Personal Development Plan For Enhancing Leadership Skills

Literature Review

The purpose of this report is to evaluate a personal development plan that would analyse my personal leadership skills. The personal development plan analyse the current leadership skills along with potential leadership strategies that can enhance my capacity to lead. Literature review on the leadership development theories is also explained that evaluates key development approaches to leadership. A leadership development plan is an invaluable tool that is strategically used to guide a person with their career choices and personal growth as well. This plan is a detailed plan that helps an individual in choosing the right career on the basis of strategic leadership track. This plan includes various aspects like, vision for career, specific leadership goal with a timeline, commitment towards action steps and lastly, revaluation of action plan. This plan helps the person in evaluating the vision that they want to become. It further assists an individual in moving on that path as well. Personal leadership development plan is very important for an individual as it helps in building strengths of a person by helping them to acknowledge their inner capabilities. Further, it also helps in improving the image of a person and increases their self-respect as well. This plan also helps in overcoming past situations in the environment.

Packard & Jones, (2015) suggests that leadership development is a very essential aspect of the modern day business. It can be developed in the organisation with the help of activities and programs elated to leadership development. Company should provide opportunities to the employees so that they can ensure their professional growth. This acts as a motivator due to which people does self-development. One of the greatest facilitators in the leadership development is the employee retention as it takes a long time for the employee to learn the culture and value of the organisation. Such motivators like promotions helps the people to understand their

On the other hand Sholl, (2011) states that leadership can be developed in the organisation by the help of the coaching and mentoring programs. These programs help as an external facilitator that helps the individual in managing their development plan. The mentor must be an experienced personality in their field. It is to be noted that there are people from the different sections of the society hence a specialised development program shall be needed.

On the contrary Avolio, (2011) believes that in the leadership development, it is very essential to take use of theories such as component theory which concentrates on the environment and behaviour of the individual for their development. Humanistic theory suggests focusing on the inner capabilities for the self-fulfilment and growth. Energy psychology focuses on the human experience and communication as well as Neuro-linguistic programming interconnectedness of mind and body for developing skills in the individual.

Different development approaches used for the personal and professional development. Different researchers give different approaches for development.

Petrie, (2011) suggests that Self-development approach is an approach that is utilised by the organisation and individual in which self-learning should is promoted. With the help of books, learning mediums from the internet sources like journals and videos etc. leadership skills can be learnt. In this approach people learn from their internal motivation. They can go to seminars and workshop where leadership development skills are taught. In the improvement of skills like motivational and risk taking skills this approach is very much effective.

Leadership development in an individual

Komives, Dugan, Owen, Wagner & Slack, (2011) believes that mentoring approach is an approach where the individual can take use of their seniors or the experienced personality so as to develop skills in them. The skills must be developed under the guidance of the person that is experienced in that field. Regular feedbacks is taken from the mentors and their analysis reports acts as a tool using which the development plan is prepared.

Jarvis, Gulati, McCririck & Simpson, (2013) states that Sports need highly disciplined leaders. For developing the best leaders in sport one needs to first find the appropriate candidate for it then only their training should be started related to leadership development. Consistency in the performance should be one of the major factors for this identification. One should be in the team for the longer period of time so as to understand the behaviour of each and every individual in its team. In sports for leadership development one should be given responsibilities from time to time so as to check their ability to lead before actually giving them the responsibility of the team.

For every individual it is necessary to diagnose their own leadership skills (Abrell, Rowold, Weibler & Moenninghoff, 2011). This must be done on regular basis so as to ensure that skills are developed as per the requirements of the industry in which I am working. This will help me in creating personal and professional development plan which will have direct impact on my career and future plans. There are various aspects that need to be seen while doing the diagnosis.

From the experience and observation that I had in my life and career, there are various things that I found essential for effective leadership. Some of them are illustrated below:

Communication skills: One of the most essential skills that need to be present in any leader is communication skill (Ely, Ibarra & Kolb, 2011). In the companies where the employees are from different cultural backgrounds, communication skills play a very crucial role. Effective leaders always have to communicate their ideas to the stakeholders so that they can get assured about the direction in which company will move in future. Apart from this, communication skills are also essential for communicating goals and objectives to the employees which is again essential aspect in the leadership. Communicating goal and objectives is also essential for managing the work as per the schedule as well as it also removes confusions from the minds of the employees. I have seen that communication skills were also necessary for conveying the company’s plan to the public and their customer base. I have seen that many big companies like Google and Apple use the communication skills of their leaders as a prime marketing tool. I have also seen that excellent communication skills act as a tool of motivation. I have had this experience in life. Once in my professional career my performances as a manager was going down. I was not able to control the operations and the conflicts that were going on at the workplace. In such a situation my senior manager motivated me with his words taking help of his experience. By interacting with him for a week, I was able to understand the problems that I was facing.

