“Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the end of the earth, you are a good leader.” (Nooyi, 2015).
The objective of this blog is to look into my personal way of leadership, such as, which type of leadership do I believe I am and what kind of leader do I want to be.
My Vision of Leadership
Through various experiences I have experienced from being led by many different leaders, it gives me a point of view that good leader is someone who can lead and influence people objectively. Objectively means that there Is no bias among all members or employees. (CCG Resources, 2017). With objectivity, all members would feel equally valued and considered within the organization, as a result employees feel motivated and prosperous; consequently, employees will truthfully participate their work in the organisation. Without the existence of employees, the role of leader would be meaningless, and without the existence of employee, the organization would not be able to operate its business fruitfully (CCG Resources, 2017). Guirdham (2012) pointed out that leaders should have good interpersonal and communication skills in order to be able to communicate effectively and minimize the misunderstanding. Besides, leader should also possess good emotional intelligence “as the ability to recognize our own and others’ feelings, for motivating ourselves and for controlling emotions in ourselves and in our relationships.” (Goleman, 1998). Therefore, it is important for the leader to be able to listen, respects and pay attention to its employees. Furthermore, a good leader should also be able to apply certain leadership styles and power in certain circumstances (Yulk, 2013). Adam and Bornstein (2016), claimed leader should be transparent, inspiration, authenticity, open minded, empowerment and decisive. It is certainly not easy to be a good leader, as human being, we all have weaknesses, through authenticity a wise leader should admit its weaknesses and willing to learn from others. Therefore, I would say that my vision of leadership is more refers to democratic leadership styles. Although I used to have an autocratic leadership style.
Who has inspired my understanding of effective leadership?
One of effective leader that come out in my head is Indra Nooyi. She is a female leader or CEO of PepsiCo since 2001 till today. The reason for choosing Indra Nooyi is because she inspired me that you should not order someone something that you, yourself think that you wouldn’t do. From my previous autocratic style, I used to dictate people to do thinks that I don’t like to do, which I don’t think it is a good manner. By looking at Indra Nooyi’s message it gives me a huge realization.
My Personal Style of Leadership
Honestly, I have not experienced any professional position as a leader yet, however, I have several experiences to be a group leader in school, university, and society project. During my high school time, I was chosen as a leader of the entrepreneurship project in my school. On that time, I have an autocratic leadership style, where I tend to ask people to do what I think is the best and not listening to other’s views. But as I am getting older, my leadership style has been slowly changing into more democratic style, where I started to listen and exchange views with other, which I found much better than my previous leadership style in terms of effectiveness.
Also, from the feedback that I am given currently, the team members that I led said that I am a good motivator and have an open-minded as I could listen and accept different point of view of others. I believe that through many group activity that I have experienced, it slowly change my leadership style, and give me better view of an effective leadership.
Leadership Skills That I Want to Develop Throughout My MBA Degree
I want to be more responsible with the actions that I take as a leader, as well as improving my interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence so that I know better how to deal with certain persons and problems within the group effectively, especially in problem-solving.
References
Adam and J, Bornstein. (2016). 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader. Available: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270486. Last accessed 26th March 2017.
CCG Resources. (2017). A company’s most valuable asset is its employees. – CCG Resources. [online] Available at: http://ccgresources.com/a-companys-most-valuable-asset-is-its-employees/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2017].
Choi, S. (2007). Democratic Leadership: The Lessons of Exemplary Models for Democratic Governance. [online] https://colowebsite.regent.edu. Available at: https://colowebsite.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss3/choi/Choi_Vol2Iss3.pdf [Accessed 28 Mar. 2017].
Forbes, M. (2014). Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2014/07/03/power-woman-indra-nooyi-on-why-women-cant-have-it-all/#4859592a36bc [Accessed 26 Mar. 2017].
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Guirdham, M. (2002) Interactive Behaviour at Work (3rd Edition) Essex UK: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Kunter, B. (1965). Elements and problems of democratic leadership. In A. W. Gouldner, Studies in leadership: Leadership and democratic action (pp. 459- 467). New York: Russell & Russell.
Luthans, F., Slocum, J. and Teahen, J. (2015). Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies | SAGE Publications Ltd. [online] Uk.sagepub.com. Available at: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journal-of-leadership-organizational-studies/journal201858 [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017].
