Why should anyone be led by me?

“Great leaders don’t tell you what to do. They show you how it’s done”

One of the crucial skills that plays crucial role in retaining competitive advantage is leadership. The possession of attributes like charisma, intellectual, integrity, communication and clear focus heightens your potential to be an efficient leader (Daft, 2014). The main factor that should be emphasized is that a leader is there to motivate and stimulate and not to thrust commands (John Maxwell).

Characteristics of effective leadership style

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/07/26/five-                             qualities-to-improve-to-be-an-effective-leader/#7803d49b7aa0

I also believe that it is important to have an efficient vision and it should be communicated to the subordinates properly. With vivid goals, the leader can thrust positive influence on the people. I am very task-focused reflecting the elements of transactional leadership style in me. At the same time, I prefer a supportive nature than dominating the people. I believe, with mutual participation and sharing only, the goals can be achieved. My peers have appreciated me in several instances for the co-operation and motivation, I deliver. I have good networking skills also which is evident in the abundance of friends I have. But I think, I lose my temper easily which decreases my flexibility to adapt to different situations. I need to work on this parameter so that I can be an effectual leader who motivate and facilitate the transformation of myself and my subordinates.

We cannot do anything without a sum of good followers. So I believe in order to attain a sufficient number of followers I need to develop my personality with some additional qualities such as being a sensor, being dared to be different etc. I also think that I need to develop my management skills in order to manage my employees with strong empathy.I believe that in order to get best outcome the whole organisation is needed to be considered before your own. So I really do make plans in the presence of employees and solve the problems and even organise them as per their requirement. A follower need to perform two major roles: they need to be an implementer as well as they need to be a challenge of the leader’s ideas.

http://www.meetelaineross.com/7-qualities-of-a-strong-leader/

The irony is that there comes no leader without followers and also it is the quality and courage of the followers that influences which of the leader’s personality will grow. I believe that I could recognise the courageous leadership quality in me by checking the number of followers who revolve around me.

I think that followers are in need of a good leader, but that takes courage. I think I dare to take risks and I will supplement followers maintaining a good relationship with them.  Followers are needed to encourage leaders while leaders are needed to encourage followers because courage always exists in the present and with courage one can deliver massive improvement.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2016/08/12/how-to-demonstrate-successful-leadership-in-the-workplace/#756245067a

Check out the video: Community How To Demonstrate Successful Leadership In The Workplace

I assume that it is the followers who tell the truth and the leaders who listen to it as an unbeatable combination that leads to the successful functioning of an organization. The interactive relationship between the leaders and the followers can help us in better understanding about various complex situations (Daft, 2014). I also believe that the function of an essential leader is to produce more leaders than more followers. I will work hard to improve my leadership skills so that I could attain more connection with the followers. I can take my years of knowledge and comprise it into one sentence.

“Greatest leaders I know are the followers”.

I wish I would have stepped up as a leader who would attract followers. I also understood that leadership is not just a title that’s given to me but something that makes guides me in the decision-making process. I can be a good leader only with the help of good followers. So in order to build up good followers, I need to focus on the needs and demands of my followers. I also understood that a leader who doesn’t meet the basic requirements of the followers would end up with as extricated workforce. The four basic requirements I observed includes trust, compassion, stability and hope. A leader can never be a good leader unless he/she values to strengths of their followers. I think a good leader will do inspire trust, provide hope, demonstrate stability and have compassion. I also heard about deficits in trust and compassion plenty, and this may lead to dissatisfaction among the followers.

Thus it can be stated that to be successful as a leader, I need to be able to both manage and lead the people (Low, 2013).  It is necessary to possess communication, relationship and networking skills also to excel as a leader (Northouse, 2015). One of the main element I need to work on to enhance my potential to lead people is the adaptability skills. Thus with the right blend of all these elements, I can lead the people successfully.

 

References

Daft, R.L. (2014) The leadership experience. Cengage LeaFairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp

Low, P.K.C. (2013) Leadership and Ethics. In Leading Successfully in Asia (pp. 23-35). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Northouse, P.G. (2015) Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Managing change

The process of reviewing and refining organizational structure and processes to adapt to the market change to survive in the highly competitive business world is referred to as organizational change.

