Leadership Reflection and Development

The assignment centers around a student's reflection on their understanding of leadership concepts gained through a course. It includes pre-subject and mid-subject reflections outlining initial assumptions about leadership and progress made throughout the course. The final reflection highlights how the course has impacted personal aspirations and future goals related to leadership.

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MANAGING, LEADING AND STEWARDSHIP
Prepared by
Name
Institutional Affiliation, Location
Course Name, Code
Presented to
Instructor`s Name
Institutional affiliation, Location
Date of Submission

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Pre-Subject Reflection
Technology keeps on changing, and as it changes, it also influences other areas to change
including business sector. Notably, skills set in a commercial world like leadership, stewardship,
and management become more important as business sector changes, and it is the responsibility
of business people to make a point to understand these changes in order to keep up with the
others around the globe (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011, p. 1040). My main motivation for taking
this course is so as I can understand more about leadership, management, and steward. As I was
growing up during my childhood stage, I viewed my teachers as leaders since they could give
instructions and I grew up knowing that leaders should only give instructions and should not
participate in what others are doing. My assumption on management was as the word states, and
I knew that a manager is a person who oversees and supervises what others are doing and keeps
things in order like my class prefect who was the manager in our class. On stewardship, I would
say I didn’t have a lot to assume on this since I viewed it as a difficult word and I assumed that
the terminologies used to explain this term could be problematic for me to understand but I was
willing to take the risk and take a management course.
Managing can be defined as having supervisory or executive authority or control while
management is the processing of supervising and allocating people as well as resources to
various tasks so as to attain the set goals in an organization (Malik and Malik, 2011, p.6). Many
businesses succeed or fail because of the form of management used which means that
management style is the pillar of all companies (The World Bank, 2017). I was not aware that
management is a crucial aspect in businesses and I always related management with planning. I
knew that a manager plans how goals should be attained in the organization but I was missing a
lot since management also entails budgeting, timekeeping, delegating duties, as well as setting

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objectives. I began this course being open-minded to learn what it takes for an individual to be an
effective manager which could be beneficial for my future goals of starting a company.
Leading or leadership is directing others in the right direction so as to achieve various
goals which are set in an organization (Kreutzer, 2017). Personally, I assumed that leadership is
an easy work since one only needs to give out instructions for others to follow them. Little did I
know that leadership can be challenging and not everyone can lead others. There are traits that a
leader should have, and there are styles of leadership that one should embrace in order to lead
people in the right direction of achieving goals (Kurucz et al., 2017, p.180).
Stewardship is described as a task of taking care or supervising something like some
property or an organization (Yıldız, Baştürk and Boz, 2014, p. 780). Stewardship is an important
aspect of the business, and as I stated, I assumed that stewardship was a difficult concept, but I
was willing to take this course in order to understand it. I also thought that understanding the
terminologies of this concept and comprehending it into deeper details could be hard for me.
My expectation while taking this course was that I would understand more about
managing, leading and stewardship and I will be able to apply them in future. Additionally, I
expected that I would be in a position to explain to someone who has a problem understanding
them in the business world. My hope is that this course will widen my thinking about managing
and leading and I will stop fearing the concept of stewardship, and I will know how I can apply it
in future.

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Mid-Subject Reflection
As learning this course continued, I realized that my entire assumptions about
management, leadership, and stewardship were totally wrong when we were taught about their
theories. I came to realize that such concepts like management require teamwork as the manager
cannot work alone in an organization. For instance, when he sets goals in a firm, employees
should be willing to work in order to achieve those objectives. Stewardship concept was my
greatest fear, but the instructor had a way of explaining it and using practical concept so that the
idea could sink in my mind. I was selected to act as a steward where my work was to supervise
that every student was doing her or his assignment at the right time and this helped me not to
take too long to comprehend about it.
While I was in class, I viewed the whole situation and associated it in real-life where
there are different forms of businesses. Taking a situation like leadership, I viewed that many
successful businesses are as a result of good leadership styles that are used. For instance, that
leaders who use the transformational style of leadership tend to achieve a lot at the end of the day
in their company (Cope, Kempster and Parry, 2011, p. 285). I started relating my class work
which is the theory part with real-life situations, and it enhanced my understanding in
comprehending these terms. Additionally, I could not make any recommendations at a certain
business at first, but having learned some of the ideas; I could use my knowledge and
recommend what a business should do in order to perform better than it does. For instance, I was
in a position to recommend what a manager or a leader can do in order to ensure that the goals of
an organization are attained without delay since I was taught about motivational theories which
talk about how employees should be motivated in order to be productive. I was able to use my

