Personal Development Plan And Self-Awareness Strategy For Leadership

Challenges Faced as a Project Leader

In this very specific study I am going to present a effective personal development plan and self-awareness strategy as a leader. After gathering 6 years of work experience in a reputed business organization of supermarket industry I got the promotion in the post of a project leader in last one year. After being appointed in my new designation I have faced innumerable challenges in leading team members. Employees associated with the business organization are from various cultural backgrounds and psychological attitudes. Their way of thinking differs from each other. While taking any decision regarding the success of project I have faced major difficulties in taking proper decision after being confused on different point of views. In addition, after working 1 year in the post of project leader I have identified some of the major drawbacks within me which should be developed with the help of effective learning process.

I have critically evaluated some of the most effective leadership theories and leadership models that can develop my personality. I have highlighted some of the significant leadership strategies as well. After identifying my drawbacks as an efficient leader I have made an action plan for next 5 years with the help of which I would like to enhance my professional ability gradually. I have decided to make a plan of 5 years due to specific reason. If the plan gets success I would be able to continue the same strategy in next five years as well. On the other hand, if the plan fails to render success in these five years I will get the opportunity of changing my plan and reforming another leadership strategy. This specific action plan would help me to get detailed understanding on how to develop my limited areas.  

According to me, leadership is the action of leading people in an organization in order to achieve business goals and objectives. The primary role of an efficient leader is to set a clear mission and vision for the employees, which are inseparably related with organizational objectives (Briscoe, Tarique & Schuler, 2012). Employees get motivation in delivering their best services to the organization after being inspired from the leaders. In many cases, I have observed that team members intend to show their reluctant attitude in providing their best performances due to the lack of proper motivation coming from a responsible team leader. I have observed the opposite scenario as well. An effective cooperative of leader has rendered immense success and glory of team which reflected on their performance as well as enhancing professional standards.

Leadership Theories and Strategies

However, after being appointed in the post of project leader I have gone through some of the major barriers due to which my performance level was enormously declined. The primary drawbacks that I have identified within m include lack of effective communication skill, lack of emotional intelligence skill, lack of multi-lingual flexibility and lack of active listening power. After identifying these leadership flaws I have decided to render self-development within my leadership skill with the help of which this kind of flaws can be overcome.

The importance of effective communication skill is to maintain transparency among the employees working under me. In quest of dealing with the same project, the business leaders have to focus on communicating with every team members equally (Bryson, 2018). Otherwise, they would not be able to work in collaborative way. Automatically, the team performance would not meet the target, which reflects a bad impression on the leader ultimately. I therefore agree that I need to render a self-development in my communication skill.

As mentioned already employees are from various cultural and psychological backgrounds and attitudes (Bolman & Deal, 2017). They may not be flexible in maintaining formal communication with the project leader. In this situation, I as a business leader should have multi-lingual flexibility with the help of which people can easily communicate with me. However, as I do not have multilingual capacity I fail to communicate proper with those members of my team who face language barrier.

I need to render immense development in my emotional intelligence skill and competency. I as a project leader should spread my hands out towards my team members whenever they have to face challenges at the middle of developing project. However, due to the lack of proper emotional intelligence skill I have not shown proper empathy to those persons whenever they needed help from me. As a result, they have also refused to show their cooperation on my project at the relevant time. This skill therefore needs to be improved.

As per leadership theory of personal development, I have focused to make critical evaluation of behavioural theory. This very specific theory enables me to understand about the behavioural approach I should throw towards my employees. As a leader, I should never show rude approach that can de-motivate the employees in providing effective. In case of dealing with the employees, I need to maintain my sympathetic outlook towards everyone. In addition, people from every culture and backgrounds should be treated with equal respect and dignity.

Personal Development Leadership Strategies

Employees facing health issue at the workplace need to get proper cooperation from me. In addition, I should have good attitude towards the customers as well whom I am delivering effective services. Employees facing communication barrier need full cooperation from me. As a result, they would be able to disclose their challenges at the workplace with me without showing any kind of hesitation. As leader if I have problem in communication skill and other specific skills I need to focus on improving those areas by implementing behavioural leadership theory.

