This
individual reflective report will give a reflective account structured based on
2 of the 7 capable individual competences of the Northumbria University’s
Employability and Leadership attributes. Theoretical details will be provided
to underpin my choice of attribute, although it will outline importance to
leadership competence and also to my teamwork experience.

According
to Northumbria University, employability & leadership attributes is
described as being fundamental skills, behaviours and knowledge to be an
effective leader. Two of the seven employability & leadership attribute
which include Collaboration and Drive has been choose for a deep explanation reflecting
on their importance for being an effective leader.

There are
several types of collaboration such as community collaboration, network
collaboration therefore the one I will mainly be focusing on is team
collaboration. Collaboration is defined as being a mutual engagement of
partakers in a synchronised effort to resolve a problem together (R. Lai, 2011).
It is a key part of all businesses’ daily activities as it helps in the
creation of new product, deals with challenges and generates new solution and
ideas in other words most businesses decision making come through collaboration
(Cisco, 2013).

Collaboration
compared with individualistic effort, has many advantages. Nowadays
Collaboration has become very essential not only for businesses but to any sort
of leaders and people that knows how to implement it well. Some leaders fail in
the implementation of collaboration as they haven’t got the ability to
understand when to be collaborative and when to be directive (Fox, 2016). There
are times at work when circumstances required leaders to be directive this
generally occur when rules are reinforced and policies are changed. It is a big
challenges for leaders to deal with lack of collaboration in within
organisations as teams will be competing against each other for recognition or resources,
information will be kept by each teams and not be shared leading to customers not
being served well which can then badly impact on the company’s performance and due
to a lack of collaboration lead to employees discouragement and frustration (Folkman,
2010). Leaders should stop relying on their directive approach and instead start
encouraging high level of collaboration between teams they are managing as this
done will bring a productive and positive atmosphere in within the team and
will be a great help in the achievement of their objective which will directly
impact positively on employees making them enjoying the work experience (Folkman,
2010). In addition to the above stated, according to the anecdote good leaders
are those that who encourage staff at best and don’t discouraged them at worst (Callahan,
Schenk, & White, n.d.).

A good example of collaboration being put into
application has been taken from my own experience where I worked in a team all
through the first semester at university which I believe will help supporting the
above says. I took part in several group activities all through this semester
in the module called Business building practice therefore I will mainly focus
on one activity which required me and other members of the team to work in good
collaboration to achieve great mark. As a team of student consultant we were
asked to provide a short report which would help organisation identifying appropriate
tools and framework that could use to measure their social impacts. This had to
be done through a report and had to be recorded too. We had to collaborate
efficiently and for that happen we were motivating each another and each week we
were to meet to discuss the project and plan out what each of us had to do. We
had a team leader within our team and one overseeing the whole project. He had
a totally different role than our leader as he was constantly motivating us and
monitoring our progress in order to ensure triumph of the team (Haas &
Mortensen, 2016). All members were involved in the project and for that all
contributed with all contribution being taken into consideration. We all shared
research findings, discussed them and all together decided on what we were going
to keep and what we were not going to use on our final power point. As any kind
of team we had obstacle but we manage overcoming them thanks our good collaboration.
The last week before breaking up we were going to record but one of our member
had travel so we ended up not doing it. The same day we got in touch with her
and she managed to record her own bit and sent it to us. We managed to put
everything together and record as one and we did complete the project on time
if we had not collaborated well between members we would of not managed achieved
the project.

This stated above is the reason of me choosing collaboration
out of the seven other attribute despite all them being as essential as
collaboration however based on my teamwork experience activity I believe that
collaboration has been very essential for the accomplishment of the project. As
well as for my teamwork experience I believe that it really important to
leadership because it has been found out through research that collaboration compared
with individualistic effort, generates numerous advantages and most time guaranty
success.  

Drive is the capability
to inject enthusiasm and high energy into the achievement of results (Stamoulis,
2010).

The drive for results is considered as being a vital
behaviour to achievement for leaders. Leaders who are really good at driving
success are considered as being skilful for the fact that they have the ability
to get employees to stay focused. Managing doing this well makes them being
confident towards their employee and for that they won’t be fearful to ask
employees to give more based on their performance and they will constantly
remind them how well they have progressed regarding the company objective (Folkman,
2010). Leaders who are good at motivating and inspiring generally have high
level of enthusiasm and energy. They are characterised as being the one
energising their teams and for that are the reason of employees achieving
difficult goals. Many leaders concentrate on the accomplishment of given task
while forgetting to motivate and inspire employees. Not being inspired as well
as not being motivated by leaders leads to employees producing an average job
which as a direct negative impact on the organisation performance (Folkman,
2010).

A good example where I was drive for success would be
when I took part on group project which consisted to act as consultant and provide
a short report written and recorded which would help organisation identifying
appropriate tools and framework that could use to measure their social impacts.
I was constantly engaging and multitask all through the project. We as a group
were clear on our goal and very focused achieving it. I and other members in
the team were motivating each another as we were working towards a common goal.
Time was well managed and we managed to deliver on time despite being under
pressure when we were to record but one of our team member went back to her
home country but because she and we were personally drive and in addition to that
determined to record we overcame the obstacle and managed to record the video.

I believe the seven other attributes are as essential
as drive therefore based on my own teamwork experience it has been the main
factor of my success in the accomplishment of the consultancy project. On the
other hand I also believe that it is an important attributes to leaders to be
drive as no matter what they will be focused, motivated, and determined and if
happens it directly impact on employee and will energize them meaning employees
performance will be great.