Dynamics of Leadership - Personal Statement Example

 Dynamics of leadership Event 1 Drama Participation: We had to participate on Fruit Day celebrated in the school. I was playing Apple and we were 5 kids in the group. Being participant, I had to carefully listen to the instructions of my teacher and act accordingly. We communicated with the teacher about our costumes and our entry and exit time and place. Event 2 Science Group project: I was leader in this project. My responsibilities included selection of topic, distribution of tasks and making sure the tasks were completed in time. I was successful in it as I selected the Solar System project and everyone was happy with my selection. My group which consisted of four students other than me had previously decided which topic to choose from. We decided that we will complete the task in four days and do all the work in Science class as our teacher gave us time to work on our project. Cutting of planets, drawing, coloring and pasting were all distributed equally. All of us participated equally in the project and it was delivered in time. Event 3 English Group Project: the class was divided into 3 groups. We used to sit in three rows so each row consisted of one group. We had a class quiz in which the team which gives most of the answers won. I always used to sit on the front desk therefore my teacher made me the leader. This was a difficult task for me because being a Chinese it is difficult to cope up with elective English classes. I tried to answer and make other answer but everyone was scared to do so. I got angry and could not lead my team well as I did not know how to motivate them. Event4 Group Task (China Day Celebration): This was a national holiday therefore we were supposed to decorate our school prior to it. This was a task involving all of the class. We had to make our flag and write enthusiastic messages for our country. Each class was supposed to decorate their own classrooms. The best decorated classroom was supposed to get reward. I observed that many students did not take keen interest in it and tried to put their tasks on others. This added to the delay in the completion of project and we did not come up with good work as compared to the winning class. Event5 Annual Trip: I was participant. We had to divide the things we had to take along with us to the annual trip which was divided equally amongst all children. Event6 Assembly Participation: I was participating in it along with the class. This was done successfully as I completed the task assigned to me. Event7 Art Project: I was leader in it and I had to deploy collage making along with four students. I distributed the work which was completed by all except one of the class fellows. He did not want to do it. Event8 Annual Trip: This was a one dish party and our teacher asked us to distribute everything between ourselves. Being a participant I carefully listened and completed the tasks. Event9 Group Project: this was a mini thesis assignment distributed between four students. I completed my tasks and so did others. This was successfully done as our leader was very friendly and cooperative. Event10 Ms Office Project: this was done with much trouble as I am not very good at software. I divided the task between three students but none of them showed up with work. If I told teacher he would have cut our marks and I would have lost friends too therefore I completed it myself with much trouble. Assignment 4 Ethical decision making is necessary for triumphant leadership. Understanding towards ends based thinking, rule based thinking and care based thinking is required to lead in different situations. Leadership can be successful or toxic in nature. Leaders are supposed to give directions to people working with him. He should not think high of himself and low of others. Ruling others does not mean that the ones who are under you lack something. It means that you are vested in powers by them and they trust you to give them directions. When this thinking is not present in a leader toxic leadership takes over. Toxic leadership is evident in boss-employee relationship. Behavioral descriptors of bad leadership include commanding and over commanding, delaying decisions, lack of communication, communicating badly, inappropriate use of words and reactions at inappropriate times. Boss thinks he is always right and expects “too much” for employee who is a human himself. The boss has also been an employee sometime in his life and has better understanding towards employee problems. Power makes man absorb in him and listening to “appreciation” creates a false impression of thinking too high of oneself. Power and appreciation make boss think that ever word he utters is correct. Results can be generated by remaining kind and humane towards the employees. This is however neglected and hence such leadership is referred to as toxic in nature which makes the employee leave the job or become inactive. In the busy everyday life everyone tries to take advantage of the other. Sometimes the employee finds his boss considerate towards himself and understands his importance. Therefore, he starts exploiting his boss, making him do too much favors. There sh0ould be a balance in leadership. A person who has power cannot become too “sweet” neither too “sour”. Aristotle’s five ethical principles can help in overcoming this dilemma of reacting