LEADERSHIP AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Leadership and Professional development



Leadership and Professional development

This paper details my personal philosophy of leadership reflecting my views and beliefs of what constitutes a good leader and what good leadership practices are. My personal leadership philosophy includes ideas, views, and beliefs. Creating and writing a philosophy will prove to be a key factor that helps me establish my own set of supervision practices. I do believe that my view of leadership will also evolve over time to reach a style that works well for me and represents my character and my personality.

The personal philosophy represented in this paper has been formed mainly through the readings and discussions in this course, in addition to my experience as a supervisor in my organization. I strongly believe that leadership means engaging others to collectively achieve a shared vision of moral purpose for the common good. This process includes creating the shared vision, using good communication skills, building quality relationships, developing a supporting organizational community, guiding the process of implementation, and acting with exceptional character. I believe a successful organization must have a well-articulated set of ideas, norms, and beliefs shared by the leader and all others in the organization. As a supervisor, I have to promote them in a way that touches on the needs and dreams of staff, which brings the vision up to a moral level and the common good.

While providing direction and focusing attention on proposed changes, opportunities and potentials. I must support the vision using communication. I feel that listening, not speaking is the more important component of communication at the leadership level. I have to listen actively to fully understand needs and their concerns and I have to show a willingness to be influenced by others' perceptions and feedback.

I look at leadership as a potential and ability to contribute significantly to an organization, a team or a cause. At various stages of life I have experienced my significant contributions, sometimes in a formal set up and sometimes in absolutely informal manner.

One of my most significant leadership experiences was to become a Project Leader with XYZ (London) and successfully managed a team of five Investment Banking professionals - each one having far more experience in their domain than what I had. Although I was the youngest member of the team and less experienced too, I had something which none of these highly knowledgeable and experience professional had; a fearless mind and willingness to ask stupid questions. This attribute led me to a greater understanding of the entire business model and process. As a result, I could connect these processes and understand the trade flow cycle. Having seen my initiatives, command over the process and potential to deliver, the Senior Management chose me to lead the project. This indeed was a proud moment for me but intimidating too.

As owner of the project, the challenges were numerous. The first and the most primary issue I had to address was the coordination among team ...