This assignment will account for 30% of your grade and will be due at the end of Week 

TASK: Prepare a reflective essay addressing the following questions:

• How do you currently lead? 
• What are the core principles that underlie your approach to leadership? 
• In light of the ideas presented in this course, how you will lead in the future?
• What kind of leader do you want to be? 
• What do you want to make sure you keep doing? 
• What do you want to stop doing? 
• What do you want to start doing? 
• In your current or previous work setting, what specific changes will you make in how you lead and/or manage? 
• Do you see yourself as more of a leader or more of a manager, or both, or neither? 

Apply at least six (6) concepts from the text book (practicing leadership: principles and applications By Art shriberg)  and any other concepts that shape how you will practice leadership now and in the future. However, your essay must represent a coherent whole rather than a listing of various attributes that describe your approach. 

This paper will be evaluated using an adaptation of the 'Critical Thinking Rubric' created by the Critical Thinking Project at Washington State University and will be assessed on overall presentation and the following four areas:

• Does your paper reflect your ownperspective and position? (e.g., are you clearly writing about your approach and not simply describing someone else's)
• Do you identify and assess the key assumptions that underlie your perspective and position? (e.g., do you talk about how you arrived at your theory or do you simply state your conclusions?)
• Do you identify and consider the influence of context on your approach? (e.g., do you describe how your approach applies to the specific context and setting of your profession?)

Do you identify and assess the logical conclusions, implications, and/or consequences of acting on your approach to leadership? (e.g., do you describe how your professional life and work setting would be different if your approach were practiced by you and by others?)

Introduction

Effective leadership is considered to be the key to managing the human resource of the business in the most proficient manner. Guiding and supervising the workforce of a business organization in a productive way would result in the achievement of organizational goals effectively. Moreover, to enhance the performance of the business this is required for all the managerial employees as well as for the now- managerial employees to work in sync, and like one single team in pursuance of the common goals of the business (Adair, 2010). This is where that the leaders have a major role to play in the process of enabling employees to work in a synchronized manner and also to build a team of motivated employees. Leadership is accounted as the significant function needed for maximizing the efficiency level of the employees and help the business organization towards sound growth and development. This essay has dealt with the understanding of the concept of leadership and the skills that I have gained during the process of practical experience as a leader in the workplace (Cameron and Green, 2008). 

My present role in the organization 

At present I am working as one of the leaders in a project management concern, leading a team of fifteen employees where my work is to lead the team and help them in the execution of the different projects in an efficient manner and within the stipulated time period. My team is mainly working as the team of financial executives where they are supposed to analyse the financial position and the performance of the different business organizations and on the basis of the analysis result they need to provide suggestions for further improvement. In the process, my duty is to supervise, direct and control the team by the way of allocating tasks to each of the team members, providing them ideas for the executing the task, following the most efficient and productive manner and reduce the chances of mistakes, to review and appraise the tasks of each team members and motivate the team to work unitedly. 

Core principles that underlie my approach to leadership

I have realized in the course of my professional life that initiating action is not the only task of a leader in the organization, but, at the same time, communicating policies and providing them guidance for effective work execution are also considered to be the primary duty of a leader in the organization. I have been trying to influence people of my team in a positive manner for the purpose to accomplish the common goal. There are certain core principles that underlie my approach to leadership, to influence and empower the group of people to work for the achievement of the common goal in the effective way and make my group to work as a team, to analyse and evaluate the performance and the contribution of each of the members of the team and follow the process of rewarding and penalizing for the effective work execution, and for the violation disciplinary factors, respectively (Carter and Greer, 2013). 

However, I also believe that forcing people or using the manipulative tactics for the execution of the tasks would not be fair, but, I also like to consider myself as one of the team members who is helping subordinates in the process of improving their work execution abilities and trying to bring out their potentials for effective performance. I mainly emphasize on the use of rewarding and the educational methods of being a leader and thus, to help boost the morale of my team members to participate actively and perform for the team, rather than being self-centred and perform for the purpose to highlight the contribution.