People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership: Reflective Essay

This essay discusses the concept of leadership and the leadership development process. It covers elements of leadership, Path-Goal theory and Trait theory. The author undertook two psychometric tests and identified areas of development in leadership. The essay also covers classroom activities and practical experience.

Running head: PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
People, culture and contemporary leadership
Assessment 2: Reflective Essay
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

1PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
Abstract
In this essay, the concept of leadership and the leadership development process has been
discussed. In the first section, the elements of leadership are discussed along with two of the
leadership theories, Path-Goal theory and Trait theory. I have undertaken two of the
questionnaire tests, one is Cattell Personality Test and another one is Personality Type Indicator
Test. After conducting the test, I have identified my weaknesses and strengths in my personality
trait. During the classroom sessions, we had to do role-play of the famous business leaders. We
watched many TED talk and leadership videos; after watching the videos; we had to answer
some of the questions regarding the videos. Through the questionnaire and the class activities, I
understood that I need to develop my social boldness, emotional intelligence and extrovert
nature. In order to develop my social boldness; I should develop the confidence to talk in front of
large numbers of people. Emotional intelligence can be improved through developing the
listening skills and show sympathy. In addition, extrovert nature can be developed through
meeting new people and development of communication skills can be another help. In addition, I
think, my leadership style is democratic leadership in which I always take a decision after
discussing with members and followers.

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The appealing companies across the world are those that develop strong ‘promote-from-
within' culture and these companies provide the ability to learn the leadership by motivating the
employees. Students can make preparation for the leadership styles to meet the variety of needs
when they will enter the professional life (Anderson and Sun 2017). Early development of
leadership helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals and the individuals
can develop the weaknesses by thorough training. In this essay, I have discussed elements of
leadership and two of the leadership theories. I have completed two psychometric tests through
questionnaire and I indulged myself in classroom activities of leadership. Therefore, the aim of
the essay is to show my leadership journey along with areas of development in leadership. In the
final section of this essay, I might identify what type of leader I am and what are the areas that I
need to improve to become more effective.
Leadership is the ability to set and gain challenging goals for the followers, take swift
along with decisive actions for followers and leadership must outperform the competition in
order to inspire the others in order to perform well. As stated by Goetsch and Davis (2014),
leadership is the process of leading a group of followers with own style so that the followers can
achieve the set objectives. The leaders must have a vision so that they can share the vision with
others to inspire the followers. The leaders should motivate the members to channel the
professional potential and energy. In the workplace, leadership quality helps to build up positive
workplace culture and leaders always support the members. According to ( ), leaders need to
show the empathy to the members and precise emotional intelligence makes leaders closer to the
employees. In addition, leadership quality can bring out the creativity and innovation within the
organisation. However, all leaders do not follow the same leadership style and leaders change
their style of leadership to build a team for the organisation.

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Path-Goal theory of leadership is mainly based on Vroom's Expectancy Theory where the
individuals will act in a specific way based on expectation and the act will be followed by certain
outcomes. Path-Goal theory is a process as the leaders select the specific behaviour based on the
needs and workplace environment (Hirt 2016). The leaders show the path to the employees from
which the leaders can obtain the daily work activities. Path-Goal theory mainly follows three
basic steps of leadership; this theory determines the environmental and employees characteristics
and the leaders need to select the basic leadership style. There are mainly four path-goal types
for the leadership behaviour. The leaders can be supportive where the leaders make the
workplace pleasant showing the concern for the employees. The leaders can be directive to
inform the followers how to perform the work on scheduled time. In addition, participative
leaders consult with followers before taking any decision. As stated by Komives (2016), the
path-goal theory is about leaders' behaviour and this theory assumes that leaders can be flexible
in terms of organisation's needs.
On the other side, trait theory of leadership is based on the feature and characteristics of
the leaders. Successful leaders must have interests, personality traits and abilities different than
the less effective leaders. The successful leaders have some of the core traits like achievement
drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, knowledge of business,
emotional maturity and flexibility, creativity and charisma (Yahaya and Ebrahim 2016).
Therefore, trait theory of leadership can serve the yardstick against different types of leadership
and this theory provides detailed knowledge about the leadership elements and leadership
process.
Raymond Cattell believed that personality can be organised and studied. Trait theory
stated that human personality is comprised of various traits. Raymond Cattell analysed the