Key development approaches or methods

Problem solving: I have seen that one of the most important things that were necessary for effective leadership is that leader needs to be an excellent problem solver. This is necessary for the managing the problems and issues that arise at the workplace (Wagner, 2016). In my company or in any company, there are numbers of problems that get arise on the regular basis and for becoming the effective leaders he or she needs to have excellent thinker. Creativity plays a very important role in this.

Trustworthiness: From my experience I could tell that a leader is effective when he or she is trustworthy. Due to lack of trustworthiness, it is often seen that stakeholders lose faith on their leaders (Vitello-Cicciu, Weatherford, Gemme, Glass & Seymour-Route, 2014). In the long term it is harmful for managing the operations at the workplace and may create an environment of negativity at the workplace. Due to this it is crucial that every decision that leaders make must be on the basis of values and ethics that any company has made for itself.

All these skills are also essential for taking everyone together and work as a team. A leader having all these three skills acts as a facilitator in different situation and hence becoming capable of solving the problems that a firm has to face.

There were few experiences I had in my professional career which has influenced my thoughts about leadership. Some of the experiences are as follows:

Once I was not able to manage the work at my workplace as a manager. There were conflicts going on at the workplace due to the negativity that was created due to confusion. The major reason for this was there was change going on in the organisation. These changes were in terms of technological advancements and change in the organisational structure. Due to introduction of Information system at my firm people needed training and motivation as there was strong resistance from the side of the workers. This resistance from the side of the workers was because they do not want things to be changed and there was fear that they might lose their job. In this situation when my senior leaders communicated their goals and objectives of the firm to all the stakeholders about the changes that were taking place at the firm. They needed an assurance that their jobs will not go.

Apart from this once there was problems related to the management of staffs as there were large numbers of staffs leaving the organisation. The major reason for this was that employees were not satisfied with the way in which awards were distributed. There was consistent lagging in way the compensations and benefits were given to the employees. In order to resolve this problem he used his idea to bring performance management system. This technology helped them in evaluating the performance effectively and hence such problems never came again. Employees started to lose trust on the firm but the idea of implementing technology in performance management regained their trust and employee turnover decreased considerably. At the same time there was also frustration in the minds of suppliers and distributors as they were facing many challenges. In order to resolve this problem they started to use supply chain management system. This brought flexibility in the process and hence balances between demand and supply was maintained.

Developing leaders for future

Both these experiences have impact on my thoughts about the leadership. From all these experiences I feel that I will be moulding myself as a team leader where everything will be communicated to all the stakeholders. For this I would have to enhance my communication skills in which I would take the help of my senior managers. Apart from this I would also involve more members in my decision making process. This would help me in gaining new ideas which I could implement in the future if any such challenges come again. I would also focus on relationship building skills as it would help me maintaining healthy relations with my sub-ordinates. Healthy relations will help me in building trust among the employees even in difficult times.

After evaluation I have found that at present there are several strengths and weaknesses in me in terms of leadership skills. Some of the strengths are:

• Patient listener
• Effective strategist
• Able resource planner
• Effective team leader

Weaknesses include:

• Low quality communication skills
• Poor motivator
• Poor risk taker

In order to improve my skills I have to work on my weaknesses. For understanding the process that is required is illustrated by the help of immunity to change mapping (Harvard University, 2018). This mapping suggests about the reasons why any person is unable to improve on their skills. It helps in finding the gap in between intention to change and the actual desire to change (Youngman, 2016). My immunity to change is illustrated below:

Table 1:

Table 2:

Table 3:

After diagnosing the strength and weakness it is essential that strategies are articulated accordingly. Some of the strategies that could be used for leadership development are as follows:

Self-driven Development: This is a strategy in which people develop plan for improvement based in their personal assessment. Use of programs such as mentoring program, career development program, improving retention etc. can be beneficial (Clinton, 2018). The biggest benefit of this strategy is that nobody other than the person himself knows about the strengths and weakness and hence gap in them can be easily found out. It also reduces the burden of the company to invest in the training and development so as to make them ready for any task. This strategy also motivates employees to work on their weakness without any external influence so as to achieve the opportunities that are going to come in their career (Clayton, Sanzo & Myran, 2013). As it is internal motivators hence development is also at the basic levels. The above mentioned problems and the immunity to change matrix suggests that this can be a highly effective strategy for the personal development. Self-evaluation is made so as to monitor the development and find the gap that needs to be removed further.

