Dc – a Doberman with a Chinchilla's side?

Dc – type, which stands for dominance and conscientiousness. Honestly, I was surprised to get this result. I never thought of myself as a dominant person. So I went back home and retook the test. But I got the same result, with even higher level of dominance.

The thing is, in my opinion dominance has a negative connotation. Usually I would describe a dominant person as an individual who is very aggressive, overconfident, authoritarian, persistent. For this reason I would never want to be associated with this definition. I would rather put myself somewhere in between Dominance and Influence type. I don’t like to dominate, but rather influence people, offer my ideas and get feedback. 

It’s true that’s I’m direct and straightforward, analytical and demanding, enjoy solving problems and accepting challenges. However, when it comes to making decisions, I prefer collecting as much information as possible, consult with as many people as I can, be open to any suggestions. I also weight pros and cons of a situation as well as always question status of things. I’m also not afraid to express my point of view even if others disagree with me. My friends call me paranoid sometimes, but they always turn to me for an advice, because I’m very cautious and logical, deliberate before I make a decision, collect and process information, recognize the needs of others. And the fact that I got conscientiousness as a second type explains my behavior. Overall, I’m surprised that I agree with the action plan for the Dominance part more than with description of it: taking authority, for instance or getting immediate results is not my strongest side yet, as well as i have average ego, but I’m definitely working on it. To put it in simple terms, I can describe myself as Doberman with a Chinchilla’s personality: seem to be strong, intelligent, powerful, but a bit humble when it comes to taking authority. For example, I recently had a job interview. I though that I failed it. But I got a call for a job two days after the interview took place. A person who interviwed me, mentioned that I carried myself very well, I projected confidence and delivered the qualities they were looking for in a candidate. When I heard it I was shocked. I thought of how good it was they didn’t see my legs “dancing” under the table during the interview, which in turn addresses my next point.
I agree that it’s possible to become another type, because our personality is partially formed from our habits and tasks that we deal with on a regular basis. The more opportunities that require high level of responsibility and action (i.e. taking authority of a project, for instance) the more it allows one to be a dominant type. A few years ago I would rather belong to a steadiness type, but after taking initiative to come to another country I developed new characteristics in my personality. I had to make so many decisions and responsibilities for the past three years, that it completely changed my personality from a life observer to the one who actively participates in it. Definitely this test allowed me better understand my personality and what I need to work on is the following: structure a more predictable environment, develop systematic approaches and time-management.

I’m loving it, I really do now!

That day I was standing in line trying to get myself from falling apart. Don’t get me wrong but being considered a hazard is not something people easily put up with. But that’s what everyone is going to think about you after they hear you telling a cashier “I want a hamburger with EXACTLY five pickles, small French fries well done and Big Mac Souse and could you please, put my order on the receipt”.

  Surprisingly, my internal practice helped and by the time I reached the cashier my order didn’t seem strange to me, just if I were at Starbucks trying to get my regular tall soy triple latte with weep cream on top of it. So here we go, my order is placed at McDonald’s this time.

The cashier wouldn’t even look at me. With a serious face he placed the order and asked me if I wanted anything else. I mentioned that I wanted my order to be reflected on the receipt. This time, he looked surprised, but pressed the button. It looked like everything was going according to the plan. Vu ala, I thought, I’m a lucky girl.

-       Anything else, miss?

-       That’s all, can I please, take a look at the receipt?

Obviously, the first attempt was not successful. As you can see from the picture, only one extra pickle was reflected on my check, not five as I needed.

-       I’m sorry to say, sir, but I need these five pickles to be on this receipt, and you put only one EXTRA PICKLE.

-       Why would that matter anyway, you have these pickles on your hamburger and there’s no way such a transaction can be reflected on the receipt.

-       Sir, I’m visiting NYC from Russia. My company covers my expenses here, but I need to have receipts for each transaction that I make here, so that they can reimburse me.

This time he though I was crazy. He said it was impossible to put 5 pickles on the receipt mainly because for the computer system they have installed extra stands for infinite amount of additions, and there’s no way to either copy extra pickle 5 times, or replace 1 with 5 in the order.

-       Can I speak with a manager?

-       I am the manager.

-       I do need this receipt, could you please, get it for me?

