Developing Leadership and Management Skills

This report focuses on self-reflection and the assessment of existing leadership and management capabilities. It discusses the use of academic and theoretical models to determine strengths and weaknesses, and provides a plan for developmental activities to improve skills.

Developing Leadership
and Management Skills
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of existing leadership and management capabilities utilizing academic and
theoretical models...................................................................................................................3
Planning of management and leadership developmental activities........................................4
Personal development activities.............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Self-reflection is referred as the ability to witness as well as evaluate own behavioural,
emotional and cognitive processes. It is the ability to pay attention to own thoughts, behaviours,
decisions and emotions that makes an individual able to utilise self-reflection in real time in
order to enhance own decisions and behaviours. This is a self-reflection report in which I
critically assess my existing management and leadership capabilities utilising theoretical and
academic models and developer plan of developmental activities to improve the skills and
address my weaknesses effectively.
MAIN BODY
Assessment of existing leadership and management capabilities utilizing academic and
theoretical models
I am a student studying in the module "Developing leadership and management skills".
When undertaking the module, I was assigned with the task from my tutor in which I need to
analyse different leadership and management skills and compare them. These activities were
assessed by using different theoretical and academic models which help me in determining my
leadership strengths and weaknesses. We needed to perform this task in team. During performing
the task, I learnt that leadership and management are two essential aspects which help in personal
and professional development of a person. Having good leadership and management skills will
help in performing well both in academic career and in professional career. By performing the
assigned activities, I learnt that transactional theory is also referred as management theory which
studies leadership as system of penalties and rewards. The theory revolves around role of
teamwork, organisation and supervision. This theory sees effective leadership as an outcomes
oriented and hierarchical. Apart from this, I also learnt about transformational theory which
highly emphasizes on the relationship between the followers and leaders. This theory depicts
about kind of leader who is charismatic and inspirational and encourage team members to
transform and be better in a task. This leadership theory helps in sharping the skills of an
individual. By studying the theories, I found that in order to perform leadership effectively, I
should possess good team working and organisation skills. Apart from this, in order to being a
good leader and manager, enthusiasm and passion is highly required to motivate and inspire
others. In addition to this, the scientific management theory helps in analysing the workflows in
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order to enhance economic efficiency as well as labour productivity. It is a crucial theory due to
its approach to management is found in every industrial operations of business across the world.
Through performing the assigned task, I learnt that for being an effective leader or manager, it is
very necessary for me to possess good leadership and management skills meeting decision
making, integrity, team working, communication, organisational skills, planning and delegation
skills and problem solving skills. By working in the team to complete the task, I found that my
team working skills are not so effective due to which I faced difficulties to work with the team
members. Apart from this, I also found that I have weak communication skills because of which
I was not able to interact effectively with my team members. Thus, my team working and
communication skills and not good and these are the weak areas which I need to work upon.
However, I found that my decision making skills are good due to which I was able to take
effective decisions while undertaking the task. This improved my confidence level at the time of
working in team. Moreover, I also found that my problem solving skills are also good as during
working in team, some issues arise which I resolved effectively because of my good problem
solving skills.
Planning of management and leadership developmental activities
My overall experience of performing this module was good. However, I felt that I have to
work upon my communication and team working skills so as to improve them and be able to
work effectively in the team and communicate effectively with others. There are some leadership
and management developmental activities which I can undertake in order to improve my
leadership and management skills. These activities will help me in being a good leader or
manager motivating and inspiring the team members in an effective way. It helps me in
improving my relationship with others and developing a good work environment. Some of the
activities includes having purposeful conversations and developing a purpose statement. These
activities will help in developing communication skills. On the other hand, for developing team
working skills, working more in the team, participating in each group activity and encouraging
feedback will help in developing team working skills. All these management and leadership
development activities will help me in addressing my weaknesses in an effective way and
improving my team working and communication skills.
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Personal development activities
The personal development activities which I undertake to improve my leadership and
management skills includes undertaking training and development sessions associated with
improving communication and team working skills. Apart from this, I communicate openly and
regularly with the team and watch online videos on communication so as to improve my
communication skills. I also seek opportunities for joint work as well as build in feedback
mechanisms improve my skills. Moreover, for improving my team working skills, I will
participate more in teams and groups. In addition to this, I will also ask for feedback on my
performance from the other members of the team so that if any improvements needed in my
performance then I can make those improvements and enhance my team working skills.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that self-reflection is very
effective in providing me with the ability to reflect on my own thoughts, behaviors, decisions
and emotions. Having good leadership and management skills help in growth and development
in my academic and professional career. Different leadership and management theories help in
determining the skills that are needed to be an effective leader or manager.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Azad, N., Anderson, H.G., Brooks, A., Garza, O., O’Neil, C., Stutz, M.M. and Sobotka, J.L.,
2017. Leadership and management are one and the same. American journal of
pharmaceutical education, 81(6).
Karagianni, D. and Jude Montgomery, A., 2018. Developing leadership skills among
adolescents and young adults: a review of leadership programmes. International
Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 23(1), pp.86-98.
Thorpe, R., 2016. Gower handbook of leadership and management development. CRC Press.
Mumford, M.D., Todd, E.M., Higgs, C. and McIntosh, T., 2017. Cognitive skills and leadership
performance: The nine critical skills. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(1), pp.24-39.
Armstrong, M., 2016. Armstrong's handbook of management and leadership for HR: Developing
effective people skills for better leadership and management.
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