Instructions

This assignment will provide you with the opportunity to finalize your personal leadership reflection and submit it to your instructor for grading.

Submit your personal leadership reflection. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course.

For additional details, please refer to the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric document.With unstable economies becoming increasingly more common, businesses look to different aspects of their company to save money, improve performance,and boost their position amongst their competitors. One of the most important areas of focus is human relations, which directly influences productivity,motivation, and employee retention. In order for you to succeed professionally, you will need to develop a special set of human relations skills that includes selfawareness, strong leadership qualities, the ability to motivate, and the ability to facilitate communication.Your final project in this course will be a reflection on yourself in your organization and at Southern New Hampshire University. You will analyze your ownstrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as they pertain to your own leadership skills as well as identify appropriate skills that contribute to influencingworkplace productivity, engagement, and motivation. The final deliverable will be a plan with three goals and action steps that you have determined are the bestfit for you as a leader.In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes: Explain how individual personality, perception, leadership styles, and self-concept influence human relations in informing the development of a personalleadership philosophy Explain how the communications process in leadership situations affects positive human relations Illustrate how the relationship between motivation, stress, and time management influences workplace dynamics Identify appropriate human interaction skills necessary for managers to positively influence productivityPromptBased on your knowledge of human relations, you will write a paper addressing the different factors that have influenced your leadership philosophy, includingpersonality, perception, leadership styles, and self-concept. In addition, you will examine how your leadership philosophy impacts your understanding of thecommunications process, workplace dynamics, and management skills.Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:I. Personality and Self-Concept: In this section, you will devote one detailed paragraph to your identified strengths and weaknesses as you consider futureleadership opportunities. You may draw from your SWOT analysis in your responses. Please be sure to address the following in the two sections of yourparagraph:

A. Strengths: Discuss the aspects of your personality and self-concept that serve as a particular strength as you consider your future leadershipopportunities. Why are these important to you and to others you may be leading?

B. Areas of Improvement: Conversely, what aspects of your personality and self-concept may lead to difficulties in your future work as a leader?What areas of improvement have you identified?

II. Human Interaction Skills: In two paragraphs, you will identify at least two skills—drawing from your course readings and your own experiences—that canpositively influence workplace productivity, engagement, and/or motivation. In your discussion of each skill, be sure to address the following questionsunderneath the skill:

A. Description of Skill: What is this skill, and how is it used in personnel management?

B. Engagement and Motivation: How specifically would this skill positively impact engagement or motivation?

C. Intended Impact: How specifically does this skill positively influence workplace productivity?

III. Personal Development Plan: Finally, you will bring together your reflections on personality, self-concept, and human interaction skills in order to createactionable steps for your future as a leader. First, include a final paragraph answering the first prompt below. Then, identify three goals to enhance yourskills as a leader.

A. First, reflect on how this experience has helped shape your personal leadership philosophy. Be specific.

B. Next, using the provided plan template, identify relevant goals to enhance your skills as a leader, action steps to achieving those goals, potentialobstacles you may face, and a plan to overcome those obstacles.MilestonesMilestone One: Personality and Self-ConceptIn Module Two, you will provide an initial self-reflection that discusses your own strengths as well as areas you feel you may need to improve. You will considerhow these aspects of your personality and self-concept will allow you to improve your skills in a future leadership role. This milestone will be graded with theMilestone One Rubric.Milestone Two: SWOT AnalysisIn Module Four, you will perform a SWOT analysis. The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis will help you determine moreinformation about where your additional strengths and weaknesses lie. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.Final Submission: Personal Leadership ReflectionIn Module Seven, you will describe your personal leadership philosophy and then examine how that leadership philosophy informs your use of thecommunications process, understanding of workplace dynamics, and management skills. Draw from the feedback you received from your completedassignments throughout this course, and use the provided Personal Leadership Reflection Template to complete the final project. This submission will be gradedwith the Final Project Rubric.

SAMPLE FINAL PROJECT

OL 125 Personal Leadership Reflection Template

This template can be customized to your own liking, but all sections are required in order for you to receive scores on the critical elements of your Final Project (Personal Leadership Reflection) Rubric. If you wish to use a modified template, please have your instructor approve an early draft.

