Reflection on Leadership Experiences and Role Models Paper Example

Stage 1: Reflection on Past Experiences and Role Models

I would describe myself as a mixture of a leader, a follower and a bystander. My role in leadership is dependent on the situation, the skills required and the people or company that I am with. When with my peers and fellow students, I act both as a leader and a follower. I offer direct instructions on matters that I am proficient in and at the same time follow the instructions of others in matters that I have little or no knowledge about. My bystander approach to leadership is often prevalent where I am involved with experts or people of a higher knowledge status than me. In such cases, I act as a spectator and take up as much knowledge as possible from observing the leaders and the followers.

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My past experiences involve both formal and informal learning of leadership qualities. I have had great experiences with my peers, my supervisors, parents and other people whom I associate with while at home. Some of these people were positive role models while others were negative role models to me. I judge the nature of their influence on me by examining the goals that I would meet and the rewards that I would gain by associating with them. For example, my peers and supervisors at school have been positive role models for me. I envy the knowledge that my supervisors show and their prowess in tackling diverse situations through leadership qualities that they nurtured while they were learning. Some of my peers at home have been negative role models to me, and I do my best to avoid adopting their ways of life. The negative role models are involved with behaviors such as drug abuse, sexual immorality and general disregard of morals in the social fabric. The experiences shaped my views on leadership by giving me a sense of control over what I aspire to become and the goals that I dream of achieving. The experiences led me to choose the values of kindness, generosity, ethical conduct and self-control. For instance, the encounters with peers who use drugs led me to select the values of self-control to avoid peer pressure and make logical decisions regarding my lifestyle.

In my past, I have acted as a leader and influenced other people. Specific examples include the numerous times I have headed coursework study groups and led my peers to go for weekend excursions while on holiday. The experiences led me to the realization that leadership is profoundly emotional due to the sense of either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. I would consider my leadership skills from the past as irreproachable. As much as I led the said people, I was democratic in and allowed them to give opinions and suggestions in devising the ways forward. I am proud of the qualities of openness and charisma that I exhibited in the experiences, and I continuously work to improve them.

The aspects of my current leadership skills that I value most are charisma and democracy while dealing with my followers. If I were to pick a perfect boss, I would pick one who uses situational leadership as the fundamental theory. Leadership is a dependent variable that mediates structural antecedents and outcomes in an organizational setting (Vroom & Jago, 2007, p. 3).). Motivation, traits, and behavior guide the skills of situational leaders. According to House (1996, p. 18), leadership motivation is an enduring characteristic which is not subject to adaptation. Therefore, motivation is more inclined towards traits than it is to behavior. Situational leaders evaluate the motivation behind an experience and decide the means by which to undertake it with their followers.

Management focuses on coping with complexity while leadership focuses on dealing with change. Management is thus the act of defining the processes and procedures in an organization to effect a degree of order and enhance consistency in activities (Kotter, 2000, p. 4). Leaders focus on the future scope of operations and brace themselves with skills that will enable successful transitions and activities with their subordinates. Bennis, (2007, p. 3) describes leadership as a performance art because a leader has to foresee the future and communicate their visions with their followers. Organizational leadership can take any of the following six dimensions: coercive, affiliative, democratic, coaching, authoritative and pacesetting. Authoritative leaders are the most effective since they are visionary and communicate their larger vision with followers (Goleman 83). However, I would like my role models to take up the coaching style to leadership because it enhances self-awareness and mentors followers through direct actions that have positive rewards.

Stage 2: Reflections on Group Interactions

The group members unanimously agreed that face to face meetings while doing the group project would be the most efficient. There is no specific member who influenced the decision, but rather all people offered the same opinion favoring one on one group meetings. We agreed on a dialogue plan that would offer all members equal opportunity to contribute to enhancing communication. Only one person was allowed to speak at a time while other members listened attentively and noted down insights or points that they would like to explore more. There were no leaders and followers in our group since all members had equal roles to play in the project. However, we appointed a facilitator who would see into the dialogues and monitor the time used in various issues to prevent drifting and loss of focus on the subject matter. We did not experience an Apollo syndrome in our group. As much as we appreciated the differences in personal capabilities, we sought to level the ground for all members. All people would contribute their opinions and explain them to the rest of the group until all members were contented. I contributed by revisiting the leadership theories and approaches learned in the course concerning the group project.

