Leadership: Personal Philosophy, Strategies, and Experiences Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of leadership, exploring the author's personal leadership philosophy, which emphasizes empathy, teamwork, and a democratic approach. It outlines the importance of honesty, trust, and considering team members' interests. The report details the author's preferred democratic leadership style, where employees are empowered and motivated through various strategies, including verbal encouragement and rewards. It highlights the significance of negotiation skills as a key leadership competency, particularly in managing team dynamics and external relationships. The report also provides a leadership experience from college, showcasing the author's ability to coordinate a team for an inter-college fest, manage communication, and ensure the event's success. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the author's leadership journey, skills, and strategies.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

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Introduction
Leadership is one of the most important qualities that an individual must possess in
order to excel in fields where there is a need to manage people and complete work in teams
(Giltinane, 2013). There are various responsibilities that are assigned to the leaders, and
primary of these is to manage the people and work in tandem with the employees to produce
common goals.
It is often said that the leaders are born, that implies that the leaders are born with
leadership qualities and they are naturally having the characteristic traits to be leaders.
Whether or not a person is a born leader, every leader also has to possess many qualities and
acquire qualities by learning the skills of leadership from external sources. Leadership
portfolio is the art of keeping a track in the leadership traits of a person. It is important for the
aspiring leaders to keep a track on their leadership activities and learnings by maintaining
leadership portfolio. In my case I have been always a introvert person. However in my
journey throughout the college while learning the art of leadership I have been able to
transform my characteristics and after years of working on my traits I am now able to lead a
small group of people efficiently.
Leadership Statement or Philosophy
A leader must be having the inherent qualities such as empathy, trust, honesty and
team work mentality. These are some of the characterise traits that must be followed by the
leaders. I have always been a supporter of the leadership style that includes empathy and
team work. Some leaders have the characteristic of showing partiality towards certain
members of the group. This is one of the negative aspects of leadership. I believe in
democratic philosophy of leadership in which the leader works with the team members and
establishes team work as the primary working principle of the whole machinery. It is

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important for leaders to be honest and trustworthy. Apart from that the leader must be trusting
their followers in order to make sure that the environment of trust prevails within the team.
The leadership philosophy also states that the leader will be taking into consideration his or
her followers or group members interest first before his own interest.
The leaders must be working with teams, I believe and the leaders must be behaving
with the team workers equally without showing preference over singular employees. The
leader is the person responsible for the team bond and the prevailing scenario of the team
(Bhatti, et al., 2012). Any breach of trust must be taken care of the leader so that environment
of trust is again established and the employees or the group members can trust each other
again. Team work is very important for creating ideal results by performing the given task
with maximum reliability. There are situations where the team has to perform different
responsibilities at a time to perform a particular task responsibly. Each of the team member in
such situation has to perform certain tasks with high level of accuracy and the leader must
ensure that it happens in that way.
Leadership Style and Strategies
The leadership style that is preferred by me is the democratic type of leadership in
which the maximum control of the task is given in the employees’ hands and the leaders trust
the employees with their competency and quality (Woods, 2004). What the leader does is to
guide the group members or employees, as is the case, to proceed in the work with great
strategy and also the leaders interfere when there is a crisis that needs the leader’s
interference or decision making to be solved.
In democratic style of leadership the election of the leader happens by the group
members and the leaders serves as the person who is taking care of the benefits of the
employees. Here comes the role of motivation. The leaders in their style must be working

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with tactics that must be motivating the employees or group members (Woods, 2004). It is
usually seen that the group members of a particular group after prolonged performance of
their assigned tasks become fatigued or demotivated. It comes upon the leaders to take the
charge in situations like these and motivate the employees as far as possible. The leaders may
use various tactics to motivate the employees. The employees need verbal motivation. This is
the process when the leaders use verbal statements to charge the group members. The verbal
statements can include the past potential of the employees and how they performed in the
past. I personally prefer to enthusiast the employees by offering them with interesting gifts
when they perform well (Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002). This is historically seen to be very useful
in the process of employee motivation. “Frederick Herzberg developed the two-factor theory
of motivation”, these two factors are motivators and hygiene factors. The various motivators
have been identified as “challenging work, recognition for one's achievement, responsibility,
opportunity to do something meaningful, involvement in decision making, and sense of
importance to an organization” and the hygiene factors are “status, job security, salary, fringe
benefits, work conditions, good pay, paid insurance, vacations”. Though the primary
motivating factor according to me is money, however nice job environment, supportive
colleagues and lesser working hours are important factors.
The preferred democratic style of leadership considers the employees opinion as well
as it is a sort of leadership in which the most extreme control of the assignments or jobs are
given in the representatives' hands and the leaders believe the workers with their competency
and quality (Woods, 2004). The job of the leaders in democratic style of leadership is to
manage the individuals or representatives to work in as a team and to continue in the
work with extraordinary procedure, and furthermore the leaders meddle whenever there is
an emergency that needs the leader’s intervention or basic leadership to
be comprehended. The democratic style of leadership the strictly consider the fellow

