Reflective Review on Leadership

Title
by Student’s name
Course code+name
Professor’s name
University Name
City, State
Date of submission
Title
Introduction
This reflective review aims to discuss my prior knowledge and experiences in leadership. It reveals that my knowledge and experiences have shaped me into a leader. Furthermore, this reflective review also aims to discuss my experiences and lessons learned throughout the course, particularly during the Everest Challenge activity, and lessons on being a leader and a follower. I will discuss these through the lens of transformational and situational theories. It also aims to provide a development plan outlining my next steps in learning and developing as a leader. Thus, this reflective review illustrates how I have deepened my understanding of leadership, integrated my learning into my practices, and intend to develop the leadership skills that I currently possess.
My Background
Witnessing leadership in various forms every day has increased my understanding of what it takes to be a true leader. Leadership exists in the home, school, community, and even among peers. I have seen my parents lead our home, school administrators, teachers, student leaders at school, politicians and other organization leaders, and leaders in my circle of friends. Hence, I believe that I have adopted some of their leadership styles in the leader that I have become.
At home, I learned that a good leader must be able to listen and empathize. My parents would usually resolve issues by simply listening and empathizing with whoever had a problem. As a result, I have realized that a leader is not a dictator who tells their followers what to do. A leader, on the other hand, listens to their followers, empathizes with them, and then comes up with a solution after fully understanding their situation. Thus, a leader must be a good listener and empathetic.
I learned in school that leaders must be able to love. Teachers, in particular, have demonstrated love as leaders in the school. Teachers will go to extra mile to help their students. And because they care about their students, they will go to any length to help them. Teachers are more than just those who instruct within the four walls of a classroom. Above all, modern teachers understand how to love their students. Thus, a leader must know how to love.
In the community, I have learned that a leader must first learn to serve before learning to lead. This leadership style is known as servant leadership. A servant leader puts the needs of others ahead of their own. Hence, servant leader understands how to make sacrifices to benefit their followers or the community. As a result, a leader must strive to serve rather than be served.
I learned from my friends that a compassionate leader is a good leader. When someone is compassionate, they understand other people’s problems and want to help them. Everyone in my group of friends wants to hear each other’s stories, and everyone is so compassionate that when a problem arises, everyone wants to help. Thus, a leader must be compassionate.
With all my leadership experiences, I have learned that a good leader must be a servant leader, a listener, emphatic, affectionate, compassionate, and selfless. However, I cannot be everything to everyone. As a leader, I excelled at displaying affection, compassion, empathy, and selflessness. However, I have yet to master the servant leader leadership style. This leadership style is challenging and requires a great deal of humility and courage, but I believe that I will sooner adopt this style.
Before taking the course, I had a diverse background in leadership. I have seen several people lead, which has helped me understand what it is like to be a leader. Those experiences also helped me to develop as a leader. It enabled me to develop essential leadership characteristics and practices. However, there are still things that I struggle with, and I know I can learn more about leadership when I successfully finish the course.
Reflections on My Experience During the Leadership Challenge Using Leadership Theory
Leadership is influenced by culture. This statement is supported by a completed questionnaire demonstrating how my culture influences my leadership styles. The questionnaire revealed that I prefer a job with fewer constraints and rules, always prioritize the group’s interests over my own, and am not very assertive in expressing my opinions to my leaders because I respect and submit to their ideas. Hence, the results show that I am fully compatible with the Confucian Asian community (Northouse 1999). For instance, I am more concerned with the community’s interests, I work not for the sake of working but for achieving results, and I have a close relationship with my family (Guo 1995). However, in today’s time, prejudices on age, gender, sexual orientation, and race still exist (Northouse 1999). I believe that the position of men and women in society is necessarily unequal in our country today because very few women are leaders and a large portion of the population still believes that women should be good mothers or wives only. My cultural background may be why I always submit to my leader. I always believe in the leaders’ supremacy and that I should honor and respect them. Therefore, cultural background affects one’s perspective of a leader and a follower.
A leader must also be culturally competent. A leader must deal with members of various cultures and thus can only lead them if the leader is culturally competent. Cultural competence begins with a thorough understanding of one’s own culture. When they understand their own culture, they will also be able to understand other cultures. Being culturally competent requires two things: respect and acceptance. One must respect and accept the culture, behaviors, and beliefs of others (Offerman and Phan 2022). Hence, culture influences leadership, and a leader must be culturally competent.
Two leadership theories struck me throughout the course and during the leadership challenge. The situational and authentic theories are the two theories I can relate to and have demonstrated during the leadership challenge. I believe these two theories suit my personality and cultural background among all leadership theories, which is why I have adopted them.
Situational leadership is a style that allows a leader to use a particular leadership style depending on the situation. A leader analyses the situation first and sees which leadership style is the best for the situation (Hersey et al. 1969). In the leadership challenge, I have widely used this leadership style. The activity consists of several tasks, and each participant has a different role to play. Since the groups must complete different situations and tasks, no single leadership style will fit all of them; therefore, situational leadership is the best leadership style for the activity. For example, when it came time to climb to the summit, I was designated as a leader. I mentioned earlier that I am the type of person who usually submits to my leader since that is the practice I have witnessed. However, because of my other experiences, I have developed my identity in leadership. There is a photographer, an environmentalist, a physician, and a marathoner in the group. They all have different tasks and conditions. As a leader, I must first analyze the task and each member’s various roles and conditions. I communicated my ideas to the group once I had fully understood the task, their conditions, and other factors an...