Reflective Leadership

Effective leadership within an organisation is often viewed as the foundation for organisational growth and performance. This article explores the concept of reflective leadership, its importance, different models of leadership, and essential skills for effective leadership.

Running head: REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP
REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP
5/27/2019
Contents

REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP 1
Reflective Leadership..................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................11

REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP 2
Reflective Leadership
Effective leadership within an organisation is often viewed as the foundation for
organisational growth and performance. In addition, organisation holding effective leaders
respond to changes in markets and environment more quickly to sustain high performance.
Antonakis (2017) defined leadership as an acting to directing, dominating and guiding a group of
people. A leader is someone who does and makes others do the right thing. A leader tends to set
a goal and gives a direction to accomplish it, by using innovative techniques and creating an
inspiring vision. Leadership is all about laying out something dynamic, inspiring, creative and
exciting using management skills, which can lead the team to accomplish the defined objectives
and win (Antonakis, 2017).
Leadership involves the ability of a leader to encourage others to perform their dues with
full dedication and accomplish their goals timely. It is, of course, a group activity where the
leader has to take his team along while undertaking a project. It also involves respecting and
trusting them with their capabilities as well as providing opportunities to learn and grow. On
contrary to this if the leader is self-obsessed then his narcissistic style will definitely lead to
failure of team (Ong, 2016). Being only a good speaker will not make one an effective leader,
instead, knowledge of work is required. Having accountability for the work so done and
communicating information clearly are obligations of leader (Caldwell, 2016).
There are various models of leadership, which can be applied in real life as well as it
helps in the development of individual personality. One of them is situational leadership (Bosse,
2017) (papworth, 2009), in which a leader decides type of training offered to subordinate so that

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he can handle future conditions on his own. This requires effective supervision. It is parameter of
concern because over and under supervision will not let employee learn what the organization
expect from him. Leader here should recognize the thin gap between being strict and rude, in
addition to this he should also support the employee which will boost his morale and will learn
things speedily. The cycle of directing here works from giving training and coaching following
supporting the learning of employee and delegating the responsibilities there on.
In real life, I experienced this while working with my father. He used to teach me how to
repair cars. Initially, I used to watch him and understand what thing is going on. After that
beginner's stage, he used to put me to work and practically analyze each and everything. Each
time I did mistakes he made me correct them and supported me in leaning things better. At a
stage I became familiar with things and I could probably do them on my own. This was the stage
when he started giving me his work, which is called delegation in professional terms.
In the present era, a transformational model of leadership is required which is the topic
concern here “Reflective Leadership”. Reflective leadership is a way of getting used to some
kind of work by taking the charge and doing it with utmost dedication and personal mastery
(Carroll, 2011). Being focused and aware of present surroundings and gathering deeper
experiences is the approach of reflective leadership (Johns, 2017). Being reflective involves
having a direct approach towards situations and getting integrated efforts from team. Performing
reflective style of leadership includes continues learning which one finds helpful in handling
real-life situations. It makes a person more flexible so that he can adjust himself according to the
scenarios. He tends to be more respectful to his teammates, which develop cooperation and
healthier working relationships (brown, 2016).

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This I experienced while trekking with group of friends. Our group leader was
autocratic; he was too strict for the scheduled plans. He does not pay any attention towards
interests of the people in the group and used very offensive language. This became his
shortcoming and failure for the group as the trek could have the best and reached its destination
if the leader and group people were co-operative towards each other. This made me understood
that the leader must listen to his team and work taking the team along with. He cannot just
implement things rather he should have healthy discussion and views of individuals should be
taken into consideration.
The decisions of leader should relate to community as a whole and not just the belief of a
single person. After all, it is all about dealing with different people in different situations to
achieve a common goal. It aims at making someone willing do what you want (Nesbit, 2012)
(Walker, 2013)
Quoting Maxwell, “leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”.
This implies many things for a leader one of which is accountability. A leader must understand
that the entire outcome the team comes up with; he has to be accountable and answerable for
that. Quality of an effective leader is “take a little more than share of blame and little less of
share of credit” (bethel, 2012). I better understood this when I practically saw it at my aunt’s
home. She was in charge of a team working to frame a cost effective model for their company.
The model they presented was a huge fail. My aunt reacted to this by taking the blame on herself
and represented another model with the help of her team and of course, it was brilliant. The
credit of this she passed away to her teammates. This resulted in forming trust and feeling of
belongingness in employees.

