Reflective Essay on Leadership: Theories and Application

This reflective essay explores the concept of leadership through personal experiences and established theories. It discusses various leadership styles such as trait theory, behavioral theory, autocratic, democratic, and Laissez-Faire leadership, analyzing their impact on personal and professional development. The essay reflects on the application of these theories, particularly democratic leadership, in achieving organizational goals and enhancing personal value. Furthermore, it connects leadership principles to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and employs the Herzberg and McGregor model for self-assessment, concluding that effective leadership, tailored to specific needs and demands, is crucial for achieving life objectives. Desklib provides access to this essay along with a wealth of study resources.

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
BODY................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................7

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INTRODUCTION
At present, in various situations of life, ‘leadership’ is a notion which can be useful to make the
things effective and beneficial. Leadership is basically the actions of the leaders to lead an
organization or group of people or rather have the ability and skills to do so (Northouse, 2018).
Leaders the people with a particular vision, motivation, need to serve people with empathy and
innovate by managing, team building and risk-taking skills to attain improvement in future.
Similarly, in my life, the leadership has posted a great influence on several events and helped
me to make tasks easier and effective (Raelin, 2011). My personal leadership traits and skills to
handle different situations like my education, career and then my job life and future needs.
Here, in this particular reflective essay, I am going to describe leadership, my personal
experiences and expert views which has changed my life with several events. The essay will
include some leadership definitions and skills possessed by the leaders which were described
according to the reflective models and theories like Maslow hierarchy of needs, Gibb’s
reflective cycle etc.
BODY
There are different types of leadership styles, models and theories defined by the practitioners
in different sectors, experts, scholars and leaders themselves. The most effective leadership
styles are the trait theory, behavioural theory, autocratic and democratic styles and Laissez-
Faire Leadership etc. The leadership styles named here are some of the best methods to lead
the people and attain the desired goals and objectives rather common or personal (Goleman,
2017). According to the trail theory of leadership, people are born with the leadership traits and
skills and just because of this certainty, people with correct traits and capabilities are best
suited for pursuing leadership. In my perception also, this theory is an elaborated form of the
behavioural of leadership which both are amongst the oldest theories that define that who are
a good leader and who are not (DePree, 2011). After understanding this theory, I had tried to
use it in my life and after which I also found that the using this theory need to have skills like
tenacity, positive energy, flexibility etc. Since the trait theory and the behavioural theories are
mostly related to each other and hence the leaders practising these styles might have the same

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set of skills and abilities (Chemers, 2014). There is a model which can effectively define the
behavioural theory of leadership; the Tannenbaum and Schmidt Graph which states that their
can has two directions of the use of leadership styles and skills which are boss centred and
subordinate centred. The first way emphasizes on imposing duties and responsibilities with
authority while other provides a sense of freedom to the subordinates and colleagues (MALOŞ,
2012).
In addition to this, the evaluation of the leadership style by the Tannenbaum and Schmidt
Graph is also helpful in determining the variation in the authority in autocratic and democratic
leaders. An autocratic leader will always have directed towards the final decisions made by the
managers and leaders which might be not beneficial for all whereas in democratic leadership
the imposition of the decisions on staff and colleagues is done after discussing with them and
providing them freedom and no limits to deal any kind of situation (Chaudhry and Javed, 2012).
Moreover, there is another leadership theory given by Laissez Faire, which says that the leaders
are the people who gave full authority to the team members and subordinates and make
decisions with their support and help. In addition to this, the leaders using this style force
people to solve problems on their own so that they can understand the intermediate events
and knowledge. In my personal opinion, this should be used in case of any urgency, important
work or while communicating directly on phone or face to face (Metcalf and Benn, 2013).
People using these styles as their weapon eventually may lead to slow success and experience
numerous hindrances in their path.
Above mentioned are some of the most used leadership styles by people all over the world and
also by me. Analysing these different types of leadership styles and models I come to know that
the leadership is not a simple set of rules or a defined practice, rather it is a very complex
process which includes several internal processes like planning, deciding, understanding etc.
Hence leadership is very important for the professional workplaces and personal life also.
Leadership styles like democratic and lasiez Faire theory help in focusing on the vision and
motivate people or enhancing the morale of the subordinates.

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As a working professional, the use of leadership theories has been very beneficial for my
personal and professional development as well. They help in keeping up the morale which has
helped me to guide my organization on a diverse level and eventually raised my value and
position in the organization. In addition to this, the effective use of the leadership skills and
traits has assisted me whenever I was lagging behind others and provided me with a simpler
path to make tasks resulted in better outcomes and attain short successes (Metcalf and Benn,
2013). According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, leadership styles are very effective in
facilitating and fulfilling all the needs of a common individual in most of the situation of life.
Becoming a good leader and gaining the skills is not an easy task which requires precision,
passion, dedication and lots of practice to attain the standards as leaders like Abraham Lincoln,
John Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Obama etc. In the life of a person, most basic needs rely on
the physiological and safety of life which can be pursued by the various skills whereas the
belongings and esteem are the factors that are based on personal activeness and skill
possessed. Hence for this, I have performed my self-assessment with the Herzberg and
McGregor model. The model says that job satisfaction, esteem, motivation, reward are the
important aspects that are provided by the leaders with their support (Hoel, et al. 2010).
Talking about my experiences, I have utilized the benefits by using the democratic theory of
leadership in my life and I got to learn several new things with the help of my colleagues and
team members. The use of any of the leadership style will definitely help in attaining the short-
term goals and objectives which defines a clear path for future needs. For example, I had the
aim to get a successful position and value in my organisation and with the use of democratic
leadership traits and practices I was successful in making effective relation with the people by
supporting them in their every need and regarding the management of the company, I had also
made some better results than others.
CONCLUSION
Leadership styles are the needs of present scenarios of personal and professional lives. The
above-mentioned essay has illustrated the different leadership styles which are widely used and
pursued by me in many situations in my life. As a result of experience after completion of the

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essay, it can be concluded that whichever leadership style you choose, if the practices are
performed according to the needs and demands one can attain his/her objectives of life. In
addition to this, it can also be said that in my life I have done some small things but with
innovative traits and different than others as I try to use the best-suited leadership style in my
tasks and learn continuously from others to lead and attain success.

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REFERENCES
Chaudhry, A.Q. and Javed, H., 2012. Impact of transactional and laissez-faire leadership style on
motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(7).
Chemers, M., 2014. An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.
DePree, M., 2011. Leadership is an art. Crown Business.
Goleman, D., 2017. Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard
Business Press.
Hoel, H., Glasø, L., Hetland, J., Cooper, C.L. and Einarsen, S., 2010. Leadership styles as
predictors of self reported and observed workplace bullying. British Journal of Management,‐
21(2), pp.453-468.
MALOŞ, R., 2012. THE MOST IMPORTANT LEADERSHIP THEORIES. Annals of Eftimie Murgu
University Resita, Fascicle II, Economic Studies.
Metcalf, L. and Benn, S., 2013. Leadership for sustainability: An evolution of leadership ability.
Journal of Business Ethics, 112(3), pp.369-384.
Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Raelin, J., 2011. From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership, 7(2), pp.195-211.