The Leadership Portfolio - Essay Example

Leadership portfolios The Leadership Portfolio describes leadership skills through personal experiences. Effective leadership can b defined as the ability to influence people. The portfolio describes the different phases of life that reflected leadership qualities (Patricia, 105). My Leadership Portfolio – 1 Ability to understand People During working as a customer service executive, it was found that one of the co-workers was facing problem in managing time. Therefore a suggestion was made to him to create a to-do-list to prioritize work. This suggestion was really helpful to the person. Trustworthiness As a customer service executive the biggest responsibility is to maintain the level of trust. Quite often the management hands over sensitive customer data to the executives. During the stint as a customer service executive those data were handled with the utmost respect and care. Listening skills While working as a customer service executive once a customer faced problems while withdrawing money from the ATM. As usual the gentleman called the customer help line. The call lasted nearly 50 minutes. However, at the end of the day the problem was solved. It required good listening skills to solve the problem over the phone itself. Building up Rapport with customers As a customer service executive it is important to build up rapport with the customers. This always helped to get down to a personal level with the customer. This helps the customer to express the problems better and get q quick solution in turn. Passion for Work Sometimes customer service can get boring, as one has to sit on the chair for a long period of time. However, the drive to help the customers made it relatively easier to sit on the chair for longer period of times. My Leadership Portfolio – 2 Charisma is something that sets one individual from others. World has seen many inspirational leaders, who had a certain charisma that set them apart from the other. It was the charisma that made people follows them. Very recently an old man from the Saudi Arabia was facing some problem in locating a certain place in Sydney. The man was a tourist, who came to Sydney to visit his son. It is always good to see someone from the native place in a foreign country. It feels even better to help someone out. Therefore the gentle man was guided properly to his son’s house. There are so many inspirational charismatic leaders over the years. However, one certain man who was not a leader, yet he inspired so many people with his music. The name of the gentle man is Bob Marley, the legendary singer form Jamaica. Marley believed that his song can eliminate all the hatred of racism from the world. His song over the years have inspired so many to stand up for their rights. Marley was once shot in the leg one day before a concert. Next day, he showed in concert and said that the bad guys are not taking a break. Therefore he can’t afford to take a day off. This remarkable courage of his inspired so many. Yet he was always so humble and soft spoken and managed to have a smile on his face. My Leadership Portfolio – 3 The leadership qualities to be discussed in this section are brainstorming, problem solving, and persuasion and work delegation. A few weeks back the group was asked to carry out a project of their choice. Here, it must be said that I have the pleasure to be leader of the group also. Initially all the group members went through a rigorous brain storming session to come up the topic of the project. It was decided that the topic of the project would be analyze the customer servicing strategy of any supermarket. It is needless to say the certain amount of research work has to be conducted to collect data. But unfortunately the group found an obstacle so to speak, as very little data were available. Therefore, it was suggested to visit a local mall by me. The first mall visited by us didn’t want to discuss any of their strategies. However, instead of turning away I decided to have a discussion with floor manager. The manger was kind enough to let us do the survey. The next task was to prepare the report. Based on the skills and interests of the group members, certain task were provided to each of the members. The project was a great success. My Leadership Portfolio – 4 The leader in focus is Michael Clarke, the current Aussie captain. Very recently, just before the third test against India, four of the Aussie cricketers were dropped from the team due to disciplinary issues. The issue surrounded the fact the cricketers were asked to come up with their ideas to improve their performance against India, as Australia is behind the eight ball. However, four of them did not comply and got axed from the squad. If I was in Clarke’s position, then instead of propping them I would caution the cricketer in front of other team mates. Also I would have made sure that the issue was away from the lime light of the media, as it may break the morale of the team. My Leadership Portfolio – 5 A few days back I was given an assignment by the teacher. I went to the internet to search for information. I got enough information. However suddenly I came across a page where someone had already solved a demo project identical to the assignment given. However, instead of copying the assignment I completed the project ethically on my own based on the information collected that excluded the solved demo project. My Leadership Portfolio – 6 A few days back there was supposed to be a job fair. However, I was not sure whether to visit the fair or not. I was finding it difficult to make time-out after studies. However, I managed to find out some time and made it to the fair. It turned out to be real helpful, as I made some very good contacts that may help me in future to get a decent job. My Leadership Portfolio – 7 During the days of working as a customer service executive I was put in charge of a small team. It was found that one off the team member was not able to cope up with the pressure. Due to this he was coming under fire from the senior authorities. As a leader I had to choose to kick or to care. However, after having a chat with him it was found that he came across as a sensible and responsible person. It was also felt that he was facing some problem in coping up with the pressure and the new work environment. Therefore it was decided to shift him to a job that was void of too much of pressure. This provided him some time to get used to the work environment. Also training in the form of job rotation was provided to him. This gave him the overall understanding of the job also. My Leadership Portfolio – 8 During the days of working as a customer service executive I was put in charge of a small team. The team was a new one. There was very little interaction between the team members as they were not well known to each other. Therefore, the biggest challenge was to develop team spirit. Therefore I decided to go out for lunch on every Saturday with the team. This helped me to understand the team members. Also the team members had a chance to get know each other. My Leadership Portfolio – 9 While working as a customer service executive I realized that it is important to motivate the team members. After consulting the senior manager we decided that each and every month we would choose the best service executive. This really motivated the members to put that extra effort. This also acted as a feedback mechanism. My Leadership Portfolio – 10 While working I use to go to the office via cabs. There was a few more co-workers go use to stay in the same neighbourhood. Hence, one day I decided to approach them to ask whether we can hire a taxi and travel together. The people really liked that idea. This saved money and time also. My Leadership Portfolio – 11 While working in the customer service department o found that quite often, the executives feel that they don’t have to look professional as the customers cannot see them. This was most definitely a wrong perception. Because the like it or not customers can see to over the phone. Therefore a workshop was organized to make sure that the executives look professional so that that they can act professionally. My Leadership Portfolio – 12 While studying in the school we had to buy stationary goods a lot. Stuffs like pen, pencil, copies, erasers, etc. But there was a substantial problem in buying them as we did not have any stationary good store near the school. Hence few of our friends decided to open a store in the school itself. The idea was proposed to the school. The school hosted a meeting. And most of the students and the teachers voted in favour of it. The shop was opened. We hired a person to look after the shop. Once in a while we used to sit in the shop ourselves. We had present monthly reports to the school about the performance of the shop as the school was funding it. The school authorities were so very happy with the idea that they decided provide a printer and a Xerox machine also. My Leadership Portfolio – 13 Being born and brought up in middle-east and then coming to Australia was in itself a different experience. Initially I thought it may difficult to meet up with the locals. However, once the ice was melted I have made some great friends. During this time I have tried to learn about the Aussie culture. And also pass on some of things about my own culture to my Australian friends. This has been really helpful to develop the cross cultural relationship so to speak. My Leadership Portfolio – 14 While working as a customer service executive one of the senior managers asked us to find out the details of the customers who are not satisfied with the services and prepare a PPT. It was huge database. Extraction of data was going to really difficult. However, I was able to extract the required information using advanced excel concepts. Meanwhile I asked two of the team mates to call the customers. Based on the feedback of the customers we had to make a PPT. Again that was done is a group. Hence, a work that seemed quite difficult initially was executed quite well. Reference Kelly, Patricia. Nursing Leadership & Management. Newyork: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print Read More