...Soc 492 Leadership Final Reflection Paper During this semester I learned so much more about myself in relation to leadership. In the beginning of the semester we took a ‘Leadership Self-Assessment- Readiness for the Leadership Role’ and I scored a 68, which meant I had a moderate readiness for the leadership role. Now at the end of the semester I feel like I would score more close to 100 and have a high readiness for the leadership role. I have learned how to deal with toxic leaders, how to identify them, and how to better handle them in certain situations. I’ve also learned that I can lead meetings and group discussions through our practicing leadership and reading facilitation roles. At the beginning of this course I didn’t think I would be able to successfully lead an activity without getting nervous or loosing track of time, but with great preparation and by applying the skills I learned I was able to have the entire class participate in my planned activity and ensure I did it in the required time period. I know think I am more capable and confidant to take on leadership roles, I find myself often leading the group in class assignments and in work projects. My leadership philosophy begins with being honest to yourself and to your followers. An honest leader is someone who is easily someone you can trust and build a connection with. They don’t only look for the best interest for themselves but also the best interest for their people. Leadership is when someone takes...
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...Leadership Reflection Assignment The ability to lead is a quality that many people posses, or wish to possess, but is a quality that is very difficult to define in one specific way. Many different people lead in many different ways, and this makes it nearly impossible to assign the term leadership with a set, universal definition since there isn’t a set, defined way to universally lead a group. The individuals involved and the situation they are involved in are what help to define leadership. According to Robert Crandall, Chairman and President of American Airlines, in McFarlane, Senn, and Childress’ article “Redefining Leadership for the Next Century,” “The ideal leader for the 21st century will be one who creates an environment that encourages everyone in the organization to stretch their capabilities and achieve a shared vision, who gives people the confidence to run farther and faster than they ever have before, and who establishes the conditions for people to be more productive, more innovative, more creative, and feel more in charge of their own lives than they ever dreamed they could.” Although this is a great definition of the term, I believe leadership can be much more simply defined. To me, leadership is the ability to bring out the best in every individual involved in the group in an effort to enhance the overall quality of the team’s performance. Although I already had a definition similar to this in mind before engaging in the compass program, this course has...
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...REFLECTIONS LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND PRACTICES Leadership is much like a quality we all know when we see it but have a difficult at times describing it. But when I think about leadership it remains me of my experience at National Wholesale as Store manager in Bridgeport with little more than fifty employees on my payroll. As a store manager I feel one reason why I had been so successful and likeable among my employees and the upper management is the way I ran and manager my store and employees. I made use of courage, credibility and conviction to define my leadership as a store manager at National Wholesale in Bridgeport. Leaders are distinguished by their courage to lead and I belief that the most important characteristic as a true leader. I know leadership is tough because is about change, and I initiated lots of changes in the store from employee training, regular performance appraisal with constant feedback and promoting fairness and equality and rewarding hard work and dedication among my employees. Sometimes I do meet with resistance and I tried to stay the course in spite of numerous obstacles and disappointments. Leadership is all about courage, and through courage and will I press on in spite of challenges and criticisms and at the end of the day I’m always the winner. Leadership is all about conviction and having the integrity to live by ones conviction. I tried to show strong values and beliefs and demonstrate these values and convey them to my followers. Finally...
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...Analysis and Reflection on Leadership Analysis and Reflection on Leadership Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyze and reflect on the the characteristics and behaviors associated with effective leadership or failed to do so. I have chosen to discuss a manager who demonstrated some great qualities of a manager but one that I consider who has had trouble being an overall effective manager that had a negative effect on the department, low moral, high job turnaround and low employee satisfaction. Because of his unsuccessful attempts at being an effective manager, I learned how to be a poor manager because of his leadership skills, but in turn what needs to take place in order for me to be a successful leader with my own employees in the future. Background History The individual I selected is a manager who holds some great characteristics as a manager but overall is not an effective manager that lacks a lot of overall characteristics as a good manager. Some of the great characteristics he holds is he is very knowledgeable in all areas of our company. He will encourage his employees to advance their career outside of the department, provides feedback on suggestions such as Expert Power (Colquitt et al, 2011) and doesn’t hound them about daily job tasks. However, the bad characteristics outweigh the good a great deal and has a huge negative impact on the department, the moral has become very low and his...