My interests in the group project are largely based on learning about diversity and mastering my influencing skills. Diversity is imminent in every group of people, and every person has positive and negative traits that can influence others. My goal was to imitate the positive traits that I observed in my group members and use them to become a better leader. The agreed clause that every member was to contribute to the project equally allowed me to master my influencing skills. I had to present critical tenets of leadership theories with reference to the project and influence other embers to perceive my opinion. The motivation to master my influencing skills led me to attentive listening and asking questions to my peers. I informally learned from how they responded to questions that I asked and planned to use the influencing skills in my development of leadership.

Another significant motivation behind the group project is that it provided a chance for me to master my bystander skills. I believe that bystanding skills are vital since they allow one to take an observatory role and learn from others who may have more knowledge on the subject matter. I am conversant with the interests of other people in my group since we all have the same goal of achieving leadership excellence. The only conflict that we experienced as a group was on deciding what to include and what to exclude in our group project. We had much information gained from the contributions of all members, and all the information could not be involved in the group project. Some members disagreed on what to include, but through deliberations and convincing, we settled the conflict as soon as it appeared. My interests, as well as those of others in the group, are aligned towards self-improvement of leadership skills through learning from both own and the experiences of others. I noticed perfect alignment of the interests and did not anticipate any conflicts during the project. Respecting the opinions of others came in handy, and all members appeared to master it to ensure effective transitions between topics and ultimate exploration of the group project.

The group project allowed me to work in line with the developmental goals I set in stage 1. The nature of the project as dialogue intensive and with multiple people allows development of various leadership traits and understanding of leadership theories. One of the goals I set is that I aspire to be a democratic leader who respects and values the opinions of other people. The only way to achieve that fete is by interacting and practicing the skill with other people. For example, every group member offered their opinion regarding leadership theories, and I constructively criticized or seconded the views in line with the developmental style of leadership. Another example is the situational approach to the project that we used. The project was the situation at hand, and all members perceived its completion as the future vision. I nurtured my situational leadership skills by rallying my group members to focus on the broader picture and tailor our efforts towards the exploration of the project's requirements.

Group members positively received my leadership. The democratic approach that I championed was of particularly profound interest since it empowered all members to contribute to the pool of knowledge. The goals were in line with those of most group members since they involved a general appreciation of the cognitive abilities of other people and the seamless exchange of information across the group members. The situational leadership qualities allowed all group members to be visionary and focus on the task at hand. If the group had not positively received my leadership. I would inquire with them the emotional triggered and their effect on the authority of my leadership. I would later have used that information to modify my goals and incorporate public relations to ensure that I become an all-rounded leader.

Stage 3: I Want to be this Kind of a Leader

I aspire to be an all rounded leader. The discussions and lectures have made me conversant with virtually all the theories of leadership and their interactions with traits and behaviors. I do not believe that there is a specific theory that suits all situations or that works best for the type of leader I aspire to be. As a result, I will integrate all the leadership theories into one model that I craft from scratch and one that appeals to my characteristic, knowledge, and emotions with leading other people. Personality affects the indices of effectiveness of leadership (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005, p. 6). Leaders ought to be pragmatic and focus on both opportunities and problems from practical approaches. The group project made me appreciate the role of emotions in leadership.

I believe that most of the qualities of good leadership are learned through conditioning. As much as one may have been born charismatic and talented, he or she has to learn from experiences and aim to be better. I aspire to be a change-oriented leader. Change is a part of life and a principal aspect in the success of any organization. I believe the world is dynamic and can only be managed through continuous adoption of changes and research to advance one's knowledge and skills.

Furthermore, I will develop my skills in democratic leadership and influencing through engaging in teamwork. I aim to become a mentor and enhance my followership by nurturing coaching skills. Learning through a mentor is one of the most efficient ways of knowledge conceptualization since it leads to the development of long-term strengths (Goleman, 2000, p. 6).

I have learned that pacesetting is vital in effective leadership. As much as leadership is not independent, most subordinates perceive leaders as experienced and expect them to set the pace regardl...