Leadership and Management Development

Leadership and Development

Industry: Commercial Construction

Job Title: Regional Project Manager

Position Description

Personal Leadership Assessment

Plan of Action

In examining myself for the position of project manager for Solomon builders, understanding the differences between leadership and management, and applying those subtle issues towards the task at hand are helpful. To reach my ultimate career potential within the workforce, it is important to identify and locate the principles that will have helped me attain this goal. My success is ultimately determined by the ability to synthesize and call upon certain trends within my educational background and its application towards the work's task as at hand. In this document I will examine in fine detail how this position coupled with my leadership and management skill base, will help affirm the principles and lessons of this educational course.

It is my recommendation that the project manager job at Solomon Builders suits my abilities and skills as a leader and manager. Understanding and implementing the role of work-based learning becomes a useful technique in this analysis. I will explore the different approaches of useful management and adapt them to different situations within the context of my chosen leadership position.

II. Position Description

The position of interest is project manager. Solomon Builders is a large commercial contracting company which employs over 500 people. Solomon builders concentrates their area of focus on commercial construction jobs and is an industry leader within the region. The company is run by Robert Solomon, Pres. And CEO of the company. Thomas Solomon, VP of operations, is the manager of my particular division within the company. Solomon builders is known as a commonsense organization that takes an interest in the opinions and ideas of its employees. Engaging all within the company is a priority within the organization and the leadership is committed to ensuring that this idea is transmitted throughout the workplace environment.

Specifically, a project manager in this company is required to resource and direct individual construction projects. Having an understanding of human resources, finances, the specific mechanics of commercial construction, salesmanship, logistics awareness and, of course, management skills are required for any success with in this specific job. In this position five subordinate individuals answer directly to me and help me deliver my projects on time and with the required resources and materials to the customer.

As a project manager, I'm responsible for everything my group accomplishes and does not accomplish. I am responsible for delivering an honest product while managing the personalities and skills of five other employees of the company. Having a total understanding of how the entire company works, from top to bottom, is beneficial in the success of my job as well. Knowing that the pieces of the machine will work in harmony, and only when a shared vision and required directive is known by all within the organization. My additional duties also include effectively communicating customer needs to those in my team who are responsible for handling the specific needs, acquiring appropriate finances through the company and evaluating the performance of my team members as well.

Each individual project I undertake includes some sort of understanding and gathering of the appropriate material resources that are necessary to complete the construction project. Having knowledge about what is required of the project at each level, from start to finish, and top to bottom, is imperative in ensuring a successful and well delivered product. Knowing that pieces that fit together within a logistics system also plays an important role in determining whether or not I will be successful. As a manager, it is understood that I am the leader of the group, but I should also be prepared to perform tasks of my subordinates and others within the company to help demonstrate the team and shared effort a successful company will often resonate.

Personal management and leadership characteristics are very important in successfully completing any type of occupational task. These are the most important factors I believe of the process and it is not as important as how the job is conducted and what it means to deliver the end product to the customer. Having an attitude that puts the success of the project before other minor distractions allows each team member to participate in understanding the vision that helps guide and drive the particular mission. Including incorporating useful information and data from subordinates, peers and anyone else, and synthesizing this information with directives from above is necessary to communicate this shared mission statement.

The most important leadership characters necessary for success all share a common trait of putting the job and mission before the personal needs of others. This does not mean to ignore certain special circumstances in certain special cases. Understanding individuality is important but must not be paramount to getting the job done right. Using the resources and individual skills appropriately is very important in distributing the workload and providing a balanced and harmonious environment in which to undertake the instructions from the customer and the leadership of the company. Marks (2000) reinforced this point by explaining that within leadership systems analyzed within critical studies, those that allowed for learning from one another was influential in assessing higher leadership traits. Overall this position requires strong leadership with good management skills and an understanding for systematic mission accomplishment.

III. Personal Leadership Assessment

Self-assessment is one of the most important habits any leader or manager should practice. Knowing where you are and staying within your environment is important for one cannot escape and understand the position of others within the same environment. Self-improvement corresponds with self-assessment, and should be sought after upon completing any type of personal reflection. The benefits of self-analysis outweigh any temporary discomfort caused by criticism, and insightful commentary should always be kept in mind while performing this difficult and emotional task. In looking at my entire leadership personality, I will examine both management and leadership skills separately to identify any weaknesses in the transition between the two and thereby focusing on those things that need to be improved upon for future career advancement.

Leadership and management skills are different. Leadership is much more of a system, or way of doing things while management is more of a way of handling things. Gill (2003) explained how in his model leadership system vision, values, strategy and motivation encompass the entire realm of necessary qualities. Leading is taking a forward position within the environment, and managing is grouping everything together into one complete package with no outliers leaving out front or behind. When management and leadership skills are put together effective workplaces result.

