Financial Business Startup Essay Example for Free

Financial Business Startup Essay A major responsibility for new Financial Advisors is to formulate and conduct marketing strategies to develop and enhance client relationships. These activities are normally documented through a marketing plan. Using this document, you are asked to answer hypothetical question – if you were to be hired as a financial advisor, what would your business plan look like? How would you get the word out that you are a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor? Who would you contact? How would you contact them? How would you tell them your story and the Merrill Lynch story? This document will help you build a preliminary business plan. Keep an open mind as you are asked to think about all the people you touch in a typical day, as well as those people you have touched in the past. These individuals can be potential clients or be a great source of introduction to others who may need your services. Good luck! Feel free to write your responses on a separate piece of paper. Section 1: Your Vision 1. What is your 3-year vision for your business? 2. What are your 3-year personal financial goals? . Please rank order the following in terms of your greatest interest/passion to least. Please describe the personal attributes you have that you believe will contribute to your success as a Financial Advisor. 5. What do you believe ML and your local Management Team can provide to you in your first 90 days in order to help you be successful? 6. Why have you chosen the Financial Services Industry? More specifically, why have you chosen ML? Section 2: Centers of Influence â€Å"Centers of Influence† are individuals in our lives who tend to be well known, well liked and very well networked. â€Å"Centers of Influence† are valuable in making introductions to people that we may be able to help as Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors. Below please record the name of ten people who are â€Å"Centers of Influence† in your life and state what groups they can connect you with.

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations Muffin Break will begin its operations as on January 2010 under the corporation named Tea-stores Inc. This would be a start-up bakery and coffee retail establishment which would be located on MM Alam road. Muffin Break would be offering coffee from various countries and there would be array of pastry products available, these would attract a strong customer base and offer the residents of Lahore a variety in tastes. Muffin Break aim to be a strong player in the restaurant industry of Lahore, this would be due to the experience of the owners and due to the low competition in the market. Muffin Break would be offering its products at a competitive price to meet the demands of the middle-to-higher income residents of Lahore, especially students who seem to be a large target market for restaurants. The Company Tea Stores Incorporated has its headquarters in Karachi. Its equally owned and managed by four partners. Ms Saniya Malik has extensive in sales and marketing, Ms Hajra brings experience in finance, Ms Benish has been the HR manager in several well established multinationals and would be using her experience for the management of the company and Ms Saba has been a culinary expert and has all the know-how of how food items should be presented. Products and Services offered Muffin Break offers a broad range of snacks and drinks for its target market. There would be a wide array of coffee and espresso products, using coffee beans from various countries such as Brazil and Columbia. There would be fresh bakery and pastry products that would be made at all times of the day. Since were aiming for youngsters there would also be various salads available for the youngsters and diet conscious people to select. Some of the primary products would be hotdogs that will be regular, foot-long hot-dogs and barbeque sauce served on specialty home made buns. Muffin Break would also be offering side dishes and deserts such as coleslaw, French fries, Onion Rings, potato chips and cookies. MARKET ANALYSIS The cafà © and restaurant industry in Pakistan has been experiencing a rapid growth. The increased awareness amongst the urban population for a cuisine that has various cultures blended in it, it has made it compulsory for any cafà © to offer the best taste from various countries. Muffin Break wants to establish a large regular customer base, and will therefore concentrate its business and marketing on local residents which for now would be the Lahori population, which will be the dominant target market. This will establish a healthy, consistent revenue base to ensure stability of the business that has just started its operations. In addition, the student traffic is expected to comprise approximately 35% of the revenues. High visibility and competitive products that have a variety of tastes, ingredients, side orders etc and service are critical to capture this segment of the market. Marketing Plan Muffin Break would be using a variety of methods to advertise this includes direct mailings, flyers, mailer coupons, and door hanger menus. Initially, their planning to offer students a discount card this would increase the sales their generating from students. Muffin