Leadership Assignment: Reflection on Developing Leadership Potential

Question

Task: The leadership assignmentfor this module takes as the starting point the idea that developing our leadership potential begins with knowing something about ourselves.
Section 1 of the assignment brief (35%) asks you to complete a SWOT analysis on yourself and develop a 500-word future development plan for yourself, based in this. There is no word limit on your personal SWOT Analysis model. Start this by defining what a SWOT analysis.

Section 2 of the assignment (65%) asks you to consider your own development as a leader in the future. Again, you should make use of theoretical materials available on Moodle, also consider the discussions you have had in the seminar sessions. What do you think your leadership style is likely to be and why You should reference all theoretical material and indeed any source you use. Consider your development up to this point, that may include reflections of any situation you have been in. Also consider the leaders you respect, living or not; why do you respect those people and what will you do to develop those capacities in yourself. Do introduce examples from contemporary (modern) events and use current events to illustrate your reflections on yourself.

Answer

Leadership AssignmentSection 1
1.1Defining SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is one kind of strategic tool and mechanism through which an individual can identify self-strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By identifying those factors via SWOT analysis, the individuals can be able to improve their skill gaps and threats for critical success in the competitive advantage (Vlados, 2019). The primary purpose of using this presentation is to address the skill gaps an individual lack and minimize the risk scopes by acquiring the relevant strategies for self-development.

1.2 SWOT analysis

1.3 Future development plan
Strengths
Despite acquiring strong leadership styles and principles, the author must have a “Situational leadership” style through which she can improve her strategic thinking power, risk-taking strategies, and decision-making mechanisms in moderate to complex situations.

Weaknesses
In order to gap the skill in emotional controlling, the author should have to acquire different emotional control strategies and regulations as advice from her family-mates, relatives, or friends (Nasreen and Afzal, 2020). With the implication of the “To-do List strategy”, the author can surely improve her deadline missing concepts.

Opportunities
From the above SWOT representation, it has been revealed that the author must have to acquire advanced knowledge on environmental sustainability concepts for delivering unique ideologies on business expansion and sustainability concepts.

Threats
The author must have to attend technical training sessions, as well as mental wellbeing planning to modify self-technical knowledge and reduce stress in an at-home situation during the Covid pandemic respectively.

1.4 References
Nasreen, K. and Afzal, M.T., (2020). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in higher education: SWOT analysis of AllamaIqbal Open University Islamabad (Pakistan). Asian Association of Open Universities Journal. Vlados, C., (2019). On a correlative and evolutionary SWOT analysis. Journal of Strategy and Management.

Section 2
2.1 Reflection on individual’s leadership development
What do you think your leadership style is likely to be and why
Leadership is playing a crucial role for any kind of business to accelerate its business strategies and profit score in the competitive marketplaces. It is one kind of capability of an individual through which the person can provide proper guidance for his or her teammates to accelerate the team performance in the market competitiveness (Xie et al., 2018, p.257). Having an affiliated leadership style, I always focus on my teammate’s perspectives on the specific business strategies and make a coordinated and collaborative bonding with my teammates. Through the acquisition of leadership style, I think that I am great at building a good relationship with my teammates to stimulate them for betterment in work performance for business profitability and sustainability. Simultaneously, with the acquisition of the Belbin Team Role concept, I can simply mitigate the team conflict and create a positive and well-structured communicative scenario for greater mutual understanding among each other in the team. Both the leadership approaches have been beneficial for me to improve the team coordination, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual understanding scenario reflecting on the emergence of a higher involvement, motivation, and productive attitude among the teams. That is why, according to self-perception, my leadership styles are quite appropriate and valuable in the professional world.

