Write a Self-Reflection on Leadership.
To support integrity and fairness in others and myself.
In my daily life, I would like to strength the following values; respect, responsibility, and leadership. For respect, I always show kindness and courtesy to all, humility and I do not discriminate. Besides, on responsibility, I would like to take charge of my life, handle situations with decorum, be answerable for my deeds, and live a focused life where I set goals and work smart to achieve them. Lastly, on leadership, I would like to be a role model to my peers, inspire hope, and transform the society.
According to Dean (2008), values play a significant role in our lives, and being able to articulate, understand and recognize my set of values is critical in sound decision making. Similarly, Fatoki (2014) observe that values are a powerful force behind the behavioral responses of individuals. As such, leadership is very important in supporting integrity and fairness. As a leader, I am able to accommodate divergent opinions and act in ways that do not compromise every situation I find myself in. This means that I will be doing the right things because that is what is expected of me. On the other hand, responsibility influences my levels of integrity and fairness by taking charge of whatever I do. I will speak the truth at all times even if it means losing my friends. Intrinsically, I will remain true to myself and be fair to my conscience. To finish, by respecting everyone, I will be able to correct them whenever they wrong me or if they are doing wrong things. In such a situation, I will not turn a blind eye to injustices meted on individuals or collude with others to injure an individual for personal gain.
Nelis et al. (2018); Ogawa et al. (2016) assert that goal setting is important in one’s life and working to achieve them improves individual well-being. In this regard, the following are the actions I did to achieve my goals.
On leadership value, I took it upon myself to inspire others as well as act as their role model. The SMART goal was acting as a role model to my peers. In particular, I participated in community service together with church members. In essence, every month our church engages in corporate social responsibility and thus I take part as a member. We usually engage in cleaning the environment and planting trees. Since I am a student and have other commitments, I participate in community service once per month where we usually clean the surrounding during morning hours.
On respect, I showed kindness and courtesy to all without discrimination. My main goal was treating people with respect and fairness. My specific action is not to interrupt anyone while speaking because I believe in giving audience. Ideally, I talk only after my respondent has finished expressing their opinion after listening keenly. In reality, I consequently engaged them in meaningful discussions then give my colleagues time to express themselves too after I finish talking.
The value of responsibility majorly focused on engaging in income-generating activities. My goal was to use my free time constructively. With this in mind, I specifically designed mobile applications after which installed and test the applications using my mobile phone. Moreover, I focused on educational applications because I wanted to transform the society through knowledge. As such, I developed one application in one month by building each feature per week.
When I was pursuing my goals, I came across some challenges that have shaped whom I am today. On the word of Flanagan (2014), obstacles in our lives shape whom we become. In reality, obstacles can either make us or break us. However, the obstacles I faced nurtured me to become a better leader. Coherent and smart. Some of the difficulties I faced include; time constraints, negativity, and ridicule. Participating in community service and developing mobile applications demanded some time from me. Considering the fact that I am still a student, it was very difficult balancing time adequately since whenever we are out of school, lecturers gave us assignments to do. However, through the recommendation of Farrell (2017) and Nadinloyi et al. (2013), I developed a strategy for time management by designing a timetable for my weekend and weekday activities. Since then, I have been able to allocate my time efficiently to balance on my activities.
Another obstacle I have faced was negativity and ridicule. Some of my friends tried to discourage me from participating in community service since they considered it “uncool” for a young person like me. They expected me to play computer games and watch football whenever we were free. In such circumstances, I reasoned with them for the benefit of giving back to the society, on dedicating part of our time to serve without expecting any pay. Fortunately, five of them joined me in serving the community. Moreover, whenever I give friends time to express their opinion, some would want to dominate the conversation by talking throughout. In such situations, I interjected them politely and expressed my opinion without creating a scene. From that noble move, I have won hearts of many, both young and old.
Leadership is the process of influencing the behavior of others towards accomplishing set objectives (Amanchukwu, Stanley, and Ololube, 2015). It is the art or process of winning over people so that they strive enthusiastically and willingly towards the achievement of group goals. Leadership enables people to work with zeal and confidence as the leaders facilitate progress and inspire groups to accomplish organizational goals (Mothilal, 2010). Furthermore, leadership theories such transactional and transformational leadership theory played a significant role in nurturing my leadership abilities.
According to Xirasagar (2008), transactional entails exchanges that occur between leaders and followers. Through transactional theory, I managed to exchange ideas with my fellow students concerning community service and giving back to the society. By applying Amanchukwu, Stanley, and Ololube (2015) techniques, I encouraged friends that they will be getting participating certificates for taking part in community services. Most often, people want to engage in services that they get something in return. As such, bringing up participation certificate encouraged them to participate in community development.
