COMMUNICATION
Strengths: Communication is a vital talent that everyone must posses as it plays an important role in ones life. We use communication through our voice tones, our words, our actions, our gestures, and much more as a way to communicate with one another. In order for one to be successful, communication skills are a necessity. I am a very warm, funny person that connects quickly and positively with others. When you make a person laugh, you create an instant connection with one another. There are several types of communication such as communication within small talk and communication among groups and communication towards large audiences through presentations and announcements. Each one of these assets requires a different type of communication and attitude. These qualities have been obtained through my job at a restaurant along with the constant encounters I have had with people throughout my life. When taking the Diversity Awareness assessment I came to a conclusion that race, sex, nor culture effects my actions or decisions in any way.
Weaknesses: When it comes to verbal communication, a problem I constantly find myself dealing with is vocabulary. My vocabulary is not very sophisticated and there tends to be a lack of professional terms when I speak to individuals in a one-on-one basis or even in a presentation. High vocabulary is key in better presenting oneself as professional. Though my sophisticated terminology is very basic, I find myself accumulating more and more as time goes on. The more I find it necessary to enhance my vocabulary, the more determined I am to gain more knowledge.
TEAMWORK
Strengths: Teamwork is something I treasure. Throughout my life I have participated in many organizations that depend on working with others, such as athletic teams, design teams, group projects, film groups, etc. By working with multiple groups, I have encountered different types of people who have possessed many varieties of talents and abilities. This has shaped my teamwork skills positively while teaching me to prioritize as well as how to distribute work among a group of individuals. I personally enjoy taking charge and becoming the group leader as this allows me to show my ability because it allows me to perform at a top level when it comes to teamwork. I do not like to take chances and I do not like to delay, therefore begin things promptly. I enjoy working in groups rather than individually because within a group, input is presented by multiple people with multiple minds and multiple opinions. Having a diverse group of thoughts and ideas provide options, and options allow a group to discuss the positive and negative factors. I work extremely well with everyone and anyone, this being proved when I took the Are You A Team Player assessment. I received an extremely high score on this assessment, confirming that I can easily work in any type of team.
Weaknesses: There are bound to be weaknesses about working with a team, I thought there were none until I took the Are You A Team Player assessment and realized that I have difficulty speaking up when I disagree with someone. I tend to listen and agree because I have a fear of hurting their feelings, however when I strongly disagree with someone, I find myself stating the flaws of the idea before the positive aspects of it which is not necessarily a good thing.
SELF-MANAGEMENT
Strengths: Self-management is used to balance and assess all aspects and activities within a person’s life. Self-management can either come naturally or must be practiced for full success. I have learned self-management through all the different activities I participated in throughout high school and college. I do well when I abide by my planner, which helps me accomplish everything necessary at the correct time. As I stated earlier, during high school I participated in many sports, along with these sports I had a job. This was a job that many people strived to have therefore required my best effort. From school to practice to another practice to work to home for homework, I accumulated great time management skills. On top of all this, I was extremely social and had a wonderful life outside of all this business. By keeping active and busy, I was a very happy individual therefore all the work I did was done at my best.
Weaknesses: On top of all this stuff I participated in, I found myself beginning to slack on one aspect of my life that was very crucial to me at the time. I was in an art academy at my high school; therefore I found little time to actually work on my projects outside of my fifty minute class every day. Sometimes it was necessary to do extra work so I would be able to finish my portfolio by the end of the year. This proves that sometimes I may put too much on my plate at once, meaning I make myself busier than I can handle at times. This then leads to me stressing out and continuously thinking about that ONE LITTLE thing that I must do, yet can’t find time for. When I took the Personal Values assessment, it showed that I prioritize my Family, Social, Physical, and Financial situations. Yes, these are all good categories, however is the Physical really more important to me than Professional, or Intellectual? Sometimes one must prioritize specific things and in order to do that, must sacrifice something else they care so dearly about.
LEADERSHIP
Strengths: I live almost everyday of my life setting goals that I aim to accomplish. When it comes to groups, goals must be agreed upon by others in order to achieve the desired result. Within my sorority, we must set weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for ourselves to accomplish. These goals are set by multiple members with different positions who work together towards achieving the final objective. I am one of these leaders and have helped my sorority achieve the “Sports Trophy,” which is a final award that goes to the team that accumulated the most sports victories throughout the calendar year. My position requires that I call girls, recruit them for the teams, and encourage others to come support the games. When taking the Leadership Style assessment, I found that I have more leadership concern for task rather than people. This is good in a sense that I prioritize getting the job done rather than the people that are involved in it. This basically shows that I don’t care who the people are or how they get it done as long as the goal is met.
