STRENGTHS face to face. My people skills are

STRENGTHS face to face. My people skills are

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Life is a never ending learning experience. One of the most important lessons we can ever learn from comes from within.

As we go through life, it is essential that we learn who we are, and have the ability to recognize and grow from our own personal strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what we are good at and what we are weak in is the only way we can truly grow as individuals. This knowledge helps us to accomplish the goals we set for ourselves in life.Through taking this personal inventory of my strengths and weaknesses, I have determined what I need to do not only to better understand who I am, but how to improve my life.

In order to assess my strengths, I first determined the areas that I am most competent in. I generally consider myself to be a well organized individual. Every day, I prioritize my daily activities by reviewing my never ending “to do” list. I frequently use written, verbally recorded, and electronic lists as reminders of tasks I have not yet completed. I am also skilled at developing creative, time saving solutions to tedious, and often repetitive tasks.This saves me time and allows me to accomplish more.

Another one of my strengths is my ability to adapt to nearly any type of environment or situation, which allows me the flexibility to be comfortable talking to many different levels of people. Most people would call this my “people skills”. As a Sales Representative for a company that primarily distributes maintenance, repair and operations equipment, I come into contact with many different individuals on a daily basis. On any given day, I may find myself talking to anyone from the person who sweeps the floor, to the President of a large company.Some situations I am handle are over the telephone, but usually I deal with my customers face to face.

My people skills are especially useful in two areas of my job; conflict resolution, and relationship building. During conflicts, my people skills allow me to calm the client, take control of the situation, and provide a solution. I consider relationship building to be the easiest part of my job, as it comes somewhat naturally to me. I truly enjoy meeting people and getting to know them. This is invaluable when one is employed in a Sales and Customer Service related field such as mine.

I consider myself a team player. I often provide assistance to fellow employees when they are in a bind. I am appreciated by my peers for always lending a helping hand when needed. I take pleasure in offering my skills, suggestions or perspective to my co-workers when I think it would be useful to them. Teaching others has always been a strong suit of mine, especially when it comes to computers.

There’s a certain sense of satisfaction to be had in knowing that you are able to make others comprehend something that they felt was so foreign.I enjoy educating my children and seeing the glow in their faces when they learn something new. Teaching provides me with a sense of achievement. Self-discipline is yet another quality I possess. When dealing with clients who are frustrated and taking it out on you, it takes a certain level of restraint not to lose your composure. This trait is also evident in my personal life, where I frequently sacrifice things I would have spent money on in the past, so that I can save and build a better future for my children.On the other hand, one of my greatest weaknesses is procrastination.

I know that this causes me great stress in my professional life. I often tend so stay up all night on a Sunday night to plan for my upcoming week, when I really had the entire weekend to do it. This leads to some fairly exhausted Mondays. Because I gain more time from being organized in general, I find that I squander away a lot of time, causing me to wait until the last minute to begin a project. The home environment is just full of distractions, which cause me to procrastinate.There is always a reason to watch a little more television, spend time with my husband, play with my three year-old, clean the house, etc. My other negative trait would be that I tend to be a perfectionist.

When I do things I do them in such a methodical way, that I am not satisfied until they are just right in my eyes. When working on group projects, I sometimes get frustrated when others do not put forth the same level of effort that I do. Often I find myself losing patience with those who do not share my same ideas or level of dedication. I have set a personal goal aimed toward correcting my weaknesses.I have decided to work on my time management skills. I plan to start this process by pushing myself to dedicate more of my “free” time to schoolwork. This is the area that is most negatively affected by my procrastination .

I will also try to be more effective in the way I manage my schedule at work. One of the ways I plan to accomplish this is by scheduling my upcoming week on Friday evenings. In order to be a more functional member in both work and learning teams, I plan to work on my patience and understanding of others’ different styles and perspectives.

I will try to understand that as individuals we all have our own way of doing things. I will display greater patience when those around me do not share my point of view. The strengths and weaknesses I have discussed are part of what makes me an individual. By identifying them, I am able devise a plan to improve my areas of weakness, while using my strengths to my advantage. My objective is that through reinforcing my strengths, and overcoming my weaknesses, I will be more successful in both my personal and professional life.