Reflective Journal on Leadership Styles

The assignment involves a reflective journal on contemporary leadership styles, with a focus on transformational leadership. It discusses the importance of leadership in achieving organizational goals and how it can be applied in real-world scenarios. The report also touches on the different aspects of leadership and how it can be developed through self-improvement.

People, Culture and
Contemporary leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Gibbs Model ...............................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Reflection journal basically a way of thinking in a critical and analytical way about work
in progress. It also helps the individual to show different aspects of work which are
interconnected to each other. This reflective journal record where your inspiration comes from
and also how individual make use of ideas to develop the work. This basically include research
notes, personal comments, notes or images of individual gallery and extract from lectures,
tutorial, books, journals and photo sketches. This report will cover different theories, online
resources, industry guest, in class activities, assessment feedback and psychometric test which
will reflected with the help of Gibbs model. This model encourage people to think
systematically about the experience which they face during a specific situation, events or
activity.
MAIN BODY
Gibbs Model
This Model was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning from
experiences. This model have six stages which help the individual to examine its personal
feeling. As this model is a good way to present work through an experience and helps to give
knowledge from those experience. This can be either stand-alone experience or a situation the
individual go through frequently. The six stages are description, feeling, evaluation, analysis,
conclusion and action plan which enable individual to think in the systematic way. The stages are
described below-
Description
This is the first step in the Gibbs model which explains the situation which I faced in the
event or activity in details. I have learned different type of theories such those for recruitment
and talent management. And also online resources such as videos, podcasts and textbooks
chapters which enhance my skills. I also participate in – class activities such as discussions and
cognitive exercise which helps me to improve my communication skills and make my skills
more effective. And also the assessment feedback in which I received following performance in
the first. And at last psychometric tests which helps me to completed, particularly for leadership
and interpersonal traits which will helps me to develop the leadership traits in the better way
(Shiraev and Levy, 2016).
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Feeling
This phase is about the feelings that the event triggered and also what are the thoughts
during the event. I was very nervous at first time for attending the classroom training but after
the end of the class I was very happy and satisfied that I learned a lot from the session. Firstly I
was not sure about the theories, I consider them very hard but when I understand the theory it
was very simple to understand and also it enhances the skills and my personality. And it also
helps me to study the leadership traits when working with people of different culture. Further, I
was very happy and at the same time curious about classroom learning on contemporary
leadership, task and culture. In addition, I feel assessment feedback was another measure which
helped me to understand my weakness and strengths over area of study. It completely changes
my point of view as this was most valuable session and I have learned many new things which
enhance my personality. It also makes my communication skills very effective. (Teiwes, 2017).
Evaluation
From the classroom training I evaluated that there are different types of contemporary
leadership theories which supports management of diversity at workplace such as
transformational leadership theory in which leaders lead employees by aligning employees goals
with the leader's goals. In these, employees start focusing on the company's well being rather
than what is best for them as individual employees.
(Rosenbach, 2018) The experience was very good as I gain knowledge and learned many
new theories of leadership and also adopt many new traits and also I come to know about the
abilities which are present in me . And the bad experience was that the session was not so
interacting and their was not cross questioning session that make the class room session
attractive. However, from the all above theory I reflect to transformational leadership style as
this style is base on trust and I am very trustworthy person and in this style the followers are
more likely to trust the leaders. As I will show greater level of concern for people's well being
and appeal to people's values. In transformational leadership, the followers are more likely to
believe that the leader has trustworthy characteristics.
Analysis
According to this author (Black, 2015). Transformational leadership leaders lead
employees by aligning leaders goals with the employees goals. And also employees working for
the transforming leader start focusing on the company 's well-being rather than what is best for
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them. This type of leaders influence the followers and create commitment to the company. In this
leadership style, the employees has full trust on their leaders because they show greater level of
concern for their employee's goals, needs etc. and followers are more likely to believe that the
leaders has a trustworthy characteristic. This is one of the most effective contemporary
leadership theory which also help the employees in many ways. This type of leadership has one
drawback that it only concentrate upon the individual goals but not the organisation goals.
According to this author (Grint, Jones and Holt, 2016). Transactional leadership style is
also effective and influence their employees in the positive manner. In this leader ship style the
leader provide something to the employees and in return the leader want commitment and the
right behaviour. Leaders provide rewards or recognition to motivate the employees so that
employees are more committed towards the company. And also gives more importance to
company goals rather than individual goals. The employees will work hard to achieve the goals
of the organisation.
