Describe the skills and traits you possess that help you overcome obstacles PDF

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Describe the skills and traits you possess that help you overcome obstacles. Please describe an experience or accomplishment that you’re proud of We are often faced with challenges that seem unsurmountable or impossible to solve. I have learned that one of the most important things to do in difficult circumstances is to try and change our perspective, or how we approach the problem. The skills which I possess or have helped me to overcome obstacles in both, my personal and professional life are - flexibility and adaptability, good assessment and goal setting, prioritizing and monitoring progress, communicating effectively and maintaining positive attitude and high level of enthusiasm. First, I consider my flexibility and adaptability two of my strongest traits I have learned from my career as a manager. I have been in numerous situations where things did not go as planned, and I had to work with very short deadlines while solving problems. I have developed the ability to quickly adjust to such dynamics to the point where I can maintain clear view of the big picture while assessing the obstacles, and to make sound judgement before taking any action. Secondly, good goal setting when facing challenges is invaluable skill to possess. I have learned how to identify daily, weekly and monthly tasks for my team and myself, no matter what the current problem or obstacle is. It is important to set achievable yet still challenging goals, then to track the progress, and if needed to make some adjustments along the way. This helps us to stay focused and organized. It is important to have a mission and a clear end goal for the team, then to work hard together to get there. Thirdly, my experience in leadership taught me how to prioritize, especially when faced with many urgent tasks at once, and being able to identify the most important ones that should be assessed. I try to teach my supervisors to learn how to prioritize every day, especially with how fast-paced our environment is. Next, once I have assessed the situation and have an idea of what needs to get done in order to solve the problem, I work on relaying this message to the team. In addition, I always maintain good communication with other departments as well, in order to prevent misunderstandings and eliminate confusion. Last, but not least, I consider myself able to maintain high level of enthusiasm and positive attitude despite obstacles. I can control my emotions and try not to take things personally when things don’t work. I know that I have responsibility to show resilience and to stay calm in critical situations, otherwise the stress and negativity would affect my team’s performance. I often spend time on staff meetings sharing how important it is to learn to accept change, not to resist, and to implement new processes. This is how new ideas are born, moreover challenges always boost our creativity. Some of the most fulfilling successes that come to my mind are these when I was able to overcome a problem together with my team. As a Housekeeping Manager, I encounter numerous obstacles in my job, however one of the greatest ones was last year when we faced the challenge of opening a new guest building on property. Overall, this was a situation where we were placed in front of numerous

barriers and had very short time frame for completion of the task. In order to achieve our goals, we needed to change the approach we take, and were able to reach positive results at the end. The beginning of our operational season in 2019 was quite unique for all. Some of the difficulties consisted of the planning, coordinating and following up on the set plan for opening 99 brand new luxurious suites on property. This required very detailed approach as far as what items would be necessary in order to anticipate all guests and employee needs. All purchasing needed to be carefully identified and supplies were aimed to arrive prior to beginning of season. Plan for labor hours, expenses, project completion deadlines, etc. was much harder to make than usual. Moreover, due to safety reasons, me and my team were not given access to the new building for an extended period of time. When finally cleared to enter the facility and began work on cleaning and setting up the units, we were only 4 days before our grand opening. Moreover, we were expecting full occupancy on the very first day followed by an executive visit afterwards. Some of the furniture and guest supplies were delayed, and we were working with a ‘skeleton’ crew as we were still welcoming our seasonal team members to join on their set start dates for the summer. This is very common for our operation since a large percentage of the team every year consists of international students from all over the world with later contract dates set by Department of State. While some of the current employees panicked, and suggested a delay in opening was inevitable, I insisted we all meet and lay out deadlines for each task, and alternatives for each challenge. I never let negativity to spread through the team. I always teach my employees that no matter what the situation, what we do have control over is our attitude. We worked on focusing on the solutions instead of the problems every day. We started our morning meetings with a quick reminder that we should look at the situation as an opportunity to learn something new and to test our abilities. We all agreed that this was not easy to accomplish within the set deadlines, however we were reminding ourselves that a positive outlook will go a long way for us. This helped tremendously with making each task or issue less daunting. I made sure we had an End of Day Recap on what we have learned, what is a concern, what worked well and where we need to start from the next day. Despite the circumstances and the pressure, the team stayed strong and was able to maintain their excitement about the start of a new season. They were eager to welcome our first guests on property and full of energy to provide the best service and to go above and beyond for our customers. This spirit and dedication stayed strong until the very end of the operational year, even though staffing at the end was an expected challenge. We were patient and flexible, we stayed busy with the rest of the property in order to maintain the good momentum of tasks completed towards opening the rest of our 582 units for the season. I consider summer 2019 by far the most challenging and rewarding at the same time! Managing to plan for and set up a building of a size larger than some of our Company operations makes me proud. I feel fortunate to have such outgoing and positive team to work with, and that we never gave up even in the most difficult times. Being able to accomplish the above under pressure gained trust in the eyes of our directors. Several executive guests sent letters to our general manager to express gratitude for the hospitality and to share their positive feedback of our team’s performance and high quality of work. Moreover, my team was selected for Team of the Month in May which usually is the hardest month of the operational year when

newer team members are still learning their job while we work towards opening our large property after the winter pause. Not only that Housekeeping Department achieved Team of the Month in May, but we were also awarded Team of the Year for our great work ethic and commitment to service despite any challenges. On a personal level I believe I achieved my goal to be more organized, to take better care of myself in order to be at my best to help the rest of my team, to delegate more to my Assistant Manager, Quality Control Specialist and supervisors. I had more clear view of the big picture which helped me stay organized and able to handle the challenging priorities all at once. These obstacles and the work we put together as a team made us more united and developed further our creative problem solving, which is a skill that will stay with us for years to come. We learned a great lesson that the way we may have done things in the past may not necessarily work for all situations. Nowadays, more than ever we should be open to change and strive to adapt ourselves to the ‘New Normal’. I am looking forward to further developing my leadership skills in the ever-changing business environment!...