Leadership and Management: A Reflective Essay on Lake District Visit

This essay is a self-reflection on leadership and management principles learned during a visit to the Lake District. The author recounts experiences, including a task at a candy shop, to illustrate concepts such as communication, time management, and strategic business planning. The reflection emphasizes the importance of effective leadership in motivating teams, implementing innovative strategies, and fostering a positive work environment. The author also explores the application of contingency theory and the significance of situational leadership skills in handling diverse business situations, highlighting the value of trust and effective communication in achieving business goals. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of strategic business planning and adapting business strategies based on knowledge and skills.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Leadership and Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
In the context of business leadership has been regarded as a significant function of the
management system that helps in maximizing the efficiency and tends to achieve
organization’s goals and objectives. Apart from that, strong leaders motivate and encourage
other team members for achieving their goals (Bolden 2016). According to the World Health
Organization, a good leader in a management system will have a proper vision what needs to
be achieved and accordingly communicate the same with other employees in order to achieve
the shared vision. Management and leadership are equally important as in order to have a
good management system, it is necessary to have an effective leader (Shin et al. 2015).
In order to have good management system, there needs to be transparency between
employees and the managers as this would increase growth and productivity of the
organization. Though it has been stated that management and leadership should go hand-in-
hand, but in actual concept both differs in concept. Strong leadership is all about innovation
and vision and on the other hand management deals with the maintenance of the standards
(Rosemann and Brocke 2015). A leader helps in creating innovative strategies whereas; a
manager administers and focuses in the innovation. The essay is a self reflection of what I
have learnt about leadership and management and would dealt with what I learnt by visiting
the lake district also known as the lake land.
Discussion
In order to learn about “leadership and management” I along with my fellow mates
visited the Lake District which is also known as the lake land. Though most of my classmates
were excited regarding the tour, but the tour left me in apprehensions. The tour was planned
for us to learn things verifiably, so that we could acquire vast knowledge regarding

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management and effective leadership. While on a tour, I would not like to miss any kind of
fun and amusements, as that mean more than time-table but at the same time I would also like
to focus on my self-reflection. Though I always feel good going on individual tour but going
with friends have given me many memories, more trip with friends are far more entertaining
than trip with families. Our team leader was very good and had given us lot more freedom
than we have expected and beside that guided us very well. Most importantly our guide was a
perfect example of an effective leader as he helped us to learn how to become an effective
leader. The trip was an amazing experience as I got to connect with new people and culture
and thus it helped me to open up with many dangerous experiences. Apart from this,
throughout the whole tour I got to learn many exciting activities and many new tasks, and I
was very enthusiast in participating in all the activities that were introduced by our guide.
Furthermore, this trip helped me to get submerged altogether with a different culture that
helped me to collaborate with new things and surroundings all around. The newly discovered
things, surroundings and culture helped us in changing our perception and identity and also
helped in the reinforcement of bonds with our fellow classmates. One of the most interesting
activities that I had learnt from the tour is known as “worth of 2 pounds.” By participating
in the worth of pounds, the activity helped me in bringing me closer to professional career
and also to my heart. The worth of pounds is totally a different task altogether, as in most of
the task I was always grouped up with one or more than that people. Whereas, in this
particular task, it was an individual task and I performed all alone in the task and it was
successful. In the particular task, my guide suggested me that I need to work in a candy shop
worth for 2 pounds. Though our guide suggested me what I need to do, but the whole task
was performed individually by me and it was really an amazing experience. While
performing the task, the owner of the candy shop had given me lot of information and advice
regarding how to perform the business and has also shared with me the different mindset of

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the business minded people. Apart from this, the candy shop owner also shared his personal
experiences regarding the business like how he faced difficulties at the starting of his
business career and how he was able to cope up with such difficulties. The most important
thing I learnt throughout this task is that the requirement of the right and appropriate skills
and knowledge for operating any particular business.
Apart from that, from the above mentioned activity, I got to learn that many new
things regarding proper and effective ways of managing things and how effective
management helps business in increasing their revenue and growth. Apart from gaining
knowledge about the proper market place for executing any types of business, I also learnt
about managing business. For instance, I got to learn that when operating any particular
business without the help of anybody; in that case everything from serving clients to
managing everything should be done by the owner of the shop. In that case it becomes very
important to handle and manages things effectively or else it would have a negative impact
on the business (Trevino and Nelson 2016). As per the contingency theory, managers takes
the major decisions in regards of the situation, so that the situation could be handle
effectively and according to this theory the leader can take proper discussion based on the
current problem or situation (Fiedler 2015). The owner of the candy shop also used to
implement the contingency theory when he had to handle everything all alone. On the other
hand, in my particular task, I was dealing with client relationship, since according to me
selling is a very common art, and every people in their some point of time sole something or
the other. Most importantly, essential abilities are requited while performing any business and
selling things out to the customers (Luthans and Doh 2018). For instance, major abilities and
skills are required from the starting point of the business to the end stage of the deal. Apart
from that, in order to manage business effectively, it is necessary to have proper
communication skill as communication is regarded as an import aspect of lives (Argenti

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2015). For instance, as I am from India and English is not considered as the primary language
out here, but while communicating with the shopkeeper in the Lake District, the shopkeeper
could communicate only in English. This made me realized that in managing a business
effectively one must know the proper and effective way of communication and prior to that
every business person should acquire this important quality while dealing with customers and
other stakeholders. It is to be noted that the success of any management mainly lies how well
the manager or the business head able to communicate freely with the stakeholders that
would help to achieve the target of the business (Montalvo 2016). Therefore, in order to
implement effective business, it is inevitable to have proper business communication that
would help in gearing up the business procedures. Apart from learning about effective
communication I also learnt another important thing that is Proper Time Management and
while performing the “worth 2 pounds” task I was only allocated a time limit of only 1 hour.
This made me realized that in order to manage business effectively one must know the
importance of proper time management. However, the limited time period makes me
challenging in completing the task in the given time period and I was succeeded in
completing it. However, managing time in business is not a very easy job; it requires proper
management system that would be followed by every employees of the organization (Ackson
2015). The importance of the effective time management is not to complete the job on time,
but it focus on how effectively the job has been performed with the given time. In order to
manage time effectively discipline and punctuality are considered as the most important
aspects (Goleman 2017). Apart from this other factors that helps in managing time effectively
includes avoiding of distractions, so that individuals could give more focus on their work,
prioritising the task through proper planning is also one important factor that helps in time
management.

