Self-Analysis Portfolio
Retail manager portfolio
Personal profile
A dynamic, resourceful experienced manager and leader in organizational setting. Much experienced in providing administrative and project management support and leadership to subordinates. Reliable in coaching, giving feedback, building team and individual morale, rolling out & carrying through initiatives, making relevant recommendations and reaching desired decisions. I have the ability to handle both high-profile and hand-on management roles requiring exceptional business acumen as well as creative flair. In addition, am a flexible open-minded leader able to take in new ideas & compromise divergent opinions. I am able to seamlessly juggle varied priorities and have the ability to work autonomously in addition to taking ownership of all elements of a project or task. Am an ambitious and passionate leader with a strong and service background which has able me to remain highly relevant in the constantly changing, challenging and competitive retail business environment. I strongly believe I have come of age in leadership and management, and now ready for bigger responsibilities.
I. CAREER HISTORY
Fashion Clothes Retailer – Washington, DC
RETAIL MANAGER December 2008 – to Present
In charge of overseeing the day to day operations of a relatively large retail store consisting of 150 employees. Tasked with running the store effectively so as to meet the targets and policies of the company. Responsible for organizing, prioritizing and delegating duties effectively to staff so ensure exceptional customer service within deadlines. Handle human resources, logistics, marketing, information technology, finance and customer service.
Work duties
– Ensuring the right things are done by the right persons and at the right time in the right manner
– Sourcing the latest trends to the high street and offer them at affordable prices
– Tasked with recruiting, training, supervising, conducting performance reviews and giving appraisal to staff as necessary
– Serving as a role model to the rest of the team on daily basis, both on and off the shop
– Managing and motivating the team to increase their sales and ensure efficiency
– Having constant market trend awareness in the retail industry in addition to monitoring the activities of competitors
– Initiating strategic changes targeted at improving the business such as revising the opening & closing hours to ensure we compete effectively in the local market
– Making sure that required health and safety checks are carried out on daily basis
– Undertaking analysis of sales figures as well as projecting future sales volumes so as to maximize profits
– Doing timely and adequate response to customer complaints and comments.
High Street Fashion Store – New York
ASSISTANT RETAIL MANAGER January 2006 – December 2008
Duties
– Achieving core growth for the store through driving and maximizing of sales and profitability
– Maximizing profits for the store by analyzing of sales figures along with forecasting future sales volumes
– Utilizing information technology in the recording of sales figures as well as data analysis and future planning
– Tasking with making informed forecasts on retail channel requirements
– Addressing and responding to staffing issues such as recruitment of potential staff and provision or organization of training and development.
– Promoting the store at a domestic level by collaborating with the community at large.
Department Store – Washington, DC
RETAIL SALES ASSISTANT March 2005 – January 2006
Duties and tasks
– Advising customers/clients on the location, selection, pricing, delivery as well as use & care of available goods at the store, with the aim of encouraging purchase and return business
– Handling customer complaints professionally
– Manage cash registers and receive payment
– Preparation of finance arrangement such as invoices and contracts
– Taking special orders for products not currently available in the store, or those not usually stocked, and notify client when they are in stock
– Packaging of goods for customers and overseeing their delivery
– Price, stack & display products for sale
– Ensuring the store is kept clean, tidy & attractive to customers
– Maintaining awareness of health, safety and welfare issues & practices at the store
– Participate in stocktaking activities, or heading them in absence of senior personnel
– Organize for fixing of damaged goods, or offer needed advice on repairs
– Maximizing the revenue of the store by suggesting necessary upgrades, add-ons and insurance to customers
– Placing orders for items from suppliers
II. Personality Attributes
i) Communication
Having high communication skills is a necessary ingredient of any effective manager and leader. This is essentially the case because a leader or manager with wanting communication skills is a great liability to any organization (Daft & Lane, 2008). It is on this basis that I believe developing effective communication skill a most significant recipe to becoming a successful effective leader or manager.
Personal Strengths
It is my strong belief that I possess desirable communication skills, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. As a leader of a large organization, I get involved in plenty of interpersonal communication from one-on-one discussions to small and medium size conversations. I am always conscious of my choice of words, my intonation and projection as well as my facial expressions and body language. I know how to maintain consistency among the verbal, vocal and visual aspects so that the message is passed across as intended and thus avoid mixed messages. With this ability, I am always able to precisely convey my messages as well as understand what others are communicating to me (Ricketts, 2010). This is especially true because I am an active listener, always looking at the speaker and maintaining reasonable eye contact. Furthermore, I like seeking clarification where I do not follow quite well but refrain from interrupting the speaker. I also have high sense of gauging the emotions of those am communicating with and adjust accordingly by showing empathy and understanding. Furthermore, self expression is my strongest point thanks to my good command of English language and oratory capabilities. Generally, I am the sort of leader who believes in consistent, trustworthy and followed through communication where the employees are free to express their opinions, feelings and thoughts. I often employ my strong communication abilities to realize increased productivity and job performance together with customer satisfaction (Schermerhorn, 2011).
