Self-Reflection – Leadership Development Many varied management and leadership philosophies exist and no single style or approach can be considered to be the ‘correct’ one.
Regardless of management and leadership philosophies, self-reflection has played, and will continue to play, a significant role in the shaping of a managers leadership philosophy. Depending on the level of consciousness that a manager has in regards to self-reflection, along with how they communication their management and leadership philosophies, will affect their performance as a manager. Like all managers, my management and leadership philosophies have developed through experiences and the meaning assigned with these. The philosophies that I have previously …show more content… Actively self-reflecting and consciously communication personal values and characteristics provides a manager with the opportunity to control others perception of them and encourages them to be viewed as a leader.
The evolvement of my personal philosophy of management and leadership has come as a result of positive and negative experiences as a manager and also being managed. I currently take a predominantly participative management approach that is based being people-centred. This is a relatively recent transition from a more autocratic and ‘one size fits all’ approach. A participative management approach to management and leadership has been proven to support a well-informed team with strong problem solving skills (Cole, 2010) that promote the key characteristics of developing a team that can work independently and in the absence of their manager. Learning to actively engage in self-reflection was the catalyst to understanding that my concept of managing and leading in an authoritarian manner may be driving negative outcomes in my team and organisation.
The more autocratic and standardised approach that previously characterised my management and leadership style has proven to be sub optimal when applied as a singular methodology. Its biggest failing was to not take the diversity of needs of individuals into consideration. This resulted in disengagement of team members whose values were not being serviced by the approach. Notably, a team member moved to .
