Leadership Development: A Self-Reflection on Non-Profit Work

This essay presents a self-reflection on the importance of leadership in non-profit organizations. It discusses the author's experiences, particularly witnessing the adverse effects of a tannery organization's pollution on a local river. Inspired to take action, the author reflects on learning about leadership styles, including strategic and transformational leadership, during their academic years. The essay emphasizes the significance of influencing people and fostering a sense of responsibility, especially within non-profit contexts, to achieve objectives like ensuring access to clean water. The author aims to inspire others through their leadership, promoting efficient and dedicated work within the community. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
Non-Profit Organization
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
In order to be a leader, it is important for a person to self-reflect on his or her actions.
This is because of the fact that a leader can only be good when he or she tries to improve himself
through all the stages of his growth. A non-profit organization refers to that organization that
does not believe in the objective of a higher revenue earning (Butler & Wilson, 2015). This essay
seeks to analyze the importance of a leader through the medium of self-reflection. I shall be
looking in to some important and significant life events that occurred in my life that have helped
in the shaping of my life.
Non-profit organizations are a form of establishments that do not adhere to the traditional
concept of profit motives. The private organizations in a globalized world have the main
objective of earning higher revenue. This is due to the capitalist form of society. Capitalism
encourages the private institutions to undertake any activity which will prove beneficial to them
(Rana, Rana & Rana, 2017). This has been done with the view point that it will promote more
competition among the private organizations, which in turn, will lead to the development of the
state. Such an opinion was based on the premises that it is only the financial resources which can
aid in the development of the standard of living of the people (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube,
2015). In this manner most of the private companies forgot to take in to consideration the social
aspect of the society. The activities of the private organizations have unequivocally led to the
exploitation of the resources of the earth (Boyd et al., 2017). In other words, the quality of life of
the human race is under severe threat in such a polluted world.
During my childhood days, I have witnessed such adverse activities of the private
organizations. I lived beside a river which was severely polluted by a nearby by tannery
organization. All the harmful chemicals used in the manufacturing of leather were disposed of in
the river. This posed a great challenge to the life of the people in the surrounding areas as this

2NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
was the only source of water available for drinking purposes. Moreover, it also posed a threat to
the life of the aquatic animals and the people who consumed such aquatic life for sustenance
purposes. This unethical activity was carried out by the tannery industry for quite some time and
since there was no law in place at that time which prevented the company not to do so, the
polluting of the river water continued.
As I grew up, I thought of taking actions against the tannery organization for their
unethical and dangerous activity of polluting the river water with their harmful chemical
substances. Also, by this time, a law was in place which sought the protection and conservation
of the environment, thereby putting a restriction on the activities of the private organization.
Since my main objective was to ensure the delivery of cleaning drinking water to the people, I
took it upon myself to influence the people to protest against the working of the tannery
organization.
During my academic years, I have learnt about the importance of leadership and the
importance of influences. I also came across the concept of non-profit organization during my
college term. I decided to put all of these ideas in to a framework in order to help the people in
my area. I tried to analyze the different types of leadership in order to understand which would
be the best suitable for my situation. One of the leadership styles is that of strategic leadership.
Strategic leadership refers to that style where the leader takes in to consideration the long term
objectives of the organization and tries to implement the work schedule in such a manner which
is conducive and complementary with such aims and objectives (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016). The
purpose of such leadership is to lead the organization to success. However, in my case, the idea
of transformational leadership is the most suitable. Transformational leadership refers to that

3NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
leader who has the power to influence the people to a particular idea and tries to achieve that
objective (Arnold et al., 2015).
In conclusion it is observed that by looking at their leader, the employees can draw
inspiration from him, which in turn, propels them to work harder and in a more efficient manner.
My aim was to make the people in my area realize the importance of clean water and for this
reason, it was important for me to change their thought process. This aspect becomes more
important in the context of a non-profit organization.

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References:
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
6-14.
Arnold, K. A., Connelly, C. E., Walsh, M. M., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2015). Leadership styles,
emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), 481.
Boyd, B., Henning, N., Reyna, E., Wang, D., Welch, M., & Hoffman, A. J. (2017). Hybrid
organizations: New business models for environmental leadership. Routledge.
Butler, R., & Wilson, D. C. (2015). Managing voluntary and non-profit organizations: Strategy
and structure. Routledge.
Rana, R. A., Rana, F. Z., & Rana, H. A. (2017). Strategic Planning Role in Non Profit
Organizations. Journal for Studies in Management and Planning, 3(6), 166-170.
Yahaya, R., & Ebrahim, F. (2016). Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 190-216.