Essay 3
Be your own career counselor. What aspects of your personality or background do you believe present the greatest obstacles to achieve those career goals? What is your strategy
for overcoming these obstacles?
The greatest obstacles that I will have to overcome to reach my career goals concern the management of personnel and the difficulties of balancing micro-management and the company’s overall strategy. To be a successful business leader, you must be able to manage your employees and coordinate business strategies. Although I have some people management experience from my work with Hewlett-Packard, and I am currently leading a business team of twenty employees with AsiaEC.com, at times I still feel somewhat frustrated when I am confronted with certain difficult decisions concerning people management issues. Here are some specific illustrations of the obstacles that I must overcome to become a successful business leader:
Additionally, I need to become better at structuring the overall business strategy while also paying attention to the smaller, day-to-day aspects of micro-management. Of course a business leader must put a high priority on the development of strategy, but handling the smaller details is also critical for success. Without being involved personally in the basic matters that your team or organization is dealing with, it is difficult to attain direct information about the market or customer. Also, if you are not involved in the details of the process, it is difficult to make sure that you have high quality output. A professional manager must spend considerable time learning how your team members work on the different elements of a project, understanding their specific problems, and leading them with your specific knowledge and professional experiences to resolve the key issues together.