Namin-Hedayati, D. (2014). Leadership Qualities of Indra Nooyi, leadership examples. [online] Center For Work Life. Available at: http://www.centerforworklife.com/leadership-qualities-indra-nooyi/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2017].
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations (8th edition). London: Pearson Education
Mitchelle Shaw 
Hi chell, I do believe that you have a good leadership qualities because you have been continuously learning about the mistake you have made and improving them.
So, where do you see yourself once you have finished your MBA with the leadership skills that you have developed?
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Hi Yohana, thank you for your compliment 🙂
Since I have not yet gotten any professional leader position, I might want to develop my leadership skills further by working in one organisation in order to develop and learn more about good leadership skills 🙂
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I totally agree! We have to understand each member’s value and ability in order to place him/her in the right position. In addition, a good leader must be able to be a good moderator so that he/she can avoid conflicts within the team. And not only a good motivator I guess.
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Hi Melisa, good point stated, I agree with your point that as a leader, he or she should be able to solve problems within the group or organisation in order to ensure the effectiveness of the group’s work.
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Hello Mitchelle, I’m personally think that the situational leadership model which is developed by Hershey-Blanchard will suit you best. From what I have learned before, you need to be flexible which means you have to adjust your style to fit your followers you’re trying to influence. If you can adapt this leadership approach, I think it will be an effective way for you to lead your team.
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Hi Valenvia, thank you for your advise. It is a good point stated, as It gave me additional information to learn about other leadership model, and would be very useful for my leadership skills development
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This is a great post regarding leadership and change. Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience related to leadership style. I understand by reading your post that the way a leader lead the team will bring a significant change to organisation by motivating them. As the leader should posses those excellent emotional intelligence to lead the team, I have came with a question. In your opinion, do you think leadership skill can be learned and developed through training period or experiences? Or, do you believe that a leadership skill is something you were born with?
Because being a leader is a great responsibility for a person. As in this challenging and competitive global economy, everything should be processed in the most effective and efficient way, and fast desion-making is mandatory in this era.
Due to costly and timely leadership training nowadays, organisation is somewhat ignoring this facility to their employees.
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Hi Giovanny, thank you for your judgements and questions. Regarding to your question about the leadership skills, I do believe that leadership can be learned in so many ways, such as training and or experiences as what you have mentioned.
As Vince Lombardi Quoted, Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
Concerning learning from training and experiences, I would say that the learning might be more effective through training or seminar; as those activities deliver additional useful informations and practices. This method of learning would be effective as long as there is no cost issue with the organisation. On the other hand, some people they have already possess a good leadership skills within themselves, but doesnt mean that they are a good leader if they were born with it, because leadership skills require continuous learning in order to be a good leader.
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Interesting choice on leadership inspirations! How does Indra Nooyi leadership styles reflect into your personal style? Have you ever applied this into your own leadership experience? Thank you.
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Hi Nadia,
as a leader, she is very caring to her employees as well as to the environment, where i think it’s rare for us to find leader who fully care about its members and environment. And yes, i do care about my team members when we work as a group as it will enhance the effectiveness of the groupwork
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Good idea Mitchelle. I will say the same thing. But, I wonder if we talk about types of leadership, there several leaders that apply authocratic leadership, and some are democratic leadership. Most authocratic leadership force its decision to be applied to all. It is usually quick decision making and finds the objective fast. Democratic are usually slow-decision making in mind. If you were a leader, what would you choose? I want to know your though about this. Thank you.
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Hi Robby,
i would say more to democratic if we have time to discuss, however autocratic would also be applicable and seem better in a exigent situation where decision need to be made quickly.
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Hi Mitchelle, it’s great how you learn from your mistakes and strive to perform better the next time. You have also identified the skill-gap that you currently have. What are the ways in which you’d be able to improve your interpersonal skills in the short run or long run?
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Congratulation Mitchelle on the milestone you have tackled in the past experience. I like your inspiration leader, Indra Nooyi, however, could you state one of example in she applied her leadership style? and have you apply it to yourself?
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Excellent recap of your reflective leadership style and vision, moreover, in your “Leadership skills that I need to develop as a leader” how did you found how your MBA years have been develop your leadership skills and style so far ?
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts Mitchelle.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said: “Every good soldier carries a marshal’s baton in his pack”.
Do you agree with the thought that every good employee would want to become a leader/manager in the future?
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