My Personal-Best Experience of Leadership - Assignment Example

The paper “My Personal-Best Experience of Leadership" is an impressive example of an assignment on management. One recalled a leadership experience in terms of steering one’s group towards achieving explicitly defined academic goals. In the academic setting, there are course modules that require students to form a group and to undertake the performance of a project. The group project occurred last semester. The project requires undertaking research about a designated topic and to present the findings in class. The topic was about climate change and global warming. The group was composed of four other classmates (who became members) and I was delegated as the leader. The challenges that were encountered included separating tasks in equal terms, delegating activities to the members, scheduling regular meetings to monitor the progress of the accomplishment of assigned tasks, as well as finalizing the report prior to presentation.

2. Thinking about the case you just selected, what are the five to seven actions you took as a leader that made a difference?
The five to seven actions one took as a leader that made a difference were consistent with the five practices of exemplary leadership: (1) modeled the way, (2) inspired a shared vision, (3) challenged the process, (4) enabled others to act, and (5) encouraged the heart (The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership ).

That is, what specifically would you say you did as a leader that mobilized your group or organization to get extraordinary things done?
The collaborative practices provided motivation for the members and enabled the group

to perform according to expectations. Actually, through the exemplary application of leadership strategies, skills, and style, one was able to ensure that members communicated openly, as well as resolve urgent and pressing concerns. In addition, frequent monitoring and follow up from each of the members regarding the compliance of assigned tasks assisted in determining some issues that need to be immediately resolved.

3. What were the two or three major lessons that you learned about leadership from this experience?
The lessons learned about leadership from the experience are as follows: (1) open communication plays a crucial role in ensuring that crucial issues are immediately resolved; (2) leaders should accurately assess the skills and competencies of the followers so that tasks that are to be delegated would be complied with, as required; and (3) leaders should design motivational strategies to assist in facilitating performance of tasks with optimized results.

That is if you were going to give someone else advice about being a leader, based on your own experience, what would you tell that person?
If I would give someone else advice about being a leader, based on my own experience, I would tell that person that leadership entails possessing traits and characteristics such as charisma, theoretical knowledge of the area being governed, accurately assessing the personalities of the followers, as well as behaving according to ethical, moral, and legal standards. Moreover, leaders could be developed through updating knowledge on leadership theories, as well as being open to undertake leadership and development training to ensure that the style, skills, and competencies would match the personalities of the followers, as well as the needs of the situation.