Table of Contents TableTable
Personal Leadership Assessment………………………………………………………………………Pg.3-4 Personal SWOT Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 5 Industry Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 6-7 Personal Mission…………………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 8 Personal Vision……………………………………………………………………………...……………Pg. 8 Personal Slogan…………………………………………………………………………………….……Pg. 8 Passions……………………………………………………………………………………………..……Pg. 8 Values………………………………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 9 Career Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 10-11 Leadership Journey Map…………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 12 Action Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 13 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………………………..Pg. 14
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Personal Leadership Assessment Interests: My leadership interests are having fun but still going along with the rules. While being a leader I am very approachable and easy to talk to. When some one does not do their job I will tell them what they do wrong but give them a chance to fix it. I like being the one that they come to with a problem but I also like helping others succeed in the visual merchandising world as much as
Personality: I am a very outgoing person. I talk to as many people as I can and I love meeting new friends. I am very organized and very detail oriented. I have am very honest and do not like to hold things back when I am with my friends.
Values: Terminal: -Inner Harmony -Self-Respect -Happiness -Mature Love -Freedom -Salvation
Instrumental: -Loving -Honest -Ambitious -Forgiving -Cheerful -Clean
These twelve values are very important to me. Whenever I am working or looking for a job I always keep these values in mind. It is important to me to have values because it helps me set my attitude. If I have my own self-respect then I can have respect for others. When I am happy and have a good attitude then I am cheerful and very loving. All of these values tie into everyday life.
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Personal Leadership Assessment Skills/Strengths:
I am a very organized person. This comes naturally to me. Everything I ever do is very organized. I have also gained strengths in computer programs over the years. These programs are in Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Career Goals: My career goals are to one day have my own children’s boutique. I would also love to work for a fashion PR company and do visual merchandising for a department store such as Bloomingdales, Barney’s, or Bergdorf Goodman.
Myers-Briggs (MBTI): My MBTI score is ESFJ. I am 56% extravert, 38% sensing, 25% feeling, and 11% judging. I am a people person, very orderly, and I can see the big picture. I can use these elements in being a leader. Some pitfalls from my MBTI score in being a leader is that I lead with my heart and I can jump too quickly without thinking the task over. This can distract me from what is at the task at hand.
Personal Power Profile and Argumentativeness Scale: My personal power profile is very distinctive. I am a referent power. I scored a 4.5. A referent power is someone who is a role model. This power is based off of feelings and respect for others. From my MBTI score I base a lot of things off of my feelings and of others so logically referent power describes me. A pitfall to this is that if I were asking people to do things for me that after a while they could get tired of just doing things without a reward. My argumentative scale is very low. I scored a 43. I am someone who does not like to get into arguments. I try to avoid them at all costs. I seem to never think of anything in an argument that is relevant to what the argument is about. If I do argue about something it is usually about something that does not matter and is very silly. I surround myself with people that have the same values as me and there is very little arguing.
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Personal SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weakness
I am very organized. I want to go into visual merchandising and you have to be organized when designing windows and in store displays. You must know where everything is and be able to change things on an instant.
I tend to just go into things without thinking about them first. I like to think that any idea can work in any situation but when working in visual merchandising sometimes you have to go by the guidelines of other designers. You cannot put your own spin on certain designer labels you have to follow the guidelines that has been sent with the merchandise.
Opportunities
Threats
With visual merchandising most the time you have the freedom to do what you feel and put your own interpretation on it. I need to be a little bit more creative. I seem to think along the lines of the designer but I need to think more outside the box. The sky is really the limit as long as it fits into your budget it is doable.
A personal threat that I have for visual merchandising is the fact that I am very precise. I tend to make sure everything is straight and that everything is measured out equally. This can be a problem because if I take to much time doing this then I do not have enough time for the rest of the display.
