Leadership Self Reflection Essay

Introduction to Leadership and Management Reflections

In Principles of Management, we have been filling out self-reflections over our management/leadership style. The purpose of this paper is to analyze my management/leadership style based on my self-reflection results that I have been filling out and our management book. I will also be reviewing my strength and weakness in my management/leadership style.

Understanding Personal Leadership Styles

According to my results in the Chapter 1 self-reflection I have a solid foundation of managerial strengths. To understand this, I first had to understand what the difference is between leadership and management. In the book is states that management is working with your group and leadership is motivating and inspiriting our group (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 1). This means that I am more of working with my group or employees than motiving them. Which I would agree with because I am good at planning and budgeting person which is something that managers do. For example, my mother would only give me a certain amount of money for groceries so I would write down all what I need and how much each item would cost. After writing down the prices of each item I would add all the amounts together to come up with an estimate to make sure I didn’t go over the amount I received. I think to motivate people you have to motivate yourself first which is something I’m not good at. For example, I always think that I’m going to do terrible when I have to take a test but in reality, I actually make a very good grade. So, for me to have a leadership style I will have to work on motivating myself so I can motivate my co-workers or employees later in life.

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Business Environment Awareness and Adaptability

My results on Chapter 2 self-reflection was that I am unaware of my business environment. Which at the time I would have to agree with because I don’t read articles about businesses or read anything about current events. Now I still don’t read articles or current events about business but I do know that there is different dimension in the environment thanks to the management book. I stated that there are technological, economic, political, legal, and socio-cultural (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 2). Technological dimension is the operations that a firm can use to produce their outputs. Since my style is more of a management style a manager can influence this dimension by buying or investing in the best equipment for the company or business. I now understand that there is an internal environment as well which is owners, board of directors, employees, and the culture. All of these can influence the firm’s environment because they are what set the customs of the workspace.

Ethical Considerations in Management

Based on my results in Chapter 3 self-reflection, my views on ethics is that everyone has their own morals or beliefs in their own behavior. When making decisions you can’t just think about the people could will contribute to the good you have to think about the people that the decisions will badly effect. Your behaviors don’t just affect you they effect the people around you so you have to weigh out all your opinion and come out with the best possible answer to your situation. My ethical beliefs will influence my managerial behaviors by the way that I run my work. If I believe that businesses should treat their employees like family then that is how I would run my business. Some things that I don’t want to have in my business is ethical dilemmas which is conflicts of interest, trade secrets, bribery, and whistle-blowing. In chapter 3 it states that a whistle-blowing is giving information about the company that is evidence of an illegal conduct (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 3). I would want my business to have an open environment to where the employees are not afraid to speak their minds if something is not right kind of like a family-based company.

Strategic Leadership and Decision Making

According to my results in Chapter 4 self-reflection, I am not thinking like a strategic leader which I would have to agree with. I am not much of a leader the reason why is that I’m very quiet, I’m not really good at talking to new people, and I’m not that good with visualizing things I have to actually see it to know what you’re talking about. I have learned that every company needs a vision, mission, and objective. The vision is what the firm wants to achieve, the mission is the activities it performs to its customers, and objective is a target that a firm can determine its progress (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 4). But my weakness in this chapter is needing to ask questions I’m not the best at that because I either don’t ask the question because I’m afraid that it doesn’t relate to the subject or we have already discussed and it will look like I was not paying attention. I’m working on it thought maybe someday I will have the confidence that managers have.

Leadership in Organizational Culture and Change

According to my results in Chapter 5 self-reflection, I found out that my strategic-framing strengths are mapping out how a firm creates value for its customers and realizing that firms can have a competitive disadvantage because they lack a clear strategy. In the book it states that there are three components of strategy which is what (the purpose), who (the customers) and how (approach) they are what help you determine your business (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 5) I learned that you can do a swot analysis to figure out your strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats of your company. It can help you improve your company to the best of its ability. In chapter 6 self-reflection, I got that I yet to have a solid grasp of corporate-level strategies because there are still somethings that I don’t understand. For instance, I didn’t know that vertical integration had different forms. But now I know that there is a forward integration and backward integration. Forward integration is which the firm owns or control the distributions channels for its product and backward integration is controlling the inputs that it uses for its product (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 6). In chapter 7 self-reflection, I got the result of half which means have begun to develop but don’t fully understand on how organizations are designed to achieve their strategic objectives. I understand that there are three different kinds of organizational structure which is functional, divisional, and matrix. Functional structure has one boss and one manager for each department. Divisional structure has one general manager and two division with each of its own department. Matrix is the most complicated because you don’t know who is your boss and there are multiple departments. In my business I would want a functional structure because you would be able to get to know everybody.

According to my results in Chapter 8 self-reflection, I am not well on my way to becoming a corporate culture anthropologist. I would have to agree with I because I don’t even know what anthropologist even means and I still don’t. But I have learned that it’s the boss that develops the culture for the business. Culture is the way an individual think, feels, and act (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 9). I would like to work in a business that is family-based because they give you the feeling of belonging. They also give you a reason to want to do your business because you want them to be proud and you don’t want to let them down.

Personal Growth and Future Leadership Aspirations

Based on my results in Chapter 9 self-reflection, my conception of strategic human resource management is a way a company plans its firm so that it is successful and will have an advantage over other firms. Companies can have an advantage over others by getting feedback. For instance, 360-degree feedback which is getting feedback from your employees and customers. It can help you understand the strength and weakness going on with your business when you can’t have your eyes and ears around. According to my results in Chapter 10 self-reflection, I don’t have the ability to produce results by focusing on performance management. Which I would have to agree with the reason why is because I never think about the end result of a project until I get to the end. But now I learn to have a business you have to think about where you want your business to end up and where you want it to be successful. In a business you need to have a performance plan which is plan, do, check, and act. You have to plan out the ideas that you want your business to have. Then you have to do the plan which you will then check and see if it is a success or a complete fail. If it’s a success then you keep doing on with the plan that you have set. In chapter 11 self-reflection, I got the results of not being a change agent. I would have to agree with not being a change agent because sometimes depending on the situation I don’t like when change happens. For instance, if I had been working on a project for weeks and then the teacher decides he or she doesn’t want to do that project anymore and wants to do something else then I’m not so happy about that change. But I have learned there are steps to over come resistance to change which is listen communicate, involve, and train (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 11). You have to listen to what the employee are saying about the change that you want to develop in the business. Then you have to communicate with them tell them about the change that is going to happen. Next is having you employees involved in the change let them know that they have power in this situation to. Then train them about the change that is happen don’t leave them to figure out on their own because they may never figure it out. You need to have communicate in the business for it to be successful.

According to my results in Chapter 12 self-reflection, I learned that I don’t have great leadership strengths based on certain situations. I’m not really good at starting conversations with people especially new people. I’m more about getting a job done more than having conversations with people in the workforce. I’m also not a person you can just vision something in my mind I actually have to see it to understand what others are talking about. I don’t really like to take risk because I worry too much about how bad it could end if it doesn’t work out. I have learned that there are ten different leadership theories. The one that I would like to have is the servant leadership theory because I want to serve people and not to be serve. Which is something that Jesus was I want people to know that I have someone that they can come to and someone that they can count on.

According to my results in Chapter 13 self-reflection, I got that I am aware of my leadership style. You capitalize your strengths of leadership style by using what you are good at and use that to your ability. For instance, I’m number smarts and I can use that to my ability by creating spreadsheets and analyze data. I have developed that there are sixteen types of personality types and mine is ISTJ. Which is introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 13). This type is are quiet thinkers that are very organized most of them are in the job of a secretary. In chapter 14 self-reflection, I learned that my source of power is not created with punishing people. I don’t think that you should use the punish power because all your friends or employees will fear you and not enjoy working with you. I am more of the expert power which is the power of having specialize skill. For instance, in school I was in a group that had to do a PowerPoint over the topic that was chosen for us. In my group I was the only one that fully understand how to work PowerPoint which gave me expert power. Expert power is one of the five forms of interpersonal power the rest are legitimate, reward, coercive, and referent (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 14).

