Part A - Analysis of self as a leader

Consideration of leadership skills and values for future graduates

As a future graduate I believe developing leadership is the most important task. Leadership helps
in realising the responsibility that will be taken to conquer the world. Developing leadership
qualities also develops a sense of ownership. Leadership skills help in developing confidence in
students and prepares them to accomplish work goals. Leading a team and motivating them to do
more is learned by a future graduate after enrolling in the leadership skill development course.
As leaders the graduates would be facing endless challenges and they would prepare for
communication and negotiation skills to deal with the situation.
Key leadership competencies currently possessed by myself
I believe leadership does multiple jobs such as motivating people, looking after the operations
inside the company, managing a group or contributing to the budgets. Currently, I possess skills
like presentation and communication. My presentation capabilities were always praised by my
school teachers. Even in university, I was praised for my unmatched presentation and
communication style. I am a conversation starter and my enriched vocabulary helps me to
continue talking without searching for words. I believe these skills are going to put me in a good
position in my future.
Next I believe I have technical skills. I am proficient in basic and advanced levels of computing.
I also have the expertise in web development and handling server related issues. In today’s world
of fast forward lifestyle having technical skills is a boon and as a leader I will be using that skill
to keep records and easily handle the computing system inside an organisation. In a group of
projects using software to plan the entire timeline of the work helps in eliminating any
unnecessary mistakes. Using a software like project libre helps to make Gnatt charts for the
project and bring in the success.
I have also mastered the qualities of budgeting and calculations. In a project group, the
leadership needs to have enough understanding of the budgets so that there is no failure
experienced by the project team.
I have also come up as a democratic leader. By using the self-diagnostic tool by Daniel Goleman
my type of leadership was confirmed. I prefer taking decisions after taking advice and opinions
from the team mates which justifies democratic style. Moreover, I ensure all the teammates are
feeling valued. According to Daniel Goleman the five elements that make up emotional
intelligence are:

1. Self-awareness: I believe to have self-awareness and understand the self-awareness

quality so that I can recognise my emotions as I experience them. I seldom lose my
temper when frustrated. People say that I am a good listener and self regulated person.
2. Self-regulation: I believe in starting all of my possible work. I note all my daily activities
inside a journal to keep track of my progress.
3. Motivation: I often set long-term goals and review my progress regularly. I also allow the
team mates to become motivated and keep up with the flow. I allow them to talk and
present their views.
4. Empathy: Empathy is all about recognising other people's emotions and thor perspectives
which I possess and Goleman recognises this as an important rule of becoming
successful. I tend to ask my fellow workers “I’ve noticed that your work has not been up
to your usual standard lately. Is everything okay?”. Through this I try to understand
their mental state.
5. Social skills: The social skill is all about developing trust and while working with a
bigger group maintaining communication. In this sector I feel a lack of expertise and am
trying to improve it.

In order to identify my qualities as a leader I have taken personality tests from mind tools which
are based on Goleman’s theory [refer to appendix 1]. This shows my score as 59 which is fair
and considers myself as an emotionally intelligent person. These are the skills that are highly
required in my future.

