Dear Readers,
After doing this psychometric test to evaluate my current management / leadership approach, I came across the results saying that I am 55% classical and 45% entrepreneurial leader. When I saw these results I thought back to some of the past work experiences I had and remembered when I was working with my dad at his hardware store he had told me “that is the difference between you and (my sister) you will stay one place and tell the other staff to do something.” At that time I never saw it as telling them to do something, I saw it as asking them to do something that I was either too lazy or too busy to do. I never told them “Go and do that!”, I asked them “Can you do that for me please?” But it did get the job done and it was a form of delegation.
So now I am looking at the Characteristics this tests says I have and most of them I agree with. I am both a manager and a leader this I will discuss later down (hoping I don’t write tooo much). I have always been an Extrovert person which is really good for meeting new people, however I have recently shown Introvert tendencies since I have started Johnson and Wales University. I have no idea if it was the change of atmosphere or the fact that I knew no one and how to relate to them. So the psychometric test was pretty accurate about that. I am mostly extrovert by heart but I have introvert tendencies that I am trying to break. Plus I also have a feeling that the people I met either weren’t the people I wanted to show my true colours to or I was trying to fit in with a crowd that wouldn’t accept me for my true crazy self. Like who would walk around college* in a green wig and allow other people to try it on just for fun? When meeting new people or just passing people on the streets I would give a warm and testing smile. If the person smiles back (for all I care it could be a grimace) I would feel like I have either made someone happy or made someone know that I notice them as a human being. I think I have become like this because I was raised inside of my mom’s store and I encountered many people over the years. So I just grew to be very friendly and loving attention from people.
I am also quite Calm when it comes to situations. My mom always tells people the story of when this lady was in her store* and she had a nail glue in her hand and was inching her way towards the entrance. So I went up to the lady and as my mom recollects “said something to the lady and then next thing Michele comes back with the nail glue in her hand.” I had addressed the situation calmly when other staff members would have called her out for the world to see and embarrass the lady. So I think that I am quite Calm however I can get Excitable about some situations. My Excitability shows when I lose something, my heart starts to race and my mind just gets clouded over. Only recently I take time to breathe and think of the last place I used or saw the item. People commend me of my ability to be calm in situations that they would freak out. But I see freaking out as a sign of slight ignorance. But when I do freak out it is more of a personal thing and no one notices that I am really panicking. So once again I find this test accurate where I am mostly calm in situations but I can go through some situations where I get highly excitable.
As I said before I am one to delegate work (unknowingly) and love to work in a team. If the team is like a well running machine, I will work efficiently. Therefore, that shows that I am collective. When there is a system working with the in house staff and outside staff and everyone is working in harmony I feel really comfortable. A situation where that happened was when my dad had went off to look after some material for his hardware and the floor staff would assist the customers who came in and help them find what they need. Then the customers would come to me or the other cashier and purchase their goods and receive a receipt to give to the outside staff. The outside staff out then load the customers vehicle with the material and one of the floor staff would sign off the material going out of the yard. When the group is working well together, I think that the company is working efficiently. This makes me feel very comfortable and everything is done in a timely manner. Another example of my Collective nature is a few weeks ago I went to Scotland for 5 days and I felt so comfortable with the group of 22 people. When I reached back into my room after the trip I had to fight not to cry because I was all alone. I am like this because I am always around people since I am always at my mom’s store. I try my best to either behave the same way around the group or I would behave different to the different groups that I am with.
I am a true Risk taker. Just the fact that I am here in England is enough proof to show that I am a risk taker. Lets go step by step on how risk taking I am. 1. I left the safety of being near friends and family to go to a State in America where I knew no one, instead of going to a university where I have friends or to a university that is near my extended family. 2. I decided to do a semester in Leeds Metropolitan University in England, this was the ultimate risk where I was just going with the flow and hoping everything goes well. 3. I put my life in the hands of people I just recently met and go travelling all around England. I have a friend back in the states who was telling me that she would have backed out of the student exchange with the amount of time they were taking to get everything sorted. But it just proves that once you have an idea of your goal you will go for it. Some people call it crazy, some people call it risky, others call it dangerous, but I just find it as fun and exhilarating. This is the only way you can network and broaden your horizons to what is going on with other people in other countries. I have had thoughts of ‘What would have happened if I had just went to a university in the Caribbean where I have friends? What would have happened if I just stayed in Rhode Island and enjoyed the rest of my junior year (3rd year) with people I have grown comfortable with? What would have happened if I just buried my head in my work and never went to see other parts of England?’ Then the answer pops into my mind. I would never have become the strong and well-cultured person that I am right now!
Stability and Adaptability is something that describes me. I can manage being stable working in the status quo and making sure everything runs perfectly. With Stability I know that I can work to make whatever I am working on BETTER! Making sure to get it right. My ability to be very Adaptable is seen when I take a risk, I can easily find a calm space and feel comfortable. I adapt to the people and what they do and how they react to others. An example of this is here in England, not only did I adapt to the Northern England weather but I also adapted to the people and the teaching style of each professor.
I prefer Certainty over Ambiguity any day. I get flustered when I don’t know what I am doing. Then I start to feel like a nag keep asking other people of what I am suppose to be doing. Which then leads to the feeling of retardedness on my end because I am going all around asking people to explain something that if they had just explained it in the beginning the whole process and time wastage would have been avoided. An example of a situation that certainty was used is this project. The professor had explained in full detail what he wanted and how he wants it to look and what is to be in it. Even though I think with this, he either gave us too much to write on or too little a word count. Honestly, if we weren’t given a criteria I would have no idea what to say or what not to put. Even though I have a feeling I wrote a lot. I am soo going to have to edit this for my actual paper. LOL. In primary school and secondary school they tell you what they want and how it is to be presented. By the time you reach state college you know what you are doing. I then went to JWU and they tell you what they want the assignment to look like.
