larson #4

I ended up adding one more meeting with my dad to talk about how this semester was going and to get the last little bit of insight on how he runs the business. I told my dad how excited I was for the summer and to be home. I had finally locked down a summer job with a company back home and was excited to have a job for the summer. Unfortunately the job is a second shift position so I won't be able to see my dad much besides on the weekends because of conflicting schedules. I was pretty bummed that it had to work out like that but my dad encouraged me to take the job because of the experience I would be receiving and because the pay was exceptional. My dad and I also talked about the upcoming draft for the NFL and we talked through what players we hoped our team would pick up and where our favorite college players would land.
I asked my dad a couple more questions about his job and what he sees day to day. I thought an interesting question would be what kind of style he tries to run his company with, if there was a certain management style he thought he possessed that was different from others. He told me that he tries to be humble and that his employees know he tries to live for God but he won't force it upon his employees but that he is always willing to talk to them about religion however. I thought this was super important as you want your employees to know your intentions but you don't want to force it upon them.
This experience has been great for me to grow as a person and to better communicate with my dad.

Mary Ellen's Third Post

Having my brother in law as my mentor means I have access to his life in a way that not many people have with their mentors. Knowing about his work life is really important, but I also wanted to know how Corby handles work-life balance.

Corby has weeks where he'll work over 70 hours, and he has days where he'll be in the office from sunrise to way past sunset. His wife (my sister) even made him let her adopt cats for company since he works so many late nights.

So how does he balance a successful work life, being a newlywed, and being in the middle of buying a house?

Corby told me he's lucky because he has a great relationship with his boss. Corby's boss has two kids, and anytime his boss needs Corby to cover some extra time at work Corby happily does it. Because of that, Corby is able to take plenty of vacation time, work from home occasionally, and has no problem leaving work for a couple of hours if he needs to. He works so hard when he's there, he's indispensable to his company, but still finds the time he needs to live his life.

I like to look to Corby's company and boss as an example of what I'm hoping to find in a company. A place where I can work hard for them, and they'll still let me find a balance to live my life.

Mary Ellen's Second Post

As the Post Production Producer, Corby oversees all different editors, motion graphic animators, audio engineers, production assistants and many others involved in creating different commercials and advertisements. After talking to him about his immense responsibilities, it is very easy to see how needed he is at his job. When I asked him about the stress of work, he responded with, "The most important thing to remember is to always stay calmer than those around you." While he said this with laughter in his voice, it is easy to understand why he must remind himself to stay calm in all stressful situations at work. With clients such as S.C. Johnson, CDW, Kimberley Clark, and the Chicago Blackhawks, there isn't any room for mistakes or lack of effort. Plus, overseeing so many different people puts a lot of responsibility on Corby to not only perform at the highest level, but keep those around him working as efficiently as possible.

What is most remarkable to me is Corby's ability to live out a Christian lifestyle while working at one of the top marketing agencies in America. It is easy to get swept up in the madness of agency life, but Corby seems to keep a balance through all the long days and tight deadlines. I think it says a lot about a person with how well they are able to stay committed to their families and responsibilities after they leave the office. Not only do I respect him so highly for how much time and energy he dedicates to his job, but I am so proud to call him my brother in law because he is a man of character. Whether its a stranger on the street, or a friend he's known all of his life, Corby interacts with everyone with such genuine interest, care and always, always, with a smile. I believe that's the way that life is meant to be lived out.

Jeremiah #3

For the third meeting between, Rick and I met over a cup of coffee. During the meeting, Rick, who has a passionate love for story telling told me another story. He told me the story about how he met his wife while he was in school. His story  of him meeting his wife led to him talking about relationships. During our talk, he gave a lot of advice in choosing the right person to be in a relationship with and a lot of insight. After, we talked about the current tennis season and was debating on whether or not we had a chance to make it to conference.

He also asked me how my decision to get a minor in computer science was going. I told him that I haven’t taken any classes for computer science but that I’m still looking forward to it. I think that he could tell that I still wasn’t completely sure so after I told him, we went over the pros, cons, and the requirements for a computer science minor. After discussing for a solid portion of our time, Rick and I concluded that I should try it first before deciding anything. I think it was a pretty obvious answer, but I am glad that we could come to it ourselves. He then asked me if I had any summer plans and I told him that I’d be planning on working as a coach in Michigan.

