A Set of Management and Leadership Skills - Essay Example

?Reflection on my Management and Leadership Skills Introduction In today’s workplace, employers are seeking to hire employees who have a set of management and leadership skills that is best suited to their company. However, in most cases, employers are basically looking for similar skills. This paper, reviews some of my personal management, leadership and team role skills. The purpose of this review is to determine if I posses the skills that are necessary to enable me to get recruited for a job. This review will also enable me to ascertain if there are any vital management and leadership skills that I need to develop further in order to be more suited for the job market. Body Communication is a major part of all jobs. As such, most employers recruit employees who posses good interpersonal and communication skills. Personally, my communication skills are quite good. However, I have to admit that I am more adept at communicating through writing than I am at oral communication. In the job market, it is critical to be able to communicate both orally and in writing. This is because; while formal written communique may be used to keep record of business meetings transactions, oral communication is used in almost all other interactions in the workplace. In view of this, it is clear that I need to develop my oral communication communications skills so that I can be able to express my ideas and opinions orally. After all, since most job interviews are conducted orally, my ability to communicate orally could determine whether or not I get recruited by potential employers. In order for a manager to be effective in his work, his professional and personal ethics must be irrefutable. This is because; managers are required to rely on their professional and personal/moral code of conduct when making managerial decisions. An ethical code of conduct is often regarded as a guide of behavior and employers are likely to recruit employees whom they deem ethical. I believe that I would be highly efficient as a manager and leader in the workplace because I make decisions based on my ethical code of conduct. In order to compete effectively in the global marketplace, organizations today have to constantly change and adapt As such, most employees and leaders in the workplace have to be well equipped to deal with any necessary changes that need to be implemented. In both my personal and academic life, I have dealt with different changes at various points in my life. This has equipped me with skills that are necessary to be able to manage change. As such, I believe that if I was in a position of leadership, I would be able to manage any changes that are required in order for the organization to meet its goals and be successful. In order to be able to manage and lead people, one needs to have the ability to motivate others. This is because; In order for people to perform well, they need to be inspired and motivated to do so. Since different people are often motivated by different things, a good leader should be able to gather knowledge about the specific factors that can be used to motivate each of his team members and use this knowledge to his advantage. In the course of my academic training, I have been able to effectively provide leadership for several teams. My ability to motivate team members to commit to the overall goals of the team has been one of the key reasons for my success. My ability to motivate others is a skill that I have recently perfected and it would be very handy in the job market. Over time, I have been able to develop and hone my analytical and problem-solving skills. Initially, whenever I was faced with a problem in my academic and personal life, I was often inclined towards determining which solutions other people who had been faced with a similar problem used. However, I have gradually learnt to investigate any problems I encounter in a critical but logical manner in order to formulate solutions that are best suited to my specific problem. In the workplace, the ability to analyze and solve problems is vital to the success of any organization. In some workplaces, problem-solving often involves team work. I therefore hope that I can be able to integrate my analytical and problem solving skills in a team. Because of the highly competitive nature of today’s workplace, organizations have to maximize any opportunities they come across in order to be successful. The ability to maximize such opportunities is dependent upon the capacity of managers and leaders to make strategic decisions. My ability to make strategic decisions is quite limited. This is because, being strategic requires one to plan and calculate all possible eventualities (present and future) of any decision before taking a deliberate action. While I am indeed capable of making quick decisions, I do not always weigh all the possible repercussions of my decisions. Developing and perfecting planning skills is therefore one of my immediate goals that I have to achieve in order to become a strategic leader. Most employers value employees who can demonstrate integrity in all their decisions and activities. In order to develop integrity, I strive to ensure that I am honest and truthful in everything. I also ensure that my decisions are based on a rigid sense of right and wrong. Integrity in an employee is vital because employers can trust such employees. Since leaders act as guides for others in the workplace, leaders who have integrity are extremely valuable. While it is a fact that one needs to work hard in order to develop valuable management and leadership skills, one cannot develop integrity merely by hard work. This is because; integrity is founded upon ones innermost beliefs and values. As such, it is not easy to judge ones skill level of integrity. Nevertheless, it is quite easy to determine if one has integrity based on his/her actions. I therefore strive to ensure that my actions reflect integrity. Vision is an important attribute in leadership. Leaders who have vision are able to visualize where their organizations are heading. They can then ensure that they actualize these visions in order to attain success. Personally, I have always had a vision about what I want my personal life to be like and I strive to ensure that the future I visualize. However, in order to develop my ability to be a visionary leader in the workplace, I endeavor to ensure that anytime I am part of a team in class I practice being a visionary leader by envisioning the team’s purpose/mission and ensuring that the team accomplishes that mission. Leaders and managers require some relationship skills in order to offer the necessary guidance to those they lead and manage. Networking is a relationship skill. In order to develop the relationship skills that will enable me network in the workplace, it is important to develop group communication skills. These skills will enable me to interact within a group and form a network of relationships. Because networking and other relationship skills are vital in team building and team management, I have developed these skills every time I have been part of team. Besides being able to build relationships easily, leaders and managers also require skills such as the ability to persuade others to agree with their point of view. This skill is essential in management and leadership because people do not follow a leader whose opinions they do not agree with. In the past, I experienced difficulties in my attempts to get other people to value my opinions or follow my lead. However, I have discovered that the keys to being able to persuade others are good communication skills and self confidence. My self confidence levels are quite excellent. As mentioned earlier in this paper, I am currently working on improving my oral communication skills. Once I perfect these skills, it will be easier to get people to trust me and hence they will be more willing to follow my lead. In addition to being able to manage change, leaders and managers should also be adaptable. Adaptability enables leaders to be able to give up their control when necessary, to accept change and to deal with the occurrence of events that are unplanned for. Personally, I am quite flexible and adaptable in cases when things do not go as I had planned. In order to further develop my adaptability skills, I try to perceive change as an opportunity and this makes it easier to adapt to unforeseen changes. The skill of teamwork is one of the most important for leaders and managers. Leaders cannot work in exclusion because the work they do is for the good an entire team. Due to this, leaders and managers are expected to capable of co-operating with those they lead/manage and to promote teamwork. I have worked as part of team severally in my academic life. This has enabled me to appreciate the fact that each team member is important because each team member has different skills to offer. One of the teamwork skills that I have acquired over time include the ability to discern when to be a leader and when to follow since one cannot do both all the time. Besides the skills mentioned above, there are some other critical team role skills that I still need to perfect. For example, since members of team have different personalities and opinions, it is almost impossible to avoid confrontation and or disagreements in a team. As such, negotiation skills are vital team role skills. My experiences as a member of various teams have enabled me learn that in order to be able to solve disputes in a team, one must be able to negotiate by using effective communication techniques. Other vital team role skills are creativity and organization skills. Creativity is important because it enables team members to articulate their ideas and provide creative solutions. Personally, I develop my creativity skills by expanding my imagination and inventiveness when formulating solutions for various problems. However, I still find it difficult to express my creative ideas since analytic and logical ideas often seem more viable. Organization is an important team skill because it enables team members to keep track of all their duties and complete their work on time. My organization skills are quite good since I often create schedules which I follow to ensure that I accomplish my mission. Conclusion All in all, there are numerous essential team role, management and leadership skills which aspiring leaders/mangers should develop. However, it is impossible for each person to develop and perfect each of these skills. Personally, I hope that by honing the skills that I have already developed and trying my best to develop new essential skills will make more likely to succeed in the selection and recruitment stages of job hunting. Read More