Leadership Essay: Exploring Leadership Development Journey

This essay delves into the multifaceted role of leaders, tracing the evolution of leadership concepts from the initial understanding of motivation to the nuanced application of various leadership theories. The essay explores key theories such as trait theory, behavioral theories, contingency theory, and power and influence theories, providing insights into how leaders can effectively influence and guide their teams. It emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct, the creation of a positive organizational culture, and the impact of national culture dimensions on leadership styles. The essay highlights the practical application of leadership principles in personal and professional contexts, drawing on class readings, discussions, and observations. It concludes by discussing leadership development opportunities and how they can improve leadership skills throughout a working life, including the importance of communication, delegation, and continuous learning. The essay underscores the benefits of leadership in achieving common goals, improving organizational environments, and enhancing individual and team performance.

RUNNING HEAD: Leadership 0
Leadership

Leadership 1
This essay helps to understand role of leaders. The essay discusses the role of leader
advanced from week one to week nine. The essay elaborates how leadership is beneficial. It
defines the upcoming work as a leader and further steps of leadership required developing.
The essay also discusses the role of class readings, activities, discussions and observations
can help to understand and apply leader concept to personal life and work. Finally the essay
critically discusses the access to leadership development opportunities in the future and it can
improve the leadership skills throughout the working life.
Initially in the week one of X year, I used to think that leadership just motivates people to act
towards achieving common goal. In the second and third week, I realised that leadership is
not all about motivating but it convinces people to follow. A leader fills confidence in people
and makes them to take action. There are various key theories which are possessed by leaders
such as trait theory, behavioural theories, contingency theories and power and influence
theories. The trait theory claims that effective leaders possess various traits of common
personality (Banks, McCauley, Gardner & Guler, 2016). According to this theory leadership
is a distinctive and inherent quality that a person can have and cannot have. The leadership
qualities can be developed within our self and others. This theory is supportive in detecting
traits and qualities like integrity, compassion, decisiveness, decision making skills and
geniality. However any of these traits do not assure success as a leader. The traits are external
actions which develop from the on-going things. The behavioural theory concentrates on the
behaviour of leaders. The leaders argue what is needed to be done and expect cooperation.
According to behaviour there can be three types of behavioural theories. The autocratic
leaders make decisions without any discussion with their teams. This style is suitable when
the decisions are required to make fast and the team settlement is not essential for the
successful outcomes. The democratic leaders provide input to team before making a decision.
It is to be observed that the degree of input can differ. This kind of leadership is problematic
to accomplish when there are various outlooks and ideas. The laissez-faire leaders do not
hamper and allows team members to involve in decision process. It is suitable when the team
is highly proficient, motivated and do not require close supervision. This theory argues that
behaviour affects performance of employees (Breevaart, Bakker, Demerouti & Derks, 2016).
These three leadership behaviours are applicable but at different time. A leader is best when
he can practice various behavioural styles and can choose the best one for every situation.
The third theory is contingency theory. According to this theory the best leadership style
depends on the circumstances. This theory predicts which style is best in which circumstance.

