Reflective Journal: Managing, Leadership, & Stewardship (MBA)

This reflective paper details a student's journey through a Managing, Leadership, and Stewardship (MLS) module within their MBA program. The reflection covers pre-subject expectations, mid-subject insights, and post-subject philosophies. The student reflects on their initial aspirations of becoming a CEO, and how the course shifted their perspective on leadership, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing stakeholders and ethical practices. The paper incorporates personal experiences, including challenges faced in previous management roles and group leadership, and how the course helped develop interpersonal skills. It discusses case studies and in-class activities, such as role-playing scenarios, to illustrate the practical application of leadership theories. The reflection highlights the evolution of the student's understanding of ethical leadership, decision-making, and organizational culture, emphasizing the need to balance organizational visions with the needs of investors, customers, and employees. The paper concludes with a summary of the student's post-subject philosophy, emphasizing transparency, fairness, diversity, and ethical uprightness in leadership, along with a commitment to continuous learning and responsible decision-making.

Managing, Leadership, & Stewardship1
Managing, Leadership, & Stewardship
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Managing, Leadership, & Stewardship
Pre-Subject Reflection
Being a Managing Director or a CEO of a company was something that I admired a lot as
I was in school and that influenced my choice of undertaking Finance and Marketing course.
Once I graduated in the Finance and Marketing field the interest of being a CEO in a company at
some point in life escalated and became a dream that I wished to come true. Any graduate with
dreams of being at the top of any company is aware of the hard work and the mindset of the
people in top management so as to be able to know the strategies required to reach that peak
point of management. In my MBA study I came across an important topic where it pointed on
the right ways that are necessary to lead a company. However, this topic gave me an entirely
different reflection on management, leadership and stewardship requirements contrary to what I
initially had in mind. To me leading a company meant understanding how to manage but this
topic gave me an insight on how to separate leading a company where prioritizing investors and
stakeholders come first and leading a company where people priorities come first. My choice to
study Finance and Marketing was important as it enlightened me on three crucial pointers. One is
it was my choice as it fitted with my career field. The other reason is because of my interest in
learning leadership and finally this subject granted me the power to be able to change how
management is seen externally. Stewardship in my assumption I can define it as the way people
are supervised in an organization. Stewardship was also a subject of interest to me as I wanted to
know its different approaches and dimensions. Other topics of interest that I came across was
Organizational Dialogue and Theory and Practices that majorly dealt with importance of good
leadership in an organization and both topics go hand in hand. Choosing this subject was a good
idea to me as it helped me in learning and adding my interpersonal skills as well. Any leader
should possess good interpersonal skills that help in efficient way of conversing as well as being
an effective listener. This subject therefore will sharpen my interpersonal skills as a leader and I
will be able to blend in into the corporate world.
Another example of a challenge I faced as a leader was when I was employed as a
Manager in a Sports Consulting Company. During that time as the Manager, most of the times I
was not able to prioritize work for the team that I was leading. Having a team comprising of 12
people and working on different projects at a time was a challenge. We mostly dealt with

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handling of the brand partners of the company, manning the office in India as well as ensuring
customer satisfaction and customer care functions. All these responsibilities sometimes weighed
us down and at some point, my team and I would work for 10 hours straight in one day and this
was very strenuous because sometimes I would ignore calls from the brand partners which was
bad for business. I got out of that company and now sometimes I look back and I am ashamed on
how I handled business there and I think I could have done better in my work as an effective
leader.
In the course of undertaking my bachelor degree, our school had a drama society
whereby I was the President of that club. Drama groups are normally huge and contain a lot of
participants and our drama group was no different. There were about 250 students who
participated in drama and that was a challenge to me in terms of managing such a big number. I
faced challenges as the President of the drama group especially in allocating equal opportunities
to all the members and ensuring that all members felt their presence was valued. Being a leader
(President of the drama group) made me feel like I was not fair enough to all members involved
and this made me feel like I could have handled the leadership better. Undertaking this subject
though, made me learn and gain more advantage in personal and professional growth as a leader.
Mid-subject Reflection
During my first semester in my lectures in MLS, I encountered other students who were
from vast cultures and backgrounds that were interesting as they shared their opinions and views
in terms of their personal encounters and experiences with leadership. Incorporation of lectures
and series of insightful tutorials every week was an eye-opener to us on what real world
leadership problems were as well as sharpening theories that we learned in our lectures.
Combining both class lectures and theories together with tutorials was insightful and made us
understand leadership wholly.
In-class activities
Real and complex activities in week 4 put my mind to test and made me think even
harder on real life practices. We were given a case study to work on as a group and I did a role

