Leadership and Control Reflection Report - UCLAN Project Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on a student's leadership experience within a group project at UCLAN University, focusing on competitor analysis for a leadership hub. The report details an incident where the student, acting as an analyst, addressed the lack of participation from two team members, employing transformational and coach leadership styles to re-engage them. It interprets the student's actions through various leadership theories, highlighting the application of transformational and coach leadership while evaluating the effectiveness of these approaches. The student identifies strengths in communication and problem-solving, as well as weaknesses in emotional control, particularly during moments of frustration. The report concludes with reflections on the importance of emotional intelligence and the potential for future development in leadership skills, emphasizing the benefits of transformational and coach leadership in enhancing team dynamics, employee engagement and achieving project objectives. The author has used relevant conceptual frameworks to inform this reflection.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND CONTROL REFLECTION
Leadership and Control Reflection
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction:
Recently I was participating in a group project with eight other group members. The
project was about the competitor analysis of UCLAN leadership hub. We were divided into
teams and roles are assigned to each group. My role is an analyst and I am accompanied by other
member of the analyst group named Arshak. The project is being performed under the authority
of UCLAN University. UCLAN University is going to build a leadership hub. In this project we
are currently working on competitor analysis for leadership hub. As of now, the identification of
client’s data and market competitors has been done with detailed information about competitors.
As we have come across these multiple activities of data gathering and research, we had hold
meetings for data accumulation, progress update, work process synchronization and other
purposes.
Reflective practice has multiple benefits that includes increasing self-awareness,
enhancing emotional intelligence, developing better understanding about the surroundings,
enhancing decision making capabilities and even enhancing the overall efficiency to work
(Johnston 2017). In this reflective paper, I am going to reflect about a particular incident
happened in the meetings of the above discussed project. The purpose of this reflective essay is
to reflect on my leadership capacity and communication skill being a part of a collective project
work. This reflective paper consists of four major sections in order to critically reflect on the
incident as well as my leadership capability and further scope of improvement. These four major
parts are Incident, Interpretation, Evaluation and Outcome (Castelli 2016). In incident section the
incident on which I am going to reflect will be presented. After that in the interpretation section
my leadership style will be critically analyzed and interpreted under the light of the incident. In

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evaluation section the interpretation will be evaluated followed by the outcome where the
outcome of this project will be discussed.
Incident
As I have realized from the day one, a project work needs collaboration and collective
effort from every members, I have been committed myself to the project activities as well as
communication procedures such as meetings (Burke 2013). However, from the day one I found
that Arshak and Mohmadwere not actively working in the group with collective effort and
collaboration as they should be. More surprisingly, they were even continuously absent for team
meetings from the initiation meeting where we bring out our through and agendas to handle this
project. I have also found that not only they are not actively working in group, but also they are
not aware of what are the objectives, mission, visions of or projects. In other words, they really
do not know what is going in project and what type of activities we are going through. I do not of
if they are taking updates by calling any of our group members, but as much as I perceived, they
are not pulling their weights in this project. By getting disappointed on their carelessness and
withdrawal attitude our Project managers are not properly communicating with Arshak and
Mohmad. As much as I have understood their motives, probably they are feeling that Arshak and
Mohmad are not contributing enough in this project to be informed.
After getting agitated and curious as well in this matter, I felt that perhaps I could
communicate with them to solve this problem. Accordingly I called them personally and spoke
with them and asked about why they are not turning up for the meetings and why they are not
properly participating in this project. Initially they were not ready to discuss their thoughts with
details. However, I assured them that I would not be going to discuss about their perspectives

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and shared information with anyone else. Finally they agreed to share their thoughts and
perception with me regarding this project and why they are not actively participating in this
project. I found that they have some wrong perception as well as grievance regarding their
previous projects. They have also misunderstood the significance of the collective association in
this project. I tried to understand their concerns and tried to solve those issues. Finally I made
them agreed to the point that they are going to participate in next meeting. I have asked every
group member to post their availability teams application and I have been finally able to plan a
team meeting.
Interpretation
As per the above discussed incident and my involvement in that incident it can be said
that I have shown some leadership skill to make those team members reengaged in the project.
The application of leadership skill served very effective role in this situation and I finally became
able to change their misperception and misunderstandings. In order to interpret my activities and
the outcomes in this incident, understanding of the basic leadership styles is necessary. In the
field of organizational management and psychology there are many theories that conceptualized
different leadership styles (Dinh et al. 2014). Some of these theories are Lewin’s leadership
theory, Path-Goal theory of leadership, Emotional leadership theory, Flamholtz and Randle's
Leadership Style Matrix and many more (Antonakis and House 2014). Each of these leadership
theories presents different sets of leadership styles. In many cases, multiple leadership theories
talk about a particular leadership style in different name. Henceforth, considering all the
leadership theories and all the leadership styles eight major leadership styles can be identified
namely Autocratic Leadership, Bureaucratic Leadership, Democratic leadership, Laissez-fair
Delegative Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Transformational leadership, Transactional

