Responsible Leadership Effectiveness: Reflection on Personal Growth

This reflective portfolio provides an in-depth analysis of a student's experiences with responsible leadership. The document details three significant 'aha' moments, highlighting the evolution of the student's understanding of leadership principles. The reflection emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and empathy in effective leadership, drawing connections between these aspects and practical leadership practices. The analysis identifies patterns and connections between the experiences, emphasizing the significance of motivation, communication, and social skills. Furthermore, the portfolio outlines future improvement plans, focusing on coaching, mentoring, and team development to enhance emotional intelligence and innovative thinking. The student acknowledges the importance of balancing emotions with technical abilities and stresses the need to prioritize team needs and empathetic approaches. The student highlights the importance of self-awareness as a key trait for leaders and the need to develop strong social skills and communication abilities.

Running head: RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS: REFLECTION
RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS: REFLECTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The “Aha” moments........................................................................................................................2
Moment 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Moment 2.....................................................................................................................................3
Moment 3.....................................................................................................................................3
Patterns and Connections.................................................................................................................4
Identified Patterns and Connections............................................................................................4
Relationships between practices and literatures of leadership....................................................5
Future improvement plans...............................................................................................................7
Coaching and mentoring..............................................................................................................7
Team needs..................................................................................................................................7
Usage of formal evaluation..........................................................................................................8
Future Progress............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The reflective portfolio provides information, analysis and discussion about the
responsible leadership aspects that I was able to experience through the duration of my work. I
provide three significant ‘aha’ moments that was experienced to further enhance the reflective
process. I think leadership is about many different aspects that are bound together in perfect
harmony to create an optimally efficient growth path for a person as well as the concerned group.
Leadership is not just about leading people but leading oneself at the same time. Hence, this
balancing act between guiding people and guiding oneself at the same time becomes a
challenging task for all leaders. However, a large part of leadership according to me is connected
with providing encouragement to groups of individuals to focus and strive towards common
goals. An organization can only perform well if there is effective coordination between groups of
individuals. I consider Emotional Intelligence to be one of the crucial aspects that can go on to
define leadership. This is because a leader has more important goals than just to give orders. The
emotional intelligence of the leader needs to be enhanced due to the requirement of the
organization. I believe that there are some significant aspects related to leadership that need to be
enhanced in order to improve the skills.
The “Aha” moments
Moment 1
One of my first ‘Aha’ moments while working for Castrol India ltd. was when I was
handling this project called the Personal Digital Assistance project. I envisioned that this project
will help both the sales representatives and the managers to contribute greatly with the sales

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process. I talked to my managers but was not able to make great head starts initially. It took a
long for me to actually convince my superiors of the plan that I had. In the end I was given a
special task to train the sales representatives in rural areas. I had to take this endeavor only to
prove my superiors that this can be done. I trained the team and they responded well. This
actually helped me to garner the confidence of my supervisors. I was able to make them
understand about my vision and applied the same to effectively change the process for sales.
Self-awareness helps in the process of knowing ones capabilities. I consider self-awareness to be
one of the stepping stones for the essential development of leadership skills. Additionally as
already known, it does help to create high levels of emotional intelligence (Miao, Humphrey and
Qian 2018). Self-awareness can be couples with innovation as being optimally self-aware
actually helps a person to be more innovative. This moment actually helped me to understand
how self-aware I was.
Moment 2
The next “aha” moment in my work life was when I was actually able to influence the
sales managers to follow the new sales process. This was actually related to my training that I
provided to my subordinates. This helped in the creation of essentially beneficial relationships
between me and my supervisors. The supervisors were able to recognize my effort and I was
admired for my innovative thinking. This was a positive event in my work duration. This boasted
my confidence greatly. I believe motivation is a significant factor and apart from being created
internally, motivation can also be greatly enhanced through the outside source. It is important the
self-motivation is enhanced through better empowerment. Moreover, it is also important in
leadership and professional life how people can influence other people to perform better.

