Leadership Assignment: Reflective Analysis of an Industry Leader
Question
Task
Identify an individual in engineering, industry or other relevant professional community who you think exemplifies leadership and interview them (in real-time, in person or virtually). This person does not need to be a CEO, VP or have a senior-level title. You will provide the rationale as to why you chose this person and why you believe them to be a leader. For the purposes of this paper on leadership assignment, find someone outside of your family to interview.
Formulate your questions in advance. In your interview, gain a greater understanding of the leader’s role, how they view leadership, and what leadership looks like in the context of their field or profession. If the person practices any of the leadership approaches we've learned in class (although they may not name it specifically), explore how they carry out them in practice.
Some possible questions to consider:
What is their biographical background? What identities/experiences are most salient for this person? What are the experiences that shape them as a leader?
How does this person view leadership and are there any specific assumptions or beliefs that inform their behavior? How would they define leadership?
How did they discover purpose in their own life? How were they called into leadership?
What is the role of leadership in engineering (or their field)? What leadership challenges does their field or organization face? How might individual’s best prepare to be a leader in the field?
How does this person communicate with people in their organization? How does this person work effectively with others? How does this person motivate others?
How did this person learn from the obstacles and challenges they faced? What critical incidents have they encountered in leadership?
What has been the lasting impact of this person’s leadership? What difference have they made? What lessons (positive and negative) can be learned from this person’s life and leadership?
In your paper, briefly describe: (1) why you chose this person, (2) your reflections on the leader, (3) their style of leadership; and more elaborately describe (4) lessons learned from the interview (5) and how the interview has informed or challenged you own ideas about leadership. As always, be sure to incorporate course content to support your ideas.
Please note that this is not a “stream of consciousness” reflection, but a well-written paper with a structure and flow that makes your main points clear and backs them with evidence. Incorporate course content and materials to support your ideas and to demonstrate understanding and application. You should plan to edit and revise your paper for quality writing style and proofread for grammar and spelling.
Answer
Reflective analysis of an industry leader
It is evident herein leadership assignment that an effective leader provides an appropriate path to be followed in professional time. One such person is my senior in college and manager at a multinational company Amazon. Mr. Tom Hopkins is a recent pass-out from the university, who have gained considerable success in the recent year by climbing to a managerial position within a very short period. He is from my professional community and depicts exemplary leadership style; hence I considered interviewing him over the virtual platform. Before interviewing him, I formulated my questionnaire in advance to gain a greater understanding of his leadership role in the context of his profession and how he extends his expertise in the domain (Popa 125). Post careful examination of his leadership style and context, I understood that he follows the transformational style of leadership and has effectively impacted his company through his approach. He applies this approach in leadership by way of different mechanisms to attain effective followership.
In my interview, I gained a greater understanding of him in person by way of questions I had developed. While evaluating his biographical background, I understood that he had a visionary father from whom he developed his sense of leadership. From his early life, he had been outstanding in education and showed characteristics of leadership. His father's identity he says was one of the most crucial aspects in shaping his vision and attitude towards leadership (Gathungu 5). Some experiences that he states were crucial and which assisted him to become an effective leader were his class activities where often he had to take part and role as a leader. He emerged from such experience with great success which enabled him to build his success. He feels that his style of communication and ability to manage his team from his childhood for attaining outcomes of the task.
He has a unique view of leadership, I feel, as he views leadership to be an essential factor in bringing about productivity within organizations. His assumptions or beliefs state a leader can emerge effective only through communication and people management skills. Hence his behavior is mostly focussed on informing behavior to manage outcomes of employees. All his attention is focussed on attaining goals by way of managing communications and behavioral outcomes of the team. Hence his focus is on team management of behaviors, this clearly defines his capabilities to undertake transformational leadership.
He discovered purpose in his own life by recognizing his capability to contribute as a person. From his early life, he felt that he had a driven passion to connect with team members and impact their outcomes. Especially in his university life, he was able to emerge as a successful person in various course projects that required team management skills (Copeland 105). While working in the industry, he found that there were various inefficiencies in processes that affected productivity and team outcomes. These aspects helped connect to his abilities to become a successful leader. Hence, he realized the need for a transformational leader to bring about effectiveness in team processes.
In the domain of engineering, the context of leadership is greatly overlooked until a recent period. Engineers often viewed their individuality and capabilities to be able to contribute to productivity and hence an outcome. The role of leadership in the domain of engineering has emerged crucial such that they can work together in teams and render effectiveness in totality to a project. Working in a team requires team skills and also in identifying approaches to identify gaps in skills, and knowledge to complete projects and deliver them within specific time frames. Hence the profession of engineering requires leaders to bring various personnel together such that they can complete project goals and in whole organizational goals for effective outcomes. This brings about tremendous challenges to the domain of engineering or specifically to Amazon. Working within a team of diversified personnel with different expertise is not easy and it is often difficult to bring them together and make them agree to specific goals and objectives. A leader needs to carefully identify skill gaps and communicate to team personnel, then convince them with the correct attitude such that they become ready to work in such teams. As indicated by him, individuals trying to become an effective leader in their domain need to possess extensive capabilities to attract followership by convincing them. He needs to be empathetic, visionary, convincing with good communication skills (Oliver 540). Then only can a leader gain the trust of his followers and work effectively within teams.
The person interviewed communicates effectively in the organization, which capably attracts followership. He boasts on his style of communication, which does not ever include behaving badly or avoiding communication errors with his team members. He always communicates with patience and tries to understand the other person's perspective before communicating his points. This enables his effectiveness to work with other members of his team. His behavior and hard work motivate members of his team (Bottomley, Kevin, and Moses 6). He states that he enjoys taking up challenging roles and then striving hard to attain them through his team effectively.
He states in his interview that he learned extensively from the obstacles as well as challenges faced by him and his team members. While working within the organization he had to face hurdles of meeting extensive targets, shorter deadlines, non-supportive manager, and multiple other challenges. One of the most critical challenges encountered in leadership was when his team was against him in bringing about automation in some processes. He faced tremendous challenges while convincing his team and communicating the organization's vision to his team members.
One of the primary lasting impacts of this person's style of leadership has been the effectiveness with which he avoids conflicts at every level. Avoiding conflicts had brought about significant changes in the organizational climate in his department especially and this, in turn, has impacted the emergence of positive work culture in the organization.
Lessons learned from this person's life is that with hard work, vision, and perseverance one can emerge an effective leader. One negative lesson from this person's life that I discovered at the end of the interview is that gaining professional success can often hinder personal life, as he was not able to settle down in his personal life. My reflection from this regarding a leader is that a leader needs to work and strive hard for attaining success for his entire team (Copeland 79). The interview informed further my ideas regarding leadership that team play a crucial role in an effective leader.
Works Cited
Bottomley, Kevin, Sylvia Burgess, and Moses Fox III. "Are the behaviors of transformational leaders impacting organizations? A study of transformational leadership." International Management Review 10.1 (2014): 5-9.
Copeland, Mary Kay. "The emerging significance of values-based leadership: A literature review." International journal of leadership studies 8.2 (2014): 105.
Copeland, Mary Kay. "The impact of authentic, ethical, transformational leadership on leader effectiveness." leadership assignment Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics 13.3 (2016): 79.
Gathungu, E. W., D. M. A. Iravo, and G. S. Namusonge. "Transformational leadership and employee’s commitment: Empirical review." IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science 20.7 (2015): 1-7.
Oliver, Pamella H., et al. "Adolescent family environmental antecedents to transformational leadership potential: A longitudinal mediational analysis." The Leadership Quarterly 22.3 (2011): 535-544.
Popa, Brîndu?a Maria. "The relationship between leadership effectiveness and organizational performance." Journal of Defense Resources Management (JoDRM) 3.1 (2012): 123-127.
