COMMUNICATION

    The art of communication is defined as "the process of transferring information, meaning, and understanding from sender to receiver" (Hitt et al, 673). There are a variety of forms of communication; they include: written and verbal communication, oral presentations, giving and receiving feedback, and utilizing appropriate technology. I believe that communication is perhaps the most essential area in managerial activities and is key to developing healthy and effective relationships. I believe I am an effective communicator and on a scale from one to ten, I would rate myself a 7.

    In the area of communication, my strengths include verbal, oral presentations, and giving and receiving feedback. I can effectively communicate my thoughts and feelings through words. I love to speak, especially about subjects I have knowledge on and are passionate about. I can sit down and conversate with someone for hours on end and translate my internal thoughts and feelings to them with ease. I also find pleasure in participating in debates. I can effectively present an argument, provide evidence, and attempt to persuade my audience. As mentioned previously, I love to speak so giving oral presentations are something that I enjoy. I actually get a kind of a rush when I speak and give presentations in front of my peers and others. I do feel nervousness when I’m in front of people speaking, but it’s that nervousness that gives me the rush I speak of and I thrive off of it. But for the most part, I believe that I am comfortable speaking in front of people and can move past my initial nervousness and still communicate effectively with my audience.

    Another one of my strengths in the area of communication is the ability to give and receive feedback. I believe I can give feedback to someone in an appropriate way and at the appropriate time. Many people find it difficult to express their genuine feelings and thoughts about something to others because of fear that they might offending. 

    My weaknesses in the area of communication include written communication and utilizing appropriate technology. For written communication I find it difficult to translate my thoughts onto a sheet of paper. I can easily say what I am thinking or want to argue to a person or in an oral presentation, but this ease decreases when I have to translate verbal arguments into organized and coherent sentences. I believe it is extremely important to be an effective writer and this is why I plan on minoring in English in hopes that it will strengthen my writing ability and wriiten communication. I know that writing will be a crucial skill to have in whatever profession I choose to do. Another personal weakness I believe I have in communication is the ability to utilize appropriate technology. Computers have never been my specialty, although at many times I wish this was not the case. Considerig that our society is advancing in technology every minute of the day and computers are becoming more of everday life than they have ever been before, I believe being computer savvy is just as important as being an effective writer. Almost everything is computer and internet orientated now and in order for me to be an attractive candidate in any future occupations, I have to have a significant amount of knowledge about computers and their corresponding programs. Fortunately for myself, as a Sociology major one of my requirements is to take a computer technology class that focuses on programs such as Exel, Word Processing, and other presentation software. I believe this class will be the first step in improving my ability to utilize appropriate technology.

TEAMWORK

    Besides leadership, I believe that my ability to work in a team is perhaps one of my strongest qualities. My strengths include what I can contribute to the overall team success, ability to work well with others, and conflict management. I do not like to disappoint people, so whenever I find myself working in a team atmosphere, I always make sure that my duty for the completion of an assignment or project is completed to the best of my abilities. If I were not do so, not only would I be hurting myself, but I would be hurting others. I feel most comfortable when I am the team leader when involved in group work. In this position, I personally can make sure all the necessary steps are being taken in order for the successful completion of an assignment. I think my ability to work as an effective team leader also has a positive affect on my conflict management. Conflicts are inevitable occurrences in life in general and I believe that they need to be accepted and dealt with in an effective manner. It is because of this mentality, I think I can deal with conflicts relatively well. I do no dwell on them and let them side-track me from my goals. When conflicts arise, I look for the best strategy in solving them and continue to do what needs to be done in order for the team and I to be effective and successful. Either as a team leader or member, I believe I possess the ability to work well with others. I am a social person and enjoy meeting new people, so I believe that opportunities to collaborate with others are blessings. I have made a lot of good friends just by being working with them on projects as a team.

     I believe that one of my strengths in teamwork can also be looked upon as a weakness. As I noted previously, I more comfortable and work most effectively when I am the leader in a team. It is somewhat difficult for me to depend on others to get the work done. I prefer to get it done myself or personally make sure that people are doing what they need to do. Just as much as I do not like disappointing others, I do not like others disappointing me. I think I have gotten caught up in the idea that to prevent others from disappointing me, I need to take upon the leadership role so that I can monitor their progress in completing their assigned duty. I believe the solution to extinguishing this weakness is to have more faith in people and get accustomed to not always having a leadership position.