Since I am a more hands on person, I rather have Personal Responsibility over a situation than Professional Responsibility. With the Personal Responsibility, you can use your personality to feel out how the customer or person that you are meeting reacts to you. If they are more of the quiet-get-things-done-fast type of person then you keep the chitchat to a minimum and get the job done. If the person feels like they are having a bad day, you can try and see if they want to talk about it (not always a good idea). If the person is open and you can just talk very freely that is good. There was a situation where there was a girl who came into my mom’s store and she was looking for jewellery for her brother and she was just making some of the most random comments when I was asking her what she was looking for. Then she mentioned that all the guys in her family have nice coolie* hair. I responded saying that she should cut her brother’s hair and bring it back to me as a souvenir. We then got into a conversation of how we hated it when guys have better hair than girls and that women started to cut their hair and men started to grow out their hair. From the outside it would look like we are good friends just talking when in truth I was just putting my personality into the interaction. But of course not all situations are like that and I know how to handle such instances as well. An example of this happening was when a man and a lady came into my dad’s hardware and the man started to ask for stuff and he was giving the vibes that he was a very troublesome* individual. However, the lady had the vibe that she just wanted to get her stuff and go. So I had ignored the guys playful manner and made sure to get the job done in a professional manner.
I prefer formal communication to get a point across because you get a chance to put everything that is on your mind down. There was a situation that I had lost something that was valuable to my sister and she had stopped talking to me after I told her that I lost it. I had no idea in how to express how sorry I was in verbal speech. I knew I would leave out a lot of things and would not get to the point of the apology. I then wrote an email to her expressing how sorry I was. I even started to cry silently when I wrote the email. I have never felt so guilty and retarded in my life. I find it easier to be formal about important things. But when needed I could handle informal communication, but I realized that I am very informal when doing that. I would even use vernacular (the big word of the day) like “Okie Dokie”. Talk about childish!!
I believe in both Incentives and Recognition to motivate people. I would work somewhere for the money and all the freebies and even the discounts you can get on products and services. Then there is Recognition and praise. I have both sides of this where my dad is the type to give you incentives and my mom is the type to give recognition. I remember a time (yes I am rattling on about it, to those who heard it before) but my daddy said he was going to get me a COOL Barbie Jeep (I think, it was a jeep. Barbie vehicle) and that was his way to get me to do what he wanted at the moment. But did I get it?? Noooooo!!! Ok I done! While mom has here favourite phrase that will go on for generations (I hope). When we ask her for something, her response would always be “You don’t want me too?” I swear if I find a child (between the ages of 3-7) who can answer that I will give them money! Ok maybe that isn’t really an example of praise. But she would always say thank you or something to acknowledge the work I did. So I have inherited both traits of giving Incentives and Recognition to get the job done. But the trick is who and when do you use them with.
The reason I chose the Hospitality Industry is because I am more Person Centred. I love dealing with people and cannot see myself behind a desk doing paper work or crunching numbers. I had the opportunity to be a Liaison Officer for a Debate Competition that was being help in our Country. Out of the positions of being a Researcher, a Public Relations Officer, a Debater, or a Liaison Officer, I chose to be Liaison Officer because of the interaction I would have with the people. But when I need to get a task done I can be very Task Centred just to get the job done.
I am more Directive than Participative because I feel that I would be able to bring out the best in what I am doing and if everyone is working at their best then everything will be great. If I am unable to be Directive I stay in the background and just do the work that is required of me. I might be this way because my dad told me “…you could be one of two things in life, the ass kicker or the person getting their ass kicked.” So that gave me a sense of being ahead of the group and leading. Both of my parents are owners of their own companies so being raised in that environment I just find it the most efficient way to get a job done.
Planning is my forte (if that is the right word), I have to plan things out even if they don’t come through. Like for a trip I would be preparing weeks even MONTHS in advance and I would have to force myself to stop planning what will happen when I go. I would plan the time it would take to get to the location and then put in “bullshit time”*. So sometimes if I am really anxious I would be at the airport or train station like an hour or 2 hours early. I have noticed that my sister is the same way. Yes you are even if you think you aren’t. But we were raised that way so we shall embrace our Anal tendencies.
After going through each of these characteristics I find that I am very near if not at the point of being an Entrepreneurial Leader Manager. I have inherited the qualities from my parents and have noticed that I have acquired the ones that would make me a successful Entrepreneurial Leader Manager. The characteristics like being Calm, Collective, Certain, Formal, Directive and apt for Planning over Flexibility show that I am slightly more a Classical Manager which is suitable for when a company is going through hard times or just need to get the job done. The characteristics like Extrovert, Risk, Personal Responsibility and Person Centred show that I am an Entrepreneurial Leader and would be able to manage my staff in an efficient and effective way. Then there are the characteristics that I am both of them, which is Stability and Adaptability, and Incentives and Recognition. I believe that with all of these you would be able to manage whatever situation is forced upon you as management as well as best for meeting the needs of the staff members.
So this gives me even more a boost to go after my goal of owning my own hotel or chain of hotels which ever is the result of my choices. I have known that I have the experience to operate a company successfully. After doing this test I have realized I also have the characteristics needed to operate a company successfully. Upon the completion of the Understanding Service Management module, I have gotten a better sense of well being, the confidence and knowledge I would require to operate a company. This was the most informative module I have had in a while, because it allows you to relate the information to your personality and future goals.
OXXO
Mayeshah
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