Reflective Journal: Analyzing Leadership Theories and Self-Assessment

This reflective journal analyzes the student's leadership skills, experiences, and development throughout a course on people, culture, and contemporary leadership. The assignment delves into the student's self-awareness, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses through the lens of various leadership theories, including those related to talent management and recruitment. The student reflects on learnings from lectures, online resources (videos), guest speakers, in-class activities, assessment feedback, and psychometric tests. The journal explores the application of leadership principles, the importance of aligning organizational strategy with talent management, and the development of skills like communication and collaboration. The student also discusses the results of personality and situational judgment tests, identifying areas for improvement and strategies for becoming a more effective leader. The journal culminates in a conclusion that summarizes the student's learning journey and the insights gained regarding their leadership potential.

Running Head: PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
People Culture and Contemporary Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
Introduction
The main purpose of this particular essay is to analyze and evaluate my own leadership
skills in order to improve on the self-awareness. The areas where it is necessary to polish my
leadership skills will also be described in the essay. In order to fulfil the purpose of the essay, my
activities will be measured along with the learnings and the experiences in the class. The
snapshot of the psychometric test results will also be attached with the essay.
Reflective Essay
An outline of the concept of leadership
The term ”leadership” is difficult to discern easily because there are many attributes
connected with leadership. Hence, the leadership attributes need to be specified first in order to
clear what is leadership. The leaders are those who inspire the followers with a clear and worthy
vision. There are many directions which are set by the leaders for achieving optimal performance
(Kyratsis et al. 2016). The performance of the leader is helpful for the organization to ultimately
achieve the exceptional position from the market rivals and I turn receive enhanced profits.
Among the certain skills that a leader must possess is the skill of convincing the subordinates to
work hard on their own willingness and not on the direction of any other person. The dynamic
and inspirational leaders are always known for their ability to set challenging, improving and
motivational tasks for the followers (Jeon et al. 2015). Among the various types of leadership,
the transformational, transitional and autocratic leadership are the most important and common
ones.

2PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
A leader is always responsible for the delivery of then vision in an organization. The
leaders are highly contributory of the increase in the effectiveness of an employee and the team
as a whole as well. However, the leadership efforts cannot be fruitful when there is a lack of
management. The industry is full of completion and the leadership qualities need to be
incorporated in order to gain the competitive advantage. I have learnt that the performance of an
organization can become low without proper leadership irrespective of the size, talent pool and
assets of the company. The leadership practices can support the theoretical approaches of an
organization. Hence, according to my observations, it is most successful when a group of people
accept someone’s opinion and directions while working in order to fulfill the organizational
goals.
The leadership theories
The theories of leadership are abundant in studies and the connection of the talent
acquisition and leadership is most interesting among them as found by my observations. My
learning outcome in the workshop 3 will be helpful in future as I have become highly influence
by the theories learnt in the process. The theory of talent acquisition has been the primary focus
of week 3 in the course. I have come in knowledge with the talent acquisition that is not a single
and easy task but an amalgamation of various aspects.
Knowledge has also been gathered regarding the hiring training and recruitment
principles associated with leadership. The accomplishment of the organizational goals is
dependent on the human resource department in an organization. The human resource planning
in an organization needs to be properly managed and the leader of an organization is supposed to
ensure that. As the workshop has finished, I have known how to recognize the fundamental
drivers of the planning in the human resource along with the process of recruitment in the

3PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
organization. In the workshop, the employee value proposition has received greater interest and
have been explained in deeper details. My perception regarding the idea and values of the
‘employer of choice’. It is about establishing a workplace where the employee feels great to
work at and it can be established by the cultural relationship that is more collaborative and open
to all. The ability to differentiate between the different employment techniques have been known
by myself.
Again in the workshop of week 4, the employee rewards and performance have been the
main topic of concern. My knowledge regarding the performance of people and the relationship
with the organizational achievement has become broader after going through this workshop. In
also discusses that the ultimate steadiness of the organization in future can be determined by the
proper conduction of the talent management system. After the conduction of the course work, I
have realized that the correct recognition of the talent and appraisals of those talents increases
the employee motivation and subsequently the organizational effectiveness.
On the other hand, the next workshop that is about the leadership development and talent
management has grabbed my maximum interest. I have understood that the talent management
is the other name for supporting the employees to perform better then they perform now. It is
also about preparing the employee for advancement in future. The employee retention strategies
have been well adopted by myself and now I know that employee retention is necessary for
keeping the old, trusted and experienced employees.
The Online resources
The video resource has been highly beneficial for understanding how an established
organization can convert into a better environment to work with by the application of the
performance management strategy. According to my assessment, the talent management begins

4PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
with acquiring, hiring and retaining the talented people in the organization. The best results can
be gained by the alignment of the organizational strategy with the talent management. The
leaders who are dedicated to the implementation of the talent management skills are more
prepared to compete with other organizations on the global level. The identification of the
essential skills in the employees can be helpful along with recruiting the high-quality candidates
making use of the job descriptions.
The industry guest
The learning in the coursework could not have been complete without the support
received from the lectures of the guest lecturer. The journey of the guest lecturer as an evolving
leader have been highly inspirational for me. His explanation of the topics such as the leadership,
the skills required and the traits of a true leader along with suitable examples. His examples suit
the concept of team building in an organization. However, the primary focus of the guest lecturer
was on the analysis of the duties, role and responsibilities of an actual leader in the workplace.
My attendance of this lectures have enabled me to consider that development of a leaders is
closely connected with the development of plan.
The leadership according to the guest lecture is the knowledge and understanding of an
individual. The leaders can do it by sharing a clear vision and communicating that with the co-
partners having taken effective actions to measure the leadership potential in an individual
(Hallinger 2018). The leadership abilities are the next lessons that have been learned by myself.
According to my assessment, leadership is about envisioning a clear future and preparing the
people with passion and empowering vision. Further, I have grown the management and
leadership differentiating ability. As an example, a manager is the one who utilizes the authority

5PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
to achieve the compliance out of the members in an organization, whereas, a leader is the one
who motivates a group of people to fulfill the organizational goals.
In class activities
The professional experiences regarding the leadership and the leadership skills have been
taught in the class. In terms of the in class activities, it is the most effective complementary part
of the entire course work (Gold and Thorpe 2016). The knowledge of the mere theories from the
workshops, the lectures of the guest and the online resources have been complemented by the
practical activities in the class. The primary concentration of the in –class activities have bene on
the recruitment and reward, development and management of talent, thee leadership and the
related strategies.
The assessment feedback
The assessment feedbacks received from the assessment 1 have been beneficial for me to
work on my strengths as well as the weaknesses. The overall structure of the assignment has
been done properly by myself and the comments suggest that I have done well in extracting the
possible solutions. The recommended strategies have been remarked as good attempt and will be
helpful in establishing more connection with the theoretical framework. In the performance
review, my scores suggest that I need more in-depth look into the relevant journals although the
quality of other parts was good and sufficient. I further need to explain the key concepts with
minute details. The culture and initiative part has been a little tough for me and the feedback
suggests that I need to look beyond the HR initiatives although there was nice coverage of the
issue. The lack of refinement in the paper has made me think to work on my perfectionist skills.
The overall learning outcome from the feedbacks is that I have learnt that a solid context is
required in any assessment in order to elaborate on the theories.

6PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
The psychometric tests
The psychometric tests are the actual reflection of the leadership potential within my own
self. The situational judgement test was the first psychometric test which I have gone through.
This type of test makes the candidate face realistic workplace related situations. The test
consisted of a list of situational case studies based on which I had to answer certain questions.
My total score was 20 out of 32 that is more than 50% , proving that my analytical skills are
above the ordinary. This psychometric test which is founded on the situational judgement has
helped me upto greater extent in evaluating my presence of mind towards the given situation.
However, I have gone through another test that is the personality test in order to validate the
results of the situational judgement test.
The personality test on the other hand comprised of a god range of questions designed to
test my personality and perceptions (Fletcher and Arnold 2015). The outcomes of the test suggest
that in my personality, the skills relayed to the leadership skills are present in a moderate rate. As
far as openness to experience is concerned, I have presented myself as a low scorer. It elaborates
that I am a conservative, practical and down to earth person who is less open easily in any given
situation. In terms of conscientiousness I have scored more than 60 % that clarifies that I am
average performer. After the results of the test, I have found myself as person who prefers
flexible plans and staying formal and reserved. The area where I need to work on is the area of
agreeableness in my personality. However, the area of natural reaction is a strong point in my
personality which process that I am a good adopter of contrary situations and do not get easily
deemed by hurdles in life.
In a nutshell, I would like to express that I am neither overwhelmed by the high scores
nor I am demoralized by the lower ones. At the end I know that it is a learning process and I have

7PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
to work on my lacks as well as strengthen my strong points. It was an amazing experience to
developed my collaboration, communication skills and the self-confidence level. In order to
become an effective leader in future, I need to improve on my managing capabilities. The
psychometric tests have identified my skills and deficiencies.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, I would like to sum up that the analysis of myself through the leadership
skills have been one of my best experience as a learner. The reflective journal has helped to step-
by –step mention the sources of my learning and evaluate my skills against those skills. The
knowledge of the leadership theories through the workshops, the online resources, the lectures of
the industry guest, the in-class activities, the feedback of the assessment 1 and the psychometric
tests were my areas of concern. All of these have contributed to the analysis of my strengths and
weaknesses. Reflecting on what I have done I would design the tasks that I need to do. I will
work on strengthening my strategies to develop myself as an effective leader.

8PEOPLE CULTURE AND CONTEMPORARY LEADERSHIP
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