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...My Reflection of Personal Leadership Leadership can be interrupted in many different ways; for the most part everyone in society has to become one in order to achieve full success in their lives. I base my leadership through my own experience, growing up I had many jobs, I was part of many teams, many adult figures had a say and everyone those things taught me a little a bit of what it is to be a leader. Each one of my experiences was integral part of what I hold as a standard for being an ultimate leader. Much of these experiences I encountered always had certain goals that we were trying to reach, and if we met that goal we would raise the bar even more, as I’ve always stated “good can always can turn to better”. What I mean by this is a leader is always trying to evolve, learn more, listen to feedback, willing to be challenged, always having an open mind, all these things are key in being a leader. A leader is someone who is willing to be go above a beyond for his organization or team, I think the most effective leaders lead by example, there is a quote I live by it says “what you do speaks so loud, that I cannot hear you”. This puts into perspective how ones actions are viewed your team/organization needs to see you work hard, take criticism, be dependable, will instill accountability, will encourage, and most importantly make sure he/she gets the job done. A leader is only as good as its weakest link, he needs to make sure everyone is working in unison, and if not...
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...Reflection on Leadership Mentors Oluwatosin omole Walden University 02/07/2014 Abstract Having studied different leadership theories, styles and the effect on the employees. It is by unanimous consensus that it is imperative to have an effective leadership-followership relationship in an organization. Leaders need an effective subordinate to drive their goal and visions to succeed. Without subordinates the question is who are we leading? Who will put into action the vision of the organization? We will discuss the analysis of two leaders that I chose and the effect in their organization. Also discuss their relationship with their subordinates and the effect. Their leadership style in relation to their subordinates. The reflection on why I chose to follow this leader and what makes them my role model to emulate. In all my career pathway till present I haven’t had the opportunity of choosing the boss I will like to follow. Hence based on the organizations I have worked with, there is always a boss assigned for me to follow. In other words, I have fairly limited assessment of my boss to further understand their goals, values and visions. Though I have worked with not so great bosses but I have also been fortunate to work with exceptional leaders. These charismatic leaders understood to tailor their values and goals with that of their subordinate, hence it prevents future uprising. According to the Gardner “When leaders effectively model their values, identity, emotions...
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...Self-Reflection - Leadership Development Many varied management and leadership philosophies exist and no single style or approach can be considered to be the ‘correct’ one. Regardless of management and leadership philosophies, self-reflection has played, and will continue to play, a significant role in the shaping of a managers leadership philosophy. Depending on the level of consciousness that a manager has in regards to self-reflection, along with how they communication their management and leadership philosophies, will affect their performance as a manager. Like all managers, my management and leadership philosophies have developed through experiences and the meaning assigned with these. The philosophies that I have previously employed have not always allowed me to adequately address a situation; however, by being reflective the experiences have expanded my knowledge base, resulting in refined management and leadership philosophies. Self-reflecting and communicating management and leadership philosophies is essential for managers in realising their personal potential due to the need to actively learn and interpret experiences for future use. Life experiences shape how individuals manage and lead due to the self-perceptions developed through these experiences. The traits, values and competencies associated with different experiences “dictate how people interpret their environment and what motivates them to act” (Brent and Matheny, 2000, p. 3). This important concept...
