The leader Within

Epilogue

Effective leadership is important during any task or to attain a goal. It is important to me because according to me, if a group is working together to achieve a set goal, their needs to be one person who guides, mentors and sets directions for everyone else. This helps the group be focused and have a clear vision about their goal which makes it easier to achieve it. Also, setting clear directions avoids miscommunication and helps us manage time appropriately. That leader of the group also helps other team members flourish and work efficiently which improves the over all work done on something. During this course, I explored myself as a leader. I reflected on what kind of a leader I am, what type of personality I have and the characteristics that are most important to me as a leader. I also realized my flaws and what I could improve on to be an effective leader. In round 1, I was very quiet and did not participate much with my group which limited the amount of innovation and ideas that were contributed which faltered our overall performance. This showed me that to effectively attain higher set goals, I need to demonstrate confidence, create a clear vision for others, participate in my group and help others with their troubles. I realized that I needed to come out of my shell and lead my group in order to enhance our overall performance. Throughout the course, I was supposed to participate in different rounds that helped develop my leadership skills and find the leadership potential within me After reflecting back on my leadership experiences, I realized that the first thing, me as a leader needed to do was give my team a purpose.  This is because after the team knows what to do and how to do it; a leader can make a big difference by sharing a strong sense of why they're doing it and where it's heading. A leader needs to help them develop a broad understanding of the team's purpose, and faith in how their role contributes to the whole. For example, in my business leadership class, in round 2, our group was suppose to come up with activities that demonstrate the importance of a leader's knowledge and communication. We came up with an activity but the most important part of that round was to explain to my group as to how our activity connects to our topic and why is it important. Everyone also had a different role in that activity and I clearly needed to explain why each one of their role was important. This helped the group members realize that their performance will affect the final product for the whole team so they tried to give their best instead of being non-serious. The second most important thing was a leader's character. I learnt that the whole team looks up to the leader and learns from him/her. The leader simply needs to act the way they want their team to be like. Therefore, I made sure that through out my leadership experiences, I demonstrate the following attributes such as confidence, honesty, positivity, ability to delegate, responsibility and dedication. Demonstrating confidence allowed me as a leader to clearly get my point across to my team and create a clear vision which also helps avoid miscommunication. Leaders also need to be positive, because it allows the leader to motivate their team members. Leaders need to delegate and evenly distribute the work so everyone puts effort towards a set goal, it improves time management and makes the goal easier to attain. The leader needs to show dedication towards the goal and their team members. Dedication is required for the leaders to put in work into a project, they need to be dedicated towards their team members and do more than just attaining the goal. Leaders need to be dedicated towards motivating and developing their followers too, so it can help the overall performance. This kind of character influences the leader's followers too and inspires them to act the same way. This contributes to their development and growth in being a leader themselves. This again emphasizes on the fact the fact that a good leader creates other good leaders too. Therefore, to demonstrate effective leadership in and out of this class I made sure that I was following this criteria. I also discovered that I have a green personality and situational leadership style. My green personality demonstrates that I am logical, analytical and focused on the work on hand. I am willing to put in the efforts if it assures successful results. This works well with my leadership style. Situational leadership refers to when a leader must adjust his/her style to fit the developmental level of the followers. Leader might have to change his/her style to adjust and meet the need of others in an organization to develop the workers and enhance their performance. The change of leader's style not only depends on the needs of individuals but also on the task on hand that needs to be done. I enjoy accomplishing high set goals, so I willing to explore and adjust to new style or behavior to measure how it affects the success rate. For example, in many rounds I only supported the team members who I knew would get the work done. I gave them feedback and the things they could improve on. On the other hand, the people who I knew would not be responsible enough, I gave directions and reminded them of our deadlines continuously. This is to assure that we can attain our goal effectively. Also, effective leadership is  all about trying new things(whether it be a new attitude or behavior) and taking risks in hopes of learning new things. According to me, all these attributes and qualities contributes to a person's personality to make them an effective leader.