Leadership 2
For instance, at the time of making quick decisions, the support of team is an effective way to
deal. The fourth theory is power and influence theories (Dinh, Lord, Gardner, Meuser, Liden
& Hu, 2014). It is a completely different approach. It depends on the different ways that a
leader can use power and effect to get things done. It highlights three positional powers such
as legitimate, reward and forcible. This model suggests that expert power should be worked
on then the referent power. The personal power is a better alternative and work should be
done ion building expert power. The transaction leadership uses power and influence. This
approach argues that people do work to earn rewards and for no other reason. The leaders use
this strategy on daily basis to get things done (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee,
2014).
In the 4-6 week of A year I learnt that leaders are either born or nurtured. The great man
theory and trait theories believe that people inherent assured qualities and traits which makes
them better suit to leadership. It should also be noticed that leaders do not enter the world
with astonishing talent. People enter in the world with equal capabilities and talents. There
are certain inherited qualities which influence people to become leaders. There is substantial
variance between learning skills and inheriting skills. While the behavioural theory believes
that people can become leaders by learning, teaching and observation. The leadership is a set
of skills that can be attained by training, practice, observation and being experienced over
time. It is a not onetime but lifetime learning activity. The leaders search out the development
opportunities which help them to acquire new skills. The leadership can be learnt by
everyone. Whether leaders are born or nurtured both require learning leadership skills
(Furtner, Rauthmann & Sachse, 2015). There can be small percentage of leaders who are
born with individual traits whereas leadership can also be learnt by committed individuals.
The experience of cause and effect are identification, authoritative and accountability. The
empathy leaders know what their team is undergoing and help them to be better. The empathy
affects the decision taken by team. The authoritative is used when people talk about
leadership. It means to be clear on what is trying to be achieved and the guidance given. The
team is informed what is anticipated from them and what success looks like. The
authoritative do not have any role when there is non-accountability. A leader losses faith if he
is not accountable. It increases effectiveness when a leader is held accountable to achieve
goals. The determination of cause and effect is helpful to leaders in improving a plan (Struve,
2015).

Leadership 3
A code of conduct is an accurate communication of core values and principles. I have learnt
from B year that active and reliable leaders have a code of ethics that other employees also
wish to follow such as honesty, open and truthful to the followers. The code of leadership
ethics means doing the right thing. So the leaders should be constantly aware of the words
that flows from them, whether it’s oral, email or message. The leaders act in the best interest
of their followers. They put followers before themself (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
Trust is an essential leadership ethic. The ethnic code of conduct develops a great culture in
the organization. The code of conduct must be spiked with the integrity, trust worthiness,
honesty, self-control and compassion. There are various models of code of ethics. The codes
focus on status. The profile of an ethical person convinces followers through his common
sense, knowledge and effectiveness. The status of leaders should be that they are capable as a
leader. They should be honest, trustworthy and attentive in every interaction. He should
maintain selfless status. The ethical leadership includes staff, service and society. The
behaviour and decision of leaders lead to commitment, trust and obligation of employees to
towards the work and organisation. The ethical leader should be attentive to all staff and
flexible enough to make decisions (Leroy, Anseel, Gardner & Sels, 2015). The decisions
should be reliable and constant. He should be able to resolve conflict whenever it arises. He
encourages contribution from all the staff. The decision taken by leaders produces the highest
quality and standard of service. The service should be delivered efficiently within the
approved resources. It pursues the satisfaction of customers. The behaviour and decision of
leaders prevents harm and wellbeing of society. The leader should be aware of the impact on
society. The leader participates with others to promote health and wellbeing of society. The
leader takes action to avoid harm in society.
In the 7-9 week I learnt from the C year that leaders create positive or negative organisational
culture. The leader creates organisational culture by being hero to others. He can share
inspirational stories to create a positive organisational culture (Bolden, 2016). The leader can
arrange ceremonies and objects that employees wish to compete with. The leader can allow
employees in shaping the culture of organisation. He embraces the ideas that make working
more enjoyable. A leader can create positive culture by hire people who appreciate
wholesome values. The leader shows zero tolerance for harsh behaviour that challenges
culture. The leader believes in rewarding employees for signifying commitment to the vision
and mission of organisation. The leader also keeps regular discussion with employees at all
levels to see how culture is defined by them. A sense of purpose can be provided to