The change can either be a planned one or a forced one on the basis of the environment in which the organization is operating. The change can be a radical one which changes the way in which an organization operates or an incremental one where change is introduced slowly. In any case, change involves letting go of the old ways and adjusting to new ways.

Check out: http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm

Fundamentally, a change process involves effective people management. It is not merely a process of amendment, but a process that requires effective management. The current UK economic climate requires employees who are adaptive and tough who can maintain adequate levels of performance and well-being during major organisational changes (Smith, 2011).

The change can be an organizational wide change, a transformational change, an unplanned change, a personnel change or a remedial change. There are a number of areas such as business and human factors that can cause an organization to change its mode of operation (Jones and Jones, 2010).

Change is considered as a challenging task by organisations both public and private, large and small. For an organisation to change successfully, it should have a leader leading the change according to a well-defined plan within a timeframe within which the proposed change should be achieved.

Refer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__IlYNMdV9E

http://www.larryjohnsonspeaker.com/powerful-presentations/leadership-and-change-management/

Activities of change management

As realised by several studies, most change management practices fail due to ineffective planning and executions. Excellent change management procedures initiate with a practical analysis of your business systems, structures, processes, plans and leadership methods to identify the actual need for change. Any change in the organisation may create an issue for the employees (Anderson and Anderson, 2010).  The first step to face this change will begin with the leadership team and leaders.

The change-management approach should be fully incorporated into plan design and decision making facilitating strategic direction.

 

Go to: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm

The new approach should be embraced by the leaders first with an intention to challenge and to motivate the rest of the organisation (Weiner, 2009). And further, the new method should be executed in the organisation by involving every layer of the organisation. The leaders who are recognised and skilled must be capable of to achieving this change management approach and motivate others to make change happen.

Generally, the implementation of the new approach will generate many questions in the minds of the employees in the organisation (Doppelt, 2009). . They will require the leadership for answers. The major role of the leader in these circumstances is to create a formal case. Three steps are involved in developing the case: First, tackle reality and articulate a believable require for change. Second, reveal the confidence that the company has a likely prospect and the leadership to get there. Finally, make available a road map to direct behaviour and decision making. Leaders must then modify this message for an assortment of internal audience, defining the awaiting change in terms that substance to the individuals.

Leaders of large change programs must over perform at some stage in the transformation and which may create a critical mass among the work force in favour of the change. It generates the need for ownership by leaders prepared to admit responsibility for creating change happen in all of the areas they involved or manage (Beerel, 2009). Moreover, the leaders are recommended to communicate to others in the organisation from the bottom and outing from the top and are advised to provide employees with the right information at the right time and to seek their input and feedback.

The successful implementation of change in an organisation requires an efficient blend of sound technical and excellent organisational skills. As a change manager, the role of a leader is to ease the expedition towards new ways of working, and the leader is required to set of tools to help the others in the organisation along the way. Effective leadership can  reduce the behavioural confrontation to change—including to new technologies—to achieve a more rapid and productive introduction of new change.

Nowadays organisations must develop into more innovative and agile to succeed. Responsibility for managing change is with management and leaders of the organisation in a way that employees can cope with it.

Thus change management can be concluded as large scale transformation which requires the best tactical and strategic plans. It extends beyond the traditional focus on the senior management. It is well understood that an assessment of intricacies of human side and in addition, the company’s culture and values should also be considered while integrating changes in delivering desired results. The success of change management can only be realised by the implementation of collective actions. Different approaches are used by different organisations and in ensuring success, it is vital that the change approach should consider role of customers, technology and communication.

 

References

Smith, I. (2011) Organisational quality and organisational change: interconnecting paths to effectiveness. Library Management, 32(1/2), pp.111-128.

Jones, G.R. and Jones, G.R.(2010) Organizational theory, design, and change.

Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A. (2010). Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Weiner, B.J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation science, 4(1), p.67.

Beerel, A. (2009). Leadership and change management. London: Sage.

Doppelt, B. (2009). Leading Change Toward Sustainability-: A Change-Management Guide for Business, Government and Civil Society. Abingdon : Greenleaf Publishing.
 

Most effective leadership style to managing the work of subordinates

In today’s competitive world, it is necessary that the workforce should present optimal performance and the crucial role of leadership style in affecting the entire process is a well-established fact. The leadership style imparts a structure and precise the working plan of a leader. Sometimes the culture and aims of an organisation decide the leadership style which will be best for the firm. The most effective leadership style can be classified into autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transformational, transaction etc.

