HOTO7016 Mentoring and Leadership Development Assignment Sample
Introduction
The reflective essay will highlight my leadership style that was developed during the bachelor’s and master’s programs. There are different types of leadership styles and activities that must be followed by every leader to enhance the productivity of an organisation (Azad et. al. 2017).
After that, mentoring activities that can be exchanged with a mentor will be analysed in-depth. The reflective summary on leadership will help me in shaping my future growth and aims and objectives that need to be achieved. In the final section, leadership competencies will be discussed to enhance the performance of team members.
Leadership style
Leadership plays a crucial role in improving an individual’s performance and it also helps in motivating team members to attain the lined up objectives (Hepworth and Hepworth, 2020). In my opinion, it is the responsibility of leaders to encourage group members so the organisation’s productivity can be increased. Other than that, leaders also focus on weak areas of their employees so they can provide them adequate training and development programs.
Different leadership styles can be followed by the leader to handle a challenging situation as per Baškarada et. al. (2017). After using diverse self-assessment tests, I have concluded that I have a transformational and coaching leadership style. I have demonstrated this while I was involved in various group activities.
According to my perspective, I have the characteristics of adapting to changes as per the future demands by bringing innovation. In this developing era, it is mandatory to adopt frequently changing requirements of the market to stay market competitive and achieve success (Peng et. al. 2019).
Other than that, I have noticed that I can take the authority of making decisions as I possess excellent decision-making abilities. My approach of taking a decision is based on analysing the entire situation and problems so a decision can be made so a successful outcome can be attained.
I was involved in many group projects which were held in the period of my graduation and post-graduation. It helps me to increase my participation and activeness over the group activities. Enhance my capabilities which are required to be an effective leader. I started developing team member skills. A leader needs to talk to the other team members to operate effectively. Effective communication between the team members can directly impact to lessen the threat and risks assigned within the future.
One of my major strengths is hardworking and High engaged over exceptional knowledge having practical experience. The skills of doing the work more perfectly help to motivate the other member within the group to give the proper contribution. In the period of graduation, I also understood various theories such as Maslow hierarchy theory of motivation.
These theories also have to understand the proper need for motivation. The members assigned within a group have different personalities and skill. A leader needs to analyse the proper capabilities and the trades of each individual. I have been successful in my group activities in which I was reading my group by giving them the exact need for motivation.
It had to increase the engagement and high contribution towards the success of a particular task.
Furthermore, I possess a coaching style of leadership as I always get involved in solving others’ problem and offer them the solution. Coaching leadership style has an attribute of teaching their followers about different concepts so they can recognise their potential and enhance work efficiency (Jiang and Chen, 2018). I am always ready to help others in their work so they can complete their work efficiently.
My friends also said that my suggestions helped them in solving their issues and offered them an effective solution. It helped me in knowing my abilities related to a coaching style.
Mentoring activities
I have exchange mentoring activities with my leader that includes activities such as communication, time management, and creativity (Jiang and Chen, 2018). I acquire great communication skills that helped me in explaining the views and opinions efficiently. It also enables me an opportunity to address my future goals while communicating with my mentor. Other than that, these skills will be helpful for me during the interview sessions.
I have observed that communication is the key to success and developing communication skills never go out of style. In this perspective, I constantly focus on increasing my communication skills so the level of collaboration during group activities, presentations, and many more can be increased.
As per my experience dividing the appropriate task among the team members is one of the major duties of an effective leader. I consider myself to have the ability for guessing the emotion of the team member by seeing their expression and face. It is very beneficial for a leader to examine the proper involvement of the participants in the group assignment.
In the time of graduation and post-graduation, this will help me to analyse the behaviour of each member within the group. It helps me to check whether my decisions are appropriate and valuable to each participant.
Decision making is also a major concept for effective leadership. In my graduation, one of the mentors taught me about the effective decision making concept. I realise that decision making is an idea done for grabbing the effective opportunity or to lessen the risks.
If the opportunities are properly grabbed by the leader through their effective decision-making skills can lead the team member to achieve success easily. The knowledge and education gained through the textbooks and theories have to examine the situation.
Still, there are some situations in which a leader needs to have the instant decision-making skills to lessen the threat and increase the progress for accomplishing the given task.
Another mentoring activity possessed by me is time management. I am very punctual and complete every task at the assigned time. I came to know about this when my teachers praised me for completing the projects and assignments on the given deadline.
