Importance of Leadership
There are several leaders who have guided competent teams and changed the shape of various industries and economies existing today. Leadership has always been an important part of my life. A leader has various responsibilities. These responsibilities include guiding the team, motivating team members, addressing their grievances, creating a positive work atmosphere, ensure coordination and accomplish team goals (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
Through this course, I have learnt about different facets of leadership which have helped me gain a deepened insight about the role of a leader in any ecosystem. In the preceding assessment I took the Gallup’s strength finder test which helped me highlight upon the five critical leadership abilities that I possess. These abilities as well as a transparent feedback taken from my team members and my partner helped me understand my leadership style better. This report highlights upon my understanding of my leadership style as well as the feedback that I have received. An action plan has also been devised in order to help me improve my leadership skills. My current as well as previous leadership roles have also been highlighted upon for better understanding of my leadership skills.
Leadership is highly important within organizations. An effective leader can ensure the growth of team members as well as accomplishment of team goals. Leaders of the team are responsible for setting clear team targets and goals (Renko et. al., 2015). Without an effective leader, it would be difficult to maintain a positive working environment. A leader is a source of motivation for team members. The flow of communication and information within any team is defined by the leader (Black, 2015). Therefore, a leader is essential in order to guide the team in the right direction and ensure a positive working environment.
My first significant leadership experience was when I captained the basketball team of my university. I was appointed by my coach as the captain owing to my performance in the previous games as well as the retirement of the existing captain. I captained the team for one year and the entire experience was full of learning and growth. I have always been passionate about playing basketball and this passion for the game helped me in encouraging and motivating those around me. One of the most important aspects of leadership that I learnt while leading the team was discipline. I realized that our team was underperforming in matches and that was because of a lack of discipline. Most of the people were late to practices frequently. This ruined the team’s morale and we could not get enough time to practice. An effective leader must be well disciplined in order to maintain the decorum of the team. Therefore I started appearing for practices before time and ensured that our practice time was effectively planned and utilized.
Leadership is all about guiding the team in the right manner towards sustainable achievement of team goals (Goleman, 2017). In order to do the same, it is essential that the team remains motivated. A motivated team performs better and delivers effective results. Once, I started reaching practice on time, I was able to lead by example and hence the team was motivated enough to work even hard. This largely changed our team dynamics. Everyone was putting their best foot forward and we were able to improve upon our skills drastically. We even kept a strict check on our diet and work out. This helped us become fit and perform better on field. Eventually we went on to win over seven matches in a season.
First Leadership Experience
This leadership experience was full of learning. I learnt the importance of leading by example and taking responsibility for a team. I also learnt that eventually a team relies on their leader in case of any issues and hence it becomes the responsibility of the leader to ensure that team’s issues are addressed in an efficient manner. My leadership role as the team captain was an enriching experience that helped me improve upon my leadership skills and abilities.
Once I entered the corporate world, I received tremendous opportunities to explore my leadership abilities. My first job was in a multinational company. At the beginning I was given a team of five people. Even though I had learnt a lot from my previous leadership role, this new role was an entirely new adventure. This role helped me gain a deeper insight about my leadership role. In order to reflect upon the same, I took a feedback from my team members as well.
The leadership style that I adopted was democratic leadership. A democratic leadership style entails decentralized decision making. This leadership is participative in nature and helps in creating an environment which fosters creativity and innovation (Northouse, 2017). Even though I had the final say, I always encouraged my team members to share their ideas and opinions. I strongly believed that this strategy was leading to high productivity and improved efficiency of the team.
According to the feedback received from my team members, I understood that as a leader I am highly approachable. I try to keep an open door policy and ensure enough transparency that people can freely discuss any problems in an open environment. As a leader, I try to keep a lively environment. Before making any decision, I seek opinion from my team members. This helps us work as a team and mutually work towards achieving our goals.
One important feedback that I received from my team was that I need to work upon my ability to delegate. I often tried to accomplish a lot of tasks myself without being able to delegate them to my team. This increased my scope of work and kept me occupied for longer hours. It is important for a leader to be able to effectively manage work by delegating tasks to the right people and at the right time (Bolden, 2016). Now I try to be more proactive when it comes to assigning work. While setting team goals for the week, I make it a point to hold a person accountable for specific tasks.
In order to understand my leadership skills better, I also took the Gallup’s strength finder test. This helped me analyze my five leadership traits. My first strength was my ability to communicate effectively with a group of people. This ability has also helped me in building long term relationships with many of our stakeholders. Owing to my basketball leadership experience, I have also learnt the importance of being punctual and leading a disciplined life. This discipline in life helps me in managing my work efficiently and is the second strength as depicted by the Gallup’s test.
