Career Development Project - Personal Statement Example

05 July 2008 Personal Career Development Project For every person, career opportunities play a crucial role in life and persona development. Personal traits and characteristics, psychological uniqueness and education help a person to determine his/her career goals and strategies for their achievement. I am working as a real estate entrepreneur for 4 years developing mu skills and knowledge in this sphere. Research conducted at the lower and middle levels of the organizational hierarchy has emphasized the need for leaders to take into consideration the characteristics of their subordinates and the structure and clarity of the task when performing their leadership roles. Most leadership researchers agree that leaders need to have important interpersonal skills such as empathy, motivation, and communication (Carlopio et al 32). What has received considerably less attention than the skills is that appropriate application of these skills requires a thorough understanding of one's social setting, or social intelligence. SWOT The main strengths I possess are confidence, high-self steam, ambitious, workaholic, forward-looking, always willing to learn, cautious. My leadership functions are partly a function of skilful deployment of personal qualities but probably more of the interactive processes between leaders and their followers and the more general processes through which purpose and commitment are generated and sustained within an organization. It is the willingness of people to follow that makes a person a leader. Moreover, since people tend to follow those who, in their view, offer them a means of satisfying their own personal goals, the more managers are able to understand what motivates their subordinates and colleagues, and the more they reflect this understanding in carrying out their management actions, the more effective they are likely to be as leaders. In my communication, I am concrete, time-limited, realistic, challenging and capable of evaluation (Cole 39). The main weakness is that English is my second language so I have to spend much time working on my language skills and communication. I look young, and have to ve more persuasive in communication. In some cases, I need better decision-making skills and knowledge to respond to problem situations and prevent them. Decision-making is directed to reaching a goal/objective. It is about the how, what, why, when (and where) of a course of action and of how to overcome obstacles and to solve problems. Decision-making is what turns thought into action: it implies change and requires a decision to be made against a background of uncertainty and risk. Every person needs to be able to choose the action or course of action that is the best for you/your organization to meet its objective(s). An effective decision is one that produces the goods, ie gives the desired end result. It is important to be able to project ahead, to take the expected and unexpected into account, to have contingency plans in case events intrude in such a way as will turn a good decision into a bad one (Cole 35). The main opportunities are desire to learn and master new knowledge and skills, creativity and self-confidence. On the other hand, creativity can be encouraged in people (including oneself) by exploring some of the qualities and characteristics of creative thinkers and the activities/steps that can be undertaken to improve the processes involved. The main threats are lack of lack of business background. Communication should be good laterally and vertically (and flatter organizations should - in theory, at least - encourage good lateral communication). Managers should ensure a good flow of information - ideas can emerge as a result. Good administration is the hallmark of good management and the proper and efficient use of resources. Managers become leaders when their personality and character, their knowledge and functional skills of leadership are recognized and accepted by the others involved. These leadership functions need to be handled with excellence and this is achieved by performing those functions with increasing skill. Before examining the skills of leadership, it is worth seeing where certain qualities of leadership can be viewed as having functional value. These can be examined as leadership characteristics (Cole 32). The main threats are negativity, fear of failure, over-conformance with rules and regulations, applying too much logic Leaders challenge the process. Leaders search for opportunities. They experiment and take risks, constantly challenging other people to exceed their own limitations. In some situations, I need better communication skills in order to persuade others and motivate them to make a deal. To be successful, a good leader must 'walk the talk'. Employees take a fraction of the time to know a leader as he/she takes to get to know them. The example you are giving is quite simply you. Whether this is a good or a bad example depends on the leader. An example is set in verbal and non-verbal ways and all aspects of a leader's words and deeds must be considered in the light of this. If example is contagious, it is worth ensuring that a good one is set to encourage the qualities sought in others. Organizations (and if you are the leader of one that means you) should ensure that they have a policy of developing the leadership potential in all and particularly of newly appointed 'leaders'! Individuals should also ensure that they focus on developing their leadership skills by training, reading, analyzing and following the example of good leaders and by assessing, monitoring and improving their own performance. It is self evident that written and spoken communication skills are of crucial importance in business (and personal) life. Managers and leaders in particular must be effective communicators, good at getting their message across to, and at drawing the best out of, people. Communication skills in all forms, including non-verbal communication, need to be worked at and improved to ensure you understand people and they understand you. "Personal Brand" My personal "brand" can be explained as motivation, desire to learn and work, calmness and self-confidence. I suppose that each individual will be at a different stage/level up this hierarchy of needs and will need to be motivated accordingly. Other than in financial terms, individuals are usually motivated if they can see that they will be given: achievement - recognition - job interest - responsibility - advancement. Culturally cultivated corporations have leaders whom managers and workers can emulate -- not just faceless bureaucrats. Another way to state this is to say that a successful leader is relying on legitimate power. Power often arises from position but it is derived from our cultural system of rights, obligations and duties whereby a 'position' is accepted by people as being 'legitimate' (Carlopio et al 72). I suppose that really good managers (and all successful businesses have