At this point he called a women from the kitchen and asked her to make sure that I would get exactly what I wanted even though my order has been delivered already. I guess, after 6 - minute conversation, my previous order cooled and they had to make a new hamburger and fries. The old lady gave me a very unpleasant look, as I was standing in front of her with a poster “McDonald’s s**ks”, but she proceeded my order.

Keeping calm and polite, he repeated my order, looked at the screen and pressed few buttons. I couldn’t believe my eyes! After the firs transaction it took him ONLY 4 minutes to figure out how to get the right receipt. (You can compare my receipts and see the difference).

-       Here is your receipt, miss. Here’s your order. Anything else I can do for you today?

At this point he saw my grateful eyes and proceeded to his next customer.

After I got my order and took some pictures, I came back to the counter to say “thank you” to Martin – that was my manager’s name. I can’t tell if he really was busy making coffee and bringing milk into the kitchen or was avoiding me (he didn’t like me as a customer for sure, but at least he was respectful to my hazardous need), but I had to wait for him for another 8 minutes. Finally, I approached him by the coffee machine and said “Thank you, Martin”, so that everyone could hear that. At this moment his face brightened and he said:

-       Sorry that I didn’t get it right on the first time. Take it easy. Have a nice day!

-       Thank you, Martin! Awesome job!

I checked my order again, took some pictures, and proceeded to the exit door. I didn’t offer the food to McDonalds customers, as I’m sure none of them would feel comfortable eating food that was touched by someone’s hands (I deconstructed that hamburger with my hands). So I looked for homeless people on the street. Surprisingly, Washington Square Park was not populated with homeless at that day. I offered the food to the squirrels in the park, but eve they didn’t like it. I left the bag on one of the benches. I hope someone who really needed it could find it.

After I got back home, I started to think of what I would do as a manager consultant to improve service at McDonald’s. Because I got my order right and my receipt very quickly, I would give personnel’s efforts 8 points on a 10-point scale. Manager (who was also my cashier) did amazing job, was polite, respectful, didn’t mess up with me. He also excelled at controlling other cashiers while was fulfilling my request, carrying heavy boxes and bottles, making coffee and I can go on. The point is that no matter what he was doing, he managed to have everything under control. If I were to give him an advice, I would recommend him to change his job, and do something more sophisticated with better pay.

But since we have Martin at the place, he does a terrific job in order preparation process. Not only he assigned my very special order to a woman in Spanish, but controlled the order himself after it was completed. In the future, if they have an increasing growth trend of customized orders, it wouldn’t hurt:

-       to have a cashier trained to take regular or special orders, able to write them down on some sort of paper (just like Starbucks writes on cups),

-       to have a trained cook at the kitchen responsible for special and regular orders,

-       to add appropriate features to their software to allow faster order taking and printing.

Communications between employees were very effective due to the design of the pace. A cashier is located a few meters from the kitchen, so he is easily heard in the kitchen. Martin spoke in Spanish with his employees. Nobody asked any questions, but followed his orders. You could tell that employees followed Martin’s orders easily not out of fear, but out of respect. Martin, on the other hand, was respectful towards the ladies in the kitchen. I don’t think that there’s need for improvement of their communications process, as employees and the managers work smoothly and effectively together to address customers’ needs.

If I were to rate training of employees in my particular situation, I would have given them solid nine points out of ten. As we all know, McDonald’s customers normally order food from established menu and hardly there’s need for any adjustments. Therefore, they don’t really need to spend money on training employees to take special orders, because this skill will hardly be ever applied in a real-life situation. However, it wouldn’t hurt to have just one person in the kitchen and a cashier who knows how to deal with not a traditional order if it occurs.  Martin was very smart to assign my special order to one person.

Martin is a true leader at that place. He earned his position. You can tell that by how respectfully his employees listen to him and follow his orders. Hi has the qualities needed for a leader: he inspires people to do an amazing job and is an example of excellence, he is good at planning - he set the directions and allocated job to a particular person, cashiers, he made sure the process was well-organized, and controlled the result - checked my order.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience and I wouldn’t mind to come back and order a hamburger with 10 extra pickles, with chocolate chips on top and ice-cream in the middle. Because no matter how ridiculous my order would sound, Martin would be able to fulfill any of my wishes.