Weakness
In spite of the above strong communication abilities, my major shortcoming in this area is that I tend to be very economical with my words. While it mostly happens to me unconsciously, I sometimes do it out of my free will where I choose to do much listening than giving my insight to discussions. In such moments, all I do is nod in agreement or react in some other non-verbal communication. Consequently, I have been accused of being an introvert one too many times. However, I believe that this has to do with my leadership style – a mix of democratic and laissez-faire elements. Unless a matter really needs senior most intervention, I prefer letting others discuss issues and also leaving the small decisions to my superintendents.
ii) Leadership
Strengths
In my own conviction, I believe the ability to motivate others and oneself is a key factor for effective leadership. I can say that motivation is synonymous with as a manager and leader. This is because I am always striving to create an environment for others to increase their contribution and productivity. I am of the habit of challenging others to release the leader within them and make positive contribution to the organization, community, and more significantly, themselves. To this extent, I am always energetic and enthusiastic and show great sense of commitment to my work. Recognition or appraisal is a tool I use to motivate my staff through awarding of certificates of merit, mentions in corporate releases/bulletins and verbal expression of appreciation.
In the same vein, I am a leader who believes in empowering others. This is line with my leadership style, a blend of democracy and laissez-faire. I appreciate the ideas and capabilities of others and thus do not subscribe to the notion of “know-it-all leader”. Similarly, I am largely open-minded and flexible to consider the input of those under my leadership. Therefore, this is a leader who fosters an environment where everyone is free to offer their individual leadership skills and expertise and sharing of credit when goals are achieved.
Weaknesses
Delivering effective leadership is a challenge to many people (Daft & Lane, 2008), and I am no exception. My greatest shortcoming is that I am a perfectionist of sorts, meaning that I do not like going wrong. While I am open to new ideas and experimentation, I hardly embrace an environment that supports making of mistakes. I often go to great lengths to discourage making of mistakes through such measures as strict rules and reward systems. Grave mistakes, either on my part or others, often leave me disappointed and feeling like a failure.
As mentioned earlier, my greatest undoing is also in the leadership styles that define me. While my democratic nature lets other to be part of decision-making, experience has painfully showed me that such leeway only works best with highly experienced or skilled staff, when undertaking operational changes, or when resolving group or individual problems. As such, I have always run into problems with staff whose competency is wanting, and when there is little time for everyone to have their input.
iii) Professionalism
Strengths
As a leader, I uphold utmost professionalism at my workplace. I religiously adhere to the requirement of “never mix business with pleasure” and saying what I mean and meaning what I say. In all the leadership/management positions, I have always strived to lead by example through cultivating the culture of professionalism by stressing the need to adhere to ethics, values and regulations of the organization. I ensure consistency in my conduct, and exercise principles of fairness, integrity, and honesty. Furthermore, I am often willing to reevaluate my position when presented with facts and evidence.
Depicting self-respect in my work is something I greatly believe in. I refrain from perceiving work merely as some job I have to do or a means to spend money. Rather, I am aware that my work reflect my inner character, and is a statement of my personal commitment to excellence of performance.
Weaknesses
In light of my working experience, I believe I am yet to achieve what is called top-notch professionalism. This is because my working experience is still localized owing to the fact that the leadership/management positions I have held this far are locally based – in America. Gaining more life enriching experience from other parts of the world would do me good and ultimately make me an effective leader.
iv) Self management
Strengths
Effective and efficient management of personal time, life, work, interests and hobbies is a key ingredient to effective leadership or management (Irby & Brown, 2000). Personally, I score big in terms of balancing between work and personal .life. I am organized enough to ensure that the two do not clash in any way whatsoever. As such, I have a thorough understanding of ethical issues as well as a solid personal work ethic. My strong personal values relate to professional, financial, social and family. In addition, my commitment and sense of responsibility is above reproach. The Tolerance to Ambiguity assessment shows me that I have the ability to not only anticipate but also to appreciate and capitalize from uncertainties and ambiguities in the market. According to the results of the Work Ethic assessment, I have strong work ethics which has built trust in my seniors and juniors.
Weaknesses
The results of the Global Readiness Index revealed to me that I have limited knowledge of other cultures outside my home country, the United States. To counter this, I need to travel around more as well as read extensively about the lifestyles, mindsets and work skills of different cultures around the globe. The Personal Values assessment revealed to me that my family and intellectual values were secondary to my professional and financial values. I need to bring all them to be at par and also focus on the present rather than worrying too much of the times to come.
v) Conceptual skills
Strengths
The results from the What is Your Decision Making Style showed that I am the king of leader who looks at a situation analytically and conceptually. I take sufficient to assess a situation from different perspectives before giving my ultimate take. It revealed that I am overly willing to consider any complex situation using ambiguous information thus always striving to solve a problem from the root cause, once and for all. Generally, I have excellent conceptual skills, which implies that I am always ready to solve problems in rather creative ways.
Weaknesses
Given my perfectionist nature, I am at risk of making costly decisions (Manning & Curtis, 2002). I have a problem of not trusting my final decisions out of the fear of them backfiring on me and the organization. This is why I often allow others too much leverage over decision-making. As a solution, I need to accept that making mistakes is a good thing in itself because it is a learning experience of what not to do (Ricketts, 2009). I ought to stop being too cautious and take some things from the face value.
Conclusion
Generally, the self assessment has assured that I have most leadership qualities and can also be an effective manager. However, there are a number of key areas that still need much improvement – something I will work to fix as soon as possible.
References:
Daft, L. R., & Lane, G. P. (2008). The Leadership Experience. Connecticut: Cengage Learning.
Irby, J.B., & Brown, B. (2000). The Career Advancement Portfolio. California: Corwin Press.
Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2002). The Art of Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill International.
Ricketts, G. K. (2009). Competent Leaders: What Effective Leaders Do Well. Retrieved from: http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/elk1/elk1101/elk1101.pdf
Ricketts, C. (2010). Leadership: Personal Development and Career Success. Connecticut: Cengage Learning.
Schermerhorn, R.J.(2011). Introduction to Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