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...Leadership Styles: A Personal Reflection Todd A. Heslep Ohio University Leadership Styles: A Personal Reflection There are many different leadership styles and each individual prefers a different leadership style in their manager. The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the different types a leadership styles, positives and negatives of each style, and reflect upon my own leadership style. Each person consists of different leadership styles and not usually on specific but rather a mix of different style. However, often times one leadership style is the most prominent throughout their professional lives. There are four different leadership styles and they include autocratic, consultative, participative, and free-rein. The four types of leadership styles will be broken down further in this paper. Authoritarian Leadership Firstly, autocratic leaders are dominant and make is clearly to their subordinates that why are in charge (Lamberton & Minor, 2010). This leadership style can also be referred to as authoritarian leaders. These leaders make sure they only have a professional relationship with their subordinates (Maloş, 2012). This leaders are strong believes in direct supervision. Those employees that are considered unproductive are likely to be more closely supervised to ensure optimal productivity (Maloş, 2012). Traits of autocratic leaders include individual goals, engages in one-way downward communication, controls discussion with followers, expectations...
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...The Reflection of Two Leadership Styles NaKisha Dumas Walden University 02/09/2014 Abstract I will talk about followership and leadership connections with two persons that I work with. These people were chosen based on their leadership skills and abilities. Also, I have mutually admiration for both of them. Lastly, I preferred these two because they inspire me, and have pushed for me to go further in my career. In this paper I will talk about their leadership styles. I will also touch on the leadership characteristics in which makes them successful leaders. The Reflection of Two Leadership Styles In order to be a leader, one must understand the meaning of leadership. My belief is that each person must include their personal description of what a leader must be. I have worked with two forceful leaders for two years. One is a Captain in the United States Army, and a supervisor at the Atlanta Va. The second person is a staff nurse at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. I chose these two because each day they define true leadership skills, and abilities. They are exceedingly valuable leaders whom have the ability to lead in tough situations. My admiration for them speaks volumes. Not only do they lead in rough situations, but they also manage in tough situations. Jason Boltax, (2010) effective leaders possess purpose, courage, and trust in the face of uncertainty. There are times when management will drop the ball on leadership. However, these...
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...Critical Reflection and Transformational Leadership Ivan F Rodriguez University of Phoenix Critical Reflection and Transformational Leadership This paper briefly examines the relevance of critical reflection practices in leadership development. Incorporating critical reflective practices in a leadership development program (LDP) helps closing loops assimilating the knowledge, updating reference frames and providing valuable feedback to the decision making and problem solving processes. It is my learned experience that using critical lenses to enable building on previous experiences and to incorporate new learning will perpetrate the transformational leadership (TL) process. The correlation between critical reflection and TL can be explained by the closed loop between outside world and inside world, it is though a reflective process how the leader encourages multiple perspectives that ultimately challenge his or her to excel in complex and uncertain environments. Leadership development practices depend on reflection-in-action. Advancing one step further, TL focuses on how leaders inspire and motivate followers to a higher moral level (Burns, 1978), its essence is inspiring follower’s commitment to achieve the vision of a desired future. TL conveys the “connection between the organization’s philosophy and shared values, and embeds those values in organizational rules and actions in order to communicate meaning and inspire followers” (Bennis and Nanus, 1985, p. 58). The...
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...My leadership viewpoint is created upon my combined life experiences, observations, successes, and failures. I vision leadership as a voyage taken together by followers and leaders to a mutual endpoint. A creative plan is what great leaders have to put in place, some type of chart or map to help them bring together and confirm they have a suitable and operative team in place, a great communication plan also and lead their followers to the endpoint. Leaders with effective skills describe and perfect their missions regularly and they constantly communicate with followers the milestones and objectives that are vital to the achievement of success, for it is necessary for a team to not only to understand where the organization is and where it should go, but also how it’s...
