Central Michigan University Leadership Development - Case Study Example

Nurturing the Leader in You Executive Summary Leadership Development plan can be developed by using multiple frameworks. I have used the concept of Central Michigan University in order to develop my leadership development plan. Based on the five parameters of the model I have realized that I would require to develop skills pertaining to self-management, improving creativity and leading others. I feel acquiring these skills will make me a better leader in the long-run. I have to improve my time management skills, communication skills, influencing others and addressing issues of conflicts during implementation of change. I hope I will be able to bring these changes within an estimated period of ten months and use self-assessment and feedback mechanisms to monitor my progress. The academic literature bears testimony to the fact that inclusion of these skills will not only help in the development of my personal-self but also bring positive developments among my subordinates and the organization that I work for in the future. Contents Contents 3 Introduction 4 Table of skills 4 Ways to improve skills 8 Summary 11 Reference List 12 Introduction This paper attempts to use Central Michigan University (CMU) model to develop the leadership development plan. The rationale behind choosing the CMU structure is that it provides knowledge about leadership characteristic in a comprehensive manner. The CMU leadership approach combines individual and group exploration of leadership styles. The model propagated by CMU has five key elements that are required to create good leaders. The five elements are social responsibility, innovation, leading others, self-management and task management. Each of these traits has a number of attributes that combines organizational and personal characteristics required to create a proactive leader. I believe that the model developed by the CMU does not limit itself to any particular industry or market type. The exclusivity of the model lies in the fact that the characteristics of leadership defined can be applied to any organization that wants to improve its leadership structure. I think the aspects of leadership defined by CMU is perfectly aligned to my own personal traits that has led me to chose this framework over National Health Service competencies. Table of skills Among the five components developed by the CMU I will first highlight the characteristics that can comprehensively determine my own leadership behavior. The set of skills identified by me are presented in the following table. Domain Skills Similarities Self-Management Work habits Work attitude Self-insight Learning I have to improve my work habits like work ethics and time management skills in order to become an efficient leader. Enhancing work attitudes will help me to work with persistence, independence and initiative. Inculcating this skill will help me to become more self-confident by suspending prejudices and bringing humility in my character. I am an agile person who always goes through a continuous process of learning. I am eager to receive feedback of the work that I do. I believe this creates a continuous learning loop and has always helped me in my life. This is the reason I would like to improve my learning skills. Innovation Managing change Creativity Enterprising I would like to become an influential person who has the capability to convince others to look into benefits that could be obtained from implementing changes. I like to provide new ideas to deal with situations which are an integral component of creativity. I want to be a person endowed with critical thinking approach that allows me to find innovative solutions to the problems. I think I require acquiring more technological skills. I take up difficult jobs on my own and consider it as a challenge to complete it in an effective manner. Leading others Communication Influencing others Developing others Motivating others I would like to improve this skill to some extent. I would like to improve my external communication skills and improve communication with outside organizations. I think influencing people politically and resolving conflicts are signs of good leadership that I would like to see in myself. I think a person cannot ever become a good leader if he or she does not have the potential to develop others through goal setting and knowledge management. I would like to enhance my coaching and management skills to motivate others. The concept of self management in leadership could be traced to the idea of self-management itself, a concept that was derived from the idea developed by Manz and Sims (1980). This idea has been further nurtured by other researchers and had has been divided into two broad groups namely self-management teams and empowerment leadership (Hackman and Johnson, 2013). The research conducted by Covino and Iwanicki (1996) can also is considered as a contribution to the idea of self-management in leadership. It has been pointed out that if leaders consider self-management as a part of their development process then they can bring out creative talent from their subordinates and encourages them to perform more efficiently. I believe if I develop this self-management skill it will not only benefit me but also my team members in general. The concept of creativity and innovation has been used widely in the existing literature. The research paper prepared by Phelan and Young (2003) had been able to connect the concepts of self-leadership with the process of creativity. Self-leadership and management refers to a situation where the leaders apply a self-reflective process and manipulates his thought process to create desired changes through the process of innovation. Their research had also confirmed that innovative leaders are able to create desired mental imagery to generate innovative solutions to the work place. Scott and Bruce (1994) had provided a rather elaborative explanation that the way in which an innovative person can bring creativity in an organization. In the first stage the leader recognizes the problem, in the next stage an innovative leader shows that the ideas generated by him are legitimate and finally in