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employees or the other individuals who are in a leading position. In this regard, it must be
mentioned selection of leadership is an important decision for any company irrespective of its
size.
Thus while selecting leaders, the business head or the owners of the company give
special attention in order to meet the roles and responsibility of his position in accordance
with the objective of the company. In line with discussing the responsibility and role of an
ideal leader, inspiration is major trait that a leader must possess in order to manage his
subordinates (Woods, 2004). The leaders in their style must incorporate strategies that must
inspire the workers to work in group co-operating each other. It is typically observed that the
individuals of a specific team or group after a long execution of their allotted undertakings
end up being exhausted or demotivated. It happens upon the leaders to take the charge in
circumstances to persuade the workers beyond what many would consider possible. The
leaders may utilize different strategy to persuade the workers.
Leadership Competencies
Competencies of a leader are various qualities that a leader possesses. One of the very
basic leadership competencies that I always had is negotiation power. I have been always a
good negotiator even in my day to day life. Therefore the main leadership competency I have
in my present mental state is the characteristic of negotiation. The leaders must be negotiating
with the external factors of the team in order to assert that the team is getting the maximum
benefit out of every activity that they are engaging in. Apart from that the team members are
also competing against each other within the team in order to gain maximum benefits and
achievements (Carmeli, Tishler & Edmondson, 2012). Therefore the leader also has to have a
negotiating authority with the employees or the group members. The traditional convention
of leadership style considers vision, self-confidence and charisma as the essential qualities for
an individual to become an ideal leader. However as per the recent scenario, it has been seen

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that most of the negotiation is one of the most essential qualities that a leader must possess.
Thus in my point of view, leaders must use negotiation skill within the workplace as well as
outside the workplace. For example, one of the greatest in-house issues that most companies
face is the efficient employee leave. In order retain the most effective employees with the
organization; the leaders are bound to negotiate against the demands of the effective
employees so that they do not leave their job. However, it must be mentioned that the leaders
must negotiate provided the fact that interest of business is not hampered while prioritizing
the effective employees’ demands.
While addressing the issue outside of the workplace, it deserves mention that
negotiation skill is more important than its need within the workplace. In cases of finalizing
deals with business partners, suppliers, managing shareholders, leaders need to use their
negotiation skills on behalf of the organization or company. It will be right to state that
leadership skill plays an important role which enhances the skill and traits of an ideal leader
in order. Negotiation is important for the leaders as the entire responsibility remains on them.
Good negotiation skill enables the leaders to manage the whole operation of the business
tactfully while fulfilling everyone’s interest whether in terms of employees or in terms of
business partners (Carmeli, Tishler & Edmondson, 2012). In regard to the negotiation skill,
the successful leaders are observed with a strong persuasive power. Negotiation and
persuasive skill are co related and plays a major role in managing different situations.
Therefore in my view leadership qualities must include the quality of negotiation skill in
order to help a professional to transform into a successful leader.
There are various types of negotiating style that the leader might follow. These are
“Distributive negotiation. Integrative negotiation. Stages in the Negotiation Process.
Integrated negotiation. Bad faith. Employing an advocate. BATNA. Conflict styles” (Delia
Davila Quintana et al., 2014) I personally prefer distributive negotiation which is also the

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style of “hard bargaining negation”. This negotiation is the process in which the assumption
is one parties gain in the negotiation happens at the expense of the other side. I take it very
seriously while negotiating for my team hence I assume that if the other side is the
beneficiary at the negotiating table it is at the expense of my team.
Leadership Experiences
I have had the experience of leadership in my college when there was a programme
that was planned and I was given the charge of the team that was given the responsibility of
arranging the program. The program was a college fest that included performances from
celebrities and students from other colleges. Therefore there was a need to make sure that
everything was coordinated and the team is giving their best in order to ensure that the
external celebrities and guests are all getting the best experience of performance. The inter
college fest was arranged from our college therefore it also had the question of our college’s
reputation. The external college students who comes to perform needs to be given proper
arrangement to rest before their performance starts. Also the celebrities had to be provided
with proper arrangements of green rooms and refreshments. All these responsibilities were
given on our team and I was the leader of the team to care of all these activities. The problem
was coordination among the team members and everyone had to be communicated about the
various responsibilities throughout the event. I ensured that everyone is having a walky so
that they can connect instantly. The whole program list had to be maintained so that
everything was going according to the schedule. The person in charge of the stage had to be
connected with the person who was in charge of the artists. I was endeavouring to be
coordinating all the members. The style of leadership I followed was democratic and the
group members had their independence to make instant changes on field if there was an
urgent necessity. However when the decision included big changes I was supposed to be
consulted.

