BUSI1323 Leadership In Organisations - Reflective Journal Assignment Solution

Introduction

Leadership in today’s complex and competitive business environment is very essential in order to address the various challenges and have competitive edge over others (Daft, 2014). Leaders through their leadership skills, establish clear direction, align people and motivate and inspire people (Gill, 2011). There are different leadership styles with different leadership skills, which are appropriate for different situations. Reflective practice enables individuals to revisit their past experiences and actions and improvise it further by applying new approaches and strategies (Bolton & Delderfield, 2018). This report provides a reflection on development of my leadership skills over the course of my life. The report also reflect leadership experience in the team project undertaken in the leadership course.

Stage 1

Leadership is a process wherein an individual influence a group of individuals in a way that all work towards a common goal (Bryman, 2013). Bennis emphasizes that leaders are made rather than born and some of the great leaders who emerged over time and history include George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and many others (Gosling et al., 2012).   As per my analysis I have a participative leadership behavior, which is identified under House’s Path-Goal Theory. In Participative leadership approach, leaders consult with subordinates about decisions ensuring effective engagement of all the members in a team (Kouzes & Posner, 2016). Whenever I get an opportunity to lead, I encourage all the team members to effectively engage in decision making, goal and strategy development as I believe it helps in achieving the goals more effectively and efficiently as all the members would commit themselves to the task equally. According to scholars, participative leadership style has positive effect on commitment of the subordinates towards quality of service, shared values and clarity in functions of each of the member (Northouse, 2015). Some of key leadership skills include effective communicator, open-minded, good listener and empowerment. 

The main source of development of my leadership skills was from my family mainly my father. My father is an effective and strong leader, which has led him to be a successful businessman. I still see my father as my role model as I have learned many things from him, which has helped me in my academic course as well as m profession.  Right from my childhood my father was very disciplined and goal-oriented and motivated to always have a goal in life as it would help us make adequate efforts in achieving it. High achievers are ambitious, self-disciplined and goal-focused individuals, which enables them to influence the fellow team members to achieve their goals (Hersey et al., 2012). I learnt the importance of effective communication and participative decision making from him. In one of his projects, he and employees working under him had gathered and maintained minute details related to the project in an organized manner that helped them work efficiently and at a faster pace. My father used to take all the decisions by consulting all the members who would directly affect by the decision this helped him maintain increased efficiency and commitment from the employees. 

One of the recent past experiences, I led a small team while working in my previous job. The team involved four members and we were assigned a project based on each of out skills. I first identified the key skills of each of the member and delegated specific tasks to the members. I ensured that all members effectively communicated with each other on a daily basis and shared their concerns and progress. This helped us to finish the task on time. In another project where I was leading a team, there were around ten members and each of use had distinct approach and qualities. In the start of the project itself there were many conflicts about the task breakdown and assignment of tasks to each member. Due to conflicts, the project could not be started as stipulated. I then individually spoke to each of the member and identified the concerns of each of the member and then we had a group discussion where we overcame the differences and completed the project on-time.  Managing effective communication and promoting healthy conflict resolution through open communication helps in resolving conflicts if any and increases efficiency (Burke, 2017). In both the situations I was quite satisfied with my leadership as my effective communication skills helped me reduce differences among the team members. But I need to improve in my negotiation skills further as I compromised to some of the team members demand and just ignored and did the work on my own even though it was not my responsibility. Leaders who have good negotiation skills have ability to act decisively during a negotiation and not be biased (Vroom & Yetton, 2010).  I also need to improve on my patience level as at times I fail to give opportunity to others while working in a team.