Based on my results in Chapter 15 self-reflection, I learned that my decision-making skills is mostly about getting all the information that is needed so that I could make the best decision possible. I go to different people to get their thoughts on my decision that I need to make to see if they can give me a different perspective. I can improve my decision-making skills by using my intuition on some of my decision because knowledge isn’t everything sometimes you have to go with your gut. One thing that is not good to do when making decisions is satisficing. Satisificing is giving up on the best solution and choosing the goo enough solution (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 15). That is something that I do not want in my decision making because I believe that you should always pick the best solution even though it might take time to find it. In chapter 16 self-reflection, I would characterize my conflict management as compromising. My experience with watching my mother parenting has influenced my conflict management style. For example, when my brother and I would fight over the front sit in the car she would let one drive in the front there to the destination and one on the way back home. I have learned that there are two sources of conflict which are affective and cognitive. Affective is not liking the person as an individual and cognitive is work related conflict. If I was to have a conflict issue I would want cognitive because there are ways around work-related conflict and with affective there is just too much drama in that conflict.

According to my results in Chapter 17 self-reflection, I learned that I contribute to a team by being reliable and focused on the end goal. There are five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjusting (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 17). Forming is when the team is getting to know each other. This one is probably the most difficult for me because I don’t go and start talking to strangers. Storming is learning that there are some things that you don’t like about each other. Norming is learning was to get around the storming. Performing is starting to get some work done together and its going great. Last adjusting is your done if the team is temporary and going back to where you were before the team. In chapter 18 self-reflection, I learned that I am motivated by goals and by helping others. I learned that I don’t want to work somewhere to where you are challenged because that usually just makes me frustrated and stressed out. I also don’t want to work somewhere they are all about recognizing you for your achievements because to me as long as I know I did something good and I’m proud of myself that’s all I need. I do not like having someone announce my achievements because that is just awkward and embarrassing to me. I just want to work somewhere they set things for you to accomplish and they just let you get it done.

According to my results in Chapter 19 self-reflection, I found out that my communication strengths are being an active leader. I think listening is just as good maybe more than giving feedback. I also found out that using professional manner when using e-mail and social media is another one of my strengths. You have to use professional manner because everything you put online will stay forever. I would like to develop in exceling in making speeches. I’m not really good at doing speeches I get really nervous and stressed out. In chapter 20 self-reflection, I found out that representing memberships to organizations, clubs, or groups is missing from my network. I am not a part of any groups because usually they are really big and that kind of stresses me out. But have learned that you need to be in groups or organizations because they can give you social capital which is a competitive advantage. Social capital is a benefit that an individual has to increase their social relationship (Gulati, Mayo, and Nohria Chapter 20). Social capital helps you get ahead of everyone else in life. For instance, when I want a summer job, I can use my parents’ connections in my small town to help me get that job.

Concluding Reflections on Leadership Journey

In conclusion, this semester in principles of management I have learned that a manager can’t run a business on their own. For instance, you need the employee’s feedback about the company so you can figure out the company’s strength and weakness because you can’t be around the business twenty-four seven. But to do this you need ethical and moral employees to make sure that they are telling what is right. If you want a successful business then you need to have the right kind of people working with you. You need people that you can count on, that are in the business for the right reason, and they feel like family. When managing you have to remember that your employees are people to and they need to be treated with respect. If you respect your team then they will respect you. As a manager you have to remember that you and your employees are a team and you both need each other. So, as a manager we need to be a role model which I’m working on.