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Moment 3
This aha moment was a moment of great understanding. I was actually given a special
feedback session by my line manager for not being able to treat the workers with empathy. After
being overwhelmed by my previous performance I actually was viewing successes as greater
than developing essential relationships. Empathy helps a person to identify with the issues that
are faced by the other people. Empathy is essentially the ability to put oneself in the boots of
others and feel what others feel. It is an important criteria for being an emotionally intelligent
leader (Li et al. 2016). From this experience I understood that I would need to nurture the
empathy factor within myself. As I am keenly focused towards being a leader with optimum
levels of emotional intelligence, nurturing my empathy becomes an important factor that can
determine the overall efficiency of my leadership development. When I was working for the
project of Personal Digital Assistance, I did not have any idea how I can actually tackle the
personal problems of my team members. This put me in difficult situations where I had to rely on
others for help. However, this did not go well for me as soon I actually began to neglect the
personal problems of my team members. I began to pressurize my team members and they began
to be unpopular.
Patterns and Connections
Identified Patterns and Connections
All the identified aha moments were actually interconnected. I believe that the self-
awareness and motivated behavior displayed in aha moment one was responsible for gaining the
confidence in the ‘aha’ moment 2. The approach that I had taken in the first place was of
essential self-awareness and motivational concern. In the second “Aha” moment this helped me

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to build on my social skills. It can be seen that leadership aspect that I witnessed concerning all
the three moments actually helped me to learn more about emotional intelligence. The third
‘Aha’ moment is an eye opener. Leaders need to control their emotions and should only make
decisions that are effective considering all the aspects that are needed for effectively managing
people. It helped me to understand that the moral and empathetic responsibilities cannot be
overlooked. It also put forward the fact that the emotional intelligence factors cannot be
overlooked. In essence all the three aha moments were linked through the concepts of motivated
approach, effective communication, personal initiative, self-awareness and personal
development.
Self-awareness to be an essential trait of a leader. This is an aspect that affects the way I
interact with all the important people around me. It is essential to develop a deeper emotional
understanding of people, situations and times. Self-awareness means to have a strong and clearer
picture of myself my aspirations and my intrinsic values. Hence, this helps me to understand my
essential strengths and weaknesses. This aspect that I want to further nurture within myself can
help me to become an effective visionary. It is important for a leader to have good self-
motivational skills. I believe that in order to motivate others leaders need to be first motivate
themselves. This was the understanding of leadership that I generated from both the course and
my job endeavors. The leadership I witnessed was very effective in knowing the essential traits
that emotionally intelligent leaders should have and develop. For me motivation becomes
important as I cannot work under pressure without significant motivation. Social skills are much
important to be an effective leader. I have found this from interacting with my subordinates
during the time I was engaged in the project. Hopefully, this is one of the stronger traits that I
have been able to nurture within me. Communication is key to this trait. Developing better

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communication skills help in the effective development of this skill. The mistakes I believe, that
some leaders make in in regards to this is that they put too much emphasis in hearing good news.
Relationships between practices and literatures of leadership
A good leader is the one who is able to create an effective communication system
between himself and his subordinates. He needs to both influence people through his outlook and
work and empower them through motivating, rewarding and recognizing their performance.
Noticing quiet signals can actually help a person to develop this skill. According to Rezvani et
al. (2016) empowering and influencing people were found to be some of the most important
roles of leadership that I found through the previous works that I had done. It is much important
that this skill is developed within people to actually help them to create a great work
environment. Many consider self-awareness to be one of the stepping stones for the essential
development of leadership skills. Additionally as already known, it does help to create high
levels of emotional intelligence (Miao, Humphrey and Qian 2018). Self-awareness coupled with
innovation can help a person to both help his organization and develop essential skills to interact
more effectively with his peers, subordinates and supervisors. The personal feeling about
leadership is an important part of getting ready to take on challenging leadership roles. A clear
picture of my strengths helps me to develop my values in accordance with the same (Western
2019). A clear picture of my essential weaknesses are necessary to determine my outlook in
regards to tackling the essential challenges that I may later face in my career or life. What has
been key to the development of a leader is the ability to look beyond the general aspects of
leadership and develop significant relationships that can help the team as a whole. In leadership
the key is to understand situations beforehand and proceed accordingly. It helps to maintain
better leadership value and maintain smooth flow of work. Decision making is the key factor that

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should be kept in mind according to me. Leaders need to have emotions but balance the same
with their technical abilities (Grint, Jones and Holt 2016). Managing emotions is however one of
the essential traits that I would need to improve within myself. This would help me to be an
efficient emotionally intelligent person.
Future improvement plans
Coaching and mentoring
Two of the significant aspects that I would need to improve are managing emotions and
empathetic approach. These are actually not taught in most of the technical leadership courses
effectively. Hence, I would need to greatly rely on coaches and mentors to improve these
capabilities of mine. Decision making is the key factor that should be kept in mind according to
me. And these identified aspects are very important considerations in any decision making area.
Managing emotions is however one of the essential traits that I would need to improve within
myself. I realized my mistake as time went on when it was straight on revealed to me that I have
been greatly unreasonable in my approach. So I believe that moving forward I would need to
nurture more empathy within myself. However, I did get the required assistance as my line
manager helped me to realize my mistakes and supported me in my endeavors. It is imperative to
know that not having essential innovative outlook can dearly cost a leader. I would like the
coaching to improve my emotional intelligence as well as my innovative prowess. The
employees cannot be taken for granted and certainly never be degraded. Hence developing
empathy is an essential part of becoming an optimally efficient person let alone being a leader. I

