Professional Skills Assessment
Today I am going to go over
various skills that I feel I possess and why I possess them. I will go into
detail on how I gained these skills in the first place. Next I will explain why
the skills I have chosen are important to my future and how I can better
progress with those skills through this experiential learning experience.
The first skill that I feel is very important to my
future is my ability to lead and guide others. The first thing I want to
mention about this topic is that I initially have gained leadership skills in
the military taking care of other Airmen and taking them under my wing to
ensure that they had a smooth transition into the enlisted side of the Air
Force. I also have led many teams in various team assignments throughout my
educational career. As I progress with my career and climb up the social ladder
in life, I will have more responsibilities and people that I will be in charge
of. Their future success will depend on me and the guidance and mentorship that
I can give them. At the same time whatever type of managerial role I fill will
have goals and tasks that need to be accomplished. I will have to learn to give
constructive criticism and motivate my employee’s to ensure that our whole team
is successful at meeting goals and deadlines given to us. An article I found
titled The Importance of Leadership in Business states “Leaders are responsible for training employees to
perform their tasks effectively, as well as supervising the actual completion
of those tasks on a regular basis. Leaders must inspire employees to get
excited about the company and their work, pushing them to excel and helping
them along the way. Leaders are also tasked with protecting the employees under
their supervision from internal and external threats, including everything from
political backstabbing to physical security” (Ingram, 2015). Many people are
afraid to step up to the plate and become leaders because they do not want to
be responsible for anyone but themselves. I on the other hand believe I have
all the traits and skill sets to be a great leader.
This brings me to my second skill
set I believe is very important to my future which is being a good listener. When
I was younger I definitely was not a good listener but as I grew older,
especially while in the military, I learned that in order to succeed at
anything in life you must be a good listener and take what information is given
to you and apply it to truly become successful. Just like I may be in charge of
some employee’s eventually, I will always have bosses above me as well who are
in charge of me constantly handing down orders and tasks to do. In order to
keep my role in the company and advance when promotion time comes I will have
to be a great listener to ensure that everything is being done the most
efficient and effective way possible. If things are not working out then I must
take the criticism from my bosses and find a way to try and fix the process.
My third skill set which I think is
very valuable for anyone to have is great social/communication skills. I feel I
already possess these skills because I get along with just about everyone I
have ever worked with, with the exception of a few. I do not start drama and I
build strong relationships with my co-workers. This could help me build on both
my leadership and listening skills because both of those skills require
interaction with other team members. Many situations can have positive outcomes
regardless of whether they were initially negative or positive simply because I
am a likable person and know what to say and do to try and fix whatever issues
present themselves. An article titled Good Communication Skills- Key to Any
Success states “Good communication skills are key to success in life, work and relationships. Without
effective communication, a message can turn into error, misunderstanding,
frustration, or even disaster by being misinterpreted or poorly delivered”
(Hereford, 2015). Like the article states effective communication is necessary
for any team to succeed. Everyone must be on the same page and understand their
role within the assignment in order for the team to pull it off.
The fourth skill set that I would
like to touch base on that is vital to my future is being a hard worker and not
complaining about it. This is a trait that I have always possessed because I
understand that complaining about things does not make the work go away and
only gives a negative impression to your peers of you so why not embrace the
work and knock it out. When a ton of tasks are assigned to me at once, I work
fast and efficiently to ensure that multiple tasks are done on time. At the end
I double check my work and I know not to ever procrastinate because you never
know what other tasks tomorrow may bring to you. As I have taken on more and
more tasks throughout my educational and military career, I have learned to
better cope with stress using various different techniques and as a result have
been the most productive I have ever been in my entire life. As I look to the
future I look to become even more productive and hope to step up on many team
projects when no one else will or wants to.
The fifth and final skill I want to
talk about today that I feel is important to my future is my ability to
progress with my proficiency in Microsoft, Word, Excel, Outlook, and
PowerPoint. I have to say that I was not proficient at any of these programs
except Microsoft Word prior to my military and college career but that has
changed due to the consistency on various tasks that has made me proficient
with all of these programs. These are standard programs that will help me with
various different tasks throughout my career such as writing business memos,
sending professional emails, and creating and modifying spreadsheets or
PowerPoint presentations to track data and present it to other team members
throughout my career.
Today I covered five skill sets that
I know I currently possess and am strong at. I feel I will grow and expand on
these skill sets throughout my future by engaging in experiential learning and
reflecting on how these skills have improved and made me a better overall
worker, co-worker, and leader.
References
Hereford, Z.
(2015). Good Communication Skills- Key to Any Success
Ingram, D.
(2015). The
Importance of Leadership in Business
No comments:
Post a Comment