BS105 Fundamentals of Leadership: Personal Reflection Report

This report presents a personal reflection on leadership, drawing from the author's experience at Tesco. The report begins by establishing the context of leadership within a multinational organization, focusing on Tesco's operations and the importance of effective leadership in its retail and e-commerce divisions. The first section outlines the author's role as a leader, emphasizing the application of participative leadership and the aim to minimize defects in the supply chain. The second section provides a self-analysis, exploring different leadership styles, including transformational and contingency leadership, and their application in Tesco's environment. The report highlights the importance of adaptability and the use of technology. The third section offers a critical reflection on the author's leadership approach, discussing the significance of employee engagement and the need for leaders to adapt their styles based on organizational culture and employee needs. The author concludes by summarizing the impact of their leadership and the lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of continuous development and the application of various leadership styles to achieve organizational goals.

Fundamentals of
Leadership

MAIN BODY
SECTION 1 CONTEXT
Leadership is a vital segment of a management process and I think that every management
requires to follow this. It becomes quite clear that leadership functions by studying the research
area and analysing the competencies which an individual possess. The leaders work on
establishing a better career on professional as well as personal grounds so that development can
flourish. This will bring productive results for the organisation as well. The report carried
forward is based on Tesco which is one of largest multinational organisation, catering the needs
of individual in serving essential commodities. Along with the retail stores Tesco is also going in
online stores and providing E-Commerce services. This is only a result of an effective leadership
which is practiced by the leaders and is facilitating the brand to enhance its competition with that
of the rivals in same industry. The report in the first part shows responsibilities of leader and
whom the leader was leading. In the second part there is brief description of the leadership traits,
characteristics and styles. Also there has been a focus to study the demographic factors, skills,
abilities, competencies and traits that helps the leader to lead his subordinates in a better manner.
In the end the report also (Kononets and Nestulya 2020) discusses why leadership is important
for future development. The report is a reflection where leader is explaining what he thought and
has examined from his working experience. Tesco is one of the largest multinational organisation
who is serving a wide variety of products and services by fulfilling the customers need and
attaining competitive rivalry. Tesco is working with serving the quality services in varied
sections of the whole world to carry out all the operations there is a need of effective leadership.
I got a chance to lead and support the staff of Tesco. I am working as a leader in supervising the
operation which are performed in packaging and supplying of materials to the to the final retail
outlet. I was assigned to supervise and lead the activities so that there are reduced chances of
failures. I was working as a leader to guide lower management in order to check supply and
delivery services are done in a proper manner. I was assigned to train and develop their skills so
that their are reduced chances of misconduct and failures. There were initiatives taken by me so
that there is less brokerage of goods. The end goal of my aim was to minimise the defects to
minimal and make organisation achieve productivity. As a leader I was focused on serving the
quality products without any miss happening so that the organisation (Kouzes and Posner 2016)

Tesco is achieving its competitive advantage and can work towards expanding the market
segments, also strengthening the brand image.
SECTION 2 SELF – ANALYSIS
Being the leader of Tesco I was following the participative leadership style which is the
strongest and interactive style. It enables the working culture of the organisation to work with
diversity and togetherness. The participative leadership as followed by me will make good
relations among the employees and there will be more chances of transparency in the decision
making process. This will make employees motivated and their morale will be boosted which
will result in better production and achieving the common determined goals. Participative
leadership act as a tool of leadership style where work is completed in a collaborated form which
will also result in strengthening the ideas and will bring creativity and innovation. Leadership
styles in the globally performing world shows business aspects which are continuously changing.
This is working for new and developed leadership theories which represent the modern trends
and are used as the elements (Cohen and Eimicke 2020) which are emerging. This helps in
working with the modern workforce and develop accountability traits in them with results in
sustainability and high potential. Being the leader of Tesco I am focused to work with
competitive spirit so that there is informative growth and sustainability can be achieved.
For this various strategies of leadership can be examined as under:
Transformational leadership: This theory of leadership works with maintaining strong
coordination between employees and employers of an organisation. It worked for creating and
developing career oriented goals on which the employees are focused to work. The stakeholders
like CEO’s, governmental bodies, shareholders work in accordance to such leadership so that
employees are treated equally. In this focus is made on how much they are competent with the
dynamism of work culture. On the other hand, this leadership theory takes time as training and
development is required to be conducted which affects productivity and efficiency.
Contingency leadership: The leadership theory that focuses on the contingent and unpredictable
situations and making decisions for the same. Contingency leadership refers with bringing in
new and creative ideas so that organisation works accordingly. Along with this, the contingency
leadership focuses on acting at the same time when ever critical situation arises in Tesco. As it is
a growing brand and looking in this direction they have (Piperopoulos 2018) adopted digital
platform as a means of extra revenue generation. The leadership under this decision allows the

