Leadership

Essays & reflection assignments

Advanced Course Leadership

Lecturer Marlin de Bresser
Student Danille van Nispen
Student number 2186848
Fontys Academy for Creative Industries

Content
Assignment 1 Essay: leadership example
4
Assignment 2 Reflection assignment: contingency theory
6
Assignment 3 Reflection assignment: leadership in practice
7
Assignment 4 Write a speech 8
References 9

Assignment 1

Essay - leadership example

When can we establish that a leader is effective or not? A leader has certain traits and
competencies, and a particular style. When I look at my boss Babak Mirjalili, who I met five
years ago when I started my internship at his company I Love Vintage, I recognize these
leadership features. Together with his sister Faranak, he founded I Love Vintage: a (web)
shop that sells vintage (inspired) clothing and accessories. Since I started there as an intern
and I have been working there one day a week since then, Ive seen the company and its
founders grow.
Traits
According to Kirkpatrick and Locke key leader traits include drive, leadership motivation,
honesty and integrity, self-confidence and knowledge of the business. Drive has five
aspects: achievement motivation, ambition, energy, tenacity and initiative. Babak is very
hard working; I actually think that in a way hes pretty much always busy with or thinking of
work. But at the same time he also spends time with his family, so I think theres a good
balance. He is not overworking himself. When hes not at the (web) shop at the
Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, hes often busy with achieving his and the companys goals
like improvements in the web shop. I know he has a lot of energy for this: I can see that I
Love Vintage is very important for him, and his ambition is to let his company grow. He is
very proactive and takes initiative for these improvements, but he includes us, the
employees, too. He really appreciates our ideas for the company. Babak has leadership
motivation because he wants to be the greater authority. And he is: because of his honesty
and integrity we trust him and follow him. I trust Babak because of his self-confidence and
knowledge of the business. I can easily put these two traits together: I mainly trust him and
his ideas because he has a good knowledge of the business. He knows what hes doing and
he can make smart decisions, even the hard ones. A few months ago, Babak decided I Love
Vintage is going to cut back in selling real vintage items. He noticed that the demand of the
market is less for vintage items. So now we are focussing on selling new clothing that is
inspired on vintage style (20s 80s), and we discovered this was a good call. But it was
a difficult decision, because I Love Vintage started with only vintage items a long time ago
that was the original idea behind the company. These key leader traits help Babak acquire
necessary skills: formulate an organisational vision and an effective plan for pursuing it, and
take the necessary steps to implement the vision in reality (Kirkpatrick and Lock, 1991).

Competencies
Babak has mainly problem solving skills, but I think his knowledge makes him a good
problem solver. I dont see Babak very much: Im one day a week in Amsterdam for
work but because he knows Steffie (my colleague) and I can handle the (web) shop and
he has a lot of things to doo. But hes always reachable, which is very nice. And when I
think about it, most times when I talk to him (by phone, e-mail or in person) its about a
problem, which I dont know how to solve at that moment. For example, there are some
technical
problems with the website sometimes. I know how the backend of the website works and
all, but when something doesnt work like it should, I have no idea how to solve this. Babak
is always available for these kind of questions. Its not like Im always calling him for his
help: first I try to figure out what exactly is wrong and what I can do about it. I dont like to
bother him, I know he has a lot on his mind. But when I do need Babaks help, hes
absolutely there for me (and the rest of the I Love Vintage employees).
Style
The Managerial Grid Model (1964) by Blake & Mouton is a situational leadership model.
It identifies five different leadership styles, based on concert for people and concern for
production: Country Club Management, Impoverished, Team Management, Authority
Compliance and Middle-of-the-road. Babaks leadership style is Middle-of-the-road, but
its leaning more towards the concern for production. While a part of his concern is about
his employees, I notice that his main concerns are about the production. He always wants
to know how the shop is doing financially and again, when there are problems with the
production he is always there to (try to) solve them.
Is Babak an effective leader? Yes. He believes in his company and is able to make
difficult but crucial changes by looking at the demands of the market. He has great
problem solving skills and divides his concerns over his employees and the production. I
dont see him much, but that doesnt mean he isnt there for my colleagues and me. For
me, these are features an effective leader should have.

Video
During this Ted Talk, Roselinde Torres explains what makes a
great leader in the 21st century. According to her, its important
not to stick with traditional methods, because things keep changing nowadays. One important question during this talk was: Are
you courageous enough to abandon successes from the past?
Babak doesnt keep doing whats familiar and comfortable, for
example when he made the decision to cut back from vintage
and focus more on vintage inspired items. He dares to be different. You can watch the talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/
roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader#t-461151

Assignment 2

Reflection assignment contingency theory

During my studies at Fontys Academy for Creative Industries, there have been a lot of group projects in which I
have participated. In the first and second year, I didnt feel secure enough to appoint myself as the leader of the
group. But as it turned out, I did act and feel like a leader when I started working with this group of other students. For example, the first group project in my first year.
Together with four other students, I had to plan and organize and event. This project was the first big
assignment in our studies, so it was very exciting for all of us. At least I thought it was. I had been working with
my group members in other classes and I was hoping some of them would be a little more motivated during
this project. We were in the first weeks of our studies and two of my group members already doubted if they
even liked the studies. And even worse: one of them was the group leader. But he actually didnt do that much. I
decided to step up because things needed to happen. I wanted to make this event happen, and luckily the other
two group members were motivated too. I made goals and a planning, and I assigned clear tasks. In the
Path-Goal Theory, a leadership theory developed by Robert House, this leadership style is called Directive
Leadership (Mindtools.com). The theory is based on specifying a leaders style or behaviour that best fits the
employee and work environment in order to achieve goals. I was the directive leader in this situation because
the project was unstructured, which caused the unfocussed minds of my group members. By communication
the goals and assigning the tasks, I tried to make the project clear to my group members. When I look back, I
think I made the right choice to be directive because otherwise things wouldnt have happened. I influenced the
situation by taking the lead and making the decisions. Half of my group had no motivation. The other half did,
but needed a push. When I pushed them, they worked hard and the collaboration was good.
I think this leadership motivation came from my need for development. According to McClelland, this is
achievement motivation (Mindtools.com). People like me, with a high need for achievement, are goal oriented,
take personal responsibility for solving problems and seek challenge. During the group project, I knew I needed
to be the leader. Although it didnt feel very comfortable (I dont have much self-confidence in taking the lead),
it worked out well. It was clear my group members needed structure, like a planning, and someone who was
watching that planning very closely. A pitfall for me was that I was very critical, maybe too critical. I wanted
everything to be perfect and because of that I had trouble with delegating. I tended to do all the work myself, but
I knew it was important to collaborate. And at the end, this collaboration leaded to a great event at the theatre in
Eindhoven.
When I think about this situation now, three years later, I feel like this was a great learning experience. I learned
how to be a directive leader during a school project, but also that its important to delegate within collaboration.
To be honest, I still have trouble with delegating, but its getting better. Ive learned how to let some things go:
not everything can be perfect. And to me, that is an important feature for a leader too.

Self assessment
What can I improve?
I mentioned the Path-Goal theory, but not much more than that. I can improve this by writing more about this theory and by explaining how it fits in the situation I described.
What did I improve?
I explained how the Path-Goal theory and the directive leadership style fits in the situation
I experienced and described.
Grade: 8
6

Assignment 3

Reflection assignment leadership in practice

During todays Leadership class, I learned that leadership could be done in a lot of
different styles or ways. Every person is different, so every person acts different in
leadership situations.
We worked on a few cases in which leadership is required. One of the cases was
in a supermarket setting. Some students acted like they were working and they
had different features. One student was the leader in this situation. He had to
handle the situation and all these different personalities. By watching that, I saw
that a good way of performing leadership is empathize with the person he or she
is dealing with. If it was me who was the leader in that situation, I would probably have done the same thing. I would try to empathize with my employees and
respond in a reasonable but also in a strict way, because the employees should
listen to me.
Another case we worked on was a fun assignment where Marlin played an annoyed gas station employee who wouldnt open for a customer who had an
emergency. She kept saying no to the students who played the customer with the
emergency. It was really hard to get Marlin to say yes. One thing that might have
worked was to make it personal and about her. What does she want or need?
In the last case, eight students were sitting around a table and discussed the issue about dog poop on the street. Each student had to play a certain role, referred
to the Roos van Leary. Its about how someone behaves in a certain situation. I
learned that there are a lot of different behaviours and that this can help during a
discussion, but it can also make it harder to make your point, for example.
It was a fun class. I saw how you dont have to have a certain leadership style in
every situation. Your style can be dependent on the situation and on the people
you are dealing with. Everyone has a different character so its very likely that everyone will act different in certain situations. Its good to keep that in mind when
dealing with a leadership situation.

Assignment 4

Write a speech
I have a certain vision about life. Not everyone is bad. Other people have good intentions. Talk to
each other, or just smile to each other. But dont judge people on the first impression, because
everyone carries their own unique personality, their own stories, their difficulties and the things they
can be proud of. There is a lot of bad stuff happening in the world and that really sucks, but that
doesnt mean you cant be nice to strangers. I believe the world is a better place is everybody is nice
and polite to each other.
While writing this, I realize this may be half of my speech. But first I want to explain that this its my
vision, so its hard for me to pick someone I am during the speech Im going to write next. Its just
me, and I believe a lot of people share this vision. But because these are my words, I think it would
be best if I should do the speech. It would be the most personal and strongest way. The speech is for
everyone because everyone is part of the current society. There would be no specific moment to do
this speech because its relevant now, but also a year ago and a year from now. But I would suggest
to do the speech now, in the end of December, because it would be a good start of 2015 with this
speech in mind.

When I walk down the street, I tend to avoid eye contact with other people. Im not sure why, I guess
it feels a little uncomfortable. But I when I look around, sometimes my eyes meet the eyes of a
stranger who is walking by. And once in a while, not very often, that stranger smiles at me. Just like
that, for no reason. We dont even know each other. But when it happens, it absolutely makes my
day. It reminds me that other people have good intentions. Despite the fact that bad things are
happening in the world, there are people who are sincere and kind. And we are slowly forgetting this.
Its not that strange. The articles in the newspaper can be so intense nowadays. A large part of the
world is a mess. Its normal that we care about horrible things that are happening, and its normal
that we are influenced by it. We dont trust strangers and we dont talk to them anymore. It feels
safer to stare at a smart phone while riding the bus, instead of making conversation with someone.
But I believe that if we keep going like this, we dont talk at all in the near future. And we will definitely
dont trust anyone anymore.
You cant judge someone negatively on the first impression and decide not to be nice to him or her.
Look around.
Everyone is living his or her own life.
Everyone is carrying their own baggage and stories.
Everyone has their own difficulties.
And all of that makes everyone unique.
Think about it. Youre not the only one with problems. I believe that everyone can use a smile. From
a friend, but even better, from a stranger. From you. Its not that hard. Dont isolate yourself from
others when youre around them. Maybe even help someone. Or ask for help. The response might
surprise you: other people do have good intentions.
I cant imagine anyone would disagree on this: the world is a better place when people are kind to
each other. So please, act on it. Make the best of it. It makes everyones day better.

References
Kirkpatrick, S.A. & Locke, E.A. (1991) Leadership: Do Traits Matter? Consulted on 12
November 2014.
Mindtools.com (?) Path-Goal Theory. Discovering the Best Leadership Style. Consulted on
19 November 2014, retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/path-goaltheory.htm
Mindtools.com (?) McClellands Human Motivation Theory. Discovering What Drives
Members of Your Team. Consulted on 19 November 2014, retrieved from http://www.
mindtools.com/pages/article/human-motivation-theory.htm