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Artifact Rationale

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Artifact Rationale

The artifacts in my ePortfolio include my Leadership Role essay assignment, New

Venture Opportunity and SWOT Analysis, Strategic Analysis assignment, and Week 5 Essay.

The purpose of my ePortfolio is to showcase my abilities and accomplishments, particularly in

the safest way possible because of the current pandemic and public health crisis. This ePortfolio

will accompany résumés and cover letters as I start applying for jobs following my graduation in

September. The assignments are all relative to my college courses and exhibit my knowledge in

business and business management. While completing my courses has been challenging, it is for

my highest good. I am looking forward to seeing how my education pays off in my future due to

my direct efforts, mainly this ePortfolio that showcases my knowledge, skills, and abilities.

First, my leadership role essay assignment is a good artifact to include in my ePortfolio. I

chose this assignment because of how much I learned while doing it. I believe that it

demonstrates my knowledge of what it takes to be a leader, the differences and similarities of

being a leader and a manager, and outlining the five leadership tasks relevant to the strategic

planning products. Including this in my portfolio will demonstrate to my potential employers that

I know what it takes to be a leader that can inspire and motivate people into action rather than

just managing them. Through this assignment, I learned how to apply the principles of leadership

in the ”real world.” I know what it takes to be someone who can do more than serve in a high-

level administrative role and delegate tasks to others. In today’s competitive landscape, job

seekers like myself are seeking individuals like I described in this paper—people who can

facilitate change, reassure people throughout the change process, and reiterate the value of the

team and its members. This leadership assignment also led me to recall my experiences in the

United States Air Force. I am well-accustomed to viewing leadership in many forms and seeing
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what it takes to decide to implement, then lead change processes. Including this leadership

assignment in my portfolio lends itself not only to my academic knowledge, but to my own real-

life experiences. When seeking management employment, most companies will wish to see that

job applicants can lead change and effectively manager and I believe this assignment along with

my résumé detailing my experiences will demonstrate that skill.

The New Venture Opportunity and SWOT Analysis paper will also demonstrate a real-

life application of strategic management and planning initiatives. Successful leaders are not only

skilled with people, but also in organizational principles relative to the business environment. To

gain and maintain a competitive advantage, it is imperative that business leaders know how to

analyze the market and identify an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and

threats. This artifact demonstrates to potential employers that I know how to take tools of market

analysis and apply them to organizations. This paper is for a particular business but is a great

demonstration of my creative and inventive skills and ability to use tools for business analytics.

The SWOT analysis is a qualitative tool that is instrumental and commonly used in marketing.

After completing this assignment, I felt accomplished in using one of the many tools that would

be at my disposal in my position as a leader involved in strategic planning.

Next, the strategic analysis assignment also demonstrates my skill in using the tools at

my disposal to analyze the market for the betterment of a business. While completing these

assignments, they initially felt tedious to me. However, with the information that I gained

specific to the busines that analyzed, I learned how each market and industry are unique and that

performing these analyses would yield a wealth of information that I could learn from. This

assignment was an eye-opener for me and demonstrates to potential employers that I know how

to dive deeply into organizational analysis and competitive analysis. This, to me, is not
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necessarily a skill of leadership or management, but a skill of strategic analysis and planning.

The type of position that would align most with the skill learned from this assignment includes

the account executive, the account manager, director of strategy, etc. I came to appreciate the

skill and intention needed to analyze the market in a meaningful way.

Finally, the Week 5 Essay is another important component for my ePortfolio. In this

assignment, I wrote about the various attributes of a leader and in the process, learned about the

intangible differences between leaders and managers. I decided to include this assignment to

demonstrate to potential employers that I know what it takes to be both and effective manager

and an effective leader. In a leadership and/or management role, it is imperative that I have

above average people and communication skills in order to lead my team to achievement and

greatness. It is easy to manage without intention, but it takes a great deal of effort to lead people

to the goals that an organization wants to accomplish.

Each artifact of my portfolio tells the story of my education and real-life experience. It

tells what I have learned and how I will apply it in the pursuit of jobs and once I have the

position that I want. These assignments are the culmination of my educational experience that I

know will serve me well in the future.

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References

Archer, J. (2016, November 9). The Advantages of Creating an Employment Portfolio. Work.

https://work.chron.com/advantages-creating-employment-portfolio-2626.html.

Loretto, P. (2019, April 28). Here Are 6 Helpful Tips on How You Can Build a Professional

Portfolio. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-build-a-professional-portfolio-

1986901.