Leadership Reflection: Analyzing Leadership Styles and Personal Growth

This assignment is a reflective essay on leadership, exploring the student's personal strengths, weaknesses, and preferred leadership styles. The student identifies patience, listening skills, and emotional understanding as key strengths, while acknowledging communication as an area for development. The essay discusses transformational leadership, emphasizing the importance of ethical behavior, trust, and adapting to different situations. The student analyzes the challenges of implementing change and highlights the need for clear communication and ethical considerations. The reflection also covers the importance of understanding followers, adapting leadership styles, and the role of ethics in building trust and fostering a positive environment. The student references various leadership models and concepts to support their self-assessment and development plan.

Running head: REFLECTION: LEADERSHIP
Reflection: Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1REFLECTION: LEADERSHIP
In the concept of leadership there are several models and concepts, but as leadership is a
quality that an individual possess it has a lot of personal and customizable aspects related to it.
From the inputs that I have gathered from the lessons and classes of leadership I have understood
that leadership is not only a quality in a human being it is a process of understanding, interacting
and dealing with other individuals (Choudhary, Akhtar & Zaheer, 2013). I am a person who is
sentimental and throughout my life I had a view that it is a negative aspect of my character, but
while learning the leadership concepts and models I figured that being sentimental means that I
have a better understanding about the emotional values of other people which makes the other
person more comfortable to be under my leadership than anyone else. One of the biggest strength
that I have is that I am patient and I am willing to listen than to speak more often. For a leader to
operate effectively it is very important to be able to attentively listen to the followers than to just
put ahead thoughts of my own (Nahavandi, 2016). I realized if I listen only then I will be heard
by the people who think me to be their leader. In today’s time people think that it is alright not
care, but a little effort in caring and showing that you care makes all the difference in the world.
A leader should care to bring about a difference. Another aspect of leadership is communication
that I have discovered about myself is I lack in the skill of communication. Communicating and
interacting with other individuals is an art that not everyone has but it can be cultivated, it can be
learnt and developed through training and guidance (Du et al., 2013). I realized that in the
process that the effectiveness of the communication process lies in the medium that is being used
to communicate. For example if I want to talk to someone who is in a place where the cell
reception is very bad I should leave that person and message rather than trying to call in him or
her. Along with communication comes the feedback aspect this is where listening is required,
until and unless there is a feedback to the chain of communication it process is incomplete (Jain

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& Jeppe Jeppesen, 2013). Every communication has a purpose and that purpose if is completely
fulfilled when it ends with a feedback.
I had always perceived my emotional side being a negative aspect of my character,
something that I have always tried to hide so as to mask my outer appearance with a rough and
tough character. While discussing this assignment with my partner I understood that being
considerate and understanding is not a negative aspect rather it is the best part of a leader. I think
I always tend to be a transformational leader as I look forward to changes and improvement of
the current situations. In order to understand and work out the grievances and negative outlook of
the followers or juniors it is very important to bring about changes in small quantity. My partner
also appreciated my participation in the task and complimented on my commitment and work
ethics. Ethics is something that I feel is a backbone of someone’s character (Moriano et al.,
2015). It is not only doing the preconceived right things or listening to the conscience it is also
behaving and applying smartness in the process. Being ethical is an individual aspect and
keeping the leadership skills in sync with the ethics of an individual is the best practice of
leadership according to me. Business ethics teach a lot about leadership as well but again I think
leadership is circumstantial and depends on the type of institution which is being represented by
the leader (Vermeeren, Kuipers & Steijn, 2014).
As a transformational and adaptive leader I think most of the clash of interest is bound to
occur to conflict the changes proposed. Most human beings are apprehensive of changes and are
most of the time comfortable in the situation and position they are in. Hence, to bring about
changes and to alter the mindset of people in the first place is the most challenging aspect of
transformational style of leadership (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). Many people tend
to think of a transformation to be imposing in nature and will try to retaliate by not following the

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guidelines without realizing that the changes that are brought forward are made keeping in mind
the improvement and the betterment of the organization as well as the employees. In the case of
conflict of interest among people and leader the most effective way I think of solving the issue is
making an informative presentation of the changes implemented and how it will affect the lives
of the people in a positive way. In doing so again ethics become important part of leadership
where false hopes and lies can take a leader down the rages as trust is the basis of leadership and
a leader should always show loyalty towards the people and work for their betterment and put the
interest of the people over his or her own (Delmatoff & Lazarus, 2015).
For me it is very important to gain the trust of the people who are going to follow me in
the future. It is important because if they do not trust me they will not listen to what I have to say
even if it is for the betterment of the people. In order to cultivate this trust first of all I have to
know the point of interest of each of the people, I think a leader should know the group of people
he or she is leading because that gives an insight in analyzing why a person is behaving the way
he is. As I have mentioned my characteristic of listening to people and being patient, this is an
advantage and lends me an edge over any other leader (Aydin, Sarier & Uysal, 2013). I do my
research and my homework because I know there are several questions that I need to answer to
the people. Another advantage in my characteristic is that I am attentive and observant of my
environment. In this way I learn a lot form the people and try to implement that in the
operational process. This aspect of my character makes the people believe in me and gather a
loyal group of followers who are free to question my decision but ever doubt my judgment of a
situation. I am also adaptive leadership styles in any organization has to be dependent on the type
of followers, the goal of the team and the circumstance the team is working in. depending on the

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task requirement and the requirements of the department a leadership styles may take the form of
Autocratic, Participative, Transactional and Transformational (Anderson & Sun, 2017).
I have always seen myself as a people person; hence I can engage with people and
motivate and inspire them to move towards a collective goal in the future. In case of my
shortcomings in the way I communicate and especially the poor choice of medium can be easily
overcome by engaging in various communication lectures and understanding some basic theories
of communication. As a leader I want to be always fair, ethical in my work and also maintain my
value as well as respect others.

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Reference List:
Anderson, M. H., & Sun, P. Y. (2017). Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the
need for a new ‘full‐range’theory. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 19(1), 76-96.
Aydin, A., Sarier, Y., & Uysal, S. (2013). The Effect of School Principals' Leadership
Styles on Teachers' Organizational Commitment and Job
Satisfaction. Educational sciences: Theory and practice, 13(2), 806-811.
Choudhary, A. I., Akhtar, S. A., & Zaheer, A. (2013). Impact of transformational and
servant leadership on organizational performance: A comparative
analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(2), 433-440.
Delmatoff, J., & Lazarus, I. R. (2015). The most effective leadership style for the new
landscape of healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Management, 59(4), 245-249.
Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A., & Sen, S. (2013). The roles of leadership styles in
corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 114(1), 155-169.
Jain, A. K., & Jeppe Jeppesen, H. (2013). Knowledge management practices in a
public sector organisation: the role of leaders' cognitive styles. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 17(3), 347-362.
Moriano, J. A., Molero, F., Topa, G., & Mangin, J. P. L. (2014). The influence of
transformational leadership and organizational identification on
intrapreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management
Journal, 10(1), 103-119.

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Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.
Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in
management, 7(2), 57.
Vermeeren, B., Kuipers, B., & Steijn, B. (2014). Does leadership style make a
difference? Linking HRM, job satisfaction, and organizational
performance. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 34(2), 174-195.