Questions
Assessment criteria specific to this assignment:
1. Identify a range of leadership skills and suggest areas for development, underpinned by theory. 2. Critically evaluate and apply different aspects of leadership and management practice within a global context. 3. Critically examine and assess the contribution of leadership and management theory to develop effective leaders. 4. From a practical perspective, use technology to aid management decision making.
Suggestions
1. The main body of Individual reflection should be about 2000 words on the individual’s leadership development across the Semester, underpinned by contemporary literature.
2. Use Arial size 11 point (this font and size) for the assignments.
3. State the word count used in the documents.
4. On each sheet, ensure you have page numbers in the format ‘Page x of y’ – see the footer in this assignment brief for an example.
5. This coursework should be referenced in Harvard style format.
6. Do not use Wikipedia, Google, Google books or Yahoo – the former is not peer assessed and the work is unreliable, and the latter are search engines. Do not rely too heavily on Internet sources.
7. Do use contemporary academic textbooks and academic journal articles (newspapers are not articles); use post-year 2005 academic work.
Solution
Individual Reflection on Leadership Development
Leadership and management are critical areas in any learning process as the students prepare to work in their future careers. The course has provided critical lessons, including the application of leadership and management theories, and concepts that will support my future career. Besides, I have learned to differentiate between leadership, which is the element of influencing and motivating others to support the leader’s vision, and management, which is the aspect of organizing resources within an organization to achieve shared objectives (Algahtani, 2014). The idea is that a leader should be able to create a vision and motivate others to support its achievement, while to be a good manager, one has to learn to organize, and allocate resources to various activities within the organization to achieve a common goal. While I could be an effective leader or manager, I have realized the importance of developing strength in both areas to build a successful organization.
Organizations require effective leaders to achieve their objectives and operate successfully in a highly competitive business world. However, I have learned that many people do not understand what it means to be an effective leader in the organizational context. Many people go about their business without understanding that good managers are not automatically good leaders. Goleman (2017) challenges people to understand the meaning of leadership styles, and learn the type that generates positive results for the organization. For example, I have discovered that a leader can easily create an innovative organization through the use of democratic or participative leadership. Leaders who use the style allows their employees to generate ideas and share them for implementation. All members of an organization can have positive ideas that can help improve the organization if only the leader allows them to air them. Thus, participative leadership is one approach that I would like to practice in my future career to create effective teams of motivated employees. I will make employees feel a sense of trust in leadership to support organizational success.
Leadership affects the performance outcome of employees, especially depending on the style they use, such as participative or transformational leadership. Benoliel and Somech (2014) assessed the psychological basis of a leadership model and its implications on the performance of the workers. They revealed that the psychological ownership theory is the basis for the association between leadership, and the performance of employees since the leader has a major impact on the way they view the organization and their work. Job-based psychological ownership suggests that, participative leadership, affects the view of employees, and create organizational commitment. Effective leadership encourages employees to seek and give feedback to the leader, which encourages their close relationship when working for the organization. Feedback-seeking behavior reveals the effect of the participative model on the psychological wellbeing of employees. I have realized the importance of working in a friendly environment with employees to increase their commitment to their work, and perform at an improved level.
Furthermore, I have realized the most important aspect of building a successful team of diverse employees is through motivation. Leadership research focuses on the importance of motivation to create an effective workplace since motivated employees develop a deep commitment to the organization, and work hard to achieve their objectives. According to Schniederjans and Schniederjans (2015), motivation is critical to ensure that innovative employees work productively. The authors further indicated that, lack of motivation is the main factor for high turnover in companies around the world since employees lack the drive to work towards organizational goals. I have learned the importance of drawing from theories of motivation, which suggest the need for internal and external motivators’ to enhance performance. For example, apart from financial incentives, such as bonuses, I could use other motivators, such as, encouraging independence and responsibility in the workplace, to incentivize members of my team. As a result, I will create an effective workplace in which all employees focus on achieving positive results.
In addition, while learning about leadership styles, some caught my attention, and I would like to pursue them further by studying and practicing. One such style is transformational leadership, as proposed by Lunenburg (2010). The theory focuses on change management, where the leader works with members of the organization to identify the need for, and implement a change to gain organizational success. I understand that the only constant in the organizational context is change, and effective leaders should be able to manage change successfully. Therefore as a transformational leader, I should learn how to create a vision for the organization and gain support for the same from other members. I understand that success in this area depends on the ability to communicate the vision, and I cannot achieve much in the organization without working with others as part of an effective team. Therefore, as a leader, I should learn how to develop others to lead, and motivate them to implement changes effectively.
Scholars reveal the characteristics or qualities of an effective leader. For example, Goleman (2008) reveals that strong leaders have qualities, such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, self-regulation, motivational capability, empathy, and social skills. The qualities play an important role in the ability to influence and work with others to achieve a common vision. After reading the text, I am challenged to explore my strengths and weaknesses in different skills, and to work on my weaknesses as I emphasize on my strengths. For instance, while I am a social and empathetic person, I rate quite low in terms of emotional intelligence and self-regulation. I have been learning about the strategies that I could use to improve my emotional intelligence and self-awareness, such as working with people from different cultures, and gender. I know that by doing so, I will learn to appreciate differences and regulate emotions, that relate to being different. I should learn to work with others, especially in emotionally-charged settings, to learn how to regulate my emotions.
