Leadership Reflection Report: Analysis of Women Leaders and Styles

This report provides a personal reflection on leadership, defining it as a management function that enhances employee efficiency and productivity. It explores various aspects of leadership, including influencing behavior, interpersonal processes, achieving organizational goals, and adapting to different situations. The report analyzes the leadership styles of several prominent women leaders, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, and Corazon Aquino, highlighting their approaches and contributions. It further discusses team management, challenges faced, and essential qualities for successful leadership, such as honesty, confidence, resilience, and knowledge. The conclusion emphasizes the potential of women in leadership and the importance of providing them opportunities to participate in politics and business, reinforcing the impact of effective leadership styles in meeting followers' needs. The report references academic sources and books to support its analysis.

Personal Reflection

Table of Contents
PART 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
.........................................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Leadership is defined as the function of management that enhances the efficiency and
productivity of the employees (Rosenbach, 2018). Leadership is the process by which managers
influence the subordinates to perform their tasks effectively. A leader should have the ability to
maintain a good relation between employees. From the brief given, it has been analysed that
there are different features of leadership that are present in successful leaders and managers.
Some of these are described below-
Influence behaviour of others- Leadership is the ability of a person to influence the
behaviour of other people at workplace and achieving a common goal.
Inter-personal process- This is a interpersonal process between the team members and
leader. The relationship of leaders and subordinates determines the possibility of efficient and
effective achievement of the organisation.
Achievement of common organisational goals- The main objective of leadership is to
guide and support employees of the organisation to work towards achieving a common goal or
objective. The leaders bring the efforts of workers together for attaining the organisational goals
and objectives.
Continuous process- Leadership is a continuous process as a leader has to support and
guide his subordinates till the goal is achieved. Leaders ensure that the efforts which they are
making to support employees are in right direction.
Group process- Leadership involves a group process in which two or more people
interact for achieving a common goal (Antonakis and Day, eds., 2017). A leader cannot work
alone he wants support and dedication of team members.
Dependant on the situation- Leadership style of leaders depends upon the business
situation. A good leader knows which strategy has to be followed in organisation in different
business situations. There is no best kind of leadership.
According to the presentation given, I get to know that leadership is a set of activities in an
organisation where team members are influenced for achieving a set of goals and objectives. An
effective leader considers diversity of culture for becoming aware of environment in today's
globalised world. According to a research of US Bureau of Labour statistics in 2015, 51.5 %

managerial positions are occupied by women. This percentage decreases when the level of
organisation increases. I get to know about four different women leaders after reading this power
point presentation.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf- There are about more than 3000 ethnic groups and 2000
languages spoken in Africa. This country has patriarchal economy system that is based on
cultural society build during the years and due to this there are a number of women in Africa
who are still facing discrimination (Alimudin, and ET. AL. , 2017). In Africa, there are limited
women or girls who have access to education. On the other hand, there are a lot of women who
are victims of early marriage and female genital mutilation( FGM) which is a harmful cultural
practice of Africa. This country believes in discrimination of men and women but still there are
some opportunistic and successful women leaders who became great examples of good leaders/
Entrepreneurs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born on 19th October, 1938 and she is an example of a
great leader. This lady follows moral leadership style. In this type of leadership, leaders address
issues like class, gender and class ad that leader also controls larger issues like democracy and
social justice. Ellen always aims to serve all individuals equally. Moral leadership style is based
on the support of followers for creating a democratic society. Ellen also used democratic style of
leadership and she involved followers in decision making process.
Margaret Thatcher- She was a strong leader and had a great persistence in defending
defining ideas. She is an autocratic leader and always strived for power and authority. An
autocratic leader has full control over decision making. Margaret Thatcher was able to make
quick and effective decisions in high pressure environment (Antonsen, 2017). Some researchers
say that she follows a combination of two leadership styles i.e. democratic and transformational
leadership. She consults her followers before making decisions and she was a high end politician
who put her personal trait on the radical changes in society.
Hillary Clinton- Hillary Diane Clinton is a transformational leader who believes in
bringing extraordinary values and she exhibits five fundamental practices such as inspiring a
shared vision, challenging the process, encouraging heart, enabling others to act and mode the
way.
Corazon Aquino- She was an Asian Leader born on 25th of January 1993 in the province
of Tarlac, Philippines. She was from a wealthy family of Spanish, Chinese, Filipino. She
involved in politics and managed to change the government and became the leader of People

