Free a test of leadership and knowledge in real world essay example

My boss once said that you’ll assess your true knowledge not in the academe but in the work place. Months of working in Food Bank for my practicum creates big impact in my personality. This was a great opportunity for me to put on new experience and maximize my skills to work like this. As I assessed my performance at the end of practicum, I asked myself to enumerate the learning I gained. I now realize how much I can change when I work in the real world and apply the things I learn at school.
There are many surprising things that I experienced. I was surprised to know about the mission of the company and its work culture. It is a big company that helps provides food to people through their networks and donors. I was assigned on shipping department where we help the Food Bank to deliver the food to organizations or individual who came here to pick up their food. The nature of the work met my expectations, but I did not expect that there are so many people to provide with food. I also did not expect the way people work in the company. Technically speaking, my job is to help distribute food by shipping them. I expected a variety of work from here but ended up into limited work load. If I can do the practicum all over again, I will choose a different job. I will choose to be on the taking of orders from people to whom we will distribute the food. I think this was I will have personal contact with clients or customers. This will help me improve my interpersonal skills better.
Nevertheless, my practicum helps me a lot in improving different aspect of my personality. Before the practicum, I’m quite nervous because I do not have much confidence to deal with other people. I over think a lot regarding the expectations of my co-workers towards me, but above all, I’m excited. During the practicum, I’ve learned to adapt in my new environment. As the practicum has ended, I think I’m a new person with stronger personality. If I be able to do the practicum all over again, I’ll be more confident and happy at the very first day. I’ll leave an impression that ever one will love me, as well as my performance. Also, I’ve read and searched the company profile, my job description and the people I’m going to work with before going to the practicum. This helped me to be prepared before going to work.
I have my own ways to deal with other people. But the theories I learned and the tips in leadership program I attended gave me a leap to improve it. I was able to deal with different personalities. The theories are helpful for you to have the very idea of what to expect, but the reality will teach you a lot. I also learned to adjust on different attitude people gave me. As if some problems arise, I manage to take positions to help solve the situations. I’m the one who’s new in the company, so it is my duty to adjust to their attitude and accept their personality. Another factor that assists me throughout the practicum is the mid-term evaluation. It helped me improve my manners hold my temper. At least I am pre-assessed; I took the opportunity to improve my work and myself to rest of my practicum days. You’ll see a diverse behavior of people in this company that is why I learned to become more flexible. I also manage to deal with different kind of people, from my supervisor to our clients, from strict to humble personalities. I just find out that you have to cope up with different kind of person’s attitude for you to survive in this kind of environment.
My practicum experience leaves a great impact in my leadership skills. Did I reach my measure of success? Definitely yes! For me, I surpassed my own measures of success since lot of things have been improved and learned throughout my experience in the company. I have now a stronger personality, a diverse knowledge of working with other people, and joy working in my department. I am thinking that I actually changed the Shipping department for the minimum time that I worked there. For me, I impart some of my knowledge to improve the works in the department and influence the personality of my co-workers.
In my whole practicum experience, I effectively display my skills in communication. Since we are dealing with other people, initiative and courage to speak with other people is a must. Also, if you are able to speak freely and creatively, people will be comfortable with you, thus leaving them a good impression that you are bubbly. I wish I had enough time to share to them my other leadership skills like transformational knowledge. I only have limited time to transform the productivity and efficiency of the employees. But with a small time of doing my practicum, I learned to be more participative in dealing with others.
The bottom line of being involve to a work place like this through practicum is getting us ready to the reality of the industry. Theories you’ve learned in school might not apply all in the real world. All you need is courage to face the reality and leadership skills to cope with others.