Leadership 4
employees to tell them their job is meaningful and they are valued (D’Innocenzo, Mathieu &
Kukenberger, 2016). A leader fosters team spirit by focusing on the strength of team
members. There are various factors like poor communication leads to negative organisational
culture. An organisation is required to ensure that the leaders communicate values, vision and
norms at all levels. Vast competition leads to the toxic work environment which results in
decreasing knowledge. More focus on profits can result in encouraging unethical behaviour.
The resistance to change creates a barrier of building culture of collaboration. The
performance management of company can also have a negative influence on the culture of an
organisation. The ranking of employees against each other creates a fear of failure. A strong
organisational culture should be formed to reflect value and purpose of an organisation
(McCleskey, 2014). The five dimensions of national culture define difference between east
and western leadership styles such as power distance index. It expresses the point to which
the members of society accept and expects that the power is dispersed unequally. The
individualism versus collectivism dimension defines the network in which individuals are
expected to take care of themselves and immediate families. The masculinity versus
femininity dimension signifies a preference in society for decisiveness, achievement, heroism
for success. The society is large and femininity gives preference to teamwork, humility and
caring for the low quality of life (Walumbwa, Hartnell & Misati, 2017). The uncertainty
avoidance index defines the degree to which the followers feel uncomfortable with
uncertainty and indistinctness. The long-term orientation versus short term normative
orientation maintains some past links while dealing with present and future challenges (Liu &
Baker, 2016).
Leadership is an influential element. It is helpful in motivation and inspiration to perform at
best levels. It is helpful in controlling actions which can damage business. The leadership has
helped me in attaining motivation, confidence harmonization and enthusiasm and has
demonstrated enthusiasm to work as a leader. It also helped to work towards a common goal
and for the improvement of environment. The additional aspects that I needed to develop are
excellent communication, ability to listen and debate, a vision of commitment to
organisation, corporate social responsibility, delegation, forward thinking, focus, honesty and
integrity, learn and evolve and problem solver. I learnt from X year that it is beneficial for me
and my future work as it can be helpful in my future work. I can use leadership traits for the
better functioning of business. I will be able to better guide employees of organisation. The
new knowledge can be applied to improve organisation by viewing videos (Covin & Slevin,

Leadership 5
2017). It can result in cause and effect leadership improvement. The article C and
participation in class discussion clarifies the scope of leadership and how it can be used
(Bullough & De Luque, 2015). It helps to meet ever changing needs of the environment. I
will be able to access development opportunities in the future. The working life can be
improved by developing new and innovative ideas that can enhance performance and
encourage growth. The leadership can be helpful to build relationships and create better
outcomes. The programme is helpful in professional development by creating a strong and
more competent workforce. It can also build up my knowledge and improve performance at
workplace (Tourish, 2014). It is helpful in succession planning and career pathways and
further increases retention result in better decision making. It can result in better decision
making by functioning at high level of emotional intelligence.

Leadership 6
References
Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic
review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The
Leadership Quarterly, 27(4), 634-652.
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Breevaart, K., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Derks, D. (2016). Who takes the lead? A
multi‐source diary study on leadership, work engagement, and job
performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(3), 309-325.
Bullough, A., & De Luque, M. S. (2015). Women’s participation in entrepreneurial and
political leadership: The importance of culturally endorsed implicit leadership
theories. Leadership, 11(1), 36-56.
Covin, J. G., & Slevin, D. P. (2017). The entrepreneurial imperatives of strategic
leadership. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, 307-327.
D’Innocenzo, L., Mathieu, J. E., & Kukenberger, M. R. (2016). A meta-analysis of different
forms of shared leadership–team performance relations. Journal of
Management, 42(7), 1964-1991.
Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances
in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and
theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82.
Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014).
Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and
changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 36-62.
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.
Furtner, M. R., Rauthmann, J. F., & Sachse, P. (2015). Unique self-leadership: A bifactor
model approach. Leadership, 11(1), 105-125.

Leadership 7
Leroy, H., Anseel, F., Gardner, W. L., & Sels, L. (2015). Authentic leadership, authentic
followership, basic need satisfaction, and work role performance: A cross-level
study. Journal of Management, 41(6), 1677-1697.
Liu, H., & Baker, C. (2016). White Knights: Leadership as the heroicisation of
whiteness. Leadership, 12(4), 420-448.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
Struve, W. (2015). Elites against democracy: leadership ideals in bourgeois political thought
in Germany, 1890-1933. Princeton University Press.
Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on
the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.
Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Misati, E. (2017). Does ethical leadership enhance
group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical
conduct, justice climate, and peer justice. Journal of Business Research, 72, 14-23.