NAME: STUDENT ID:

PROGRAM(S) OF STUDY (MAJOR): BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ANTICIPATED GRADUATION DATE: JANUARY 2022

SECTION I – Personality and Self-Concept

Personality and Self-Concept: In this section, you will devote a minimum of one detailed paragraph to your identified strengths and a minimum of one detailed paragraph to your identified weaknesses as you consider future leadership opportunities. You may draw from your SWOT analysis in your responses. What this means, is you may wish to use some of your identified areas of strength or weakness from your SWOT in answering this question. Please be sure to address the following in the two or more sections of your paragraph: A. Strengths: Discuss the aspects of your personality and self-concept that serve as a particular strength as you consider your future leadership opportunities. Why are these important to you and to others you may be leading? B. Areas of Improvement: Conversely, what aspects of your personality and self-concept may lead to difficulties in your future work as a leader? What areas of improvement have you identified?

In discussing my personality strengths and areas for improvement, I reflected upon my SWOT analysis and other areas of this course that taught me the type of leader I am. The kind of person that I am is an ISFJ, introvert, sensing, feeling, and judging. These characteristics influence my strengths and weaknesses as a leader.

I am good with small groups, and the team I currently manage is a small group. I am genuine, truthful, dedicated, and lead by example. I do what it takes to get the job done. I always admit mistakes and use them as learning and teaching moments. Leading by example is a significant strength for leading teams. People tend to follow great leaders. Leading by example sets the tone for your team to develop. They will know what you expect from their work ethics based on your own. Another great strength of mine is admitting mistakes. I hope my team will do so as well, and that is what I always tell them. Do not be afraid to admit a mistake. We are all human, and we sometimes make mistakes. The great thing about mistakes is to use them as a learning experience, so you do not make the same mistake twice.

Areas that I can improve on as a leader are delegating, stress management, and conflict resolution. I need to transfer more tasks and small projects to my team. I have to remember that I cannot do it all. Not delegating is part of my being an ISFJ. I often feel that if I want it done right, then I need to do it myself. By empowering, this will allow me to free some time to work on other projects, and give my team the sense of belonging and that I fully trust them to accomplish the job for me. At the same time delegating will relieve some of my stress. I will not feel so overwhelmed at times which will help to eliminate some of the pressure I experience on the job. It is never okay to show a lot of stress to your team. It projects that you are not in control and cannot react calmly during a crisis. Getting my stress in check will project me as a leader in control in any situation.

The final area of improvement would be to handle conflict swiftly. I do not like dealing with conflict, but if I deal with it promptly and not let a conflict linger, it would be better for myself as a manager and the parties involved. For example, the other day at work a team member of mine came to me about a conflict she was having with another employee. I gathered the facts on the conflict from both sides and made recommendations based on those facts that I found. Both parties walked away satisfied with the resolution and how to handle a situation like this in the future.

SECTION II – Human Interaction Skills

In two paragraphs or more, you will identify at least two skills—drawing from your course readings and your own experiences—that can positively influence workplace productivity, engagement, and/or motivation. In your discussion of each skill, be sure to address the following questions underneath the skill: A. Description of Skill: What is this skill, and how is it used in personnel management? B. Engagement and Motivation: How specifically would this skill positively impact engagement or motivation? C. Intended Impact: How specifically does this skill positively influence workplace productivity?

NOTE: Each of the above skills (A, B and C), are included in the rubric – and you receive a grade of exemplary, proficient, needs improvement or not evident (zero). It’s VERY important you identify and discuss TWO skills and not just ONE, or you will earn NEEDS IMPROVEMENT for all three of these critical grading elements.

In discussing management skills involved in the engagement and motivation of personnel, there are a few theories I believe are most important. For engaging the employees and keeping them motivated toward reaching individual and company goals, the performance equation is fundamental to consider in keeping them engaged and striving to meet their goals. As stated in the book, “performance is a function of the interaction between an individual’s motivation, ability, and the environment” (Bauer & Erdogan, 2016).

I feel this equation is fundamental to keep them engaged and motivated and I have already started evaluating each of my team members using this equation. I have started looking at each of their environments and making sure each one of them has a comfortable working environment, resources and information needed to perform their jobs adequately, and the support from not only me as their manager but their peers and coworkers as well. If you can provide a positive work environment, they will feel competent and confident doing their jobs. They will also know that they have all of the resources and support that is needed to achieve their individual goals and have a direct impact on making the company’s goals. The effect that this has on workplace productivity is enormous. If a person feels comfortable in their work environment and knowing they have everything to perform their job, they feel excited and motivated to come to work and conquer their goals.