Though previously, autocratic style of leadership proved to be highly effective in managing subordinates, in the current world, it can’t be relied (De Vries, Bakker-Pieper and Oostenveld, 2010).  Under autocratic leadership method, the decisions are made by the leaders without checking with the team members and this style is highly inappropriate for the current industries. In this style of leadership, managers hold total authority and compel their will on employees. The decisions of autocratic leaders are not challenged. Countries such as Cuba and North Korea follow the autocratic leadership style. Only those employees are benefited by this leadership style who needs close supervision. Creative employees who thrive in group functions dislike this leadership style intensely. We can consider Steve Jobs as an autocratic leader who was a very demanding leader and required to be the element of every decision within the company.

People including me do not like commanding and dominating (autocratic style) guidance. Instead, the preference is given to those who delegates with adequate flexibility and imparts support. It is also important to possess the ability to assess complexities of changing environment (Rubin, 2013). Today’s work environment demands higher participation and involvement of subordinates and the democratic style allows the inclusion of these attributes. But at the same time, it’s uncertain nature can impede results (Daft and Marcic, 2016).

The democratic leadership style is often called as participative leadership which values the contribution of peers and team members, although the liability of making the ultimate decision rests in the hands of the participative leader. Through democratic leadership, employees can enhance their morale as it enables them to make contributions to the decision-making procedure. While the employees play a role in the decision-making process, it will be easy for the organisation to make changes within the organisation (Bass and Bass, 2009). This style enables the organisation to meet challenges with no trouble when companies require deciding in a short period. Sometimes Democratic leaders would become irresolute in certain situations, particularly during a crisis. This is due to the lag in the decision-making process as the consultation procedure in this approach could end in procrastination

A laissez-faire leadership encourages and permits the subordinates to utilise their creative thinking, talents, and skills. The laissez-faire leader in an organisation, provide the freedom to the subordinates, controls in an unperceived way.   However, this style of leader lacks through or direct management of employees and is unsuccessful in providing regular advice to persons under his administration (Chaudhry and Javed, 2012). The laissez-faire leadership style is advantageous for those experienced and trained employees who need little supervision. On the other hand, all employees do not possess those characteristics. The production of employees who needs guidance is obstructed by this leadership style.

The transaction leadership style is based on organization and performance. Managers adopting the transactional leadership style divert certain responsibilities to carry out and offer rewards or punishments to team members based on performance results (McCleskey, 2014).

Under this leadership style managers and team members set prearranged objectives collectively, and employees concur to pursue the direction and leadership of the manager to achieve those objectives.

 

Transformational leadership is such a style, and one exemplary example is Richard Branson of Virgin Media. The charismatic Branson pays attention to the individual needs of his subordinates and strives to stimulate them through proper communication and also by putting forth vivid goals. In the transformational leadership style, leaders motivate employees and improve productivity and competence through communication and high visibility. This style of leadership necessitates the involvement of management to meet objective.

Therefore, I believe, the leadership style that considers all these voids and meets the drawbacks helps in managing subordinates efficiently. However, the best and most effective leadership style depends on the conditions and situation of the organisation. The leadership and the management procedures must go hand in hand, and they are correlated very closely and balance each other still, there are many differences in leadership and management.

 

References

Daft, R.L. and Marcic, D. (2016) Understanding management. London: Nelson Education.

De Vries, R.E., Bakker-Pieper, A. and Oostenveld, W. (2010) Leadership= communication? The relations of leaders’ communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes. Journal of business and psychology, 25(3), pp.367-380.

Rubin, E.N. (2013) Assessing your leadership style to achieve organizational objectives. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 32(6), pp.55-66.

Bass, B.M. and Bass, R. (2009). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Chaudhry, A.Q. and Javed, H. (2012). Impact of transactional and laissez faire leadership style on motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(7).

McCleskey, J.A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.

THE CHALLENGE OF MANAGING DIVERSE TEAM

With migration on the rise, workplace nowadays is becoming increasingly diverse. Today’s workforce consists of people from different ethnic background, experience, nationalities, age groups, etc. It is quite challenging to lead such a diverse workforce. For an organization to be successful in today’s global set up, it should welcome, manage and promote diversity.