 Boyatzis Intentional Change model aims to evaluate on how leaders should analyze the inner quality and self and change behaviour for rendering development (Cheng, 2013). This specific theory is constituted with five major ways including discover ideal self, discover real self, create learning agenda, Practice new habit and get support. The stage of ideal self evaluates who I am and what I want to be. Every human being has to face this phase of gap between the real person and the person actually wants to be in future. Real self is the phase of discovering the true person you are. As a leader, I need to evaluate my real self in order to indentify my drawbacks. Based on my real self I need to list out the areas of learning agenda. These specific areas need to be improved in order to become an efficient leader. Based on the highlighted areas I should practice new habit for overcoming the drawbacks. As a result, I would be able to become one of the most effective project leaders.

Whitman GROW model is constituted with four major steps including goal, reality, options, wrap up. Goal is the stage where leaders have to decide the primary aims and objectives of a business leader that need to meet for achieving the business goal (Gurdjian, Halbeisen & Lane, 2014). Reality is the phase where the leaders have to face several challenges in order to meet this goals and objectives. Option is the alternative method that the leaders can find out after facing hurdles and challenges (Smith et al., 2012). Wrap up is the ultimate way to move forwards amidst lots of challenges and difficulties facing on the way of achieving business goal.

These three leadership models and theories would help me immensely in achieving the business goal and in rendering leadership development.  

Personal development leadership strategies imply methods or approach based on which an individual can develop leadership skills (Smither, Houston & McIntire, 2016). The primary strategies that need to be developed in enhancing personal leadership skill are as follows:

• Flexible leadership style:

I have observed that autocratic form of leadership style is not effective enough in drawing the attention of employees. In this form of leadership style, the employees get least opportunities to share their views and thoughts regarding the success of business (Gibb, Haskins & Robertson, 2012). Leaders like to impose their own decision on employees and the existing workers have to follow the decision of leader. As a result, the decision-making or strategy making process of a leader is not always helpful for achieving the success of an organization. However, in order to render personal development in leadership I would have to focus on selecting casual form of leadership style that is participative form of leadership style.

In the form of participative leadership, I can give the liberty to my team members to share their opinion regarding business. As a result, employees working under me would like to show their enthusiastic attitude in performing well towards the services. In addition, the interpersonal relation between my team members and me will be more cooperative and participative. On the other hand, before taking an effective decision regarding any kind of business strategy I would be able to exchange my views and thoughts with working staffs. As a result, I would make a collective decision, which reflects on my leadership skills and competency.

• Attending leadership development training:

In quest of developing my communication skill, professional competency as well as technological knowledge, I need to attend a training and development session. The primary purpose of attending a training session is to gain confidence, which will reflect on my personality development. After receiving a training and development session, I would like to show my collected knowledge and understanding on the practical field in order to measure my performance as per before and after. However, with the professional guide of a trainer I would be able to deal any kind of crucial situations with skill and confidence.

• Rendering both verbal and non-verbal communication:

As already mentioned I am not well accustomed with maintaining verbal and nonverbal communication with equal frequency. In order to grab the attention of those people who have language barrier I need to bring non-verbal communication method within my leadership style. Otherwise, those persons would not be able to show their interest in interacting with me properly. At the time of taking any kind of business strategy, those people will remain deprived of taking effective decision. In this kind of situation, I would like to make non-verbal communication as well based on which they can easily interact with me without showing any kind of hesitation.

• Enhancing time management and decision making skills:

In order to bring personal development on leadership I need to bring the strategy of enhancing my time management skill as well skill of decision-making. People belonging to various geographical backgrounds are associated with the business organization. In order to develop leadership skill I need to know on how to take proper decision at the crucial time. While enhancing my personal leadership skill I need to deliver the services to the customers within stipulated time. Automatically, the business organization would reach the peak of success.