The leaders you respect, living or not; why do you respect those people and what will you do to develop those capacities in yourself. In order to become a successful leader in their professional world and stay competitive always, the individuals can follow the leadership styles and protocols of Boris Johnson and Joe Biden. Considering the leadership examples of Boris Johnson, it has been revealed that Boris always preferred an argument of “No-ifs-No-Buts”. He is always complemented by his colleagues as an intelligent, wise, and clever person (Worthy et al., 2019, p.25). In contradiction, his leadership style does not promote self-quantification, self-actualization, and higher self-confidence concepts. His leadership styles always prioritize strategic, inspirational, focussed, tactical, ethical, decisive, persuasive, and likable. On the other hand, the leadership principles of Joe Biden are included in acting appropriately and authentically; integration of logic, intuition, and motions in strategic decision-making; willingness to lead from any position; demonstrating flexible fortitude, and motivating by enlightened self-interest (Griebie and Immelman, 2021). I am highly intended to adopt these two leadership styles and strategies for accelerating self-leadership and managerial skill. Considering this matter, I am eventually focusing on the acquisition of different leadership training sessions and leadership skill development programs. Simultaneously, the suggestions from previous leaders and strictly following up with my seniors can help me a lot to build my leadership style.

What kind of leadership will be needed from the West to address the potential for a Taliban-led Afghanistan
In order to address the potential for Taliban-led Afghanistan, both situational and transformational leadership styles are required. With the implication of situational leadership style, the leaders can tackle moderate to critical situations by aligning their strategic thinking power and analytical decision-making attitudes (Wuryani et al., 2021, p.365). Based on these principles, the leaders can provide unique decisions as per the centralized or group participative ideology generation approaches. On the other hand, with the implication of the transformational leadership style, the leaders can provide inspirational stimulation, individual consideration, and idealization of influences to reduce the potential conflict between the state Government and Taliban in Afghanistan (Eliyana and Ma’arif, 2019, p.145).

As of September 2021, there are over 1 million job vacancies in the UK – why are these left unfilled and what would you do about it During the covid pandemic era, the majority of the job holders across the United Kingdom have experienced unemployment scenarios on a permanent or temporary basis. As the business sectors across the UK have faced a huge profit loss due to the strict lockdown scenario, the management of the business sectors has been unable to import/export their products in the target marketplaces for grabbing higher profitability. As a result, the management of the business industry has decided to cut down the monthly wages of the employees or permanently dismissal the employees (Buil et al., 2019, p.66). In order to address the issue, I would utilize my transformational leadership styles through which I can be a more strategic thinker to identify the significant strategies regarding the proper evaluation of the "Work-From-Home" concepts. Besides, I will also focus on the conduction of virtual training sessions weekly to build, as well as improve the virtual interaction skill among the teammates while working in the at-home ambiance. According to my perspectives, this leadership style would be beneficial to adopt this concept easily, resulting in the less scope of unemployment scenario during the covid era.

Think about the future of leadership; will it be a different thing from the past
Future leaders in recent times are focusing on the acceptance of social media platforms to influence the people. Besides, future leaders are now thinking about the concept of “Virtual Leadership” especially the rapid spread of corona-viruses across the globe. Virtual leadership is a significantly good concept as the leadership styles and strategies of this type of leader cannot be differentiated while compared with office-based leaders (Maduka et al., 2018). With the help of these leadership styles in the future, the leaders can create a virtual communication channel network by using “Slack” to exchange each teammate’s ideologies regarding the business planning ideology generation. Besides, the leaders will organize business meetings as per needs to become interconnected with the team to identify their needs and issues for mitigating them on an immediate basis. The virtual leaders will be proactive and highly effective ones in case they accept the transformational leadership styles as it will also promote the concept of result-oriented leadership and good bonding with the remote workers across the globe (Liao, 2017, p.650).

