Reflective Journal: Leadership Experiences, Theories, and Analysis

This reflective writing assignment explores the student's personal leadership experiences, analyzing them through the lens of various leadership theories. The paper begins with an introduction outlining the scope and purpose of the reflection, followed by a detailed discussion and analysis of two distinct leadership situations. The first situation involves the student's experience with a community outreach ministry, highlighting the positive impact of investing in human capital and applying transformational, behavioral, and path-goal theories. The second situation contrasts this with a worship team experience, where a power-based leadership approach led to negative outcomes, analyzed through the management grid. The paper then provides a personal reflection on each situation, drawing contrasts between servant and power leadership styles. Finally, the paper concludes by summarizing the key insights, emphasizing the importance of human capital investment and the effectiveness of servant leadership over power-based approaches. References to supporting theories are also included.

Reflective Writing

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Reflective discussion & Analysis....................................................................................................2
Personal experience.........................................................................................................................3
Application of theory.......................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
In this present paper, we will discuss the reflective writing of managing and developing people
that I have experienced, and the analysis of experience is done based on the leadership theories
such as contingent theory and management theory. Then on the basis of the analysis, the
conclusion has been made.
Managing and developing the people is basically known as the leadership which is defined as the
process of influencing the employees in the organization towards the achievement of
organizational goals within the particular time period. The employees are influenced by the
leadership which helps to motivate them to achieve the mission and vision of an organization.
The leader plays an important role in achieving the goals and objectives of the company by
motivating and managing the human resource in most efficient and effective manner.
Reflective discussion & Analysis
In the high school, my friend John started a community outreach ministry in which he put me in
charge of the ministry to the homeless in downtown Toronto. My responsibilities include
organizing and managing the people who run the sandwiches and my friend in charge of the
youth conference which was held in the school at the end of the session. On that stage of my
leadership career, I was very obedient in completing the task on time and done my duties on time
and sometimes done what was not asked for me. I created the team which was doing care
packages and bought the material. I organize the session of debriefing, led the running of
sandwiches and provide the basic guidelines in converting them near to the god. The ministry
was successful at various levels through managing the community in a most efficient and

effective manner. We had more than hundreds of participants in monthly programs then we
handed out care packages in thousand numbers and we are also had the opportunity to share the
gospel with the people.
The approach of john was different from mine in terms of leadership because he emphasize on
developing the relationships. The organizing of youth conference is on top for John, so he
invested huge amount on me and motivated me as well in developing as a leader. As the result of
his investment, the success of john was doubled as the result of the conference has come up that
many students' starts coming to Christ and the positive influence of john on me has improved the
quality of my ministry. The quality of leadership of John has long lasting impacted in me and the
events such as sandwich runs, and the conference had become a momentary event for me, but I
still thank him for being an influential people in the development of leadership.
It can be analyzed that the investment in human resource is very necessary which helps to
achieve the organizational goals and objectives within the particular period of time because the
managing of people is done by me who enables to succeed the community by John. The role of
John is very influential which supports me to develop me as a leader due to which I was able to
perform my roles and responsibilities in a most efficient and effective manner.
My second epiphany is related to the leadership occurred when I was reflecting on the ministry
of music at my church. In the year 2014, a worship team was formed by the group of youth with
a mature youth counsellor as the overseer of primary work. He was a very powerful leader who
controls all the power by his own. He tells about the vision of the song to the youth and disallows
to develop the freedom. He was very obsessed with the excellence of music and very practical in
his methods. He abuses the teens and explains them by justifying the improvement in the music.

He explains the power leader in an appropriate manner by valuing the conformity,
standardization, productivity, centralization and pragmatism. Due to which the teens get
exhausted and start complaining regarding the quitting of the team and burnt out.
Personal experience
Situation: 1
When I reflect on my time with John, then I realize the importance of investing in human capital
than investing in the company. According to the Rinehart, he stressed on the leadership
relationship with one another. The leader is required in order to encourage the team members and
acts as a builder to support the team. The John has had all the qualities which result that I was
transformed. I detect the transient of impact and the long-lasting influence of John on my life. I
personally felt that by investing in me as a leader the John can easily answer yes to the question,
"Does the lord have followers which results of the leader's influence?
Situation: 2
I contrast the issue with the worship team which I led over the same time period. I was always
open to the feedback from the team members and suggestion from them which enables to reach
the music as a cumulative effort. I trust on each and every member of the organization which
enables to motivate them to work in an effective manner. I have determined the contrast between
the servant and power leadership. It shows that the freedom is required in order to support and
motivate the team members. The youth suffered from the behaviour of the powerful leader which
discourages the team members.

According to the Peter Drucker, the objective must be set then the actual performance of the
team members should be compared with the actual performance which helps to develop the
people in an effective manner (Drucker et al., 2014).
Application of theory
Situation: 1
According to the transformational theory of leadership, the good relationship between the leader
and follower acts as a motivator which helps to achieve the organizational mission and vision
within the particular time period (Avolio et al., 2013). The transformational theory states that the
solid relationship acts a motivator for followers. Similarly in my case the John relationship of
John with motivates me to become an appropriate leader by doing my roles and responsibilities
in a most effective manner which includes managing and developing the people.
According to the behavioural theory, the leaders are divided into two types, namely, those who
concerned with the people and those who concerned with the tasks (Northouse et al., 2015). In
my situation, John is concerned with the people who are determined from the investment in
human capital.
The path-goal theory is applied in my situation as the effective leadership enables to achieve the
success of community (Cross et al., 2014). I was acted as a leader who helps to organize the
activities in a most efficient and effective manner.
Situation: 2

According to the management grid the powerful leader in the second scenario is more concerned
about the production rather than focusing on the needs of the employees (Navin et al., 2014). It
leads to the high level of dissatisfaction by the employees which results into burnt out and
exhaustion by the employees as demonstrated in the second situation. It also impacts on the
performance of the company because of less motivated employee’s impacts on the sales turnover
of the company within the particular time period.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that in the first situation John motivates me to
become a good leader and it enables the John to achieve the community organized by John. John
also acts as a builder which supports me to perform my roles and responsibilities in an effective
manner. It can be concluded that the investment in human resource is very necessary which helps
to achieve the organizational goals within the particular time period. From the analysis of the
second situation, it can be concluded that the servant leadership is better than the power
leadership because the power leadership discourage the team members and restrict their freedom
which leads to burnt firstly and exhaustion. The transformational theory, path-goal theory and
behavioural theory is applied to my experience as the leader with the John which is successful
completed. The management grid is applied to the powerful leader who leads to burnt out the
teens and demotivates them by improper communication of vision and restriction of freedom.

References
Cross, V. (2014). The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership in Companies. Small Business.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2013). Transformational and charismatic leadership:
The road ahead. Emerald Group Publishing.
Navin, A. H., Navimipour, N. J., Rahmani, A. M., & Hosseinzadeh, M. (2014). Expert grid: new
type of grid to manage the human resources and study the effectiveness of its task scheduler.
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 39(8), 6175-6188.
Drucker, P. F. (2014). The Executive in Action: Three Drucker Management Books on What to
Do and Why and How to Do It. Harper Collins.