Reflective Essay on Leadership Development Strategy

This reflective essay discusses the importance of coordination between a leader and an employee in executing a group project. It focuses on the leadership development strategy, traits of a leader, leadership styles, and challenges faced during project execution. The essay suggests methods to improve leadership skills.

reflective essay

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Team player and a leader......................................................................................................................2
Leadership development strategy.........................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 2
Introduction
Leader is one of the most talked topic especially while considering the achievement of
organisation goals is concerned. My team and I was given a project to execute. The concept
of leadership is not limited to the school, classroom, college, or politics but it has emerged as
an important concept especially in organisations. Leadership and effective management are
the most important ingredients when considering the successful execution of any plan or
goals (Tobin, 2014). While considering the leadership development strategy, I need to
consider the condition of employees and team members. There are conditions in which the
leader faces the problems such as cultural issues and lack of accountability. These problems
lead to non-fulfilment of group goals. The essay will focus on reflection of oneself as a leader
and employee or team members (Webster, and Webster, 2018).
Team player and a leader
As a leadership quality, I need to develop the traits of person who is extremely
knowledgeable. The leader should have the ability to influence the team members. The leader
should communicate to all the team members irrespective of whether the team members
might face cultural differences and lack of accountability. The skill model provides an
overview of skills that is necessary to be an effective leader. The skills focused on three
major skills such as technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. Technical skills
includes decision-making regarding problem solving and analysing the situation of the
company (Tsingos, Anticevich, & Smith, 2014). The career of a leader depends on the skills
to solve the complex problems and tackle the difficult situation during the execution of group
project. Throughout, the professional learning and experiences, I met a different set of people
with varied experiences and skills. I, as a team member can equally contribute to the
responsibility of oneself while executing the personal goals, which will ultimately led to
achievement of group goals. Communicating with the sub teams can lead and delegate

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 3
responsibility. Conceptual skills are generally enhanced during the course of professional
study at the organisational level. A conceptual barrier occur when the method of
implementing the rules differs and they are feasible for all the team members. Team members
should have an entrepreneurial skills and knowledge skills to achieve success in the future
goals. No team members should remain only a member, every member dreams of a position
where he holds all the power but the position of leader is both only about enjoying the power
but also brings a lot of responsibility (Tsingos, Anticevich, & Smith, 2014).
Leadership development strategy
Reflection clearly defines a person strongly wants to improve the activities that could result
into general direction for the thinking process. Before forming the leadership development
strategy, I should chose a type of leadership theory, which I want to follow ardently.
Moreover, it is often said that leaders are born not made but I do not follow it, what cannot be
done with the hard and smart work. Leadership is an art of managing and influencing people
effectively and efficiently. In order to from a leadership strategy, I should communicate the
visions, which can direct the actions to achieve objective. In order to set a goal just for self is
not enough especially when you are a team leader. I should make such organisational goals
that could accomplish and match the vision. My ideal leadership team could set the
organisational goals that can be accomplished (Centre of creative leadership, 2018).
After selecting the goal of achieving and executing the group project, I need to choose a
method that can accomplish the goals. For example- I decided to develop script where the
sales team will fall. I established a strict timeline that will allow me accurately to track the
results, where the employees can accomplish the goals in the given time. To understand
leadership style and theory, when setting the organisational objectives, the leadership style
can facilitate the goals. While developing leaders, organisations should understand the vision
and culture of different style to achieve the mission. By understanding the theories of all the

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 4
leadership styles, I prefer to adopt characteristics of a charismatic leader, who is recognised
as a leader by the deeds, behaviour, and attitudes (McCauley, and Cooper, 2018).
The suitable understanding of various styles can permit the executives to adopt the
characteristics of not only one leadership style but also follow good from all the leadership
theories (Savery, 2015). One should understand the importance of all the traits and attributes
of a leader. Finally, develop a method that can identify the core values of the great leaders
(Blomme, Kodden, & Suffolk, 2015). This will help me to get an idea of the company to
execute the company`s development strategy. I should also undertake various leadership
workshops, online training courses, leadership coaching, and graduate programs. Moreover,
as an employee I should undertake a site coaching of learning the best approaches, where the
manager suggests that there should be a delicate and proper balance between the conversation
of employee and a leader so that we can focus on depth and quality (Latham, 2014).
As a leader, I faced problems during the project execution when every person or the team
member belonged to different cultures. One of the barrier related to team unity was
miscommunication due to different perception of the every person. Moreover, to coordinate
and develop a sense of team, I as a leader conducted activities to develop and feel united
without having any sense of differences amongst anyone (Hannah, Sumanth, Lester, &
Cavarretta, 2014). I conducted activities related to groups where a small group of people can
show a sense of belongingness to a same team. I divided the entire project team into smaller
teams when conducting the activities. I saw that everyone have become comfortable with
each other. Earlier due to miscommunication and internal team clashes, we were not able to
execute and achieve goals (Landis, Hill, & Harvey, 2014).
The second incident is related to lack of accountability. A group cannot be united as a team
when big things are done or executed but the feedback of the small task is not reported to the

