Reflection Report
The preparation of a personal leadership development plan is necessary to analyse on personal self alongside a credible interpretation of strengths and weaknesses. The use of a personal development plan is mandatory for obtaining a precise impression of the management and leadership training acquired by an individual. Therefore a personal development plan could be associated with personal analysis as presented in this report with self analysis of five specific scenarios in which leadership is associated with positive and negative outcomes (Avolio&Yammarino, 2013). The observation of analysis of the individual scenarios in which I was able to depict leadership qualities was reflective of solution for the specific problems that were imperatively observed in the case scenarios.The following report would emphasize on the illustration of my inherent strengths and weaknesses that would help in providing credible insights into the approaches for short term and long term action plans that could be used for improving the setbacks. I would also highlight the development plan for individual scenarios that would be a viable contributor to the realization of short term and long term solutions in order to resolve the observed pitfalls. Prior to progressing ahead with the reflection report it is essential to present a brief insight into my biography that would provide background information for consideration in the leadership development plan (Beck & Cowan, 2014).
The different aspects of the reflection report would be reliant on the estimation of the inherent strengths and weaknesses associated with my leadership qualities.
Strong values for doing the valid things, development of trusting relationships, and passionate commitment for mission, self-discipline and understanding the significance of any action by an individual could be depicted as my innate strengths. Tolerance and openness to other’s opinions enables me to depict a participative approach towards leadership alongside integrity. Therefore these qualities could enable me to obtain viable competences in situational circumstances. Situational factors could require the application of participative approach in order to cope with the variations introduced in the business management and leadership context. I have considerable inclinations towards establishing a vision that is oriented towards tasks and relevant objectives which could also be assumed as complement for my capabilities to motivate people. My capabilities for being a good listener and performing in a team for accomplishing results could also be accounted as formidable strengths in my personal skills to become leader. My skills for moderation were also implicative of my competences to ensure flexible conduct of proceedings in various business management and leadership activities. One of the notable factors that could be referred to in context of my innate strengths is the influence of my participation in different management activities associated with leadership (Boezeman&Ellemers, 2014). The development of strengths is also dependent on the positive outcomes that were derived from my practical experiences in college, professional life and personal life. I also need to focus on leveraging on these strengths so that my leadership qualities can be explicitly visible to employers that could facilitate reasonable scope for professional development. However, an estimation of the possible weaknesses is imperative for my personal development plan and would form a crucial element of self reflection.
Strengths
Perception of non-communicative nature is a formidable weakness. I’m also judgmental in my nature which proves to be a notable detriment in development of my leadership capabilities. I am not able to cope with the emotional consequences of irresponsiveness on behalf of my subordinates.My competences as a transformational leader are limited by the lack of effective communication. Furthermore, the limitations which I face as a result of the lack of my capability for effective communication refer to the issues that arise in terms of conflict resolution or deadlock situations within the team. Observation of my innate weaknesses largely refers to the lack of skills for effective communication (Boin, Stern &Sundelius, 2016). The weakness in communication leads to issues in other activities too such as conflict resolution where communication plays a cognizable part in determining the possible facets of negotiation. Thereafter the inability to deal with irresponsiveness from subordinates could be accounted as one of my prominent setbacks that could alter my professional prospects as a leader. The necessary influences which could be drawn from these implications refer to the suggestion of inappropriate capabilities for transformational leadership. The observation of innate weaknesses could be helpful for obtaining legible insights into the improvement measures that can be incorporated in the personal development plan for development of my leadership capabilities (Bolman& Deal, 2017).