Will you consider leading from behind a social media platform or is leadership something more personal than that
I will consider leading behind social media platforms to retain my team’s spirits and maximize the team’s productivity rates in the competitive advantage. Through the acquisition of strategies, I will be able to prove myself as a good leader while I will be working with a virtual team in this pandemic, even in the future. Communication platforms like social media platforms will help me to create a good bonding with my remote teammates by creating an official group on that platform. As a result, I will be able to easily connect with my teammates at a time to share office-based information promptly. As the recent trends are eventually proceeding with the concept of remote working, I should have more focus on self-transformational leadership skills to increase my strategic thinking level and decision-making power for perfectly leading a team.

Where do you stand on the issue of women in management Do you believe in equality of opportunity for all
Women are very dominant and discouraged by male colleagues at the workplace (Hardacre and Subaši, 2018, p.2497). In my workplace, I have experienced different types of complexities and barriers regarding the management and handling of a team as a woman. One of the prim issues that I have been already experienced is that I have not received equal remuneration for the completion of the same task while compared with my male colleagues for the same designation. Besides, only for being a woman, I also experienced the delivery of doubtful attitudes from my teammates while I go for explaining their allocated tasks. Henceforth, I think that equality in opportunity is highly required in the workplace and it should be strictly maintained. Only the long speech regarding “equality in the workplace” or “zero gender discrimination” and simple legislations will not be effective rather than strict regulations and strategies should be adopted in an action-oriented approach to reduce gender inequality at the workplace (Earley and Greany, 2021, p.273).

Where do you stand on the issue of ethical decision-making
Being a woman leader in my workplace, I have also experienced a vulgar experience in ethical decision-making approaches. During the group participation for idea generation regarding business expansion planning, my perceptions and thoughts are always dominated, rejected, or disrespected by the male leaders and seniors. As a result, I have experienced a demotivated mind that prevents me to make solid and most accurate decisions regarding the business strategy implementation.

Is it ethical to allow the market to make all decisions regarding supply
It is unethical to make all the decisions by depending on the supply sources rather than critically examining, interpreting, and analysing the product demands on the target market, previous profit score in the target market, competitor’s status, threats of substitutions, and new players (Noval and Stahl, 2017, p.590). According to the statement of economist Milton Friedmann, the only activity of a business is to earn a profit, and henceforth, it is unethical for the marketers to rely on the suppliers only and ignore the rest of the factors mentioned above (Casali and Perano, 2021, p.615).

Would you continue to do business with a company that treats its employees badly
I will never continue my job with a company that always treats their employees badly and disrespect them. In case the organizations treat their employees very badly and always discourage or demotivate them while they are intended to place innovative ideas for business expansion, the employee turnover rate will be maximized for this organization.

If we see the problems of how we use resources (like the planet) as something to be fixed by the market who will take responsibility
Climate change is one of the greatest issues in today’s world, and henceforth, leaders should have a detailed responsibility to implement the “Waste recycling” and “lower carbon emission” concepts for environmental stability and prevention of sudden and frequent climate changes.

Will your leadership development include a serious commitment to dealing with this in your business or organization or will you leave it to ‘the market’

Possessing a transformational leadership style, I think that I will be able to convince my workplace top-management to implement the carbon footprint reduction and waste reduction as well as recycling process for retaining the profit score and sustainability ranking in the competitive marketplaces. ‘Green’ issues, the use of plastics for example, what will you do As the “Green Issue” is one of the biggest aspects in the recent era, I have to align my transformational leadership styles and principles to promote green awareness among the teammates in my professional world. In this context, I will have a detailed focus to conduct programs on green awareness and also encourage the staff at the workplace for plantation. Simultaneously, the focus on the “Plastic Banning Program” to reduce the number of plastic substances for minimizing environmental pollution is highly recommended (Dal Porto, 2018, p.11). What is the impact of culture on leadership What will you do to understand the cultural roots of your leadership style Organizational culture has a tremendous impact on leadership style. A well-structured and hierarchical organizational culture spread positive vibes at the work ambiance that always motivates the leaders to excel in their managerial and team handling skills properly (Ilham, 2018, p.51). The well-structured organizational hierarchy always maintains a good duty segregation process through which all the department has a good coordination bond with each other, reflecting on the coordination bonds with the teammates.

