Personal Essay Example - My Leadership Experience

After studying about leadership in the Army, I was given a chance to be a leader in the investigation team. The investigation team consisted of 20 members. Before undertaking an inquiry, I always provided the members with the necessary training needed to perform the task at hand. These training helped them to gain the much-needed skills. After training, I assigned specific roles to every member of the team based on an individuals interest and area of specialization. As a team leader, I always developed a strategy that my team used to achieve its goals. However, I accorded every member an opportunity to speak up and give ideas on how the investigation can be accomplished. After the members had voiced their thoughts, I led the group in coming up agreed objectives towards reaching a common goal. I believe that listening to the team members suggestions and feedback is key to the cohesiveness of the team.

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During the investigative process, I set timelines that members used to reach the goal, monitored every members participation to ascertain that the training given is being put to good use, and also check if more training is needed. Also, I guided the members as they undertook various investigations. I also managed the teams daily operations, developed reports on the teams progress towards reaching the set goal and distributed these reports to my manager. My leadership position helped me to enhance my leadership skills and put theory into practice. For instance, I realized that every team member has unique personality types that can affect how the group operates. Working with different personality types was quite challenging at first due to some instances of conflicts among members. However, I managed to resolve and avoid future conflicts through negotiations and compromise. I also encouraged the members communicate their feelings and approach me whenever they face differences with another team member. These measures helped stop further conflicts.

After serving in the Army, I got employed in a private security firm where I worked as a security officer for almost five years. In the security firm, I served as a supervisor. My supervisory role gave me an opportunity to mentor my co-workers. Because most of them were newly employed and did not understand the organization and their profession quite well, I constantly advised them about the job and career prospects. I also acted an advocate of the employees and presented employees requests to management. For instance, I encountered a case where an employee had not been promoted despite presenting relevant documents to the human resource (HR) office. Soon after the employee submitted his complaint to my office, I proceeded to the HR office and justify the case for his promotion. The HR office promoted him after that.

Working in the military and a private security firm have given me opportunities to lead others. I have shown democratic leadership in my leadership position. The leadership positions have enabled me to acquire invaluable qualities of good leadership such as how to be an effective team player, to be an excellent listener, to be a problem solver, and never be afraid of constructive criticism. Despite acquiring these valuable skills, I still believe that there are many other qualities that I am yet to learn. Some of these qualities include improvement of my public speaking skills, being more assertive, and setting realistic goals.