Personal Leadership Development Plan - Essay Example

? Personal Leadership Development Plan The paper aims to present a personal leadership coaching development plan for increasing one’s capacity to lead, coach, and develop others. The plan is envisioned to include principles of appreciative coaching, to wit: The Constructivist Principle, The Positive Principle, The Anticipatory Principle, The Simultaneity Principle, and The Poetic Principle. The discourse would outline crucial coaching competencies for effective coaching relationships and would analyze one’s individual coaching strengths in being an effective leader-coach. Likewise, the plan would determine how relationship development is related to leadership effectiveness. Finally, an evaluation of one’s ideal self using the resonate leadership and strengths-based approach would be proffered. Personal Leadership Development Plan There have been enumerable literatures that delve into the concepts and applications of leadership in diverse perspectives. As organizations and people evolve through changes in both internal and external environments, the roles of leaders have significantly transcended from traditional managerial roles governing subordinates, to one that includes coaching, mentoring and developing others for their personal and professional growths. The paper aims to present a personal leadership coaching development plan for increasing one’s capacity to lead, coach, and develop others. The plan is envisioned to include principles of appreciative coaching, to wit: The Constructivist Principle, The Positive Principle, The Anticipatory Principle, The Simultaneity Principle, and The Poetic Principle. The discourse would outline crucial coaching competencies for effective coaching relationships and would analyze one’s individual coaching strengths in being an effective leader-coach. Likewise, the plan would determine how relationship development is related to leadership effectiveness. Finally, an evaluation of one’s ideal self using the resonate leadership and strengths-based approach would be proffered. Principles of Appreciative Coaching Briefly, the principles of appreciative coaching are differentiated herein: The Constructivist Principle focuses on the influence of social structures in significantly affecting the behavior of individuals in relation to others. The Positive Principle, as the term implies, centers on the positive aspects of an individual’s life through experiences that have been perceived to be constructive and optimistic in general. In addition, the Anticipatory Principle ventures on anticipated scenarios that become the basis for behavior and decision making processes. The Poetic Principle, on the other hand, creatively utilizes vivid illustrations and storytelling to solicit crucial information, not solely on the facts, but also in terms of emotional experiences. And finally, the Principle of Simultaneity focuses on the premise that “inquiry is change… (and) intervention” (Bugge, Canine & Sloan, n.d.) and guidance is redirected to the first inquiry and its influence to effect change. Personal Assessment of Leadership Coaching Skills To increase one’s capacity to lead, coach, and develop others, one realized the need to familiarize oneself with the basic theoretical framework needed for leadership coaching. The objective is to be achieved through a research on secondary literatures on the crucial elements of coaching and leadership from a coaching perspective. As indicated by Peters & Austin (1985), “coaching is a form of leadership that pulls together people with diverse talents, backgrounds, experiences and interests, encourages them to step up to responsibility and continued achievement, and treats them as full scale partners and contributors” (p. 232). Likewise, the authors emphasized that “coaching is not about memorising techniques or devising the perfect game plan. It is about really paying attention to people – really believing them, really caring about them, really involving them” (Peters & Austin, 1985, p. 232). The definitions highlighted the focus of leadership coaching in terms of being genuinely interested in the holistic development of people. To enable the coach to do this, the essential coaching competencies to ensure effective coaching relationships were presented by Ennis, et al. (2005), to wit: psychological knowledge, business acumen, organizational knowledge, and coaching knowledge (pp. 7 – 11). More importantly, the skills and traits needed for an effective coach are identified as: “mature self-confidence, positive energy, assertiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, openness and flexibility, goal orientation, partnering and influence, continuous learning and development, and finally, integrity” (Ennis, et al., 2005, p. 19). The information solicited herein made one aware of the coaching competencies for effective coaching relationships, as well as the attributes and abilities needed for leadership coaching. One realized that from the skills and traits identified, there is eminent strength in terms of possessing the following personal attributes: mature self-confidence, positive energy, interpersonal sensitivity, openness and flexibility, goal orientation and integrity. One is likewise more susceptible to utilize the Positive Principle, in conjunction with the Anticipatory Principle in defining directions for other people’s development and growth. Experiences with coaching other people into focusing on positive traits and accomplishments have been proven to be effective than reflecting on one’s mistakes and wrongdoings. Further, by using anticipatory scenarios, people are led to prepare for possible events that could arise from problems or ordinary situations and make them assume a more proactive stance to behave in appropriate ways and to decide after having evaluated diverse alternatives and options. On the other hand, as a leader-coach, there is still a need to develop assertiveness, partnering and influence and continuous learning for self-improvement. These attributes could further be honed through attendance in leadership training, coaching seminars and workshops and by enrolling in leadership skills modules that focus on coaching, mentoring and ways to empower others to work towards defined goals. Link of Relationship Development to Leadership Effectiveness Ennis, et al. (2005) revealed that the coaching process must be followed through the following steps: “building and maintaining coaching relationships, contracting, assessment; development planning; facilitating development and change; and ending formal coaching and transitioning to long-term development” (p. 12). The information would attest the importance of building and maintaining relationships to ensure effectiveness in the coaching process. Building relationships encompass establishment of trust, maintenance of privacy and confidentiality, establishing professional boundaries, and manifesting competence in skills, attributes and qualifications as a coach-leader. As shown, this is the first step prior to any coaching relationship. Therefore, before the personal development plan is enforced with the succeeding steps, after self-evaluation of strengths and competencies and the focus on improving identified attributes, there is a need to establish professional relationships with the coachee through exemplifying professionalism and exhibiting leadership knowledge, skills and abilities in the coaching process. Ideal-Self Evaluation As indicated, the self-assessment has itemized several strengths that would render oneself capable to be a coach-leader. However, one envisions that the ideal and effective coach-leader must develop all the attributes enumerated by Ennis, et al. (2005). The need to improve on the following attributes: assertiveness, partnering and influence and continuous learning for self-improvement is a continuing endeavour that could be attained through education, training and experience of leadership coaching in various scenarios and with various people. The unique needs of people requiring personal and professional development are distinct and would provide the appropriate avenue for the coach-leaders’ respective growth. Conclusion The personal leadership development plan outlines the crucial steps in the coaching process by first evaluating one’s strengths and matching these strengths from the essential attributes of effective coach-leaders identified in the research written by Ennis, et al. (2005). Concurrently, one’s personal development would focus on improving those attributes that were identified to be weak and could be honed through suggested methods. The importance of building relationships were likewise emphasized to ensure an effective learning coaching relationship. Therefore, with the objective of attaining the ideal self through the embodiment of all essential coach-leader attributes, one is able to work on being committed towards leading, coaching and developing others who are in need. References Bugge, I., Canine, T., & Sloan, B. (n.d.). “Principles of Appreciative Inquiry in Coaching.” Pre-Conference Workshop: Appreciative Inquiry in Coaching. Retrieved 26 May 2011. Ennis, S., Goodman, R., Hodgetts, W., Hunt, J.M., Mansfield, R., Otto, J., & Stern, L. (2005). Core Competencies of the Executive Coach. Retrieved 26 May 2011. < http://www.theexecutivecoachingforum.com/ECFCompetencyModel905.pdf> Peters, A.L. & Austin, S.J. (1985). A Passion for Excellence- the Leadership Difference. Random House, New York. Read More