Leadership and Management: An Individual Reflection Report

This is an individual reflection report on leadership and management in a retail industry. It covers the qualities of an effective leader, their roles, and the challenges faced by HR leaders. It also includes lessons learned while completing a group presentation on leadership and management.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Part A. .........................................................................................................................................1
Part B...........................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers as building social relationship among two or more person who are
dependent on each other to achieve certain goals that are mutually based (Connolly and Pyper,
2020). Management usually refers to as procedure of planning, directing, organising as well as
controlling various employees activities in collaborating with other resources used to achieve
organisational objectives. This is an individual reflection report of myself on basis of incidents
which I have experienced during my training under a HR executive.
MAIN BODY
Part A.
Leadership and management are terms that are interlinked with each other. Leadership is
referred as potential that influence as well as drives group efforts towards achievements of
organisational objectives or goals (De Oliveira, Cavazotte and Alan Dunzer, 2019). Leadership
accompanied along with management which sets a new direction as well as helps organisation to
make essential use of resources to accomplish them. A leader is also refers as manager who
guides and manages work between teams. Usually leadership is used to create an effective
management system. I have learned about qualities of a effective leader which are required in
retail industry that a good leader must have quality and skills that helps to influence a whole
team of group of employees working together. I have also learned that leadership is a cause that
is used to conduct people in order to guide individuals and exercises in coordinated endeavours.
Leadership is usually a capability which helps a leader or a manager working in a retail industry
to evaluate long term strategies towards achieving a specific goals or objectives. I have learned
strategies that helps a person to become a good leader which are being transparent with in terms
of information to team, accepting your mistake, giving opportunities to every team member to
convey their thoughts and ideas etc. I have learned that management is taking leadership aspect
in cutting out and putting action to achieve goals. I have also learned that a effective leader must
have an attitude of learning new things and being updated with changes in technologies, market
environment, political policies, etc.
I have also been familiar with some roles of a leader under an organisation which are as
below-
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 Visionary- I have learned that role of a great leader is to clearly monitor path of its team
or organisation where it is heading to along with results they are going to achieve on that
path (Hallinger, 2019). An effective leader examines position of its team in comparison
with tomorrows objectives. Role of a leader is to create a clear vision as well as
communicate it so effectively and efficiently to others that they join them in that journey. Strategist- I have learned that one of the main role of a leader in an organisation is to be
strategic in motive to consistently achieve success with help of other individual or
members of a team by carefully using disciplined planned processes.
 Talent advocator- An good HR leader working in a retail industry leads to increase
capabilities of each members of team in order to enhance performances, career growth as
well as solve problems. Responsibilities of a HR leader includes decision making in
terms of essential measures to increase performance of employees that are new joiners
while providing them with proper training and coaching to complete desired tasks on
time (Nghia, Phuong, and Huong, 2020).
I have also learned about threats which are faced by HR leaders in this respective retail industry
which are as below- Engage with skilled talent- This is one of the biggest problems faced by a HR manager
in retail sector that they focus on attracting and hiring high skilled employees which can
help them in achieving their business goals. HR manager should be more aware in
choosing employees for their organisation as development and performance of firm is
dependent on performance of its employees. Focus on navigate technology- In this rapid changing market in world makes company
and industries to enhance their work by adopting new technologies. These tools includes
electronic inventory control, point of sales, analytical tools,etc.
 Misconduct with employees- This refers to as responsibility of a leader to provide safety
as well as make measures to feel secure by their employees and if any misconduct
happens with them they are considered as rule breaking (Rehman and Iqbal, 2020). In
order to prevent this manager should make policies to make safety assurance for their
staffs.
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Part B.
I have faced various challenges, learned lessons as well as acquired knowledge to
improve and enhance my skills during group presentation. Following are the challenges that I
faced while developing a group presentation on leadership and management of a HR manager in
a retail industry and they are as below-
Challenges Description
Poor planning While working in a group presentation I have faced a challenge of poor
planning with my group members. Poor planning of project made us to
face delay in completion of project file under deadline. Insufficient
information was also being faced by us (Swanwick, 2019).
Lack of leadership We were facing a challenge of lack of leadership while working with a
team for a group presentation. I have faced challenges in conveying
informations to my team members as well as convincing my team
members to follow my strategies in order to complete project.
Team work I faced challenge while working under a team to make a presentation on
leadership in a retail industry. I didn't worked before under a team for
any such group presentation. This made me face challenge to
communicate with my team members.
Inefficient
communication
As I was not familiar to work with a team has made me face challenge
of inefficient communications with my team members. This kept me
away from acquiring information regarding projects as well as gather
update about presentation.
Lack of technical
knowledge
Being in-proficient in technical skills such as use of MS work, excel,
power-point, etc. made me face challenges while completing this group
presentation. I was unable to cope with latest tools of these software
which made me being unable to complete task on time (Hallinger,
2020).
Lessons that I learned while completing group presentation is described as below-
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Lessons Description
Avoidance of mistakes While working with a group of people in a presentation I gained
lessons to avoid mistakes that I made during my past presentation.
This will help me to work effectively without making mistakes in
my future projects which will aid me in achieving project growth.
Communicate effectively While working in a group presentation has build my
communication skills. Now I can effectively communicate my
thoughts and ideas with my team members which will result in
completing projects more effectively and efficiently in future.
Technical skills While completing group presentation I have acquired knowledge of
ms word, excel and some other software which helped me in
completing my task as well as will help me in future.
Management skills I have gained managing skills while working with a team as works
were divided between us and it was my responsibility to monitor
and manage work as well as resources in order to complete project
on time (Wills, 2019). This management skills will help me to
build my career in future as well as save my time in completing
tasks and projects under deadline.
Time management While working with my fellow team mates I have gained
knowledge in multitasking. I was allotted with responsibility to
manage resources as well as gather information about relative
project at a same time. This made me efficient in multi tasking
process which will help me to perform multi task or projects at a
same time while saving my time as well as accomplish future
growth.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Connolly, J. and Pyper, R., 2020. The leadership and management of public services reform in
Scotland. In The Oxford Handbook of Scottish Politics. Oxford University Press.
De Oliveira, L. B., Cavazotte, F. and Alan Dunzer, R., 2019. The interactive effects of
organizational and leadership career management support on job satisfaction and
turnover intention. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 30(10).
pp.1583-1603.
Hallinger, P., 2019. Science mapping the knowledge base on educational leadership and
management in Africa, 1960–2018. School Leadership & Management. 39(5). pp.537-
560.
Hallinger, P., 2020. Science mapping the knowledge base on educational leadership and
management from the emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America, 1965–
2018. Educational Management Administration & Leadership. 48(2). pp.209-230.
Nghia, T. L. H., Phuong, P. T. N. and Huong, T. L. K., 2020. Implementing the student-centred
teaching approach in Vietnamese universities: the influence of leadership and
management practices on teacher engagement. Educational Studies. 46(2). pp.188-204.
Rehman, U. U. and Iqbal, A., 2020. Nexus of knowledge-oriented leadership, knowledge
management, innovation and organizational performance in higher education. Business
Process Management Journal.
Swanwick, T., 2019. Leadership and management: what’s the difference?. BMJ Leader,
pp.leader-2019.
Wills, G., 2019. School leadership and management: Identifying linkages with learning and
structural inequalities. In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality (pp. 301-
320). Springer, Cham.
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