Self Analysis: Aha Moments and Leadership Development

This report discusses three aha moments that changed the course of action and leadership development. It explores incidents, patterns, and recommendations for future development as a leader.

Running head: SELF ANALYSIS
SELF ANALYSIS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1SELF ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
The selection..............................................................................................................................2
The incident:...............................................................................................................................3
The pattern:................................................................................................................................6
Plan for improved leadership:....................................................................................................9
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11

2SELF ANALYSIS
Introduction
The aim of his report is to discuss three aha moments which had changed the course
of action of both myself as well as the business organizations for which I made decisions. All
the aha moments have some unique factors each supported by the unique ideas and method.
In this business world most of the successful leaders have felt this moment of discovery in
their span of actions. It is the moment when all the criticality of the problems get cleared and
a simple idea demolish the risk and threat of uncertainty. This report will be discussing three
aha moments and the incidents in detail, find out the pattern and recommend three plans for
future development as a leader.
The selection
I would be sharing 3 most important moments of my life which had changed my point
of view and help me to solve a very critical situation effectively.
The first aha moment was related to the mitigation of employee problems in a Resort
situated in the aboriginal region of Australia where the local employees could not match with
the culture of the company. I properly utilised the local the local human resource and solved
the employee grievances leading to the closure of the resort.
My second aha moment was the idea of changing the shift timing of the workers in a
retail company where the managers were not being able to utilise the time and human
resource properly. I brought changes in the working hours of the employees in such a way
that supported the entire organisational process.
My third aha moment was related to the selling of a product in a toothpaste company.
The sells of the product was gradually deteriorating and despite introducing product varieties

3SELF ANALYSIS
the company was not being able to increase the sales. I only changed the packaging system of
the core product that enhanced the product sales doubled within 6 months.
The incident:
As mentioned before my first movement took place in a resort situated in the
aboriginal island of Australia. I was employed as the human resource manager and took the
responsibility to mitigate issues between the expatriate employees and the local workers in
the resort. The main issue was that the organisation did not have a strong management
structure where the employees will be e placed according to their responsibilities. In addition
to this the authorities from headquarter which is situated in the proper city of Sydney, visited
less to the island Resort which demotivated the employees both local as well as expatriates. in
that particular Resort most of the employees where local aboriginals who did not have proper
training about the modern hospitality process but the organisation was not being able to
remove them as the regulation bound it in the form of corporate social responsibility.
However most of the expatriate .s could not understand what they must do to serve the guests
because they had to carry on the responsibilities in front office as well as in back office.
There was a situation of grievance among the expatriate employees and they wear leaving the
resort one by one stuck in this moment I had to change the situation by bringing back the
dependency of the expatriate employees in one hand and properly utilise the local staffs so
the organisation gets what it is paying for.
Firstly I communicated with the expected employees after my joining the organisation
understood the actual points and grievances. I started to think that the local employees have
different kinds of culture values and beliefs therefore they cannot serve the guests in the way
the expatriates would do. It was my aha moment when I discovered that I would use the local
employees for interacting with the guests only in in the water sports and Outer activities and

4SELF ANALYSIS
use the expatriate trained staffs in the in door services. According to my plan I started 2 to
arrange two types of training one for expatriates and other for the local employees. The
expatriates where being asked to learn some of the cultural facts that can help them to interact
with the local employees like language and history of the island. On the other hand I arrange
training for the local employees so that they can use a common language while interacting
with the guests. they have the most important knowledge of water and land of that particular
place therefore they were given the responsibility of guiding guests for trip both in land as
well as water. I got the result within a year as the resort had performed greatly in the peak
season by eliminating all the issues between the staffs.
The second incident took place when I joined in a small retail company. The company
did not have much capital and operative in a small region. as a human resource manager I
found that the organisational structure of the company is not very clear because the
responsibility of the employees are not well understood the company did not have particular
staff for doing jobs according to their own personal speciality . For example in that company
I found the marketing manager to play the role of cashier. Similarly in spite of being a human
resource manager, I had to check the production and some projects. For many months I have
been going through problems where the employees claimed for incentives for their overtime.
In that case I had to visit the higher authority and ask for increasing wages to the workers.
However I know that it will go ashes and no support had been given to the human resource.
In that case I had to find an idea so that I can mitigate the employee grievances that is
hampering the production of the organisation. In addition to this the main problem emerged
when I understood that there are unethical practices done by the suppliers of the company. the
suppliers are responsible to handover the resources and other materials within the office hour
but they were taking chance of employee grievances and choosing such a time to supply
when most of the employees have already left for home. In this way they started to fraud the