At my level, project manager, the management skills are more important than those of leadership. By providing leadership within my own group, I am looked upon as a manager of a group of assets following a position of leadership and directives from above. My management skills include efficient uses of material and human resources that produce an effective workplace environment, organizing and executing plans to meet larger objectives and mentoring and counseling subordinates in their career progression.

Leadership skills involve creating vision, inspiring emotions and aligning all resources into one synthesized package that meets the overall vision and mission of the organization. Leadership is necessary at all levels within an organization, but the personality of the type of leadership style will always stem from the top of the organization and drift towards the bottom of the hierarchal ladder. Within my position of project manner I have been granted by my superiors a large amount of individual leadership to inspire my group. Smirchich & Morgan (1982) noted that importance of this concept of creating an environment, "for, in leading, managers enact a particular form of social reality with far reaching, but often poorly understood and appreciated consequences (p 307). Fostering this attitude is essential in creating new leadership within the company and ensuring a fair and harmonious workplace for those with in my group.

My personal skills are very much aligned with what is necessary for this position. Being able to effectively communicate and listening to subordinates is a skill which I can effectively use in this position while contributing towards the organization's objectives. Being a people person and having strong empathy for my fellow comrades at work will prove to be essential in both meaningful and beneficial to everyone within the organization who may in fact be inspired by such behavior. The organizational skills I possess are irreplaceable in this particular situation. Time management skills and working well under pressure with tight deadlines is something I excel at and am very comfortable in showing others my ability to manage. The work-based learning ideas and different approaches I have learned within this program will serve to my benefit as I apply them in my position within this company.

Work-based learning will prove to be beneficial in my own personal assessment of my leadership skills. Raclin (1997) demonstrated the need to incorporate both implicit and explicit skills and knowledge which he argued that can only be applied through real world experience. Exposure to the experiences one would face in the workforce while still receiving formal education is imperative in today's world in order to meet the demands of the economic requirements society has deemed important. This holistic view of education corresponds with a strong leadership and management background by identifying holistic events in synthesized training to produce an efficient and productive workforce for continual growth and reaching ultimate potential.

In conclusion, I believe my management and leadership skills are enhanced to the point where success is imminent in this position. Understanding how a management skills and leadership skills work together well help me package my total contribution towards this company in a streamlined and efficient manner in itself. Knowing where my strengths and weaknesses are located within my management tool bag are useful in understanding the entire environment by giving me areas to focus work on and places to build upon success.

IV. Plan of Action

Knowing where I stand in terms of what I need to improve upon is useful in developing a plan of action towards reaching my ultimate potential within my chosen field. Improving leadership can be accomplished by focusing on some of the aspects that define good leaders. These traits include intelligence, good decision-making skills, empowering those around you, and communicating that message towards all. I will tailor my plan of action around improving these four distinct leadership traits in order to achieve a high level of management skills through the use of excellent leadership techniques and tactics.

Improving my intelligence is the first aspect of leadership I would like to focus on in my plan of action. Reading trade journals, joining certain civic organizations and groups, staying abreast of technology and news items that may be related towards my profession are all useful ways of acquiring new bits of intelligence. Knowledge is very important in a leaders decision-making process as it presents new opportunities and uncovers different limitations that may or may not have been present before this investigation. Mumford et al. (2000) reinforces this need to seek out new inspirational knowledge when he stated that need for intelligence diminishes throughout a leaders time spent in a position (p.88). Maintaining a disciplined outlook is extremely important in continuing my quest for intelligence, and staying determined and acquiring this information requires a disciplined approach and a strong will to continue the mission where others may not be so willing to venture.

Decision-making skills allows the leader to perform multiple tasks at once and act with a sense of efficiency and urgency while radiating a confident and positive outlook towards the organizations objectives while sticking to certain principles of strong leadership. Improving decision-making skills requires the individual to continually question its present state of mind and asks certain questions towards what is the right thing to do. Becoming involved in all aspects of the organization's workplace environment helps with this decision-making process. Having a holistic understanding of one's complete environment provides an aspect of looking at the company's success as a whole instead of by groups and their own individual missions.

Empowering myself and my subordinates is also important in achieving a high level of success within the field of management. Leadership traits include inspiring others to follow your lead and empowering those who wish to follow. Empowerment is the gift that keeps on giving as understanding the collective strength of any unit is much greater than the individual strengths added individually. This participative approach was lauded by Soonhee (2002) as her account of studies contributes to her hypothesis that through participative empowerment mission accomplishment and job satisfaction are received favorably. Exhibiting confidence and allowing situations where others will be challenged, yet allowed to succeed, will help empower that my group will demonstrate useful leadership techniques. The power to influence one another within any environment or community becomes essential in reaching the ultimate potential of that group, agency, business, or family. Harnessing and holding all the powers in the group is often dangerous and not healthy. Sharing information and new ways of accomplishing tasks will help make the group become a more conducive unit and simultaneously create an environment of shared celebration and accomplishment leading to even more continued success and growth.