Leadership Reflection Paper
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
My Worldview
I believe in effectiveness, in learning, and in creating connections that are meaningful. I also believe that increasing my spirituality helps in boosting my individual characteristics that relate to patience, self-awareness, kindness, and self-acceptance. I believe in God, not necessarily religious, but I believe in something greater than myself. I am drawn more towards the Christian teachings on life. These teachings have a moral and ethical basis, similar to rules and regulations that govern a society. In my journey as a leader, the belief in God and Christian teachings allow me to be more flexible, to learn, to accept situations, to be wise, to adapt, and to be understanding. I also found that spirituality gives confidence regarding issues and situations that are outside of my control.
I understand people as assets, essential components that influence the direction of an individual not just as a leader but generally as a human. I agree with Lips-Wiersma and Mills (2014) that the human nature is one of several factors that dictate who we become. Humans are an essential part of the environment that shapes people. Therefore, people are profoundly important. People change or create cultures, form institutions, and together form a chain that creates interdependence. Understanding people and their nature gives critical insight into how to treat them, as a leader or a follower. Knowing these human issues means that one understands what it entails to belong to a society. Moral actions, ethics, and normative pursuit is integral to how we relate with each other. Overall, I think people are interconnected and always available towards ensuring progress of a societal structure.
I believe that the most important aspects of life are integrity, responsibility, and hope. Just like there are primary colors that create every other shade, I believe that the core values of integrity, hope, and responsibility give rise to every other value including honesty, courage, faithfulness, service, freedom, honor, trust, kindness, growth, love, appreciation, and patience, and so on. Integrity is all about walking the talk. Moorman and Grover (2009) define it as speaking and acting as per one’s beliefs and convictions. An agreement between actions and words breeds consciousness in everything one is tasked to do. Responsibility is an obligation or a burden placed on an individual. Being responsible means that one embraces their role and is both dependable and reliable in executing it. Hope is more spiritual; it allows one to look forward to situations with reasonable confidence and desire. In the spiritual realm, hope is used to mean confident expectation, strength, and faith that something will happen. It allows difficult tasks and situations to be handled with relative confidence. Combined, these three values allow me to live my life with ease. They are my guiding principles and influence every decision I make.
Leadership Philosophy
I firmly perceive leadership as a combination of different strategies and approaches depending on the situation and the environment. Nonetheless, I am more attracted to the transformational leader. In the transformational leadership approach, the leader is driven by a desire to improve. The main mode of operation is to empower team members as a way of streamlining and improving upon conventions (Buil, Martinez, & Matute, 2019). I think this approach suits almost every organization and business regardless of size and structure. Focusing on the big picture and believing on the people as opposed to strict management and control is more effective in getting individuals to be creative, to show initiative and commitment, and to be participative in the process of driving an organization forward. I am also driven to include participation as a part of the leadership style. Participation allows team members and followers to contribute towards the decision-making process. I find this helpful because it brings in input from people working on the ground, maybe in the field, on a project, or line managers, who would otherwise be excluded from the decision-making structure and process. I believe people want to see strong leaders who are focused on an end goal. A leader is supposed to set a target, create objectives, and then work towards getting these targets met. For example, a visionary leader who wants to transform an organization to compete with companies doing exceptionally well must articulate this to every team member. It is important that followers also feel valued. Therefore, participation and involvement are some of the aspects that make the transformational leadership style one of the most effective in leading people.
Worldview and Leadership Perspectives
I would like to be a leader in one of the Charitable Foundations in the future. I am confident that this will allow me to invest back on the people, to contribute positively to society, and to ensure that I use my leadership skills to drive a cause that is beneficial to mankind. I would be a transformational leader because I would be focused on changing how organizations interact with the people. I have a firm belief that people are assets and should always be treated as such. By being a leader in a charitable organization, I would lead others to changing their views on those that are disadvantaged in the society. I would change the capitalistic narrative that those that have less are lazy. It would give me a platform to create a new corporate culture, one that invests in the people, follows ethicality and moral views, and genuinely sets out to make life better for others in different situations. As a transformational leader, I would aim to not only transform charitable organizations but also be part of a new narrative in helping people and organizations to interact better.
References
Buil, I., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee
performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 64-75.
Lips-Wiersma, M., & Mills, A. J. (2014). Understanding the basic assumptions about human
nature in workplace spirituality: Beyond the critical versus positive divide. Journal of Management Inquiry, 23(2), 148-161.
Moorman, R. H., & Grover, S. (2009). Why does leader integrity matter to followers? An
uncertainty management-based explanation. International journal of leadership studies, 5(2), 102-114.
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
