Reflection - Which are you? Leader or Manager?
TWC 347
I am a PST Specialist at LabCorp, and I am in a specific role called In-Office-Phlebotomist (IOP). This means I am in control of my phlebotomy area, but I am also responsible with minor lab tech work that does involve QCs, working with the director of the lab, CLIA, CMS, OSHA, etc. This gives me great leadership skills as I prepare myself for my future role in the company as a Corporate Compliance Officer. I am also responsible for training new employees and ensuring they are ready to be signed off by the laboratory supervisor and director. Leadership is very important in this role due to the regulations and compliance you will have to deal with.
I also run a small online business and run a YouTube channel on the side. This gives me leadership skills and also management skills as I am the only one involved in these two projects. However, I also own a political blog which I do run on my own. I do, however, allow others to submit their own opinions for the opinion page of the blog. This gives me management skills as I manage what is posted on the blog, I also manage the grammar and spelling (performing editing) and then sending it back to the original writer before submitting. This part hasn’t taken off that much yet, but I do look for the future on that section of the blog.
Leadership and Professionalism Learned from The Course:
§ Module 1: Learning the differences and dynamics between academic and business writing was interesting because I didn’t think about it until that assignment. It was a simple taught lesson, and it honestly helped me see that the two writing styles can be quite similar which is pretty cool for students as they learn better on how to write professionally when they graduate.
§ Module 2: I knew a little bit about brand imaging as I do write professional emails from my small business, political blog, and my YouTube channel. However, this assignment helped me understand on how to better my branding images when it comes to professional emails.
§ Module 3: Researching the legal aspect of the company I work for really helped me with my future in it. I am becoming a corporate compliance officer; however, my future main goal is to become one of the many corporate attorneys there as well.
§ Module 4: I enjoyed researching into Zoom and its effectiveness in the workplace.
§ Module 5: Writing a persuasive message was an interesting take. I clearly didn’t seem sympathetic and straighter to business with no emotions in it. I do have that issue when it comes to professional writing I will admit. I did enjoy the overall feedback but the repetitiveness of the writing not having much emotion really opened my eyes as I reread what I wrote and yes, I am very thankful people pointed it out to me so I can fix how I write professionally.
My favorite quote from Zaleznik, “Managers embrace process, seek stability and control, and instinctively try to resolve problems quickly…” (Zaleznik. 2004).
Reference
· Zaleznik, Abraham. January 2024. Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2004/01/managers-and-leaders-are-they-different
