Personal Strengths and Weaknesses Essay

Each of us possess personal characteristic strengths that makes each of us unique. As individuals these strengths allow us to add value to all of our relationships both personally and professionally. For many of us, we can recognize the characteristics and how they add value to lives, unfortunately though many of us will struggle voicing these strengths openly during job interviews, performance evaluations, or team meetings. One of the first challenges is to understand that we are all lifelong learners and it is through these experiences that we develop these strengths which allows us to become an essential part of a relationship whether it is a personal or professional relationship. As within the realm of a Human Resource Professional the ability to recognize these strengths in people we must also recognize them within ourselves so that we may leverage those skills to advocate for both the employee and the organization. Throughout my life, my strengths have tended to gain more clarity and centered on my profession because form many of the majority of our time is spent there. Some of my personal characteristics that will bring value and strength to any organization are: organization, communication, the ability to be discrete and ethical, conflict management/problem solving and change management. As in many organization HR management requires a very orderly approach. Throughout my

Identifying and understanding your own personal strengths is key to being a successful leader. Knowing your strengths means you can focus your efforts to maximize results, in yourself and in others. Strengths Finder 2.0 is designed to uncover your strengths and utilize these strengths to your advantage (Rath, 2007). Identifying and applying these strengths to your leadership style, will enhance your effectiveness as a transformational leader.

Over the past couple of months, we discussed several traits, skills, and behaviors that have contributed to the success of both past and present leaders. Intelligence, integrity, charisma, and confidence are some of the traits that characterize many of these leaders. Interpersonal skills, oratory skills, and conceptual skills are some of the more important skills that helped to shape their leadership style. Some of these skills go hand in hand with the traits that are essential for strong leadership. Meanwhile, the behaviors that drive these leaders include inspiring and motivating others, collaboration, having a strategic perspective and trust. Combined, these traits, skills and behaviors make for effective leadership.

Other strengths that I exhibit include being structured, responsible, articulate, task-oriented, determined, confident, effective planner, visionary, and possessing the ability to manage resources effectively. Being structured allows me to set parameters that we can all work within to achieve the overall company goals. Structure builds bonds and a sense of cohesiveness in the workplace. This type of unity will be necessary for the success of the organization. We can all work towards common goals if clear goals are outlined for everyone. The other strengths will all work together as well.

Upon completion of the StrengthsFinder survey, I discovered that my five greatest strengths were Achiever, Discipline, Responsibility, Relator, and Competition. However, I was skeptical about the initial results until I read what each strength entails. I found most of the information given to be accurate. According to the description of those strengths, I discovered that I use them daily without realizing it.

In the Leadership Challenge, 4th edition, it is Kouzes & Posner (2007) intention to present a road map for individuals to follow on their leadership journey. The authors stress that “leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance.” Leadership they assert is “an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to all of us” (p. 23). They make clear that the “great person” theory of leadership is “plain wrong.” Leaders are our everyday heroes who do extraordinary things on a regular basis (p. 23).

At times, these strengths can be detrimental to my leadership abilities as I am one to overthink a situation and stress if something does not go according to my mental plans. Ultimately, this affects my attitude toward a situation. For example, I have been at an event before where something unexpected occurred and it 'threw me off' because I did not expect that thing to occur; therefore, my attitude became more negative because I had not prepared my reaction to such an event and I could not decide how to turn the situation around for a more positive perspective. I think this can apply to any person, as everyone has experienced a situation that did not play out as expected and made one change their own attitude towards the situation entirely. Additionally, I also find myself weak in self-discipline at times. Although I overthink and plan out events in my head, I still fall victim to laziness. I get in a 'funk' where I lack the drive and motivation to carry out the plans and goals I have created in my head. Because of this, I fail to prioritize my time wisely and carry out the necessary actions to achieve a goal. For example, I may create an elaborate and detailed plan to complete all my work and studying by an early hour of the night, so I can get more sleep and be better prepared for the week at school. However, if I fail to put in the work to live according to this

Tom Rath began working with a group of scientists in 1998 to start a conversation about our strengths (Rath, 2007). A 40-year study, led by Donald O. Clifton, helped to create a language of common talents, and in 2001, included this assessment into their bestselling management book Now, Discover Your Strengths (Rath, 2007). During their study, they found out that “people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general” (Rath, 2007, pg. iii). A major problem with this was a majority of people were either unsure of or unable to explain their strengths (Rath, 2007). When developing StrengthFinder 2.0, the ultimate goal was to build upon your true strengths which take practice and hard work (Rath, 2007).

* A strengths discovery interview that helps you think about how your experience, skills, and knowledge can help you build strengths

In my reflections as I prepared to write this paper, I came to the realization that leadership is much more complex especially since the paper requires that I focus on a few traits. In an effort to make it simple, I wrote down the traits that came to mind and in process had over 10 important traits but an even bigger challenge was on how to narrow them down to 3 or 4 and this is the place that required a good deal of reflection. Eventually, however, I had to prioritize them since in any case; it is not possible to get a leader that has all the traits. As I thought of the various leaders who have inspired me, I noticed that while they strived to provide the best leadership by focusing on their strong points, they still had their weaknesses. To me this provided a justification for at least identifying key desirable traits and thereafter working to improve them. I did manage to settle on four traits, which for me are indispensible if a leader or a leadership is to become effective.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect and make an analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of a leader, provide recommendations, thoughts of overall performance to improve on this person’s leadership style in which practices and theories were utilized most effectively. Upon such, draw conclusions and provide an integration of this leadership practice into my own leadership practice. The accomplishment of this will be achieved by identifying several key practices from published documents surrounding and encompassing the leader, and comparing them to known relative concepts for a holistic view of the approach.

Using the Strength Finders 2.0 Assessment, I was able to identify my personal strengths, which would identify my personal leadership skills. My strength assessment results where Harmony, Consistency, Empathy, Achiever, and Belief. This paper will identify each strength, how they relate to my leadership style and approach to leadership.

I believe that life is a learning experience and being able to recognize our own strengths and weaknesses can help us become better individuals in anything we choose to do, whether it is positive abilities and skills that can help achieve our goals or negative personal areas that need improvement. Knowing yourself and what you can do, can help you recognize and overcome your weaknesses.

It is vital when looking for a new job or career that you know what skills and qualities you have. Knowing what you can or cannot do will alter what employers and positions there are for you. Throughout my higher education at Full Sail University, I have been able to overcome weaknesses that I have and raised other strengths beyond what I thought I could. Matching what you are good at and not so good at can help shape what your life path will be. Looking deeper into my personal capabilities, I have discovered three strengths and three weaknesses that I have and I’m working on eliminating or improving. If you are not good at something, improving even slightly can have a nice positive impact on your overall quality of

“Leadership is more ability than job. Moreover, it is all about determination, ability to solve problems, set direction for followers, gather them for common purpose and motivating people to achieve tasks. Furthermore, it is a charisma and the ability to reacting at the right time for a particular competitive situation” (L.Mullins, 2010, P372).