Personal Development as a Leader in Leadership Management

This journal entry reflects on the author's journey to becoming an effective leader, focusing on transformational leadership style as ideal for organizational change and team motivation. The reflection highlights personal challenges such as anxiety and depression, which hinder traits essential for a transformational leader, including confidence and persuasive power. By analyzing these challenges through Kolb’s experiential learning theory, the author aims to develop strategies for overcoming them, focusing on acquiring knowledge about personal emotions in challenging situations (concrete experience), reflecting on this information (reflective observation), forming innovative solutions (abstract conceptualization), and implementing action plans (active experimentation). Ultimately, the goal is professional growth by mastering transformational leadership skills while managing anxiety and depression.

Running head: REFLECTION ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A LEADER
Reflection on personal development as a leader
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTION ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A LEADER
Leadership qualities are one of the most primary responsibilities that an individual must have
in their arsenal in order to have a successful personal and professional life. There are multitudes
of reasons why a person must have leadership qualities as a primary attribute or trait, and the
most important of them are involved with the professional identity of an individual. It has to be
understood that the professional sectors in almost every domain is associated with team structure
and a team can only function optimally if an able leader is guiding and managing the activities of
the team, hence a motivational leader is crucial for the success of the entire team (Kolb 2014).
This is the reason I have aspired to have a profession as a team leader in a corporate4
organization and in order to ac attempted to development achieve the career goal I have
envisioned for myself, I have attempted to shape my personal and professional skills, however
there some key challenges that I have encountered in the path of my professional growth as a
leader.
Out of all the leadership styles that are abundantly used all over the world, in my opinion,
transformational leadership style is the most efficient leadership style which not only is
motivational but is also able to bring change in the organization and the mindset of the entire4
staff (Yukl 2012). According to the key theories of transformational leadership, a transformation
leader represents himself as a role model among the rest of the team members, and is able to set a
optimistic vision for the change that is being facilitated in the team so that the rest of the team
members can foresee the need foresee change and the benefits it is going to bring forth ( Roe
2017). Now it is the responsibility if the transformational leader to bring forth that changes in the
vision of the team members by motivating and inspiring the team members.
However, in order to become a true transformational leader, there are a few key personality
traits that I will have to develop, like confidence, foresight and persuasive power. However,

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REFLECTION ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A LEADER
these are few of character attributes that I severely lack. As I have previously suffered from
depression and anxiety, I find it very difficult to employ prompt decision making and conflict
management activities as well in stressful risk situations. From my own personal reflection I can
blame my anxiety for the lack of proper confidence and persuasiveness which is extremely
important for a true transformational leader (McCleskey 2014). Hence, for my professional and
personal growth as a leader, I will have to learn to overcome my depression, pessimism and
extreme anxiety.
According to the Kolb theory of learning, there are 4 core concepts within the process of
active learning (Kolb 2014). The first element is concrete experiences where I will have to
acquire knowledge about my personal feelings regarding the need for me to change perception of
challenging situations so that I can learn to control my anxiety and focus on overcoming the
challenges. The next element of theory is reflective observation where I will reflect and analyse
the data I have gathered in the previous element. The third element is the abstract
conceptualization which will help me to arrive at an innovative idea to execute that will help me
overcome my depression and anxiety; and lastly, active experimentation step will help me
execute my plan and help develop all the personality skills required for a transformational leader
(Yukl 2012).

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REFLECTION ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A LEADER
References:
Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.
FT press.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Roe, K., 2017. Leadership: practice and perspectives. Oxford University Press.
Yukl, G., 2012. Effective leadership behavior: What we know and what questions need more
attention. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), pp.66-85.