Reflective Journal on Leadership and Talent Management Theories

Running head: ASSESSMENT 2 – REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Assessment 2 – Reflective Journal
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1ASSESSMENT 2 – REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to identify myself at the leadership position. I will try to
enhance my self-awareness on my capability as a leader and identifying the areas of
improvement. To serve this purpose, I will refer to my experience in class, evaluate activities,
my learnings, and of course the results of two tests that I undergone. Additionally, there are some
notes, which I have written while being in the class and also at home provide insights. I have also
used these information to support me doing this reflective piece of essay.
Reflective Essay:
Theories
Trait Theory of Leadership
It is not easy to define leadership; however, it is still necessary to understand the meaning
of leadership as this is one of the most talked about terms in a range of areas of activities.
Leadership is not just about managing operations and supporting the business to achieve its long-
term goals. It is also about creating motivating factors within the organisations to motivate a
group of people and inspire the performance. It is about communicating ideas appropriately to
stakeholders and encouraging employees to participate in brainstorming sessions (Lievens et al.
2018).
The term leadership as according to (Lievens et al. 2018) is influenced by how people
think of a leader. People can have varying and flexible opinions of leaders. They select a leader
thinking that the selected leader will help them in fulfilling their thoughts and desires. However,
it is never guaranteed that the selected leader will last longer. Indeed, the selected leader can also
be dethroned by the same group of people. People keep thinking of a range of leadership skills

2ASSESSMENT 2 – REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
once they are not satisfied with the current leader. Hence, it is important for leaders to be aware
of their strengths and weaknesses to be able to avoid such circumstances from happening.
With regard to understanding the concept of leadership, “Trait Theory of Leadership”
says that leaders share a range of inborn personality traits (Matthews 2018). Even during the
class activities I had the opportunity to learn about a few leadership traits like creativity and
innovation, decision-making capabilities, good communicator, delegation and empowerment,
inspire others etc. The activity help me understood that to be a good future leader I need to work
upon a few weak areas in me.
Talent Management Theory
Talent management theory states that an organisation should continually seek to improve
its performance while not waiting for the external business environment to improve. This is an
increasingly growing practice across the global firms. Talent management as I understood from
the class activity can be attained by applying relevant strategies, techniques and technologies.
Strategies will include like coaching, mentoring and training & development programs.
Techniques will comprise of implementing the lean approach and applying total quality
management (TQP) in the organisational practice (Gallardo-Gallardo et al. 2015).
Learning from Online Resources
The class activity provided me opportunities to learn something about the online
resources. The activity did explore a range of online resources like website articles, official
website of companies and much more. The activity was like path guiding to me and I will
definitely take help of these resources while implementing and following my personal and
professional development plan.

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Learning from Feedback Sheet
The feedback sheet was also very helpful as this helped me to identify a few areas of
improvement in my leadership. Performance initiatives was appreciated in the feedback sheet;
however, I could learn that both internal and external factors affect a business. I got appreciation
for culture initiatives as well. However, I need to work a bit in this regard as according to the
feedback my research lacked a depth analysis of the content. I was also being appreciated for my
engagement into different activities. However, I could not actually identify the strategic human
resource management (HRM) issues. Overall, the piece of feedback suggest that I have a good
understanding of various organisational practices; however, I need to work a bit to go more
insight the topic. Moreover, this will also help me effectively to perform as a leader.
Learning from Guest Lecture
A session with the guest lecturer “Katherine Dziaman Group CFO” was immensely
educating. The lecturer shared some of his experiences of being a leader. I could learn that some
leaders have the inborn leadership qualities. Initially, I used to think that both managers and
leaders are the same people. However, I was wrong totally. The lecture did help me to
understand that leaders can be the good managers but all managers cannot necessarily be the
leaders. Leaders know how to motivate its stakeholders. This is why they give emphasis on talent
management and performance management. With these, leaders ensure being competitive in
distinguished circumstances (Bennion, Duerden and Whitehouse 2016).
Discussing the questionnaires
This section of the essay analyse the results of the two tests, which I undergone to check
my ability in leadership roles and interpersonal skills. I did undergo two tests like 123test and