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had taken the feedback I received as an eye opener and now I believe in understanding situations
better.
Team needs
The teams would need to go on more team sessions. The teams that work under me are
not going through proper team sessions. I believe on the one hand this is causing great
disruptions in the team management. I would require more team sessions and improve team
bonding with myself. It is important to consider that the teams need to perform as a unit. I would
like the team to act as a family and take care of the issues that are faced by all the team members
and the team as a whole. I would need to engage more with my peers and supervisors for this I
would also need to improve my communication levels.
Usage of formal evaluation
The tools for measuring emotional intelligence are being used by me to improve the value
of my emotional quotient. The analysis for the evaluation process would depend on two essential
factors. One is how I perceive my subordinates and the other is how my subordinates, peers or
supervisors perceive me. Taking a positive approach in accordance of the results may greatly
help in developing high level of leadership skills. A balance needs to be created in the brain
between being anxious and being happy. In recent studies scientists have found that positive
emotions contribute towards emergence of deeper more valuable insights. Such insights helps in
the development of empathetic approaches to managing people. Another evaluative technique
can be noticing quiet signals like engagement of the subordinates or agreeable ness of the peers.
Information can be gained in regards to how difficult a task might be for my subordinates. One
of the key things that I did was to understand whether or not a task was likely to be completed

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successfully even with optimal efforts. In accordance with the same I actually convinced myself
that I may or may not have to hear negative news. Also at the same time I informed my managers
about the turnout of the things that can transpire. I informed them before hand of the situations
and the effort that was being made.
Future Progress
A clear picture of my strengths helps me to develop my values in accordance with the
same. A clear picture of my essential weaknesses are necessary to determine my outlook in
regards to tackling the essential challenges that I may later face in my career or life. Throughout
the various job roles that I had to handle I realized that being self-aware actually helps a leader to
establish a balance between work and life. In future I would need to go from strength to strength
in developing my essential leadership skills. I believe that my future results will be greatly
dependent on how much I am able to connect with the people that I lead at a ground level.
Thereby helping me to become an optimally efficient leader. With the help of the evaluation,
coaching and mentoring, I hope to progress beyond the limits of generally acceptable leadership.
Conclusion
The implications that I have derived from the entire learning process was that all the
identified aspects were crucial towards determining essential leadership goals. It is imperative
that a leader uses all the above mentioned skills towards making his leadership worthwhile.
People are the most important concern for a leader. I believe the various aspects that affect the
wellbeing, motivation and development of the people are the most important things to be
considered by any leadership. It is important to note that all the above factors go on to make an
emotionally intelligent leader. A leader that is emotionally intelligent can determine the success

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of any leadership endeavor in better ways. The leadership can only be effective if it considers all
the factors such as self-awareness, emotion management, self-motivation, empathy and social
skills. It is important that the leader aligns his own self-development with the development of the
people he leads. I have been able to gather enough knowledge from the course and my work
endeavors to actually be able to approach leadership in better ways in the future. My experience
will help me to thrive in my leadership role.

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References
Cooper, J.N., 2018. The Influence of Emotional Intelligence and Personality Traits on Effective
Leadership.
Dabke, D., 2016. Impact of leader’s emotional intelligence and transformational behavior on
perceived leadership effectiveness: A multiple source view. Business Perspectives and
Research, 4(1), pp.27-40.
Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Harvard Business Review. (2019). 4 Steps to Having More “Aha” Moments. [online] Available
at: https://hbr.org/2016/10/4-steps-to-having-more-aha-moments
Li, Z., Gupta, B., Loon, M. and Casimir, G., 2016. Combinative aspects of leadership style and
emotional intelligence. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(1), pp.107-125.
Miao, C., Humphrey, R.H. and Qian, S., 2018. Emotional intelligence and authentic leadership: a
meta-analysis. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 39(5), pp.679-690.
Parrish, D.R., 2015. The relevance of emotional intelligence for leadership in a higher education
context. Studies in Higher Education, 40(5), pp.821-837.
Rezvani, A., Chang, A., Wiewiora, A., Ashkanasy, N.M., Jordan, P.J. and Zolin, R., 2016.
Manager emotional intelligence and project success: The mediating role of job satisfaction and
trust. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7), pp.1112-1122.
Western, S., 2019. Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.