Personal History Paper (Essay Sample)

Personal History Paper
Student’s Name
Institution
Personal History Paper
Introduction
I have worked under various leaders who I can describe both as effective and ineffective. Effective leaders are the ones who achieved success through their unique qualities and leadership styles. Meanwhile, those I consider incompetent leaders failed to apply success principles in their leadership. Notably, I have been part of organizations whose policies contributed either to my success or failure at work. This paper reflects on my experiences with different leaders and organizations where I worked. It elaborates on why I consider the leaders as either effective or ineffective and how the organizations’ policies influenced my success.
Effective Leaders
Among those whom I consider to be effective leaders are Mrs. Wicks and Mr. Michael. Wicks was my human resource manager at Hicks Limited where I was an intern while Michael was my local church chairman whom I served as a secretary. Wicks employed a unique leadership style in her position as she did not believe in any standard type of leadership. Mostly, she operated as a diplomatic leader who gave everyone a chance to participate in decision making. However, she also applied autocratic and laissez-faire kinds of leadership whenever it was necessary. For example, she would allow her assistants to make most of the decisions that they were capable of making. Therefore, her style can be considered in regard to the contingency leadership theory that advocates for leaders to apply the leadership styles following the need. Wicks was a peaceful and a kind person who was loved by almost everyone within the organization. However, she was also a disciplinarian who never condoned misbehavior in the workplace.
Wicks always stood for the truth and encouraged employees to be truthful. For example, she would give the employees feedback on their performance based on personal observation and not just on rumors. Besides, she also valued feedback and encouraged us to give it to her as well. I consider this an important aspect of leadership given that a leader should know their performance to be able to improve. Wicks would take her feedback kindly and even make changes to her leadership approach to enhancing her performance. She also portrayed great leadership skills when she occasionally delegated duties to her juniors. She always ensured that her juniors did part of her work and even showed them how to do it. In fact, she said that it is important for all the employees to learn the work of their seniors to create a team of eligible managers for the organization.
Wicks also had an efficient way of communicating with the rest of the employees. For example, she would call someone to her office if she wanted to deliver a private message. I experienced this when she gave feedback to workers in every quarter since she always called everyone at a closed-door meeting, and no one could ever know about one another's feedback. During meetings with other employees, she opted for a round-table style of sitting to let the employees feel free to address her. She also valued the opinions that came from the staff; she ensured that she noted every idea raised in the meeting.
Another person who I consider as an effective leader is Mr. Michael who was my local church chairman, and I was the secretary. At that time, I had never worked in this position for any organization. However, he was happy to have me as his assistant. Being inexperienced, I made errors when writing minutes and even correspondences to other parties. I expected him to be displeased given that he had a former secretary who did the work perfectly. Instead, he opted to teach me until I knew most of the basic requirements. Michael never pointed out an individual’s mistake before other unconcerned parties. At the same time, he never let a mistake go uncorrected; he would always try and find the best time and sufficient privacy to let people know of their mistakes. He was also very committed to his activities and would not wait for anything to go wrong. In case he suspected that he had hurt anyone, he would ask for pardon.
Moreover, Mr. Michael was a flexible person who would adapt to any changing circumstances. For example, there was a day that our church was to receive visitors for accommodation since we had private accommodation facilities. At the same time, a wedding had been planned to take place but without our knowledge. Therefore, it meant that we could only have one activity taking place because of the lack of enough facilities. In regard to this, Michael called a meeting and said that offering accommodation would help the church generate income. However, the wedding being a spiritual activity will have to take place as planned despite the inconveniences. Therefore, we notified our expected visitors of the changes and gave alternative accommodation facilities nearby.
Ineffective Leader
One more leader that I have worked under is Mr. Enoch Hardy whom I consider the most incompetent leader. He was the operations manager at Hotel Tee where I worked in the accounts department. He was an ineffective leader because he would never sit together with the junior employees to seek their ideas on how to improve running the organization. He only considered his own opinion and hardly delegated work to his assistants. Besides, he could not give employee feedback in privacy. For example, there was a day that he called the secretary over to his office but went ahead to meet her on the way. In the meantime, he started telling the employee of the wrong things she did as everyone was listening. He did not even care to appreciate the efforts of the secretary who felt intimidated and resigned immediately. Later on, Hardy called a meeting and notified everyone that he is ready to lose anyone who does not perform as per his expectations. Evidently, he did not value the employees and the efforts that they made to do their work. Also, he would insist that the accounts department deduct employees’ salary for failing to go to work irrespective of the reason and permission from the human resource office. I think he lacked most of the leadership qualities such as trust and failed to apply a suitable style of leadership to a different situation. In fact, he was always dictatorial as he did not give us a chance to express our own ideas.
Organization Whose Policies Helped Me Succeed
I had a chance to work as an intern in one of the Coca-Cola Company’s sales outlets as a storekeeper, and I must admit that the policies helped me to succeed and grow in my career. First, the organization has it as a policy that every new employee undergoes training for two weeks before officially commencing their duties. Being a student, I had no experience of working as a storekeeper, but through the training I gained the skills and the necessary confidence that helped me succeed in my position. The company also had a culture of having all the employees meet once after every two weeks for 30 minutes to communicate any concern. Through the meetings, I learned to talk to people and evaluate different corporate ide...