Leadership and Management: Reflective Writing on The Sheep and Sheppard Task

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT 1
Leadership and Management

Leadership and management 2
Introduction:
This paper is the reflective writing paper which discusses the approach related to the leadership
and management. It is necessary to understand the relationship between the two and also the
difference between the two. This reflective paper is based on the “THE SHEEP AND
SHEPPARD TASK”, and made after considering the elements of the Gibbs Reflective cycle. It
is mainly helpful for those people who learn from their situations on continuous basis, and
especially when situations are not right (Gibbs, 1998).
(Source: KCL, n.d.)
Description:
The Sheep and Sheppard task: Recently, I had visited to the Lake District with my classmates,
and this trip was the part of my course leadership and management in context of the master of
business administration.
This Journey was organized for 3 days, and it included number of tasks which were conducted
on daily basis. I participated in each and every activity, and in one task, I got the opportunity to
become the leader and lead the team. The task which impressed me the most was “The sheep and
shepherd” in which I got the chance to become the leader. In this task, I performed the role of the
Shepherd and my role was to guide the bundle of the sheep’s into the pen by using the whistle,
and the roles of the sheep’s were played by my five other group members. We completed this

Leadership and management 3
task successfully in the given time frame. Both Shepherd and sheep’s were not allowed to
express the word, and all the sheep’s were blindfolded.
As the shepherd, it’s my responsibility to direct all the sheep’s towards the pen. After few
attempts, I got the success in directing the 4 sheep’s towards the pen. For performing this task, I
consumed almost whole time in directing that last sheep towards the pen and this happened
because of the wrong indications given by me. Because of all this we take almost full time to
complete the task, but any how we managed to perform this in given period of time.
Feelings:
I had mix feelings related to the task performance. It was the first time, when I performed the
role of leader, and this made me feel more anxious and excited at the same time.
Anxiety is the concept which is used to define the feelings related to the nervousness, fear,
worry, unease, etc. and it includes both emotions and physical sensations (Smith & Cooper,
1994).
Role of leadership includes different responsibilities such as dealing with productivity, budgets,
policy, design, implementation, etc. (Milano, 2012). Working at the first leadership position
brings new challenges and different responsibilities (Hader, 2007). In my case, high number of
challenges and too much responsibility made me more anxious. I personally feel that this feeling
of anxiety reduced my confidence level, and it was the only reason because of which I failed to
perform my task and lead my team in effective manner.
However, at some point of time this feeling helps me in performing the role of the good leader
also. As stated by the Bendrskey & Shah (2012), those people who are more anxious, actually
work in more attentive way and achieve better results. As I was not over anxious, because over
anxiousness was considered as the weakness and can results in the negative approach. I feel that
anxiety was appeared from different factors such as genetics and environmental. Somehow, I am
able maintain the balance between my confidence and fear.
Through my experience, I am able to understand one thing that anxiety is good for achieving the
goals, but such feeling must not overlap the confidence of the person. While directing the last
sheep, I become more nervous because I already committed the mistakes and time was slipping
from my hands. At that time, I feel more nervous, but I control my feelings and perform my task
with full determination.
Evaluation:
This task taught us number of things, and as the leader, it was completely an excellent experience
for me. While performing as leader, I am able to discover my hidden talent and also my ability to
direct other for achieving the particular goal. This task also increased my confidence level, and
improves my ability to deal with new challenges. As stated, an effective leader is the person who