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To be a successful leader one must be a good communicator (Cheung, 2011) (Dorothy,
2013). For a leader to get himself heard by his team, he should listen and try to understand their
opinions. A good leader is not the one having lousiest voice but definitely, the one having
readiest ears says Warren Bennis. Listening provide leader with suggestions, clues, ideas to the
positive directions (dandira, 2012). The leaders’ world is oral, that is they have to give
instructions, influence people with their speaking skills, which requires good speaking skills
(Kouzes, 2012).
To understand this I have one real-life experience, which happened to him while
working on a group project of school. Unfortunately, I was appointed the group leader. Initially,
it was chaos because I did not know how to handle a team of seven people who differ in
ideologies and methodology of doing a certain task. Then I tried exercise. I brought the entire
team to table and made them write their views on a piece of paper for the project. After they did
it, I scrutinize the papers and wrote what I need to do keeping in mind their vision as well. This
ended well and everyone was happily doing their tasks. The team listened to me as their leader
and we successfully terminated the project. This made me realize what it takes to be a good
communicator and a step ahead being an effectual leader.
To make a given project or task successful, it has to be collective effort. Everyone is
required to work with compassion. Commitment towards work is what improves the quality of
result. To get everyone works with full passion, the leader has to get his hands dirty. The duty of
leader here is to motivate his team to give it their all but it will not work until the leader himself
is passionate enough towards the task. The leader has to push his subordinates by showing him
how to perform. Wearing the crown of leader and giving orders will not persuade the team
members to operate, instead getting on field and perform the functions required will help him

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earn the respect from team members and will drive the team to perform in the most efficient
manner (Sellgren, Goran, & Goran, 2008).
Working this way reduces resistance and boost up the speed of implementation process.
When the employer steps into employee's shoes, collective effort comes in force, which provides
employees with a personal stake for the success of organization. In addition to the benefits stated
earlier, reflective style of leadership helps people to adjust more swiftly (Neubert, 2009).
To explain this, I would like to share my life experience as an example here. It happened
with me in computer lab where we had to accomplish a project related to coding. My group
leader was very committed toward completion of this project in time and in the best way
possible. Therefore, he explained all of the matter to us very clearly and assigned the tasks. As
coding is little difficult and boring we were reluctant to work. Then he stepped in and worked
with utmost dedication and taught how some tips to ease our work process. His behaviour
encouraged us to work in the same way with equal level of determination. Whenever we faced a
problem and thought we cannot do in given time, his words made us do the unthinkable. He was
really an inspiration for me and other team members. Through his guidance, we were able to
make to the deadlines. His skills of cooperation, participation, communication enhanced the
quality of work and the team definitely achieved its objective.
Leaders are inspiration for the followers. Being a leader should not be misinterpreted as
pleasing people being as the apple of their eye. Job of the leader is to make the teammates a
better version of themselves and achieve the goals in time. A leader through his actions inspires
others to dream, learn and do more by pushing their capabilities (Hedges, 2017). Being
passionate, enough is a quality which can make leader inspirational. Demonstrating the quality of

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commitment rather than merely saying it makes people follow him. It is scientifically known that
people recognize what they see more than they hearing things. Making employees learn does not
mean to be rude instead maintain sensitivity towards employees makes them feel secure and it
gives rise to inner capabilities of doing things more efficiently and effectively. Setting a good
example by being one is the key to be good leader (Grant, 2011).
This brings me to another experience I had. I remember this one time when my father
had to meet deadlines and they were running short of time. His teammates would come to our
home and work for entire night, this continued until a week or so. In the meantime, they too had
conflicts. If I was at his place I would have lost my temper many times. Once I told my father to
give up and let them work their way but then he gave me a lesson. He told me that in such
situations where things are tough, the team members look up to their leader, how he overcomes
the problem, what is his response towards the whole scenario and they follow him. Therefore
being calm and staying positive is what works which should be depicted from your work rather
than words. This is how a leader inspires his subordinates and keeps the motivation level up. It is
the duty of leader to develop an inspirational culture in the firm. Troubleshooting while working
is obvious cannot be completely avoided but having a positive spin for the problem can show
silver lining to others and motivate them to not give up and work until the task is completed
(Sommer, 2013) (Bergelson, 2014).
Another thing, which can lead to failure of a good leader, is lack of integrity and
confidence. Integrity refers to subordination of individual interest into common interest. Moral
leadership is solely responsible for success or failure of organization. The leader is said to best
when he possesses unquestionably integrity. Following ethics is important elsewise you cannot
expect the same from the fellow teammates. Honesty, irrespective of a person being leader or not

