skills before were sent off into the real world. I mean, if we have a hard time governing those skills here at school, how could we ever even plan on working them out in this dog eat dog world? Just a little reason why I thi8nk the Management class was helpful in my eyes.

Oh, L Block

As this lovely block comes to a close, I can only remember the feelings of finishing b block nearly a year ago. I remember being antsy for kitchen classes and beyond excited to start them. It is a similar feeling now, however, a lot has changed. As a b block-er, my nearest future was externship. I stressed and worked hard to find one that I would like. It was all I could think about first year because I knew it determined my happiness for a future five months. For the close of L Block, I am also nervous and excited for kitchen classes. I know that every class increases with intensity and skill. This time around, all I can think about is my future in this career. First year was focused on externship and where I would go to fit in and belong. This year I think about graduation and where I will go beyond that. I hope that I am at a work place that I love to be at. I also hope that I will have a manager that allows my creativity to flow and keeps me happy at the work place. My externship taught me great communication skills with my employer and I know I will always take those skills with me to my future jobs. I can only wish to acquire a job that has an amazing supervisor and where I can learn even more than I have at this school. There was a class on planning and organizing in management. I know that the planning starts here. It progresses with every class I take and every ounce of knowledge I accumulate. My short-term plans are to do the best I possibly can in each and everyone of my classes. My long-term plans, however, get me a little more stumped. Hopefully I will be able to take this lesson on planning and use it to help myself plan out my five-year plan.

more knowledge

in management i have learned and few things such as how to be a good manager, types of manager to be and not to be, and certain thing i can and cant do when hiring and firing. there are certain rules you must fallow when hiring someone as for example you are not allowed to decide ether to hire them based on marriage status. if a woman becomes pregnant you can not fired them. there are managers that run around and do the job instead of finding someone to do it. these are called boomerang managers, this is one of the types of managers not to be. a good manager delegates job to people so he/she can do more management type jobs. managers are your problem solvers of the kitchen, they make sure everything runs smoothly as possible. they keep a watchful eye over everything. if there is a problem you should never go over the manager's head to their boss. all in all this management has some good information but i believe that the class was a little waste of time

Michael 'Scarf' Scarfuto

Crazy Chefs!

We have all heard stories of Chefs in classes yelling at kids who didn't have the right mise en place, or kids who screwed up a whole meal and couldn't serve. We have also experienced some of these situations at school, but I have never worked with a crazier Chef then my extern Chef. His way of discipline was to scream at you, throw plates at you, slam things in the dish pit and overall just make unnecessary noise in the kitchen. Now don't get me wrong I in no way hated this Chef, I'm going back next summer to work for him, but I hated his disciplinary actions. Getting treated like an idiot during the middle of a hectic service makes nothing better on both sides of the kitchen. Normal people in society can't deal with getting screamed at and pots and pans flying around kitchens, and I know in this field get used to it. Why though, should I want to be in a position on chaos. I want to work somewhere, where I can enjoy what I'm doing and be creative and have things flow smoothly. Being in a place where workers are always flipping out and your boss tells you "you suck" and "your a worthless employee" a hundred times a day makes nothing better. In some cases it does work when you want to get stuff done in a shift and you don't want any problems coming up, but your employees will start fearing you. They will always be afraid to ask questions or try something new or even put in their feedback on a dish they have to prepare. I personally just don't believe it is a smart management style, you can learn how to take charge of a kitchen but still respect your workers.

Things to Think About!

So…… As I get to the end of L block I start to wonder what’s next, what do I want to be, or might be even better what do I take with me? As I do these blogs I wonder what the point of it is. Is it for me, for the teacher or for others? To be honest the only thing I feel theses blogs do is make me think. They make me think about what to write about and as I think about what to write I think about the class and how it should be applied to the real world. Others write theses blogs about communicating, planning/organizing, or decision making/problem solving and how they relate to their externship. Well I want to relate them to life for example when you don’t communicate well, in life you will never get what you truly want because people 9 out of 10 times if you don’t ask you won’t get. Planning and organizing, well it comes down to this you don’t plan and then organize your plan you will have a much greater risk of failure. Decision making and problem solving, if you don’t make the right decisions not only will you hurt yourself you will most likely hurt the people involved and if you don’t learn to problem solve correctly you will most likely just make the same mistake over and over again. Now why am I saying this is this not obvious? Well most people forget these important essentials. Humans are mostly to make these mistakes when they are under a lot of stress and rush into the thing I just talked about like communicating, planning, decision making, and problem solving. So what’s the point your asking just because we near at the end of L block should not mean we just forget about these things. All those things are not only key to a successful time in the real word it’s also important in these CIA kitchens. It’s going to be important to have wonderful experiences to learn from not negatives one even though we all know those are also key to learning.
My time in Into to Management was great I enjoyed being in class and learning about all the key things to a successful manager. I am going to take a lot out of this class and I hope others will too. One thing I realized about this industry more and more everyday is that if you truly do love this, and by love I mean love the industry and not just the food because lots of people love food but can’t stand working long hours or slaving over a hot stove for hours. But the industry as a hole all these challenges that lie ahead be easier to deal with and all these things you learn in management that seam common sense will just come natural to you.