Weaknesses: Relating back to the Leadership Style assessment, I believe that the fact that I have more concern for task rather than people could also be a bad thing. Leading people is extremely important when it comes to time management, and if they are lazy unwilling people who aren’t very punctual, this can end up being harmful to the objective. Some people do not always put forth their best effort, especially when someone else could have done a better job. When people work well together, it also gives them a better chance to achieve a particular task. So it is not that I should be concerned more with task or more with people, but concerned with them equally because they correspond with one another. Without people there is no task, therefore concern for people within a group project is vital and tremendously important.
CONCEPTUAL SKILLS
Strengths: I am very good at solving problems, as this is something I have great success with. I work incredibly hard until I figure out what the problem is, how it came about, and how to get rid of it. I think very strategically as I work things out in my head. A good example of this is my job as a hostess at the busiest restaurant in Santa Barbara. Every other minute or so, I must be looking around at tables, estimate when people are planning on leaving, where to sit old people verses young people, and where to sit people who are going to be eating for a long time verses the quick eaters. On top of this I must work with customers who complain constantly about the wait while kindly informing them of the situation. Trying to calm down a furious, impatient, hungry person with barely any room to stand in a noisy restaurant while still paying attention to the other customers is quite difficult task, yet I’ve managed to master it. I believe that the ability to talk to people is very important in the management business. One must learn to keep calm, and present the situation while explaining the reasons and/or solutions to it. I took the Innovative Attitude Scale assessment and scored surprisingly high, reassuring my confidence of people communication and problem solving. I approach things with open arms and new ideas, which have shown me nothing but success.
Weaknesses: Conceptual skills can only go so far, my greatest weakness is decision making. This is a horrible quality to not have because managers must be excellent decision makers. On top of decision making, when looking back at the Innovative Attitude Scale assessment, I realized that I rarely ever speak out in class or in meetings because of my fear of speaking in big groups, constantly thinking I am being judged. I fear that others will disagree with my thoughts and ideas. Although these are my weaknesses, every meeting I try to build up my confidence by addressing at least one issue. This has progressed so much within the past few months that now I am beginning to state my opinions continuously and confidently. I have found that even if others do not agree, they still listen.
PROFESSIONALISM
Strengths: I believe that professionalism could be looked at in two different lights. One could contain professionalism through actions, being presentable, talking with sophistication and keeping themselves poised. An alternative form of professionalism can be presented through responsibility and initiative that one takes when completing a task or a managerial position. In the aftermath of taking the My Productivity Motivators assessment, I have come to a conclusion that I am more concerned with psychological improvements as a motivator, therefore I consider good relationships with one another in a group is more important than the physical improvements. When people are happy with whom they work amongst, more work is accomplished and it is completed with more ease rather than a group of individuals who have bad relations. A leader must consider all aspects of a situation including the relations among the workers, which is often overlooked; therefore this is something I approach more intently. When others speak I listen and conceptualize the information they are portraying, while using it to my advantage or the groups. I am an excellent listener, which is an imperative quality to possess among a leadership position because leaders must listen and abide by others opinions in order to make their individual ideas a success. It is like a puzzle, everyone provides input and all is taken into consideration, finalizing an idea into a perfect outcome.
Weaknesses: When it comes to leadership, individuals must be hard working and when I took the Are You Self-Empowered assessment, it was verified that I have a negative attitude towards difficult problems that seem impossible to solve. This attitude that sometimes compromises me is not a very good leadership quality, and I tend to put this workload on someone else in the group. On top of this, I have a hard time accessing my connections towards specific things. If I know people who have access to resources I need, I find trouble building up the courage to ask for their help. Despite this weakness, with good relations among one another, we can support each other’s work and help out others with problems that need to be solved.
CONCLUSION
Before writing this, I never realized how much strength towards managerial practices I possessed yet I always managed to know my weaknesses. This has given me more confidence to improve on my weaknesses and enhance my strengths throughout the rest of my undergraduate experience. First and foremost, my vocabulary increases daily and I make a note to practice it regularly for further improvement. Within the Public Health major, I am required to create continuous class presentations, therefore improving my leadership skills as well as my ability to communicate. I plan to take the “group leader” position in my upcoming years, which will advance my leadership and increase my confidence of public speaking. I look forward to accomplishing these challenges and goals I have made for myself.