Reflection Paper 1
To me leadership means guiding a group of people or even yourself to a more successful and motivated way of thinking. A leader is someone who understands what is needed to perform well and then demonstrates those characteristics to people who observe them and can learn from them as well to achieve their goals. I have held leadership positions in numerous student organizations, sports teams, and even in the dynamic of my family. I have two younger sisters, so I feel as though I have had to take on a leadership role as the oldest sister to show them how to act and behave as they get older. Being a leader in
student organizations and sports can be challenging yet so beneficial because you must learn how to guide
your peers into the right direction whether that is to win games or achieve your organization’s goals. When reading Schleditzki & Edwards (2022), I agreed with the points they made about how many textbooks were out of date when it came to teaching people how to lead a group or even just be a leader for themselves (Schleditzki, 2022). Leadership is constantly evolving and changing as time goes on
and so it only makes sense that these textbooks and learning devices change with time. If we were to follow the same ideals that have been taught for the last fifty or more years, then the techniques would not
be as successful as they used to be because they no longer apply to modern society. Another point from the text that I agree with is when it talks about how all forms of leadership are subjective, whether you are
looking at it from a sociological or critical perspective, everyone will have a different opinion (Schleditzki, 2022).Without these different ways of thinking and perspectives it would be hard for anyone
to be a successful leader because everyone would know the formula to be successful and there would be no challenge to it. A point that I disagreed with was that leadership is about influencing a group of people,
I strongly feel that when you can motivate yourself and push yourself, you are representing the characteristics of a strong leader (Schleditzki, 2022).The lecture and reading made me find real interest in
how leadership strategies and characteristics are different throughout the world and how in some places a strong leader could have no success in a different place across the world (Schleditzki, 2022).
Last year I held a leadership position in a student organization and after reading this chapter by Carroll (2019), something that stood out as important to me was the development involved in leadership, to be a strong leader, you need to learn from past experiences and grow/develop from them (Carroll, 2019). I agree with Carroll’s thinking in leadership is a matter of mindset, identity, and practice, I believe in this theory because without a positive mindset, understanding yourself, and then repeated experiences you won’t be able to grow as a leader (Carroll, 2019). In my opinion, identity is the most important, if you are not able to understand yourself and your leadership style then you cannot lead others to their own success and development as people. I think that the mindset is the least important, it is still important, but repetition and practice are more important than a positive or strong mindset. There are leaders in the world who do not necessarily have the best mindset, but they are still considered leaders and able to lead a group successfully. In regard to leadership discourses, something that inspires me is all the different ways there are to
think about leadership and the style of leadership that you follow (Carroll, 2019). It makes me feel better knowing that my leadership style might not be successful for everyone and if a leadership style that was successful for someone else does not work for me that is ok as well. Something that puzzles me is just the
overall complexity of leadership, why there are so many different aspects and why some styles are successful in certain situations and unmotivating in others (Carroll, 2019).
