Learning & Development - Leadership (C11LD)

Assessment – 1

Name: Rahul Damineni

Roll No: H00351661

Submitted on: 31-10-2020

 Table of Contents

1. Introduction

A. Objective

B. Need

C. Scope

D. Limitations

E. Methodology

2. Body

A. Literature Review

B. Method Adopted

C. Analysis

3. Findings, Recommendations & Conclusion

4. References
1. Introduction:

Leadership is the process of leading people and process in business

terminology. The leadership is not seen only in business organizations but also in every walk
of life but as a management student I shall be focusing on leadership in corporate environment
as a part of this assignment. There are various personal, Psychological aspects which are
related to the leadership. The values play vital role in leadership where the personal values
should be in line with the organizational values in professional scenario which leads to play
neutral role and which drives leaders to drive organizations towards achieving their business
objectives. Leaders are the people who drive the organizations towards the success or the
failure. Every organization in this competitive environment has to undergo change
management and change management is not that easy activity as there will be lot of
resistance from the internal and the external stakeholders. We can see very old companies
who has shut down their business because they could not survive in competition as they follow
traditional management where their leaders are having traditional thinking and the modus of
operandi and there are few very old companies who has survived and they are competing with
the competition and the competitors by adopting to the technology and the strategies which
were driven by the visionary leaders.

In simple terms the leadership can be defined as, It is the position or an

skill possessed by an individual where the theoretical and the practical knowledge are blended
in equal quantity which enables them to lead the people and business by handling situations
effectively and taking organization as well the people towards success. When it comes to
reflection which can be termed as self analysis and when it comes to leadership reflection,
taking/ carving out some time to review of self with critical analysis pertaining to the current
skills which are essential to be become a leader and identifying the gaps and development
areas along with the plan of action etc., it is very important for every individual who are
aspiring to become leader as developing as a leader and to be in the position of leader is not
one time activity and it is a continuous process of transformation which is very important to
adopt this time and the interest are very important. This assessment is all about my, self
analysis of skills pertaining to leadership and the reflection of the observations where I have
adopted to a process for identification of development areas and how to develop in those
identified areas etc., are given.

A. Objectives of the Study:

Every study or a research shall be carried out with specific objective

which is very essential and which leads and drives an individual towards reaching the
objectives. The objective should be keen and clear and it should be practical in nature only
then the study/ research can become successful else the study lands in no man’s land. The
well defined objective leads the individual towards the right direction to reach the objectives.
There shall be hypothesis and the assumption based which need to be considered while
defining the objectives for a study. This leadership reflective analysis assignment is also
having specific objectives which help me to groom myself as a professional as well as a future
leader and the objectives are given below:

I. Understanding the concept of Leadership.

II. Understanding the skills, attributes of Leadership.
III. What are various direct and the indirect factors which makes a leaders successful.
IV. Deep and inward thinking and analysis of the situations/ issues which I have faced i.e.,
experiences in my life till date and how they are related to situation handling and the
leadership skills.
V. Analyzing my beliefs, understanding, views and how does they vary with respect to the
actual theories/ methods/ methodologies/ approaches of the leadership.
VI. Self assessment with respect to skills required to become a successful leader.
VII. Identifying the skill gaps and the development areas.
VIII. Studying the case studies and the stories of leaders for better understanding the
concepts of the leadership.
IX. Situation handling skills and how does they matter in terms of becoming a successful
leader.
X. Plan of action for developing the gaps and the development areas identified and the
defining the process long with time lines for development.
XI. How to do frequent development analysis for measuring the improvement of the skills
which are targeted.
XII. What are various tools/ technologies/ resources/ software available for self analysis
with respect to leadership, emotional intelligence, personality development etc., which
can help me to improve my skills to become a successful professional and transform
myself as a successful leader in my career.

B. Need of the Study

The word leadership may look as a single word but there are many attributes
which are linked with leadership which enables an individual to become a successful leader.
There are attributes such as Driving People, Process, Personality Development, Emotional
Intelligence, Understanding the Cultures and importance of cultural diversity, understanding
the situations, issues neutrally, decision making skills, Getting right inputs, Analytical skills,
maintaining healthy relationships, problem solving, driving People/ Process/ Organization/
Management etc., are few of important aspects of leadership which are very important and
these cannot be ignored. As mentioned it is not one time process and the leadership
development is a continuous process.

