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Class/ Training Summary
I was among the students in the Principles of management class from the 22nd day of January 2018 to the 11th day of May 2018. During this period, I learned some fundamental leadership principles such as effective communication and decision making skills that improved my leadership skills as well as the concept of management. I also learned about the differences between leadership and management and how one can be a great leader. I learned that leadership skills are essential for one to become a great engineer. In addition to learning about the principles of leadership, I learned about the ways of applying those concepts in the real world.
Definition of Leadership
Leadership is a practical skill, which includes the ability of a person, people or an organization to lead other individuals or teams (Ulrich & Smallwood, 2012). Leaders are therefore required to create a vision for the team they are leading and set the direction that will help the team in achieving its goals. An effective leader should thus form a vision that is inspiring, motivate and guide the team they are leading and managing the delivery of the vision. Managerial skills in leadership come in the sense that leaders need to guide and manage their teams in the right direction and in an efficient way. Therefore, leadership and management go hand in hand and are complementary to one another.
There are some differences between leadership and management with the main one being that leaders have people who are following them while managers have people who work under them. Therefore, leadership involves the leaders getting the people they lead to understand and believe in the vision that they set so that they may work towards the achievement of their goal; it can happen in either a formal or an informal setting. Management, on the other hand, involves administering and ensuring daily activities are happening per the plan, hence occurs in a formal context.
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My strengths as a leader include being able to lead people effectively. After attending the leadership class, my leadership skills including communication and decision-making skills improved tremendously. I believe I am now a better leader. My weaknesses were majorly evident before my leadership class. For instance, I used to work at Fetch Neighbor LLC in 2017 and my poor leadership skills in both decision making and communication affected employees who were working under my supervision in that the team never attained its targets. However, that has now changed.
Description of Leadership activity
I had a leadership experience to help me in practicing what I had learned in class. I worked as an operations manager at Fetch Neighbor from May 29th to August 21st, 2018. It is the same company which I worked in, in 2017. Contrary to my previous stint where my leadership skills were poor, they were great this time and my communication and decision-making skills as the operations manager were excellent. I led a team in the operations department, and we achieved the goal of streamlining the operations of the company.
Leadership Skills in Practice
There are some leadership principles, which I learned in class that helped me in the execution of my leadership activity. While working as the operations manager at Fetch Neighbor, my tasks included leading a team to ensure all operations of the firm run well. Herein, I used my leadership skills and team working skills when executing my roles. For instance, I provided direction and motivated the team to deliver the expected results. I looked at the strengths of the members and assigned each of them tasks that corresponded with their strengths. Team members found it easy working since they were using the skills that they have to work. That was a step closer to achieving our objectives.
Time management is also crucial, and every task had a time scale, and we managed to complete the projects on time. A leader should have excellent communication skills. As a leader with excellent communication skills, I communicated well to my team and ensured that each member clearly understood the objectives, and hence the reason for success. For instance, I was given the task of streamlining the operations department and ensuring the operations are running well. Due to the great communication skills that I had, I managed to pass that information to my team and in the end we achieved our goal.
Conclusion
The results of my leadership skills while working at Fetch Neighbor LLC include the operations of the firm running well and as required. My communication skills were top notch; the team clearly understood the vision due to the effective communication skills. I was clear in everything and motivated the team to work towards the achievement of the set objectives. I delegated work and gave each member a specific duty that corresponded with their skills. That helped in ensuring quality delivery of end product. We were successful as the team achieved its objectives. The skills will be instrumental in the future as I will effectively communicate with the teams I lead and make decisions accordingly.