properly in a given situation. Respecting self-rule, benefiting from others, doing no damage, being fair and loyal is the key to successful leadership (Komives, Lucas and McMahon, 2013). Moral maturity is the most important factor in leading properly. Therefore, a person who has power should reflect upon the expectations of his when he was at the stage over whom he is commanding. This helps in better motivation of the people’s expectation which results in getting the most out of them by giving them no harm emotionally, physically or monetarily. Relationship leadership model gives the basis of leading on ethical and moral grounds. It means to make purposeful moves, creating a positive environment and positive relationships. Assignment 5 Group projects and activities can be the most multifaceted in nature. Forming, storming, norming and performing are the four stages of Tuckman’s model (Komives, Lucas and McMahon, 2013). You have to complete a given task in the given time with the given people. Every person is different from the other. The communication pattern of everyone is different and so is the understanding towards the given instructions. We had to complete a computer project and number of people in my group was 6. Everyone was enthusiastic prior to the beginning of the task. We divided our group in pairs so in total there were 3 pairs. When division of the work started, different group members started to put their work on other members. The people who worked as pair for report writing did not function well as one of the members was giving excuses like his computer isn’t working. Other group members got raged on the situation. However, anger leads to nothing but delay of work and wastage of energy. When such problems started to arise, all of us sat together and we decided to bring all the laptops we had. We decided to gather in one house of our members. Doing so will make us sure that every member is playing his part in the group. These problems made us angry and we wanted to expel that one member due to which our project was getting late. Our group leader however reacted in a very calm manner. He communicated with all of us that we should calm down and even we could have avoided completing work. This was something which did not sound logical at the moment. He made us realize about the obligation put by the instructor. We could not expel a member for his irresponsible behavior. The assignment was to be marked for the 6 of us or none and hence it was norming due to which we started performing. This obligation set by our instructor served as a basis for us gluing together till the completion of the project. There is nothing such as an “ideal group”. We are all human beings and we all tend to avoid situations which seem challenging in nature. Having a good leader who focuses on the achievement of goals rather than getting frustrated over petty issues is a successful one. My group leader inspired me to great extent and I appreciated him for the fact that he resolved the problem rather than piling it up. Assignment 7 Part I. Whenever I was given a group task or project, I used to get scared and unhappy. This was due to the fact that people will not do their task. I also looked towards group projects as one person doing all the work, delay in completion of task, loosing friends and flared up moods. At number of times, I have been a leader to my group. I am a very friendly person and I do not like to make anyone sad, unhappy or feel pressurized. Being nice did not always make me a successful leader. My group members used to exploit it and tell me about their problems. I had to complete most of the project by myself alone. They used to put all the burden of work over me. They also used to think I can do it better than them. It was a kind of trap rather than encouragement. I knew they are encouraging me and making me do all the work. Leadership to me was being friendly, division of tasks equally, being fair and honest. Role model of leadership to me was delivering instructions, division of work fairly, how to do the given task, delivery time and completion and behaving responsibly. Part II. I have learnt that leadership does not mean to get the work done but how the work is done has a whole story of leadership in itself. Leadership can be good or bitter. Leader is also human being and can commit a lot of mistakes so can the members. Forgiveness and letting go is the key to focus on the results. One should not get hedged in by anger getting control of him be it leader or members. A win-win situation, maintaining positive attitudes and environment can help in getting most out of leadership. I see myself as a good leader now. My strengths are honesty, responsibility, being humble, deploying activities and making sure they are being done. I cannot be rude to anyone or say no and that is my weakness. I have learnt to say no and make others play their part by encouraging them that you can do it. Everyone wants to exploit the other. Having power over others does not mean you can exploit them. This goes both ways, neither the leader should exploit members nor the members should exploit leader. This course has made me understand the key to leadership that being leader it is the people who have trusted in you. You have to be fair, honest and firm on your decisions. Part III. I want to nurture my leadership skills by aligning my physical, moral