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knowledge and complete all assignments that were concerning recommendations that one should
give to a business that is failing due to poor management.
I have to state that the task of relating class work with the real-life situation was an
amazing task because it opened my mind to perceive this course in a different dimension. In
other words, the activity helped me to draw conclusions in a real business and understand my
course better. I was able to complete all the assignments which required me to advise a business
which had leadership and management issues since I started linking theory work with practical
work.
Post-Subject Reflection
Completing this course has enlightened me in my areas and has also opened my mind
wider in a way that I stopped thinking the leadership is all about giving instructions.
Additionally, I am able to relate and apply my knowledge in class in the real world and can be
use theories learned in class to start my own organization. I can confidently say that all my
assumptions about stewardship have changed especially the way I assumed that the terms used to
describe it are hard, and I am able to understand the way it is used in business. Talking about
what has not changed is difficult because I feel everything has changed especially my thinking
and I have started to see the benefits of taking this course.
Completing this course has helped me to understand myself better and my roles in the
society. I believe that everyone has a role to play in order to ensure that everything goes in the
appropriate direction in the society. For me, I believe that taking this course has helped me
realize my dream in a great way and I have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can
go out there and be the person I have always dreamed of being. Additionally, the course has

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enhanced my decision-making process, and I am able to make proper decisions whenever I am
called to make one. When I start my organization, I am sure that I will be able to run and manage
it in a proper way.
The course has enhanced awareness about the action-guiding principles in people’s life. I
recognized that implementing action-guiding principles in one’s life leads to developing a feeling
of real obligation to the cause. As I was learning this course, I realized that stewardship and well
as management and leadership play an important function in the process of enhancing inner
qualities as well as confidence in an individual. Thus, I developed a deep understanding
concerning the role of realistic as well as decision-making strategy in the life of a person, under
the management and stewardship concepts.
The main aim of any business in this competitive world is to gain sustainability and have
the best steward, leadership, and management so as to be successful. Learning this course has
enabled me to realize that changes in every sector are inevitable and it is the work of all
employees to embrace changes when they come in order to have a different way of achieving
goals. Most people in the organization are resistant to change, and they should understand that
changes are inevitable so they should be willing to accept them for the best of the organization
(Crossan et al., 2013, p.286). This course has helped me to understand that changes help in
development. After I completed this course, I realized the benefits of good management in an
organization and the role of a manager which entails more than supervising people. I realized
that management is the pillar of all businesses, not the business must be careful in the process of
hiring a manager.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, the course has helped me understand my role in the society and I believe
that everyone has a role to play in order to ensure that everything goes in the appropriate
direction in the society. For me, I believe that taking this course has helped me realize my dream
in a great way and I have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can go out there and be
the person I have always dreamed to be. Additionally, the course has enhanced my decision-
making process and I am able to make proper decisions whenever I am called to make one.
When I start my organization, I am sure that I will be able to run and manage it in a proper way.
The course has enhanced awareness about the action-guiding principles in people’s life. I
recognized that implementing action-guiding principles in one’s life leads to developing a feeling
of real obligation to the cause. As I was learning this course, I realized that stewardship and well
as management and leadership play an important function in the process of enhancing inner
qualities as well as confidence in an individual. Thus, I developed a deep understanding
concerning the role of realistic as well as decision-making strategy in the life of a person, under
the management and stewardship concepts.
Peer Feedback
Atul is a member of my group assignment and his feedback about my portfolio
assignment is that it is a good piece since it covers all the requirements that the assignment
needed. Notably, he commented that the pre-subject reflection was very creative and it described
clearly how my assumptions were before I began this course. He also stated that the mid-subject
reflection showed how well I was progressing to understand the course and it showed that it was
possible for me to apply the knowledge learned in class in real life situations. His feedback was

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positive and he stated that I have clearly indicated that the course has enabled me realize my
dream in a great way and he have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can go out
there and be the person I have always dreamed of being.

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References
Cope, J., Kempster, S. and Parry, K. (2011) ‘Exploring distributed leadership in the small
business context’, International Journal of Management Reviews, pp. 270–285. doi:
10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00307.x.
Crossan, M., Mazutis, D., Seijts, G. and Gandzs, J. (2013) ‘Developing leadership character in
business programs’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 12(2), pp. 285–305. doi:
10.5465/amle.2011.0024A.
Kreutzer, R. (2017) Digital Business Leadership, Digitale Transformation – Geschäftsmodell-
Innovation – agile Organisation – Change-Management. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-11914-0.
Kurucz, E. C., Colbert, B. A., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Upward, A. and Willard, B. (2017) ‘Relational
leadership for strategic sustainability: practices and capabilities to advance the design and
assessment of sustainable business models’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp. 189–204.
doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.087.
Malik, A. and Malik, M. S. (2011) ‘Strategic managemen accounting A messiah for management
accounting?’, Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 1(4), pp. 1–7.
The World Bank (2017) Doing Business - Economy Profile 2017, Tajikistan, ISBN. doi:
10.1596/978-1-4648-0948-4.
Yıldız, S., Baştürk, F. and Boz, İ. T. (2014) ‘The Effect of Leadership and Innovativeness on
Business Performance’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, pp. 785–793. doi:
10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.064.
Zott, C., Amit, R. and Massa, L. (2011) ‘The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future

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Research’, Journal of Management, 37(4), pp. 1019–1042. doi: 10.1177/0149206311406265.