The journey to becoming a successful leader has been greatly influenced by my experiences and the example set by my parents. As a child, I grew up admiring the efficiency in which both my parents would demonstrate juggling their careers yet still be part of my childhood. From my father, I learnt the importance of prioritising what is important in my life and finding time to engage in activities that are not always tied to my career. While at home, my father had this policy where any outside interruptions were only allowed before the dinner table was set. My father held a leadership position in his place of work and was responsible for other employees. This meant that my father’s input was required in various busines transactions. Since the organization he worked for operated on a 24-hour schedule, he would often receive calls at odd hours of the night or during his off days when he was supposed to be spending time with family. The importance of his work made it difficult to fully go offline and the company even provided him with a work phone for emergencies. Despite this however, my father managed to find time for my family and this demonstrated his ability to handle different responsibilities.
I also learnt that as a leader, some problems are unavoidable and successful resolution depends on how flexible the leader is to change. As a child, I was fond of making mistakes that often got me ion trouble. I remember one time I misplaced the keys to my locker and failed to hand in my assignment on time. My mother was called in to the school to discuss the issue with my lecturer as I could not convince the teacher that I could not access my paper. Despite having to go to work and still make it home in time to prepare meals and other house chores, my mother would always find time to show up for school activities even when the meetings were impromptu. My mother taught me the importance of being flexible and why it is important to find time for the things that are important in life.
As a child, learning was closely tied to the experiences I had at home and while in school. The interaction with my peers, parents and teachers have greatly influenced the type of leader I am today and who I aspire to become in future. When I joined school, I got to experience different forms of leadership. Although the lessons I learnt from my parents influence me as a leader today, I also learnt that leaders should be free of bias and rely on experience and analysis rather than personal beliefs and opinions. My lecturers were a big influence in helping me to improve my skills as a leader as they taught me the importance of separating emotions and personal feelings when leading.
In school, the I got the opportunity to engage with people from diverse backgrounds. The students and lecturers comprised of individuals with different beliefs resulting from the different cultural backgrounds. Although the diversity exposed me to different personalities and taught me how to interact with different people, it also helped me identify the challenges that leaders face when trying to get different people to work together towards achieving a common goal. From my teachers, I learnt the importance of respecting other people’s customs and traditions. The diverse student population made it difficult for lecturers to use just one approach when teaching. Although a general approach was practiced when teaching groups, the tactics would change drastically when dealing with a single student. Teachers would lean towards specific cultural practices and traditions when communicating with students on a one on one basis. the approach had positive results on students as it placed both parties in an environment that was respective of everyone’s beliefs and made the learning more effective.
My learning experience has greatly helped me to better understand the importance of a corporate culture. The corporate culture is responsible for determining how activities are carried out within an organization. Other that coming up with the objectives that need to be achieved, the corporate strategy also determines the type of employees to hire and what is needed to ensure that the set objectives are achieved. The corporate culture must however take into account the needs that employees may have and how to satisfy them. While employees are hired to accomplish specific tasks, some duties fall out of the job description. The corporate culture should therefore be flexible enough to adapt to the changes that arise when a task falls out of the confines of the objectives stipulated by the top management. In such a case, the responsibility falls to leaders who must identify the best candidate to take on the added responsibilities. Leaders therefore have a responsibility to ensure that the right people are selected to handle the work required. They also help create a corporate culture that takes into account the organizational needs as well as personal needs that employees have to assist them in taking on more responsibilities.
The journey to becoming an effective leader has also taught me the importance of teamwork and why leaders should strive to lead by example. I have enrolled in various volunteer and internship programs that have greatly contributed to my growth as a leader. An example is the case where I was placed head of a team tasked with the responsibility of improving performance for a company. My responsibilities as a team leader involved ensuring that each member of the team was aware of the role they were expected to play. Since the task required us to come up with actionable information, it was my responsibility to ensure that other team members were motivated and had the proper working environment to encourage innovation.
On a personal level, my goal is to become a transformational leader as I try to see the best in the people that I work with. As a transformational leader, I am able to share my vision and attitude towards work with other members of my team. When assigned the role of team leader, I tried to lead by example and encourage others to do the same. Instead of using my authority as a leader, I tried to result to cooperation where every individual was given equal treatment regardless of position held. Since the goal was to come up with ways to improve performance, giving everyone a chance to be heard ensured that the changes implemented were respective of all employee needs. I would motivate other teammates by assigning duties that were respective of the individuals’ skills and also in line with their personal objectives. this ensured that achieving the goals set for the team would also translate as a personal achievement since the two objectives were tied together.
The experiences have also taught me that my greatest weakness has to do with time management. As a leader, I try to lead by example and this often involves showing others what to do rather than dictating orders. As such, I tend to take on more responsibilities than I can handle. While I find it easy to take on tasks that do not require a lot of input, my effectiveness as a leader and abilities are negatively affected when I have to deal with tasks that are too demanding. I will also try to learn more by emulating leaders that I interact with the same way I hope to inspire those that I work with.
In future, I plan to work more to improve my delegation skills as a way of reducing some of the responsibilities I take. My difficulty in managing time is mainly because I take on too many duties at once and find difficulty accomplishing complex task. I will try and entrust others with the responsibilities assigned to me as a way to help them improve their overall skills and also to help ensure that I don’t take on more tasks than I can comfortably handle. I also aspire to be the kind of leader that sets an example for others to emulate. I have discovered that leadership is a skill that requires to be improved constantly and I will continue to take on new challenges and learning experiences in future so as to become an effective leader.