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Leadership and Coach style leadership (Novo, Landis and Haley 2017). Situational leadership is
not an independent leadership style. It implies choosing the leadership style as per the situation.
Among the above discussed leadership theories, some styles are more effective than other
based on the situation. As per the concept of autocratic leadership, an autocratic leader never
cares for the opinion and perception of the team member while executing only those action that
seems to be required as per his or her perspective (Akor 2014). Bureaucratic leader only accept
the opinions of the team members which are relevant to the team’s principles. In this case, the
project team leaders did not tried to understand the perspective of in-active team members
(Gregory and Keil 2014). The project manager ignored their position considering their behaviour
as out-of team principles. Therefore, the project leader followed the Bureaucratic Leadership
style in the above mentioned incident. I do not show any sign of bureaucratic leadership by
communicating with the team members, definitely.
Democratic leader take decisions as per the opinions that are supported by maximum
number of team members (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015). From the incident and as per my
experience I am not fully able to analyse the existing leadership style of project manager based
on the style of democratic leadership. A Laissez-fair leader allows the team members to
collectively control the team and take the decisions (Van Wart 2013). I was not ignorant about
the absenteeism of two of my team members and I did not let them do what they want. Therefore
clearly I do not have a trait of Laissez-fair leadership. Our project manager also did not support
the decision of Arshak and Mohmad for not participating the in team meetings and
communication. Therefore, our project manager did not show any trait of Laissez-fair leader
either.

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Charismatic leaders influence the perception and motivation of the team member by
being an ideal personality and developing followers (Dumdum, Lowe and Avolio 2013). In this
incident, our project leader did not tried to influence the inactive team members Arshak and
Mohmad by his idealistic personality. Therefore, in this case our project leader did not show any
trait of Charismatic leadership. Considering my activities in this situation, it can be said that I
have used a communication based problem solving approach and there I did not used any
characteristics of charismatic leadership as well. Transformational leadership develops a strong
sense of mission and vision within the team members while pushing the team members to
achieve the goals by actively participating in the activities while taking equal responsibilities of
work (Aga, Noorderhaven and Vallejo 2016). During the conversation with Arshak and Mohmad
I tried to motivate them by making them realize the significance of collaborative participation in
this project communication. Therefore, to some extent I have used transactional leadership
strategy to motivate them and to make them more engaged in teamwork.
Transactional leaders use reword and punishment strategy to make the team members
motivated based on the performance of the individual team member (Aga 2016). In this incident
I did not used any reword or punishment rule by any means. Similarly, our project leader also did
not show any reword and punishment strategy to improve the work efficiency. Therefore, neither
I nor our project leader has shown some similar trait of Transactional leadership. In Coach Type
Leadership, the leaders communicate each team member to assess their strength and weakness
while helping and motivating the team member to overcome the weakness and to utilize the
strengths for at its best level (Price and Weiss 2013). This leadership style is highly relevant to
my activities that I have done after deciding to help the disconnected members of our project. I
have tried to understand the problems and perspectives of Arshak and Mohmad individually and

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I also helped them to overcome their weakness in thoughts and emotions. I have also helped
them to develop and increase their strength to participate in the next meeting. Therefore, though
my activities I have shown Coach Type Leadership style.
Evaluation
From the above critical interpretation of the situation it can be found that two leadership
traits can be found in my activities namely the transformational leadership and the coach type
leadership. The ability of using transformational leadership in me will help to increase the
employee turnover. It will also help to improve employee engagement and motivation
(Cunningham, Salomone and Wielgus 2015). The ability of using transformational leadership
skill also allows creating and managing change in organizational environment. The
transformational leadership skills can be used to encourage the team members to improve their
knowledge and skill through continuous learning and development. Transformational leadership
skill is also helpful to increase work ethic and morale in a team (Shenhar 2015). On the other
hand, the coach type leadership skill in me will allow me to improve workforce efficiency and
strength collectively as well as individually. The mentoring approach of coach leadership will
allow to reduce the impact of individual’s weaknesses in team performance.
During the conversation with Arshak and Mohmad I have found many disputes or
problematic traits in my behaviour as well. During the discussion, at one time when both of them
tried to convince me by saying that they do not think that our project manager cares for them
anymore and so they do not event want to change the situation, I lost my temperament for a
second. I was failed to suppress my anger and I shouted on them by saying that it was their fault
at first, because in first meeting they did not come and after the meeting they did not try to