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play as the director of the company King Gee being Managing, Leading & Stewardship (MLS)
Jatin Hooda-128719625. I was to role play as Bill Quinn. The director and the HR manager were
bearing news and were mandated to break the news to the employees. The news was not good
and it shocked both the employees of King Gee and the town of Kempsey. This tutorial made me
ponder about life especially the part where Bill's father told him while driving to the airport that
he(Bill) has ruined Kempsey. Here I learnt that due to the decisions of the company
management, Bill made a decision also to relocate the company from Kempsey. This decision
from the management negatively affected the people of Kempsey as for many generations they
relied on the company. The management made a poor decision to relocate instead they could
have looked for a better solution to that issue. In every tutorial each group got a chance to role
play Bill Quinn and each applied the theory of stakeholders to come to a solid solution. My
group came up with concerns and we presented them to the executive board of King Gee, the
employees and the stakeholders. As Bill Quinn in my group, we came up with ideas through
discussions on how to avoid shutting down the company by injecting long term plans that would
sustain the company in Kempsey instead of shifting. Such plans were like working long hours to
increase company revenue or alternatively reduce pay. We discussed on ways to prioritize
tradeoffs of the employees while keeping in mind methods of taking care of King Gees executive
concerns.
Change in my expectations
After the 4th week, I came to realize that unethical practices have negative impact on
people as they could affect the trust of people towards a company. As a manager, it is crucial to
concentrate on stewardship and as a leader it is important to make responsible decisions as
regards to other people instead of company's executives. At that point I decided to try and be a
leader who would always bear in mind results of my decisions as well as balancing the
organization's vision and take care of organization investors interests. My other responsibility as
a good leader was to set up an organization culture that ensured each person was valued and felt
equal to the rest devoid of bias.

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Post subject reflection
It is important as a leader to balance the company’s visions, ensure there is a health
organization culture where every person feels valued and equal and also to ensure the needs of
investors and customers are met. Unethical practices should be avoided in organizations so as to
maintain trust of people towards the company. After my 11 weeks of assignments, tutorials,
lectures and discussions, I was able to get a clear understanding of the subject and it has
impacted me positively. This subject has influence me in looking at work in a pure manner and
that has encouraged me to want to pursue it even in the outside world.
Class activities experiences
MLS has taught me how to respect both people and work at the same time and also how
to be a leader in an organization following ethical ways. Different class case studies shed some
light in my way of thinking for example e, the letter that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while in
jail. The letter showed how learned and educated Martin Luther was and it shocked me how it
revealed so much in a very subtle way. I learned how unethical leadership behaviors such as
greed, arrogance, pride can bring giant companies to its downfall. In my debate group, we
debated on corrupt practices found in organizations. For example, the unethical practices in FIFA
World cup Qatar 2020 officials. The actions committed that made them have it rough to face the
society with such bad allegations against them such as bribery. These unethical practices of an
organization make it quire tough for both the defense and opposition sides to answer for them.
The case studies taught us to be grounded individuals and be able to make sound and tough
decisions as leaders based on truths and following ethical practices at all times. I also got to learn
on different organization structures from different countries and make comparisons.
Changes in perception post the subject teaching
At the beginning of my 1st tutorial, we did a case study whereby we made an employee
redundant; here I got the opportunity to act as a presenter. However, at the end of the course, I
got to get more insight on this subject and faced situations in a different perspective by being
keener on good business practices. I have been able to become a better task master, better in
oratory skills as well as a better judge and a good listener. All these qualities will enable me to

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work on any weaknesses I might have and help in realizing my strengths all which will be useful
in my pursuit of being a good leader in the world of work.
My post subject philosophy
During my stay in school and study of MLS, I have gained sound philosophies that will
lead me in my career path towards being a great leader. I intend to be transparent, fair, and
diverse in culture and be a person that advocates for positive changes in an organization. The
subject has also instilled the importance of being morally and ethically upright and always takes
ownership and responsibility my actions. It has also made me realize that being a leader one
needs to be discrete and trust whenever making changes in the organization by yourself as it true
as per the saying that it’s lonely at the top. At the beginning of my study of the subject, the‘’
concepts were very vague, but throughout the learning process through use of case studies,
lectures, discussions and tutorials, the concepts became clear and I developed my knowledge.
The use of the case studies examples that were offered to us especially, have sharpened my acute
understanding of the subject and this has enabled me to look at cases in a manager’s eye and
perspective. In so doing, am able to look at situations presented from a leader’s perspective and
make decisions as should a leader in the real world. All the tutorials, lectures and case studies as
well combined discussions with other students were an Eye-opener for me and greatly helped in
me in depth understanding of the subject. The study of the subject and the understanding of the
same will surely help me in my career path towards becoming not only a leader in the corporate
world but also a great ethically upright leader for that matter.