Personal and Professional Development: Leadership Reflection

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on the leadership style of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, focusing on his practical approaches and impact on the company. The report utilizes the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to analyze Bezos's leadership qualities, including communication, innovation, and strategic thinking. It highlights his emphasis on setting examples, fostering a supportive culture, and encouraging employee skill development. The analysis covers various aspects, such as strategy formation, change management, and the importance of feedback. The conclusion emphasizes the practical application of leadership over theoretical approaches. The report also includes an action plan for skill development and references relevant literature. This assignment, completed for a Personal and Professional Development module at the University of Suffolk, offers valuable insights into effective leadership in a corporate environment.

Personal and Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY........................................................................................................................................3
Reflection on leadership....................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is defined as guiding employees in company towards achieving the
common goals and objectives. This report is based on the case study of Amazon Company
CEO Jeff Bezos in respect to his leadership style. Company was established in the year 1994
by the founder Jeff Bezos. Headquarter of the company is located in United States of
America. This report will be a reflection on the CEO of Amazon Company about his
leadership style. Precise approaches of the leadership of the Amazon Company’s CEO will be
projected in this report.
MAIN BODY
Reflection on leadership
Gibbs Reflective Cycle is an approach used to project about different factors related
to the personality and leadership style of the Amazon Company CEO. This reflective cycle
comprises with different stages as a part of the reflection such as evaluation stage, analysis,
conclusion stage and what possible actions could have been taken to improve the learning
experience. In the end this model also guides with an action plan that suggests different ways
to improve the growth potential in future.
Description: I have analysed about the leadership style of CEO of Amazon Inc Jeff Bezos. I
have experienced different sides of the leadership style of the Amazon Company CEO. The
leadership style is more practical based rather than implementing theoretical approaches
being a leader. I observed in the initial stage of the project about different skills the CEO of
Amazon Company carry. I identified that he is good with communication skill, presentation
skill, research skill, observation skill, analytical skill, innovative, creative and so many
different skills he carry being a leader (Ciulla, 2020). All these skills allow the CEO of
Amazon Company to lead the entire team of Amazon Company from the front. He likes to set
example being a leaders which all employees of company can follow or try to achieve such
standards from the quality efforts. I also observed and identified about different personality
trait he carries being a leader in one of the top corporate sector organisation of the globe. He
is very participative in nature. He is keen towards getting new ideas and techniques with the
support of innovation. My experience of meeting him was great. He supported me throughout

of my project and he shared many experiences of him being a leader and also being a student
in his graduation days. My experience was very great and he gave me very positive vibes that
I could channelize into the completion of my project. I also identified the supportive culture
the Amazon Company has. All employees in the organisation were very supportive towards
me and they all gave the exact information i wished to have to conclude my project. I also set
guidelines at initial level to conducts different actions for achieving the outcomes of the
project. I already made my schedule to point out set of actions i need to take to implement my
project.
This project not just gave me the exposure about the theoretical approach leaders
need to follow but its more on the practical side of the leadership style of Amazon Company
CEO Jeff Bezos. My entire experience of this project was more like learning as i got to know
about all different traits of the leadership in a company. All analysis guided me about
different approaches leaders use to achieve the overall business operations. I experienced that
Jeff Bezos the CEO was focuses over the practical approaches like strategy formation,
strategy improvement, change management, research and many other practices that can guide
to the desired outcome of business. Being a leader’s it becomes essential to set examples in
the organisation from the outcomes. I have experienced that his focus is to make the company
as the leader in the business environment. He likes to explore different sides of business
which allowed him to launch different products related to different business environment
sector. Today company give huge priorities to innovation and creativity. This is another key
side of the leadership of the Jeff Bezos. He motivate to all his employees towards innovation
and creativity. My entire experience has been very precise and learning that has given me
different perspectives on leadership skills and also on the implementation of leadership even
in big or huge organisations like Amazon Company.
Feelings: My experience of the project is very efficient. I have learnt about different areas
that can support me in overall growth and development. The leadership style of Jeff Bezos
has guided me to learn and improve different skills such as communication skill, problem
solving skill, research skill, analytical skill and other skills require achieving higher growth in
the professional career. My learning of the project that the leader must be dynamic, creative
and innovative. My feelings about the project are that leadership is a vital tool that also
supports in overall development of personality of an individual. I also identified different
ways that can support the skill development being a leader (Eva and et.al., 2019). I felt like at
the end of the project I have already upgraded at certain level. I also took regular breaks in