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Working With and Leading Teams
Team work is one of the most important aspects of leadership. In my point of view an
ideal leader must always inspire its subordinates in order to work in a group or team. The
reason behind this is to encourage them in cooperating each other. Most of the successful
leaders help consider that competition within the team members can bring adverse effect for
the productivity of the group or team while affecting the whole business on a larger picture.
Thus co-operating each other the teams or groups must aim to give tough competitions to
other teams. Group working is way more better than individual working in my point of view
as the efficient members help weak member to overcome the challenges or issues that they
face (Fitton, 2018). On the other hand, when an employee works in solely, he or she gets less
opportunity in order to fetch help from the others. It happens upon the leaders to take the
charge in circumstances to persuade the workers beyond what many would consider possible.
The leaders may utilize different strategy to persuade the workers. The representatives
require verbal inspiration. This is the procedure when the leaders utilize verbal articulations
to charge the gathering individuals. Group works also help in maintaining the workplace
environment better as individuals remain in close contact with each other. Therefore working
unitedly or in group must be encouraged by the leaders. The leaders’ primary objective of
leading a team will be orienting its subordinates to meet the objective of the business.
I consider that the team has to work unitedly towards a common goal so that the end
result comes out as desired by all the members. I have been associated in leading a team, as
already mentioned, in the program at our college where my team was responsible for
scheduling the program, arranging all the facilities for the celebrities who would perform and
students from other colleges. The team I was leading was responsible for security and
coordination among all the departments. The experience I personally had in this regard was
wonderful as working in team is something which I really relish. I have been engaging in

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democratic leadership and therefore I did never autocratically impress my decisions on the
various team members who were working with me. Therefore I got cooperation from most of
my team mates. They were all performing to the best of their abilities and the ultimate
outcome was finally a successful program.
Working with team requires various abilities such as patience, elasticity, flexibility
and credibility (Fitton, 2018). The team members most of the time depend on the team leader
for showing proper guidance. When there are situations which are unclear the team requires
proper guidance and leadership from the leader. There were also challenges that came. There
were crisis situations when one of the celebrities who were supposed to arrive was late in
arriving, I arranged for a team member who plays the guitar well to play for the audience
while the celebrity arrived. Therefore the team faced challenges and the team members
unitedly solved the crisis.
Leadership Development
The Big 5 personality test that identified my personality test and the kind of
leadership I can provide states that I am an empathic idealist and I help others by using my
own intelligence and creativity (See appendices) (Goleman, 2017). This is one of the
leadership skills I have been using to help my team members. Along with that I am also a
practical caretaker which denotes that I have the ability to help people in everyday practical
ways. I am 58% in agreeableness. “Agreeableness describes a person’s tendency to put
others’ needs ahead of their own, and to cooperate rather than compete with others. People
who are high in Agreeableness experience a great deal of empathy and tend to get pleasure
out of serving and taking care of others. They are usually trusting and forgiving.”

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The leadership assessment tool was also used to analyse the character of myself. I had
scored the most in responsibility scale and also in the transformational scale (See Appendix
2). Therefore it is evident that I as a person is very responsible in my endeavours and I can
always transform the team or people under me to perform better. The other categories in
which I have to improve are Organisation, Assertiveness and Resourcefulness
Summary Reflection
The understanding of my leadership has changed over time. I have been a very
introvert person with very less ability to engage in social discussions in the role of a leader.
However I am able to change myself and now I can give leadership to small team and handle
responsibilities. The even that I arranged in the college helped me to overcome my previous
problem of being an introvert. I have successfully arranged the program and my team
performed well in successfully ending it.
I have learnt various aspects of leadership throughout the course of my study. I have
learnt theoretical aspects of leadership in my study. I have understood what are the various
aspects and styles of leadership and how these can be utilised in order to ensure that the team
performs well. My career will get a positive boost because of the change in my attitude of
leadership. It is very important for career pursuers to be leaders and socially engaging.

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Reference and Bibliography:
Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G. M., Shaikh, N., Hashmi, M. A., & Shaikh, F. M. (2012). The impact of
autocratic and democratic leadership style on job satisfaction. International Business
Research, 5(2), 192.
Carmeli, A., Tishler, A., & Edmondson, A. C. (2012). CEO relational leadership and strategic
decision quality in top management teams: The role of team trust and learning from
failure. Strategic Organization, 10(1), 31-54.
Delia Davila Quintana, C., Mora Ruiz, J. G., & E. Vila, L. (2014). Competencies which shape
leadership. International Journal of Manpower, 35(4), 514-535.Eagly, A. H.,
&Johannesen‐Schmidt, M. C. (2001). The leadership styles of women and
men. Journal of social issues, 57(4), 781-797.
Fitton, R. A. (2018). Leadership: quotations from the world's greatest motivators. Routledge.
Foels, R., Driskell, J. E., Mullen, B., & Salas, E. (2000). The effects of democratic leadership
on group member satisfaction: An integration. Small Group Research, 31(6), 676-701.
Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard (through
2013), 27(41), 35.
Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics).
Harvard Business Press.
Sendjaya, S., &Sarros, J. C. (2002). Servant leadership: Its origin, development, and
application in organizations. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 9(2),
57-64.

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Woods, P. A. (2004). Democratic leadership: drawing distinctions with distributed
leadership. International journal of leadership in education, 7(1), 3-26.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Big 5 personality test
Appendix 2: