Self-reflection is critically important for people in any field because team management is found in any profession and may be required at any time. First, to achieve the best results, individuals should be able to analyze their principles, values, beliefs, and behaviors. One of my fundamental principles is self-reflection. Ardelt and Grunwald (2018) stated that “awareness of self, others, and the environment is pivotal to obtain the full range of human knowledge and actions that are necessary to restore a crisis-ridden world” (p. 1). Another valuable principle for me is balance, which, for example, assists in managing people from different backgrounds in one group. This aspect may concern professional and educational activities, personal space, and communications.
Moreover, I consider true self-confidence and genuine humanity as two fundamental principles that must be observed by every person, regardless of any external or internal conditions. Henceforth, the first one helps to constantly be confident in oneself and their actions, which is critically important if one wants to succeed. Humanity helps to treat other people correctly, reasonably, and with understanding and respect and make decisions based on its basic postulates.
Further, it is necessary to consider the fundamental values that also shape what a person is, what decisions people make, and how they react to the world around them. Moreover, I can emphasize respect, service, fairness, honesty, and community among my values. Firstly, respect for me is both an external and an internal indicator; for example, individuals should respect others and themselves. Thus, the service reflects how I interact with other people and how I make decisions. In addition, justice is critical to people’s social life, as it implies equality (Tyler et al., 2019). Honesty and community as core values become drivers for strengthening interpersonal relationships and building a professional sphere.
After analyzing the knowledge I acquired during my training, I formed an opinion about people in and outside the organization, strengths, and aspects such as processes, policies, and profit. Thus, I believe that collaboration within an organization is the most effective way to achieve goals and objectives and gain the most significant profit. In modern organizations, this process is facilitated by introducing various technologies that help maintain employee communication using emails and messages (Impink et al., 2020). Furthermore, I believe that all the power in companies belongs to leaders who can lead people and motivate them to work together to achieve a common goal.
In addition, I consider policies and processes as the main mechanisms that help maintain the organization’s functioning. Hence, they provide the direction in which it should move while providing the exact procedures that must be performed. The company can achieve a high profit with successfully developed policies and processes. However, sometimes there are cases when profits stand up against organizational values. In this case, a quick resolution of the problem is essential since this issue is quite controversial. It is because values are always in the leading place, and no other aspects can undermine their authority.
I can say that my behavior aligns with my values and beliefs. It is supported by the fact that I always keep my word and follow my goals, results, and desires. Therefore, I appreciate the individual differences of people, which allows me to be more tolerant and respectful of all the people I encounter. Moreover, I believe people should empower and mentor and help each other. In this process, there will be a process of sharing valuable experiences that will help transfer from generation to generation. It is essential to note that all people should be treated with fairness and justice, which necessitates the transformation of society. Thus, despite society’s high development level, many people still face discrimination. Genuine humanity, for me, is reflected in encouraging others to grow, love themselves, and act appropriately.
Leadership Theories
The second point that needs to be discussed is the relationship between my characteristics of a leader and leadership theories. Within the framework of this paper, transformational and servant leadership theories will be investigated. This choice was made since these theoretical approaches reflect my characteristics as a leader and manager. Studying them will help me better understand how to improve my decision-making mechanism and manage a team.
Hence, transformational leadership focuses on bringing the essence of goals and objectives to the team to bring awareness of the importance of success. Moreover, this approach helps motivate people to perform specific actions and attracts interested investors (Asbari, 2020). The author of this theory is James V. Downton, but it has many successors (Ugochukwu, 2021). Scientists consider the importance of a strong and ambitious leader as a critical component of the team’s success. The theory holds that a leader puts not personal priorities but the team’s priorities in the first place. Robert K. Greenleaf pioneered the servant leadership theory (CFI Team, 2022). A distinctive feature of this theory from the transformational one is its emphasis on encouraging the improvement of the qualities of employees and not on motivation to achieve a goal. At the same time, both approaches reflect that a real leader should be able to manage people and make decisions about them effectively.
My Leadership in Relation to the Leadership Theories
As already mentioned, the selected leadership theories have features that can be aligned with my principles, values, beliefs, and behaviors. Firstly, the servant style considers the principles of humanity and equality, in which the leader can be equated with searchable people. My principle of benevolence complies with this theory’s characteristics since I believe in treating people with respect and kindness during any process. Furthermore, my values of service, honesty, fairness, and respect align with the servant leadership style since they allow for achieving authority among employees. My beliefs about justice coincide with the vision of the servant leadership style since all people should be given an opportunity for success with the help of an effective leader.
A transformational leader rebuilds people’s motivation, which is reflected in my principle of self-confidence and the values of community and respect. Together with the beliefs of empowerment and mentorship, my principles and values comply with the transformational leadership theory, making me a manager who actively participates in the lives of team members and people outside of it. I am convinced that the power of a mentor’s influence on employees can drive organizational change.
