Leadership and management skills for a regional project manager at Solomon Builders

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.

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.

Communicating the desired corporate message is also very important in any leadership plan of action. Communication and effective manner by verbal and nonverbal ways becomes essential in developing the ideas that are necessary to support the project. Palmer (2001) described the conditions of emotional stability as considerably instrumental in work place cohesion. Assuring that new ideas are welcome from all those, regardless of subordination, helps create environment where ideas will become easily communicated and understood by all. Adhering to policies regarding communications electronically, by phone, or by any other means is essential in synchronizing everybody on the same wavelength and frequency. Language and tone are important to remember as well as the power of words is to be respected and looked after in a kind and empathetic nature. Remembering that everyone is from a different background and each have different means of communicating is also important in overcoming obstacles and communication and sticking with the plan in order to ultimately reach understanding.

Specific tasks that are included with my plan of action will include both group and individual applications. Conducting additional conversations and individual counseling sessions with my subordinates and superiors while developing the company mission into a realization of understood objectives and material acquisitions in an effort to maintain competitive advantage and economic relevancy is extremely beneficial. Encouraging open door policies also serve the best interests of my plan of action, as keeping these forms of communication open help empower my subordinates while increasing my knowledge to improve my decision-making skills and therefore becoming a more productive and efficient leader within the organization.

V. Conclusions

As a project manager it is important to realize that management and leadership skills are in high demand and necessary for success. Managing others and staying organized and on top of all tasks while maintaining and adhering to company principles requires discipline and commitment. Leadership is useful for all managers, yet everyone can be a leader. It is important for me in my specific situation to understand and utilize the idea that leadership skills are most important in my specific situation. Improving my intelligence to improve my decision-making skills while empowering others to communicate their ideas are useful steps in accomplishing my mission.

Using self-assessment as a tool to express and investigate the different aspects of leadership and management has revealed an important technique in improving the systems for work. Utilizing different approaches and adapting them to appropriate situations is the mark of a solid leader worthy of managing subordinates in the workplace. Developing and establishing the foundation within the work-based learning system has proven to be effective in highlighting these approaches and giving new light to the usefulness of this system.