Leadership Reflective Essay

A leader is an individual who leads the team with all respect and care, never lets a member of the team to stay behind when all others are moving forward. For instance, during my under graduation days back in India, we were assigned a project to be completed within a span of 25 days. We were a group of 6 individuals, with mutual consent we opted one of our friend to lead the team. The work to be completed was distributed equally among all the members of the team. When one of the individual experienced the difficulty to complete the work, the leader of the team stood ahead and helped him complete his job by motivating him all the time. This was the day, I experienced the characteristic of a true leader in my personal life. Furthermore, leaders

always have followers. Followers may be of different kinds, some of them who blindly follow their leader, some who do not care for their leader’s words and so on.

Take away 1: The ones who are hardly involved with team (ISOLATES)
Isolates are the individuals who do not care about the group and never knows what is going in the group, they do not even respond to the leaders in an appropriate manner.

For instance, when I was working in a fast-food chain, a group of 3 members including me were assigned a task to be completed every morning. The duty assigned to us was difficult to be completed within a specified time without the mutual co-operation of all the three. I was leading the team, at all times our group used to face a problem, one of the member never used to care about the job and always used to come to work late, this situation made two of us pass through various hurdles every morning to complete the

task.
When the problem was stated to the upper management after some days, the senior executives and the manager collected more information about the individual who is always late to work, the reason behind it and so on. Later, they discovered that the individual was going through a lot of stress, so they decided to put the individual in a different task which requires lesser effort. Furthermore, after a couple of days working in a different department, the individual was totally relived.
Now a days, looking at the employment rate and the quality of individuals present in this world, only fewer organizations care about the individuals who face problems at the workplace. Most of the companies prefer not to hold such individuals.

Take away 2: Who only observe but do not participate (BYSTANDERS)
Bystanders are the ones who are similar to Isolates but are aware of the moments and changes happening in the group and organization.

For instance, back in India, during my under graduation days, I met with an accident while travelling to school in my motorcycle. There were many audiences present when the accident took place. It was a clear mistake of the other person who hit my motor cycle from the left side, as overtaking from left is prohibited. When the police arrived at the accident place, no one was ready to give an evidence, although they had seen it.
Bystanders in organization may affect the working, as they are not interested in the job being assigned or done. When such individuals exist, it may also affect others in the group. The organization has to take corrective decisions in order for them to get involved in the work.

Take away 3: Clearly support the leaders or oppose (PARTICIPANTS)
Participants are the individuals who have a clear idea as to what is going on in the organization and team. They are the ones, who necessarily at all times may not agree with what the leaders say. For instance, this again relates to the days of my under graduation. When I was leading a team consisting of five members, one of the individual in the team, most of the times, used to never agree with all the decisions I used to make. Fortunately, this proved to be good for the team, as most of the times he was

right.
These are the individuals who are committed towards the job assigned to them. They always follow the right path and help a team achieve its goal. Furthermore, they have a clear idea and either oppose or agree with the leader. They are the individuals whom organization strive to hire.

To recapitulate, in order for a leader to exist, a follower must be present in one of the above stated forms.