Leadership Essay: Self Reflection on Leadership, Theories and Styles

This essay is a self-reflective analysis of the concept of leadership, exploring its application beyond the workplace and into all aspects of life. The author defines leadership as the process of influencing and motivating others. The essay delves into various leadership theories, including contingency, behavioral, and trait theories, and examines different leadership styles such as autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. The author reflects on their personal experiences, identifying strengths and weaknesses and recognizing themselves as a transformational leader. The essay also discusses the importance of adaptability, discipline, and vision in leadership. Furthermore, it analyzes how different leadership theories apply to practical situations and acknowledges the limitations of these theories. Ultimately, the essay emphasizes the significance of long-term vision and motivation in achieving goals, providing insights into the author's leadership style and its development.

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Leadership
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Leadership: Self Reflection
The concept of leadership is not limited to the work environment it can be seen in each and every
aspect of life. I understand this concept and identified that Leadership is considered as the
process in which an individual induce, motivate or influence behavior of others in order to make
things happen. Leaders are the individual who have ability to lead the team or group on the basis
of their style or approach of leadership and this style may vary according to the scenario that
could be home, work or other places1. I analyzed from the various situations and practical
scenarios that leadership is an important aspect or parameter to become a successful
organization. Leader should possess skills that can lead the group or followers. In my opinion the
most important and appreciated skill that make a leader different from others is long term vision
and strategic thinking. Further skills that are important and have to be present in a leader
includes creativity, integrity, communication, emotional intelligence and self-driven 2.
From classroom study, I learnt more about leadership theories and link of these theories with the
situation and leadership style of an individual. Theories of leadership are contingency theory,
behavioral theory and trait theory. Trait theory defines the individual personality traits and
focuses on the quality of the person that best describes a leader. Behavioral theory states that the
traits of leadership can be learnt and behavior of an individual can be changed according to the
circumstances and conditioning. Contingency theory focus on the leadership style and situation
as it states that an individual leadership style mainly depend on the current scenario and situation
and readiness of the followers3. From class learning, I find out that leadership styles of an
individual are different and Kurt Lewin defined it as, autocratic style, laissez faire, and
democratic style. Individual can use different style of leadership according to the situation or as
per their personality. Autocratic style is defined as when leader use control and authority and
dominate others with its power and authority to make things done and don’t involve others in
decision making. Democratic style is totally opposite of autocratic in this leader delegate its
authority to some extent and welcome suggestions of others in a positive manner in order to
boost creativity and motivation in the organization. In this style leader always try to encourage
others to engage and participate in decision making. The most preferred leadership style in this
competitive environment is laissez faire, in which leader delegate all of its authority to
subordinate and let them do the task as per their caliber without any limits and authority, through

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this follower get confident to handle the things by their own way without any assistance and
direction4.
This section gives insight about my understanding and experience related to leadership concept,
styles and theories. I have seen and experienced various circumstances and scenarios that shaped
my perspective on the concept of leadership. I see myself in the role of a leader “one who
converts vision into action for a future that influences others to follow me” and reflect that the
most important part of a leader is to motivate, develop and induce others towards achievement of
goals and unite them, guide them in the same direction5. With analyzing my weaknesses and
strengths and thinking about my past experiences I see myself as the transformational leader as
from my strengths I understand that I try to find the best way for each and every problem and
always motivated towards my goals. All these traits are related to characteristics of
transformational leader. Some of the traits that I think I possess are:
1. Creativity and New ideas: The traits that I experienced in myself are creative thinking
and readiness to accept the challenges. Like when I work in a team to complete
assignment I always try to find different ways for doing the same thing rather than doing
same thing with a same method I initiate to adopt new ways and love to experiment and
think out of the box.
2. Proactive and Adaptable: Adaptability is the most important element in order to be
successful as a leader as I believe that “which doesn’t change, doesn’t grow and that
which doesn’t grow will die” so proactive person can accept the change easily and this
help in both the aspects in personal as well as in professional life.
3. Discipline and Self Driven: For me discipline and motivation is the key that drive an
individual in the life it is like fuel in a car that drive the vehicle. I am goal oriented person
who always directed towards achievement of goals by following strict disciplines and
rules. I develop my skills day by day as continuous improvement is key for achievement
of goals. I try to motivate myself by learning new things and be curious that can add
some skills in my personality that helps me to shine in near future.
This reflection helps me to gather much more information about my traits and leadership style by
applying leadership theories and approaches. I am feeling motivated and confident about my