them) are capable of having, or recognizing, good ideas and using them to make things happen in a new way: of translating ideas into useful, practicable and commercial products, services or systems. Innovation (to bring in or introduce something new - a new idea, method or device) draws together new ideas and their implementation, whereas creativity is the having of new ideas which, in an organization, are generated or spotted by individuals or teams (Cole 65). Self-evidently important (to improve team performance) is the development of team creativity by improving an individual's skills in effective thinking, communication and in his/her own particular area of expertise/specialism. Feedback can maintain interest levels and information about progress made can stimulate further activity and more progress. Innovation and risk go hand in hand. Management which goes into critical overdrive when mistakes occur (rather than analyzing them to learn from the failures) smothers creativity and innovation. Risks can yield failure, but not taking risks can spell total disaster and an end to profits and growth. Unless failure results from negligence, recklessness or complete incompetence, managers should not seek out scapegoats or exact revenge. Profits are the reward for taking risks and innovative organizations learn to live with risk. Assertiveness can be important. For example, to give the task direction and in explaining the role of the team/individual, especially in an initial briefing or where there is low morale. To control others, leaders need to exhibit self-control (but remembering that anger/sadness can be legitimate responses if the circumstances warrant it and are themselves mechanisms for control), to have good control systems (simple and effective to monitor financial and task performance) and to have control of what it is that others should and should not be doing in order to meet objectives (Carlopio et al 77). The success at directing, regulating, restraining or encouraging individual and team efforts on the task (and in meetings) are the criteria for testing a leader's effectiveness as a 'controller'. Judgment is improved by analyzing impressions formed, discussing them with others and by making decisions about people more slowly and after deliberation. Decision-making, along with leadership and communication is one of the top three attributes a successful manager needs. It is a direct result of 'thinking' and you need to be able to 'think until it hurts'. There are usually several different decisions that can be taken and pressure to decide. Success in business stems from good quality management decisions first of all and then the effectiveness in implementation which depends on the skills of leadership, influencing, communication and motivation (Cole 94). SMART Short-Term Goals I will have to develop high social intelligence understand that environmental interest groups will do more than pressure their organization to improve its pollution prevention activities. These groups will simultaneously pressure politicians to take a stand, urge voters to call their political representatives, and attempt to convince the organization's distributors and buyers to go elsewhere (Cole 33). This understanding of the network of social relationships and the potential emotional reactions will encourage executive leaders to seek input from community organizations regarding the creation and operation of facilities or from environmental interest groups regarding pollution issues. In this manner, executive leaders not only show sensitivity to the concerns of their many stakeholder groups and work toward cooperative rather than hostile relationships with them, but they also increase the likelihood that the values of their organizations start to reflect the values of the interest groups. The organization comes to reflect in part the diverse perspectives of its stakeholder groups as its executive leaders' vision becomes more informed and their values are affected by the experience. I want to acquire more friends and business partners, improve my language skills and knowledge in business sphere and restaurant business. Long-Term Goals My career goals are to become an executive manager in hotel / restaurant business. As an executive leader, I have to develop and refine foresight by trying out ideas on their peers at a variety of social events associated with nonprofit and charitable organizations. Executive leaders from different organizations may serve, for example, on the board of trustees of a university, a business school, or an orchestra. In addition to their contributions to the performance and functioning of these institutions, these social activities allow the leaders to meet some of their peers in nonbusiness situations and thereby obtain others' opinions regarding their foresight for their own organizations. Executive leaders may feel reluctant to share rough or preliminary foresight ideas with internal members of the management team or the board of directors for fear of negative reputational effects, but they may share such ideas with peers external to their organization. . Testing preliminary ideas on knowledgeable, external parties provides, in effect, a peer review of the idea. Of course, judgment and caution need to be exercised in the exposure of preliminary vision ideas because they may be potentially appropriated by the peer or leaked to others. Executive leaders need to be sensitive to the emotions and values of the stakeholders of the organization as well as to the emotions of employees in their direct interactions with customers. I suppose that it is important for every person to reach financially free level and ensure stable economic position of the family. I am a family oriented person, so I plan to get marry and have a girl baby in 3-4- years. Although that conference does not affect car sales in the immediate future, it does provide executive leaders with the opportunity to develop insight into the current thinking of international political leaders. I suppose that a good leader starts incorporating some of the outcomes of the conference into their foresight, which will come to be reflected in their organizations' plans over the next ten to twenty years. The notion that executive leaders can develop part of their foresight through an exploration of long-term agendas of a wide variety of stakeholders also has implications for their behavioral repertoires. Such explorations by executive leaders with their stakeholders may result in expanded role repertoires, achieved through contemplating the potential behaviors that could be made in response to a realm of potential environmental scenarios (Charan et al 65). Works Cited 1. Carlopio, J., Andrewartha, G., and Armstrong, H. Developing Management Skills, Pearson: Australia, 2005. 2. Charan, R., Drotter, S., Noel, J. The Leadership Pipeline How to Build The Leadership-Powered Company, Jossey Bass: San Francisco, 2001 3. Cole, K., Management -Theory and Practice, Pearson: Australia, 2001. Read More