Commitment to Self-Improvement
Name of the Student
Institution of Affiliation
Commitment to Self-Improvement
Introduction
The credibility of a leader lies in his ability to be effective. A leader can only be effective through working through others so as to achieve common goals and objectives. A leader who is not credible will always have great problems in influencing his followers to achieve success (Charles, & Jones, 2008). As an organizational leader, I will be required to link timely and relevant plans with performance ability and behaviors necessary to achieve corporate goals. I must have abilities to blend human ability and talent, put puzzle together and join them with strategic directives. I should also have ability to lead the organization to change, shape the organization’s culture, and leverage the assets of the organization with an aim of attaining successful results. In this report, I will lay down a plan that will help in inspiring and fostering commitment to professional growth and improvement in leadership, communication and technology area as it is linked to organizational leadership.
My personal mission statement
A personal Mission Statement is a very powerful tool in leadership since it provides a leader with a success path and gives him permission to go against things that he believes are distractions (Colin & Sharon, 2016). As a leader my personal stamen is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I chose this personal statement because I came to realize that as a Christian, my life in not my own but rather it belongs to God. With this realization, I fully decided to rest my actions and thoughts in the ways of Christ. With this in mind, I always know that though life may not always go well and major challenges may arise specially in my career, I can rely on Christ’s wisdom and guidance to get through successfully. I have taught myself to accept any form of challenge and instead of giving up, I use each challenging moment in my career as a moment to learn more. With this attitude, I manage to overcome and even conquer very complicated situations in my career.
My personal statement reminds me that God want us to look beyond our circumstances; He wants us to look unto Christ for help and guidance. I have learnt to trust God in my career and to experience Him in my daily operations. Through the strength of Christ, I am able as a leader to become wiser, stronger and better and much so to treat my followers better as Christ would want me too. God’s word is what strengthens me in all situations. As leader who is attached to Christian ideology, I am committed to ethical leadership that is free of any form of discrimination, bias or favor. I am totally compliant to high professional standards when executing my daily duties. Christ was full of wisdom and always loved teaching his followers, as such I have committed myself to life-long training in leadership with an aim of becoming better in my everyday life. To be more attached to Christian leadership, I value prayers as well as bible reading where I get major inspirations’ on good leadership. In terms of communication, I include my followers in all decision making and also allow them to freely communicate their views, feelings or complaints directly to me. It is this way that the organization is able to become productive due to job satisfaction attained by the workers.
Professional Value
As I mentioned earlier, my EdD concentration is organizational leadership. Nevertheless, I also have major experiences in leadership having also worked as an assistant store manager. Great advancement made in communication and technology has majorly impacted leadership in organizational leadership in major ways. The current modern organizations are complex and adaptive schemes where technology and humans greatly mix and interact. High technologies have been utilized in enhancing productivity as well as initiating innovative and effective organizational structures (Nicholas, Luis, Raffaella & John, 2010). As such, these new organizations have become more competitive and enjoy higher economic value. Technology has also had major effects in many other sections of an organization. For instance, through Information Systems, I will be able to make better analytic view of the organization as a leader than I would have done before technology majorly advanced. I will also be able to delegate duties and communicate better through platforms like online tools and emails among other virtual platforms.
Indeed, advancement in communication is really effective on organizational level. The face of communication has totally been altered through mobile phone, E-mail, and Instant messenger applications (Alfonzo, 2014). As a leader I can work comfortably even from home through application of Smart phones and Web Conferences. Notably, there have been decline in the cost of data processing and storage, hence making it easy for employees to access data information. Employees are able to communicate with ease amongst themselves and with their leaders through the widely spread wireless technology, email and mobile phones hence improving cohesion within organizations. Information-based software has also been very effective in organizational level since it helps in pushing down decisions through corporate hierarchy, while communication technologies like mobile phones have helped push decisions upward in an organization (Alfonzo, 2014).
Advancement in communication and technology has led to modernizing the workplace. These advancements have impacted how time is spent with an organization. As an organizational leader, communication and technology advancements will help me optimize time management and will also lighten the ability to manage daily duties. The efforts and productivity will also be improved, something that will allow them to concentrate more on creativity and precision. As a leader, I will enjoy faster delivery of results since technology has a way of making complicated tasks easy. Advanced technology and communication will also enhance collaboration in my organization which is also very important in overall success of a company. There is a high level of communication that has been facilitated by the advancement in technology. I will easily be able to communicate with employees and other leaders at any place and at any time. The increased collaboration will in turn pave way for flexibility which will facilitate partnership among workers regardless of where they are.
Any organizational leader aims at improving the cost management of the organization he/she is working for. Achieving profitability is the goal of any organization which is easily attained through the advanced technology. Availability of innovative software and technological equipment will pave way for fiscal health within the organization, which in turn results in better outcomes. Lastly, the advancement in communication and technology will impact my leadership as an organizational leader through heightened security level. Good software and technology channels help prevent information compromise. Good technology will help ensure that vital organization information is only available to the right people and that no breach of information takes place.