According to this author (Ma and Tsui, 2015). Servant leadership style is the leadership
style in which leader concentrate upon serving the needs of others. According to this style, the
main motive of the leader to develop employees and help them to reach their goals. In this
leadership style, the leader put their employee's first and understand their personal need and
desires and also leaders help them to develop their carrier. In these style the leader sometime
sacrifice their own well being to help employees succeed. This type of leader also interested in
serving the society. The main drawback is that it focus on serving the society not the
organisation.
According this author(Ma and Tsui, 2015). Charismatic leaders are the individuals who
inspire the employees to work hard and also the behaviour of the leaders demonstrate that
inspire. Confidence and admiration towards the leaders. Also, this type of leaders has magnetic
personality that influence the followers towards them. But this type of leadership has drawback
as it doesn't concentrate on employees and also doesn't direct the employees in the better manner.
Conclusion
From the above reflection and several theories which I learned from the classroom are
transformational leadership theory, transactional leadership, servant leadership and last
Charismatic leadership style theory. But among all the four leadership style theory, I reflect as a
transformational leader as this type of leader motivate the employees to achieve the goals and
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objective of the organisation. And also the employees started trusting the leader. . And also I am
very trustworthy person. People start trusting me as I always fulfil the needs and wants of the
people. Also in the classroom I have learned from various theories such as those for recruitment
and talent management, from online resources such videos, podcasts and textbooks chapters And
also I can motivate employees to achieve the organisational goals. In these above reflective
journal it covers all contemporary leadership style theory and also what style do I follow and
what style traits are match with me. (Rosenbach, 2018).
Action Plan
Action plan is the last step of Gibbs Model which help the individual to express their
experience in the systematic manner. In this action plan it includes if everything went fine then
individual can promise that to act in the same way next time. And if the things are not going well
then in this actin plan individual can promise to do well and not to repeat that mistake again.
In these I have chosen transformational leadership style theory in which I will do many
efforts for enhancing my personality. As I have less knowledge about transformational
leadership style so I will read different books and journal, also reads different news . And meet
many leaders from whom I can gain much knowledge and learned many things from them . And
also I will watch many video lectures and also take a training session so that it will add more to
my personality. And also it will help me to think in critical manner. And also transformational
leadership style is one of the most effective leadership style. As it help the organisation to work
in the effective way and helps in attaining the goals and objective. This leadership style helps in
smooth flow of business. And decreases the conflict among the employees. The leaders generally
inspire, aspire and motivate the employees. However, my personality is very effective I have the
ability to inspire people and also attract many people. In this style the employees started trusting
the leader as leader show extra concern for employees benefit (Maracle, 2018). I am
transformational type of leader as I have the ability to take decision and influence people to work
accordingly. And also I am trustworthy person and I will improve my self by reading books and
journal.
CONCLUSION
In the above report it has cover reflective journal which is basically a way of thinking in
the critical situation. It also shows individual different aspects of the situation. This report is base
on the organisation culture and working with the different culture. Also, this report will cover the
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different contemporary leadership style which has been taught in the classroom. And also it has
concluded that the most effected contemporary leadership style theory is transformational
leadership style which influence the employees.
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REFERENCES
Black, S. A., 2015. Qualities of effective leadership in higher education. Open Journal of
Leadership.4(02). p.54.
Grint, K., Jones, O. S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Hofmeyer, A and et.al, 2015. Leadership in learning and teaching in higher education:
Perspectives of academics in non-formal leadership roles. Contemporary Issues in
Education Research.8(3).
Ma, L. and Tsui, A. S., 2015. Traditional Chinese philosophies and contemporary
leadership. The Leadership Quarterly. 26(1). pp.13-24.
Magezi, V., 2015. God-image of Servant King as powerful but vulnerable and serving: Towards
transforming African church leadership at an intersection of African kingship and biblical
kingship to servant leadership. HTS Theological Studies.71(2). pp.01-09.
Maracle, S., 2018. The eagle has landed: Native women, leadership, and community
development. Gender and Women's Studies: Critical Terrain, p.373.
Rosenbach, W. E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Shiraev, E. B. and Levy, D. A., 2016. Cross-cultural psychology: Critical thinking and
contemporary applications. Routledge.
Teiwes, F. C., 2017. Leadership, legitimacy, and conflict in China: From a charismatic Mao to
the politics of succession. Routledge.
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