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communicate regarding the discussion done in that meeting. At that point of time, I made the
situation uncomfortable, because I am the one who has taken initiatives to communicate with
them personally. Not only in this case, but also in many other cases, I found myself with
expressive anger as well. Clearly, as a leader it is not a desired behaviour. I order to make my
point strong I should have present my through with logic while having a calm and strong voice.
I have realized that this aggressive behavior comes from lack of control on emotional
thoughts. It is a sign of lack of emotional intelligence (Zijlmans et al 2015). Therefore, in future I
should change my behavioral pattern by increasing emotional intelligence. On the other hand, I
have a leadership personality that enable me having the realization to understand the situation of
the Arshak and Mohmad as well and to solve their problem personally. After all conversation , I
was also able to make them realize their fault and I was able to make them agreed to that point
that they should act in our team with proper collaboration. Therefore, the ability to solve their
problem as well as the ability to solve the problem of the project team clearly shows that I have a
good problem solving skill as well as good communication skill. Therefore, now I should work
with my emotional intelligence handling skill. For this I should participate in many debates and I
can also play a role of conflict negotiator to assess my improvement in emotional intelligence
(Murphy 2014). Apart from that, I could read some psychological guidelines and tricks from
different managerial and psychological books to understand the strategy of improving emotional
intelligence.
It can be found from the above critical analysis of the incident that problem solving is one
of my greatest strengths. I'm just trying to find a more efficient and effective way to get the job
done. For the message, this is what my manager likes in me. That way, time is up and we can
finish the tasks before the deadline. It is very much appreciated by the upper management and

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now they can still count on me to find the root cause of the problem and seek to resolve it. I
always seek to clarify the steps to other team members so we wouldn't have to waste time
correcting problems in the publication process if they can rectify the mistake early on. I still
consider new ways to stay focused and I'm always looking forward to learning new things, to
discovering new ways to do a job differently. But I can keep up with it, and do my homework.
The good thing about keeping myself motivated is that people who work with me can feel the
positive feeling as well, and they all start working with you and tasks become so easy. I am
always optimistic and always ready to meet new challenges. I have a good skill of
communication as well. I will help me in my future to handle my team as a leader as well as to
act as a conflict negotiator.
Outcome
The day after my personal communication with Arshak and Mohmad, a meeting was
conducted within our project team where both Arshak and Mohmad were present. I handled the
situation by saying that due to some personal reason they were not able to participate in the
previous meetings of this project. Me and my other team members tried to help them to
understand what we had done till then and what should we do in next phase. After that meeting,
both Arshak and Mohmad started to communicate with the other team members proactively.
After the first meeting with Arshak and Mohmad, I communicated with them to clarify any kind
of ambiguity. They conveyed that were not having any problem regarding project progression
and communication. Because of the improved communication and information integration within
our team the market research has been done with the active collaboration from Arshak and
Mohmad. The project was successful. After the competition of the project, everyone appreciated
the level of association, integration and research efficiency shown by Arshak and Mohmad.

9LEADERSHIP AND CONTROL REFLECTION
From this event I have found that cooperation and communication is the key of team work. Even
in case of any internal conflict and misunderstanding, the effective communication is essential to
resolve the conflict and other type of complicacies. A team work is similar to a building where
from the base to selling, each component has their own purpose and contribution and which is
not substitutable (Mir and Pinnington 2014). Therefore, it is the responsibility of the team
members to communicate with each other and execute the work from with collaborative
association where no one is excluded. Team leader is the most responsible person to ensure that
all team members is actively communicating and actively participating in team work. However,
in this case from our project leader I did not received this kind of attitude or behavior.
Considering the fact that I took the initiation to incorporate Arshak and Mohmad, it could have
been more effective and it could have been done beforehand, if the project leader took the
initiation to communicate with them (Galvin et al. 2014). Hence, in future work I would
probably suggest to ensure the collaborative participation of each team member at the very
beginning of the project. In case of any problem, the team member should take initiation to
resolve this issue under the proper guidance and involvement of the project manager or project
leader.
Conclusion:
In this above reflection, I have reflected about an incident happened in the meetings of
the project I have recently involved in. Through four major sections of this reflective paper
namely Incident, Interpretation, Evaluation and Outcome I have presented what was happened,
what I have done, what was my realization, what could have been done and other critical
evolution in the lights of leadership theories and techniques. At the beginning I found that
Arshak and Mohmadwere were not actively working in the group with collective effort and

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therefore, I tried to communicate to resolve their issue and I was successful to make them
included in this project completely. From critical interpretation and evaluation of the incident
and my activities in it I have found that I have both transformational leadership skills and the
coach type leadership skills along with communication and problem solving ability. However I
have also found that I have to enhance my emotional intelligence to be a more efficient in
conflict negotiation, leadership and team handling. The reflection on my leadership skill allowed
me to explore my strength and weakness. I believe that this reflection helped me to understand
myself better. I should say, that I have found this reflective practice to be a very effective tool to
overcome my weakness and to enhance my strength. The reflective practice will also allow me to
solve my problem in professional and personal life.

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