It involves development and implementation of strategies towards a network of different individuals who are integrated into the dynamic workforce (Podsiadlowski et al., 2013).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=043a50sTupY

Leading an organization which is highly diverse can be quite challenging. Leaders can face challenges such as resistance from employees and management, communication barriers etc when leading a diverse workforce. Leaders should know that they have to inculcate accountability into the organizational mechanism which would allow managers to take responsibility for creating an all inclusive work environment which is very diverse.

An example of a great leader who manages a very diverse team successfully is Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google Inc. He promotes an organisational culture where equality and diversity is given pime importance by providing an inclusive workplace. Furthermore, he is known to support his employees from any background. The company also provides unconscious bias training programme where over 65% of employees participate. In the view of Sundar Pichai, it is the best way to promote diversity in the workplace (Bort, 2016)

The prevalence of a diverse team often involves numerous focus areas based on the generalised categorizations of individuals based on their race, gender or culture. A multifaceted team offers added advantage by integrating a definite edge and uniqueness in the work environments. The key focus areas to be considered includes cultural and gender based elements (Nathan, 2016).

Culture: The ethnicity has a significant role in a diverse work environment as some cultures often specialize in honing some specific skill sets and the indulgence of a multi talented team offers added advantage for the organisation. However, the human history suggests that racial inclinations often drive a vast majority of conflicts and even great wars. The Holocaust implies the rivalry between the Jews and Aryans in Europe, whereas the racial discrimination towards African descendants in America and the cast system in India, etc also shed light on the atrocious side of cross cultural interactions (Stahl et al., 2010). However, Lozano and Escrich (2017) observed that, to strive towards progressive multicultural interaction, the leadership capabilities and management are critical to imparting sufficient training for the human resources to accept each other for their differences and learn to appreciate the uniqueness of the individual cultures. The intermixing of cultures has great potential even though the communicative efforts often encounter numerous glitches when they struggle to find a common medium or language within the diverse group. The key issues arise in the aspects of authority within the organisation, indirect and direct communication, fluency and accents and the decision makings, etc (Matesanz Gomez et al., 2017).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf1ZI-O_9tU&t=254s

 

Gender:   The gender roles have always been a concern while limiting the potential of individuals from the Paleolithic era itself. The historical records suggest the prevalence of a male dominated world based on the endorsements from the hunter gatherer periods. These classifications were often based on the distribution of physical strength mandated in those times. However, the modern day business emphasises less on the physical part and more on the intellectual part (Herring, 2009). The gender and sexual orientations have always been a taboo in the society, where clumsy pseudo moralists utilise them as a tool to impose their dominance and authority over the others. These discriminations, superstitions and suppressions may topple the potential and opportunities of numerous talented individuals. The pivotal role of British cryptanalyst Alan Turning in Bletchley Park during the wake of World War 2 was pivotal in breaking the impossible Enigma codes of the Nazis. This, in turn, shortened the atrocious war by two years for saving millions of lives. However, he was dishonoured, devalued and chemically castrated for his homosexual orientations.  This incident provides an example of the prejudiced human behaviours and its influence over human lives and society. Continual training and conditioning are necessary to eradicate these bigoted norms and gender roles to drive society into progress in this era of technological revolution and globalization (Gaine, 2010).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG_P5ja-oO0&t=81s

The diversity associated with the cultural and gender roles needs continual evolution to cope with the particularities of individual circumstances. The strategic implications vary with the type of business and the focus areas associated with diversity. However, the underlying philosophy suggests the need for inclusive practices, appreciation, training, ground rules and methodologies to ensure efficient administration of diversity embedded strategies to drive organisations into progress (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 2011).

 

References

Bort. J (2016) What it’s like to work for Google under Sundar Pichai Available at: http://www.businessinsider.in/What-its-like-to-work-for-Google-under-Sundar-Pichai/articleshow/53354016.cms (Accessed: 1 August 2017)

Gaine, C. (2010) Sexual orientation. 2010) Equality and Diversity in Social Work Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters, pp.29-42.

Herring, C. (2009) Does diversity pay?: Race, gender, and the business case for diversity. American Sociological Review, 74(2), pp.208-224.

Lozano, J.F. and Escrich, T. (2017) Cultural diversity in business: A critical reflection on the ideology of tolerance. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(4), pp.679-696.

Matesanz Gomez, D., Ferrari, H.J., Torgler, B. and Ortega, G.J. (2017) Synchronization and diversity in business cycles: a network analysis of the European Union. Applied Economics, 49(10), pp.972-986.

Nathan, M. (2016) Ethnic diversity and business performance: Which firms? Which cities?. Environment and Planning A, 48(12), pp.2462-2483.

Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C. and Van Der Zee, K.(2013) Managing a culturally diverse workforce: Diversity perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), pp.159-175.

Stahl, G.K., Maznevski, M.L., Voigt, A. and Jonsen, K. (2010) Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. Journal of international business studies, 41(4), pp.690-709.

Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C. (2011) Riding the waves of culture: Understanding diversity in global business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

 

Leadership and Ethics

Leadership carries responsibility. A leader should consider the environment and setting in which he or she operates (Low, 2013). As a human resource management student, I should undoubtedly be giving importance to ethics as human resource management deals with human issues such as compensation, development, health and safety, etc.

For this blog, I am going to discuss the context of ethical leadership using certain cases which are looked upon as prime examples of the application of ethical leadership.

To begin with, I am going to discuss ethics, leadership and business ethics.

Ethics

Ethics is simply a system of moral principles. They affect the decision making of people and how they lead their lives. It is concerned with doing good for individuals and the society at large (Williams, 2011). There are three main schools of thought in ethics such as consequentialist, deontological, and virtue based. These three are explained in more detail in the sections below.

Consequentialist: It is the class of ethical theories with the view that the consequences of one’s conduct are the basis of any judgment about the right or wrong of that conduct(Attfield, 2012).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hACdhD_kes8

Deontological: These systems are characterized by the strict observance of moral principles or duties. As per this school, to be morally correct one should have an understanding of one’s moral duties. When a person follows the rules, he/she is morally correct and when the person fails to follow the rules, he/she is being immoral (Cline, 2017).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVARdM93zsw

Virtue based: As per this school of thought, there is a direct connection between a virtuous life and moral behaviour. Furthermore, a corrupt character cannot perform an immoral act and a virtuous person will always act morally (Riggio et al., 2010).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpE6qllLheU

Leadership

 Leadership is very subjective in nature. It stems from the capability of an individual to set up a following among teams or individuals. Every leader has a unique style. It varies from individual to individual. The leadership style of business leaders are influenced by the challenges they face such as digitalization, market fluctuations, employee issues, company size, operating sector etc (Northouse, 2015).

“A leader is someone who has the clarity to know the right things to do, the confidence to know when she’s wrong, and the courage to do the right things even when they’re hard.” – Darcy Eikenberg, founder, RedCapeRevolution.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYKH2uSax8U

Business ethics

The form of professional ethics that analyses the ethical principles and ethical problems that arise in a business environment is business ethics. It is applies to all areas of business. In the words of Crane and Mateen (2016), business ethics involves the analysis of business situations, actions, and decisions where right and wrong of the problems are addressed.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkjsrJNdIR4

Ethical leadership in the business world

“Ethical leaders speak to us about our identity, what we are and what we can become, how we live and how we could live better (Ofori, 2009)”

In the business world, ethical standards play pivotal role in determining competitive success. The exponential ranking systems available in the current business scenario such as Ethisphere’s Ethics Quotient underpin the essentiality of being ethical in attaining sustainable excellence (Smith, 2013).

Let’s consider the case of Volkswagen which portrays the power of ethics. In US court, the prominent automaker agreed a $15.3 billion settlement recently. This yielding stemmed from the unethical decision of Volkswagen to dodge emission regulations by the integration of ‘defeat devices’ on more than 10 million vehicles around the globe. The VW cars were producing emissions 40 times higher than the constraints while their promotional campaigns claimed of being the vehicles with lowest emissions. The installation of software could not have been executed without the knowledge of management and hence, the involvement of Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s former CEO, cannot be denied at any cost (Ruddick, 2015).

                 “If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the                                 organization-Robert Noyce, inventor of the silicon chip”

 

The ethical fissure could have been prevented by him. But rather he proved to be instrumental in delivering the fault. It would not end with the customer backlashes, legal fines and action suites; rather the moral wound would incinerate the whole automobile industry bringing forth long term economic losses (Forbes, 2015).

Looking at the eternal consequences, I can undoubtedly state the role of leader in affecting the ethical culture of the business. It can be further emphasized by the illustration of the case of the leading grocery retailer in the UK; Marks and Spencer (M&S) which is one of the successful examples on how business practices can be oriented in line with ethical norms with a strong ethical leadership. M&S could transcend beyond its stakeholder’s expectations by the execution of fair practices. With an exemplary ethical and environmental framework (PLAN A), the company could replicate the values and standards across the entire organization (Beavis, 2012).

                                                                    (M&S, 2017)

The leadership at M&S was crucial in fulfilling the declared goals of Plan A. The success is clearly the consequence of an ethical organizational climate. Thus, from the two cases, it is evident that an ethical leadership is pivotal in managing reputation and competitive status of an organization by providing positive directions and values (Carrol and Buchholtz, 2014).

 

References

Attfield, R. (2012) Ethics: an overview. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Beavis, L. (2012) M&S: doing the right thing leads to change – for the better. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/best-practice-exchange/marks-and-spencer-change-better%5BAccessed: 1 July 2017]

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A. (2014)  Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. London: Nelson Education.

Cline, A. (2017)  Deontology and Ethics Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/deontology-and-ethics-249865 (Accessed: 1 August 2017)

Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2016) Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Forbes (2015) The Domino Effect Of Volkswagen’s Emissions ScandalAvailable at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/09/28/the-domino-effect-of-volkswagens-emissions-scandal/#2d1918f4d282[Accessed: 1 July 2017]

Low, P.K.C. (2013) Leadership and Ethics. In Leading Successfully in Asia (pp. 23-35). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

M&S (2017) A decade of delivering. Available at: http://planareport.marksandspencer.com/%5BAccessed: 1 July 2017]

Northouse, P.G. (2015) Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Ofori, G. (2009) Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with full range leadership model, employee outcomes, and organizational culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(4), p.533.

Riggio, R.E., Zhu, W., Reina, C. and Maroosis, J.A. (2010) Virtue-based measurement of ethical leadership: The Leadership Virtues Questionnaire. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62(4), p.235.

My development and priorities for next term

The first term had been very crucial and important in many senses. I came in with raw skills and ideas i held into. And the different sessions i went through helped me in improving in many aspects. Initially i was very nervous during presentations and works assigned, thinking i wont be able to make it to the point. But i guess it had only helped me to improve in all possible aspects. The major noticeable improvements i had are language improvements and the level of confidence i have gained. During my first days though i had adequate language and vocabulary, i was very nervous. But the frequent works assigned and presentations following them helped me develop in many aspects  of my attitude and public speaking behaviors. Initially, i saw myself as an average public speaker but later on i found progress in my own performances and thus happened to see developments in these.Term 1 started with all these, starting with everything raw and later on seeing developments in each. And i expected the same in term 2 as well. And expecting much more of a higher graph in developments, especially in tackling problems and figuring out solutions and conveying and presenting the message i have in my mind and work it out well.

DATA ANALYSIS

After successfully completing the process of question making, 30 copies of the questionnaire were taken for the process of data collection. Our team considered of 6 members and each member took 5 questionnaire to be filled. We took time to read and understand each question so that during  the time of  data collection we could be of maximum help to the people from whom we are collecting data. We went in different groups and took the questionnaires among people, both students and staffs inside and outside the campus. It was a whole different experience of having a session of data collection from people outside our own campus. As we were new faces for them , we had to first introduce about ourselves and then about our objective and the task for which we have approached them. Later on giving the questionnaire we had to explain few clarifications they had. Although data collecting took a bit of time, it was worth the wait. What looks us by surprise was that some refused to answer as they had no time, where some were themselves excited to answer the questions as they found the topic and questions very interesting. They anyhow helped us a lot in completing all the questionnaires as we got really good and positive vibes from the side of presentation.            The data thus collected from all 30 respondents i.e our primary data was further used for next stage of process. Here we used it for the analysis and interpretation. Our group of 6 together analyzed all the answers  we recieved from the respondents. and further did interpretations regarding each question. For this we made graph for each question. This was to divide from the respondents into percentage answered in different questions. Later using these graphs to show its pictorial representation of how many respondents answered each. This helped us a lot in proving our interpretations. Using all these we came to a conclusion as we, which was the stated in the presentation.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