the last step the individual is able to produce a prototype of his model and apply in the broader organizational context. In the research work conducted by Latham and Locke (1991) it has been found out that if the leaders are able to set effective goals and motivates others then it can improve the organizational effectiveness. The research conducted by Strauss, Griffin and Rafferty (2009) had further confirmed that if leaders are able to develop an effective communication with their subordinates then they are able to sustain organizational success. Interpersonal communication lies at the base of hierarchy of communication which and makes organizational communication successful. Interpersonal communication between the leaders and followers are able to build a long-lasting relationship between them and contributes to mutual development of both of them. I have chosen these attributes because I feel that these characteristics have wider positive spillover on the organization as a whole that can enhance organizational performance. The scholarly articles I have chosen supports the idea that if leaders exhibit the above mentioned qualities then they can contribute to organizational success. I have not included the aspect of task management and social responsibility in my leadership criteria and I am well aware about the problems this can create in my leadership style. Researchers believe that leaders who exhibit corporate social responsibility are able to bring greater competitive advantage in their organizations. If an organization exhibits ethical behavior then is expected that it possesses great values and guiding principles in its entire hierarchy (Matten and Crane, 2005). Excluding this behavior from the leadership development plan may impact my leadership abilities. I have also not included the aspect of task management in my development plan. Through the inclusion of self management in my leadership development plan I believe that I will acquire skills that will eventually create the ability to develop task management in my professional life. Ways to improve skills I believe in order to achieve the desired levels of my skills it is important for me to analyze my own-self and build on enhancing my skills and eliminating my weaknesses. Strength I am an organized person who always completes any task on time. I organize my actions at the beginning and follow through them in a disciplined manner. I am en energetic person who takes up any work despite challenges and difficulties in them. I consider any difficult job as a critical challenge and discipline myself to complete the work. I am a person who knows my own strength and weaknesses. I am a humble person who likes to learn from my mistakes. I am not judgmental in any respect and do not allow my personal judgment cloud my decisions. I have always been a risk-taking person in my life and have the ability to think alternatives about status-quo. I have developed my technological skills over the period of my academic curriculum that has made me technological savvy. I have good verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Weakness Though I have few strengths as I have mentioned yet I have few weaknesses in my characteristics that I would like to describe. Firstly, I do not have the capability to multi-task which often can lead to stressful situations in my job scenario. Secondly, I think I lack the potential to influence others and convince them to follow my vision. Thirdly, I consider only about short-term success and neglect the aspect of long-term benefits that could be achieved by taking an alternative decision. Finally, I think I lack the potential of forecasting robustly due to poor conviction which I suffer from occasionally. Steps taken to build skills Domain Skill Ways to develop Timeline Self-management Time management Stress management Prioritizing tasks by writing them down in the beginning of the day. Monitoring the amount of time being spent in each task. Effective delegation of tasks and taking up only those tasks which I am being able to perform in the fastest possible manner. Preventing over-commitment to work and prioritize tasks. Recognizing the signs of job-stress like anxiety, irritation and short-temperedness and combat them through a healthy lifestyle. Finally communicating with employees and creating a socially healthy climate can also reduce job stress. I would delegate two months to improve time management and multi-tasking. One month will be sufficient to develop this skill. Innovation Management Managing change Bringing Creativity Improving communication with the employees and explaining to them the need for change. Need to manage the resistance even with patience and constant employee interaction Generate trust among followers by explaining the benefits and costs of change. Bringing new ideas to tackle difficult situations. Discussing ideas with others and obtaining feedback from them. Three months will be essential to incorporate these changes. Leading others Developing others Influential skills Taking charge of the situations by allowing the employees to see my perspective. To determine the all the employees’ needs are taken care of to orient them to attain organizational goals. Influence over the employees can be improved by setting proper goals for them. Boosting the morale of the employees to understand their viewpoint and allow them to align their personal goals with organizational goals. An estimated four months may be required to attain these goals. There is no technical tool to measure whether I have been able to achieve my goals. This process will be rather a self-assessed one in which after the completion of the stipulated time period I will compare the changes that has been inculcated within me after this process. For instance, I will be able to understand whether my ability to multi-task has improved or not by comparing the time in which I can complete multiple tasks. By involving in number of group activities I will be able to understand that whether my skills of convincing others have improved or not. Finally, in order to measure my development of creative skills I can take the help of feedback from my colleagues. I can also take the help of industry experts and