Break plans to use an innovative customer survey card/ visitor log this would help it in maintaining a database of its customers and this would eventually help in generating a mailing list. Keeping its student target market in mind, Muffin Break is also planning to sponsor events organized in universities such as Lums, LSE, BNU and UCL. This would also give the cafà © a medium to distribute its door hang menus so that there is increased awareness about the new cafà © thats opened in Lahore. V. Financial Considerations Muffin Break plans to open its business with a Rs. 5,000,000/- capital. A capital of Rs4,000,000/- would be raised by the partners, and the remaining Rs 1,000,000/- would be raised by borrowing a loan from the Bank of Punjab. All the four partners would be investing an equal sum of capital which in this case would be Rs1,000,000 per partner. The loan being taken from Bank of Punjab would be under its Karobar Barhaou loan products available, an interest rate of 10% annual would be charged on the loan that would be paid in 3 years. Payments for this loan are set by the bank at Rs110,000 that has to be paid quarterly [4 payments in 1 year]. This would provide Muffin Break with its initial start up capital, which is highly crucial. One of the partners uncles restaurants had just closed down in MM Alam and now Muffin Break would be using this premise for its cafà ©, although it does need immediate renovation which would be included in the start-up expenditure. Muffin Break anticipates in its first year an annual sales of Rs 4,910,000, followed by sales of Rs 5,670,000 and the third year sales would be Rs 6,550,000. As far as breakeven is concerned there are high chances that Muffin Break breaks even in the fourth month of its operations as its sales would be rising steadily. Profits would be approximately Rs 130,000 at the end of year 1, Rs 360,000 at the end of the year 2 and Rs 460,000 for the year ended 3. Assumption: The initial start up revenue expenditure has been accounted in the balance sheet under the heading of current assets. The long term asset that Muffin Break has to immediately purchase is a generator, so that its high quality customer service does not get hindered by any electicity shortages. This has been accounted for the 3 years since Muffin Breaks inception in its fixed assets. Sales Forecast Muffin Break is in its initial few years hoping to generate most of its sales from its different from the rest hotdogs that would have the student market craving for more. The next area it seeks to penetrate is the coffee segment, and the cafà © wants its own people to make the coffee which is why no coffee machine would be bought. Assumption: The prices herein have been set using market analysis the cafà © that have been used for this forecast are: CTC, Jammin Java, Hotspot, Espresso and Gloria Jeans. Cost of sales have been assumed 15.63% which is again as per the market analysis. HR Expenditure Since Muffin Break wants to stand out from the rest of the cafà ©s its ensuring that it has the best and educated servers, chefs that have great expertise and credibility would be hired, thus a great amount of investment would be made in hiring the right type of people for Muffin Break. Assumption: Here we have specifically used only the estimates of Gloria Jeans, that works a lot on its customer service. These are the annual HR expenditure. An interest rate of 10% has been charged by the Bank of Punjab. The tax rate prevailing on restaurants in Pakistan are 12%. It can be seen that over the years Muffin Breaks sales are steadily growing, although this is couples with the increase in Total operating Expenses. Muffin Break has received a loan of Rs 1,000,000 from the Bank of Punjab. The interest rate charged is 10% although a payment of Rs 110,000 has to be made in every quarterly payment, this includes both the principal repayment as well as the interest payment. This loan would be according to Muffin Breaks estimations be paid by 2.75 years even though the bank has offered a 3 years period. Pro-forma Cash Flow Statement The cash receipts are mainly generated from the sales of the restaurant. The cash flow expenditure is based on the cost of goods sold. The only fixed asset for which there has been an investing activity is the purchase of a generator. The cash flow principal payment on a loan is the summation of four quarterly principal payments. The cash figure has been calculated in the cash flow statement The owners capital would be the same throughout the years, unless theres an investment made. The retained earnings: these include the profits that have been invested by the Parent Company Tea-stores Incorporated The other current assets estimate has been assumed using the market analysis. NPV ANALYSIS The NPV analysis has been used to show the feasibility of this cafà ©, whether the bank or other prospective investors should invest in it. It shows the present vales of the future cash flows, for this NPV estimation has been done using the WACC. The Wacc has been found using the Capm Model. Since the NPV has turned out positive this project should be taken, as it promises high profitability. An IRR calculation also suggested the internal rate of return of this project was highly positive that makes it a highly lucrative investment.