As far as my personal development plan is considered, i have many goals to complete in order to achieve proper development in all aspects. It includes communication, cultural, sensitivity, commercial awareness,customer focus, data handling, decision making, flexibility, time management etc. I believe i have good communication skill in speaking as well as in writing and that I developed naturally and academically. So i give least importance in developing my speech skills but i think i need to improve my writing skills. And another thing is that commercial awareness which i have achieved during my graduation in business administration, for which i had stay in hostel where multicultural students used to stay, so that is the another area which does not need to be focused much. Customer focus is something i need to focus and i shall understand customer taste and preference for this, in order to deal with them. And data handling is a much familiar thing for me as i have done few works during my graduation period. Decision making needs to be given bit of attention even though i have certain capacity of it as i had to deal with it when i was project leader when i am doing my graduation. When my ideas were taken into my family business, this strengthened my enterprising skills as well , for which i give importance. Flexibility is another important thing and i have achieved during my college days as i had to deal with students from different culture and behavior. I do initiatives for certain things and i was confident enough to initiate a college tour during my graduation. My interpersonal skills are good as i have led project groups and tours. Networking skills need to be developed and it is important. And i believe i can improve my organizational adaptability by working in an organisation and as i was the project leader in college. My problem solving skills are also good but i need to develop it and my analytical skills by improving logical thinking. And i am responsible enough towards my works  as i was given leadership  and responsibilities  in certain activities  and project works. My team working skills are also good as i achieved this from college doing group works and being part of teams in cultural events. Time management is a very important  aspect and i have that skill as i did a part time job together with busy schedules of assignments and projects.                                                                My priorities towards being a good speaker and manager are very high and being a motivator is something  i give secondary priority. For achieving these i shall need to speak in public and manage activities in an organisation and maintain good relation with people watching motivational videos and support from employees. And these has to be achieved  before my target or expected time for over all development.

 

PRESENTATION WEEK

The presentation was on data analysis, i.e on the data that we had collected regarding our work. Our team considered of 6 members but only 4 of us turned up on the day of presentation. Eventhough 2 members could not make it on the day of presentation, 4 of us managed well to present it to the level best. The presentation was first of its kind as students from 3 different classes were present, international market, finance and global business. And 3 tutors where  also present  during the presentation for giving feedback  and opinions to each teams. Other than this, students too had open chances to ask questions o the team and clarify their doubts. All these initially led to nervousness, but later synced into the presentation. All the groups performed well , and so did us. After our presentation both tutors and students gave their feedback and mentioned our drawbacks and made their points and opinions clear to us, and this helped us a lot. We got information about the presentation was just a day before presentation. On the day we got information our group stated to prepare powerpoint. Though presenting a powerpoint presentation infront of such big audience and tutors was a first time experience and I was too nervous than my team mates, still  we overcame this  and believe to have performed well to the best we could and my friends and tutors too have given maximum feedback, hopefully with which we an perform better next time.

My experience of doing questionnaire

Making of a questionnaire has always  been tricky and confusing as we have to look into many different ideas involved with the topic, and this one too was no exception. This questionnaire was based upon the feedback of people towards starting a climbing adventure in Liverpool street. The prepration of questionnaire was a group activity, and we are 6 members in our group. The group members of our team i.e, 6 of us divided the work among us and made each of us 2-3 questions, which was finally reviewed and finalized to 16 questions. Each person has different ideas which is different from one another, so thinking level of each varied and we  got really different and apt questions for the questionnaire. And our tutor was of great help, who corrected us and helped us choose the perfect ones for the questionnaire. The experience was really great eventhough there was really big confusion regarding how to present a present a question among the public. And different opinions among 6 of us made it puzzling but finally we found ways out. This was possible all because of the coordination we had among us as a group. Even when one did not agree to the way of presenting a question or if he/she not agreed to certain opinions , finally all of us agreed to it in one way or other and encouraged and appreciated each others  for participating well as a group. It was a very different experience to share questions we made and  club everything into one final piece.