Application Exercise: In my Entrepreneurship class we had to come up with a charity to give our profits too. My group was selling a break up ringtone to send to your ex if you are bitter after a break up. We could not decide what charity we should use and I suggested we use my own family’s organization. My family’s non-profit organization is Payne In The ALS. We thought it worked because after we did the break up ringtone we also did ones for your boss and if you have a person that will not leave you alone. We all researched charities before we came to class and then we narrowed it down to a few different ones we thought would work. The next thing we did is each of us came up with an advertisement and brought it to the group to see which one we liked better and we came to the conclusion that Payne In The ALS was the best fit.
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Industry Analysis Current Business Climate of Visual Merchandising: Visual Merchandising is a not the easiest market to get into. With the economy the way is right now a lot of companies hire very few visual merchandisers and the visual merchandisers that they have do a lot of other tasks then just visuals. A lot of these merchandisers are also managers in the store and sometimes do training and scheduling of other employees. You have to start from the bottom to get to the top. Most beginners start as interns or even just as visual associates at retail brand stores that have a lot of small stores where they work at 3 or 5 at a time. Bigger department stores hire some visual merchandisers as associates and let them help out on bigger displays to put their work on their resumes and then hire within when they need too. You can also freelance as a visual merchandiser and be used on bigger projects such as holiday displays or setting up for big sales. Other ways to get into the business are working for other companies or organizations that have different kind of displays like food or medical products. You can use this experience to get you into bigger organizations or into private visual merchandiser companies that hire freelancers and put them into work at bigger department stores or do displays for smaller boutiques. This industry is not the easiest to get into but if you work hard at your work and really work toward it you can get to where you want to go.
Customer/Audience Demographics and Psychographics: The customer and audience for a visual merchandiser is anyone that walks by the window. The point of a window display is to bring people into the store and look at the merchandise. When you are designing a display you have 3-5 seconds to grab the attention of the customer. Great windows draw crowds and are a big attraction. Macy’s for example has beautifully made windows at Christmas time that tell stories and are such a big attraction that people from all over come to just see the windows at Christmas time. Visual Merchandisers have to think of all customers when designing a window so they can grab the attention of the customer and bring them into the store.
Succeeding in Visual Merchandising: Succeeding in visual merchandising is easy. All you have to do is create beautiful, amazing windows that bring the customers in. If you keep following your companies rules and creating beautiful windows you can move up in the company and one day will have your name known for the brilliant displays that you have created. Â
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Window Display at Barney’s New York (A Blonde Ambition)
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Personal Mission Statement:
My mission is to become an organized and honest leader in the visual merchandising with a goal of having my name known around the world for my amazing window and in store displays.
Personal Vision Statement: To be an organized, ambitious leader in the visual merchandising world leading with honesty and creativity to make the cleanest windows and in store displays.
Personal Slogan: “Reach for the Stars” I have been using this saying for years. My parents have told me this ever since I was born. No matter what I do make sure I am always reaching for the stars.
My Passions: -Fashion -Visual Merchandising -Fashion Shows -Family -God -Finding a Cure for ALS My passions are what I think about everyday. I am very passionate about fashion, fashion shows, and visual merchandising; this is what I go to school for. I want to spend the rest of my life around these things. I am also very passionate about my family and my faith. I pray a lot that I will be able to succeed in the visual merchandising world and that I will also make sure that I love what I am doing. I am also passionate about finding a cure to ALS because of the disease running in my family and my possibility of dying with it one day. These passions are used to shape my career and future because I think about these everyday and they will help me through leading other people to their passions.