SELF-MANAGEMENT

    In order to be successful in whatever one does, one has to be able to manage their own behavior. I believe I can do this and my strengths in regard to this include: understanding ethical issues and responsibility toward commitments. I do not have a cut-throat approach in the things I do in life. Although some may view this as a weakness, I view it as a strength. Abiding by the rules of ethics is more important to me than achieving instant success through cut-throat tactics. I believe I can recognize and understand ethical issues and incorporate them into the way I manage my own behavior. My responsibility toward commitments is something I personally take pride in. I have to complete what is required of me, I cannot just let a commitment go. As noted previously, I do not like disappointing others, but I especially do not like disappointing myself. My conscious is my coach: always urging me on and pushing me toward my goals.

    My weaknesses in the area of self-management include: tolerance of ambiguity and the lack of a strong and stable work ethic. Ambiguity is something that I allow to frustrate me. I do not like not knowing what to do or when to do it. I work most effectively when I have a kind of template for a task. I believe my work is more organized when I have directions on how and when to do something. Organization is key to my success in accomplishing a task or goal, and I think ambiguity negatively affects my organization. I think the only way I can deal with this weakness is to work through ambiguous tasks and not let them frustrate me as much as I do. I just need to keep a calm head when faced with ambiguity. Another one of my weaknesses is maintaining a strong and stable work ethic. I can never seem to remain keep one going. I will start off strong and then slack off. An example of this is how I behave throughtout the academic quarter at UC Irvine. The beginning of the quarter, I will have a strong work ethic where I will start all my work ahead so that I can avoid doing things last minute. By the end of the quarter, I lose the strong work ethic and procrastination starts to kick in. This viciuos cycle is one that I have yet to conquer, but I am improving as each quarter goes by.

LEADERSHIP

    Before taking Managing in Comtemporary Organizations, I believed had believed that leadership was one of my strongest qualities.  I know how to develop realistic goals and influence others to achieve them.  However, after taking this class I have realized that there is so many more aspects of leadership to determine whether one is a qualified leader.  Aspects that I've never thought of before but have learned in this class include:  global issue awareness and diversity awareness and leverage. 

    The ability to think globally and the ability to recognize diversity are my two weaknesses in the area of leadership.  I believe I have a tendency to only think about what is going on around me and not all over the world.  In this sense, I have a very narrow scope and consequently I fail to realize the effects global issues can have on local or domestic issues.  I definitely need to broaden my horizons and I hope to accomplish this when I study abroad next fall quarter in Spain.  I believe going to a foreign country will allow me to travel outside of my comfort zone and allow me to think a little bit more globally than before. 

CONCEPTUAL SKILLS

    I believe I have a good ability to think conceptually. My strengths in this area include: problem solving and critical/analytical thinking and creativity. I enjoy being challenged and I perceive tasks that require problem solving strategies and analytical thinking as challenges. I believe the benefits of solving a problem are much more rewarding when the problem itself was a challenge. I feel a lot more better about my abilities when I am able to solve a challenging task. My confidence improves and subsequently, my conceptual skills improve. I also love to be creative. I enjoy developing new ideas or improving old ones and being directly involved in a project. A prospective career of mine is real estate because I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to flex my creativity by taking old run down properties and refurbishing them into beautiful homes.

    A weakness that I possess in the area of conceptual skills is my ability to make decisions. I will be the first to admit that I am an indecisive person. I think about things entirely way too long before I make a decision. I definitely do not possess the ability of quick decison making. This weakness perhaps is my most irritating one because even the most simple of decisions I find daunting. I do not like making mistake and I focus too much and too long on the negative consequences of decisions and I become frustrated to the point where I do not want to make a decision at all. This is something I am working on improving at the moment. I try not to focus on the negative aspects and try to accept the idea that I will make mistakes in life and I should learn from them and move on.

PROFESSIONALISM

    I believe I have a strong and positive managerial presence.  As far as my personal presence is concerned, I have been told many times that I have a mature presence for someone my age.  I believe I have the ability to be professional when the time requires me to be.  As an undergraduate facilitator for a class at UC Irvine (AIDS Fundamentals), professionalism was definitely somethin I needed to establish.  Many of my students were either the same age as I was or older, so in order for them to take me seriously I had be professional when the time required me to be. 

    Taking initiative is also another strength of mine.  From the time I was a young child, my father has always encouraged me to take the initiative when I am able to do so.  I always keep his words of advice in my mind when opportunities where I can take the initiative arise.  I enjoy doing things without being told to do them or before I'm told to do them.  But at the same time, I believe I have a good sense of when and when not to take the initiative.  Not all situations require me to do so and I believe it's important to maintain a balance. 

     If I could sum up in two words what is unique about me I would use the words dedicated and determined.  I REFUSE to give up at any task.  The word failure is not in my vocabularly and is never an option for me.