Reflective Portfolio
The managerial Role gap analysis by “mintzberg” 1has made me aware of the 3 types of Managerial roles which are Informational, Interpersonal and Decisional roles. Each Role is dissected further and a simple scoring system is used based on whether the Role is either important or not important in your current working environment. The simple scoring system identified areas where I could improve and areas where I was already performing well. The analysis has made me aware that in order to improve in the individual aspects I either need to learn more in order to become more competent or delegate to other members of staff.
I personally need to reflect on past experiences to see which categories are within my comfort zone and decide whether this is due to a lack of knowledge or experience. One can look at the current FSE 100 companies and take from this that Every business is unique and dynamic in some ways and from a Mangers perspective they will demand different levels of commitment from the 10 managerial roles.
For Managing in a complex, changing workplace I believe the Entrepreneur role is most important due to the fact that the Entrepreneur keeps businesses alive in an ever changing market place by identifying new trends in customer requirements, they also are able to foresee how changes in legislation and technologies will affect the profitability of businesses, the Entrepreneur is way ahead of the game by being able to adapt and alter. Whether it is a process or a piece of machinery the Entrepreneur welcomes change.
The Entrepreneur is a visionary whose dynamic approach is well suited in an ever changing environment and indeed would become bored and unhappy in a static environment where each day was business as usual.
The Role of Resource Allocator is an area where I need to improve upon, specifically in the allocation of personnel as Just because personally I can wear many hats and take on different job roles doesn’t mean that my employees can or indeed want to.
Moving forward I have to delegate more and trust that the job will get done regardless. This will free up my own resources giving me more time to concentrate on the bigger picture which will allow more of the Entrepreneur in me to come out which is required in an ever evolving business environment.
After reading the article on the definition of authentic leaders by “Boas Shamir & Galit Eliam” I summarised that authentic leaders are indeed authentic people who have an inapt ability to do the right thing as they have good values which come from personnel life experience.
The mindset of these people is a combination of the environment and one’s own unique mindset which is very difficult to change as it is inherited in our genes. Self reflection on one’s own mindset is ultimately going to be biased towards the good; in these circumstances the opinions of others whom are not related will give the most critical feedback.
Strength based feedback for me starts me off on the right foot as too often we just jump straight in without too much thinking and just state what went wrong or who is to blame. This is more often than not the wrong approach and starts off the conversion on the wrong foot. The value to me will improve my people skills and ultimately motivate rather than disseminate the workforce.
I feel personally I need to work more with people to improve my understanding of body language and to know whether the feedback I give is well received in order that I may be dynamic and reacting to circumstances rather than using a straight scriptural approach with little feedback.
In this dynamic multi culture world I believe that everybody needs to understand the views & beliefs of different societies in order to appreciate the reasons why different people react in different ways, this will improve my ability to communicate better with different people from different cultures.
Some of the literature has helped me to put some of the readings into perspective, by relating to leadership styles, theories and traits in my work environment. The Knowledge I have gained has broadened my understanding as I am now more aware of the fact that leadership is a more continuous process. I have learnt a lot about what it takes to be an 'Authentic leader' (George et al: 2007) by understanding the skills, strengths, traits and tools of leadership. Hopefully others can see the evidence of my new found knowledge in my work as I practice using the methods described in the article ‘ the art of giving and receiving feedback ‘(Harms and Roebuck, 2010).
Unit 3 Reflective journal.
A Transformational experience for me is in some way is like seeing the light when given an intense experience; this will allow me to be a more compassionate and understanding manager. From reading these modules articles and viewing other student’s stories while reflecting on my own experiences I have come to the conclusion that the most powerful transformational experience are emotional based. This is logical really as the most powerful of all human traits are the emotions having the power to Kill, love do good or bad and having this energy targeted in the right way does transform lives.
The skills acquired from a transformation experience depend on the experience itself and ones perceived meaning of the events. One person can take different skills form an experience depending on their own makeup. Skills can be courage, Leadership, compassion, critical thinking, depending on the individual they can make the person becomes more aware of their own instincts. The bottom line is that a transformational experience can give any new skill and change any mindset dependent on the individual’s own experience of life.
Unit 4 reflective journal.
The essential characteristics of a leader depend on the type of company and more often their ultimate goal. Unfortunately many companies in their pursuit of wealth become unethical which leads to short term gain. Some companies continue to be unethical but ultimately even though it make take decades at some point they will have to pay a price for their unethicalness. Companies such as Enron and the larger Wall Street banks are examples of unethical leadership in the pursuit of short term gain. The ultimate leader will be level 5 leaders who create the business world around them and make things happen, these leaders can be ethical but these leaders are rare. Generally leaders are often not in a position to be a level 5 leader until they have worked up the ladder and gained the experience and knowledge to command respect and principles that will be followed.
My personnel and professional values are mostly aligned, this I see as a barrier to me being successful as unfortunately my principles and morals predominately justice and temperance hold me back from being successful in the short term. In the long term I may prevail having been ethical and companionate but unfortunately the business world seems to reward the unethical business and favour the boom and bust culture in a fast paced ever changing environment.
Unit 5 reflective journal
The Personnel and professional development plan