My leadership style along with a discussion on pros and cons

The democratic leadership style has its own pros and cons depending on the situation. Pros of
this style:
 ● I have always gained popularity among my seniors and fellow students and colleagues
during internships. This has been possible since I acted as a listener and always allowed
other to speak and express their opinion
● The negotiations, communication and convincing skills as a leader also helped in the
process of taking correct decisions
● The team members are always motivated as the style encourages creativity and
innovation and in my group projects I always try to promote the motivational talk
Cons of the style:
● Since I allow everyone suggestions, it takes too much time to come to a conclusion
● It sometime reflects my friendly nature in negative lights and shows lack of expertise
● This style also is not considered highly effective during crisis and there are high chances
of dealing with rejection
Leadership competencies that is required to be developed and importance of it in future
employability
The basic competencies which are required to develop as a futuristic leader is to work under
extreme organisational pressure. Keep my mind calm and composed and make decisions which
are appropriate for the organisation. Moreover, I need to give the teammates enough freedom to
think on their own and become innovative while they come up with new ideas for organisational
growth. Personal obligation and decision-making capabilities are some of the finest qualities of a
leader that a student should develop and I have to focus on these aspects highly. I also need to
work on my time management skills since it is important to be punctual to become successful in
any job given. Early rising and starting any work early allows to develop the competencies and
finish every job on its deadline. It starts at primary level in the college by leading small project
teams and building networks to accomplish the given task.
Part B- Reaction and resilience to change
I have experienced one change in the last six months that is related to work or studies. It is
important for myself or future graduates to be resilient to change to cope up with any unexpected
situation. The current organisation that I am working in is Sky Tv. I am posted as a manager in
the technical department and look after the complaints that are registered for the broadband
services we provide and check whether they are fulfilled or not. For the last few months the
company is automating these complaint registration processes and allowing IVR (Interactive
Voice Response) to take calls and record the customer complaints. The change is automating the
services with the use of Interactive Voice Response and reducing human interferences. In short
the company is introducing an automated complaint registering system.
As a manager, I always make new changes which are going to improve the organisation’s
reputation and their service. The automation in the complaints and solving them helps with
queue free services as human representatives can take calls one at a time and the customers have
to wait in the queue.
Before the change I felt pretty much excited to welcome a new change in the workplace of Sky
Tv. During the change, I felt it was hectic to process any change in the organisation. I felt the
dire need of discussion with team mates before processing any kind of change. The change was
only communicated among the CEO and the manager and the subordinates. Rest of the
employees were unaware of the change and there was a commotion created of losing jobs due to
automation. During the change the employees were fearing the stability of their job. After the
change was processed I felt that the cost cutting technique is unethical and needs to be improved.
I also felt the people who have lost jobs due to the change need to be replaced in different other
sections of the company. On the other hand, I was happy to receive change and supervise it.
The behaviour of mine suggests that I show empathy to people, on the other hand I am not
against any kind of change for organisational benefit. My self-awareness feature can be looked
upon here. In reference to the Goleman’s theory I can say that I have welcomed the change with
open heart and participated to take necessary steps to manage the change. However, the thought
of people becoming jobless due to automation broke my heart and triggered an empathy feature
in myself. As per the Daniel Goleman theory, empathy is all about understanding the reasons
behind the employees creetain behaviours or poor performance. It also suggests providing
assistance to the subordinates when they are in need.
During the change I communicated with all my subordinates regarding the change and asked
them not to panic before the change occurs. I motivated them to accept the change by stating to
them the benefits of an automated complaint registering system. I also assured them that the
change will not impact their jobs and they will be placed in different other sections of the
company.
It could have been done better by allowing the staff members to get prior training on the change.
Preparing and notifying them about the transition could have been done. The staff could have
been assured that their job is not at stake and the change is going to help the company with
revenues and improve customer service.
I obviously did it right, since as a future leader I cannot let the company face any kind of loss. I
am entitled to ensure the customers are getting the services on time. It is my duty to accept the
change and motivate others to do so.
As a part of my personal qualities I have built personal rapport with the company members. This
satisfies self-awareness and social skill building qualities as per the Goleman theory. Due to my
good rapport with the employees I was able to convince them to keep calm in the situation and
accept the change. This nature had shown my qualities as a leader to communicate a change and
convince subordinates to accept it. Allowing the change to occur showed my openness to change.
Hence, my reaction is justified.
I believe it had some good impact on my employability. Since the employability is superiorly
dependent on the qualities that we possess,the way I have handled the situation has impressed my
superiors. They often comment on my spirit of accepting change and motivating others to accept
the automated complaint registering system.
Part C- Brief development plan

Leadership Development plans Resources Criteria to judge Time

competence success frame

Time The plan is to use the Identification of The early rising 3 months
management Pomodoro clock to task and setting and starting up any
divide the tasks into 25 timer for 25 work early is the
minutes of small minutes; key to success. I
chunks and focus on it. look back on my
After every 25 minutes performance five
of work I will have a 5 months back and
minute break. This will take a performance
manage the breaks evaluation test
taken and improve the after use of
focus. Doing a lot of pomodoro clock to
work for hours can be understand
boring, hence improvement.
following this method
is expected to put some
life in the work.

Expertise on Gaining expertise on Internet, web Feedback from 4 months

project project management communities other people such
management tool like ProjectLibre provide learning as lecturers and
tools and SPSS is expected materials on this friends and family
to increase my personal aspect can help with
skills understanding of
my improvement

Decision Writing down the Watching videos Being able to 6 months

making reactions to any of great leaders accept any
situation and listing out and studying negative feedback
the things which I am case studies of without any
good while being organisation and reaction and
confident on my skills understanding understanding the
how great leader need of the hour.
take decision or
react to a
situation

Confidence Constantly challenging Support from The hesitation to 3 months

myself to go through family members venture my voice
difficult situation and is the biggest on a topic will be
staying positive to element is vanished and that
improve confidence boosting will support the
levels and feeling good confidence argument of being
about the situation confident