Self Reflection On Leadership Discovery

Leadership discovery within me – a self-reflection diary

“Leadership discovery” as a course under the guidance of prof. Shailendra Singh (IIML) has been a great learning experience. I got an in-depth exposure of leadership literature and leadership models with the help of case-studies. Course allowed me to explore what leaders really do to meet adaptive challenges in their environment. I was able to look at leadership as a process of self-transformation and organizational renewal. Taking a descriptive as well as prescriptive approach, the course distinguishes between leadership and management. I got an opportunity to explore my own leadership style within various theoretical perspectives.

Manager v/s Leader

Managers and leaders are two different

Attitudes towards goals

• Leaders take a personal & active outlook. They shape rather than responding to the ideas and raises expectations. In essence a leader sets company direction.

• Managers take impersonal and passive outlook. In case of managers goals arise out of necessities (not desire). b. Relations with others

• Leaders relate to others intuitively, directly and empathetically. Subordinates describe those using emotionally rich adjectives.

• Managers maintain minimal level of emotional involvement, they lack empathy. They have their focus on process.

c. Conceptions of work

• Leaders develop novel approaches to problems, they tend to turn ideas in images. They take risks when opportunity appear promising.

• Managers coerce and negotiate. They try to avoid risk and limit choices.

After differentiating leaders from managers let’s try to understand the learnings from leadership discovery. I would like to summarize this journey of 30 odd hours under following aspects.

1. Leadership theories & models

2. Surveys administered

3. My style of leadership

4. Analysis of Life events – leadership perspective

5. Improvements required

6. Project learnings

Leadership theories & models:

1. Traits, Motives and Characteristics of

As per this theory the effective leaders are those that are capable of adapting their style to the circumstances and look at indications such as the kind of task, the kind of the group, and other factors that may contribute to get the work done.

6. Contingency theory of Leadership

“In this theory of leadership, the achievement of the leader is a function of various exigencies in the form of task, subordinates and/or group variables. Effectiveness of a certain pattern of a leader’s behavior is dependent upon the burdens imposed by situation. These concepts stress using diverse styles of leadership suitable to the needs shaped by various organizational circumstances. Some of the theories are as follows:” Fiedler’s contingency theory:

Fiedler’s theory is the most primitive and most comprehensively researched. Fiedler’s method move off from trait and behavioral models by emphasizing that group performance is contingent to the leader’s psychosomatic orientation and on three background variables: Group atmosphere, Task structure, and Leader’s power