How to Become an Effective Leader - Essay Example

Introduction For the last fifteen weeks, I have been undertaking the leadership a designed to help learners reflect upon their own qualities as leaders, and learn their weaknesses and strengths when offered such positions. This reflective piece presents an array of thoughts and perceptions after fifteen weeks of committed learning. Reflection on Learning the Leadership Course The leadership course has been instrumental in shaping my views on leadership, and has helped me reflect positively on my own qualities as a leader. During the course, I assumed different personalities to participate in the personality tests, which helped me realize the interaction between personal character and leadership qualities. The course increased my ability to lead a workforce in an organization, especially based on an engineering environment for which I have a background. The course content opened me to think about my personal style of leadership. Based on what I learnt, I realized that my philosophical approach to leadership can be described as laissez-faire; a rather laid back approach that dwells on adequate information supply but indirect involvement in the affairs of an entity. The leadership style bestows trust on other members of staff and provides feedback on a regular basis, commending and criticizing staffs based on their performances (Famiza, Kassim and Nasharudin, 3). My nature of leadership could develop further through adoption of more technology-guided means of data acquisition for timely reporting of information. I deem I need to get more acquainted with more social media platforms and integrate email and virtual communication forums such as Skype into the regular reporting schedule. I feel I have inadequate knowledge of how best some of the platforms can be of use, and I’ll seek to learn this within a short time frame. I further realized that my notion of leadership lacked empathy, and I could often treat workers like people who cannot be allowed to fail at times. Upon attending the course, I realized that being empathetic creates room for quality reasoning, and helps me relate the events in other people’s lives to my own. I have learnt various qualities of good and bad leadership, and how each style could affect both relationships with staff members and customers and eventually affect the goals of the company. For instance, autocratic leadership leads to low staff morale, and affects both output and attitude towards customers. On the other hand, participative leadership allows input from all members, thereby ensuring that inclusivity is enhanced. I desire to lead from the latter point of view; giving a voice to everyone involved. I realized that in order to bring on board every member of staff, enhancing cultural awareness is an important value for a leader. Recognizing diversity of cultures at the work place motivates teamwork and collaboration, hence productivity. Besides recognizing the cultural values and backgrounds of other members, the leader is required to pioneer a merger of individual values to the overall culture of the organization, seen through such values as a high level of business etiquette (making positive impressions about self and organization through acceptable and respectful representation). The idea of cultural diversity was especially new to me, since I believed that the only objective is to abide by the cultural identity of the business. I learnt about the act of making an impressive initial impression when handling any affair in a business environment. To me, this is an aspect of business etiquette that demands respectful and courteous entry into any negotiations, giving the other party room to make an impression and prevailing over personal views to stand for the organization. Business ethics in an integral part of the business environment that reflects how much transparent, law-abiding and considerate the entity is through the eyes of its leadership. My first point of ethical consideration is the welfare of other employees; how the business model responds to their needs, and whether the organization’s motives override the welfare of its employees. I would like to rebuild any non-conforming model around this important ethical value. Another component of effective leadership that I have learnt through the course is critical thinking. In particular, I learnt how to interrogate situations before reaching a cogent decision. This would ensure that the decision so made is the best, based on facts and considerate of the objectives and rights of all parties likely to be affected. Critical thinking is, therefore, a powerful tool for avoiding future blame and enhancing uniformity in decision making. I did not hold the idea of appearing to give uniform verdicts on related decisions, which is an added advantage of learning the leadership course. My understanding of the role of leadership has opened my thinking about the inevitability of risk taking. I do not consider myself a risk taker, but, fortunately, this course has opened my reflection upon other courses that provide knowledge on how to make wise selections based on selected criteria. This makes that the risk taken is relative to set parameters, and the need to make the specific choice can be explained at any point in time (before and after making the decision). I have also learnt that being in leadership often requires participation in public forums, and that it is almost automatic the leader will be selected/ expected to make a public note. I do not possess some important skills of public speaking, such as courage and coherence, and I need to build up on my confidence. Luckily, I have learnt that public speaking is not always easy, but is easy to learn through devoted learning and gradual exposure. I will take the learning initiative to enhance my position as a future leader capable of speaking coherently and reasonably in a public forum. The ability to speak one’s mind does not override the right of others to make their own opinions known. Therefore, despite being in a leadership position, the leader must not suppress the voices of other staffs. The course provided examples of channels of good communication that allow staffs to express themselves without fear of victimization or being subjected to managerial suspicion. Such a move is important in gaining ideas on which points the organization and the management has failed, and gathering information on changes that could be needed at any point. I learnt that determination, courage and commitment are important qualities in leadership. Determination and commitment enhance the desire to stick to the objectives. Courage is best viewed in the position of having to make decisions that involve a degree of uncertainty (risk). I learnt that courage must be coupled with critical thinking and analytical assessment of situational benefits and risks. As a future leader, I have learnt to embrace global changes in every aspect of organization, including communication, values, and the general environment of a business. I now share the understanding that every organization needs a team that will guide it towards new and trendy methods of working. The emerging trends comprise an awareness of the business culture, which has indirect impact on the general culture of the organization. My impression of all the above leadership qualities is that leadership requires the application of a mixture of skills and qualities, and constant foregoing of personal values so as to accommodate other people’s views. The above leadership qualities are the core values that could guide my recognition as a worthy leader, especially in my preferred path of transformational leadership. After learning of their place in leadership, I will be constantly evaluating myself against each of the qualities, and ascertain conformity to them. Having worked in a team for in the leadership course, I learnt to compromise my ambitions and give others the chance to express their thoughts. I realized that as a leader, it is important to give others the chance to grow as leaders, so the organization can have continuity of leadership. I found out that even when I thought I had a superior idea, I needed good skills to convince other group members. I still need to develop my attitude towards challengers, and learn how to make a winning argument for my ideas. Furthermore, I need to be able to mix humour with serious discussions to gain the attention of others. I will spend more time watching video clips of speakers who are known to be great at intertwining humour with serious content, and seek help with seeing challenges as positive criticisms. My communication of ideas needs greater conviction power, which can be gained from training and constant assumption of leadership positions. Conclusion The leadership course has inspired my personal desire to become an effective leader; one who keeps close ties with all levels of employees and allows for alternative voices. The course further provided a forum to evaluate my existing type of leadership, and explain its advantages and disadvantages. Through grouping with course-mates, I learnt the basic skills of handling practical leadership challenges, and managed to test my style of leadership as well as contrast it with those of the other group members. I feel I need to enhance my leadership skills to make a better leader in future. I have resolved to use every available opportunity to learn more leadership skills, strengthen those I already have, and enable learning of new, up-to-date techniques, skills and equipment. Works Cited Tarsik, Nor Famiza, Norliya Ahmad Kassim and Nurhidayah Nasharudin. Transformational, Transactional or Leissez-Faire: What Styles Do University Librarians Practice? Journal of Organizational Management Studies. Vol 2014 (2014), Article ID 194100. Read More