The first leadership situation which I am reviewing for my personal development is vested in my personal life where I had to exhibit the qualities of openness and tolerance in order to accomplish my intangible goals of impression as an authentic leader. The scenario involved my interaction with the family of one of my sister-in-laws where I was able to acquire the goodwill of her mother, father and brother. I found a considerable inclination towards the family which showed ample love and affection for me and therefore I took an initiative for making possible arrangements for providing employment to their son in Dubai. However, the scenario changed gradually with time with the changes in their lifestyle as well as the marriage of their son which led to the induction of a new family member i.e. the newlywed wife of their son (Chemers, 2014). The issues related to the egoof the wife of their son led to differences among the family and us. Our relation with the family was fostered by the five years of residence of their son with us in Dubai. The decision of the son to follow his wife’s advice and leave our home and live in a different house was also inappropriate for us since we were not treated with the minimum display of gratitude. Such behaviour was bound to invoke ignorance from my side which I thought to be inappropriate and hence I preferred to depict my qualities of reality towards life, honesty and loyalty. I contacted them with the intention of acquiring the old people’s blessings since they had shown us respect and love during our visit to their home at Mangalore. I was able to depict my authenticity and integrity through making feasible arrangements for their new daughter-in-law to attend the interviews and specific job appointments. My efforts for ensuring an appropriate job for a person who had the least bit of responsiveness towards me for honouring the trust based relationship that I had built with the family of my sister-in-law (Chhokar, Brodbeck& House, 2013).
Weaknesses
Insights from the experience were associated with the excessive levels of tolerance in my nature which I was able to realize after facing the hostile nature of a family member.
One of the formidably beneficial learning experiences that can be acquired from this leadership experience is vested in initiation, openness and honesty characteristics that would promote the development of leadership qualities in an individual’s life (Ciulla, 2014).
The negative insights that can be obtained from such scenarios reflect on the unwarranted advantages that could be obtained from the honesty and good attitude noticed in my personal characteristics.
In such a situation I could be able to understand that leadership qualities are characterized by emphasis on strong values required for ensuring the right approach to situational requirements. Another noticeable outcome refers to the development of inertness towards the perception others have regarding me (Daft, 2014).
This leadership situation was indicative of my situational leadership approach when I was employed as Financial Analyst for an enterprise by the name of Supreme Group. The critical evaluation of the situational leadership could be drawn from the explicit downsizing in the organization due to the global financial crisis of 2008 as well as the organization losing a major government contract in 2012. The redundancies introduced in the company were indicative of assignment of additional responsibilities to employees without any plausible improvements in financial incentives (DuBrin, 2015). I could be able to infer that my initiatives for apprehending the requirements of the senior management as well as my support for the senior financial controller in order to accomplish the generic objective of sustaining my employment. The situation required me to assume additional responsibilities which I was able to address through working additional hours for the organization. The additional working hours could be represented as potential contributors to the balancing of the situation in the financial department was also addressed by situational leadership characteristics to identify the areas for development and positive outcomes were thus obtained. I was also exposed to the intra team conflicts which were primarily characterized by irresponsiveness of employees and bad attitude of employees which led to potential issues in management and organization of the group (Fairhurst&Connaughton, 2014). The pressure of work assigned to the individual team members led to potential source of friction by subordinates since they demanded additional payment for the work.
Therefore the management of such a practical scenario enabled me to reflect critically on the outcomes suggesting the influence of qualities adopted by a leader on the approach followed by subordinates.
The positive and negative learning outcomes can be collated on a critical basis to provide an impression of problem solving and time management skills. The critical gap could be noted in the lack of time and resources to ensure innovative approaches to address the insufficiencies faced by the financial department of the organization. The reflection on negative insights refers to the possibilities for addressing the aggressive and rude attitude towards my profession that can be opposed by majority of my colleagues. The critical gap that could be observed in my leadership qualities in this situation could be depicted in the flexibility requirements alongside result and task oriented approach of a situational leader (Frohlich& Oppenheimer, 2015).
Leadership Situation 1
In this leadership scenario I was involved with an organization in Dubai as an assistant manager where I had to resolve the issues of communication and coordination among the team members. The limited interaction between team members and me as a leader could be related to the communication issue that can be perceived as the major pitfall in my personal characteristics. I should also emphasize on the initiatives that could be implemented on my behalf for ensuring continued communication with the team members on a frequent basis. The minimum frequency of interactions among term members as well as with their team leader i.e. me provided substantial implications that the institution of team coordination through implementing feasible channels of communication would help in proliferation of leadership qualities. As a leader, the foremost duty that is required in this case is the reflection on the basic requirement of addressing self-centrism that is a formidable barrier for communication with people (Garrow, 2015). Working in multicultural environments requires leaders to present cognizable references to diversification and an adaptive approach to leadership which can address the varying requirements of different employees. The fear of communication was found to be a major pitfall in my characteristic profile with the prominent insufficiencies observed in the planning, organization, motivation and team leadership activities. Real time interaction with employees according to the presented situation reflects on the consideration for effective and confident communication to be developed over the course of time thereby leading to proliferation of suitable leadership qualities.
