Leadership and Change Management Meetings - Coursework Example

Student’s Name: Course: Professor: Date Introduction Studying leadership requires practicing on how to be effective leaders. I have been actively involved in meetings where we have discussed several issues on leadership and management. This is because leadership and management involve solving problems and carrying out the proposed solutions. I have been able to realize the need of being a good leader through participating and running meetings. These sessions have been a foresight on my career where I will be expected to lead and organize others. In management, meeting sessions are vital as they demonstrate the ability of a leader. Managing these meetings and organizing them requires one to cope with different situations. This can be supported by the fact that management is about dealing with complexity. Out of school I will be involved in managing complex and large organization. Leadership is vital as I will be required to cope with change. The three meetings that we conducted acted to help in understanding our future role in the career as managers and leaders. I will reflect on the three meetings that I participated. In the meeting, leadership was decided upon by all present through agreement. I was involved in the process of selecting the group leader. The first meeting began by selecting the chair person and secretary. One of the main issues that were discussed is the distinction between leadership and management. Leadership and management are two distinct terms that are often confused. Leadership and management are complementary and hence have to coexist. I have learned that both these functions have their own functions. For there to be success in a business, both leadership and management have to be exercised correctly. I was able to see how members in the meetings were distinguishing the two terms. Managing is about dealing with today complex situations in organizations. Through well practiced management organizations are becoming more complex. The competition in the business world according to the meeting outcome has led to organizations requiring more organised leadership (Kotter, 1999). Having an organization in the top position requires the management and leadership to be practiced accurately. I always propose that for an organization to be successful, they must seek leadership that is able to deliver. Members noted that leadership can be enhanced through selection and nurturing. I was able to contribute a lot in the leadership as I had been able to know what it entails through research. I know that effective leadership must be able to help in problem solving. I was fully engaged through the meting. Having good leadership has to go well with a good management. There is no way an organization can perform if their leadership is weak. I know that management is vital as leadership is in any organization (Thompson and Vecchio, 2009). I was able to express the importance of leadership and motivation. The leaders must be able to have followers who are motivated. The leader must influence the subjects through motivation so that the organization can achieve the desired results. I was able to prove that the leader must be able to motivate the followers so that they can achieve the required results. The leader as the group head is tasked in making sure that the group achieves the required results. I explained that through leading the meeting, the leader have to make sure the group achieves the required results (Lerstrom, 2008). I felt that the leadership in the meeting was doing the best to ensure that the group achieved the required objectives. By the end of the meeting, the group was able to differentiate leadership and management as well as know how motivation helps in leadership. From research, I know that leadership and motivation are closely linked and hence leaders should make sure that their workforce is highly motivated (Torrington, Hall, and Taylor, 2007). In the second meeting, the group looked at how leadership can be enhanced to create a good working atmosphere. I was amazed at the many perceptions that the group had on what the leaders should do. The leaders are expected to bring the best performance in an organization. I was to give the explanation on how the leadership should do to have positive results in an organization. According to research, the best leadership can be offered by utilising different forms of leadership. Emotional intelligence is vital in any leadership style. This helps the leaders to manage themselves and others effectively (Goleman, 2000). I was able to explain this by referring to the case study on River Café Restaurant. The café has a style of leadership where there is respect for every member of the staff from the top to those in junior positions. Great leaders have self awareness, self management, social; awareness and social skills. I explained the great need for emotional intelligence for the leadership to be successful (Goleman, 2011). The leaders who are strong in emotional intelligence are able to deliver to the expectations. There are different leadership styles that leadership use built the success is determined by how successful they are used. I gained a lot from the meeting concerning emotional intelligence and leadership styles. I was able to note that there is need to grow the emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is not inherited and can be learned at any age through practice and commitment. I rated my emotional intelligence and came to a conclusion that I need to evaluate myself more. To become emotionally intelligent, one has to look at the areas that require improvement. I learned that by using multiple views in diagnosing emotional intelligence, it becomes easier to note where the weakness is. Leadership is about noting the weakness and improving on them while trying to avoid overestimating the strengths. Effective leadership and management that are experienced at the River Café are outstanding due to emotional intelligence. I learned how as a leader, one can make a working environment that leads to thriving businesses. The café management and leadership have been able to transform it into international standards (Lewin & Regine, 2000). I was able to get great skills through the meeting organization and management as well as the topics discussed. I was able to know the need for continuously trying to learn how to respond in business environment as a leader. This is due to the fact that the business environment is dynamic. The second meeting was conducted in a manner that showed that we were able to organize and conduct leadership meetings appropriately. This is because we were able to accomplish the purpose and learn on leadership (Hayes, 2007). In have learned situations where leadership was not well carried out leading to disastrous results. This was especially in the accidents that shaped the aviation industry crew management and leadership. During the third meeting, members were supposed to have read on the accidents that lead to changes in cabin resource. We had researched on an accident occurred in the United Flight 173 due to arrogance of the captain killing ten people. This accident happened despite the fact that the captain was warned by the flight engineer on status of the fuel. This led to the enactment of the Cockpit resource management. In the meeting, I stressed on the importance of team work and the results that can be brought by superiority. The introduction of the Cabin Resource management helped in making it possible for the cockpit crew to work as a team. This has seen several victories by the crew (Great Britain, 2006). In this meeting, the group members had improved and there was much contribution as compared to the previous meetings. I was delighted at how the members were able to approach the issue on team work in leadership. The leadership in the meeting exhibited cooperation and teamwork. This helped the members gained useful traits in leadership such as appreciating each other when in a team. During the meeting, all the members’ contributions were valued despite how minimal they were. In leadership, appreciating other team members is one of the traits that help the organization to progress. If there was cooperation in cabin crew of the flight 173, they could have avoided the accident (Great Britain, 2006). A leader should be listening to other people inputs and consider them (Miller, 2012). The meetings had sessions where we considered the inputs by different members. I appreciated having a strong leadership that listens through team work. Team work is appreciated in large organizations such as aviation companies. Having appropriate leadership leads to accurate response of a problem (Spitzer, 2000). For example, our team leader was able to respond to problems such as how to make sure every member contribute and learn. This was through consulting each other. As the cabin crew work together to respond to any problem, the meeting had the members working together. I was able to learn how important communication is in an organization noted that most of the group members in the meeting had improved in their communication skills. This is a great sign of leadership as a leader must be able to communicate effectively (Beerel, 2009). Conclusion Meetings are important as they provide avenues where I am able to gauge myself on what to expect after leaving the university. As a leader, meetings are part of everyday work and the knowledge to run them can not be underrated. The three meeting acted as an avenue where I was able to know my weakness as a leader and my strengths. This helped me to know on where to improve. The team members were able to develop their skills through assisting each other. I was able to contribute in each meeting and help in running each meeting. Having an effective meeting was the main aim of these meetings. Effective meetings help the leadership to achieve the goals. I was able to distinguish between leadership and management. In these meetings, the output from the team work was visible through the results. Reference Beerel, A 2009, Leadership and change management, Los Angeles, SAGE. Goleman, D 2000, ‘Leadership That Gets Results - A leader's singular job is to get results. But how?’ Harvard Business Review, No. 4487, p. 78-90. Goleman, D 2011, Leadership: the power of emotional intelligence, Northampton, MA, More Than Sound. Great Britain 2006, Crew resource management (CRM) training: guidance for flight crew, CRM instructors (CRMIS) and CRM instructor-examiners (CRMIES), Norwich, TSO on behalf of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Hayes, J 2007, The theory and practice of change management. Basingstoke [England], Palgrave Macmillan. Kotter, J.P 1999, John P. Kotter on what leaders really do, Boston, Harvard Business School Press. Lerstrom, C 2008, ‘Advising Jay: a case study using a situational approach’, NACDA Journal, Vol. 28, no. 2. Pp. 21-27. Lewin, R & Regine, B 2000, The soul at work: listen, respond, let go: embracing complexity science for business success, New York, Simon & Schuster. Miller, P 2012, Leadership and change management: leading for change, Prahran, Vic, Tilde University Press. Spitzer, R.J 2000, The spirit of leadership optimizing creativity and change in organizations, Provo, UT, Executive Excellence Pub. Thompson, G and Vecchio, R.P 2009, ‘Situational Leadership theory: A test of three versions’, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 20, no. 1, p. 837-848. Torrington, D., Hall, L & Taylor, S 2007, Human Resource Management, FT Prentice Hall. London. Read More