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Essays -- War Worlds H.G. Wells Essays

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Homo-Superior? War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells is a fiction story written about war and mankind’s coming of age. It is also a philosophical novel with many deep meanings underlying the shallow looking one-hundred-eighty-eight page book. The subject of this novel is Science Fiction and there are not many that can even compete with Wells in terms of how superior his word descriptions are. He simply does wonders with the imagination of the reader. Obviously the whole book is about the struggle mankind faces, but it is not always with aliens, they are actually more of a good way to represent what Wells really believed. He believed man is dominant, yet should remember how big the universe is and that the possibility of life far more intelligent than ours is very great. The narrator, who is also the main character tells War of the Worlds in first person. He describes everything from the man’s denial, to the invasion, the battles, and the aftermath. In the beginning he discusses the possibility of other life forms existing. When the aliens invade they do not communicate, just organize and destroy all resistance and population centers. The author journeys along all of England fleeing the invaders and always being updated from various people about the news. The climax comes when he walks into a town to find all the aliens dead from bacteria, and the denouement is when he finds his wife. The movie â€Å"Independence Day† is the best way to describe this story to someone who has never read the book before. The two are strikingly similar. In both the aliens invade without warning and destroy everything with their superior technology. People know about the aliens before they arrive ahead of time in each story, but do nothing because of denial and public hysteria. The study and autopsy of aliens are described in the two. There are differences though. There are no heroes in the book, but in the movie there are. Our technology is useless in the book and in the movie it wins it for us. In a sense the endings are the same because a computer virus is what causes the aliens’ shields to go down in the movie and biological viruses kill the aliens in the book. Still when I think about it, â€Å"Independence Day† is the best way to modernize the story. Pre World War One England is the setting for the story. It fits ... ... the stupidity and courage of men. He did a great job of doing both. This book is really a classic because so many people know about it and still read it today, and it is over a hundred years old! It reminds me of how the U.S is today. Sure we are the greatest nation on the planet, however we still need to be reminded that we do not control everyone. We should be more humble and that is how the author felt as well. All the time I see on the news how people rebel and complain about stuff. When it comes down to it they don’t do jack! They just want to bitch about how the system cheats them. There were characters in the book like this in the novel too. The most significant thing to me in the whole book, and I’m sure it is to most readers too, is the fact that germs killed the aliens. Not some secret weapon, or a hero, but the every day cold. This really humbles man. In the end there is hope. The hope that man finally understands that he is not so great and how lucky he can be. Hope that we will learn from our mistakes and take them to heart so that if this happens again, we will be ready. So the one question remains, and I leave it up to you†¦are we Homo-Superior?

Instant Essay -- Creative Writing Essays

Instant I'll always remember Instant. That was the nickname the men had tacked onto the muscled giant that wielded the M60 in my unit. "Instant" was short for "Instant Death." And I'll always remember the first time I saw Instant in action. I was a new Lieutenant assigned to Vietnam. Back then, the Army didn't try to develop any "team spirit" within the corps; men were rotated frequently before any friendships developed. Consequently, my men were a group of strangers united only by the need to survive. They were eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds with the eyes of old men. My first real assignment was to check a tiny hamlet, Dien Hoa. Army Intelligence believed the Viet Cong were operating from Dien Hoa. Our job was to determine if that was correct. We rode in an olive-drab chopper. The whooping blades of the helicopter give us a little relief from the relentless heat of 'Nam; the blades cut the thick, humid air and pushed a breeze downward over the passenger compartment. Soon, we circled the landing zone. The LZ looked cold. There's only one way to find out if it is really cold, I thought as I double checked my M16. If no one zapped us when we entered, it was cold. If they did, it wasn't. "Lock and load," I yelled. The helicopter circled low and slowed down until it almost hovered four feet from the ground. The door gunner mashed the spade grips on his .30 caliber M60 machine gun. The gun spewed bullets over the field below us. It was time to jump off the skids while we skimmed above the surface of the lush, green valley. My stomach felt like it was turning wrong-side-out. We dropped into the grass, stumbling under heavy packs and the weight of ammo and weapons. I wondered about snakes and hoped the groan I mad when I hit the ground was drowned by the noise of the helicopters. Though the helicopter gunner continued firing into the heavy growth to the north of them, there was no return fire. We were safe for the moment. "OK," I yelled signaling with my hands the way you're not supposed to. Hand signals are a good way to mark yourself as the leader. It's just the thing enemy snipers watch for. But few of my twenty-seven men could hear me over the roar and firing of the helicopters. I had no choice. "Move out. On the double," I ordered. The choppers lifted. We were on our own. The soldiers started with the usual complaining b... ...prized buck. We made careful, deliberate shots. One after another, the black, running forms crumpled. With a final flurry of shooting, only a lone Charlie managed to escape into the grove of trees below. The bodies of the VC dotted the open hillside. Sporadic last shots ended the lives of the few wounded who continued to stir below us. Complete silence reigned for a few moments, then Blake yelled an obscenity at the last Cong who had eluded us. Silence. "We did it," I simply said, my words falling flat. A weak cheer went down the line; one man dropped to his knees and cried. Even though we'd all felt as good as dead, we realized we had won. Afterward, waiting with the wounded and dead for dustoff, I thought about the firefight. Instants selfless deed had saved our skins. It was little wonder the men had so much respect for the soldier. I studied him for a moment. He sat by himself beneath a tree, carefully cleaning his M60 like a mother washing a baby. He wore a bandage over his right eye and a second on his arm; except for those minor wounds, he had managed to come through the fight uninjured. And he'd shown a green lieutenant and his men what true bravery was.