The scenario occurred when I was selected as captain of our college’s basketball team wherein I faced profound issues especially pertaining to intervention of senior authority for depiction of leadership initiatives. The lack of interest among the team members was a formidable setback that I had to address in the case of this scenario. I had to ensure that we were able to utilize the college ground on a recurring basis so that every team member had the equal opportunity to improve their skills and thereby contribute to the team performance. The concerns for financial support were also addressed by us through mutual coordination as we had to incur majority of the expenses for the teamfrom our pockets (Goleman, Boyatzis& McKee, 2013). These initiatives which were taken as responses to the challenges served appropriate outcomes especially in terms of the development of leadership qualities. The positive and negative insights were associated with the improvement of leadership in an individual through addressing the different competence level of team members in the planning and management strategy of the organization.
The scenario is associated with a group assignment provided to us in college that was related to the subject of finance. My competences in Finance as compared to the other team members served as the plausible rationale for me preferring to lead the team. The encouragement provided by me to the members for expressing their opinions can be assumed as reasonable contributor to the improvement of team engagement. The involvement of team members allows the creation of contemporary approaches to resolve the issues faced by an organization in the existing situation (Johnson, 2017). From a critical perspective, the setbacks could also be presented as insufficient time management, communication of responsibilities of individual employees to them as well as the inability to address deadlines. Therefore it can be critically stated that the positive experiences should be implemented from such scenarios where the leadership qualities are required to address the issues pertaining to organizational management. The references to assumption of responsibilities for completion of tasks and accomplishing team results can be validated on the basis of implementing reasonable indications for the increasing participation of team members alongside the formidable reference to motivation of team members for delivering performance according to the established vision and goal (Johnston & Marshall, 2016).
The existing forms of leadership styles are largely directed towards flexibility in order to cope with the dynamic changes in the environment of global business. The different forms of contemporary leadership styles which have emerged as amalgamations of traditional leadership theories and modern approaches have proved to be major implications for the present day leader to address business management requisites. The relation between the outcomes of my self-reflection and the dimensions of contemporary leadership style are associated with distinct implications especially pertaining to the transformational and transactional modes of leadership (Kim & Kim, 2015). The concerns of inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation could be aptly realized by me through the references to my task oriented nature and the will to motivate others in a group. Relation based transactional leadership would be an uphill task for me owing to my comparative insufficiencies in communication with team members and my self-centred nature. Therefore the requirement of a development plan was imperative which could respond to the five distinct scenarios illustrated by me in the self reflection section of the report. The following section provides a development plan comprising of distinct references to individual situations along with a short term and long term solution for the setbacks observed in different situations (Lussier&Achua, 2015).
The situation’s development plan should be initiated with an estimation of the problem which is identified in the ungrateful attitude described by the wife of the family member who had been associated with the family for five years.
On a short term basis, the problem can be resolved by maintaining a safe distance from the family after offering them help in the form of a job for the wife. The distancing from the couple would offer them a viable impression of the integrity of my character.
However, a long term solution for the problem could be based on the development of trust based relations through interactive meetings among family members. Instilling confidence in the newlywed wife is also a plausible solution that would encourage her to believe in her contributions to the family or the team and thereby refrain from negative steps such as withdrawing from the family. This measure could be indicative of the characteristic measure of initiative required for development of leadership qualities.
The problem arose from the lack of flexibility in time management that was complicated further by the increasing pressure of work especially due to redundancy. Therefore certain issues were observed in my behaviour towards job responsibilities as well as team working and conduct that required professional development (Ubben, Hughes & Norris, 2015).
Short term solution to the problem could be presented in the form of assuming responsibilities for majority of tasks that are assigned in the financial department as well as ensure flexible periods of rest for employees that are subject to peer pressure in work especially due to the concerns of assigning the responsibility of 12 staff members to 5 members.