5SELF ANALYSIS
quantity and quality of the supplies. This led to affect the relation of the company with the
stakeholders as well as the employees because the management started to think that the
employees were connected with search unethical behaviour. As the human resource manager
I had to make decision to solve this problem as early as possible other than this will be
ruining the reputation of the company in the market. It was my aha moment when I realised
that I can solve the issue of employee shortage if I divide the employee groups for shifting
job hours. In the morning shift the employees will be joining their workplace within 9 a.m.
and leave by 5 p.m. where are the night shift employees will start from 5 pm to 12 am. This
will solve the problem of over work of the employees in one hand and solve the issue of
supplier fraud. Therefore even if the suppliers shoes the night time to deliver the materials
they will get the employees responsibly handling those materials. The employees were
satisfied because they could work for 8 hours as demanded and do not need to remain in
office for over work. This allowed me to solve the issue for which I got huge recognition and
reward from the higher authority.
The third incident took place when I was posted in a toothpaste company as a sales
manager. It was a reputed band having a long period of serving the customers. Due to some
orthodox strategies the organisation could not cope up with the changing nature of business in
the industry. At one point of time this company was the only brand preferred by buy the
customers as well as the dentists but with the change of time and demand of the customers
new companies have emerged offering different types of toothpaste to attract the customers
of new generation. Despite the fact that my company had a huge base of loyal customers, it
lost its ground in the competition because of lack of innovation in the products. By the time
the company understood this problem the new competitors have already grab the attention of
the customers and the sales of the toothpaste offered by this company was fast reducing. I
was the sales manager of this critical time for the company and I had to solve the issue as

6SELF ANALYSIS
early as possible other as the company may face a huge problem in near future. I met other
managers and conducted a survey for the preference of brands among the market. This
enabled the production manager to understand incorporation of new flavours replacing the
same product for or years after years. The product variation process only increased a few
percent of sales because these flavours were very common in the market as other competitors
have already launched this type of products. It was my aha moment when I realised that I
need to change the packaging system of the core products so that whenever a customer
presses the tube he will get a lot of paste. This will enhance the consumption of toothpaste
which will inevitably enhance the sales of the company. This innovative idea led me to
achieve a huge recognition and award which made me popular in the company along with
other competitor companies.
The pattern:
From the incidents and decision making process of mine clearly shows the pattern that
I prefer to find out innovative ways to solve a problem. It is one of the most important factors
that every leadership needs to have. While solving problem the critically of the situation and
barriers must not get full importance from the decision maker because this I feel does not
allow the leader to make successful decision. It is my realization that there is always a
solution to a problem there we just need to think in a proper way. This enables the leaders to
overcome their personal and professional confusions regarding capability. In every cases I
have used my simple yet innovative ideas which makes me think positively and give me
insight to discover the easiest and most ethical ways to solve problems. According to my
leadership traits I think I am a transformational leader where I make decisions for the welfare
of my subordinates and allow them to get proper information and skills to realise the pattern
or trend of issues the share a common goal. I am a responsible person therefore in every
company wherever I used to work I have given my best to the future growth of the company.

7SELF ANALYSIS
The responsible leadership process has enabled me to see a positive side of any
situation and find possible ways to mitigate threats. As mentioned before I have practiced
transformational leadership trait in every situation where I kept on motivating the employees
on the basis of their demand. In the first place I have managed to create a strong and
dependable human resource in the resort where the local employees as well as the expatriates
solved their communication and understanding problems and started to work together. In the
process of bringing changes of the shifting time in the second case, I took the side of my
subordinates so that I can create a win win situation for the employees as well as the
company.
By the changes in the shift timing, the management of the suppliers has also become
easy. I have gone through different readings about leadership and found out the features of
the most exceptional leaders of the world both in the field of business as well as other fields
like politics and religion. I have also gone through the life events of different business leaders
and innovators who had their personal Aha Moments that changed the course of their lives as
well as of the others associated with them. From these readings I have gained insight that
leaders must be the representation of honesty, simplicity and psychological strength (Glauser
and Holland 2016). The decision making process which helps to overcome different problems
in the business, decide whether the leadership will be sustained or not (Golley et al. 2018).
This is the reason why I have learnt different leadership theories that feature the traits of the
leaders and detail how the leaders of the global business respond to a situation as well as how
they must work for gaining success. The theories like participative, behavioural and
situational theories, path goal theory, contingency and transactional, transformational theories
of leadership have made me understand the positive as well as negative aspects of leaders and
how they can transform their negative aspects to positive (Nichols 2016). From these
readings I have gained knowledge that how I must develop myself as successful leader.