Essay --

The State of Israel is one of the youngest countries in the West Asian region. Since the late 19th centuries Jews from different parts of the world emigrated to the land of their forefathers towards creating a homeland, in an area that was predominantly inhabited by Arab Palestinians for centuries. Since its inception, the Jewish immigration or aliya has been in the process of developing its own identity and this effort is reflected in its constant search for common roots or to seek a unified Jewish identity for a people after two millenniums of Diaspora. Because of historical reasons and circumstances, Zionism had never accepted the Diaspora as a valid place for the Jews to be their home. The role of the past in the construction and legitimation of various ethnic and national movements raises importance of archaeology. This is valid for Zionism and its profound interests in historical sites and artefacts grew out of its search for Jewish national identity. Archaeology has been used by different nations as a political tool for the construction of their national identities. There are numerous examples from all over the world such as Soviet Union, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Ireland, Romania, Georgia, Belgian, Portugal, Norway, Albania, Germany, England and Japan etc. where archaeology was used in process of nation building. Archaeology in West Asian and North Africa region has been politicized successively through the efforts of colonialists and during the process of nation state building. Iraq, Israel and Egypt has been used archaeology in the process of nation-building. Archaeological evidences have been used in Israel to create a unified idea of the state through the presentation of the past, its connection to the present, and its... ...60s. The relationship that politicians and generals forged with archaeology was perhaps too intimate. During 1963 to 1965 Yigael Yadin ( first as Chief of Staff and then as a professor of archaeology) conducted excavations at Masada, which received personnel, funding and equipment support from a vast number of national and international Jewish organizations, as well as the Israeli army. The phrase "Masada shall not fall again" became a slogan for protecting the State of Israel that has become popular even outside the country. Furthermore the place and story became part of the socialization process and rituals of youth organizations and the Israeli army. Later it became the revealed site for the swearing in ceremony for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). After prolonged efforts, the peace process facilitated Masada being declared a UNESCO World heritage Site in 2001.

Communication Theories Paper Essay

Communication theories are important to learn and understand. Learning these theories helps us apply the theory to our own life. It helps our critical thinking skills as well as benefits one to understand the value of research that has been accomplished in this field. Understanding communication theories can help us make sense of our daily life experiences. There are three Communication theories that I have studied that have touched on my personal and professional life. These theories are Communication Privacy Management, Social Penetration Theory, and Organizational Culture Theory. One theory that reinforces the importance of communication is the privacy management theory. This theory has applied to my personal and professional life in many ways. There are three examples on how this has affected my daily life. It has affected me in my social networking, at my job, and when using my personal mobile device. In the communication and privacy management theory it explains that disclosure in relationships requires managing private and public boundaries (West, R. , & Turner, L. H. 2010). This theory tells us that people use this to manage the relationship between screening and revealing their private information (West, R. , & Turner, L. H. 2010). This theory has had an impact with my social networking. I use the popular networking cite called Facebook. On Facebook I have to be really careful on what information I reveal on my profile. I don’t want just anyone knowing something that could hurt me. On Facebook I have learned that if you are not careful with the pictures or information you reveal about yourself it could hurt your job, your reputation, as well as relationships. I have eliminated this from happening to me by using the privacy management theory. I have chosen to set up certain privacy settings on what people can and cannot see on my profile. Protecting myself makes me feel more secure of what others can see or know about me. I am a pretty private person so there is not much to my Facebook. Having public and private boundaries makes me enjoy using this social networking site. I have used this theory by only accepting close friends that I know very well on my Facebook. I also chose who can see my pictures and who can’t. There are many different privacy settings that protect ones confidentiality. The second example of how this theory applies to my life is at my job. I work in a medical office. We have to be real careful of what information we give out about our patients. We have HIPPA that protects our patient’s private information. One of my main duties at my job is answering the phones. Each phone call I take I have to be extra careful of what information I reveal to the caller. If I was to give out information to someone that should not be receiving the information, I could get terminated or worse even go to jail. It is crucial for me to follow this theory in my profession. In my profession I am also careful about what I tell my coworkers about my personal life. As a professional it is not always good to tell your personal information to coworkers. You never know if they could use any of your private information against you. This is why I modify the information I give out to my coworkers. The third example of how I use this theory in my daily life is when I use my personal mobile device. I use my cell phone every day. This theory applies to me when using my cell phone in many ways. Text messaging is something that my family and friends do throughout the day. This is a fast and convenient way to communicate with one another. In text messaging one has to be careful of what they reveal to another because it