Leadership Development in Balance - Essay Example

?Running head:  Personal development plan This report includes a structured process illustrating theevaluation of my current skills, performances, achievements, strengths and skills. Technically, personal development is a lifelong process that involves cultivating and improving special skills, interests or knowledge that could enable an individual to maximize on his effectiveness. As a result, he is able to minimize the chances of keeping his strengths in state of redundancy. In essence, it does not necessarily qualify to be termed as triggering upward movement but rather, enabling one to make use of his full potential to achieve short-term and lifelong objectives. To me, it is also a chance to get to realize my full potential, get in touch with personal self and lastly, to focus on what I want to attain in the long-term or in short-term period. In this report, I will focus on my personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as how I can make full use of my strengths towards attaining my objectives, addition to improving my weaknesses and making them my strengths. 1. Evaluation of Skills and Knowledge Personal evaluation is a key stage in the self-improvement cycle that enables one to rediscover himself. The four areas I would like to concentrate on include decision-making, communication skills and time management. i) Decision-making According to McKee (2012), decision-making is an integral part of management that should be based on logical choice of available alternatives. In essence, the process of making a decision should be backed up by critical thought process. I have been slow in making decisions as I prefer to assemble as much information as possible rather than rush into a decision. Most of thise decisions have however tended to be dependable and less disappointing. I always tend to weigh between alternatives before coming up to a decision. Overall For example, while working at my father’s firm, I always tended to research and choose between alternatives. In some instances, I had to confer with expert opinion from the more experienced staff. The result is that the decisions were always welcome among the senior management and my supervisors. However, some of my decisions have been regrettable, which means that I still need to focus on improving my decision-making skills. In making decisions, an individual must weigh the alternative options, including the negatives and positives. One must also be able to have a foresight on the outcome of the alternatives taken (McKee, 2012). ii) Time-management Time management comprises processes or activities that involve scheduling and implementing conscious organization of the amount of time spent performing different activities to increase one’s productivity or effectiveness (McKee, 2012). Working at my father’s business, I could always get overwhelmed with task. I also had to avoid more difficult tasks and go for simpler ones. I have also faced issues with tardiness as I’m always late for meetings. I also have trouble meeting deadlines for my assignments. This has resulted in instances where I had lost businesses after having been late in completion of a customer’s order. I also fall behind projects and sometimes work longer in my projects than necessary which has caused me to be stressed or feel fatigued. I’m also always unprepared, for instance, although I may always have sufficient information for my presentation in a meeting, poor preparation often renders my presentation ineffective (Avolio, 2005). iii) Communication Skills Great communication skills implies one has the ability to convey information effectively through exchanging messages, information or thoughts effectively, while stimulating feedback at the same time. Communication is judged to be effective when it is complete, meaning; the receiver has understood the message and acted responsively (McKee, 2012). Able to talk confidently regardless of whom I'm talking to or the situation. While working at my father’s company, I could talk to the upper-level management with ease and voice concerns about our department. Able to infuence others both verbally and non-verbally, having volunteered in the Asian games 2006, I was able to communicate confidently and socialize freely with people from diverse cultures. In addition, I talk to people face to face and listen when they speak, at the end, a message is always passed and a response received. I can communicate bother verbally and non-verbally. When leading my project team, I always lead by example. This way, I often don’t have direct others on what to do. While working at my father’s company, I always ask clients open questions to extract information on their needs and preferences to improve on our products. Further, when sending newsletters or group emails to clients, I have have always been straight to the point, concise and precise to ensure that there is no misunderstanding. In addition, I have always made follow-ups and the results have been positive (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). 