and communication patterns. I want to be a leader who focuses on achievement of goals rather than over petty issues and fights. Successful division of work and completion should be done. Under my leadership, I would never want to take advantage of my power. Understanding of what people expect from me and making sure that I keep everyone with me without making enemies or generating toxic leadership are my goals. Discussion 5: Your Leadership Compass My leadership compass involves moral values like giving respect, being honest and loyal, interpersonal skills like effective communication and having friendly relationships, creative conflict resolution like understanding problems and solving them and delivery of results like completion of task in time. I started a part time job and had problems with my boss. He knows that I can give him only few hours but he always tries to put more work over my shoulders. I am a friendly person therefore he puts on extra work over me and wants to get it done in a friendly relationship gesture. I have learnt a lot from this course therefore prior to doing any extra work I make him realize politely that I am doing extra work and expect you to pay me for that. Being friendly and communicating effectively leads to payment effectively. Discussion 6: Organizational Vision and Mission I viewed General Electric; IKEA and Hay groups mission statements in order to understand leadership better. I chose them because all of them are the best and successful organizations in the field of electric appliances, furniture design and global management company respectively. Figure 1.1 (Jurevicius, 2013). There is no formal mission statement of GE, however they have an image which serves as their mission statement. They observe what is required to make world a better place and invent it (Jurevicius, 2013). The mission statement of IKEA is to design affordable and quality products to serve the people (Jurevicius, 2013). The mission statement of Hay Group involved identification of barriers to individual and organizational effectiveness and their removal for improved effectiveness of teams and organization. All of them have a different mission statement, GE involves invention of new appliances and observation, IKEA involves perfect designs along with cost effectiveness and HAY group involves effectiveness of organization returns by getting over with individual and organizational barriers in a company. Having a vision for a cause makes it possible for a person to understand why he is doing something and what he wants to achieve from it. Discussion 7: Presentation of Leadership Project Leadership project has given me insight over the leadership skills and implementation. It made me learn how to collaborate leadership skills, communication skills and moral values in order to achieve results. Dealing with people, keeping them happy, maintains a positive environment and attitude is the key to successful leadership. Also, using the power as a leader honestly and humbly is very important. Leadership project helped me in understanding of employee engagement and organizational success. A boss has also been at the position of an employee sometime in his life. Having vested power he should not ignore the things which used to motivate or de-motivate him at the time when he was at the stage of employees. Employee engagement serves as foundation for successful organizational returns. A boss forgets to understand “letting go” as playing an evident part in successful leadership. Feedback on project of others: I appreciate the efforts of everyone’s projects. The understanding of every individual member for the leadership project differs. However, it is noticeable that all of us understand the importance of motivation and morals in leadership. I am happy to see great effort by all of my fellows in leadership program. All the projects lead to better understanding of the expectations of employee and behavior of bosses with them. Discussion 8: Facilitating Change Change is inevitable and is required to improve the project. Before making a change, evaluation is required. This helps in understanding to the fact that whether change is required or not. After assessing change, the tasks are designed accordingly. A friendly environment helps in people to accept the change. Making people realize that they are benefitting from the change is more importance than bringing about a change. Hence, implementation is done. People are scared of change and do not accept it. Slightest of change for example working for an extra hour would make employees feel uncomfortable. Communication and reinforcement is necessary for making people accept the change. Leadership should be aligned with the business goals and employee effectiveness. References Komives, S., R., Lucas, N., McMahon, T., R. 2013. Exploring Leadership: for college students who want to make a difference. John Wiley & Sons. U.S: 3rd ed. Jurevicius, O. 2013. Mission statement of GE. Strategic Management Insight. Available at http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/mission-statements/general-electric-mission-statement.html (Accessed March 31, 2014) Jurevicius, O. 2013. Mission statement of IKEA. Strategic Management Insight. Available at http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/mission-statements/ikea-mission-statement.html (Accessed March 31, 2014) Read More