can be used against them. Once you text someone something it is always there. They can save it and share it with others. It may be something that you do not want anyone else to see. I have to think about that before I send a text to the other person. Out of all three of my examples using this theory in my daily life, I would say that my communication was effective in my first example in using Facebook. My private information is secure now because of the privacy setting offered to me on the site. This is effective for me because it protects me against anything that can be used against me in my profession or even relationships. Taking that step helps me feel comfortable to have control over what others can or cannot see. Taking these steps has made me feel more secure on the information and communication I have with others. This effective communication that I do reveal shows to my friends what type of information I want to be revealed to them. In my second example I talk about giving out too much information to your coworkers. I have learned from the past of what is appropriate to discuss with others at work. If I can continue to strive to do this, than my communication will be more effective. In the future I might communicate differently in using my mobile device. I have had friends get in lots of trouble by saying too much through text messaging. Someone ended up using things the other person said through text against them. In knowing this, I have learned to communicate differently when I use my text messaging. I screen what I say so that I don’t send something to someone else that I will regret. The Social Penetration Theory explains why as relationships develop, communication moves from less intimate levels to more intimate, more personal levelsI can apply this theory to my professional as well as personal life. Three examples that I can give how this has been practical in my daily life are through my relationships, work, and my primary care giver. In a particular relationship I was in, we started off as good friends. I did not reveal my most private personal information to him in the beginning. I waited until time went on. When we were in a committed relationship, I eventually little by little shared with him more information about myself. This theory allows one to be more honest with one another. In some cases it helps one be more careful in the relationship because you learn what the others sensitivities are. In my workplace overtime I have been aware of who to share certain information with and who I should not. At work I try to speak of only work and stay very professional. There is one particular coworker that I know I can trust. I do share a little bit more with this person. This is someone that I have learned overtime I can confide in. Lastly my primary doctor is someone that at first I felt awkward talking to or asking questions to. Overtime we have formed a personal relationship. I am now comfortable with talking to her about my health. I also don’t feel strange asking her questions that can sometimes be uncomfortable around just anyone. In my first example I feel the communication was effective overtime by building on a strong, trusting relationship. It made me more comfortable to share more about myself with him. In my second example I could be more effective by even with my close coworker to try and not talk too much about work if we go out to lunch. On my last example I could communicate differently with my provider by writing down my questions that I have for her. This would also help if I felt like I was going to forget something that I needed to ask her. There are always ways we can improve on this theory. These are just some examples on how I use this theory in my daily life. Organizational Culture Theory explains meanings for routine organizational events, thereby reducing the amount of cognitive processing and energy members need to expend throughout the day (West, R. , & Turner, L. H. 2010). There are three examples I can think of that can apply to my personal as well as professional life with this theory. They are through my work, through my church, and though school. An example of not having this was my last supervisor. She hardly was ever in the office. We never had monthly meetings like we do now with our current supervisor. We never expanded like she wanted because of lack of this theory. We now have monthly meetings with our new supervisor as well as have rules and regulations we have to follow. We have a certain dress code we have to abide by each day. We also come together on certain holidays and have a tradition where everyone one brings their favorite food dish. Having all of these routine organizational events has helped us expand as a more successful organization. My second example of how this theory has applied to my personal and professional life is through my church. We have certain customs and symbols that we use at church that we use on each Sunday. We have a routine service. For example when we first arrive, we start singing then have announcements, followed by the sermon. At the end we all sing again, and pray. This is something that our congregation is used to each Sunday. We also, have a certain time our service starts and ends each Sunday. The third way this theory applies in my life is through school. At University of Phoenix we have certain rules and regulations we have to follow. For example, we have attendance policies we have to abide by. We also have certain dates that our assignments are due. If we do not follow this, there will be consequences. If we didn’t have organizational structure, we as students would not know what to do in order to be a successful student. There are certain questions I can ask myself to take a look deeper in my examples of this theory. Through my example of school this communication is effective to me because we have pretty much the same rules and standards to go by in each class. Having this structure makes each student understand how to become a successful student in their current class. In my example of church I feel like there is always ways to be more effective. The church could send out bulletins before each Sunday. This would help update the congregation on what the next message will be about. In my example of work to have better communication in the future, my old supervisor could have done this by having monthly meetings. Having monthly meetings addresses questions and concerns that other employees have for the office manager. This way she can better the organization. In conclusion I can see how important communication theories are to my personal and professional life. Now knowing these theories I will be more aware of how much these are a part of my daily life. References West, R. , & Turner, L. H. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (4th ed. ) Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Retrieved from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader. aspx? assetMetaId=299dcc53-f1c8-4924-a9b0-b8ff6d645a5f&assetDataId=0cdf2509-a90a-4f76-a84b-7cb7098cc897&assetpdfdataid=076561d1-57c7-472c-9712-6f5644b9ebd7