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personality traits and he listed down 171 characteristics of the human beings (Yang 2014). After
that, Raymond Cattell listed the personality trait to 16 descriptive terms. I have undertaken
Raymond Cattell questionnaire test and this test contains 164 statements about me. I had to
answer all the statement accurately based on the measurement like disagree (1), slightly agree
(2), neither agree nor disagree (3), slightly agree (4), agree (5). It has taken 10 minutes to
complete the overall online test. After the test was done, I got the percentile marks for each of
the 16 personality traits. The scores were between 0 and 4. I scored 2.4 on warmth and it showed
that showed that I am outgoing and attentive to others. In case of reasoning quality, I scored only
1.5 and it showed that I am low in common sense or I miss the abstract thinking. I scored 2.9 in
the ruling consciousness as it means that I am dutiful, conforming, moralistic, rule-bound and
staid. In addition, I scored less in social boldness as I got only 1 in this trait. It means I am shy,
threat sensitive and hesitant in decision-making. I scored low in sensitivity also as I scored 1.4. A
low score suggests that I am not sentimental, tough-minded and self-reliant. In addition, I scored
only 1.3 in tension trait and it means that I am the relaxed, tranquil, torpid, placid and low drive.
I scored low on openness to change as I scored only 1.9. It also means that I am traditional in
nature, attached to familiar, respect traditional areas and I am conservative in nature. Therefore,
this Cattell questionnaire test helped me to identify my weaknesses in the personality traits.
I have taken Personality Type Indicator Test and this test has allowed me to learn more
about my strengths and weaknesses and it would also allow me to achieve fulfilment in the
professional and personal life. This is mainly ten-minute test and there are certain statements in
which the individuals need to highlight based on the preferences. After giving a reply on each of
the statements, the web portal showed my personality type. My personality type showed as ISTP,
the Problem Solver. I scored 47% introvert (thought-oriented and reserved), 11% sensing

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(Traditional and realistic), 8% thinking (Logical and reasonable) and 34% perceiving
(Spontaneous and flexible). ISTP has the strengths of problem-solving and these characteristics
bearers are resourceful. Being an ISTP characteristic holder, I am critical and logical when
making any decision. When I face any issue, I try to take the best decision and I trust my own
judgement. Being an ISTP, I have weaknesses of not watch on the big ideas rather I focus on
realistic areas. Risk-taking ability makes ISTP prone to make the wrong decision in life. I am
impulsive and I am over enthusiast in making any decision.
The leaders focus on motivational factors essentially so that it may help the employees to
be successful (Vann et al. 2014). Environmental characteristics are associated with the design the
task, formal authority system and workgroup. I have attended all the leadership classes and the
supervisors used to take our classes on a regular basis. In our classes, we have done the role-play
sessions where the students had to pretend themselves as famous leaders and they acted
according to this. In the classroom, the supervisor always put emphasis on the listening skills
when the students shared their leadership skills. I remember that day when the supervisor asked
me to describe my favourite leadership style and I discussed democratic leadership style in front
of the whole class. I used to go to the teacher in order to clarify my doubts about the leadership
and during the role-play sessions, the students did not have the opportunity to rehearse the
session beforehand. In addition, during the class activities, we have been shown many leadership
videos and TED talk sessions. We had to watch the videos and the supervisors gave use some of
the critical questions to answer from those videos. We needed to clear the concept of the
leadership and we got acquainted many of the business leaders. The leadership videos were
shown through the projector and one of the students had to recapitalise the whole scenario. In
addition, the supervisor asked to use to tell the class about the things we would find personally

6PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
satisfying about leadership. ‘A', the student who sat beside me told about characteristics and
traits of leadership that satisfy him. The student told that the leaders must be honest; the leader
needs to show the commitment, the leaders need to show the passion and inspiration to the
others. One of my friends told me about my leadership style and he shared the view that I
possess the participative leadership style that reflects the decision-making capabilities and
delegation with accountability. Being a leader, I want to share the creativity and innovation to
my team members.
I did a short apprenticeship from small business enterprise where I have been chosen as
campaign organiser. There, I had to maintain a small team and I was chosen as leader of the
team. I had to handle a team which was organising the campaign for the organisation. During
that period, I learnt about leadership in a practical point of view. From the questionnaire tests and
from the class activities; I have identified my weaknesses. I have to develop my social boldness,
emotional intelligence and extrovert nature.
I face the issue when I have to speak in front of a large number of people. I need to
develop social boldness through stop being nice to all people. What stops a person to be nice is
that the person wants to be liked by all. In addition, social boldness can be developed by saying
what the person thinks enhances the career. I need to develop my skill to say straightforwardly
what I think at that particular moment. I will not be quiet when I want to share any ideas with the
people. Social boldness can be developed through be more confident about sharing the point of
view. In my mind, I have to think about the worst scenario and being prepared in mind is needed.
I have to develop my skill in emotional intelligence as I always start reacting emotionally
to the people and sometimes, I am affected by the feelings and words. I need to be strong and do

