Reflective Essay on Leadership Theories and Personal Development

This reflective essay delves into the student's understanding of leadership, evolving from a belief in innate qualities to the recognition of leadership as a skill developed through training and education. The essay analyzes various leadership theories, including situational and transformational leadership, using personal experiences to illustrate their application and impact. The student reflects on their past experiences, examining their behavior through an academic lens and highlighting the evolution of their perspective on leadership. The essay also discusses the five-dimensional leadership competency framework and the insights gained from studying Kurt Lewin's leadership styles, offering a comprehensive overview of leadership concepts and their practical implications. The student concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting leadership approaches based on situational demands and the value of continuous self-assessment for future development.

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
Student name:
Institutional Affiliation(S):
Course title:
1 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
INTRODUCTION
Reflective writing is one of the means used extensively by academicians as well as the
students to look back into their experiences and shared learning to foster critical thinking and
making the analysis of the past for future development. Such kind of learning not only helps
us in moving towards critical authentic learning, but helps in developing personal behaviour
and learning skills (Shum, Sándor, Goldsmith, & McWilliams, 2017). My understanding of
leadership learned during my unit have encouraged me to pen down my thoughts on
leadership theories and frameworks alongside analysing my own behaviour from theoretical
perspectives. I can say that after the completion of my unit and analysis made of per-
reviewed articles, my personal definition of leadership has changed completely. Previously, I
used to believe that the leader is born with special qualities which they foster with time and
utilize when given an opportunity. However, now I believe that leaders can be made through
effective training and education. This reflective essay will reflect upon my past experiences,
examined from academic lenses and how my own perspective towards leadership changed
with time.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Authors and theorists define leadership as an individual ability developed out of
mission and vision to accomplish desired goals. While Ali (2012) defines leadership as “a
complex phenomenon that touches on many other important personal, social and
organizational processes” (p. 76), Madanchian, Hussein, Noordin, & Taherdoost (2017) says
that effective leadership holds special attributes showing particular behavior or leadership
style. Such leaders create an atmosphere in the workplace which proves to be the best for the
sake of organizational purposes by using their personal skills and abilities. Even, my personal
experience while I worked in my previous firm reveals that effective leaders look upon
2 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
several aspects of leadership approach by creating an organizational culture where every
individual is considered as a valuable asset. In the company I worked in previously, I
followed various approaches of leadership control while managing one of the group works
given to me by my supervisor in the office. For example, I organized group meetings with the
technical and legal department to take advice on critical matters whereas acted as a mentor
for the human resources section. Thus, it can be said that I showed myself more like a
situational leader at that time.
Ghazzawi, Shoughari, & Osta (2017) claims that “After the emergence of the trait-
based leadership, situational leadership appeared as a reaction to it”. Theoretically, situational
leadership framework merges both supportive and directive dimensions where each
dimension can be applied appropriately to any given situation. Leaders following the
situational leadership approach have to consider their employee's perception towards work by
analyzing their commitment level to achieve the desired goal. Being a situational leader
means I have to change the supportiveness degree towards the direction and vice versa
according to the situation and the level of motivation required. Since the situational
leadership approach requires understanding various kind of leadership behavior, it is
significant for me to learn another kind of leadership approach precisely to foster my
situational leadership approach in the future. Since my personal view towards leadership is
more inclined towards transformational leadership, I will analyze one of my previous
experience where I tried being a transformational leader, however, could not gain much
success due to it.
Fundamentally, I like working in teams rather working in isolation since childhood. In
one of the group projects where I worked with my classmates proved to be most inspirational
for me as I learned about my behavior that was unknown to me previously. Since I was given
the charge to monitor and lead my team, I showed no considerations for failure and followed
3 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
every single detail required for successful completion of the task within the stipulated time.
As our project moved forward, I realized that I showed disequilibrium of resistance whenever
any of our team members skipped any task or underperformed. Instead of motivating and
directing them positively, I remained calm and did most of the work by myself for the sake of
project completion.
Transformational leadership requires leader adopt techniques that can create an
environment of mutual elevation and stimulation so that followers are converted into leaders
and possibly the leader into a moral agent. Such leaders transform themselves into a self-
motivated relationship with their employees who in turn feels elevated and become active by
themselves, thereby creating an opportunity for new cadres of leaders (Kumar, Deshmukh, &
Adish, 2014). Though my personal experience, as shared above reveals that I lacked
transformational leadership qualities I believe that I reflected transformational approach as I
did not try benefitting myself at the cost of others rather led an example in front of them of a
responsible leader by contributing more efforts rather punishing them for underperformance
as authoritarian leaders do. Khan, et al. (2015) cites that authoritarian or autocratic leaders
provide specific direction and expectation for what they need their employee to do, how it is
to be done and when the task shall be completed. Also, a clear division between followers
and leaders are maintained where authoritarian leaders decide independently with or without
the other's consent. Many researchers find that decision making in the authoritarian
leadership style is less creative as compared to democratic or participative style. Even Lewin
found in his study that participative leadership is the most effective leadership approach as it
provides followers with significant guidance besides allowing every member to participate in
teamwork (Billig, 2014).
Leadership approach in contemporary organizations comprises of fusion of various
kind of management initiative like sustainable, inspiring, distributed and courageous.
4 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
Moreover, leadership behavior that pushes teamwork in a positive direction raises them and
brings them together by inspiring to achieve a greater purpose. To ensure that teams perform