2. Belbin’s team roles self-perception inventory The Belbin Team Role Self?Perception Inventory (BTRSPI) measures behavioral patterns displayed by individuals at work situations. The behavioral characteristics, which are nine, are called “Team Roles” and illustrate the behaviors displayed by individuals in a team at places of work. They include shaper, resource investigator, plant, specialist, completer-finisher, implementer, team worker, monitor evaluator, co-ordinator. With regard to the Team Roles, I’m an “outstanding” team worker as I get to support fellow team members out of necessity. I also make most suggestions and help the team members to improve their talents in class or elsewhere. In the team, I’m a “good” shaper as I have always suggested the way in which my class discussion team should carry out assignments. In addition, I have always sought to enforce the way in which the team should set its objectives or discuss an assignment, meaning members of the team have always consulted me on the direction they should take. As the monitor evaluator, my skills need “Room for Improvement” as I have however tended to be slow to analyze or evaluate the ideas or the suggestions I made. Instead, I have often let the team to do this as I listen while focusing on making a decision. In the role of Plant, my skills are “Satisfactory” as I have always tried to come up with new strategies that would ensure the team arrives at a solution to a problem. Being a great communicator, my skills as a co-ordinator are “outstanding.” I have managed to be a great co-ordinator as always I have always directed and controlled the way in which the team advances towards a goal. I also tend to recognize where the team’s strength and weakness is, and help them to make the best out of the adverse resources at work. My skills as an implementer are “satisfactory” as I have always been at the forefront of turning concepts into practical work based on the decision reached by the team. I have also tended to be the completer-finisher, as I have always tried to ensure that the team overcomes likely challenges. However, my skills are “satisfactory” as the team members have always criticized me for staying through the case of problem solving to see that the problem is completely solved. I have however failed as a specialist and my skills need “room for improvement”, as I have not been active in feeding the team with technical information on an issue. 3. Strategies towards personal development  From the last two sections of the personal development plan, I have realized my weaknesses which I can classify into three, namely time management, decision-making and communication. I have set out 12 months to improve on these skills. By improving my time management skills. I can set out personal deadlines to beat procrastination for any assigned tasks (Pychyl, 2013). I can begin to be more organized and work within schedules. I can begin to plan my own goals and work towards fulfilling them. Other people can begin to take my schedules of deadlines more seriously. I can begin to be more responsible, as I can begin to stop being a dodger and a slacker. I can be able to face challenges or assignments head on (Ciulla, 2004). By being more effective in communication, I can improve my specialist skills and pass my messages faster while getting positive responses in time. I can begin to write emails detailing specifics of what I intend to communicate and make follow-ups. I can begin take advantage of new opportunities and use them to my benefit. I can be able to command more respect and people may be able to see my worth. I can be able to try new ideas and go an extra mile. My sense of self-determination can finally be able to show. To measure progress, in the next three weeks, I will note down the number of feedbacks and responses I get, and whether the responses are based on the original intention of the message. (Mindtools, 2013). By being more rational in decision-making, I can no longer be led by other people's decisions or insight.I get to decide my own terms and live by them. I can command respect from others. I can also participate on group projects fully. I can work on my confidence and restore self-esteem and feeling of personal worth. I can be able to control my temper. I can be able to act or say things that can cause me to regret later. I can be able work on my personal relationships. I can avoid meaningless confrontation, being petty and instead be more rational. I can be able to stop neglecting or overlooking tidbits of information suggested by others. I can begin to respect ideas and opinion contributed by others and take lead in implementing them (Antonakis et al., 2009). I can be able to pay more attention to the details of the problem without quitting. In the next four weeks, I will note down each problem whose solutions I contributed suggestions and stayed to the last minute it is solved. I intend to ensure that based on the weight of the matter, it should not take me longer than six hours to reach any decision for those that require minor decisions. Those requiring major decisions may have to take longer, but at least less than 24 hours. In conclusion, I intend to be more effective in communication skills, improve my decision-skills and improve my time management skills. 4. References Antonakis, J., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Dasborough, M. T. (2009). Does leadership need emotional intelligence? The Leadership Quarterly, 20 (2), 247-261. Avolio, B. J. (2005). Leadership development in balance, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hop e and compassion. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Ciulla, J. B. (2004). Ethics: The heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger. McKee, A. (2012). Management – A Focus on Leaders. (International Edition). Boston: Pearson.  Mindtools (2013) Project Management Phases and Processes. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_63.htm Pychyl T. A. (February 22, 2013). A Procrastinator's Wise Advice and Success Strategy. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/201302/procrastinators-wise-advice-and-success-strategy 5. Appendices 17 3.1 Appendix 1 Exhibit 1.2 (McKee 2012) 17  3.2 Appendix 7: Exhibit 4.19 (McKee 2012) Succeeding in a difficult project 23  3.3 Appendix 8: Belbin’s Method, Reliability & Validity, Statistics & Research: [http://www.belbin.com/content/page/5596/BELBIN%28uk%29-2013-A%20Comprehensive%20Review.pdf] Read More