Leadership Reflection - Essay Example

Running Head: Leadership Reflection Leadership Reflection [Client’s Name] [Affiliation] (1) In my more than 20 years of becoming a leader, I can safely argue that my leadership style and methods reflect my personality, perspectives, and outlooks in life. As the owner and CEO of a petrochemical company, I am standing on a different plane from my employees and at the same time the leadership demand in the workplace requires me to be able to understand the personalities, abilities, and capabilities of those who are working for me in order for me to make good use of what they have and translate it into something that would make my company a little more stable or a little more wealthy. The complexities involved in becoming and in being a leader in my firm requires me to evaluate the leadership qualities that I have as well as the leadership qualities that I need to have in order for me to become effective in my domain. The strength in my leadership is the ability to know my limitations and to accept the boundaries of my capabilities. As a manager and owner of the business for many years now, achieving success was done with blood and sweat. Although I have a strong background on leading people and managing organizations, the scope and extent of my knowledge and experiences could not cover the roles I took on as a leader. There were a lot of things that I need to know and issues that I have yet to experience in order to achieve the level of maturity in the decisions I made. Without my sincere acceptance of my limitations; if I had been stubborn enough to lead the organization based on sheer will and demands alone; if I had not accepted the fact that I know too little for such a big responsibility; I would have not grown strong and mature. Thus, I consider my ability to know my limitations and the boundaries of my capabilities as my main strengths. Most leaders failed because they do not want to accept, or they could not accept the fact that they know nothing. But because I have a deep understanding of who I am and of what I can do, I trained and educated myself more on the business processes and technicalities that I need to know and understand, making me a well-informed and well-trained manager in less than five years. With my age and with my wide and long experience in leading organizations, there are still some gray areas that I have not yet developed, like the skills to strongly motivate people working for me. I am aware that the success of my methods depends largely on my success in life. People working for me are drawn to my success. Most of them believed that I can make things happen because I was able to make a lot of things happen in earlier days. I do not see any possible avenues for continuity with this outlook. I want my company to grow big and even stronger even though I am no longer around. I do not want the organization to crumple simply because I am no longer around to manager everything and inspire everyone. I would want to understand every theories and principles on motivating the workforce so that I can help my organization become independent from me (and my achievements). I would want the management to develop strong and reliable programs that would motivate productivity from employees which would translate to strategic growth for the company. (2) Grade School and High School– This is the period where I have experienced a lot of challenges and a lot of victories from school-related competitions. This period has taught me to aspire for greater things in life; to dream big; and to believe that with effort, patience, and proper mindset I can achieve virtually everything I aspire. 15 years old – This is the period where my brother went into a two-year comatose and I have to take the responsibility of being a parent to my younger siblings and at the same time a support for my parents who give much of their time waiting for my brother to wake up. With this experience, I was able to rapidly mature in thoughts and in actions as I need to make crucial decisions for my younger siblings as well as oversee everything in the house. This experience allows me to see beyond simple challenges and at the same time made me realize that in order for me to solve complex issues and problems, I have to become someone better equip to handle things. Choosing a Degree in the University – When a person is young and rash, he tends to overlook the future by taking the college course where most of his friends would go. Then most of these young people argue that the learning can come later. I was almost like that when I am about to choose my degree in college. But I realized in time that I would need to use my passion to help other people in making things happen for them, in giving them the opportunity to get an employment in my future business. So I took business course and decided to get an advanced degree on it to master my craft, so to speak. This decision to help people even at a young age reflects my desire not for my own personal gains but for the betterment of other people too. This has been a core principle in my leadership and management approach. Founding of my petrochemical business – This is the biggest test I have had for all the leadership knowledge and learning I have acquired over the years. What I learned in the classrooms and from my experience leading a small group of people were put into good use and are challenged by the results I have achieved. When I established the company, the theoretical strategies I have in mind suggests that I would have a lot of easy times with the people and I can only focus on my goals and objectives. Reality suggests otherwise. It was in the founding of the petrochemical business that I was able to understand the importance of the people in the business (as opposed to the strategic goals and objectives) for the success of the business. With the founding of the business, I became more aware of what really drives the organization forward. I have had a shift in paradigm, which I am glad occurred for it made my organization very successful. I consider these events in my life as my turning points in becoming an excellent and (often) effective leader for three major reasons – first, these events allowed me to challenge my perspectives at such a young age, second, these events forced me to see a lot of things from a different light which allow me a better perspective in the decisions I make, and third and probably the most important, these events opened opportunities for me to grow as a person and to develop strong leadership characters which were all important for my future leadership positions. (3) Not all leaders are made from good stuff. Most leaders I am acquainted with or whose lives I have read above developed during the hardest parts of their lives. These situations they were in prompted them to grow and stand up for the principles that made them who they are now, particularly the need to be able to lead people. I can say that my leadership potentials were also honed by the toughest times of my life. One of the toughest experiences I encountered in my younger years was during the time when my brother went to coma and I have to take good care of everything in the household. Prior to this event, I have had various successes in school-related competitions and activities and rejections and failures rarely happened to me. But because of the need to take good care of the household, and because of the lack of experience in managing the home, I have experienced various failures in my management inside the house. It took me a while to orient myself to the house and to adapt to my new role as a firm but gentle figure to my siblings. The whole process was sometimes frustrating and infuriating especially since I am still too young to take on the role of a parent. But because I feel the burden left on my shoulder, I choose not to deviate from my responsibility. I pushed myself hard to learn how it is to become a responsible brother to my siblings and I became very patient with the whole process. As a result, I was able to help my parents keep the house intact and my younger siblings virtuous and responsible young children. This event has helped me understand the deeper meaning of responsibility and management. Every time I plan to venture on new challenges for my company or to take on more responsibilities than I can handle, I always remember everything that I have learned from this particular experience. I remember that there are things and events that are beyond me. I also remember that learning usually occurs when difficulties arises, provided that the leader wants to see the opportunity for growth. Most importantly, I remembered that patience and perseverance to learn are the best ways to increase the learning experience and to effectively apply the knowledge in leading an organization. If one lacks patience, he may lose the right perspectives in leading his organization. (4) I can classify myself as a servant leader or a leader who leads the team by showing his constituents his true and sincere desire to bring them forward and ahead of him through his works, deeds, and actions. Servant leadership is a fairly recent view towards leadership which generally veers away from the traditional view of leadership whose main focus is the leader. Servant leadership focuses on the member and of the welfare of the member for efficient and effective leadership. Since I began leading people in organizations, I am constantly in the lookout for their welfare. I do not see myself successful whenever there are people with me that are left behind. Also, I could not bear to boss around the people who are working for my company just because my company is the one that pays them. I am more humane in my treatment to both my employees and my business partners. Given the chance, I work with them and treat them as equals. I have not wanted to be seen as a tyrant or as an owner of the business. I have always wanted them to admire me because I am worth the admiration. I always placed myself in their shoes and they always liked how it works in my organization. Because of my humility and because of my sincere desire to help people in the organization, I get positive response from my employees. They are staying with me in the company because they feel that they are needed. Most of the loyal ones stayed in the company because they belong and not because they want something from me or I wanted something for them. I made it a point that people who work for me are well compensated and are given enough room to grow, even if it means leaving my firm and going to another company. I am happy for their growth as they are happy for the growth of my business. I serve their needs, be it moral support, emotional assurance, or financial stability; I serve them in ways that are possible for me to perform without the slightest hint of discrimination or insincerity. I think I am a servant leader because I am a servant first and my servitude became their inspiration to serve me and my company better. Read More