Essay on Based on your learning from at least two topics from weeks 7-11 of the module, and informed by relevant theory and research: reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a potential manager, and discuss how you intend to develop these skills in the future

 It is important to have the essence of self-management so that one can manage business activities efficiently and effectively. Things can get difficult, and sometimes, it can get easier as well, but it all depends on the strengths and weaknesses of a personality. A personality with different traits will define how things will be managed. Psychologist Raymond B. Cattell has defined personality as “That which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.” (Cherry, 2019). For instance, a strong personality will have the guts to handle any kind of pressure, whereas a weak personality will get panic in difficult situations. There could be a situation, where people may have to deal with a lot of stress, so it is important to have personality traits, which are helpful in treating stress. The persons, who believe to have control in their hands, rather being controlled by events or situations, they will always come up with better personality traits (Bradberry, 2015). It is important for me to know what kind of personality I have, and how I used to manage things in daily routine. My personality with certain management traits is going to be crucial for my professional and personal success at every level in the future. So, I will be looking at two perspectives of my personality; one is ability and readiness for new experiences and the second is the ability of decision making.

    It is vital to understand how personality is defined by psychologists because there must be few points to define a personality with relevant strengths and weaknesses. The psychologists have talked about five traits, which are primarily relevant to a personality type including introversion/extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, as well as neuroticism (Pappas, 2017). These five traits are critical to getting an idea of a personality, so it is actually a five-factor model, which helps to define the essence of a personality. I realized that I have to look at these five traits with the five-factor model so that I can analyze my own personality. The model was developed by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae so that a person can identify his/her own personality (Psychologist World, n.d.). From a business perspective, things can be easier to manage, or it can get tougher for someone, but it all depends on how you take those things. The mindset is a very crucial thing in this regard. A strong mindset having an ability to take any kind of challenge will always find a solution for any problem, whereas a person with a negative mindset will always struggle to handle things accordingly (Quy, 2019). So, I analyzed my personality with the five-factor model to see how things will work for me in the future.

      The first important trait mentioned in the five-factor model is “openness”. According to this trait, it is said explained that a person, who has the essence of openness, will be high in showing openness to new experiences and interests. Such persons are always curious about knowing more and explore new things around them. This trait is also associated with the change; it means that openness will define how much a person is ready to embrace change in his life. If a person has openness in his personality, then it is more likely that his personality will be more creative and ready to accept the change to explore more (Smillie, 2017). When I analyzed my own personality as per this trait, I came to know that I have it in my personality. I am a person who always likes to interact with people. I am the one, who always looks to explore new things in life to get new experiences. If I get an opportunity to learn anything new, I am always ready to do so. If I get an opportunity to meet someone from my field or any other field, I always love to do so because it gives me positive energy to think and explore more positively. I always had this feeling that if I have to be more creative and a quick learner, then I will have to keep myself open for different experiences in personal and professional life. One good example is that even if one of my friends asks me to go to a new place of shopping or eating, even it will take my whole day to travel somewhere, etc. I will do that without any hesitation just because I can explore more and enhance my personal experience in so many different ways. It is a fact that a personality having openness in nature can achieve more than a person who is reserved in his approach (Cronin, 2017).

     It means that openness identified as one of the biggest strengths of my personality, which has so many relevant aspects for me to get me going in the right direction. It is a fact that having the essence of openness will enhance my creative capabilities, and it will allow me to prepare for new challenges and situations in personal and professional life. I am quite satisfied to know that I have this strength in my life because I believe that it is one of the most important personality traits to have. In the introduction, I have talked about two aspects of my personality, and the first one was having an ability and readiness for new experiences. People who used to have this trait as a strength, they will always be more successful in their endeavors in life (Leary, 2018). I have seen people around me who have a more reserved approach, like many of my friends are very reserved in nature. When I will ask them to explore new things or to have new experiences, they will always be reluctant to do so. I have heard that people who are reserved in approach, they are not able to learn as much as they could. By reserving themselves to a few things, they actually reserve their ability to learn and enhance their strengths in so many ways. If they want to grow new skills, they should show more openness (Gallo, 2012)

        The second thing, which I wanted to talk about my personality, is the ability of decision making. It is a fact that every stage of our lives, we have to make several decisions regarding our personal and professional life, and these decisions play an important role in our long term success or failure. It is a fact that many decisions that we make in our daily life, some of them are easier to make, but some of them are also the toughest to make. It is vital to understand that those tough decisions are the most critical decisions, which shape the direction of our future life. For instance, when a person has to decide, which field of studies is more relevant to his interest level, and what would be his career aspirations. If anyone would make a wrong decision at this time, he may struggle for his whole life in so many things (Latham, 2015). When I analyzed my own personality with the essence of decision making, I came to know that when I have to make important and tough decisions, I lack the ability to do so. I mentioned earlier that when it comes to interact with others and be open, I am good at that personality trait. So, it is thought that people having a more extravert personality will be associated with making good decisions (Bayram and Aydemir, 2017). But the fact of the matter is that I am lacking the capability of decision making. I always remain confident and open to new things, but when I am in a pressure situation to make an important decision, I lack to find the right direction in this regard (McGuinness, 2016)

  It is a fact that decision making is going to be a critical trait, not only for personal management but also for the business management because when you work on different management positions, you have to make so many critical decisions. If I would become a manager for any firm in the future, then I will have to take various important decisions on daily basis, which would define the direction of work. If I won’t be able to make those decisions effectively, then I will lose my position as a manager, because a leader should have the ability to make good decisions (Saunders and Stanton, 1976). It clearly means that I have to develop my skill and capability in decision making because it is a very critical thing for personal development. Things can get more difficult if you are facing a pressure situation, and you don’t have the essence to make a viable decision at that time.

Conclusion of Based on your learning from at least two topics from weeks 7-11 of the module, and informed by relevant theory and research: reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a potential manager, and discuss how you intend to develop these skills in the future

               In Conclusion, it can be said that there are different personality traits, which are important for every individual. After evaluating my personality and reflecting on it, I came to know that I am a person, who has great openness to experience and things. I like to interact with people and like to have new experiences in life. I don’t shy, if any change comes my way. So, it is my great strength. But I also identified that I have one weakness as well, which is associated with decision making. When I have to make important and critical decisions, especially in pressure situations, I tend to lose my focus, and I face a lot of difficulty to make a decision. I need to make up for this weakness so that I can develop my personality.

 ReferencesBased on your learning from at least two topics from weeks 7-11 of the module, and informed by relevant theory and research: reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as a potential manager, and discuss how you intend to develop these skills in the future

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