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 5
whole team or the leader (Fairhurst, & Connaughton, 2014). Here in our team, due to cultural
differences, everyone was not very comfortable while talking to each other. The
responsibility was not properly allocated to the whole team. Before forming the team, a
leader should identify the ability of every individual. It is necessary for the leader to know the
strength of its team so that I can allot the activities of the tasks to the members of the team.
On the part of the member, one should report the leader about the execution of smaller task if
it has been achieved which can support the leader to identify and know what actions are
remaining to execute the whole project (Bolman, & Deal, 2017).
A leader should maintain a written report of everything that how each member is performing
and how each task is completed with its procedure, how near they are to execute the whole
project. Moreover, due to miscommunication and incoordination of activities, there exist a
lack of accountability among the members (CEO coaching international, 2018). Due to
cultural and linguistic differences, it became difficult for the leader to align the activities and
make the progress report accordingly. The decision-making became difficult because not all
the team members agree to the same path of executing the whole project. As a leader, my
visions were all blurred. Mainly, there are three reasons why leader fail to execute. Initially, I
was not able to follow the plan with discipline with the co-operation of team then I realised
that the plan is not according to team`s ability. The second problem, which I faced, was the
failure to keep the score that matters. Final is the assembling of the puzzle strategies to keep
the project work on track (Leadereconomics, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above self-reflection, it can be concluded that, a coordination between a leader and
an employee (team member) plays an important role in executing and directing the actions as
per the requirement of the situation. Apart from the role of leadership, it is important for an
employee to equally balance the relationship between a team members and leader. A group

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 6
project can be achieved only if when all the team members are directed by one goal in one
direction. The reflective essay strives to improve and form the leadership development
strategy. The development strategy undertakes to form the strategy when I was able to
discover my strengthens and weaknesses. The incidents are not also very convenient and
favourable. Due to lack of accountability and cultural differences, it become difficult to
coordinate the activities of the whole team.

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 7
References
Blomme, R. J., Kodden, B., and Beasley-Suffolk, A. (2015). Leadership theories and the
concept of work engagement: Creating a conceptual framework for management
implications and research. Journal of Management & Organization, 21(2), 125-144.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. US: John Wiley & Sons.
Centre of creative leadership, (2018). The Top 6 Leadership Challenges Around the World.
Retrieved from: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/top-6-
leadership-challenges/
CEO coaching international, (2018). The Seven Biggest Problems with Leadership Today.
Retrieved from: http://ceocoachinginternational.com/problems-with-leadership
Collinson, D. (2014). Dichotomies, dialectics and dilemmas: New directions for critical
leadership studies?. Leadership, 10(1), 36-55.
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.
Hannah, S. T., Sumanth, J. J., Lester, P., & Cavarretta, F. (2014). Debunking the false
dichotomy of leadership idealism and pragmatism: Critical evaluation and support of
newer genre leadership theories. Journal of organizational behavior, 35(5), 598-621.
Landis, E. A., Hill, D., & Harvey, M. R. (2014). A synthesis of leadership theories and
styles. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 15(2), 97.
Latham, J. R. (2014). Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a
framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21(1), 11-15.

RELECTIVE ESSAY: 8
Leadereconomics, (2017). To Become An Effective Leader, You Need To Practise Self-
Reflection. Retrieved from: https://leaderonomics.com/leadership/practise-self-
reflection
McCauley, C., and Cooper, L. F. (2018). Leader problem or leadership problem. Retrieved
from: https://trainingmag.com/leader-problem-or-leadership-problem/
Savery, J. R. (2015). Overview of problem-based learning: Definitions and
distinctions. Essential readings in problem-based learning: Exploring and extending
the legacy of Howard S. Barrows, 9, 5-15.
Tobin, J. (2014). Management and Leadership Issues for School Building
Leaders. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(1), n 1.
Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on
the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.
Tsingos, C., Bosnic-Anticevich, S., & Smith, L. (2014). Reflective practice and its
implications for pharmacy education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical
Education, 78(1), 18.
Webster, V. and Webster, M. (2018). Why Self-Reflection Is the Key to Effective Leadership.
Retrieved from: https://www.leadershipthoughts.com/why-self-reflection-is-the-key-
to-effective-leadership/