In my endeavor to transform the community, I managed to change the perception of many students on serving other people. They learned that through serving, they can be able to grow their communication skills, relational skills, and nurture personal intelligence. I strived to persuade those who were filled with negativity to change their courses if they dream of becoming great. Further, I highlighted the benefits of time management, which at the end reflected in the class performance of many students. Through transactional theory, it became apparent that dedication to serve pays and motivational and inspirational change is priceless.
Transformational leadership involves action that creates excitement by making followers understand what they can gain and create urgency by making them desire to achieve such gains at the earliest time possible. Through transformational leadership techniques suggested by Cetin and Kinik (2015), I engaged established programmers who inspired me to develop the educational mobile application in the face of time constraint challenges. Moreover, I am charismatic whenever I talk to people. This enabled to gain respect while correcting friends who were negative and sarcastic in their responses while we talked. In addition, I inspired fellow students to see the importance of allocating part of their free time to serve. Then again, through intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, I treated my friends, family members, and those who were more negative about my activities to develop a positive view to communications, service delivery, and personal growth.
Transformational leadership proposes that the responsibility of a leader is to enhance motivation to the followers to attain the broad organizational goals Schriesheim et al. 2006). In essence, it shows how the behavior of a leader influences the performance and satisfaction of the followers. Furthermore, I got intrinsic motivation to engage in income generating activities of building mobile applications and earned me extra cash. Additionally, I managed to create inspiration in situations filled with negativity and abusive talks to come to a mutually common ground
Reflecting on this exercise, I have realized that I have a great potential to be an inspirational leader. A world leader. In this regard, Cavilla (2017) and Helyer (2015) acknowledge that a reflection is a tool for enhancing metacognition by creating a positive correlation between motivation and academic performance. As such, reflecting on overall exercise has helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I have understood events in their lives which consequently enhance and add meaning. The greatest lesson I have learned is that motivation and inspiration is the best way to change the society. By just engaging in selfless community service, I managed to inspire some other students to follow in my footsteps.
I intend to integrate these lessons into my daily life going forward by serving people more and more. Through this, I will motivate and inspire more students as recommended by Cetin and Kinik (2015) to get out of their comfort zone and serve. These intentions will not only change this institution of learning but also the community and later the world. In addition, I also intend to form a youth group, where we shall train on entrepreneurship, and start businesses as a group to build one another financially while developing individual talents.
References
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A review of leadership theories, principles, styles, and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), pp.6-14.
Cavilla, D., 2017. The Effects of Student Reflection on Academic Performance and Motivation. SAGE Open, 7(3), p.2158244017733790.
Cetin, M.O. and Kinik, F.S.F., 2015. An analysis of academic leadership behavior from the perspective of transformational leadership. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, pp.519-527.
Dean, K.W., 2008. Values-based leadership: How our personal values impact the workplace. The Journal of Values-based leadership, 1(1), p.9.
Fatoki, O., 2014. The personal values of university Students in South Africa. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(23), p.758.
Farrell, M., 2017. Time Management. Journal of Library Administration, 57(2), pp.215-222.
Flanagan, L., 2014. Why Understanding Obstacles is Essential to Achieving Goals. [Online] Available from: https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/38827/why-understanding-obstacles-is-essential-to-achieving-goals (Accessed April 9, 2018)
Helyer, R., 2015. Learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning (WBL). Journal of Work-Applied Management, 7(1), pp.15-27
Mothilal, R., 2010. The values, personal traits and characteristics of leaders who get things done (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria).
Nelis, S.M., Thom, J.M., Jones, I.R., Hindle, J.V. and Clare, L., 2018. Goal-setting to promote a healthier lifestyle in later life: Qualitative evaluation of the AgeWell trial. Clinical gerontologist, pp.1-11.
Nadinloyi, K.B., Hajloo, N., Garamaleki, N.S. and Sadeghi, H., 2013. The study efficacy of time management training on increase academic time management of students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, pp.134-138.
Ogawa, T., Omon, K., Yuda, T., Ishigaki, T., Imai, R., Ohmatsu, S. and Morioka, S., 2016. Short-term effects of goal-setting focusing on the life goal concept on subjective well-being and treatment engagement in subacute inpatients: a quasi-randomized controlled trial. Clinical rehabilitation, 30(9), pp.909-920.
Schriesheim, C.A., Castro, S.L., Zhou, X.T. and DeChurch, L.A., 2006. An investigation of path-goal and transformational leadership theory predictions at the individual level of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(1), pp.21-38.
Xirasagar, S., 2008. Transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership among physician executives. Journal of Health organization and management, 22(6), pp.599-613
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download