Blake Patty #4

     For this final post I'm just going to share a bit where I am at with thoughts I have regarding my career path that I have been discussing with family members including my dad.
     I grew up as a missionary kid with an organization that trains youth pastors through the local church in 13 countries in Eastern Europe. Growing up in this context has really given me heart for missions and I would be very happy to return to that work. However, I am aware that it would be very easy to just chose this career path just because it's what I'm familiar. When coming to Wheaton I really wanted to broaden my horixens and really get insight into what doing other things would look like. After coming to Wheaton I really experienced ways people serve God through whatever there career path may be. However, despite coming into contact with all of these options I found that I was still primarily interested in ministry. I became very interested in bussiness as ministry. I enjoyed the idea of using my analytical and strategic strengths to help people in a missional context. I shared my thoughts with my parents and they were very encouraging of the idea. As I continued to take more classes in bussiness econ I found that their were definately aspects that I really enjoy and others that I bare through. One thing that I really find interesting is something Dr. Howard really emphasized in his principles of micro class. Economics is the science of allocating resources in order to achieve human flourishing. I think this is something that can really be applied to ministry. How can we best allocate resources so that more people may come to a saving knowledge of God and become disciples who make disciples? The part I'm not  particularly interested in is the more financial and beurocratic aspects of the major. I brought these up to my dad and my uncle as I was looking for an internship this summer and they provided some helpful information. One thing was that they both confirmed they didn't really see me going into some financial advising or market analyzing. I'm too fascinated with people to just focus on numbers. One of the things my uncle brought up was the idea of trying get experience in project management. He thought that based on what he has observed in me up to this point, working on something that has an official beginnign point and final destination with a distinct purpose could really be something that I perform well in.
     I still find that I have a strong desire to return to ministry, but I continue to keep my eyes open to others making sure not to close any doors on what God may desire for me. I hope to sometime intern with the project manager of our missions organization in hopes to see what it means to combine a bussiness/strategic style of thinking to ministry.

Blake Patty #3

     In my last two posts I talked about the conversations with my dad regarding how to really utilize your strengths to be a good manager and leader of people. In this post, I’m going to talk about what my dad sees as an important distinction between management and leadership. In class, I believe we sort of referred to these two things as belonging to the same category, which they do but it’s helpful to compartmentalize them as it’s very important to remember that both of these are important as we lead people. This distinction has been very helpful to my dad as he finds that it is too easy for him to get focused on developing one of these areas while forgetting the other.

     According to one of my dad’s coworkers and advisors management associated with the following actions: planning, organizing, controlling, directing and staffing. Management has more to do with the more operational side of things. It’s important strategic work that provides the structure for the organization to function as it should. Leadership is associated with the following actions: modeling, inspiring, challenging, enabling, and encouraging. It’s easy to see that leadership has more to do with people side of things. Making sure people are where they need to be so they can do their job. Leadership has an extra element within organizations such as the missions organization due to the extreme importance of peoples well-being on all fronts even in areas regarding personal life such as marriage.

     My dad expressed that it can sometimes be very difficult two keep both of management and leadership in mind. It’s very tempting to think that the job consists of just one or the other yet both are vital. As he travels to various eastern European countries he tries to keep an eye out for necessary strategic decisions while also checking in and maintaining a personal relationship with coworkers, making sure they are healthy emotionally and spiritually.

      I think this kind of thinking is pretty important in pretty much anything you go into. You don’t even really need to be in a position of authority to practice management and leadership. As we manage our own life and seek to best live for Christ we can be invested in the lives of those around. We are all in need of this type of leadership and it is our responsibility to pass on the favor.

Champion #3

Today I talked with my mentor Reed over the phone again. He and his wife Jessica welcomed their fourth child to their family this past Tuesday! They had a boy and his name is Jack. I have known Reed for about six years now, and it has been amazing to see him and his wife go from a young married couple, to parents of four. It makes me feel really old! We talked about how amazing it is that your life can change so much within such a relatively short period of time. If I think back to when I met Reed, so much has happened in my own life. It is fun to think that so much will change in the next six years. Reed said that there will be ups and downs for sure, but to place my trust in God through all of it. Trying to control our own future is something both Reed and I know we struggle with, although he probably does a better job in trusting God that I do. He took the time to pray for me and my future to end our call. My mentorship with Reed will surely continue for many years, and I can’t wait to see where the Lord takes each of us.