Reflective Essay on Leadership: Qualities and Traits of a Successful Leader

This essay reflects upon the leadership qualities and traits that make an individual a successful leader. It discusses the importance of diversity, inclusion, impartial attitude, emotional intelligence, empathy, accountability, and responsibility in effective leadership.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP
Reflective essay on leadership
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP
Introduction
According to Antonakis et al., (2017), leadership is a multidimensional concept. The
transformational leader is one who poses qualities like vision, motivation, management and
emotional intelligence. When I reflect upon the topic that I learned in the course, I realised that
values like diversity, inclusion and impartial attitude make an individual a successful leader.
However, there are some other learning that I developed through my experience. I also realised
that the qualities required to become a leader are something that is developed over time and not
something people born with. In this essay, I reflect upon the leadership qualities and traits that
make me a successful leader in my eyes.
Discussion
Throughout my childhood, my source of inspiration of a leader was my father who held
certain unique leadership qualities. I always wondered how my father could take such apt
decisions and keep his calm at every situation. However, I realised this better when I was chosen
as the food minister in our school project. This responsibility taught me that diversity,
collaborative learning, impartial attitude are few traits required to be a leader. Certain other
qualities are an integral part of a transformational leader. The very first thing I learned was
emotional intelligence and empathy. While working in a team, it was vital for me to be in control
of my emotions to make a wise decision.
Moreover, developing an attitude of empathy was the key to enjoy the trust of the
teammates. Empathy and compassion are the two most important characteristics of a true leader.
According to Randolph-Seng et al., (2016) inclusiveness is the key to effective leadership. I also
learned accountability and responsibility are the other two pillars of the right leader as

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP
Tannenbaum et al. (2017) mention it. It made me realise that my fellow mates came from
different walk of life and brought diverse ideas with them and this is where I, as leader had to
continually adapt new ideas to grow and master my skill as a leader. It taught me that there is no
"my way" in taking a decision. As a leader, I have to be inclusive while making choices. My
inherent values like, learning to bend and listen to what others have to say and accommodate it in
my decision are what makes me a better leader. By imposing a judgment of the self on others is a
reflection of the dictatorial nature of the leader. This, according to Raelin(2016) is harmful and
damaging the creativity of the individual. I learned that as a leader I have to look into the bigger
picture and think for the greater good of all. These values gave me confidence of my potential to
become a transformational leader.
Conclusion:
This experience and my knowledge of the course made me realise that there has to be a
synergy of knowledge and its application to become an effective and efficient leader because
mere knowledge without proper application is futile. If these traits can be mastered, my vision of
a true leader would be a success in future.

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP
References
Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (Eds.). (2017). The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Raelin, J. A. (2016). Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as collaborative
agency. Leadership, 12(2), 131-158.
Randolph-Seng, B., Cogliser, C. C., Randolph, A. F., Scandura, T. A., Miller, C. D., & Smith-
Genthôs, R. (2016). Diversity in leadership: race in leader-member
exchanges. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(6), 750-773.
Tannenbaum, R., & Schmidt, W. H. (2017). How to choose a leadership pattern. In Leadership
Perspectives (pp. 75-84). Routledge.