Reflective Essay: Elon Musk's Leadership and My Style

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8
Figure 1: Gibbs Reflection Cycle....................................................................................................5
Table 1: SMART Goals....................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Reflection is the form of processing phase where the learning and thinking take place or
basically a practice of personal response to the events, situations and experiences to understand
the present and future dimensions for success and growth. So, for this purpose and after the
conduction of the previous assignment on the strategic enterprise, leadership and management
and its understandings, a reflection essay is developed here. The previous journal entry
assignment consisted of the case of selected entrepreneur/leader Elon Musk who is the inventor
of present brands like Tesla, Zip2, PayPal and SpaceX etc. So, regarding the understandings, this
reflective essay will be going to involve the responses to the topic, their impacts and influences
and my personal intended leadership style which I would prefer in the actions to work in the
industry.
Discussion
In the present scenario of tremendous innovation and commercialisation, understanding the
approaches and skills to establish success in future is necessary. The task to understand the skills
and characteristics of most successful leaders of the world, I have selected Elon Musk as he is
one of my role models to follow in the actions of life. The assignment has conducted a deepen
research on the personal details and background of Elon Musk, so as to determine the area of life
that has made him such a successful person of the world. While in the initial task, I had learnt
about the different leadership styles and approaches that can be utilised in a fast-growing
industry for the future growth and development of an individual. The task has made me
understand several aspects of management and leadership that can be used in future actions so as
to become a successful manager with effective leadership styles. The overall discussion of the
assessment and my learnings are described here with the help of an effective reflection model;
Gibbs reflection Cycle to present the learning with some essential aspects.
Description – this is a section of the cycle that involves the description and details of the tasks
completed, events attended or knowledge gained. For me, the task is to determine the different
types of leadership and management styles and their knowledge to underpin the knowledge
gained in future actions in the assessment one. In that task, I had an opportunity to gain
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knowledge of the different leadership and management styles and their areas in which they can
be employed. The task has been done satisfactorily and has helped me immensely in my personal
as well as professional future life. It can be said that this knowledge can be utilised a variety of
places in order to make the new area more competent and experience the reality with these
approaches.
Feelings – in the process, there can be some feelings that can decide the effect of the task
completed in terms of positive or negative ways in likes or dislikes. This stage of the cycle
defines the feelings of the person and in my case, the process has been a very effective learning
process that has made a very positive impact on my perceptions and needs that has to be
achieved in future. The role of leadership and management practices in a person's life can be vast
in several areas, rather in personal or professional life. So, for me, the feelings are positively
motivated this has made me more confident in my tasks because habit to deploy the actions with
the involvement of leadership and management ways will definitely enhance my success rate in
the future actions.
Evaluation – it is simply the portrayal of the good and bad in the task completed (University of
Cumbria, 2019). In addition to this, personal evaluation is a very necessary task which will help
in determining the present and future needs with the acknowledgement of the shortcomings.
Personally, I suppose evaluating myself is a complicated task as I generally keep things messy
and interrelated with each other that reduces the effectiveness of the tasks but at some instances,
this gave me that chance to understand the correlation between each other. In the assessment
conducted, I have got to learn about the area in a professional life that can be helpful in
maintaining continuous learning like education, position, skills etc. While at the same time, there
are some challenges for me in the development phase of the tasks like collecting the best possible
data, the correlation between different areas, representation of the information in a way that can
be easily understood by everyone. But, finally, it can be said that the overall process is very
helpful for me and hence can be taken in the good side in my personal and professional life.
Analysis – this is the stage which defines the areas that can be considered what might have
helped or hindered the event (Oxford Brookes University, 2019). In my case, there are basically
no such areas that have hindered my process to complete the tasks rather, there are various
situations that have given me the knowledge and understanding to make use of the different
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leadership and management styles to attain better results in my life. The role of my tutor is very
effective in making me more competent to conduct the tasks like this and become more potent
than others.
Conclusion – in conclusion, it can be said that the overall process of learning I have through the
completion of the previous task(s) is very helpful for me in gaining knowledge about the areas
which can be utilised to attain new heights which I thought are difficult and are not easy to be
used by anyone. So, this is also be seen as an area for future development as I have got an
interested in applying the leadership and management styles in life long learnings and phases of
life.
Figure 1: Gibbs Reflection Cycle
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Source: [University of Cumbria, 2019]
Action Plan – planning for the future development and resolving the issues that may arise again
in some situations is necessary and hence in my case also I have searched a while and got on a
conclusion that the plan should be very effective and decisions must be relevant and hence I have
decided them with the help of SMART goals approach.
Table 1: SMART Goals
Specific Measurable Agreed on Realistic Time-based
I have planned to
attain a safe and
secure position in
the industry
selected and
attain a reputed
position like a
manager as soon
as possible
The attainment
of the future
needs should
definitely be
measurable so I
think, when I
will reach the
satisfactory
position in
professional life
and have the
value to whom
people like to
meet and have
ideas, I would
take this as my
dynamic
measurable need
Deployment of
the different
leadership and
management
skills in all the
possible areas is
required. I have
also planned to
keep myself
dedicated
towards not only
my selected
industry because
gaining
knowledge of
different areas is
also necessary
Practically
gaining a
position in a
large business
unit is not an
easy task and
hence I have to
make some
strategic and
hard efforts to
attain the same
Since I am
pursuing my
education now
and to gain
success I have
some years to
work hard but I
would like to get
the desired goals
in the next 3
years or soon if
possible
This future action plan will be just a highlight of my personal needs and there are some areas and
processes that also need to be included by me in my personal and professional development for
future success.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the learning process by completing the previous tasks and
understanding the different leadership and management ways that can help me in making my life
easy and success is a lifetime learning phase of my life. While after performing the reflection on
the same in the above document will make me more directed towards the attainment of the new
goals and objectives and hence I should keep continuing my personal unique leadership and
management style. For me I think, making people dedicated and motivated with the proper
facilitation of the task to people is the key area of performance for a leader or a manager and
hence I will also focus on making these areas more dynamic. For this, I would prefer a style
which involves complete ethical practices for all my colleagues and sub-ordinates whereas I
would select the democratic style of leadership to make everyone satisfied which is not ideally
possible but I would try in my future tasks and practices in my complete life.
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References
Clarà, M., 2015. What is a reflection? Looking for clarity in an ambiguous notion. Journal of
Teacher Education, 66(3), pp.261-271.
Oxford Brookes University, 2019. Reflective writing: About Gibbs reflective cycle, online
available at https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/reflective-writing-gibbs/
last accessed on 8th January 2019.
University of Cumbria, 2019. Gibbs’ reflective cycle, online available at
https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/mycumbria/documents/ReflectiveCycleGibbs.pdf last accessed
on 12th January 2019.
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