Personal Analysis of Leadership - Essay Example

Leadership is a very important aspect of the professional development of a person. The concept of leadership can be defined as a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to do what the leader wants done (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2003). Developing leadership skills can enhance the career opportunities of a person. Most people believe that leadership is limited to the managerial level; this perception is untrue since leadership can manifest itself at any work level. Sometimes in corporations there are floor workers that have great influence over their colleagues due to their leadership. Education is one of the best ways for a person to enhance his leadership abilities, but lifetime experiences can also influence in its development. The use of leadership also can be applied beyond the workplace. Leadership can exert itself in family gatherings, in schoolwork, and in other aspects of a person’s life.

Enhancing your leadership skills can provide a person with great benefits and opportunities in the workplace. Having leadership skills is not a one way track towards becoming a manager, but people with leadership are usually given greater levels of responsibility at their work. Companies are more willing to empower workers that display the ability to lead others in different work scenarios. A common arrangement that companies in the 21st century are often using to achieve work goals is to organize people in team units. Teamwork has become a critical success factor in today’s work environment. When working in team settings people that have leadership skills can blossom and excel. A common mechanism that is used to organize and manage a team is selecting a team leader. Usually the person with the greatest amount of leadership is selected to become the team leader.

Personally I consider leadership to be very important in order to become successful in the workplace and to enhance relations. I currently work as an interior designer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. My job might not be the most complex and difficult one in the world, but it does entail having creativity and managing my time well. Interior designers are often exposed to a stressful work environment due to the fact that often we often work on many projects simultaneously. I am very good at my job, but I do realize that there are lots of areas in which I can improve. Four weaknesses that I have that I must improve upon is that I am picky, strong headed, extremely opinionated, and I often stall on things that I have to do. Since my job entails working with customers on a personal basis the fact that I am opinionated often gets me in trouble in my dealings with customers. Customer satisfaction and retention are very important for people working in my industry. A way for me to lessen the effect of being such an opinionated person is by becoming an active listener. I have to be more patient and make a conscious effort to understand what people are saying. People that are better listeners are more productive in the workplace and through their actions they are able to influence and persuade the behavior of others. I must avoid getting distracted when other people talk to me particularly in my business dealings with customers. Prior to being fast to judge others, I should be more open-minded.

My weakness of often stalling on the things I have to do has often gotten me in trouble in the past. Last year on three occasions I was over a week late on the delivery of projects because I did not manage my time well. When I had important tasks to complete instead of prioritizing them, I prefer to stall on them as if their completion was not critical to delivering these projects on time. This tendency cannot continue since timeliness is an important aspect of customer service. Despite being late on those few occasions I kept the customers happy by maintaining good communication and by proving a superb product. In order to avoid this problem from recurring I have to take corrective actions. A potential solution to improve upon this weakness is to start utilizing an agenda. I should use both an electronic and physical agenda booklet. A good agenda application can be downloaded to my smartphone. I should keep an agenda booklet as well in order to train myself mentally to schedule my time in a more effective manner. Anytime I get an idea I should write it down in my agenda.

One of my virtues which can help me become a better leader in the future is that I am organized and good at implementing action plans. I have been exposed at my job to projects that required a lot of detail and planning because they were in multiple locations and involved a wide variety of exotic materials that had to be imported from foreign suppliers. I learned a lot about foreign exchange, purchasing, time zone differences, e-commerce, and other considerations associated with doing business globally. Good leaders are people that are motivated to continue learning new knowledge. Due to the fact that information is moving so fast today a leader has to stay on top of the latest trends, regulations, technologies, and consumer preferences.

In the workplace I prefer to work alone. In my job field creativity is often spur from within, thus privacy often is needed for a designer to realize his work. The fact that I like to work alone is not a constraint that can inhibit me from becoming a good leader. I have great communications skills and I like to interact with other people. As a leader I can guide the efforts of other people, motivate them, and help them do their job better to become more productive. The other workloads associated with my job can be done in the privacy of my office or work studio. I am a very intelligent and creative person. Having a high I.Q. is not what makes a person smart. Knowledge today is acquired through accumulative hours of research, reading, and other educational experiences. To become a good leader a person must be willing to improve their skills and capabilities. I am a serious minded person, but at the same time I am unorthodox. Leaders often have to be serious since their job entails great level of responsibility.

I am a very understanding and outgoing person. I always try not to judge other people, but in the workplace I expect people to be responsible and do their jobs correctly.

Two additional traits of mine are that that I am both highly strung and very dynamic. Being a dynamic person has helped me a lot in my job as an interior designer. For me obtaining results at work is very important. A person that wants to be a leader must be result-orientated. Work objectives are usually measured in tangible result metrics. I tend to be a bit pushy with people, thus I have to learn to control my impulses. Springing actions into plans is a great technique leaders have to implement.

Currently I have to exert greater leadership in my workplace as I have developed my own line. This is a great accomplishment that can bring me a lot of potential revenue in the future. I am still working on coming up with a brand name. The name is very important because all marketing efforts are going to use the brand name to create customer awareness of the brand. A lot of tough challenges are ahead in my workplace, but this is very exciting to me. Becoming a better leader is aligned with my career goals, thus I have to create a plan to improve my leadership. I cannot do this alone, thus I have to get help from professionals. I can start by researching the seminars on leadership available in the university during the next semester. A second step is to increase the amount of research I read on leadership topics. I should located and read at least 10 journal articles on leadership on a monthly basis. Improving my active listening skills is a third way to improve my leadership since it will enhance my ability to comprehend what people are saying. A fourth way to improve my leadership is by volunteering my time at a non-profit organization.

Leadership skills have become more important than ever in the work environment of the 21st century. As an interior designer that is trying to grow professionally improving my leadership has become a top priority for me. I realize that greater leadership won’t be achieved from one night to the other. I can improve my leadership through both education and work experience. Becoming a better leader can open the doors of opportunity for me in the future. I am fully committed to enhancing my leadership skills in the immediate future. To achieve this goal is going to take time, effort, and commitment from me. Leadership is a skill set that can enhance work relationships with both other employees and with the customers of the firm.