Comparison of Servant and Transformational Leadership
The central figures to be compared will be Elon Musk as a transformational leader and Spencer as a servant leader. This process can be especially valuable if individuals compare themselves with an authoritative person since any similarity, in this case, satisfies them. The strong leadership ego of Elon Musk as a transformational leader helps to have confidence in the decisions made, and actions performed constantly. For example, he makes strong statements and bold changes in his company which signify his strong personality (Archwell & Mason, 2021). I am different from Musk in this characteristic since I believe all group members should feel their worth and importance.
Unlike the servant leader, Spencer, his performance is characterized by stewardship with a focus on the group, which I feel is similar to. My distinguishing feature from servant leadership is that I try balancing rejection from the team and count my opinion. Moreover, Spencer’s transformational leadership style is characterized by effective listening, persuasion of changing behaviors and attitudes, and building a strong community of peers. For example, he connects with his employees by obtaining feedback to adjust the cooperation and meet their concerns promptly (CFI Team. 2022). I am similar in using these characteristics in my leadership behavior to Spencer since they help engage people and lead them effectively. Similar to the abovementioned aspects of servant leadership, the transformational leadership of Elon Musk cherishes community spirit through enhancing collaboration among team members (Archwell & Mason, 2021). I am similar to Elon Musk in this regard since I adhere to community beliefs.
In addition, Elon Musk can be described as a leader who knows how to balance risk-taking while creating and promoting autonomy and creativity in the team. Similarly, Spencer uses foresight to predict possible risks and mitigate them. Thus, I value risk management skills and strive to improve my leadership style. Distinctively from Musk, Spencer devotes more time to such features as empathy through communication, healing through mentorship, and the commitment to the growth of people (CFI Team, 2022). I believe empathy and awareness are vital for every leader, and I implement them in my practice. It can be summarized that both types of leadership aim to create conditions for the growth of individuals in a team, but they achieve it in different ways. In addition, the transformational leader focuses mainly on scale and goals, while the servant values awareness, conceptualization, and foresight. It is worth noting that the listed qualities of both types of people management do not relate exclusively to one option.
Key Insights to Enhance the Ethics of Leadership
In the end, a crucial part of the self-reflection process is identifying critical insights that can help determine how I can enhance the ethical aspects of my leadership influence. The research defines ethical leadership as “the demonstration of normally appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Ko et al., 2018, p. 107). Thus, the characteristics of the servant leader are more consistent with compliance with this aspect.
The first key aspect is the awareness of the importance of conducting self-analysis and highlighting one’s strengths and weaknesses. Thus, people get the opportunity to see the areas in which they need to make changes to improve their efficiency. The next one is the ability to manage an ethical dilemma. This indicator has value since ethics is an integral and essential part of working with people. Moreover, the key to successful leadership activity is working on emotional intelligence and organizational collaboration skills. It will help to learn to better understand the individuals in the group and correctly and thoughtfully shape their activities.
In the end, it is vital to be able to distinguish between legitimate power and coercive power. Therefore, coercive power consists of strict and sometimes rude and harsh management of people, which cannot initially have a productive future as the primary way of working. When using only this dash of power, the team can quickly tune in against the leader, leading to distress in the group. At the same time, legitimate power also cannot exist individually since excessive softness towards team members can lead to a weak group that will not consider the leader as the head of the team capable of making decisions. Thus, every leader should know how to find a balance between these two phenomena to build a competitive and harmonious team functioning process.
In conclusion, self-reflection is critical to becoming the most influential leader. This fact can be argued by the fact that this process helps people to formulate and understand their fundamental principles, values, beliefs, and behaviors. These aspects are the drivers for action and decision-making to achieve the goals. Moreover, every leader should have a clear idea about the organization, the people inside it, about the correct distribution of indicators such as strength and profit. In addition, this self-reflection explores transformational and servant leadership theories inherent to me as the head of the team. Analyzing the qualities inherent in each of the theoretical approaches helped me better understand how I can use these features in practice. The latter studied the issue of ethics and critical aspects that can help create comfortable and productive conditions in the team.
References
Archwell, D., & Mason, J. (2021). Evaluating corporate leadership in the United States: A review of Elon Musk leadership. African Journal of Emerging Issues, 3(2), 1-10.
Ardelt, M., & Grunwald, S. (2018). The importance of self-reflection and awareness for human development in hard times. Research in Human Development, 15(3-4), 187-199.
Asbari, M. (2020). Is transformational leadership suitable for future organizational needs? International Journal of Social, Policy and Law, 1(1), 51-55. Web.
CFI Team. (2022). Servant eadership: A leader is a servant first. CFI. Web.
Impink, S. M., Prat, A., & Sadun, R. (2020). Measuring collaboration in modern organizations. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110, 181-186.
Ko, C., Ma, J., Bartnik, R., Haney, M. H., & Kang, M. (2018). Ethical leadership: An integrative review and future research agenda. Ethics & Behavior, 28(2), 104-132.
Tyler, T., Boeckmann, R. J., Smith, H. J., & Huo, Y. J. (2019). Social justice in a diverse society. Routledge.
Ugochukwu, C. (2021). Transformational leadership. Simply Psychology.