Self-Reflection Paper

I have learned during this class that it is not easy to be a leader. Thanks to learning different leadership styles and things leaders had to do in order to stand out from the crowd, I realized that being a leader is difficult, but worth it in the end. A leader is a person who is able to motivate and encourage others by setting a positive example and using his or her influence to make a change. There are various leadership styles, but the fact that they all work when needed to organize a group of people and move them in a needed direction proves how important leadership is.

During our class, we learned a lot about leadership qualities. Our first class was devoted to explaining what leadership was all about, and the second one was devoted to characteristics and motives of a leader. It was then when I started to analyze myself and see whether I fit into the description and possess the characteristics needed to call myself a leader. I realized that there were some leadership traits I had, but there were also other traits missing. I possess certain strengths which allowed me to lead people in certain situations. From this perspective, I could be a situational leader depending on a necessity to lead people on a specific occasion. My strengths include the ability to communicate with people well and sympathize with them. I can analyze people quickly and realize what to expect from them and what they may expect from me. Thanks to this, I am able to choose the best communication style and use it to communicate with people in the most effective way. I am also quite confident and very determined when it comes to things that interest me. I can motivate people by starting something on my own and then encourage them to follow me. I can also persuade people verbally and charismatically. I would like to mention that I possess a significant knowledge on certain topics especially those which are connected with my major. Hence, I can use this knowledge in order to persuade people and sound more professional and aware of the issues; I find this a strong leadership characteristic.

Nevertheless, the class helped me to see the weaknesses I still have when it comes to leadership. It is difficult for me to communicate with people who express certain negative attitudes toward me. It is extremely hard for me to put these things beyond myself and keep on working well. I take losses and negative feelings toward me very personally, and that influences my performance badly which is negative thing for a leader. I may also be insecure sometimes especially when I see a person who knows much more than I do. In these situations, I may lose my determination. These are the weaknesses I have as a leader, and I have to work on them in order to improve my leadership qualities.

I found it extremely helpful to work in teams during class, because it enabled students to test their leadership qualities in practice with fellows. My overall experience with my team and the rest of the class is positive. It was interesting to hear and exchange the ideas as well as see the reactions people had while listening to me. Thanks to that, I was able to see whether I could persuade my fellow students and how I could improve my leadership techniques and qualities.

When it comes to things we learned during the semester, I can say that the class about leadership behavior, attitudes, and style was a very important one. After learning more about it and discussing it in groups, I had a very valuable experience of analyzing my peers as well as myself in terms of our leadership behavior. I paid close attention to people as well as evaluated myself in order to see whether I acted as a leader. It was a very interesting and memorable experience, because it allowed me to see what things distinguished me and made me more appealing to others implying leadership behavior. I was also able to understand my team a little better analyzing students’ behavior and attitudes.

Learning about leadership styles was also important, because it allowed me to understand why certain leaders emerged on certain occasions. I also found it extremely important to learn about leading teams. The fact that we were working in teams was very valuable especially after I learned more about being a team leader. I realized why our group was working the way it was and how each person contributed to the overall process. Thanks to learning about leading teams, I could apply my skills while working and communicating with fellow students.

Learning activities made me very eager to learn more about leadership as well as answer some questions concerning it. For example, I started to wonder whether every person could become a leader in certain situations when it was a must. Basically, I started wondering whether there were people who would never be leaders regardless of their education and environment. I also wanted to learn more about the phenomenon of a leader. What interested me the most was how often people searched for a leader themselves as if they wanted somebody to lead them. Thanks to the class, I realized that people often wanted to have a leader who would make important decisions for them. This way, they took credit for successes, but blamed the leader for failures. Nevertheless, they could be manipulated to the extent of following a leader even when he was wrong; leaders-dictators like Hitler were good examples in this case. Hence, I found the answers to the questions concerning leadership and its influence on people.