Leadership and Management: An Individual Reflection Report Analysis

This report presents an individual reflection on leadership and management, drawing insights from a presentation on Mary Barra's leadership at General Motors. The report explores key concepts such as leadership's role in guiding and motivating followers, and the challenges faced by the automobile industry, including globalization, competition, and technological advancements. It details the roles of a leader in setting vision, motivating employees, and understanding cultural differences using the Hofstede model. The reflection incorporates the Gibbs model to analyze the group work experience, highlighting strengths like skill diversification and weaknesses like communication gaps and personal conflicts. The report concludes with an action plan to improve time management and communication skills for future collaborative projects. The student reflects on leadership and management principles, analyzes group dynamics, and proposes strategies for improvement.

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
(INDIVIDUAL
REFLECTION)

Table of Contents
PART 2- INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION.........................................................................................3
Part A..........................................................................................................................................3
Part B...........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

PART 2- INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION
Part A
With the help of the presentation I learnt that leadership is an activity through which the leader
guides and directs its followers in direction of achievement of the group goals of the business or
for which the group is being established (Kok and McDonald, 2017). This presentation was made
on basis of Marry T Barra’s leadership and management who is the CEO of the General Motors.
According to my understanding from the presentation leadership is a process through which the
leaders influences and motivates its followers or the subordinate to follow the directions and
instructions provided by the leader.
With the execution of the presentation I found that there are many challenges present in
the automobile sector. With the analysis and evaluation, the presentation I gained knowledge of
the fact that the major challenge for the company is the globalization. This is a major challenge
for the company, it is so because of the reason that after Brexit the automobile industry was
highly impacted. This resulted in negative impact on the production of the company. I also
gathered knowledge that this was majorly because of the reason that due to Brexit there were
changes in inflation, foreign currency and other related things. Another challenge was the
competition. This is due to the fact that because of globalization any country can trade with any
other country and this led to increase in the competition. Another challenge faced by the
company was technology (Hallinger and Hammad, 2019). This is because of the reason that there
were many new changes in the technological sector. And it was necessary for the company to
adapt to these changes and this will increase the cost of the company.
Also, the presentation covered a portion through which I learnt that a leader is a person
who learns from difficult and unusual situations and circumstances. The CEO of General Motors
is a very effective leader who has gained and learnt many things from different situations the
company went through. Like at time of technological changes the CEO announced to reduce the
carbon emission and to achieve this the CEO invested in AV to adapt to the latest technology.
From the evaluation of the presentation I learnt that the leader is a person behind the
success of the company for achieving this success the leader plays a variety of role within the
company (Herman, 2016). The major role of the leader is to implement the strategies formulated
by the manager. Also, I learnt the setting a vision for the company is also the role of the leader.
This is because of the reason that leader is a person who knows in detail what are the objectives

of the company and how to achieve them. In relation to General Motors, Mary was a good leader
as she played an important role in setting the vision for the company and also fixed a time frame
within which those vision needs to be achieved. Another role is of motivating the employees in
effectively working in accordance with the vision and objectives formulated by the leader. Also,
along with this another role is to guide the employees in all the areas where they need help.
Further I learnt that for understanding the cultural difference GM used the Hofstead
cultural dimension framework. It is a model which outlines low power vs high power,
individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, low uncertainty vs high uncertainty and
short-term orientation and long-term orientation. With this I learnt that this model helps in
analysing the culture present at the workplace. In the end I learned that there are different ways
or pathways which can help leader in effectively lead the business (Pardey, 2016). These
pathways are like explore, connect, enrich and engage.
Part B
GIBBS model
Description- for making the presentation the first thing which I decided is to divide the
work according to the capability of all the group members. This work division was based on the
capability of the person because if the person is allotted the work in which they specialize then it
will be easier for that person to perform the work effectively. Next, I fixed a time frame of
completing the presentation and fixed the date of completion 2 days before the actual submission
date. This was done to recheck the work done and if there are any changes then we have time to
consider those changes.
Feelings- through this whole presentation I felt very good as I was able to learn many
new things and this also enhanced my skills. This is because of the reason that we worked in a
group and every person is specializing in some or the other thing. Therefore, I was able to learn
many new skills from the other team member. Like I learnt how to manage my work before time
form another team member. Also, I gained much knowledge of making the presentation more
attractive and with more information in brief.
Evaluation- with this I evaluated that possessing the presentation skills are very for me to
work effectively and efficiently in creating the presentation. But with this presentation I realised
that there was lack of communication between all the group members which created a lot of
problem. It is so because of the reason that there was duplication of work and this was realised

when two of the members did the same task. This also led to wastage of time and impacted the
further time which we had divided for each of the activity of presentation. This also highlighted
that there were some personal grudges also between the group members as the decision-making
power were in hands of few only. Therefore, this also lead to personal problem among the
members which hampered the efficiency of the members.
Analysis- with the analysis of the situation I realised that working in group is more
beneficial as compared to working individually. This is because of the reason that while working
in a group we can take help of other person at time when we need help. This is because of the
reason that every individual is different form the other and has some or the other characteristic in
which the other person is good and this helped me in gaining knowledge from that person as
well.
Conclusion- in the end it can be concluded that this presentation was very helpful in
enhancing the knowledge relating to the topic that is leadership and management and also on the
making of the presentation. It was also concluded that making a presentation is not an easy task
and also working in a group is also not an easy work. This is because of the reason that every
person is different from one another and the nature of all the person is not same. Therefore, it is
very difficult to work in a group.
Action plan- now for covering up the challenges faced some steps are to be taken. The
first thing is to learn the skill of time management. This is the most important skill to be
improvised because of the reason that if the work will not be done on time then how the
presentation will be successful. Therefore, it is essential to learn the principle of time
management. Another thing on which I need to work is to increase my communication skill. For
this I need to mainly focus in my non-verbal communication ways such as focusing in the body
language and facial expressions and other non- verbal communication skills.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hallinger, P. and Hammad, W., 2019. Knowledge production on educational leadership and
management in Arab societies: A systematic review of research. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership. 47(1). pp.20-36.
Herman, R. D., 2016. Executive leadership. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership
and management, p.167.
Kok, S. K. and McDonald, C., 2017. Underpinning excellence in higher education–an
investigation into the leadership, governance and management behaviours of high-
performing academic departments. Studies in Higher Education. 42(2). pp.210-231.
Pardey, D., 2016. Introducing leadership. Routledge.