Feedback in Communications Essay

When you make a conscious choice to give and receive feedback on a regular basis you demonstrate that feedback is a powerful means of personal development. Done properly, feedback need not be agonizing, demoralizing, or daunting and the more practice you get the better you will become at it. It may never be your favorite means of communicating with employees, co-workers, or bosses but it does have the potential to make your workplace a much more productive and harmonious place to be. No doubt the process of giving feedback is seen as unnerving and fear provoking. And the workplace can sometimes be the wrong emotional environment in which to discuss performance, introduce suggestions for improvement, and talk about goals for the future. This is a shame, because giving and receiving feedback is some of the most important communication you can engage in with members of your organization. When done in the right way and with the right intentions, feedback communication is the avenue to achieve good performance. Employees have to know what they are doing well and not so well. For them to really hear your thoughts and suggestions on ways to improve, though, that feedback has to be delivered carefully and frequently. Giving feedback effectively is a skill. And like all skills, it takes practice to build your confidence and improve. The following is a collection of â€Å"feedback giving† tips that organizations can try and use. Try to make is positive. Before giving feedback managers or employees should remind themselves why they are doing it. The purpose for giving feedback is to improve the situation. Being confrontational will not accomplish anything.. That’s not to say you must always be positive. There is a role for negativity and even anger if someone isn’t paying attention to what you’re saying. However, this should be used only if necessary. You’ll most often get much more from people when your approach is positive and focused on improvement. Be Timely The closer to the event you address the issue, the better. Feedback isn’t about surprising someone so the sooner you do it, the more the person will be expecting it. IT is much easier to give feedback about an issue that was just completed/not completed than is it to give feedback about a whole years performance. The exception to this is if the situation involved is highly emotional. Waiting until everyone has calmed down before you engage in feedback may help you avoid further confrontation on both sides. You can’t risk letting yourself get worked up and risk saying something you will regret later. Make it Regular When something needs to be said, say it. People then know where they stand all the time and there are few surprises. Also, problems don’t get out of hand. This is not a once-a-year or a once-every-three-months. While this may be the timing of formal feedback, informal, simple feedback should be given much more often depending on the situation. Be Specific Tell the person exactly what they need to improve on. This ensures that you stick to facts and there is less room for vagueness. Remember to stick to what you know first hand: You’ll quickly find yourself on shaky ground if you start giving feedback based on other people’s views. Criticize in Private and Use â€Å"I† Statements While public recognition is appreciated, public scrutiny is not. Establish a safe place to talk where you won’t be interrupted or overheard.. Give the feedback from your perspective. This way you avoid labeling the person. Say, â€Å"I was angry and hurt when you criticized my report in front of my boss† rather than â€Å"You were insensitive yesterday.† Limit Your Focus and Talk Positive A feedback session should discuss no more than two issues. Any more than that and you risk the person feeling attacked and demoralized. You should also stick to behaviors the person can actually change or influence. A good rule is start off with something positive. This helps put the person at ease. It also lets them â€Å"see† what success looks like and this helps them to take the right steps next time. As long as it’s not forced, it can also help to give positive feedback at the end of a feedback session too. Otherwise, people can finish feeling despondent and worthless. Provide Specific Suggestions and Follow Up Make sure you both know what needs to be done to improve the situation. The main message should be that you care and want to help the person grow and develop. Set goals and make plans to monitor and evaluate progress. The whole purpose of feedback is to improve performance. You need to measure whether or not that is happening and then make adjustments as you go. Be sure to document your conversations and discuss what is working and what needs to be modified. The Benefits of Receiving Constructive Feedback Constructive Feedback is important to the achievement of any professional business connection. Providing feedback is something individuals do to offer suggestions or assessments of someone else’s job performance. As stated in the article, â€Å"Giving Constructive Feedback,† giving constructive feedback is an essential and effective tool in boosting much-needed morale, supporting career progression and encouraging good teamwork. Constructive Feedback should not make people feel discouraged, but make them feel like their work and contributions are appreciated. Constructive Feedback can also better a person by the improvement of work performance. Here are some benefits of receiving constructive feedback listed on helium.com: 1. â€Å"It gives individuals the ability to correct any mistakes you make before you either make the same mistake again, or make your current error worse†. 