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not get hurt in other words. Being a leader means to share the responsibility of others. I get rough
sometimes to the people; therefore, I need to be more emotionally intelligent where I can be
more sympathetic towards my fellow members and peers. I should not interrupt or change the
subject of the topic when one of my team members would be telling something. I will not judge
or edit my feelings quickly. In addition, I should connect my feelings with the thought process in
order to understand the overall condition. Moreover, I need to understand the emotional
condition of the employees to make connections between the feelings and thoughts. The best
process is to keep the learning journal and slow down to experience the anger or any other strong
emotion.
It is needed to be more extroverts in nature from my perspective. I should recognise the
introvert trait and I am thinking to join the communication class. In short communication
courses, I can improve my skills regarding the extrovert nature. I need to talk more to show my
eagerness and I need to socialise more to feel more inspired and energised. I need to solve the
problems by discussing with other people.
It has been noted that I bear the characteristics of the leadership and my leadership is
more of democratic leadership as I always like to take a decision after discussing with my team
members and followers. Class activities and the questionnaires provided me with the ideas of
strengths and weaknesses of my personality. During the apprenticeship, I took the initiative of
the campaign and I always took a decision after taking the opinion of my members. Therefore, I
have identified my weaknesses and I have made a plan to improve the leadership qualities
through utilising the vigour. I use my observant qualities as well as thinking capabilities to
handle my followers and team members. I have decided to improve my weaknesses in leadership
through the action plan and it would help in near future.

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Reference List
Anderson, M.H. and Sun, P.Y., 2017. Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
new ‘full‐range’theory. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), pp.76-96.
Arnold, K.A., Connelly, C.E., Walsh, M.M. and Martin Ginis, K.A., 2015. Leadership styles,
emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), p.481.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership
theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing
perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Goleman, D., 2017. Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard
Business Press.
Hirt, M.J.K., 2016. Path-Goal Theory of Leadership: Leadership and Public
Management. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance,
pp.1-6.
Komives, S.R., 2016. Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Vann, B.A., Coleman, A.N. and Simpson, J.A., 2014. Development of the Vannsimpco
leadership survey: a delineation of hybrid leadership styles. Swiss Business School Journal of
Applied Business Research, 3, pp.28-38.

9PEOPLE, CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), pp.190-216.
Yang, Y., 2014. Principals’ transformational leadership in school improvement. International
Journal of Educational Management, 28(3), pp.279-288.

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Appendices
Appendix 1
Cattell Personality Trait Test

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Personality Indicator Test

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Appendix 2
Learning Journal
Week Topic I already knew I learned today
Week 7 Meaning of
Autocratic leadership
It is a leadership style
characterized by
individual control
over all decisions and
little input from group
members.
Autocratic leaders
typically make
choices based on their
ideas and judgments
and rarely accept
advice from
followers.
Week 7 Leadership is a
partnership
Creative leaders need
more than just strong
management skills to
build the best teams
and lead them to
success.
Leadership is a
partnership between
leaders and group
members and thus
involves a sharing of
leadership
responsibility.
Week 8 Personal Traits Leadership
effectiveness is
influenced by
personality. Different
personality traits
impact on the context
of work, task
Personality refers to
individual differences
in characteristic
patterns of thinking,
feeling and behaving

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accomplishment and
personal satisfaction
Week 8 Path-goal theory It is based on leaders’
role
This model is based
on the behaviour of
the leaders and
employees’
motivation;
satisfaction and
empowerment are
associated with this.
Week 8 Emotional
Intelligence
(EI) is the ability to
understand and
manage your own
emotions, and those of
the people around
you.
People with a high
degree of emotional
intelligence know
what they're feeling,
what their emotions
mean, and how these
emotions can affect
other people.

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Reference List (10)
Appendices
Appendix 1
Questionnaire test
Appendix 2
Learning Journal