A Skills Assessment Essay

Skills Assessment

            Completing a skills assessment on one’s self is an important tool to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses. One must recognize what they are good at doing and utilize their set of skills to maximize one’s ability. By completing a skills assessment on myself, I was able to determine the skills I am most proficient.

Judgment and Decision Making

 Judgement and decision making go hand in hand and to make informed decisions one must set back and look at the big picture. When making a decision to fix a problem, I have to evaluate the problem and come up with a list of possible solutions. After which, one makes the decision on the course of action to alleviate the problem, followed by, implementation of the plan and finally, monitor how the plan is doing. In my current job as a manager for a quick-service restaurant, I am faced with making informed decisions daily. Some are handled in a manner of minutes, whereas others may take some research to solve.  

Management of Financial Recourses

            In my current position as office manager for the restaurant I work for, I am responsible for all the financial records for the restaurant. The restaurant last year did sales in excess of 5 million dollars and it is a huge responsibility in handling all of the daily financial records. My responsibilities include: deposits of cash, management of change fund, maintaining all of the budgets, accounts payable and receivable and completing all records to send to the home office for completing of the monthly Profit and Loss Statement; ensuring the accuracy of all financial transactions that occur on a daily basis.

Active Listening

            Active listening is very important in my current position. To be a good active listener, one must set aside as much outside influence as possible so that I am able to give the other person my undivided attention. This is a skill that I have worked on since my days of active military service. I have worked hard to improve my skill in this area and am still developing and honing it to become a much better active listener. I have found to be a good active listener, one must work at it. For me, it didn’t come naturally, I have had to work hard at it and I am now a much better active listener than I was 10-15 years ago. Continual improvement in this particular skill is a must for one to achieve better results from either their employees or in their personal lives.

Time Management

            Time management has been one of my strong suits for as long as I can remember. I have found that making lists of the things I need to accomplish on a daily and weekly basis is paramount to me getting all of the things I need to achieve during these times. If I didn’t make these lists, I know that I would miss something that is important for me to accomplish. When I am making a list, I take into consideration the amount of time needed to get the job or task done; whether it is job related, personal, or for school work. Time management to me is like making out a schedule for your employees, it has to be done diligently to ensure that one is not going over budget and wasting a lot of resources.

Instructing

            To be a good manager, one must possess the skill of instructing. Instructing is like coaching a sports team. Coaching opportunities can arise at almost any time of the day. In my current position I utilize the term, court awareness a lot. Just like a point guard for a basketball team needs to be aware of what is happening on the court, a good manager must be aware of what is happening around him or her and take the opportunity to coach (instruct). Any missed opportunity to coach an employee is something that is lost and cannot be recuperated. The chance to improve one is lost and the opportunity may not arise again for this coaching moment. This is one of the strengths that I have, knowing when to coach a new employee.