2. â€Å"It Help individuals learn a new skill as quickly as possible.† An examp le of this is learning a skill such as self defense. If the teacher does not give constructive feedback on how the student is shaping their method, progress will come much slower. 3. â€Å"It helps individuals improve on their current skill set.† For example, many professions benefit from others giving them feedback on their current projects. Feedback is like guidance that will allow employees to learn as well improve their quality of work. 4. â€Å"Trust is established between management and staff when constructive feedback is rendered.† When the staff sees that management care, they will begin to care as well. There will be a change in how feedback improves the interpersonal relationships with higher authority and employees. 5. â€Å"Managers providing constructive feedback practice a process of mentoring and developing their staff to stardom within the organization.† 6. â€Å"Providing feedback can improve employee morale and reduce confusion regarding expectations and current performance†. Some individuals do not have the ability to give others constructive feedback. Feedback should be significant and beneficial. If an individual is put in a position to give another person feedback, that individual must make sure the criticism is helpful, not cruel. â€Å"Constructive feedback presents you with the perfect opportunity to grow and learn from your mistakes. But, one of the biggest things that can harm your chances of getting constructive feedback is to become defensive or not listen to the person when they are giving you the feedback† (helium.com). As stated in the article, â€Å"The Importance, Benefits and Fundamentals of Providing Feedback in Sales,† it is suggested that an individual giving constructive feedback should identify the problem, explain how the behavior is wrong or detrimental, help the individual acknowledge the problem, develop goals with the individual, and then monitor the individual’s performance.The main benefit of constructive feedback is to help individual’s advance, acquire information faster, or to better themselves. Examples of effective and ineffective feedback Throughout this paper, giving and receiving feedback has been defined. Also, the different ways to give and receive feedback has been established. This section will elaborate on examples of giving and receiving feedback. Many people experience ineffective feedback on a daily basis. Most often the cause is a supervisor or manager who does not want to release control, however, ineffective feedback is not limited to this particular situation. In the book, Coaching for Performance by John Whitmore, he states there are â€Å"five levels of feedback that are in common use† (Whitmore, 2010, p. 123). Below is a scenario that will be used to show the different types of criticism most commonly experienced by most people. Scenario A project has been assigned to Jane who is a new member of the Cost-Cutters Team. The goal of the team is to brainstorm, propose, and implement a new way of cutting the company’s cost in the most effective manner. Jane is to write the proposal which will be submitted to board for approval. Once the brainstorming has been completed, the team leaves everything in Jane’s hand with a warning. They tell her, â€Å"Do not mess this up.† Jane feels confident she can write the proposal and does not take the warning personal. Once the proposal is finished, Jane comes back to the team to receive feedback from them. The proposal is handed around to each member of the team with many comments being made on everything from the design of the proposal to the steps of implementation. Ineffective feedback Team member #1 stated, â€Å"You really missed the mark with this assignment.† Making this type of statement does not help anyone. The feedback is extremely critical and offers no direction or opportunities for the receiver to learn or make improvements. Personal criticism is a very ineffective way to critique (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). Team member #2 told Jane, â€Å"This will not do. We will have to scrap this and begin again.† According to Whitmore, the feedback displayed by this statement is judgmental and by directing the comments at the proposal instead of the person, â€Å"damages self-esteem† (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). Team member #3 made this statement to Jane. â€Å"You have a clear plan; however, the design and packaging of the proposal will not be well received by the board.† Team member #3’s statement is mildly better than the two before. The beginning of the statement gives some direction for Jane. The plan outlined in the proposal is a good one. When it comes to a design for the proposal, however, Team member #3 did not give any clear instruction or insight to assist Jane, leaving her on the outside (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). Team member #4 asked Jane this question, â€Å"Do you like your proposal?† Although the statement allows Jane the opportunity to actually acknowledge she is the â€Å"owner† of the proposal, without more in-depth questions, Jane is still left without clear direction. Effective feedback Team member #5 took a different approach to the situation by asking a series of question to get Jane to thinking about the proposal and how it could be improved (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). Team member #5 also thanked Jane for taking on the assignment in the first place because it freed the other members to focus on other issues assigned to the team. According to Don and Sheryl Grimme, authors of The New Manager’s Tool Kit, use of this type of positive feedback increases the chances that Jane will â€Å"repeat the desired behavior† in the future and not shrink away from an assignment (Grimme & Grimme, 2009, p. 82). The questions not only got Jane to thinking about what she was trying to express with the proposal, the questions reminded Jane that she wrote this proposal. It was â€Å"her† proposal and she regained her confidence in her ability to produce an acceptable proposal for the board. Whitmore says that by asking a series of questions void of criticisms and judgmental comments leaves room for â€Å"accelerated learning and improved performance (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). How Feedback Can Effect Development Feedback plays a critical part on a person’s cognitive development because it is a method to how individuals associate with others and the world around them. It is how people learn to make decisions. However, there is more to giving or receiving feedback when it is a matter of cognitive development concerns. Instead it becomes a question of how much feedback is necessary and what other functions can help to receive beneficial results. Therefore other functions are introduced such as physical activity, practice or repetition. The idea is to combine both feedback and practice, where as the two components become interdependent. The research of Motor Learning in Children: Feedback Effects on Skill Acquisition may help to understand why considering how much feedback for an individual is really necessary. There are various methods of feedback and examples that will further exemplify how cognitive development and feedback play a major role in today’s experiences. According to recent case studies by Katherine J Sullivan, Shailesh S Kantak, and Patricia A Burtner, cognitive theory is one of the factors among effective feedback-processing capability from the receiver. In their study, processing capability determines the affect of feedback among motor skills training. Half of the participants, both children and young adults receive either %100 feedback with motor skill practice or reduced feedback with motor skill practice. The result of the study is all participants who receive %100 feedback show more signs of accuracy and consistency. On the other hand young adults with reduced feedback still show signs of accuracy and consistency with additional practice; which means equal results can come from reduced feedback. Another interesting fact in the research is how children processed information differently than that of adults. It’s obvious that children would need more practice in order to process the information, but does that mean adults do not need as much feedback as children? Although the example above surrounds skill development among children and young adults, it is still informative for all professionals in various settings to determine the frequency of effective feedback along with helpful components. This may be relevant in situations where professionals such as managers, teachers, or doctors- who preside over various groups or individuals have to determine the level of feedback that is necessary to gain the intended result. Furthermore, there are similar ways of feedback that are used for adults as it is for children, such as corrective feedback, by immediately responding to an error. However, adults do not require continuous or %100 feedback to gain a skill, or retain new information as children do. For example: a manager is presenting a new system for meeting daily quotas. This new system requires employees to rearrange his/her method for recording data. After training, employees are judged by production and/or quality for the next three weeks to determine whether employees are using the system correctly. If not, the employees are given feedback, either by verbal correction or additional training. Then, after that period, employees are not as often monitored or corrected by superior staff. This is because adults do not require %100, feedback. Reduced feedback along with practice or other active components can produce the same results. For children, the frequency of feedback is much more intense due to children’s cognitive processing capabilities. The children involved in the research previously mentioned are between the ages of 8 to 14. According to Piaget’s Stages of Development, a child within these ages is within the concrete operational stage, which explains why feedback is important for children this age. It’s because children are at a stage where they are capable of thinking logically- associating action with a reaction. Hence, feedback is frequently used in many ways for their benefit. For example, children receive report cards and progressive reports from school; rewards for good behavior and grades. Children also receive feedback from their peers and adults (good or bad). For instance, if a child is a disruptive student in class and other students laugh or encourage the behavior, then the behavior will more likely continue. However, if the teacher provides corrective feedback to redirect the behavior and maintain appropriate behavior in the classroom, then the child can associate the teacher’s feedback with his/her actions. Feedback also may spark motivation for academic achievement, which teachers or parents may use to encourage children with rewards, such as money or privileges. Summary Feedback is a very important factor in any situation. The way feedback is given will directly impact the outcome of the situation. Ineffective feedback can leave the receiver feeling inadequate and diminish the receiver’s self-esteem. Surprisingly, the least effective methods are the ones most commonly used (Whitmore, 2010, p. 125). On the contrary, effective feedback will empower the receiver and allow learning and critical thinking to take place (Whitmore, 2010, p. 124). Not only will the receiver benefit; the person giving the feedback will benefit also. When someone learns to give effective feedback, that person becomes an effective leader and is able to guide others into their full potential. Giving and receiving feedback is a very strong; necessary tool in any situation. Reference Grimme, D., & Grimme, S. (2009). The New Manager’s Tool Kit. New York:American Management Association. Huether, Katherine. â€Å"The Benefits of Constructive Feedback.† Helium. Helium, 02 Sept. 2007. Web. 01 Feb. 2013 Moore, Krista. The Importance, Benefits and Fundamentals of Providing Feedback in Sales.† The Importance, Benefits and Fundamentals of Providing Feedback in Sales. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. Sullivan, K., Kantak, S., & Burtner, P. (2008). Motor learning in children: feedback effects on skill acquisition. Physical Therapy, 88(6), 720-732. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20070196 Wardy, Joseph. â€Å"The Benefits of Constructive Feedback.† Helium. Helium, 27 Jan. 2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2013 Whitmore, J. (2010). Coaching for Performance 4th Edition. Boston: Nicholas Brealey.