Corporate Leadership Role
Other strengths of mine as a leader include my optimism, futuristic attitude and ability to continue being a learner. These attributes of my personality help me in guiding my team in a better manner as well as creating an atmosphere of positivity and optimism. For a leader, it is essential to be able to motivate team members when they are feeling low (Balon, 2014). This helps in boosting team morale and hence ensuring competent performance by the team.
As someone who is futuristic, I always try to devise alternative solutions to various problems. I try to keep a plan B ready and this is exactly what I try to instil in my team. In fact, one member of my team mentioned to me that keeping a plan B demotivates you to achieve plan A. However, I personally believe that this strategy works better for me and I am able to be better prepared for the future. The strength finder test was very useful and not only did it help me in understanding my strengths as a leader but also helped me in identifying how I can use these strengths in order to better my leadership traits.
I have a prominently clear vision for my team which helps me in setting cleat targets and goals on a weekly basis. This long term vision helps me stay motivated and continue to work towards my goals.
This project required us to take feedback from a partner regarding our leadership traits. This exercise was highly useful as me and my partner sat for a long time and guided each other in regards to each other’s leadership abilities. My partner observed my leadership style and also conducted an in depth interview that helped her gain a better understanding of my leadership. The first feedback that I received from her was that I am highly democratic in my approach. This suggested that my team members often take me for granted and that specifically during critical decision making situations, I must be more autocratic. An autocratic leader adheres to a non-participative decision making process (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider, 2015). I agree with this feedback because I often feel that due to my lenient nature, I am unable to delegate tasks in an effective manner or take a very strong stand upon my decisions. I will surely work towards becoming more assertive and ensure that I am able to take the best decisions for my team.
The second feedback that I received was that I can sometimes become too lethargic especially when it comes to bringing a change within the team. She told me about transformational leadership and mentioned that my team has been functioning in the same manner since the last four years. Therefore it is about time that I bring about some strong changes in the team, set more difficult goals and motivate the team to achieve them in order to improve our overall performance.
The positives of the feedback included my ability to communicate effectively as well as create an environment of positivity and creativity within the team. She suggested that I could come up with creative ways after consultation from the team regarding some motivational activities that can be conducted on a bi-monthly basis. This would help the team gain better coordination and improve interpersonal relationships existing among team members.
There are several aspects of my leadership abilities that I need to improve upon. In order to achieve the same, I have decided to read more books on leadership. I am an avid reader and I have realized that reading books provides me with new outlooks and strategies towards my leadership role. Therefore I would continue to do that. I would also attend workshops on leadership.
For improved communication, I would try to introduce activities that can be done within the team that would help in building interpersonal relationships among team members. I would also read about and follow some prominent leaders that are guiding our society today. I will also consistently and frequently try to gain feedback from my peers and team members about my leadership skills and work towards improving my shortcomings. Also, within my organization, I would like to apply for more leadership roles in order to gain more practical experience on leadership.
Conclusion
Leadership has always been an important aspect for any organization. Through this course, I have tried to dig deep upon my own leadership abilities and helped me understand my style of leadership. I have understood my strengths as well as my weakness and I will continue to improve my leadership traits. I would certainly work towards being more assertive and ensuring effective delegation of work in my team.
A leader’s network of people highly impact the effectiveness of performance (Zehrer et. al., 2014). Therefore, I would continue to build my network and ensure that I take full responsibility of my team. I would ensure that team member’s growth is achieved along with our team goals. The reflection largely helped me in understanding the importance of leadership as well as the role that I continue to play as a leader.
References
Balon, R. (2014). Leadership versus management. Academic Psychiatry, 38(6), 720-722.
Black, S. A. (2015). Qualities of effective leadership in higher education. Open Journal of Leadership, 4(02), 54.
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge. United Kingdom.
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.
Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership that gets results (Harvard business review classics). Harvard Business Press.
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S., & Haider, N. (2015). Effect of leadership style on employee performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), 1-6.
Northouse, P. G. (2017). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications. Unites States.
Renko, M., El Tarabishy, A., Carsrud, A. L., & Brännback, M. (2015). Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership style. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 54-74.
Zehrer, A., Raich, F., Siller, H., & Tschiderer, F. (2014). Leadership networks in destinations. Tourism Review, 69(1), 59-73.
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