Any individual who want to become successful in their personal or the

professional life, it is very important for them to groom themselves as a leaders and when it
comes to me, I am pursuing management and to excel in my career it is very much important
for me to understand the concept deeply, assess my skills at frequent intervals and work
towards improving my management skills which leads to start my career and develop me in
future as a leader. Initially I want to work in some organization where I can gain experience
based on the experience in future I want to become entrepreneur and if want to become
successful it is very much important for me to learn and groom myself in terms of leadership
and this is the need and hence, this is been given in this part of the assignment.

C. Scope of the Study:

Scope is very important in any study. Scope consists of all details and jurisdictions/ limitations
under which a particular Project/ Study shall be carried out. The scope here is assessing my
competencies with respect to leadership traits and identifying the development areas and
planning for development shall be covered. The scope also consists of assessing self using
various free tools and getting feedback from my friends.
D. Limitations:

Every study will have limitations based on the nature of the study and the duration etc., in this
case the major limitations are:

I. Assessing personality traits using free tools.

II. Many tolls available and selecting the right tools is challenge.
III. The feedback and the authentic of the feedback/ result.
IV. When feedback taken from friends, the genuinity of the feedback.
V. The complete analysis is not available in free tools.
VI. The action plan may vary as new aspects of leadership shall be explored in future and
the focus of the study may divert.

E. Methodology:

Every study shall have a methodology and the methodology clearly defines the way/ process
or the path which takes the study in right direction. The methodology adopted here are:

I. Big Five Personality Test.

II. Psychometric Analysis.
III. Kolb’s Experimental Learning Cycle.
IV. Feedback using questionnaire collected from my friends.

As it is very important for me as a management student where I will be starting my career into
management to nurture my skills and talents with respect to Personality Development and
communication skills which are very essential to grow as a successful professional and to
emerge as a leader in personal as well as in professional life based on this importance I have
taken above mentioned four methodologies for assessing my existing skills in line with
expected skills to identify the areas on which I have to develop by working on them.

2. Body:

Body is considered to be heart of any study or research. The body consists of data collection
through primary and secondary sources and analyzing the data based on the objectives shall
be done and in this case the body consists of the mechanism which I have adopted for
assessment and I shall be discussing my strengths, weakness from my experiences based on
which the development areas can be identified.

i. Review of Literature:

Leadership is very important aspect for any business organization. There are various
attributes which are related to leadership. The grooming as a leader is not one time task
where as it is a constant process where the transformation happens based on the requirement
of the organization as well as the market trends. There are various psychological aspects
which are directly related to leadership such as Trust Vs Mistrust, Ego Integrity Vs Despair,
Autonomy Vs Shame & Doubt, Industry Vs Inferiority, Initiative Vs Guilt, Identity Vs Role of
Confusion, Intimacy Vs Isolation and Generality Vs Stagnation. The key elements which
describe successful leaders and the decisions of the leaders are majorly driven by
Relationships, Inputs, Environment, Issues, Objectives of the organization, Market trends,
Situations and Inputs. The variables and the attributes of the leadership are the aligning
people and the process to the organizational objectives and ensuring all individuals in
organization achieves individual objectives which ensure the achieving the objectives of the
overall organization. The Cultural diversity is the latest trend in all countries where the
organizations are preferring to employ people from various cultures to ensure cultural diversity
as it is considered to be the successful model and it was proven at initial stages I never used
to believe that but after reading various case studies of various organizations I have
understood the importance of the cultural diversity. I used to think that if all people working in a
organization belong to same nation, the communication shall be good where there shall be
good communication and bonding which was not correct and I have understood this from self
assessment and that is the reason I have learned the importance of cultural diversity and that
is the reason for mentioning the same in this reflective writing. I never used to believe about
emotional intelligence and I used to believe that whatever is our emotion we have to express it
immediately and after studying about the leadership traits as a part of my curriculum I have
understood the importance of emotional intelligence and how does this trait influence the
decision making. The leaders should be neutral when it comes to emotional intelligence and
decision making which enables leaders to take right decision at right time which makes them
and the organization they are working towards sustainable and success. In this way I have
learned and assessed myself in these traits and I have understood that I am lagging in many
areas of leadership where I have to focus more and work towards improving my skills
pertaining to leadership.

ii. Methodology Adopted:

When in have started assessing my skills with respect to leadership, initially I used to believe
that I have all skills and I can become a leader as I used to lead my friends team and I used to
organize various events in my college as well as I used to get associated with various
organizations, raising funds and working for betterment of the society but when I have learned
about the principles, attributes, traits, prerequisites, methodologies, stories of leaders etc., I
have assessed my skills using various online tools where I have found that I am not up to the
mark and all my beliefs are not going work neither in business organizations nor in my
professional career and personal life.