In this very specific part, some of the most effective ways are discussed on how to motivate and encourage the employees towards effective services (Morden, 2016). I as a business leader should have the capability of creating enthusiastic attitude among the employees.  As a result, they would provide their best endeavour towards services. The ways of influencing and motivating the employees at workplace are as follows:

Appreciating the efforts of employees:

I as a project leader should have the attitude of appreciating the efforts of employees in the form of recognition. Employees performing well throughout the year should be appreciated in terms of money or social recognition (Jaques, 2017). As a result, employees would like to show their best effort towards meeting the business goal. Employees on the other hand would appreciate the initiative of leaders as well.

Providing rewards and recognition:

Providing rewards and recognition is one of the most effective ways of appreciating the endeavour of employees (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018). Rewards and recognition can be given in terms of bonus or other incentives. As a result, employees would be inspired to over-achieve the target. The organizational productivity would be raised automatically. As a result, people belonging to various geographical backgrounds tend to show co-operative outlook in making an adjustment at the workplace (Hailey, 2013). In addition, the recognition can be given in the form of award or any gift voucher as well. These two forms of recognitions can motivate the employees in providing their best effort towards services.  

Making participative form of leadership style at the workplace:

The business leaders should use demographic form of leadership style at the workplace. With the help of participative leadership style employees can get the freedom to share their opinion regarding business (Stahl et al., 2012). As a result, employees working under the business leadesr like to show their enthusiastic attitude in performing well towards the services. In addition, the interpersonal relation between the team members and leaders will be more cooperative and effective. Being motivated the employees tend to over suit the business target. Employees can get the scope of earning large amount of money (Osland, 2013). On the other hand, it can develop business growth as well.

Collecting employee feedback:

Collecting employee feedback is highly important for a business leader in order to improve leadership skill and quality (Pless, Maak & Waldman, 2012). For improving leadership quality, the leaders can gather feedback from the employees whether they are satisfied with the performance of leader or not. Feedback can be both positive and negative. If the employees are not able to show their satisfaction, they get de-motivated in performing well. In order to motivate the employees, leaders should always improve drawbacks (Garavan, Carbery & Rock, 2012). As a result, leaders get the scope of regaining the attention of employees. In this situation, employees need to provide their honest response regarding the quality of a leader.

Table: Action Plan for personal leadership development

(Source: As Created by the Author)

Conclusion: 

The study has provided detailed overview about the importance of personal development on leadership. The primary role of an efficient leader is to set a clear mission and vision for the employees, which are inseparably related with organizational objectives. I have highlighted some of the significant leadership strategies as well. After identifying these leadership flaws, I have decided to render self-development within my leadership skill with the help of which this kind of flaws can be overcome. In quest of dealing with the organizational project the business leaders have to focus on communicating with every team members equally. The study has portrayed that employees performing well throughout the year should be appreciated in terms of money or social recognition. The organizational productivity would be raised automatically. As a result, people belonging to various geographical backgrounds tend to show co-operative outlook in making an adjustment at the workplace.

I have observed that employees are from various cultural and psychological backgrounds and attitudes. I as a project leader should spread my hands out towards my team members whenever they have to face challenges at the middle of developing project. In case of dealing with the employees, I need to maintain my sympathetic outlook towards everyone. In addition, people from every culture and backgrounds should be treated with equal respect and dignity. Boyatzis Intentional Change model aims to evaluate on how leaders should analyze the inner quality and self and change behaviour for rendering development. Grow model on leadership development is the alternative method that the leaders can find out after facing hurdles and challenges.

I have observed that in participative form of leadership style the employees get least opportunities to share their views and thoughts regarding the success of business. The primary purpose of attending a training session is to gain confidence, which will reflect on my personality development. I would like to make non-verbal communication as well based on which they can easily interact with me without showing any kind of hesitation. In order to develop leadership skill I need to know on how to take proper decision at the crucial time. However, at the end of the study I have made an effective action plan and its implementation strategy. Based on these actions I would be able to improve my leadership quality for coming five years.

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