Reviewing their abilities and making sure they have the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs is equally important in this equation. For example, I have had one-on-one meetings with each of my team members to make sure that they feel they have the skills and knowledge needed to perform their jobs and to perform at a high level. I went into the meetings with what I thought they did well and what they need more knowledge and skills in doing. The outcome was extremely positive for each of my team members. Some of them are going to take training classes, such as diplomatic negotiations, to help them deal with contract negotiations with vendors. Others will be attending training courses to help them with the operating system we use to give them a more in-depth knowledge and skills set to make their jobs easier because they will know where and how to use the operating system to perform their duties and help achieve their goals. The impact on productivity with this step of the equation is just as equally significant. Showing the employees that you are investing time and resources to make sure their abilities to perform their job and accomplish their goals gives them the sense that you care about them and you want them to reach their goals successfully.

Making sure the first two parts of the performance equation are satisfied moves directly into the third part of the equation, motivation. Providing the proper environment and abilities for my team to perform their jobs gives them the motivation to keep functioning and striving to meet their goals. It is showing them myself, and the company, are investing in them to ensure they are successful. It all leads to exceptional performance and impacts on their productivity in performing their jobs. In the short seven (7) weeks, I have implemented this, I have already seen a difference in my team. They are more motivated and engaging more with their peers and myself.

The theory I feel is extremely important to engagement and motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In my instructors response to my discussion post, Janet stated, “You also incorporated Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Formula into you answer, all of which demonstrates your understanding of the relevant content, as well as your high drive to do the best job you can and your effort” (Janet M. Byrne 2-3 Discussion Individual Feedback).

I believe the performance equation ties directly into Maslow’s theory. The first three tiers of the method, physiological, safety, and social needs, tie directly into the environment part of the equation. Satisfying the primary two needs is relatively simple. A small kitchen is available for the employees to get coffee, water, and food. Providing a safe work environment is also essential. Our company directly involves every employee in the safety programs. One of the ways they do this is every employee has a goal of submitting one near miss per quarter. A near miss is something you witness that could potentially be an accident, but you saw it, spoke to the person about it, and then reported the incident on the near-miss safety form to the safety officer. You are calling out potentially unsafe acts or situations that could lead to accidents. The social needs are also critical. I make sure my team and myself engage with each other on a personal side. It allows bonding to happen with the peers and even the manager.

The social level then moves directly into the esteem needs; for each employee to feel respected, appreciated, and essentially give them a sense of belonging to the team and the company. The esteem level catapults them right into the final level of self-actualization. At this level, they will feel they are capable of reaching new levels of accomplishment. It relates to the ability part of the equation. The employee wants to acquire new skills, challenges, and to attain their goals. As a manager, it is my job to make sure that all of the above can be provided to impact the productivity of the workplace for each employee directly.

SECTION III – Personal Development Plan

Finally, you will bring together your reflections on personality, self-concept, and human interaction skills in order to create actionable steps for your future as a leader.

A. First, include a minimum of one paragraph (or more) to reflect on how this experience has helped shape your personal leadership philosophy. Be specific, and if applicable, include your preferred leadership style if it’s part of your leadership philosophy.

A. LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

The experience of this course and all of my classes at Southern New Hampshire University has helped me shape my leadership philosophy. This course has shown and pointed out to me the type of person I am, an ISFJ, introvert, sensing, feeling, and judging, with a strong locus of control. Also, through the self-assessment quizzes, it has shown me the skills I am good at and skills I can improve on as a person and a leader. Some of the skills that I am good at and shape my leadership philosophy are productivity, communication, problem-solving, teamwork and building, leadership skills, management skills, and people skills. The skills I need to improve on are stress management, anger management, decision making, creativity, and project management. These skills directly help build my leadership philosophy.

My leadership philosophy is the following. Leading by example is essential to set the tone of your work ethic to impact your team to follow. Great leaders always should lead by example. I need to set achievable goals for my team to be measured. I will provide the resources and information for them to accomplish their goals. If they do not have the right resources and information to achieve those goals, it is my job as a manager to provide them. Know each employee on a personal level. Make them feel part of the team and the company by getting to know them and what motivates them. Positively engage with each employee to ensure the progress on reaching their goals. Identify potential fall backs and work with the individuals to get back on track of their goals.

I am a leader who believes in values. I am truthful and honest. It gives the employees a trustworthy leader to follow. If your employees do not trust you, you have failed as a leader. I always do what is right; even if that means admitting when you made a mistake and when you were wrong. It shows that even leaders are human and everyone makes mistakes. The important part as a leader is to use those mistakes as teaching moments to avoid mistakes in the future. Last, as a leader, I need to help and point out to the employees what they are good at and help them improve on what they are not good at doing. Doing this will help build the strongest team possible. Improve on their confidence and self-awareness.

B. Lastly, use the provided section below to identify three relevant goals to enhance your skills as a leader. Answer the following questions for each of your goals: A. What are action steps I can take to achieve this goal, B. What are potential obstacles I may face, and C. What is my plan to overcome these obstacles?