workers to adapt with the new technical know how and work appropriately with the market. It
has resulted in the environment to be dynamic and employees to be competent. The leadership
skills are based on the decision making skills that motivate and enlighten employees in order to
make them work in new (Armstrong 2016) changes. This works in making the structure of
company easy and effective for a longer time period. On the other hand, it has resulted in
bringing high responsibilities and duties to the company and it's employees. This is because they
have to perform more operations in order to meet goals and objectives which are framed by the
managerial team.
SECTION 3 CRITICAL REFLECTION
As a leader it is very important to know that the workers are working in an appropriate manner in
the respective organisation. My responsibility as a leader was to reduce the problems of
employees which they were facing in the organisation. This is performed by the leaders in a
manner by studying and evaluating the behaviours of individuals. This will bring a sense of
belongingness in the organisation and will (Robbins, Coulter and DeCenzo 2017) help in
bringing a sense of attachment and loyalty of employees to organisation. In my perception, the
leader is a person who is working as properly guiding the subordinates and giving them required
training sessions time to time. In Tesco, the transformational leadership style is carried out by me
and from my point of view, I can say this has held Tesco in being a strengthened organisation
which is continuously working for innovation and dynamism.
I am focused to develop varied required and significant competencies which will help in working
towards the vision and mission goals which are predetermined. There are many people who
possess competencies but they are not easily accessible to use them which (Gandolfi and Stone
2018) makes the competencies a waste. I am working from a recognisable time in the
organisation as a leader, where I am devoted in recognising skills and talents of individuals.
Along with this I am giving them ample opportunities through which they can polish their
competencies. Tesco being a large organisation has given me a lot of growth opportunities which
will help me in establishing my career and taking it to great heights. Alternatively new leadership
style brings on surging pace for acknowledging new business horizons actively, imperatively
growing towards new potentialities actively. As mentioned earlier I am working as a leader who
is assigned to reduce defects by guiding and supervising the lower employees. There is more
vivid scale involvement among employees as transparency of decisions also generates

motivation, enhanced morale and competitive performance metrics. The traits and styles which is
followed (Kane and et. al. 2018) by me are working in the direction of growth. As mentioned I
was using transformational leadership which serves as a great help in bringing a change to the
organisation. There are several defects as well in the leadership but to overcome them a
development of proper and appropriate strategies are required to be performed.
Transformational leadership suffers from increase in responsibilities as performed by the leaders
and higher management. To reduce this disadvantage I was working by using my full potential
and framing policies which resulted in lessening of the same and also working in reducing
irrelevant tasks. The leadership traits which are followed by me and my employees will enhance
the personal as well as professional career of everyone associated with the same. Also to enhance
such traits a proper evaluation is required to be performed. In the same manner there are several
leaders of different organisations which are working in the market are following different
leadership styles as per their convenience. There are some leaders who are using contingent
leadership where they performing strategic planning at the time when it is required. This can be a
help as well as an inconvenience situation as preparing plans at the same time will hamper the
growth. On the other hand they may sometimes result in bringing the best of the answers for the
situations. This is because the solutions are made looking forward the present market conditions.
As a leader I can use different (Grunberg and et. al. 2019) leadership styles and traits depending
upon the employees nature, organisational structure, operations and many other things. These
effect the whole working culture of an organisation. The leadership styles which can be used are
required to be flexible so that there may be changes as and when required. The culture is referred
to the working conditions of the organisation as well as that of the market. The leader is required
to make leadership plans and work on them according to the appropriate theories and styles so
that a better insight is created. There are many cultural factors which affect the working of
workforce in organisation. So it is highly required for the leaders to keep such factors in mind
and decide which leadership trait will be required. At times there are cases when the leadership
styles can change the culture and for this it is required by the leaders as well as their subordinates
to go hand in hand and work towards achieving this common goal. On the basis of the leadership
skills it can be analysed that I was working with participative as well as transformational
leadership in Tesco which acted as an active part to make an organisation grow and work for
sustainability. The participative leadership which I followed was a result of collaborative work

which was performed by whole organisation. The leaders are such individuals who rigorously
works on new leadership approaches which will enhance and develop the whole working criteria.
There are high chances which can bring problematic situations in the organisation but the leader
works for reducing such conditions and completing the procedure of operations in an effective
manner. By reducing the complexities he can manage tackling the challenges which comes in
midway of the operational process. In Tesco as a leader I was continuously focused on working
with higher level leadership aspects rather than working on a single or two leadership style. In
the end I can conclude by saying that being working as a leader in TESCO has helped me
variedly in boosting my career and improving my skills.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kononets, N.V. and Nestulya, S.I., 2020. The implementation experience of students mobile
training in the fundamentals of leadership as a resource-oriented form. Information Technologies
and Learning Tools, 78(4), pp.116-131.
Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z., 2016. Learning leadership: The five fundamentals of becoming
an exemplary leader. John Wiley & Sons.
Cohen, S. and Eimicke, W.B., 2020. 2. LEADERSHIP. In Management Fundamentals (pp. 21-
36). Columbia University Press.
Piperopoulos, G.P., 2018. Fundamentals of Communication PR and Leadership.
Armstrong, M., 2016. Armstrong's handbook of management and leadership for HR: Developing
effective people skills for better leadership and management.
Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M.K. and DeCenzo, D.A., 2017. Fundamentals of management.
Gandolfi, F. and Stone, S., 2018. Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of
Management Research, 18(4), pp.261-269.
Kane, G.C., Phillips, A.N., Copulsky, J. and Andrus, G., 2019. How digital leadership is (n't)
different. MIT Sloan Management Review, 60(3), pp.34-39.
Iordanoglou, D., 2018. Future Trends in Leadership Development Practices and the Crucial
Leadership Skills. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 15(2).
Grunberg, N.E., Barry, E.S., Callahan, C.W., Kleber, H.G., McManigle, J.E. and Schoomaker,
E.B., 2019. A conceptual framework for leader and leadership education and
development. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 22(5), pp.644-650.