Reflection Essay Example on Leadership

Leadership refers to the process of influencing other peoples' behavior. The key aspect of leadership can help people achieve things that they think are impossible. Leadership also involves influencing others on behalf of the leaders aims and goals. Reflection is the process of unpacking ourselves as leaders for the benefit of others (Middlehurst, 2015).

Leader power refers to the leaders ability to get things under control, at times over others resistance. A leader may have the following sources of power; expert power, reward power, informational power, legitimate power among others. At my current organization, the Managing Director possesses leader to power. He is autocratic in that he rules with absolute power. He is democratic at the same time and is open to new ideas from individuals under his command.

Follower motivation. Motivation is simply the process of giving someone a good reason to do or achieve something. Follower motivation involves influencing the behavior of followers to enable them to achieve a particular goal. To achieve set objectives, every leader needs to motivate the followers. This motivation can be informed of rewards or promotions. Without these, the followers feel demoralized which undermines the achievement of a set objective by the leader in an organization. Followers when motivated, are the Sheep that follows the leader aimlessly. A leader who is effective has two main components; leadership traits and the efficiency skills. An effective leader is different from an ordinary leader in that while being a leader requires just the strong personality and being able to read people, being an effective leader requires additional craftsmanship. Effective Leadership entails the ability of a leader to establish a smart, organized and efficient infrastructure upon which can successfully delegate (Bell, 2014).

Effective fellowship. Fellowship means being and belonging to a particular group of people. Fellowship can also refer to a partnership involving working with a group of people to achieve a common goal or objective. An effective follower has the following aspects; humility, diligence, patience, tolerance, gentleness, and love (Bell, 2014).

Influence involves a situation where an individual's emotions, behaviors or opinions are interfered by another person. Influence forms the basis of leadership; there are no leaders without it. Motivation theories are developed for this purpose, to try and understand what people require.

The motivation theory that would be most appropriate for my organization is the ERG theory. The theory emphasizes on existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. When these needs which I view as basic are fulfilled on every worker, they will surely feel motivated.

The power types from the French and Raven five bases of power that would fit well with the ERG theory include; reward power which applies to the growing needs and expert power which applies to the relatedness needs.

There are power types that should be avoided when employing the ERG theory because they do not comply either with the existence needs, relatedness needs or growth needs. One of the power types that should be avoided is coercive that believes that an individual has the right to punish others who dont comply with his or her rules. Another power type not applicable here is the legitimate power where a person has a formal right to come up with demands.

In my future career, I intend to integrate ERG theory by applying the principles of the theory in my work environment. The principles are existence, relatedness, and growth.

Reference

Middlehurst, R. (2015). A critical reflection on leadership in higher education. Dimensions of Marketisation in Higher Education, 189.

Bell, S. (2014). A Reflection on Leadership Principles in the Old Testament.