What are your primary strengths? What aspects of yourself would you like to improve? What do you hope to learn during the Executive MBA Program that will help you refine your strengths and minimize your weaknesses?
How many job interviews have I been part of where my strengths and weaknesses were inquired? - Every one of them and yet, I am astounded that my answers are different each time. I actually think it is rather exciting that my weaknesses don’t remain the same for a long time – I hunt for for something different to improve upon with each fresh experience or project. I am working on a project where approximately $12-15 MM is required in capital. The project was recently put on hold due to scope creep relating underground work that may need more concrete work than originally forecasted. When I found out the project may be in jeopardy, I started to spend extra time on research I could do on my own, – gathering information on concrete work, understanding results of soil boring, and more importantly, determining avenues to avoidavoiding cost. As a result of networking with experienced people in the field and basic internet search, I was able to find a $2.5 MM used piece of equipment for just one-tenth of the price. In addition to that, I discovered an area where the foundation platform already exists that could be used to complete the remaining project; this can save up to $5-6 MM. I brought this idea forward to the senior leadership team, as a result of which will be discussed in the next meeting for project approvals. The Mill Director thanked me for my outside the box thinking and the alternative proposal. This was the first time in one month in my new role as a capital sourcing manager, I found satisfaction that I can positively influence big business decisions.
In my opinion, my greatest strengths lie in my personal drive, passion, and work ethic. I am a very quick learner but I do not settle easy. In other words, I am always looking for more whether it is ways to make myself more efficient or expectations of other people. I have strong set of beliefs and power of conviction that allow me to get things going and bring projects home. However, one of my weaknesses is the same strong sense of conviction which sometimes leads me to view other people’s approaches as inferior and impedes reaching agreement. Another aspect is my tendency to overwork my team because of my high standards – one tool I currently use is to seek help from a trusted coworker who can watch out for and provide constructive feedback. Along the same line, I can be a bit of a perfectionist – I am gradually learning that sometimes finishing two tasks at 95% perfect rather than just one at 100% can increase productivity. I am hopeful that aforementioned strengths and personality I have developed during my past experiences will be translated into management ability with planning, team building, strategies development and goal setting exercises throughout my MBA.
I recall an particular incident while analyzing data for my green belt project. I was performing series of experiments where data was missing. The experiments were repetitive, long, and required a lot of attention; not to mention, destructive and had to be recreated with any small error in execution or data collection. As