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...This paper reflects on the following questions: What do you think is your passion? Why do you say this is your passion, as it may be manifested in your personality, personal history and lineage? --- As I was reflecting on this intently, I came across this online article from Harvard Business Review where Peter Drucker, one of the most influential people in the area of modern management, talked about the topic on managing oneself. And an excerpt from this article below quite interests me the most. “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. More often, people know what they are not good at—and even then more people are wrong than right. And yet, a person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all.” - by Peter F. Drucker, Harvard Business Review: “Managing Oneself”; http://hbr.org/2005/01/managing-oneself/ar/1 This struck me quite a bit as I found this a bit ironic, because this somehow describes how things are unravelling, particularly on the state of my profession right now, and the state of things, in general. Well, I am not quite sure what I’m really good at. It’s not like I’m inept. It’s just that I am not sure if I’m really good at something. I’ve always engaged myself with so many things back then as my personal history reveals, as “jack of all trades, master of none” identity. For example, I have passion for creating music – composing lyrics...
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...How to Write a Personal Statement by UNM Prof. Elizabeth Archuleta Through a personal statement, you introduce yourself to the university; it reflects your personality and intellect. It is important that you read each question carefully and make every effort to understand and respond to it with well-considered responses and in a persuasive enough manner to hold the reader’s interest. 1. Understand and Explain Yourself One of the main problems when writing is that applicants fail to take a thorough and analytical look at themselves and their objectives. Admission committee members are looking for interesting, insightful, revealing, and non-generic essays that suggest you have successfully gone through a process of careful reflection and self-examination. 2. Set Yourself Apart Committees are looking for something PERSONAL and ANALYTICAL. This means sharing information you rarely share with others and assessing your life more critically than usual. This approach is key to a successful personal statement. Exercise: In order to begin writing your personal statement – your story—you’ll need to answer some basic questions to prepare yourself. Questions: * What is special, unique, distinctive, or impressive about you or your life story? What details of your life (personal or family problems/ history, any genuinely notable accomplishments, people or events that have shaped you or influenced your goals) might help the committee better understand you or help set you apart...
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... 3. Discuss how you can improve uponone of your weaknesses in the workplace. 4. Discuss your role on the team. 5. Discuss the strengths of your team as a whole. 6. Discuss the weaknesses of your team as a whole. 7. Explain how you interacted with your team. 8. Explain how you overcame challenges you faced as a team. 9. Discuss what teamwork advice you would give to others who were beginning to work on the simulation. 10. Discuss the relevance of teamwork in the simulation to the context of your professional Task 2 1. Describe the impact the company strategy had on your functional area in the simulation. 2. Reflect on the decisions that were made in the simulation by doing the following: Note: Your reflection may include graphs and other data. 1. Discuss decisions that you would change. 1. Discuss decisions that had a positive impact. 3. Present your strategic outlook for your functional area in the simulation. 1. Recommend future decisions for your functional area in the simulation. 1. Submit the attached “Assignment Designation Form.” 1. Discuss the overall performance of the business compared to competitors using the financial reports from the simulation by doing the following: Note: The financial...
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...Group Assignment#1 Date Due: March 24/15(Week 12) * worth 20% of your final grade Pick a chapter from your text, research it then present it with your group to the rest of the class. The chapter chosen should be one that will not be presented by the instructor (suggest one of the online class chapters). Each of the groups must pick a different chapter. The presentation should be at least 30 minutes, and professional. Each student will be responsible for the following three components: Presentation - 30% Your task is to research the topic and present it in class. Presentations will run no more than 30 minutes in length. You may present, and complete your topic however you choose. It is recommended that you include some type of participation from the class in your presentation. Your grade will be based on the following: *Visual Component: Visual aid(s) used to enhance the presentation *Participation: Have the class participate as a component of the presentation * due to time factor, only discuss what class activity would involve) *Creativity: The presentation is to be delivered using a creative approach. *Knowledge of Topic: A demonstrated knowledge about the chapter presented; all the information was clear and contained sufficient detail. Clarification was given when questions were asked. *Organization: The information was presented in an organized and logical fashion for easy understanding. *Time Frame: The presentation was delivered within the required...
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