The long term solution to the problem could be addressed through consultation with the senior management to provide viable choices for training and development of the team members to cope with additional pressure of work. The application of training led by the team leader would be helpful in alignment of the employee competences with the organizational requirements. Another positive outcome from the long term solution reflects on the improvement of employee perception regarding my efforts for their betterment which is a productive facet of leaders (Northouse, 2015).
The problem was primarily observed in the lack of communication among the team members and with me as the team leader I face the problem of self centred nature. I could not communicate with others easily which leads to concerns for inappropriate coordination.
Short term solution to the problem can be presented in the form of measures to interact with individual members of team and acquire their responses for obtaining a feasible impression of the requirements and competences of the team thereby helping in realization of communication.
For a long term solution, the participation in communication courses and practicing long term interactions with individuals from diverse cultures would ensure a flexible limitation of the impact of self-centred nature on my communication abilities.
The problem faced in context of leadership in this situation was related to external challenges. The choice for the college basketball team captain was to develop measures that could help in coping with adverse situations (Tschannen-Moran, 2014).
Short term solution to the problem could be observed in the development of alternative approaches to motivation of employees other than related to workplace motivation. Establishing an impression over team members outside the workplace could be efficient drivers of my leadership characteristics (Renz, 2016).
The long term solution that can be presented for this problem reflects on the adoption of analytical approaches in order to anticipate the challenges that could be posed for the team operations thereby leading to proliferation of relevant remedial measures (Tourish, 2014).
The situation presented a viable problem for my leadership qualities in the form of acquiring complete responsibility of the work for a team activity (Shapiro &Stefkovich, 2016).
The short term solution could be presented in the form of the development of group interactions thereby validating the involvement of every team member in the group activities.
The long term solution could be presented in the form of acquiring appropriate time management skills that would facilitate a reasonable impression of the task allocation to different team members thereby implying minimal setbacks in terms of coordination and communication.
Conclusion
The reflective report presented some essential insights into my inherent strengths and weaknesses that could help in developing an appropriate professional development plan especially with respect to my leadership competences. The different elements of the report were classified into two distinct categories which emphasized distinctly on self-reflection and the preparation of a professional development plan. The self-reflection enabled me to obtain a comprehensive impression of my innate strengths and weaknesses that predicted the specific dimensions in my characteristics and behaviour that could be relevant to the development of leadership qualities. The significance of self-awareness in the profile of a leader is imperative and hence consistent evaluation of personal strengths and weaknesses could lead to better adaptability to varying conditions in the domain of business management. The self-reflection also provided a critical evaluation of five distinct scenarios involving depiction of leadership qualities by me which facilitated an impression of the insights that I have been able to acquire from the individual scenarios. I was also able to present a comparative review of my leadership qualities with respect to the contemporary leadership styles. The following section of the report emphasized on the illustration of development plans for individual situations that were critically evaluated. The development plans were characterized with specific insights into the nature of the problem, the short term and long term solutions for the problem.
With respect to my frequent involvement in job descriptions requiring managerial responsibilities, I have to apprehend the significance of leadership especially through the completion of my professional development plan. The recommendations that can be drawn from the self-reflection are substantially directed towards lack of communication with self-centrism being a major influence on the same. The requirements of the labour market are changing gradually which emphasize on the diversification of the workforce thereby requiring leaders to adopt contemporary leadership styles such as transaction based leadership (Boezeman & Ellemers, 2014). The efficiency of contemporary leadership styles in delivery of desired outcomes in business management could be assumed as a prominent rationale for me to induce improvement in leadership qualities. It is mandatory to participate in communication courses that could improve my capabilities in approaching people without any inhibitions. The improvement in my communication capabilities is able to provide viable reason for contributing to the other domains of business management such as transformational leadership that requires leaders to motivate team members and engage in conflict resolution initiatives (Chemers, 2014). Another long term recommendation that can be derived from the professional development plan is to emphasize on the strengths of information and technical know-how of the concerned domain to encourage team members especially through training, development and support. The particular references to the induction of leadership qualities outside workplace environment especially in context of personal relationships and community activities should also be assumed as long term contributors to the development of leadership qualities.
References
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