Mentoring and coaching for Leadership: It is not that just employees have to work for their gaps but the employers also have to work for the development of their employees. For leadership development it is essential that employee works in the organisation for longer period of time. This cannot be possible without retention of employees (Hanson, 2013). This is a strategy that is influenced by the external sources and the judgement of the development is also done by other people. This strategy is very beneficial in the case of leaders that understands the organisational culture and processes effectively. A well-developed mentoring program gives assistance to the employees for developing their talent and the experience they have with the firm. This is beneficial for retaining employees. An able mentor always gives feedbacks and progress report on the mentee’s development. This acts as an insight using which their future development plans get planned. A focused caching program is beneficial for the firm to find and choose among the employees that are perfect for leadership succession. This is also beneficial for the employers as they could find the perfect leaders for their future checking their potential (Carey, Philippon & Cummings, 2011). Coaching or mentoring is generally done by the people that are experienced and have knowledge in that field. This is a better strategy than the other as it does not allow development program to deviate from the original goals. This is because the monitoring authority is always present. This is even understood to be as the faster strategy among the two for development process.

Conclusion

From the above based report it can be concluded that Leadership development in the individual can be done by the help of activities and workshops. Approaches such as self-development approach and mentoring approach can be beneficial for developing leadership skills. In sports first the leaders must be identified on the basis of their performance, than some opportunities to them must be given to them so as to understand how much pressure they could handle. Skills such as problem solving, Trust worthiness and communication skills are very much important in becoming an effective leader. I have many strengths and weakness and I am not able to overcome my weaknesses because I have developed immunity to change. My development can be ensured by the use of strategies such as Self-driven development and mentoring and coaching for leadership development can be beneficial.

References

Abrell, C., Rowold, J., Weibler, J., & Moenninghoff, M. (2011). Evaluation of a long-term transformational leadership development program. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(3), 205-224.

Avolio, B. J. (2011). Full range leadership development. Sage.

Carey, W., Philippon, D. J., & Cummings, G. G. (2011). Coaching models for leadership development: An integrative review. Journal of Leadership Studies, 5(1), 51-69.

Clayton, J. K., Sanzo, K. L., & Myran, S. (2013). Understanding mentoring in leadership development: Perspectives of district administrators and aspiring leaders. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 8(1), 77-96.

Clinton, R. (2018). The making of a leader: Recognizing the lessons and stages of leadership development. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..

Ely, R. J., Ibarra, H., & Kolb, D. M. (2011). Taking gender into account: Theory and design for women’s leadership development programs. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10(3), 474-493.

Hanson, B. (2013). The leadership development interface: Aligning leaders and organizations toward more effective leadership learning. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 15(1), 106-120.

Harvard University, (2018) The Surprising Reason We Don’t Keep Our Resolutions (and How to Overcome It). Retrieved from: https://www.extension.harvard.edu/inside-extension/surprising-reason-we-dont-keep-our-resolutions-how-overcome-it

Jarvis, C., Gulati, A., McCririck, V., & Simpson, P. (2013). Leadership matters: Tensions in evaluating leadership development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 15(1), 27-45.

Komives, S. R., Dugan, J. P., Owen, J. E., Wagner, W., & Slack, C. (2011). The handbook for student leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.

Packard, T., & Jones, L. (2015). An outcomes evaluation of a leadership development initiative. Journal of Management Development, 34(2), 153-168.

Petrie, N. (2011). Future trends in leadership development. Center for Creative Leadership white paper, 5(5).

Sholl, J. (2011) How to Overcome Immunity to Change. Retrieved from: https://experiencelife.com/article/how-to-overcome-immunity-to-change/

Vitello-Cicciu, J. M., Weatherford, B., Gemme, D., Glass, B., & Seymour-Route, P. (2014). The effectiveness of a leadership development program on self-awareness in practice. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(3), 170-174.

Wagner, W. E. (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.

Youngman, (2016) Kegan/Lahey Got it Right – Immunity to Change. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/keganlahey-got-right-immunity-change-kelvyn-youngman

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