Goal #1: Over the next nine (9) months, I want to improve on my creativity as a leader.

What are action steps I can take to achieve this goal? I need to share my ideas with others. It includes sharing these ideas with my team and my peers. I need to reach out and ask how they view potential problems. I need to find an approach to work with others on creative ideas actively. To help me with my creative ability, it would benefit me to follow the five (5) steps of the creative process. The five (5) levels are preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation, and elaboration.

What are potential obstacles I may face when working toward achieving this goal? A potential obstacle could be finding the right people and resources to share my ideas. I will need to seek out innovators to expand on my creativity and ensure I am heading in the right direction with my plans. Another obstacle is not fully immersing myself and understanding the five steps of the creative process.

What is my plan to overcome these potential obstacles? My plan to overcome these obstacles would be to research and ask individuals who might be able to help me with my idea and talk. Talk to several different people to get multiple feedback and different perspectives to implement the plan or solution. In making sure I am following and adequately using the five steps to the creative process, I would need to understand each level thoroughly. I would need to seek help in understanding what the best way is to approach a step if I am not entirely sure. I would need to invest the time to immerse myself in the idea entirely. Allow the plan to take on different perspectives through the approach; hence making sense of the project. Evaluate time and cost of producing the design or solution and make sure it does not outweigh the implementation of the plan.

Goal # 2: Over the next six (6) months to one (1) year, I want to improve on my reinforcement methods by fifty (50) percent.

What are action steps I can take to achieve this goal? The steps that I can take to achieve this goal is to modify my employee’s behaviors positively. How I would do this is to reward positive behavior with a positive outcome. I need to make sure I am praising and rewarding the employee for a job well done. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I would increase desired behavior by negative reinforcement by continually reminding the employee to achieve a desired positive outcome if the situation acquires it. I would need to keep the negativity present until the employee demonstrated positive behavior. (Bauer & Erdogan, 2016)

What are potential obstacles I may face when working toward achieving this goal? Obstacles that I could face would be too much positive reinforcement for one employee and not enough for the other employees on my team. It could cause animosity and jealousness amongst the other employees. With negative reinforcement, this could lead to an unexpected outcome and may fail to produce a positive result in the end. The employee could start resenting me and start trying to avoid me.

What is my path to overcome these potential obstacles? The plan to overcome these potential outcomes could be tricky. With the obstacle of positive reinforcement, I would need to be conscious of too much praise for one employee and not enough for the others. I would need to make sure that I acknowledge each employee’s positive results and reward appropriately and evenly. I want to portray as being a fair and equal manager with my team. To overcome the obstacle of negative reinforcement is to combat situations that create negative ones from the start. As a manager, I should be able to recognize a situation and deal with it promptly to avoid the need to nag the employee constantly.

Goal # 3: I want to improve my leadership decision making skills by fifty (50) percent over the next twelve (12) months.

What are action steps I can take to achieve this goal? I would need to make sure I am establishing a favorable environment for the decision. I am generating multiple probable solutions and thoughtfully evaluating them. I would need to get the employees feedback on the criteria to make the decision. Make sure that I have all of the facts that are known and the facts are correct to make an accurate, knowledgeable decision.

What are potential obstacles I may face when working toward achieving this goal? There are several potential obstacles I could face. If I do not evaluate all possible solutions, it could be disastrous by not making the correct decision. Also, by not making sure that the facts are accurate, it could be a setback on making the appropriate choice. It is important to back your points and make sure they are credible. Finally, not appropriately implementing and communicating the decision could have an adverse effect. All of these obstacles could be costly to the company and a waste of valuable time for not making the correct decision.

What is my path to overcome these potential obstacles? A plan to overcome these obstacles would have to start with fully comprehending all decisions to be made. The most important thing would be to take the time to review all possibilities for the correct decision. As a leader, your employees rely on you to make important decisions that could have lasting impacts on them and or the business. So you need to do your due diligence to examine all risks, consequences, and the feasibility to make the correct decision for the most significant outcome. It would require predicting ramifications of a decision with complete accuracy and the choice you made is better than the present state of affairs.

References

Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2016). Human Relations in the Organization. Third edition Asheville, NC: Soomo Learning and Flat World Knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.webtexts.com/courses/23602-byrne/tradit…SAMPLE FINAL PROJECT

OL 125 Personal Leadership Reflection Template

This template can be customized to your own liking, but all sections are required in order for you to receive scores on the critical elements of your Final Project (Personal Leadership Reflection) Rubric. If you wish to use a modified template, please have your instructor approve an early draft.

