Personal Reflection On Leadership: Theory And Practice

I envision for myself being able to take and use what I have learned in this academic year and apply it to my personal and professional life. Of all the courses that I have taken this academic year, this course on leadership, is the most likely to have an effect on that. Even though I am not a supervisor at my work place, I feel that what I am learning will allow me to become a leader for my fellow co-workers. I say this because I currently feel that I set a good example as an employee and having this new-found knowledge on what is involved in being a successful leader can help me with that, and hopefully demonstrate to my supervisor that I posses the necessary skills and attributes to become a supervisor when the opportunity presents itself.

Although I did not realize that I was doing so until I read about it in Northouse’s text Leadership: theory and Practice, where Northouse (2016) summarizes Achievement- Oriented Leadership as “ a leader who challenges followers to perform at the highest level possible. This leader establishes a high standard of excellence for followers and seeks continuous improvement. In addition to expecting a lot from followers, achievement- oriented leaders show a high degree of confidence that followers are capable of establishing and accomplishing challenging goals” (p.118). In relation to this, I have set a challenging goal for myself which is to get my degree and I have the confidence that I am capable of doing so. Furthermore, I feel that I posses certain traits that have helped me to attain my current results. The traits that I posses that I feel that have helped me are self- confidence and determination. Self- confidence has helped me to get the results that I have because I believe in my ability to learn new things and my ability to complete a goal that I have set for myself. Determination has given me the ability to keep going even when things get difficult. Northouse (2016) defines determination as the “ desire to get the job done and includes characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance and drive” (p.24-25). He continues and says that individuals

I believe this theory will help me to enhance my studies because in the past when I have come across a situation or a problem that I could not solve, I would get frustrated and get to the point where I was ready to give up. Instead of giving up, I feel that by using the Adaptive Leadership Theory will help me because this theory “ encourages people to change and learn new ways of living so that they may do well and grow” ( Northouse 2016, p.258). I also feel that this can be taken to mean as a new way of thinking in order to solve a problem. Adaptive Leadership Theory encourages one to step away from a difficult situation in order to get a better perspective of the situation. Northouse (2016) uses “ getting on the balcony” (p.263), as a metaphor for stepping back from a difficult situation in order to “ find perspective in the midst of a challenging situation”