Communication

Communication is probably the weakest of my managerial qualities.  However, I am not at a total loss in this area.  My strengths in demonstrating my ability to share my ideas and findings with others comes to me best through my writing skills and technological utilization.  It is very easy for me to find the right words to express my ideas and make them clear.  I feel that writing is more informal and less pressure is on me to be flawless.  Also, I have more time to work on my ideas and get all my thoughts out before I have to sort them out.  This makes me feel less stressed and more comfortable working by myself – and in front of myself.  Technology is another one of my strengths because I am “technologically savvy.”  In my job as an attendance tracking system representative, I had to work with a palm pilot in order to obtain guest information and transfer all of it into a computer database.  Because of this, I find myself at ease when prompted or allowed to use such methods.  I do not have much trouble organizing information and displaying it through technology.  I know that I will be successful in any job with either, or both, of these skills involved much more than one with a greater deal of public speaking.

So if you have not figured it out by now, I am not a public speaker.  My extremely major weaknesses in communication fall under the categories of oral presentations and giving and receiving feedback.  The obvious reason I am bad at oral presentations is because I have a very difficult time speaking in front of people.  I am just one of those many people who have are overwhelmingly afraid of it.  As for giving and receiving feedback, there is a simple reason for my lack of strength.  I do not like conflict.  I do not like the idea of conflict.  I would rather not say anything to someone that would make them dislike me or look at me in a different (negative) light.  So I tend not to give much feedback, unless it is positive reinforcement.  Receiving feedback is a minor problem for me, but I am progressing.  I used to have a very difficult time taking constructive criticism because I saw it as a way of calling me inadequate.  However, I have developed (and received enough “constructive criticism”) to be able to just take comments as they are said and not as a personal attack.  I am very confident in my writing and technological skills to help me be an effective manager.  However, I know my skills in oral presentations and giving and receiving feedback will be an integral part in developing into an effective communicator.

Teamwork

            Teamwork is one of my better attributes of management.  I work very effectively in teams because I like working with people and being able to contribute.  This is probably why a good strength of mine is team contribution.  I feel a great sense of gratification knowing that I was part of a decision or action.  Being on a football team all four years of high school has taught me a great deal about being part of a team and contributing.  Negotiation and consensus building is another one of my better qualities because I lean toward find a rational solution that suits the needs of both parties.  I can assess the desires of both groups and come up with a logical solution to satisfy everyone.  Both effective team contribution and negotiation and consensus building will be good skills to possess on my way to a job in a management position.

            My major weakness in teamwork is conflict management.  According to Schermerhorn’s “Conflict Management Styles” self-assessment, I have a tendency to avoid conflict, and I am extremely accommodating.  And as I said in the section about communication: “I do not like conflict.”  So in most cases I will avoid conflict either by moving away from it physically or preventing it by accommodating everyone.  Now team leadership is a confusing attribute for me.  The reason is because there are some situations that I can take control of and lead my team to achieve our goal.  But there are other times that I just want to sit back and take direction from someone else.  For instance, my football team is led by me because I am the quarterback and I make all the decisions on the field.  However, in situations pertaining to school, such as projects or presentations, I fall into the background and wait for someone to step up and give direction.  I think this is greatly related to my ability to speak in front of people and my conflict management skills.  In football, I know that my decisions will reflect back on me, but I am more confident in my decisions because I know the game so well and my teammates will listen to me with very little chance of disagreement.  However, in a group project or presentation, everyone has a great deal of input and can contradict my direction quite easily.  This is important because it reflects how I feel in a leadership position.  I feel more comfortable in a situation with little conflict and more direction taking as opposed to a situation with distributed power and a much higher chance of conflict.  I know I need to work on this uncertainty in team leadership as well as my conflict management styles to optimize my teamwork skills.

Self-Management

            My self-management is another area that I excel in.  I have a natural ability to evaluate myself, modify my behavior to fit each specific situation, and meet obligations.  My strengths of self-management include ethical understanding/behavior, personal flexibility, and performance responsibility.  I hold my ethics very high, which almost forces me to make good ethical decisions that reflect in my behavior.  My personal flexibility is a strong attribute of mine, but can be developed much more.  In situations where unexpected obstacles arise, I am able to find a quick and effective solution to take care of it.  This can be seen in situations where negotiations and consensus is required.  In these situations, I am able to modify my decisions and consider the input of other team members.  My performance responsibility is a high priority for me.  I hold myself accountable for every choice I make and every word I say.  This may cause the abnormal amount of stress I have in my life.  According to Schermerhorn’s “Stress Self-Test” self-assessment, I “tend to bring high stress on [myself] even in situations where others are relatively stress-free.”  Often, this is because of my over-analytical nature.  I take every decision very personally when I am responsible for the outcome.  My ethical understanding/behavior, personal flexibility, and performance responsibility are points in my self-management quality that I will continue to use to progress and ready myself for a future career.

            Tolerance for ambiguity, however, is one attribute that I do not have on my side.  I have a hard time executing tasks when I do not know the details or objectives.  If I do not see a purpose for performing a task, I may question its relevance and importance.  This may be a negative result of being over-analytical, as I discussed earlier.  My self-management is exceptional, but my tolerance for ambiguity is a skill I will need to become more comfortable with in order to perform well in today’s fast-changing world full of unexpected turns.

