Understanding leadership, beyond theory 

Throughout the guest lectures, articles, and workshops on leadership, my understanding of leadership has developed from a basic idea of “leading others” to something much broader and more personal.

One of the key insights that stood out is that leadership within the leisure and theme park industry is not only about directing people, but about creating alignment, meaning, and connection within complex environments.

According to the ATPM ILO’s, a professional should be able to “develop a vision on leadership and motivate groups of employees while taking diversity and stakeholder perspectives into account”. This already shows that leadership is not one fixed style, but something that adapts depending on context, people, and situations.

Leadership and connection

One leadership concept that strongly connects to my personal development is “servant leadership”. Servant leadership focusses on supporting others listening, and creating an environment where people can grow, rather than controlling or directing them. This aligns closely with my own natural behavior and also connects to my personal branding plan, where I describe that I value emotional intelligence, connection, and making people feel seen.

Looking back at my experiences, especially during my internship, I noticed that I naturally take on this role within groups. I tent to observe, support others, and focus on the group dynamic rather than taking full control like I used to do. At the same time, I have learned that this strength also requires balance. Being people-focuses does not mean avoiding structure of decision-making. This links to my development point: learning how to combine empathy with direction.

 

Robert K. Greenleaf. (2025, April 14). What is Servant Leadership? - Robert K. Greenleaf. https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

 

 

Transformational leadership, creating meaning

Another concept that stood out to me is “transformational leadership”. This form of leadership is focused on inspiring people, creating a shared vision, and motivating others to go beyond expectations. This strongly connects to the leisure industry, where experiences are not only about service, but about emotion, engagement, and meaning.

A transformational leader is: able to communicate, focusing on development, open to learning, and has the ability to trust.

Being able to trust in your team mates is one of my big learning goals. Like mentioned before, I often found it hard to let things go in group projects, I like to keep everything in my own hands.

To grow and learn, I have to start trusting, and maybe even more important: start listening to others. Something I have been working on for quite some time and is getting better by the day.

Seeing this form of leadership inspired me to work on this goal even more.

Yasmina, Yasmina, & Yasmina. (2026, April 22). Transformational leadership as a driver of change in organizations. Beyond by Esade. https://www.esade.edu/beyond/en/transformational-leadership/

 

Personal leadership

A key concept through the PLC course is personal leadership.

Personal leadership starts with self-awareness: understanding your strengths, recognizing your development areas, and taking responsibility for your own growth. The workshops emphasized that reflection is not only about looking back, but also about taking action based on those insights. “A good reflection always ends with an action” was being told during one of the workshops. This is something is have started to apply more consciously. Looking at myself, I see that my strengths lie in creativity, empathy, and connection. My development points lie in discipline, consistency, and taking direction.

Through the leadership content, I now understand that these are not separate from each other, they need to be combined to become an effective professional. Moving forward I want to develop more structure in my work and translate my creative thinking into clear actions instead of daydreams.

When I combine all the insights written down above, I can start to define my own leadership style. I recognize myself strongly in servant leadership, elements of transformational leadership but at the same time, I am still developing skills relate to structure, discipline, trust, decision-making and adapting to different situations.

This awareness helps me not only understand myself better but gives direction to my future development. Instead of trying to fit into one type of leader, I see leadership as something I am continuously shaping, based on experience, reflection, and conscious growth.