Documentation of Learning Leadership Essay

This essay discusses the work results on the course on leadership. The student has not worked only inside of class, but also outside of the class. Furthermore, the essay has an individual leadership development plan. This is not the usual research paper; as a result, it was tailored for the author. This plan consists of several parts. At the beginning of the plan, the author explains what the individual leadership development plan is for, and then the author ranges all the assessment tools that he is going to use for refinement his leadership skills. At the end of the plan, all the expected results after uses of the tools are named.

Documentation of Learning Leadership

Introduction

Leadership can be described in three words: soul, skills and culture. This conclusion I have made after the course on leadership. The soul, a unique set of personal skills and culture distinguishes the perfect leader from the perfect manager. Some people are sure that the manager and leader in the team is the same person. Before this course, I had thought exactly in the same way, but after studying the course, I changed my mind. Now, I suggest that the leader and the manager have to be in good relationship to reach the main goal of a team. The perfect leader encourages people to act, and the perfect manager correctly organizes and controls people's actions.

Main-body

During the classwork, I have understood the main idea of leadership. Leadership is the person's ability to lead the people behind his own. To my mind, it is very important to understand the main differences between a manager and a leader in a team. As a rule, these roles are played by different persons. Unfortunately, the person who is a manager and a leader in the team at the same time is a very seldom case. It is connected with the fact that the required skills set for these roles are different. I am inclined to believe that if teamwork is organized only by the leader, the results of this work will be unsuccessful because the leader, as a rule, cannot plan, organize and control as effectively as this is done by the manager. Furthermore, I have known that the team manager and leader must work hand in hand. It is necessary not only to be able to organize and control the employees but also to inspire and encourage workers for achieving the goal of an organization. As a consequence, management and leadership are linked and complementary with each other. For this reason, the future managers must know all basic principles of leadership. It is necessary to underline that team manager should closely cooperate with the teamleader, if such person is in the team. I have researched the top distinctions between a manager's and leader's job on my own. The book On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis describes such distinctions perfectly. The author suggests the main difference is that the team manager administers, and team leader innovates. As a result, the majority of managers focus on the organization structure and system, and the leader focuses on people. In my opinion, the managers have a higher responsibility for their work compared with the leader, but leaders can understand employees much better because they work without the top management pressure.

To keep in mind all the theoretical basics of leadership I had to practice all knowledge. During the class time, I and my group mates did the cases. Each case included information about the company, its employees or employers and the list of questions. Having analyzed all the information about subjects or objects of the case, we answered the question. To my mind, such practice is one of the best ways for developing student's leadership. The first time, I and my group mates faced difficulties, but sometimes later we have completely understood how it is all done. We have watched a large number of the films about present worldwide leaders such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and others. Outside of class, I improved my leadership skills in several ways. Firstly, I have read the book Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lido Anthony. The author has been the president of two worldwide automobile companies such as Ford and Chrysler. Lido Anthony described his experience as a leader and manager in these companies. The book consists of a great number of advices for managers and leaders. Also, I had the greatest ability to practice my leadership skills. I teamed with my friends in order to participate in the Business case championship. I tried to organize the team, and I got the perfect results. During the participation in the championship, I motivated and inspired all the members for a productive work and the best result, consequently, we avoided the appearance of social loafing, and our work was effective.

Recently, I have seriously reflected about my education, knowledge and future job. Clearly, today, I do not know what my job will be. Consequently, I have understood I really do not know what knowledge will be needed for the future job. To my mind, there are general courses from the education system. It means that the basic knowledge from these disciplines will be useful in each job. In my opinion, the discipline leadership is such a course. If the person wants to be successful in his professional life, he must know human psychology and can be connected with different people in his working environment. As for me, the main goal of the course leadership is to teach the students these two things. Brian Tracy confirms in that the successful leader needs a combination of such ingredients as a character and competence. I completely agree with him, because these two ingredients are strengths of the successful leader (Tracy, 2012). Furthermore, I am aimed to use the knowledge from this discipline in my real life. As for me, if the person can successfully inspire others to do something, this ability will help him during his life. Also, it is needed to underline that the leader likes innovation and originality, so in real life, such a person is not afraid of the difficulties and alternations. To my mind, these are characteristics of a good person, and I want to improve it in me.

Individual Leadership Development Plan

Usually, this plan is useful for those people who want to be successful in his career. Today, a successful career is the main goal in my life. To achieve this purpose it is important to develop my true leadership skills today. The ILDP includes some areas that are needed to watch out for improvement of leadership competencies that are interconnected with career improvement.

It is needed to underline that the team is kept together using relationships. To my mind, the main principles that can help me in building leadership relationships on the personal level include loyalty, respect, confidence, dignity, integrity and respect. Consequently, I am aimed to develop these leadership skills.

In my ILDP, I am going to use such assessment tools as EQ In-Action Profile, Campbell Leadership Descriptor and Evaluation of Progress.

The first tool is EQ which is used to supply a snapshot of a person's emotional capacities. Using EQ, I can research my experience as I connect with other people in my environment. The result that is based on my reaction to certain scenarios; this tool displays the relationship map, which has been improved during my life (Maxwell, 2003).

The tool, which can help a person to identify areas that he should improve, is the Campbell Leadership Descriptor. The conclusion of the Descriptor is intended to help future leaders reflect on universal and essential components (Campbell, 2002).

In my mind, if a person wants to see his work experience and career progress, he must evaluate these every year. A person will be able to see the truth only in the comparison, and such an assessment tool as an Evaluation of Progress is useful for this goal. I can see correct and wrong choices in my career using the tool (Maxwell, 2003).

The tools help me to find the answers to the next questions on what the areas of strengths are, the new possibilities of stretch are, what I have learned about myself, what I should focus on for attention and learning.

Conclusion

Studying the information leadership, it is needed to sum up that the discipline is one of the most important in each professional education. Every business area needs good leaders to reach its goals. This course underlined the importance of the leader during teamwork. So, this fact encouraged me to study this course not only in the class but also outside of the class. During self-studying of the discipline, I have paid a lot of attention to specific literature on the leading of the people during the work and real life. The perfect example of such literature is the book Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lido Anthony. Furthermore, it is needed to note that I have explored a lot of interesting facts about the leader, like what it is, how to be a perfect leader, and what a person must do to encourage people. The individual leadership development plan helps me to improve my leadership skills. I plan to develop these to have a good career after getting the university education. I am convinced that the knowledge in the course on leadership will be useful for me not only in my career but also in real life because leadership is the ability to connect with different people.