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is appreciated (Ciulla, 2011). Honesty sets the basis for trust. If there are trust issues within the
team, they will not be able to accomplish any goal no matter if they got the best resources and
skills. If the leader is incompetent to show other employees that he can be trusted on word, no
one will look up to him. Dishonesty of leader leads to breach of transparency and negative
actions, which can minimize the potential of employees. Further dishonesty hampers
accountability and gives rise to conflicts and rumours. These all-negative aspects create an
environment, which is not suitable for working (Mihelic, 2010).
Every individual work to fulfil their personal goals, which a leader needs to involve an
organization’s goal so that both the goals are achieved in time satisfying all the parties, involved.
This requires a lot of efforts and mental exercise as the focus in on benefitting the employees as
well as organization, but if once these things are sorted they lead to efficient and effective
approach of working. Another quality required is confidence. One needs to be confident enough
in their speech and commands so that the team members can get this thing in their head that they
have to complete your orders and there is no other option. Some level of swagger and
assertiveness is required to be in the personality of a leader. It influences employees, as they
understand that not being confident will not let them prove their abilities. Confidence is helpful
for leader as at times critical situation arises when things seem nearly impossible, being
confident help in pushing back all the negative thoughts and keep on doing the right thing which
is required to survive in the given situation (Lee, 2014).
I practically understood by one such event happened to in my school. This was by my
teacher who used to look very strict and we used to stay away from her but during an
assignment, we got her as our team leader and whatever she spoke was so capturing that it made
us work with all enthusiasm and zeal. She definitely acknowledged our concerns and form the

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pairs such way they we were able to cooperate with each other and work collectively towards
common objectives. She was honest enough to tell us our weaknesses and gave solution to
overcome them. The expectations of the project were made clear. Such open door policy led us
respond to her appropriately. If the leader lacks in this, employee often tries to let go whatever
the leader said in one ear and out of the other.
A leader being reflective should inculcate rational decision-making abilities. He must
know when is the right time to take right decision as these decisions affect masses. The key to
effective decision making is keeping the key responsibilities and delegating others. It works two
ways. Former, the leader diminishes his burden and can focus completely on key areas, which
need his special attention. Latter, delegating some of the responsibilities, empowers the followers
and they feel trusted which boost their morale. This activity acts as a motivator for team
members (Tschannen-Moran, 2014)
However, it should not be misunderstood that delegating responsibilities means
delegating accountability as well. Accountability of task done lies with the leader himself.
Although taking key decisions himself should not make him dictator, he may consult from his
team members which are fair enough opportunity for all those having creative ideas which would
make the efforts of everyone worth more.
While delegating some of his responsibilities, a leader must ensure solving queries of the
people working under him (Thompson, 2012). If he fails to understand their problems, conflict
arises which creates lack of interest in followers to work. Empathy towards co-workers is
important unless the leader feels their pain, he will lack in being an effective leader. However
proper supervision while delegating responsibilities enhances employee empowerment and

REFLECTIVE LEADERSHIP 10
fosters his growth.it should being by transferring complete tasks, instead parts should be given so
that the employee is not burdened and can effectively accomplish the work.
This reminds of an incident happened to me in school, when I was the captain of cricket
team and one of my friend beaten up a member of our team. I thought of protecting my friend
and lied to the teacher concern that I feel regretted about. My mother explained this to me that
being the captain as in the leader of my team I should perform my duty with honesty elsewise it
will lead to distrust among the team-giving rise to conflicts.
Conclusion
From the points stated above, this could be concluded that reflective leadership is
important to put an individual infield and let him use his knowledge in real life. This makes them
more prone to better leaders and rational human beings. As far as effective leadership is
concerned a leader should possess feeling of empathy for his followers and provide them with
suitable guidelines and solution to work steadily towards achievement of common goal.
Integrating individual interest into common objective is smart move which every leader should
know how and when to play. Reflective leadership, whenever experienced in life, will give rise
to innovative thinking as an individual gets to handle various situations, which broaden up his
mindset, he learns from his past mistakes and finds a different perspective to think. It enables
him to visualize future with brighter hopes, more confidence and finally leading to a better
leader.

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