Other than that, I try to teach others that completing the task on time is the significant attribute of achieving success and it reflects my coaching style of leadership. Along with that, I also have creativity as I complete every task after analysing the situation and bringing innovation to it. It highlights my transformational leadership style.
Leadership competencies
Leadership competency is defined as the leadership behaviours and skills that help in enhancing the superiority in performance. It also helps an individual in focusing on their key development areas by noticing the weak areas. My leadership competencies include networking, conflict management, and change management (Chow et. al. 2017).
Networking can be defined as the ability to develop and use networks to build strengthening the relationship in the organisation. In my opinion, networking helps in building a successful team that is essential for achieving the goals. After that, it helps me in offering information that is essential for the organisation’s future growth.
According to myself SWOT analysis, one of the major weaknesses examined is my emotional concern towards people. This can be considered a drawback for being an effective leader. Being an emotional person is not considered a bad thing but it is a weakness over the position of leader.
The team member can intentionally misuse the emotional concern to avoid the workload of work distribution done over them. Currently, I am working on this area of improvement. Being a proper leader, it is very essential to know every area of improvement.
Furthermore, I am good at managing and handling conflicts between team members as I possess effective communication skills. I listen patiently to the views of other people and express my opinions after thinking twice. Using communication,
I provide them feedback so they can understand the concept and conflicts can be resolved. Other than that, making team understand their mistakes and progress which enhances their level of trust (Rindova and Courtney, 2020). It is the best way to resolve conflicts.
Along with that, being good at the transformational leadership style I am excellent at managing change. Using the factor of creativity, I accept the change and try to bring innovation to the task so the work efficiency can be improved.
In this perspective, change management is an essential competency as the demands of the market is fluctuating frequently (Kragt and Day, 2020). Any organisation needs to adopt the changes so the requirements of the customer can be met.
Other than that, excellence in change management also helps an organisation in staying competitive in the market as it is most important for shaping the future growth.
Career action plan
Self-Assessment summary statements
| Career motivators: My friends, family and mentors. |
| Skills and competencies to be developed: I would like to develop sharing of compelling vision, inclusiveness and problem-solving. |
| Vision of future career directions: I would like to enhance my leadership qualities so I can work as a leader. |
Career-goals
| Short-Term (1 Year): I would like to gain some working experience so I can develop my skills and abilities to great extent. |
| Medium-Term (2-3 Years): I will focus on developing my leadership qualities and skills as I want to lead the team and influence them to gain more skills and efficiency. |
| Long-term (5+ Years): I want to operate a marketing team as I am good at networking and building social connections. |
Conclusion
It has been concluded from the reflective summary that leadership is essential for every organisation in this developing world. After analysing the self-assessments result, it has been depicted that I possess a transformational and coaching style of leadership.
These leadership styles helped me in analysing that my leadership competency includes networking, conflict management, and change management. Other than that, my mentoring activities that are discussed in the reflective summary are communication, time management, and creativity.
The reflective summary was very helpful for my professional development and also helped me in analysing my future career plan.
References
Books and Journals
Azad, N., Anderson, H.G., Brooks, A., Garza, O., O’Neil, C., Stutz, M.M. and Sobotka, J.L., (2017). Leadership and management are one and the same. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 81(6).
Baškarada, S., Watson, J. and Cromarty, J., (2017). Balancing transactional and transformational leadership. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Chow, T.W., Salleh, L.M. and Ismail, I.A., (2017). Lessons from the major leadership theories in comparison to the competency theory for leadership practice. Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 3(2), pp.147-156.
Hepworth, A. and Hepworth, S., 2020, December. How Could Antecedents to Project Collaborative Effectiveness Through Project War-Room Meetings, Develop Cohesion in Multicultural Teams: While Problem-Solving?. In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) (pp. 364-369). IEEE.
Jiang, Y. and Chen, C.C., (2018). Integrating knowledge activities for team innovation: Effects of transformational leadership. Journal of Management, 44(5), pp.1819-1847.
Kragt, D. and Day, D.V., (2020). Predicting Leadership Competency Development and Promotion Among High-Potential Executives: The Role of Leader Identity. Frontiers in psychology, 11, p.1816.
Peng, Z., Gao, B. and Zhao, H., (2019). Coaching leadership and subordinates’ career success: The mediating role of leader–member exchange. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 47(11), pp.1-8.
Rindova, V. and Courtney, H., 2020. To Shape or Adapt: Knowledge Problems, Epistemologies, and Strategic Postures under Knightian Uncertainty. Academy of Management Review, 45(4), pp.787-807.
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