Leadership is a very essential quality that one requires in their personal life, and it is

equally essential in their professional lives as well. Especially for managers, being able to lead

their employees with a certain level of strictness but also with some flexibility is equally

important. Having realized the importance of being a good leader from my early days, I have

made continuous efforts to improve and enhance my leadership skills. Currently, I have acquired

strong leadership skills required to become a manager. Likewise, another similar qualification is

foresightedness. This is something that people should use in their daily lives in order to set

achievable objectives and fulfill them accordingly. Despite numerous attempts, I haven’t been

able to acquire this attribute, which is a major weakness for me if I want to become a manager.

These qualities have been analyzed in this paper through the means of a Strength-Weakness-

Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis.

From our childhoods, we have been taught that it is important to become a good leader in

all the aspects of our lives- be it in a friends circle or a community or a family. With these

considerations, I made numerous efforts to make my leadership skills strong by participating in

social events, volunteering, conducting programs, etc. As a result, I have remarkably improved

my leadership skills over time, and I can currently call myself a good leader when it comes to

simple as well as complex scenarios. I think that, as managers, it is necessary to have good

leadership skills because if managers don’t have the capability to lead their juniors, they will not

be obeyed, followed, or even viewed as a higher authority. In general considerations, leadership,

direction, and control are considered to be so essential that their absence is almost considered to

be synonymous with the lack of an organization (Smircich and Morgan 1989, p.257). This is

something very observant in daily lives as well, exemplified by a common family. If the head of

the family doesn’t lead the other members, they won’t obey the head even when all of them are
economically dependent upon them. As managerial leaders, three of the primary considerations

are “competence, control, and the balance of power ”(Zaleznik 1977). However, I believe that

rather than restricting approach, leaders should be lenient yet commanding so that they provide

the space for their juniors to express their ideas freely while also not allowing them to break the

barrier of respect and hierarchy. This includes a participatory approach that excludes strict

monitoring and supervision such that in directive leadership (Somech 2005, p.780). Thus, I am

confident that my leadership qualities will help me in improving my stance as an organizational

manager.

On the other hand, another idea that has been enforced upon us since the very beginning

is that a person should always have a vision for the long run and be foresighted. While this

suggestion is very concise and requires an individual to make goals that are sustainable and

durable, this is not an easy task to do. It might be easy to set goals and targets and to “craft

pictures of the future” (Wesselink et al., 2005, p.299) but it is difficult to comply with the

objectives and achieve them as per their needs. With this, my numerous efforts of becoming a

foresighted person come to failure very often. Consequently, I have completely stopped planning

for the future and can make only short-term goals and visions, which is a major drawback for an

aspiring manager. In the context of management, foresightedness not only means the planning

for achieving the intermediate goals and enhancing of the present status but also planning for the

future and the potential competition in the future (Xu 2010, p.3). As a manager of any company,

it is necessary that the person views the overall benefit of the organization and also sets his/her

mind on a goal that is durable but also achievable. For this, there are numerous aspects that can

be improved. Some of the most common and doable measures include having a contingency

plan, doing a comparative analysis of expectations and actual performance, etc. With these
efforts, an individual can incorporate a prudence aspect in his/her managerial roles. With these

pieces of information, I can make attempts of improving my sense of foresightedness in such a

way that I become a manager who has a proper consideration of future goals and commitments.

As managers, individuals come across numerous opportunities that can be exploited in

the appropriate manners through the help of the strengths and can be equally important in

minimizing the weaknesses. One such opportunity that plays a crucial role in management is

decision-making, imposed upon the managers by the employees as well as the higher authorities.

Managers are required to make decisions not only for their junior subordinates but also on the

behalf of their seniors, which makes decision-making a very frequent opportunity for managers.

Not only in management, but it is also critical in every aspect of life; it is just that managers are

exposed to numerous instances where decision-making is needed as a top skill and can be

equally presented as an opportunity. When it comes to the previously discussed strength, i.e

leadership, it can be used to take proper advantages of decision-making authorities. “Decision

making almost always involves some form of leadership” (Dyer et al., 2009, p.781). With the

skills of a qualified and just leader, one can make decisions that are equally fruitful for all the

members of the organization and therefore, help achieve the managerial goals of the

individual.Also, as leaders are involved, decisions should be made under moral considerations

whereby the judgment should be fair and be connected to the magnitude of morality that is

associated with it (May et al., 2003, p.1). Likewise, such an opportunity can also be important in

minimizing the impact of the weakness that has been mentioned earlier, i.e. lack of

foresightedness. With that being said, the lack of having a long-term sight can be compensated

and even improved through the use of decision-making opportunities. Considering the

environmental uncertainties, it is essential to make farsighted decisions, which addresses the

aforementioned weakness and also incorporates decision-making ( Vecchiato 2012, p.444). In

cases requiring decision-making, if a manager makes decisions with consideration of the future,

the problems regarding foresightedness are naturally sent to a decline. Therefore, this positive

exploitation of an opportunity such as decision-making is something that I can learn if I want to

stand out as a productive manager.

Likewise, since taking the role of the management isn’t just an experience of privileges

and luxuries, it also faces certain threats simultaneously. One such threats that can be hurled in

the managers’ way is transgression or non-compliance from the employees. Transgression

include such activities where the values of the organization and the stakeholders are deliberately

manipulated and violated (Pace, Fediuk, and Botero 2010, p.411). While employees are

generally expected to be aligned to the instructions and regulations set by managers, there might

be some employees who wouldn’t be satisfied with the needs of the managers and would,

therefore, participate in misconduct that would ultimately harm the productiveness and the

reputation of the organization as a whole. To tackle this threat, the aforementioned strength of

good leadership can be efficiently utilized by identifying such employees and putting efforts into

coercing them to improve their behavioral conduct. Leadership can also help in convincing them

about the compliance to regulations and the predetermined course of action such that they don’t

deviate and lead themselves into misconducts like a transgression. In general, transgressions

should be forgiven when “the transgressor both admits the act was wrong, accepts responsibility

for the offence, expresses empathy, offers penance, and promises not to repeat the untoward

behavior in the future” (Tucker et al., 2006, p.196). However, this particular threat can also be

prevented beforehand if managers work on the aforementioned weakness of not having

foresightedness. If managers work on having a more forethought vision and a more sustainable
goal, they can plan beforehand about what can be done if such cases of transgression and non-

compliance appear in the course of the organization. Contingency plans can be developed before

the occurrence of any transgressions so that such possibilities can be mitigated even before they

cause any detrimental effects on the organizations’ goal fulfillment. Hence, through these

measures, the managers can prevent potential threats of non-compliance and misconduct from

the employees. It is something that I must learn in order to establish myself as an exemplary

manager.

To sum up, some of the most important characters not only in daily lives but also in a

managerial life are leadership and foresightedness, which I strongly possess and lack

respectively. Leadership skills can be gradually acquired from various experiences, which is why

any individual can develop this trait in them to become a good manager. Such strengths can be

helpful in utilizing available opportunities like decision-making and can be equally important in

minimizing the adverse effects of possible transgressions by the employees. On the other hand, a

very common weakness is the incapability of having a long sight, which can be minimized

through opportunities of decision-making and can be reduced in order to prevent the possible

threat that is the transgression showed by employees, Learning from these examples, I can

hopefully establish my career as a successful manager in the near future.

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