Power Revolution in 1986. Corazon helped country to recover from trials borne out of the
Marcos dictatorship years. She created the Presidential Commission on Good Governance. She
followed a servant leadership (Hallinger, 2018). In this style of leadership, servant leadership is a
leadership philosophy and main objective of leaders is to serve his or her followers.
PART 2
In the given brief, there is explanation of how good leaders manage their teams and leas
them successfully. Ellen Johnson attracted around sixteen billion dollars in foreign direct
investment and she negotiated for the external debt of Africa to be forgiven. This lady leader
fought for discrimination among male and female. Margaret Thatcher was a strong leader and
she has a great persistence in defending defining ideas. She used the strategy for revitalising the
economy was helpful in encouraging middle class and entrepreneurship. She used a strict
monetary policy for reducing inflation and relaxing the fiscal framework for boosting business.
She contributed in the success of Britain over Argentina during the Falkland Island war. Hilary
Clinton has announced reform, Quadrennial diplomacy and development Review which has
contributed towards a diplomatic missions of the state department. This reform is considered to
be best and ambitious and is known for civilian power. This is a cost effective power of Clinton.
In the year 1994, Clinton failed in gathering floor votes for comprehensive proposal – Clinton
Health Care Plan. On the other hand, her departmental reform succeeded in institutionalising
women empowerment. She supported the US military for fighting against terrorism. Another
servant women leader, Corazon Aquino was a successful leader of Philippines. She guided with
frankness and affection for the Filipino people. She remains a compelling figure for Filipino
people and around he world for being a promoter of democracy, a valued politician and she
brought essential and memorable changes in the world. These women leaders contributed in
serving their followers equally and leading hem effectively in order to make them meet their
rights.
The formation of groups makes work easy and support of leaders helps in doing the job better.
The first challenge I faced was the organising the work and giving tasks to people. The task was
divided into smaller tasks and these are assigned to people who have skills and capabilities to
work effectively. Leaders helped me whole heartedly in accomplishing the goals and targets. I
have analysed the way of all four women entrepreneurs in the formation of groups. While
working in the team I faced many problems. Some members do not feel mutually accountable to

one another for the objective of team. The team members sometimes rigidly adhering to
positions during decision making. Various conflicts took place when several people work
together and thus conflicts resolution was very important and conflicts are resolved when team
members get into personal attacks or aggressive gestures. I analysed that leaders can fail teams
by not defining a compelling vision for the team and not representing multiple constituencies.
According to my analysis, all successful leaders motivate, support, inspire, and direct
other employees or followers towards a particular goal or objective. Successful women leaders
have some qualities like action mindedness, problem solving skills and risk taking. There are a
number of women who are reaching top positions in politics and business (Lee, Idris, and
Delfabbro, 2017). I have concluded several characteristics that are required to be successful in
business world. They are desrcribed below-
Honesty and integrity- An effective leadership starts with adhering to ethical or moral
principles. Leadership helps in building trust among followers. A good leader is one who is true
to himself and follows values. People always follow those leaders who work ethically and
integrity.
Confidence- Confidence is the most important trait needed by successful leaders. A
leader must be confident to himself, confidence in his mission, and confidence in his worth. A
confident leader is one who works effectively in achieving goals and objectives of the company.
Resilience and persistence- Entrepreneurship for women is more challenging and tough
as they have to handle double burden. They take care of their family as well as business or
followers.
Personality- Leaders should posses pleasing personalities. Leaders should always take
care of their followers and team members.
Knowledge- Leaders should have enough knowledge to help his subordinates to perform
well and achieve goals and objectives of the company.
Integrity- An effective leader has a high level of integrity and honesty. This presentation
shows that leaders have a fair outlook and they do not treat anybody unequally. They take
decisions by considering opinions of all employees.
Motivation skills- Women leaders and entrepreneurs are ensuring to motivate their
followers and express views, opinions, policies and procedures to followers clearly.

Intelligence- A leader is intelligent for analysing cons and pros of every business
situation (Roughton, Crutchfield, and Waite, 2019). A good leader has a vision and fore-
sightedness to predict future effect on people of the decisions made.
CONCLUSION
This presentation suggests that women can be great leaders and they should be given
chance to educate and given full freedom to take part in politics of the country. There are several
examples of great women leaders naming Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary
Clinton and Corazon Aquino. These women proof that a good leader knows how to implement
an effective leadership style and help followers to meet their needs and requirements.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Antonakis, J. and Day, D. V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Rosenbach, W. E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Alimudin, A. and ET. AL. , 2017. Effect of Spiritual Leadership to Organizational Culture and
Employee’s Loyalty. Jurnal Terapan Manajemen Dan Bisnis, 3(2), pp.76-86.
Antonsen, S., 2017. Safety culture: theory, method and improvement. CRC Press.
Hallinger, P., 2018. Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational Management
Administration & Leadership, 46(1), pp.5-24.
Lee, M. C. C., Idris, M. A. and Delfabbro, P. H., 2017. The linkages between hierarchical
culture and empowering leadership and their effects on employees’ work engagement:
Work meaningfulness as a mediator. International Journal of Stress Management.
24(4). p.392.
Roughton, J., Crutchfield, N. and Waite, M., 2019. Safety culture: An innovative leadership
approach. Butterworth-Heinemann.