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leadership traits and understand style that I follow in order to lead the group or team. On the
basis of traits that I analyzed in my behavior and working are all related to transformational
leadership style but “I am not stuck to single behavior rather my style changes as per the
situation” as I get to know from my past experiences that firstly I analyses the situation, then
understand what is the cause and on that basis I take decision about what is best and to do and
what not to do. I observed that I possess participative skills, strong problem solving skills,
innovative thinking skills all that are the traits in transformational leader. I identified through the
examinations of my past behavior that I experienced transformational characteristics and all this
will be helpful for me in near future for becoming successful leader.
I reflected on theories of leadership also, how these leadership theories can be used in the
practical scenario. The first and foremost thing is that I understand contingency theory, from that
I get an idea that it depend on the situation or circumstances as a leader opt or choose style of
leadership as per the situation and from that the concept of contingency theory is clarified in my
mind. I analyzed by past situations and found that in my case I always react according to the
situation and lead the group as per the behavior and readiness level of the followers and change
according to their ways. In understand that sometimes I applied or adopted autocratic leadership
when I think that I am right and my decision will benefit others or all the team members. I insist
my siblings to follow that instead of understanding their way I tried to force them to follow my
way.
Further, I understand the elements of contingency theory, that are delegation of power by leader
to followers to some extent according to situation, goals are mainly set by the leader for team,
amount of authority and responsibility and clarity for the goals and tasks. Behavioral theory
helps me to understand that I acquired and learnt some traits in my school life when teacher
insisted me to participative in games and team building activity I learnt from that how to work in
a team and lead a group so this incident reminded me that behavior or conditioning also help an
individual to develop a trait and follow it6. From these theories and study material I understand
that leadership theories have some drawbacks. I came to know from the reading that some of the
traits can be learn, some are inherent and some can be developed through training and experience
throughout the life. Individual person possess different skills no one in this world is same or no
one has same way of dealing with a situation. For instance, two most successful entrepreneurs

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have different traits and skills, Bill gates possess autocratic style of leadership whereas Elon
Musk founder of Tesla and SpaceX possess transformational leadership style. From these
examples I gain clarity that each individual success depends on its unique way of dealing with
the situation and different person show different leadership style in a similar situation.
For instance, in group projects when I take initiate to lead and try to understand the behavior and
skills of people in the group so that I can identify their strengths and excellent areas this help me
to divide the task according to the skills that each individual excels at and through that I
understand that my leadership style is based on the group behavior and skills. I was leading a
group in which a member stucked to a single way of doing it and don’t want to come out of their
comfort zone and insisted others to do the same but I tried to influence others and motivate them
to think out of the box and experiment through different tactics and because of my motivation
and guidance group members tried and succeed in finding different ways for a problem.
From the reading and personal experience I understand that the most important part in a leader is
their long term vision and motivation level that drive them to attain the goals. For instance, I
motivate myself by doing the things that I like the most and feel enthusiastic to that. I try to
initiate, being optimistic, and motivate myself by reading the biographies of successful;
personalities from that I learn that how they get out from their failure and always stay motivated
in their career path. I always find innovative ways; feel curious about new things. The best thing
that I learnt is that “when I am motivated all the members near me get positive vibes and energy
and that makes a task so easy to do that is the reason I am always optimistic and I am ready to
take new challenges”.
I am summing up this reflection here and want to conclude that leadership is a concept in which
leader motivate, guide and direct others by setting their example or with their leadership style.
Through the reading and analyzing my past experiences I understood that leadership is not
limited to leaders but follower situation and readiness also affects the leaders and their leadership
style. A leader lead the group or team as per their willingness to accept and learn and change
their approach as per the situation that I learnt from contingency theory and further in this
reflection I got to know my leadership style and most dominating trait with the help of trait
theory. These theories guide and help in understanding the style that a leader can adapt in

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different situation. In a nutshell, leadership concept and theories are important element of
management.

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Bibliography
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1. Northouse, P. G. Leadership: Theory and practice; Sage Publications, 2018.
2. Storey, J. Changing theories of leadership development; Routledge: New York, 2016.
3. Bolden, R. leadership, management and organizational development. Handbook of leadership
and management development 2016, 22, 143-158.
4. Anderson, M. H.; Sun, P. Y. Reviewing Leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a new
"full range theory". International Journal of Management 2017, 19 (1), 76-66.
5. Heifetz, R.; Linsly, M. Leadership on the line, with a new preface: Staying alive through the
danger of change. Harvard Business Review 2017.
6. Pardey, D. Introducing Leadership; Routledge: New York, 2016.
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