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In the case of managing time effectively, at the first instance it becomes difficult for
individuals to follow the basic rules. But once the people get accustomed with their work, it
becomes easy for them to follow such rules (Northouse 2018). However, by performing this
activity the most important thing I learnt about is the effective leadership skill that focuses
on how leaders with the implementation of innovative strategy increase the productivity of
their business. One small example I would like to share that helped to understand the
importance of the leadership skill. The candy shop in which I was performing my task has 20
employees that work for the shop; the owner with an effective strategy handles all the
employees effectively. It seemed that all the employees are satisfied and happy with their job
role and everyone was very happy. More importantly, the owner handles everything with a
smile on his face and that encourages other employees to perform their task more
appropriately. In many cases majority of the people view initiatives as work based trademark,
but positioning of proper authority are surrounded by the employees and not with the
workplace. In the modern business world, pioneers like to see themselves in becoming more
pioneers and in the process try to help others as well as themselves for doing the right things.
Furthermore, they tend to form new vision and innovation that would help the business
moving to the higher sides. Accordingly, as per the administration, a pioneer is an
individual who accomplishes the following task that includes motivating the vision, helps in
building the vision and lastly helps in managing group in order to perform their vision. Most
importantly in order to manage things properly different leadership theories also plays an
important role (Day al. 2014). For example in order to handle any type of situation, manager
should have situational leadership skill that would help in better development of the
program (Thompson and Glasø 2015). Accordingly, the pioneer also focuses to lead the
group efficiently, and administers programs as per the situation. Through this task activity I
understood the importance of leadership skill in order to communicate freely with the

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employees and thus good leader skill helps to motivate and encourage other team members in
a team. Apart from this, one of the major thing I observes by performing this task is the
strategic business planning skills and I was impressed by seeing hoe the owner of the candy
shop implements effective and innovative business strategies that helps the business in
targeting more customers. In case of running any particular business, it is important to follow
a business plan that are not same for every business person, but it varies as per the knowledge
and skills (Dinh et al. 2014). In order to handle business related to import and export, every
person should follow a business plan and a proper business strategy helps in having a
successful business. Effective business planning strategy mainly focuses on analysing the
possible risk within the business, solving any critical issues with innovative methods and
handling customers and employees more effectively (Bushnell et al. 2015). Moreover, it is
considered that trust is the most common aspect in business that means in implementing and
business plan within the organization every employee within the team should trust their team
lead or the supervisor that would provide better success to the business.
It is to be noted that in order to have long term goals in business, it is important to
apply thoughts that would help in meeting the end point of the business. Furthermore, profit
and loss of the business mainly depends on the strategies that have been implemented in the
business. In the case of the candy shop where I was performing my task, I observed that the
shop remains busy all throughout the time and the employees who are engaged in the selling
of the products are highly talented and skilled employees. The employees have high
convincing power, because the way they interact and convince customers to buy candies is a
very challenging task, but the employees execute it properly. The main motive of the business
is to provide satisfaction to the customers and the “advertising ideas” help them to fulfil
their goals (Kourdi 2015). The idea was introduced from the book “The Wealth of Nations”
by Adam Smith that focuses on the importance of advertising ideas as it shows how a

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business showcase their products through promotion to attract the taste of new customers
(Smith 2015).
Throughout this challenging and exciting activity I was able to set my career in
business and most importantly it helped me in increasing my strength in certain areas that
includes effective time management, leadership skills and strategic business planning skills,
effective communication skills and more. Before participating in this task, I did not have any
clear ideas as how to communicate with people and how to manage time more effectively
within the given time period. While approaching to the shop owner for job I feel shy at the
beginning but once I start talking, my confidence level gradually increases. But most
importantly it is important to be certain regarding the purpose of the job, as it is a condition to
be sure that the particular selected job is the perfect selection and one should also have self
assurance among themselves (Wheelen et al. 2017). Moreover, at first I thought that it will be
difficult for me to make new friends in abroad, but once the trip started I felt comfortable
with everyone. While participating in the task I visited more than two shops but they turned
down my proposal in a polite way stating that they do not have any vacancies. As I have only
1 hour with me, it was very challenging but at the same time it increased my self-confidence.
At last I completed my task and it also expanded my identity as I moved towards new people
and from the task I was able to overcome four things that includes product-solution,
information about product, placement-assess and product price.
Conclusion
The above self-reflection focused on my personal learning about time management,
leadership kills and more by participating in the task. Though the task was challenging but it
helped me to learn many new things and at the same time increase my strength and
confidence. Moreover, it was an amazing trip as I made many new friends throughout the

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trip. Apart from this, the shop owner of the candy shop taught me the importance of
leadership skill and effective business planning strategy. In order to attract customers, one
must have proper communication skill to convince them to buy the products. Most important
thing I learnt that to have a successful business it is important to satisfy customers by
providing better quality products and services.

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