A Reflection on Essentiality of Good Leadership in An Organization
It is a reflective essay, entitled ‘The Essentiality of Good Leadership in an organization’ using the Gibbs reflective model as a reflection tool (Paterson and Chapman, 2013, p. 133). It is a critical reflection of the learning experience and skills I gained through the study of Jeff Bezos’s leadership (Solanki, 2019, p. 21) and its relevance to the 21st century. The skills include communication skills verbal and written, research skills, the use of ICTs, teamwork, time management, self-management, and problem skills. The essay is a quick examination of my learning experience throughout the study (Eisner, 2016, p. 185).
Description
Learning is a lifetime process, whereby we acquire new skills and knowledge through our experiences or through studying. The study of Jeff Bezos’s leadership and its relevance to the 21st century has been a great deal to me. I first decided to assess his style by looking into different e-books and journals about him. I outlined his skills, his leadership styles, and the organization’s growth with relevance to his abilities and efforts.
Additionally, I studied different forms of leadership that assisted me to understand the relationship between him and his employees, him and the stakeholders, and how he handles the customers. It enabled me to navigate around his problem-solving skills and how he makes his decisions. There are six major leadership models but only transformational and transactional models suited his leadership style. They define how Bezos manages both the employees and still focuses on the organization’s goal, thus ensuring everyone is satisfied and happy.
I designed a Microsoft PowerPoint using the latest Microsoft office feature for the presentation of the analyzed work. In some slides, I included further notes explaining the slide further for any clarification and understanding. Despite the lack of enough Microsoft PowerPoint knowledge, I managed to maneuver around until I completed the slides. Google helped a lot in understanding the features of the program and how to make the slides appealing and eye-catching (Siddiq, Gochyyev, and Wilson, 2017, p. 11).
Feeling
Amazon is one of the renowned best selling e-commerce and drop shipping organizations in the world today. Studying about Amazon leadership is the most exciting and thrilling experience ever. Jeff Bezos is one among many leaders whom I look up to due to their continued guidance to satisfaction and productivity in their respective organizations. It was very exhilarating going through his profile and studying his leadership skill and styles that were very interesting and capturing.
Earlier, before analyzing and researching, my idea of leadership was more of a dictatorship. It was inclined to achieving the goals and objectives of the organizations in all possible ways without considering other aspects of productivity, for instance, the human resources department. After examining his leadership, my perspective changed completely, I now understand that in the organization, a leader and the subordinates should have a good rapport. A leader is a motivator and not a commander who orders people around (Silva, 2016, p. 222).
Besides, I am not the only one who is impressed by Jeff Bezos’s leadership skills. In the world today, many people are appreciating and adopting his approach to their organization and everyday life. They love how he handles and creates a pathway for the achievement of the company’s vision and objectives. The fact that he does not focus on himself but the entire organization, and also, to inspire a whole generation on quality and effective leadership skills, is spectacular.
During the research, I realized that his leadership skills and his qualities can be applied in my day to day activities. It will not only improve my productivity but also help me deal and work with people easily. His skills are applicable in team building, planning and strategizing, organizing, and most importantly during negotiations about almost anything. Leadership is all about motivating myself and inspiring people around for a better society and a bright future for the community.
Evaluation
The completion of the task has given me crucial employability skills and highly sharpened my life skills that are not usually taught in the classroom. I have learned one has to come out of the ordinary and be extraordinary to possess the unique ability not necessarily in leading but relating with colleagues (Muenjohn and McMurray, 2018, p. 379).
First, a skill is a very important tool at whatever setting that assists in conveying various messages to targeted persons. If there is no proper communication channel, then there is a higher risk of confusion and chaos. Communication should be simple and done promptly to ensure information reaches to all parties. The thing that will not work is that sometimes communication if it is not precise and complicated there is a high chance of ignorance (Reggie, Eaton, and Funder, 2020, p. 33).
Through the search of various sources, such as journals and the internet, has greatly sharpened my research skills. The search to find the leadership styles used by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, has exposed me to vast knowledge because l read many books and articles online. The research helped me come up with quality content because l was exposed to reading multiple contents about him because of the leadership style. What did not work is the presence of misleading information over the internets that were not true to what Bezos leadership was.
Information and communication technology (ICT) played a central role in facilitating the preparation of the work. The use of computers helped me to use the internet to research for content about Amazon and its CEO. Arguably, ICT contributed to fast-working and the creation of good PowerPoint slides that are easily readable. Therefore, it simplifies complex tasks that a normal human is unable to do and saves time because some work needs calculations.
It is often stated that two heads are better that one. With this regard, I firmly saw the need for teamwork, especially in complex tasks. One cannot achieve many goals alone; he needs extra minds and hands to achieve them. Jeff created a good team that led to the massive transformation into on me of the best online retail business. Teamwork saves time because a large task is done on time and quality performance recorded. However, creating an empire of teamwork in a workplace often needs consistency and a lot of persuasiveness.
I also managed to learn that I need to have a sense of self-management (Newman et al., 2019, p. 1) and maximum usage of time. Spending little time to think and plan for my next move is the key to avoiding costly mistakes that could have been avoided early. Self-management leads to self-discovery of potentials and the ways that I can learn from mistakes and improve myself. Wasting of time and loss of self-management will potentially compromise resources as well as a good talent (Mumford et al., 2017, p. 24).
Finally, problem-solving skills, especially in the face of difficulties, are key to finding long term solutions to various issues. I learned that it is important to listen, think, and find a potentially sensible solution to the prevailing difficulties. Critical thinking is important to avoid rash decisions that could be costly in the long term. Poor problem-solving techniques are a downfall and setback in achievements of set goals in the organization.
Analysis
I felt that communication is one key aspect of facilitating easy conveying of certain information and ideas to all parties. Communication creates a sense of belonging to workers because they are not left out in the process of disseminating information. I have personally learned that research skills are essential before performing any tasks. I need to look at various sources including reading books, journals, and articles over the internet to have created or innovations. I have also learned that research gives you variety from which one can choose from and come up with the best alternative.
Information communication and technology (ICT) have come thick and fast especially with the changing worlds personally recommend the proper use of these technologies to come up with quality and descend creations or work. CT can simply work but at the same time it is complicated to embrace them, and I highly uphold the aspect of teamwork in a working station that facilitates the faster performance of tasks.
A leader’s initiative is not sufficient to create good teamwork, but it further requires the willingness and desire of employees. This combination keeps employees on toes to always maintain high-quality performance in their work stations. A combination of multiple ideas brings variety into the team hence work is done at a faster rate’s have personally witnessed the joining of hands to work brings cohesion and saves time to do tasks.
Time and self-management are more of personal responsibility to avoid unnecessary waste of time. Time is money, and wasting it might be difficult to recover learned that I should spend time to think, create, and innovate new ideas that are unique because of how he was able to push his employees to always save time and maximize on a good performance.
Problems are bound to always occur, and a prompt is always needed to prevent more storms coming your way. Critical thinking and analysis of the situation will help in solving whatever difficulty at any point in time. Making desperate and rash decisions without thinking about the consequences will lead to poor problem skills. It seems to me that solving a problem is not a thing everyone is capable of possessing, but it is fundamental in everyday life (Sun et al., 2017, p. 212).
Conclusion
During the study, I learned that self-management and time management is vital in achieving any objective of goal. Managing and planning my work, and time is the ultimate requirement in achieving my assignments, visions, or goals. Additionally, good communication skills when writing and speaking is essential for people around me to understand me better to avoid any misinterpretation whatsoever. A research skill also is another ingredient to help me get more information about the topic or anything else I am venturing into.
Lastly, since today the technology status in the world has improved, the information and communication (ICT) skills knowledge are fundamental. I should study more on Microsoft office features to enhance my ICT skills. Furthermore, teamwork is substantial because we all have different knowledge and skills. Therefore, for dramatic productivity, it is necessary to work together. Finally, problem-solving is crucial in solving almost any challenge that comes my way without struggling.
Action Plan
When analyzing leadership skills concerning someone next time, I will still outline my work first by making and strategizing how I will go about the work. I will look into improving my research skills and how I manage myself and my time to completion of the assignment. Additionally, I will go further into studying ICT to better my skills and knowledge about computers and precisely, the Microsoft Office (Baker et al., 2018, p. 376). I am certain this study has challenged me to study more to gain more skills and to become an inspiration to others.
References
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