In order to become understandable with self-leadership style, I have to at first identify the work culture and organizational structural orientation regarding the responsibility distribution, conflict rate, and resolution tactics type and its impact range on the organization. Based on this assessment, I will be able to identify whether my workplace is encouraging positive work culture or not.

Is leadership something that only happens at the top of organizations or can it be seen at the middle and the bottom of the hierarchy Leadership is not only introduced at the top level of the organization; it can be visible in the middle or bottom level of the hierarchy. In order to generate an overall improvement scenario of the organization for better profitability in the business, the leaders should have incorporation in each level including the top-level (Al-Ali et al., 2017). By directing and guiding the teams at each level, the organizational efficacy and productivity will be highlighted in the competitive dynamics.

Are good leaders’ always good people
A bad person can be a good leader, but he or she will not be considered an authentic leader. In case the leader has a zero-consistency level in values, morals, ethics, and actions, then it would be difficult for him/her to maintain an authentic leadership concept and sustainable coordination with the teammates (Cooper, 2021, p.32). Henceforth, it can be concluded that good leaders are always good people because; it is completely difficult for the bad people to maintain an empathetic, compassionate, and collaborative attitude throughout the leading period. Effective leaders have a greater consistency and humanity level by which they can share their good and unique ideologies and concept among the teammates for betterment in business performance for sustainability retention in the dynamic marketplaces.

2.2 References
Al-Ali, A.A., Singh, S.K., Al-Nahyan, M. and Sohal, A.S., (2017). Change management through leadership: the mediating role of organizational culture. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.

Buil, I., Martínez, E. and Matute, J., (2019). Transformational leadership and employee performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, pp.64-75.

Casali, G.L. and Perano, M., (2021). Forty years of research on factors influencing ethical decision making: Establishing a future research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 132, pp.614-630. Cooper, M., (2021). How to be a good leader. ITNOW, 63(2), pp.32-33. Dal Porto, L., (2018). Singling out the plastic. Quality Progress, 51(9), pp.10-12. Earley, P. and Greany, T., (2021). Postscript: The future of leadership. School leadership and education system reform, p.273.

Eliyana, A. and Ma’arif, S., (2019). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment effect in the transformational leadership towards employee performance. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 25(3), pp.144-150.

Griebie, A.M. and Immelman, A., (2021). The personality profile and leadership style of US president Joe Biden.

Hardacre, S.L. and Subaši, E., (2018). Whose issue is it anyway The effects of leader gender and equality message framing on men’s and women’s mobilization toward workplace gender equality. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, p.2497.

Ilham, R., (2018). The impact of organizational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and employee performance.Leadership assignment Journal of Advanced Management Science, 6(1), pp.50-53.

Liao, C., (2017). Leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 27(4), pp.648-659. Maduka, N.S., Edwards, H., Greenwood, D., Osborne, A., and Babatunde, S.O., (2018). Analysis of competencies for effective virtual team leadership in building successful organizations. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Noval, L.J. and Stahl, G.K., (2017). Accounting for proscriptive and prescriptive morality in the workplace: The double-edged sword effect of mood on managerial ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), pp.589-602.

Worthy, B., Bennister, M. and Stafford, M.W., (2019). Rebels leading London: the mayoralties of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson compared. British Politics, 14(1), pp.23-43.

Wuryani, E., Rodlib, A., Sutarsib, S., Dewib, N. and Arifb, D., (2021). Analysis of decision support system on situational leadership styles on work motivation and employee performance. Management Science Letters, 11(2), pp.365-372.

Xie, Y., Xue, W., Li, L., Wang, A., Chen, Y., Zheng, Q., Wang, Y. and Li, X., (2018). Leadership style and innovation atmosphere in enterprises: An empirical study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 135, pp.257-265.