Leadership skills

In the field of leadership, it does consist of significant actions that help the members of the group complete their tasks successfully and also maintain good working relationships. During the class, there was a lot that we learned including corporate strategy, decision-making, structure, organizational goals, motivation, communication, organization change, leadership, and much more. There was a lot that I learned during the class about management and leadership. One thing I realized is that people are a significant part of the organization. Managers must keep in mind that accomplishing the essential tasks will only happen with the effort of people. Thus, it is necessary to have interpersonal and leadership skills so as to interact with people successfully.

Definition of leadership

Leadership is defined as an art of leading people to create results that would not happen otherwise. It involves the ability to set goals and taking them, inspiring people to perform well and also outperform the competitions. From the different definitions about leadership, it indicates that leaders must be able to create challenging results by enlisting the help of others. Leadership does involve guiding the workers on how to perform their roles and supervising the completion of the task. One important aspect of leadership is that leadership is not management. Most people use the term leadership in place of management and vice versa. However, the two terms are completely different. Good management is needed, and manager’s role involves planning, measuring, monitoring, solving, coordinating, and hiring among others (Fardon, 2015). Based on the role of managers, it shows that they manage things while the leaders lead people. Leaders usually encourage the followers while managers tell them what they should do. It is the responsibility of the leader to get people from where they are to where they have not been. The managers normally follow the policies and the procedures of the organization while the leaders tend to follow their instinct. In the organization setting, the management normally deals with the technical aspect of the organization and the leadership does deal with the people in the organization (Fardon, 2015).

Personal skills (strengths and weaknesses)

Successful leaders normally use their strengths in influencing others and aim to minimize their weaknesses that may interfere with their ability to lead. So as to be successful in what you do, it is important that you balance between your strengths and weaknesses. During this class, I learned that good leader must have effective communication skills. I consider one of my strengths as having the ability to communicate effectively. I am an excellent communicator, and I usually use this strength to ensure that I effectively communicate my views with people so as to help reduce misunderstanding. When using my communication skills, I can speak, listen, and write effectively, organize my thoughts logically, and explain things clearly.

My second strength is my creativity and the problem-solving ability. I do have superb problem-solving skills which clearly helps me when I am torn between two issues or when I encounter a problem. With the ability to solve problems, I can make transactions, process data, formulate ideas, and reach a sustainable solution. I also have the strength of flexibility, and I consider this strength as very essential mostly because I can adapt to change easily. Change is inevitable and is essential that we adapt to change so as to improve and also move forward (Tripathi & Reddy, 2008). With the strength of flexibility, I can be open to new ideas and concepts, which makes it easy for me to adapt to change easily whenever necessary.

One factor that I usually consider a weakness is my need to be liked by everyone. I understand that it is not possible for everyone to like you; however, I normally want to make sure that people are pleased with what I am doing and try very hard not to create any hate. I consider this as weaknesses because it makes it difficult to say no to someone who is asking a favor and may interfere with my principles. The need of always trying to please someone can also cloud my judgment resulting to making a wrong decision. I also present the weakness of lack of patience. The lack of patience can be a major problem and mostly when dealing with different people. Because of not being patient, it may lead to making decisions that are wrong because of failure of evaluating the consequences. The lack of patient is also a weakness as it may contribute to hurrying up a project that neglecting other essential factors of consideration.

Leadership experience

On 19th September 2016, I started a job where I worked as the supervisor in a restaurant. I worked as a supervisor in the restaurant for about four months where I performed a lot of roles. The restaurant was not very big, and as a supervisor, I was reporting directly to the owner of the business. In this job, I have the opportunity of working with the employees, and I also helped them perform their roles in situations where there were more clients in the restaurant than usual. Since I did not have any experience before this job, I had to observe what the business owner was doing, and that is how I learned about my job responsibilities. Since the employees in the organization had worked there longer than I did, I also considered learning from them so as to gain more knowledge on how things were done in the workplace.

As a leader, one should always be ready to learn from others (Tripathi & Reddy, 2008). I also allowed the employees to provide suggestions on how we can improve the services and our operations in the restaurant because the employees were the people who frequently interacted with the customers. Thus, they did have a better idea of what the restaurant needed to do so as to improve its services and ensure the success of the business. When working at the restaurant, I made sure that I created a good work environment and also ensured that I created a good relationship with employees. Despite not having any leadership experience, I tried to guide my employees and also involved them in my decisions so that to make sure that they feel acknowledged and appreciated for their work in the restaurant.

Leadership skills used

In my role as a supervisor in a restaurant, I used several skills that helped me accomplish my duty successfully. In this role, it provided me with a chance of developing my leadership skills. At first, I used my communication skills that greatly helped me as I interacted with people. With the help of my communication skills, I managed to communicate effectively with my employees and the customers. I provided employees with an environment where they were free to ask any questions and also provide their ideas that they believed would help improve the business. I made sure that I communicated clearly and provided them with instructions that were easy to understand so as to avoid any misunderstanding. Communication is very important and providing people with the right information at the right time is essential in ensuring effective understanding (Tripathi & Reddy, 2008). Another leadership skill I used was problem-solving skills. In every work environment, problems tend to occur, and the manner in which one responds to the issue will determine the success or failure. Thus, so as to solve the problems, I made sure that I evaluated the situation from all angles so as to determine the best solution for that particular problem. My problem-solving ability contributed a lot to my success as a supervisor in the restaurant. There were several skills that I applied for my job such as respect, trust, courage, and listening skills among others.

Summary

Taking this class has had a significant impact on my understanding of leadership, management, and different aspects relating to the organization. I have learned that leadership involves creating a team that is committed to achieving their objectives, encouraging the team members to provide their best, and having a plan for achieving the different objectives. Leaders must be ready to guide their followers throughout the process so as to achieve the intended results. So as to be an effective leader, it is important t identify your strengths and work to minimize your weaknesses.

Reference

Reddy, P & Tripathi, P (2008) Principles of management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Fardon, R (2015). Leadership and management. Xlibris Corporation.

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