Areas of excellence
My greatest strength in leadership is ability to manage time and high motivation. In any organization, time is always constant and can never be reversed(Butler & Hope, 2007). It is said that time wasted can never be recovered. It is also said that time cannot be substituted with anything. It is this knowledge that makes me very conscious with time. For time to be efficient, then it must be well managed. As a leader, I manage time excellently through managing the process of decision making, rather than managing the decisions; doing a task at a time; establishing priorities; communicating effectively and on time; creating deadlines; keeping appointments time; never idling; creating effective and strict agendas in meetings; keeping diaries; delegating duties; prioritizing tasks; Using To-Do list and managing time for every task or procedure. With my strong time management skills, I am able to lead my team through powerful techniques and make them more productivity. The major factors that I adhere to in time management is having a clear vision, setting realistic and specific goals, communicating and setting priorities and following upon their success.
As a highly motivated leader, I am always dedicated to purpose. Not only am I interested in the purpose of the organization, I also work on finding the purpose of the workers and how they contribute to outcomes of the business. I am keen on motivating workers to have personal purpose since these increases their productivity. Secondly, I reinforce motivation in the workplace through creating good relations among tea members and their leaders. Good relations in a work place contribute to more productivity and competition. Recognition of each employee’s motivator is another way I use to maintain their motivation. For instance some are motivated by promotions while others are motivated by incentives and benefits. Lastly, I use motivation in leadership through helping the workers know priorities and encourage them to always work with priorities.
The success of any organizational or business leader is majorly dependant on his ability to skillfully communicate (Steven, 2015). I must also admit that I am a very skillful communicator. As a leader, I use three levels of communication that include self-communication skills, private communication skills and public communication skills. Self-communication is the internal communication I have within me throughout the day. This form of communication is essential since it boosts my confidence and self-esteem since I keep encouraging myself. Under private communication I ensure that I am direct, prompt and respectful when privately addressing an individual. Lastly, I speak concisely when addressing a group or the public. I am also a good story teller, add value to my audience and use a strong body language.
Good application of technology has allowed me to be a leader that my followers admire. One way that technology has helped me in leadership is through allowing me to use track analytics. I am able to use more advanced tools of analysis through my computer that are more accurate and time and cost efficient. These forms of analytic tools are secure from fraud and they help easily track the progress of an organization. I also use the online platform to train and improve my employees through streamlining trainings direct to them. The technology has also allowed me to make a strong presence on social media, where I am able to freely converse with all organizational stakeholders. Lastly, we have been able as a company to deliver better services at a speedy and cheaper manner through the new technology (Steven, 2015).
Areas of Improvement
My greatest weakness in leadership is being a poor listener and also I am an over-thinker. As a leader I have experienced major communication problems that include inability or poor listening, talking when another person is talking and poor communication to the employees. Sometimes I am unable to follow through a meeting since I find my mind drifting away from the meeting proceedings as I think over other issues. With this great weakness, I get myself in situations where I cannot coach, delegate, present decisions or ideas, inspire or direct the workers. I have found myself getting into poor relationship with the workers simply because I am not able to listen to them. They feel neglected and ignored hence unmotivated. Not only is poor listening a communication problem, it is also a major leadership problem.
The only way I will overcome my current weakness of being a poor listener is by becoming an active listener. Active listening is a method where the listener precisely understands what is meant by the speaker through his message (Beth, 2017). To be a good listener, I will be required to develop new skills, habits and disciplines. I will also be forced to set aside all the other thoughts no matter how pressing they are. I will also be required to ask for clarity, paraphrase and reflect on whatever message I have had as well as ask questions whenever I need clarification. Some of the techniques that I could utilize so as to remember messages will include: paying attention through nodding and eye contact so as not to lose focus; observing the body language of the speaker and scrutinizing the words being used; Avoiding my mind to drift; allow the speaker to finish his points before I interrupt him with questions and through responding respectfully, openly and honestly.
There are various reasons why I need to work on my weaknesses of being an over-thinker and a poor listener. Listening is a very vital tool in any organization since it determines if the organization will stand or will fall. Listening is a tool that is very important also because it promotes increased morale and functioning of teams. Customer loyalty as well as level of sales is partially contributed by the ability of a leader to listen (Richard, 2017). An organization that has a leader that is a good listener suffers less stress compared to those with a poor listener leader. Most importantly, listening is a major tool that a leader should use if he wants this organization to remain competitive. I have learnt that as a leader I will be required to integrate understanding with feedback so as to have good outcomes in communications. There are a lot of benefits that come with good conversations. I intend to be a good listener because good listening leads to good business as well as good human relationships.
References
Alfonzo, V. (2014). Impact of technology on management and organizations. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208111749-6038885-impact-of-technology-on-management-and-organizations
Beth, M. (2017). The No. 1 Communication Problem for Managers. Entrepreneur Media, Inc. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249874
Butler, G. & Hope, T. (2007). Managing Your Mind. New York: Oxford City Press.
Charles, H. & Jones, H. (2008). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach (8th Revised edition). Mason, OH: South-Western Educational Publishing.
Colin, P & Sharon, T. (2016). Accelerating Performance: How Organizations Can Mobilize, Execute, and Transform With Agility. Knowledge Center article.
Nicholas, B., Luis, G., Raffaella, S. & John, V. (2010). How Information and Communication Technologies Affect Decision Making. Harvard Business School
Richard, M. (2017). Listening as a leadership skill. Corporate Education Group. http://www.corpedgroup.com/resources/ml/ListeningAsALeader.asp
Steven, B. (2015). The 3 communication skills every leader needs to master. Business Insider.http://www.businessinsider.com/communication-skills-every-leader-needs-to-master-2015-7?IR=T