8SELF ANALYSIS
I have learnt from every experience of my life and all of these moments were at
different points in my career, have helped me to develop my leadership skills. Each day I
learn from my mistakes but I learn from them and try never to repeat these mistakes ever.
This creates a sharp contrast between my subordinates and myself. Despite the fact that the
power distribution as well as responsibility towards the company create difference among the
leaders and employees but I have always tried to minimise the gap so that I can understand
the actual problems from the grass root level. It is true that I have not reached this position in
one day (Northouse 2017). I have undergone different issues and barriers for personal growth
as a leader but I have learnt from all those issues and analysed the risks from different
perspectives. Proper understanding of the issues can only make me competent to grow as a
leader. It is also true that I have not gained complete understanding of the power possessed as
a leader. I need to gain more knowledge about the cross cultural Business if I want to work
with a global company having different national culture manipulating the organizational
culture. Therefore I have to gain more knowledge about the most important contributing
features of the business so that I can make myself competent leader supporting the interest of
the stakeholders as well as the company for sustainable growth.
It is true that different incidents which I have shared through aha moments have not
occurred in same time or same place but from all this incidence I have learnt a common
factor that innovative ideas are essential for thriving as successful leader. There might have
been other solutions also but as I have gained knowledge with time and situation I have made
decisions according to those available resources and understanding of situation. If all those
incidents two place at the same point of time I would not have made decision so promptly on
the basis of proper analysis of the conditions.

9SELF ANALYSIS
Plan for improved leadership:
It is one important fact that if I want to become a successful leader in near future I
need to understand the concepts and most important drivers of business in 21st century. The
traits and behaviour of the leaders of this modern age is completely different from that of the
traditional leaders. Therefore, I need to improve some of my skills to become more
competent in this era of competition. This is the reason why I need to be working in such
projects that can place me outside my comfort zones and point out what I like. Through this
process I will be forced to confront complexities of the modern world. Along with
communication skills ability to analyse and moral judgement I need to work on three
different aspects to overcome the barriers I may face.
First of all I need to enhance cross cultural management capabilities. Hence I need
to expand Horizons which will include working in different business operating in different
industries. This will enable me to see one particular situation from different perspective
(Antonakis and Day 2017). These external entities like government panel or industry group in
a new country or continent can expose me to a new environment which are different from one
another. Through this process I will be learning the methods of connecting, understanding
and mobilizing people towards a single goal.
Secondly I need to overcome my fear of taking risk and pressure. For eliminating
this factor I need to understand the key strategic needs and requirements so that I understand
the responsibilities of a leader more accurately (DuBois et al. 2015). It is not the fact that I
will learn this within expected time but my experiences of dealing different customers and
employees will help me to understand strategic needs and responsibility of the leaders. A
younger leader like me is more capable to take pressure. Therefore I have to put importance
on analysing any situation in Depth and in make judgement.

10SELF ANALYSIS
Finally I need to take criticism positively about myself. This is one of the most
important factors of being a good leader as all the successful leaders develop themselves from
criticism. This will be done on the basis of employee feedback and various types of
leadership tests. I am planning to undergo some of these leadership tests so that I can
effectively find out the strengths and weaknesses of myself. On the basis of feedback and test
results I can overcome my internal problems which will reduce criticism gradually.
Conclusion:
Therefore it can be concluded that aha movements not only celebrates the moment of
discovering the solution but also the learning process from the previous mistakes. It is the
exposure of capabilities of the leaders that encourage them to make effective decisions for
solving problems. The more successful ideas are given the more reputation of the firm will be
gained. Moreover, there is no way of stopping in the path of improvement. Hence striving for
the best is essential for the leaders.

11SELF ANALYSIS
References:
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
DuBois, M., Koch, J., Hanlon, J., Nyatuga, B. and Kerr, N., 2015. Leadership Styles of
Effective Project Managers: Techniques and Traits to Lead High Performance
Teams. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 7(1).
Glauser, M. and Holland, D., 2016. The Leadership Traits Shared by Successful
Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur & Innovation Exchange.
Golley, C., Quezada, A., Myers, R. and Smith, W., 2018. The Effect of Leadership Traits and
Training on the Effectiveness of a Team.
Nichols, A.L., 2016. What do people desire in their leaders? The effect of leadership
experience on desired leadership traits. Leadership & Organization Development
Journal, 37(5), pp.658-671.
Northouse, P.G., 2017. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications.