Reflective Essay

Write a reflective essay of 2500 words (+/- 10%). In the essay you will reflect on your previous views on leadership, utilising your own experiences as well as theories and approaches to leadership in order to critically analyse and explain your views. You should then use those reflections to identify areas of strength and development you will take into your current or future work place. The reflective essay should also include a minimum of 10 academic references. The essay should be reflective and so be inward looking. This means that you have to use your own experience, thoughts and beliefs and challenge them using the content of the course. You should present analysis of your own views on leadership, how these may have changed over the course and importantly critically review what you have previously done or ascribed to and how this has or has not changed and informed the approach you will take to leadership in your current or future career. The purpose of a reflective essay is to show how you learn from your educational experience and importantly how you critically evaluate the learning as well as your actions and logically argue how you apply that learning. You should be very specific in giving your experiences and examples but should also consider what experiences you wish to share and of course which you would not feel comfortable or appropriate to share. One of the biggest challenges of writing a reflective essay is being critical and analytical. Consider what you didn’t do as well as what you did, what were the consequences of your actions positive and/or negative. Your reflection should be honest and genuine but should not make you feel uncomfortable or apprehensive about sharing and knowing that others will read. Hints & Tips • As this is a reflective essay, you should write it in the first person. • Although a reflection it is like any other essay, it should have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. • Read the marking guide – this details what the markers are looking for in your essay • Create an essay plan – what are the key points you are going to put across in your essay. This helps you use the word count wisely and ensure you stay focussed. • Keep your paragraphs shorter (3-8 sentences) for a reflective essay. • You may find it useful to structure your essay around a recognised reflection model such as Gibbs Reflection Cycle or Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. Examples of both are contained in the assessment section of your vision course. • Much like your actual course content, develop your academic skills by reading further on reflective writing, critical analysis, referencing and research. These are not only important skills for your overall programme but also tend to be parallel to actual business skills.