Leadership Theories and a Personal Development Plan - Essay Example

Running Head: Personal Development Plan Personal Development Plan and Reflection Essay s Personal Development Plan The personal development plan has been developed using APM framework consisting for four steps. There are different steps that have been followed throughout the process to assure the completion of each step in adequate manner. Step1: The first step is review of the personal skills and capabilities. During this step of personal development plan, I assessed my existing skills, achievements and learning in the context of current working position. I used the APM self assessment form based on the APM body of Knowledge and evaluate my present skills and future requirements in different areas of project management like portfolio management, project quality management, issue management, estimating etc. The evaluation of the skills in different areas of project management knowledge allows understanding my knowledge and excellence in these areas. Moreover, it also figured out what skills and knowledge I am required to further increased in order to work more efficiently in my current and future positions. After the completion of this evaluation process, I found that I have adequate knowledge of different areas of project management but this knowledge is not up to such level that I could count it towards excellence. Based on this realization, I revealed that I am required to gain more knowledge and excellence in some particular areas of project management like marketing and sales, modelling and testing and project engineering. These are the weak areas within my project management related skills and knowledge and in order to achieve a higher position as leader of the project management team, it is imperative that I must have adequate knowledge of these areas. Step 2: The second step is the plan to get started with the current position to the intended position. On the basis of the assessment and review of my skills in step 1, I proceed to indentify the gaps within my current knowledge and skills. I also thought about the possible ways through which I could fill these gaps. I found that due to my non-technical educational background, I do not have enough knowledge of engineering and related concepts like modelling and testing etc. This is a big gap within my skills and in order to fill up this gap, I decided to join a professional project management course offered by a reputable institute that provide extensive knowledge about different important areas of project management. I have an aim to reach the position of project management team leader in coming five years and for this it is very necessary that I must have complete information about different areas of project management to handle the work and group members in effective manner. For working as a leader of the team, it is also important to have clear understanding of leadership theories and concepts and thus, I studied different leadership theories because I knew that this understanding will help me during my job as team leader in coming years. I used the professional development plan and sort out my intentions and define the time frame for the achievement of these goals. Step3: After having clear picture of the intended achievements and knowledge, I proceeded towards the learning and development phase. I make the list of the areas, concepts and theories that I want to learn. It decided that I have to gain the knowledge about project engineering, modelling and testing that is possible only from any competent professional institute. Thus, I searched for a project management skill development organization from where I could gain the required knowledge within my desired time frame. In order to learn about the leadership concepts and principles, I consult to different library resources and gather literature to have complete understanding of different leadership theories, models and principles. As my goal is to reach the leading position, it is important for me to understand the dynamics of leadership and team work. Step4: During the fourth and final part of development plan, I went for the assessment of the achievements. I evaluate my learning, the significance of the acquired knowledge and learning and its role within my future job. After completing the course from a project management skill development institute, I gain extensive knowledge and information about the areas of project management that I haven’t explored earlier. The areas like scope management, technology management and earned value management became clear after the course. Moreover, the study of the literature about the leadership theories allow me having good understanding of different leadership theories. After completing all these steps, I consulted towards the APM rating form and the assessment of my acquired knowledge using this form revealed that I have gained high value skills because the rating resulted in the achievement of average 10 points. ACTIVITY POINT RATING 1 2 3 5 New skill or knowledge gained through coaching or mentoring form a colleague(s) Recorded on the job research Job rotation/job exchange/secondment Office/in-house seminars, presentations and lectures Structured visits to projects Supervised research as part of studies for a qualification Informal CPD Committee work which can be shown to extend professional knowledge and experience Computer based training packages Structured reading of books, journals, open and distance learning packages and technical magazines Writing articles for technical and professional press Sharing knowledge with colleagues and peers (coaching and mentoring or through post-project feedback sessions) Hobbies and pastimes which can be shown to extend professional knowledge and experience Acting as an APM assessor, examiner or marker APM half day or evening event (Branch, SIG or APM Accredited) Associated institutions’ or Associations’ half day or evening event Non APM half day events or evening events APM full day event (Branch, SIG or APM Accredited) Associated institutions’ or Associations full day event Non APM full day event Conference (3 day event) Visiting a technical exhibition Qualifications APMP Specific Qualifications NVQs/SVQs Postgraduate qualification Other qualification Reflection Essay The essay aims to reflect the understanding and insight over the theories and models of leadership attained during the preparation of the personal development plan to gain the competence to work as leader of project management team. During the development of the personal