The methods I have adopted are Self assessment using various free online tools,
feedback through questionnaire from friends and Kolb’s experimental learning cycle. The
Kolb’s cycle consists of four variables like Concrete experience which consists of Delivering
feel and Watch, Reflection observation which consists of Assimilations like think and watch,
Perception which consists of Converging like think and do, Active Experiments which consists
of Accommodate like feel and do.

iii. Analysis:

As a part of Kolb’s experimental cycle I have gathered my experiences with respect to people
and the issues faced and handled and I have aligned with the concepts learned in first phase
and I have listed out the alternatives of how exactly those issues need to be handled. There
are many learning which I have has from the feedback from my friends and I could self assess
on what my friends are thinking about me because a leader is the individual who has to drive
the people in teams and if people don’t trust leader then nothing can be done and this is the
key area which I have identified that I am not good in that. I really have to work on people
management based on emotional intelligence. I am not good in handling emotions because of
which my people handling skills are not good that is what I could identify from this entire self
assessment and the reflective writing. The scores I have got in personality development,
situation handling, psychometric analysis etc., are also very low which indicates that I really
have to seriously work on improving skills in all mentioned areas.
3. Conclusion:
i. Findings:
a. My people management skills are not up to the mark
b. My emotional intelligence quotient needs to be improved
c. I have to improve my skills with respect to situation handling
d. There are many other areas with respect to developing as a leader

ii. Recommendations:
a. I have to explore to explore more authentic and reliable tools to assess further on my
existing skills
b. Exploring more traits, theories, approaches etc., of leadership and comparing them with
my existing skills
c. Gathering all my experiences while dealing with the similar type of situations in future
and assess how effectively I could handle the issue/ situation with lessons learned from
this exercise
d. Develop a plan of action to improve on my skills
e. Developing skills gap identified as a part of this exercise by allocation at least one hour
a day
f. Assessing the improvement on weekly basis

III. Conclusion:

Gathering all experiences till date and assessing the same and writing the same as a
reflection which is an exercise as a part of the assignment is very good where this helped me
in understanding where exactly I stand and what are the areas/ skills I have to improve. I really
has learned many things pertaining to leadership which helps me in improving my skills while
studying my management course and by end of the course, if I strictly follow the plan and
execute the same, I shall be industry ready where I can grow by joining a good company and
emerge as a leader. I have understood that this is a transformation process which is
continuous in nature hence; I have to keep on working on improving skills based on the
requirements. This has given me a very good learning experience.
4. References:

1. Makato Matsuo (2016), Reflective leadership and team learning: an exploratory

study, Published in Research Gate.
2. Paul L. Nesbit (2012), The Role of Self-Reflection, Emotional Management of
Feedback, and Self-Regulation Processes in Self-Directed Leadership Development,
Published in Sage Journals.
3. Leslie Doyale (2019), LEADERSHIP STYLES: THE 5 MOST COMMON & HOW TO
FIND YOUR OWN, Published in Northeastern university.
4. Braden Becker (2019), The 8 Most Common Leadership Styles & How to Find Your
Own, Published in Hubspot Blog.
5. Saul McLeod (2019), Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development, Published in
Simply Psychology.
6. Cforsey (2018), 14 Free Personality Tests You Can Take Online Today, Published in
Hubspot.
7. Kendra Cherry (2020), 14 Free Personality Tests You Can Take Online Today,
Published in Verywellmind.
8. Annabelle G. Y. Lim (2020), The Big Five Personality Traits, Published in Simply
Psychology.
9. W.C.H. Prentice (2004), Organizational Culture and Understanding Leadership,
Published in Harvard Business Review.
10. Jeremy D. Meuser, William L. Gardner and Jessica E. (2016), A Network Analysis of
Leadership Theory: The Infancy of Integration, International Journal of Management,
Vol. 42, Issue 5.
11. Richard Bolden and Jonathan Gosling (2006), Leadership Competencies: Time to
Change the Tune, Published in Sage Journals, Vol. 2, Issue 2.
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