the mid of every task which also kept me refreshing throughout of my journey of the project.
I felt the best part about the project was to have sufficient background about an effective
leadership style.
Evaluation: This project has been a great learning experience for me over leadership and its
importance in corporate organisation. I have collected both good as well bad experiences. I
analysed that some of the approaches of the CEO of Amazon Company like motivating
employees to improve skills like research skills, communication skill, presentation skill,
decision making and other key are among the positive aspects about the leadership. Al these
approaches have improved the growth of both employees along with the organisation.
Communication skill is also an important part of effective leadership. He always gives
priorities to communicate with all different stakeholders including employee also about the
targets of the company and also about the objectives behind the working practices company
use. Being a leader work could have been explained practically in more professional manners
which also support employees to deliver more productive working practices (Horton and
Epstein, 2020). I also identified some of the negative points which is lacking of practical
examples to employees. Live examples can also demonstrate to given proper guidance to
employees. I can evaluate the entire experie3nces during this project has taught me about the
positive sides of the CEO of Amazon Inc but along with some aspects of the leadership that
can also be criticised.
Analysis: Analysis is also an important aspect involve in the reflection. In the end of the
project this step involve analysing the entire project outcome so that proper learning can be
framed in the more professional manner. I identified that my learning from the project is
more productive as i juts not learnt basic theoretical approaches leaders can use rather I got to
know the practical side of the leadership in an organisation. I learnt how leaders deal with
different issues in the organisation and also in case of issues with external forces of the
organisation (Horton and Epstein, 2020). I have analysed that leadership is about to observe
the requirements of organisation and based on the observation taking the best decisions that
can cope up with the objectives of company. I also evaluated about the different strategies
over the leadership style of CEO of Amazon. Importance of taking feedback is also another
critical aspect I have learnt while completing of this project. I have analysed the feedback
must mention all key points like strengths of operation, weaknesses in approaches and other
points that enable leader to aware about the potential areas that need to be developed on an

instant basis. This has also supported Jeff Bezos as a leader in making some specific changes
to improve the outcomes of the company.
Conclusion: Conclusion is another crucial aspect involve in this reflective cycle model. I can
conclude that the project has taught me different aspects involve in the leadership of the
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (MacBeath, 2019). He is more concerned over the practical
implication of the leadership instead of applying only theoretical approaches on the
leadership.
Action Plan: Actions plan is all about improving different areas that can generate the best
result in future.
Skill Strategies Evaluation of skill Time
Time management
skill
 Setting up the
bucket list of
actions.
 Making
priority list.
 Setting up off
boundaries.
Practical approaches
will support in
improving such skill.
7 weeks
Work management
skill
 Defining
vision in
beginning.
 Resource
analysis
 Setting up
objectives
By working on the
approaches i can
improve the work
management skill
(Renz, 2016).
6 weeks.
CONCLUSION
This is a reflection about the leadership of the Amazon Company CEO Jeff Bezos.
His leadership is more concerned about practicality rather than theoretical approaches of
leadership. He always motivates employees in the company towards skills development and
improvement. He took personal involvement in all aspects of the business which allow him to
control the entire business.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ciulla, J. B., 2020. Leadership and the problem of bogus empowerment. In The Search for
Ethics in Leadership, Business, and Beyond (pp. 177-195). Springer, Cham.
Eva, N. and et.al., 2019. Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future
research. The Leadership Quarterly. 30(1). pp.111-132.
Horton, J. and Epstein, R. M., 2020. Mindful Leadership. In Management and Leadership
Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives (pp. 51-58). Springer, Cham.
Horton, J. and Epstein, R. M., 2020. Mindful Leadership. In Management and Leadership
Skills for Medical Faculty and Healthcare Executives (pp. 51-58). Springer, Cham.
MacBeath, J., 2019. Leadership for learning. In Instructional Leadership and Leadership for
Learning in Schools (pp. 49-73). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Renz, D. O., 2016. The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John
Wiley & Sons.