appropriately, the leader's management technique links team members behavior with
organizational business goals, strategies, and values ( Alrawi, Awad, Alrawi, & Alrawi,
2014). From my viewpoint, every employee must comprehend individual responsibility and
roles alongside recognizing what we desire so that a continuous dialogue is established
between employees and leaders to set and monitor progress, performance, and evaluations of
results. By planning together, leadership and followers can determine whether resources need
to be shifted or increased or altered to meet achieve desired results. This I can say because
every time I am given a job, whether in personal or professional life, I always consider
making discussions with my peers regarding target line, how it can be done in efficient way
and what resources will be required so that my work is completed within respected time,
fulfilling its core objectives.
Since I belong to an era where leadership approach requires to be aware of individual
element especially while delegating tasks, it calls for the implementation of behavioral and
technical skills besides soft and hard leadership behavior to manage teamwork (S & G, 2016).
Given such premises, it can be noted that Five-dimensional leadership competency
framework can be used immensely within contemporary workplaces since this dimension
includes complimentary leadership approaches that a leader can use as per situational
demands along with managing workplace conflicts simultaneously. According to Sohmen
(2013), five-dimensional leadership competency model consist of transformational, ethical,
contemporary, transactional and organic leadership behavior which can well prepare a leader
to create a motivated, inspired and performance-oriented workplace atmosphere. By creating
a required balance between capabilities, personality and personal needs, the leader utilizes a
composite model which is implied for the present globalized world. Since ‘one size does not
5 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
fit all' applies to every business sphere, I will explore this model in my future research to
enhance my personal leadership behavior.
One of the leadership approaches was analysed by me critically during my unit
learning and while I studied one the articles named “Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His
Legacy to Social Psychology: Is There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory?” (Billig,
2014). The author of the article describes the early definition of leadership style according to
the viewpoint of Kurt Lewin's three basic styles of leadership including laissez-faire,
democratic and autocratic. According to Lewin, all three styles in leadership can be utilized
and changed as per the situations faced by the leader. While autocratic leaders focus, leads
and control their set of principles through controlling behaviour, it proves to be the best
during initial stages of the project as more confusions and conflicts seem to arise in initial
stages of group development. Gradually, leaders tend to follow democratic approach to show
responsive nature as well as considering view and ideas of subordinates alongside
encouraging them to show participation and engagement within the workplace (Billig, 2014).
I found laissez-faire leadership style to be the most compelling as they do not
implement authority or responsibility rather let subordinates do whatever they feel best for
the sake of work completion. Warren Buffet, the richest man on the earth follows six
significant leadership traits necessary to be present in the leaders following the laissez-faire
approach (Michael, 2019). To follow his style, it is worth considering every element of
laissez-faire leadership style to make it work effectively. Personally, I always show
contentment while others like to make decisions in my team and therefore, I will utilize this
kind of leadership behavior while leading teams in which skilled and talented people are
involved and are aware of their responsibility and individual role. Moreover, by following the
laissez-faire approach, I will be able to understand my subordinate’s perception towards work
which will further help me in evaluating individual performance metrics.
6 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
CONCLUSION
The entire unit course taught me great lessons which changed my personal approach
towards leadership into a more cultured and developed way. Although I have entailed many
experiences in the past where my leadership behavior was explored by me, now, I can
analyze my behavior from theoretical perspectives alongside finding out the areas which need
to be reconsidered by me. I have learned about many significant theories during the unit,
however, some of them which I could relate from my personal experiences, as well as my
behavior towards leadership, has been mentioned in the above essay in the form of self-
reflection. Even though I am inclined to follow transformational leadership style, my personal
experiences and behaviour analysis reveal that I must follow situational leadership approach
because it will help me in addressing situational demands according to the required
leadership approach flexibly. I will conclude this essay on the note that the course proceeding
and my tutor's guidance have liberated my behavior from within due to which I feel more
confident and determined to explore future opportunities that can considerably develop
leadership style in me.
7 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
REFERENCES
Alrawi, K., Awad, A. M., Alrawi, A., & Alrawi, W. (2014). Leadership Performance
Optimization: Effects on Team Achievement in Organizational Sustained Success.
Global Journal of Management and Business Research: A Administration and
Management, 14(7), 17-28.
Ali, A. (2012). Leadership and its Influence in Organizations – A Review of Intellections.
International Journal of Learning & Development, 2(6), 73-85.
Billig, M. (2014). Kurt Lewin's Leadership Studies and His Legacy to Social Psychology: Is
There Nothing as Practical as a Good Theory? Journal for the Theory of Social
Behaviour, 45(4).
Ghazzawi, K., Shoughari, R. E., & Osta, B. E. (2017). Situational Leadership and Its
Effectiveness in Rising Employee Productivity: A Study on North Lebanon
Organization. Human Resource Management Research, 7(3), 102-110.
Khan, M. S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q. A., Ismail, H. M., Rauf, H., Latif, A., & Tahir, M. (2015).
The Styles of Leadership: A Critical Review. Public Policy and Administration
Research, 05(03), 87-92.
Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adish, V. S. (2014). Building and Leading Teams. Indian
Journal of Community Medicine, 39(04), 208-213.
Madanchian, M., Hussein, N., Noordin, F., & Taherdoost, H. (2017). Leadership
Effectiveness Measurement and Its Effect on Organization Outcomes. Procedia
Engineering, 181, 1043-1048.
Michael. (2019). Warren Buffet’s Leadership Style. Retrieved from
http://www.leadershipgeeks.com/warren-buffet-leadership-style/
8 | P a g e

LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
S, R. B., & G, S. (2016). Study on Theory of Group Development; Groups and Teams. IOSR
Journal of Business and Management, 18(02), 58-61.
Shum, S. B., Sándor, Á., Goldsmith, R., & McWilliams, R. B. (2017). Towards Reflective
Writing Analytics: Rationale, Methodology, and Preliminary Results. Journal of
Learning Analytics, 04(01), 58-54.
Sohmen, V. S. (2013). Leadership and Teamwork: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Journal of
IT and Economic Development, 04(02), 1-18.
9 | P a g e