Leading

My ability to influence and support others to perform complex and ambiguous tasks can be lumped somewhere in the middle as a management skill.  My strengths in leading include diversity awareness and strategic leadership.  I have a good sense of diversity awareness because I grew up with many different cultures and ethnic groups.  My hometown has a rather mixed group of people.  They may be different if ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or status.  But growing up in such a diverse setting, I was able to learn at an early stage how to be aware of others’ feelings and respect them.  My results from Schermerhorn’s “Diversity Awareness” self-assessment give me insight on how sensitive I really am to diversity.  I also notice at least one situation almost daily where people are put at a disadvantage because of their differences.  Just by walking around school, it is easy to notice people and the groups they hang out with.  The jocks hang out with jocks, the rich girls with expensive purses and similar clothing hang out together, the “geeks” hang out with “geeks”, and the list goes on.  Being aware of diversity in today’s world is a big advantage that will be useful in any future career I jump into.  My strategic leadership is an example of another useful quality in a future profession.  I have an ability to find the simple solutions to achieve goals and be efficient about it.  This ability comes from a basic tendency to observe details and take them into account when making a decision.  Also, playing quarterback for my intramural football team has solidified my ability to come up with simple strategies to be victorious.

The reason leading falls somewhere in the middle of the pile is because although I have two strengths in diversity awareness and strategic leadership, I have two weaknesses in global awareness and project management.  According to Schermerhorn’s “Global Readiness Index” self-assessment, my global knowledge and work skills are below average, while my global mindset is on the border.  These results tell me that I need to increase my desire to learn more about other nations and cultures in order to further develop my global work skills, and that I am just as respectful of cultural differences as the next person.  My project management is a major weakness because it involves a great deal of team leadership – something I do not have a great deal of.  My skills in project management are very introvert because of my personality.  Being a shy person, I feel reserved when it comes to telling another person what to do.  This can all be related back to my skills, or lack there of, in conflict management.  I do not like putting myself in situations where I can come off as mean or too overbearing.  These two weaknesses leave me at a disadvantage in becoming an effective manager in the future since a good manager needs to be aware of global as well as local policies and have a good sense of project management.

Critical Thinking

            Critical thinking, or the ability to gather and analyze information for creative problem solving, is my best managerial attribute.  My greatest strength in this category is information gathering and interpretation.  My analytical nature leads me to naturally observe my surroundings and interpret what my senses gather.  I have always been a detail-oriented person, but playing football all throughout high school has made me immeasurably more detail-oriented because my coach stressed it so much.  I pay attention to every little detail and interpret it to the highest degree.  This high level of attention to detail helps a great deal in my judgment and decision making as well as problem solving.  Needless to say, my decision making and problem solving style are very objective.  This asset, I believe, will allow me to be a fair manager to all my employees and co-workers.

            My only weakness in my critical thinking is my creativity and innovation skills.  This is mostly due to my objective nature.  Since I focus more on facts and details, I almost close my mind off to creative thinking and “out-of-the-box” decisions.  There may be a lean toward programmed decisions, where there are high levels of certainty and problems are simply formulated and solved.  This weakness will keep me from attaining a managerial position where decisions must be made with no precedent.  As of right now I am more compatible with a position with clear objectives and solutions to possible problems.

Professionalism

            The final attribute of being a manager is professionalism.  Sustaining a positive impression, instilling confidence, and advancing in a career are all abilities I am very capable of demonstrating.  In my last job and my current one, I had to or have to display a high level of professionalism at all times.  Having had jobs like these and working with so many different types of people, I have been able to develop personal presence, personal initiative, career management, and unique “value added” into strengths of mine.  Personal presence is one of my strengths because I am always ready to pick up any task my job asks of me, even if it is not in my job description.  This establishes my presence in the workplace and lets my supervisor know that I am willing to help the team despite personal sacrifices.  Personal initiative is another of my strengths because I try to get a project up and running as soon as possible so it can be accomplished and the next project can be started.  According to Schermerhorn’s “Time Orientation” self-assessment, I have a stronger tendency toward monochronic time orientation.  This means I approach “time in a linear fashion with things dealt with one at a time in an orderly fashion... [I] [value] punctuality and promptness.”  Career management is a high priority on my list because I am always looking to advance in a career.  The reason I have so many jobs is because I am still looking for something that interests me and appeals to my goals and values.  I do not remain in a career unless I see a good future for myself in it with a desirable future.  This brings me to the final quality of professionalism – unique “value added.”  Unique “value added” is yet another of my strengths because my hard work and agreeable personality has helped me develop good relationships with my supervisors and draw interest for me to return the following year.

As for weaknesses, I cannot think of any in professionalism.  I feel very comfortable with my qualities of professionalism and I do not see anything that would prevent me from obtaining a profession I could be successful in with these skills.

Conclusion

            I am only a second year and I still have a long way to go.  I am in the process of meeting the requirements to declare my major and management minor.  I do not have a clear path set out for me.  I do not even have a clear destination.  But this self-analysis has made me realize that I am not cut out to be the type of manager who controls an entire company and makes all the decisions for all employees.  Right now, I see myself as capable of handling a management position with programmed decisions.  Hopefully, in my next couple years here at UCI, I will be able to develop the managerial qualities that I am currently weak in and progress into a universal manager who is capable of handling the jobs that require non-programmed decisions as well as programmed decisions.