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Values Terminal: -Inner Harmony -Self-Respect -Happiness -Mature Love -Freedom -Salvation
Instrumental: -Loving -Honest -Ambitious -Forgiving -Cheerful -Clean
My values show in visual merchandising with every display and task that I have. When you have to create a window from a certain designer that has its own guidelines you are showing the values of that designer through that display. Sometimes visual managers are given other tasks in the store and you must show your values through those. Every time you put your name on something it has to represent you and the store. I will create value in visual merchandising by creating my displays around my values. When you look at my displays you will be able to see that I designed them and that I put my time and patience into them. In the visual merchandising world names are not told to the public. When you look at a Barney’s window you say, “wow look at that Barney’s window,” but when I design a window display I want people to say, “Wow! Look at that window that was created by Molli Payne!” I want people to known that I was the brains behind that beautiful window. I do not only want the world to know my name behind the displays but I want every one in the visual world to be able to put their names on their displays. Organizations can expect me to always be on time and to be very detail oriented. I will create very detailed and innovative displays that will be known around the world. The organization that I work for can expect me to follow all of their guidelines along with putting my own spin on the displays. Some of my key attributes are my organizational and communication skills. I know how to strike a mannequin and budget a display. I can also draw a mock up of the window display to show where everything goes and the measurements of everything. Some of my personal traits are honesty, patience, fairness, and confidence. I am also very creative and precise.
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Career Objectives Short-Term Goals: My short-term goals are to graduate college and to get a job in the visual merchandising world. I will work as an intern or associate of a visual merchandiser and help them create beautiful displays. After working with them for a period of time I will be able to branch off on my own and work on displays by myself.
Long-Term Goals: My long-term career goals are to work my way up to a visual merchandiser of a company and have many visual merchandisers under me. I want my window displays to be known around the world with my name on them. This is my main goal. I will need a lot of window and in store display experience before I can have my name spread across the world. I will have to create some windows that will turn the heads of not only the customers on the street but also the customer across the world. My displays will have to keep growing and growing until I have the reputation of best displays around the world. This will take time but I think it can be done. When becoming a visual merchandiser you have to have a bachelor’s degree. After you get your degree most companies just look at your past work. You need to keep designing displays to put in a portfolio to show possible employers what you have created in the past and what you are capable of doing. Technology is a big thing in today’s everyday world. It is also something that is growing in the visual world. Now you can use projectors to project videos or live images in a window for people to see what is new in the designer’s world. Most windows do not get changed everyday so when you throw in new technology you get to showcase the brand new designs and news that the designer is up too. Technology can be used in different ways and as a merchandiser you have to learn about the new ways to grow with it, because your ultimate goal is to bring the customer in and with technology you can bring them in twice as fast.
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Neiman Marcus Window Display Christmas 2010 (A Blonde Ambition)
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Leadership Journey Map
Being a big sister
Future: to be a leader in my future marriage and family
Future: Leader in my family’s non for profit organization, I want to be able to show people how to help cure ALS and keep people informed about this horrible disease.
Becoming a captain of my volleyball team in middle school, learning how to multitask
Leadership Journey Map
Leader at my job, focusing on tasks and what others should be doing when I am not there
Becoming a leader in my group of friends. Learning how to be myself without the influences of others
Captain of my cheerleading squad, learning how to set an example and a certain way for the others to follow
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Action Plan My development needs:
I need to improve my group leadership skills.
My “Current” State
My “Desired” State
My Action Plan
What I do now that needs improvement
How I will act when I have improvement
What I am going to do to reach my desired state
I have a hard time dividing up work evenly between the group. I always seem to take the most on and always over work myself.
To get the work evenly distributed I need to go through and see which group member should take what task.
Getting the group to meet in person before the project is due.
To meet a few days before the project is due to look over the project
Give the work to the right group member and tell them to get it done In a certain amount of time so we can get together if the project is not done right the first time. Email the group members to set up a day that everyone can meet and we can see what everyone has contributed to the project. Practice multiple times that the presentation is correct and do this until the presentation is easy to run through.
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Works Cited
Black and White Flower Dandelion. N.d. Photograph. Http://www.freedigitalphotographytutorials.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/black-and-white-flower-photography-tips-dandelion.jpg. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. "A Blonde Ambition: Window Wonderland." A Blonde Ambition: Window Wonderland. N.p., 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. <http://www.blondeambitionblog.com/2010/12/window-wonderland.html>.
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