How to Build the Individual Development Plan - Essay Example

1 1= 3 Important Leadership Aspects Leadership skills are an important part of human traits. Each individual has the ability to lead, but leadership qualities separate leaders from the rest. In order to become more effective leaders, we need to sharpen these leadership skills by becoming involving with some life activities. For instance, taking the Organization and Leadership class will help individuals to build their personalities in order to become greater leaders. I have been involved with many organizations before I took this class. I have learned all my leadership skills through trial and error when I was in charge of a team. I was the president of my high school’s student body for two semesters and I was also president of UNICEF De Anza in 2011. These experiences have taught me many important lessons that have helped me to become a better leader. However, after taking this organization class, I realize there are many things that I would not have learned if I did not register for this course. Throughout this course I have learned many different types of leadership and how to approach someone based on their leadership style. In this class I learned that leadership styles are both theoretical and practical. This course gave me a lot of insight to consider and apply to my life. The weekly research on DR, class lectures, and textbook and group research projects have improved my ability as a leader. At the end of this semester I can reflect on the three of most valuable aspects of becoming a good leader in society. The skills that can help me to face future leadership obstacles are from chapter seven, and they are directive leadership, supportive leadership, and participative leadership (Northouse 139). I believe that leaders who can combine all of these skills can help their teams to become achievement-oriented teams. The first aspect that I have learned about is becoming a leader with a clear vision and forming a mission for the team’s direction. Leaders should have directive skills in order to set the standard performance of the team, rules, regulations, laws, and team culture in order to pursue the corporation’s dreams (Northouse 139). With a directive style, leaders are expected to be very clear about the purpose of the team in order to reach success. This will help all of the employees focus more on the goal because everything has been set clear. I learned all this by listening intently to the lectures and watching Professor Milter’s teaching styles. He had a directive style in setting the goals of this Organization class by setting up the weekly homework activities of what we have learned about DR and CQ. By analyzing Professor Milter, I now understand how to become a more directive person, and I believe I will use this skill to accomplish one of the aspects of becoming a great leader. After discussing the directive style, individuals need to have a supportive style in their leadership traits. A supportive leadership style is about being friendly and approachable as leader (Northouse 140). These skills make the leader understand the workers’ situation because through getting to know all of employees leaders can hear all of the aspirations of the workers. Finally, leaders can take decisions that can satisfy the majority of the workers. With this leadership style, employees will love to work in the company because they would feel respected by the company and so give the best efforts to work in the company. I learned this supportive style while doing my group organization project. By being friendly and approaching team members before we executed our plans, it helped us to work better. This happened because I understood their needs, vision, and mission of pursuing the team’s project goals. This minimized the conflicts in my team because we understood each other. We gave consideration for each other while finishing the group projects. After a supportive style, the participative style would complete the components that shape a great leader. Participative leaders are those who are able to consider employees’ opinions and thoughts while at the same time leading the team to fulfill the team’s goals (Northouse 140). Sometimes employees can come up with better ideas than the leaders. With a participative style, leaders can integrate better outcomes because they can combine all of their employees’ thoughts and their own in order to achieve measurable outcomes. I learned about the participative leadership style while working for my current internship. The theoretical lesson of participative leadership from Professor Milter is coincidentally similar to the style of my supervisor. I feel that my supervisor listens to employees’ opinions while setting the standard in accomplishing company projects. Being in this real world situation showed me a genuine example of leadership participative styles. Therefore, I now understand how to adopt this skill for my future leadership opportunities. There are many ways to build these traits in my personality, so I set up an individual leadership development plan that will help me to develop these three skills in my leadership traits. In developing directive skills, I believe that everything should begin from a leader’s lifestyle. Individuals who want to acquire directive skills should the habit of setting their daily tasks in an organized manner. By having this behavior, I believe that leaders can apply this directive ability to their teams because they are used to acting like this in their normal lives. This will help to make every single part of a leader’s life to be organized. After being organized, I need to be friendlier with everyone. I have to improve my supportive leadership style by being an approachable person. Approaching friends is the easiest way to build this skill. Then slowly I can apply this to my leadership style. I have a dogma that a leader should remain silent in order to maintain their charisma, so I believe it will be harder for me if I don’t start being an approachable person starting from now. Finally, the most difficult part is to hear is the other person’s opinions. I am by nature a stubborn individual and don’t like to take input. After participating in this course, I believe that good leaders should consider their employees’ opinions. Thus, in order to accomplish the goals of becoming an individual that is able to listen to ideas from others, I need start with the simple things. From now on I need to understand how to control my emotions and ego. I need to start listening to others before taking any major life decisions. I believe that in addition to these thoughts, my individual leadership plan development will build a better future for me as leader. With a directive style, I can be a leader that sets a clear vision and mission for my team. I can avoid my team going through complicated procedures that prevent accomplishing team goals. In addition, through aspects of supportive leadership, I can approach all of my employees to get a deeper understanding of their needs. Therefore, I will be able to take decisions that satisfy the majority of my workers. Besides supportive leadership and the directive aspect, I need to develop my participative leadership style so that I can combine my ideas with others’ thoughts to achieve better outcomes. The combination of these three leadership styles will make me a better leader. This class has taught me some things that I have never learned before. This class has given me a theoretical lesson so that I can combine this with the practical skills that I have developed by being a leader of my high school student government and also UNICEF De Anza. By applying the individual learning development plan from now on, I can become a stronger leader in the future. Read More