plan, there were certain important theories of leading studies and applied to the process of personal learning and skill development. This exercise not only allowed the grooming of the personality to meet the requirement of the position of project management team member but at the same time, it also allows having deep insight over some theories and concepts related with leadership. Justification of Chosen framework The personal development plan has been developed using the framework proposed by the Association of Project Management; APM 4 step plan for professional development. The plan has been selected for the development of personal skills because it is a comprehensive plan offered by a reputable professional organization and the plan has been developed in quite simple yet effective manner. The plan has been divided in four different parts that allows conducting the development process in smooth and organized manner. I proceed with the skill development process step by step and became quite interesting and fruitful to me to follow this plan. Evaluation The plan allows the identification of certain areas where I realized my weaknesses and the need to acquire more knowledge and information. I work for the improvement of these weak areas using literature and professional guidance and both of these ways added significantly to my knowledge and skills level. There are certain concepts within the discipline of project management like financial management and human resource management etc that I understand during this plan. I came to know that project management is supposed to be a well organized process that assists the organization attaining their goals. Project management is among the key strategies that assure the success of any type of organization or business. The proper project management results in a well planned activity that is conducted making proper use of human and physical resources to increase the productivity of the organization. (James, 2002) The learning also allows me understanding the importance of different areas within the project management. For instance, it is found that project management provides the financial estimates of the tasks that allow the organizations to keep their projects within the defined budgets and avoid the situation where they face the shortage of funds (Means and Adams, 2005). The allocation of different responsibilities results in proper management and utilization of human resource that is also an important benefit of project management (Kerzner, 2009). Along with the learning within the areas of project management, I become able to understand the importance of leadership skills for group work. I found that to be a good leader, it is important to give equal importance to all members to motivate them taking effective part in the group work. The group must be managed using effective motivational theory. The Likert’s principles of supportive relationship could be employed to manage the group member actions. Likert (1967) proposes that the participatory role of the group members could be encouraged inviting them in the decision making process. There are certain other theories of leadership like Great man theories, trait theories, behaviourism theories, situational leadership approaches, Fiedlers Contingency model, the Hersey-Blanchard model of leadership, Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s leadership continuum, Adair’s Action-Centred leadership model and charismatic leadership (Bass, 1985; House, 1992; Adair, 1973; Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1998; Fiedler, 1967; Hersey and Blanchard, 2008) that provide me understanding of leadership in the context of project management team work and finally I experienced significant level of improvement in my skills and knowledge. Experience working in group During the module we got the opportunity to work on different assignments and presentation in group form. The members of group try their best to use their level best skills and capabilities to compliment the overall achievement of group goal. In the beginning, I realized that I have to acquire much more skills, expertise and knowledge in order to be in a position to lead the group. As a went through the process of personal development using the APM framework, I realized gradual improvement in the working within group and by the end of the module I was able to lead the group members in effective manner and my fellows also observed and appreciated a considerable level of improvement in my knowledge, leadership skills and capabilities. Conclusion The personal development plan using the APM framework allows the identification of weaknesses in knowledge and excellence in different areas of project management. Moreover, it also proposes different workable solutions to the indentified problems and through the adaptation of the recommended ways. Finally it became possible to experience substantial level of improvement in personal skills in reference to the profession of project management and after going through the process of personal development I am much confident and hopeful to play leading role at project management group within next five years. References Adair, J. (1973) Action-Centred Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill APM 4 point plan for Professional Development Continuing your professional development, Retrieved from: apm.org.uk Bass, B. M. (1985), Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press Fiedler (1967), a Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, New York: McGraw-Hill. Hersey, P. and Blanchard, D. (2008), Management of Organizational Behaviour: Leading Human Resources (9th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. House, R. J. (1976), a theory of charismatic leadership. In J. G. Hunt. Sc L. L. Larson (Eds.), Leadership: The cutting edge: 189-207. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. John Wiley and Sons James P. (2002). Fundamentals of project management: developing core competencies to help outperform the competition. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2002 Means, J. and Adams, T (2005). Facilitating the project lifecycle: the skills & tools to accelerate progress for six sigma and project teams. John Wiley and Sons, 2005 Likert, R. (1967). The human organization: Its management and value, New York: McGraw-Hill Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. (1998) How to choose a leadership pattern, Harvard Business Review 36(2), 95-101, a Review of Leadership Theory and Competency Frameworks Centre for Leadership Studies 43 Read More