Professional and personal leadership essay

I had a difficult upbringing, as I was moved from one foster home to another every year from the age of five until I was twelve. There was never enough time to make friends or even get acquainted with a single venue. I was grateful to be given the opportunity to travel to America to be reborn as an entirely new person with hopes and a happier future. I was overjoyed that God had given me a second chance in life and that I could be everything I wanted to be and have a stable and happier future in the United States. As time passed, I was lucky to marry and become a husband, but my heart was broken when I found out that my wife had been cheating on me with multiple men and this tore my heart into pieces. We broke up, and now I am all by myself and have no family to count on for support. Consequently, I have to run all my errands, make difficult life decisions all by myself, and this leaves me exhausted, but I have to push on with life and count on myself.

Professional Development Plan

My assessment results from my management staff at TTI Success Insights indicated that I am often seen as an objective and practical person who can be motivated through teamwork. Further, I like to be a valued team member, and I do not rush to volunteer my opinion but take my time to gather enough information that can warrant my opinion. In addition, I can aggressively stand up for what I believe and like to start and finish activities. My coworkers know that I am dependable and I am persistence when it comes to winning. I make my decisions based on past experiences as most of them are ‘tried and true ‘and am always strict on following my plans whenever I make them. When making decisions, I always try to be logic and whenever am faced with tough decisions, I seek all the information I can get and analyze it thoroughly. I am persistent and persevering when it comes to achieving my goal, and I strongly support things that I am passionate about as well as my beliefs. I prefer planning my work and working my plans, and this has helped me achieve my goals as well as compelled others to be on my team. I am good at analyzing situations that can be touched, felt, seen, heard, personally experienced or observed, and my motto is “facts are facts.”

I do not enjoy confrontations because I believe I can win through patience and resolve. I am a little bit reserved with those I do not trust or know, and when trust is established, I can be open and candid. I do not like engaging in verbal battles, and whenever am faced with this kind of a situation, I tend to retreat and gather my resources before I indulge myself. My past experiences have taught me to be careful, and this makes me uncomfortable with active participation with unfamiliar groups, and I am always quiet, but I find it fun and encouraging when dealing with groups of people I trust and known for a long time. Also, through my past experiences, I have learned to be considerate and modest, and have trained myself to be in control of my emotions. Explicitly, when I was in the foster homes, I taught myself to hide my feelings and emotions through projecting a poker face (Liesveld, Miller & Robison, 2005). Similarly, I have become aware of when and how to carefully engage in social conversation and how to answer questions especially those that I do not have a clear answer.

Where I come from is a broken family at the age of two, and I became an unwanted child ending up being abused by stepparents. I was then taken to different foster homes since the age of five until the age of 12. My stepbrother in the United States gave me a second chance, but I have been living with roommates and myself in the United States. I managed to finish high school and college with many hardships and became a Christian where I started a relationship with the Lord. Soon after, I joined the US Army where I was wounded in combat and took a few years to recover from combat wounds. When I was well, I started working for the federal government as an investigator and got married. We got divorced within nine months, but I was able to complete my Associate degree in 15 months and joined the university to get my BS degree. I have learned to be patient in life through its difficulties and to trust not on my understanding but to lean on the Lord for wisdom and guidance.

I have learned that life is very pernicious and everyone in the world deserves to live their life to the fullest and be given an opportunity to grow, make something out of themselves, and make a difference in life and the world. I came from nothing and was an unwanted child; my stepparents and my parents abused me. Many times, when I look back to realize that I have had a miraculous life and that the LORD was in control of my life despite having nothing to hold on to and to rely upon since I can remember. Today I am grateful that I am alive and have made something out of myself with the help of loving people here in the United States. I have also learned to be humble, thankful and giving by the help of the grace of God. Every day I try to better myself and help those who are less fortunate than I am. Even though I do not have much and a family to rely on I put all my hopes and trust unto the Lord. However, throughout the years I have made many great friends who love me and care for me for the person that I am today. My brand is to be consistent, always look sharp like a million-dollar man, still be smiling and convert new relationships into new business ventures (Mycoskie, 2011). Today, I love my life and positively looking forward to the future (Bower & Bower, 2009). One of my primary objective in life is to be able to start and sustain an orphanage for the unwanted children like myself and be able to help and provide for them in order for them become anything that they choose to be in life. Moreover, I have learned so far “freely ye received, freely give” (Hilton III, 2010).

According to Strengths Finder 2.0 from Gallup by Tom Rath, my strengths are Harmony, Responsibility, Consistency, and Relator. I look for areas of agreement and little to be gained from conflict and friction. It also shows I like people and can relate to people quickly. I conquer anything I commit to, and follow through to completion. Furthermore, balance is essential, and I tend to treat people the same no matter what. Also, I can turn strangers into friends, comfortable with intimacy once a connection has been made. Finally, yet importantly, I have discipline, my world needs to be predictable, needs to be ordered and planned to including setting up routines. I tend to focus on timelines and deadlines, want to feel that I am in control of life’s messiness (Rath, 2007). I need to let people in my life once more, and learn to trust again. In doing this, I will be able to truly love and forgive people who have hurt me and open up my social ties as well as live a happy and purpose-full life (Winseman, Clifton, & Liesveld, 2004). In addition, I plan always to be open to new and positive changes and not being afraid to change, and this will help me to become a less stubborn person. Further, I plan to learn to Review, Renew, and Recommit myself in order to be successful. “The three R’s round out the first six of our seven keys. This happens when we review, renew your focus, and recommit to it, updating your purpose, vision, work, play, relationships, health, and spirituality”. High Achiever’s Guide on Happiness by Vance Caesar and Carol Ann Caesar. This will encourage me to be more flexible in life (Caesar & Caesar, 2005).

To advance my learning experience from what I have learned about others and myself, I intend to get myself a career coach who will advise me accordingly in order to achieve my goals. Also, I will continue my education to complete my master’s degree and always keep learning to improve myself. I will stay positive at all times and think of great things, and this will motivate me to keep learning more and aiming higher. I will never be negative in life, any situation and always never gossip. I will be dedicated to giving a hand to the needy and still hold myself accountable with renewing what I have learned in this class “Organizational Behavior.”

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References

Bower, S. A., & Bower, G. H. (2009). Asserting ourself-Updated Edition: Practical Guide For Positive Change. Hachette UK.

Caesar. Caesar, V., & Caesar, C. A. (Eds.). (2005). The high achiever's guide to happiness. Corwin Press.

Hilton III, J. (2010). “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10: 8): How giving away religious digital books influences the print sales of those books. Brigham Young University.

Liesveld, R., Miller, J., & Robison, J. (2005). Teach with our strengths: How great teachers inspire their students. Simon and Schuster.

Mycoskie, B. (2011). Start something that matters. Spiegel & Grau.

Rath, T. (2007). StrengthsFinder 2.0. Simon and Schuster.

Winseman, A. L., Clifton, D. O., & Liesveld, C. (2004). Living your strengths. Simon and Schuster.