The concept of power has major implications on the way leaders relate with their employees in their organizations. Lunenberg (2012) explores the idea of organizational power, suggesting the different types, such as legitimate, reward, and coercive, which are common in workplaces. The outcome of the relationship between the leader, and followers depends on the type of power that the former uses. For example, leaders who use coercive power and dwell on giving orders tend to cause low morale and affect productivity negatively in their organizations. They differ in their effectiveness from those who use reward power since it leads to motivation. Employees prefer to be rewarded for good performance rather than given orders without any type of reward for fulfilling them. As a leader, I will strive to develop a reward system, including material (such as monetary tokens), and immaterial (such as verbal praise and promotion), to motivate employees to perform exceptionally. The use of incentives and motivators is the most effective use of power in organizations.
Communication is an integral part of success in the organizational setting. As a leader, I should be able to share information with my followers and also receive their feedback and views. Hackman and Johnson (2013) highlight the importance of information flow in all directions within the organization, which means that leaders should share decisions from above and also receive the opinion and views of employees from the bottom of the hierarchy. Therefore, as a leader, it is important to maintain open channels of communication and practice listening to employees. I have discovered listening more than speaking is the key to becoming a good communicator. A leader should also eliminate all barriers to communication, such as language barriers. Such a leader can also prevent, and address communication conflicts, including those which emanate from cultural differences. Therefore, I would like to focus on improving my verbal, non-verbal, and written communication to become a more effective leader.
On the same note of effective communication, I would like to learn about becoming an effective leader in a diverse workplace. Hackman and Johnson (2013) indicate that managing diversity in the workplace is critical during the modern-day when companies are attracting employees from different backgrounds, including culture, religion, and gender. I will probably work in such a setting in my future career, since all organizations have embraced policies that support diversity. Therefore, I should begin to learn about other cultures and the way they differ from mine, which will improve my cultural sensitivity. As a leader, quality is critical to gain a competitive advantage by working with diverse employees. Some of the skills that will help in this area are communication skills, social skills, and conflict management skills. While I am competent in some of the areas, such as social, and communication abilities, I should develop to become better at conflict management.
Diversity breeds innovation in the workplace since each person brings in his or her different strengths, talents, and competences. In the modern-day, leaders encourage diversity and attract employees from different cultural background and gender to innovate. However, success depends on the extent to which the leader is capable of managing the diverse team (Barak, 2016). For example, I have discovered that to create an innovative team, I should consider the different strengths instead of placing individuals with similar characteristics together. I could consider differences, such as a great communicator as a project manager, a friendly person, an introverted, but a creative person, etc. The different strengths will work together and complement each other to generate innovative results. However, success will depend on my ability to manage the differences to prevent conflicts (Dunne 2016). Besides, I should develop conflict management skills to address such conflicts if they emerge. I look forward to creating innovative teams in my future career using the knowledge that I have developed.
I have drawn important lessons from the course that will drive my future career as a leader and manager. First, just as managers focus on attracting innovative employees, they should use as much energy to retain them by motivating them appropriately. They should learn that motivating the modern-day employees differs from conventional motivation, which focused on material incentives. In addition, I have understood the need for using an employee-centric, and customer-centric approach to generate innovative ideas and successful projects to achieve organizational goals (Tidd and Bessant 2018). Lastly, the manager should work closely with employees to encourage them to remain focused on their work. An organization in which the leader works together with employees improves performance since he or she can identify flaws, and rectify them promptly, also they can brainstorm ideas together and implement them in a timely and effective manner. They improve decision-making by working together as teams of diverse, but talented individuals.
In conclusion, the course has provided important lessons that I will use to evaluate my leadership potential and use the information to develop my leadership skills. The study has enabled me to understand my strengths as a leader and the areas I need to develop to become better as I prepare for my future career. For example, while I am a social person and a great communicator, I should develop my capacity to understand, and manage emotions, especially as I prepare to work in a diverse workplace. Working in a diverse workplace demands the need to understand the emotions of others, and to become more empathetic. It is also necessary to learn how to meet the needs of all employees to motivate them to gain organizational commitment. All the lessons from the course will assist me to become a better leader in my future career as a leader and manager.
Reference List
Algahtani A, 2014. Are leadership and management different? A review. Journal of Management Policies and Practices, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 71-82.
Barak MEM, 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications, London
Benoliel P, and Somech A, 2014. The health and performance effects of participative leadership: Exploring the moderating role of the Big Five personality dimensions. European Journal Of Work and Organizational Psychology, vol. 23, no.2, pp. 277-294.
Dunne P, 2016. Conflict management: How to turn problems into creative sparks. Economia
Goleman D, 2017, Leadership that gets results (Harvard business review classics). Harvard Business Press
Goleman D, and Boyatzis R, 2008. Social intelligence and the biology of leadership. Harvard business review, vol. 86, no. 9, pp. 74-81.
Hackman, M. Z., and Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.
Lunenburg FC, 2010. Managing change: The role of the change agent. International Journal of Management, Business and Administration, vol. 13, no. 1, pp.1-6.
Lunenburg FC, 2012. Power and leadership: An influence process. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, vol. 15, no. 1, pp.1-9.
Schniederjans D, and Schniederjans M, 2015. Quality management and innovation: new insights on a structural contingency framework. International Journal of Quality Innovation, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 2.-8
Tidd J, and Bessant JR, 2018. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
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