NAME: STUDENT ID:

PROGRAM(S) OF STUDY (MAJOR): BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ANTICIPATED GRADUATION DATE: JANUARY 2022

SECTION I – Personality and Self-Concept

Personality and Self-Concept: In this section, you will devote a minimum of one detailed paragraph to your identified strengths and a minimum of one detailed paragraph to your identified weaknesses as you consider future leadership opportunities. You may draw from your SWOT analysis in your responses. What this means, is you may wish to use some of your identified areas of strength or weakness from your SWOT in answering this question. Please be sure to address the following in the two or more sections of your paragraph: A. Strengths: Discuss the aspects of your personality and self-concept that serve as a particular strength as you consider your future leadership opportunities. Why are these important to you and to others you may be leading? B. Areas of Improvement: Conversely, what aspects of your personality and self-concept may lead to difficulties in your future work as a leader? What areas of improvement have you identified?

In discussing my personality strengths and areas for improvement, I reflected upon my SWOT analysis and other areas of this course that taught me the type of leader I am. The kind of person that I am is an ISFJ, introvert, sensing, feeling, and judging. These characteristics influence my strengths and weaknesses as a leader.

I am good with small groups, and the team I currently manage is a small group. I am genuine, truthful, dedicated, and lead by example. I do what it takes to get the job done. I always admit mistakes and use them as learning and teaching moments. Leading by example is a significant strength for leading teams. People tend to follow great leaders. Leading by example sets the tone for your team to develop. They will know what you expect from their work ethics based on your own. Another great strength of mine is admitting mistakes. I hope my team will do so as well, and that is what I always tell them. Do not be afraid to admit a mistake. We are all human, and we sometimes make mistakes. The great thing about mistakes is to use them as a learning experience, so you do not make the same mistake twice.

Areas that I can improve on as a leader are delegating, stress management, and conflict resolution. I need to transfer more tasks and small projects to my team. I have to remember that I cannot do it all. Not delegating is part of my being an ISFJ. I often feel that if I want it done right, then I need to do it myself. By empowering, this will allow me to free some time to work on other projects, and give my team the sense of belonging and that I fully trust them to accomplish the job for me. At the same time delegating will relieve some of my stress. I will not feel so overwhelmed at times which will help to eliminate some of the pressure I experience on the job. It is never okay to show a lot of stress to your team. It projects that you are not in control and cannot react calmly during a crisis. Getting my stress in check will project me as a leader in control in any situation.

The final area of improvement would be to handle conflict swiftly. I do not like dealing with conflict, but if I deal with it promptly and not let a conflict linger, it would be better for myself as a manager and the parties involved. For example, the other day at work a team member of mine came to me about a conflict she was having with another employee. I gathered the facts on the conflict from both sides and made recommendations based on those facts that I found. Both parties walked away satisfied with the resolution and how to handle a situation like this in the future.

SECTION II – Human Interaction Skills

In two paragraphs or more, you will identify at least two skills—drawing from your course readings and your own experiences—that can positively influence workplace productivity, engagement, and/or motivation. In your discussion of each skill, be sure to address the following questions underneath the skill: A. Description of Skill: What is this skill, and how is it used in personnel management? B. Engagement and Motivation: How specifically would this skill positively impact engagement or motivation? C. Intended Impact: How specifically does this skill positively influence workplace productivity?

NOTE: Each of the above skills (A, B and C), are included in the rubric – and you receive a grade of exemplary, proficient, needs improvement or not evident (zero). It’s VERY important you identify and discuss TWO skills and not just ONE, or you will earn NEEDS IMPROVEMENT for all three of these critical grading elements.

In discussing management skills involved in the engagement and motivation of personnel, there are a few theories I believe are most important. For engaging the employees and keeping them motivated toward reaching individual and company goals, the performance equation is fundamental to consider in keeping them engaged and striving to meet their goals. As stated in the book, “performance is a function of the interaction between an individual’s motivation, ability, and the environment” (Bauer & Erdogan, 2016).

I feel this equation is fundamental to keep them engaged and motivated and I have already started evaluating each of my team members using this equation. I have started looking at each of their environments and making sure each one of them has a comfortable working environment, resources and information needed to perform their jobs adequately, and the support from not only me as their manager but their peers and coworkers as well. If you can provide a positive work environment, they will feel competent and confident doing their jobs. They will also know that they have all of the resources and support that is needed to achieve their individual goals and have a direct impact on making the company’s goals. The effect that this has on workplace productivity is eno