allow them to evaluate my performance by letting them review my state before and after the learning process. There is a rich academic literature that discusses the impacts of skills that I want to incorporate in my leadership development plan. There is a huge literature that points out the impact of time management on organizational performance (Chemers, 2014). For instance, the research conducted by Claessens, et al. (2007) had pointed out that better time management skills, which includes number of actions like setting achievable goals, monitoring own progress and identifying priorities, has a strong correlation with improving the job performance leading to greater individual outcomes in organizational settings. Most of the existing literature talks about the impact of stress management of employees and the negative impact it can bring on the organizations. Therefore, it can be argued that controlling stress of my own self and that of my employees are signs of good leadership skills. The research conducted by Cordes and Dougherty (1993) had shown that increased stress is related to burnout syndrome of employees and poor organizational productivity. The impact of innovative practices followed by leaders and its impact on organizational development can be found in the works of Coriat and Dosi (2009). The researcher has claimed that successful organizational change and change management can enhance the flexibility and performance of an organization. Researchers have pointed out that the role of leaders in bringing organizational change and managing the change is very important. Therefore leadership competencies will be of utmost importance to implement innovation and organizational performance (Damanpour, Szabat and Evan, 1989). The research conducted by Kennerly (1989) had considered the impact of influence of leaders of the employees. It has been found out that the influence of leaders with employees and that of employees with leaders is a bilateral one. It has been established that if leaders are critical and indifferent towards their employees then they will be unable to influence them. Interaction with the employees and involving them in the decision making process helps them to be motivated in their jobs and higher job motivation and satisfaction has often been linked to better organizational performance. Summary I have prepared a leadership development plan based on the dimensions that has been described by CMU. I have incorporated three of its five dimensions in my leadership plans namely innovation, self-management and leading others. I have summarized the skills I want to develop most as I feel this will be needed for my professional development in my job arena. I want to enhance my time management skills by prioritizing my work and monitoring my progress. I want bring innovative ideas to solve problems by sharing my vision with others and accepting constructive criticism. I want to improve my communication skills by interacting more with my subordinates and addressing any conflicts to change management. I wish to become more influential by allowing my subordinates to see my vision and incorporate it with their personal goals. I want to motivate my employees and improve their job performance to ensure organizational development. Plan Feedback I have shown the leadership development plan to my mentor and he had provided me with some practical feedback to improve my leadership skills. I had focused on the aspect of task management more rather than on self-management in my initial draft. He had commented that it would be better for me at this stage to consider improvement of my self-management skills rather than managing task-management. I have modified my draft according to my suggestion. I had initially given more importance to the aspect of forecasting instead of bringing creativity. He explained me regarding the importance of incorporating innovation and creativity more. I have changed my final draft according to that specification. Reference List Claessens, B. J. C., Eerde, W. van, Rutte, C. G. and Roe, R. A., 2007. A review of the time management literature. Personnel Review, 36(2), pp. 255–276. Chemers, M., 2014. An integrative theory of leadership. New York: Psychology Press. Cordes, C. L. and Dougherty, T. W. 1993. A Review And An Integration Of Research On Job Burnout. The Academy of Management Review, 18(4), pp. 621-656. Coriat, B. and Dosi, G., 2009. The nature and accumulation of organizational competences/capabilities. Revista Brasileira de Inovação, 1(2), pp. 275-326. Covino, E. A. and Iwanicki, E. F., 1996. Experienced teachers: Their constructs of effective teaching. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 10(4), pp. 325-363. Damanpour, F., Szabat, K. A. and Evan, W. M., 1989. The relationship between types of innovation and organizational performance. Journal of Management Studies, 26(6), pp. 587-602. Hackman, M. Z. and Johnson, C. E., 2013. Leadership: A communication perspective. London: Waveland Press. Kennerly, S. M., 1989. Leadership behavior and organizational characteristics: Implications for faculty satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Education, 28(5), pp. 198–202. Latham, G. P. and Locke, E. A., 1991. Self-regulation through goal setting. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50(2), pp. 212-247. Manz, C. C. and Sims, H. P., 1980. Self-management as a substitute for leadership: A social learning theory perspective. Academy of Management Review, 5(3), pp. 361-367. Matten, D. and Crane, A., 2005. Corporate citizenship: Toward an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management review, 30(1), pp. 166-179. Phelan, S. and Young, A. M., 2003. Understanding Creativity in the Workplace: An Examination of Individual Styles and Training in Relation to Creative Confidence and Creative Self‐Leadership. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 37(4), pp. 266-281. Scott, S. G. and Bruce, R. A., 1994. Determinants of innovative behavior: A path model of individual innovation in the workplace. Academy of management Journal, 37(3), pp. 580-607. Strauss, K., Griffin, M. A. and Rafferty, A. E., 2009. Proactivity Directed Toward the Team and Organization: The Role of Leadership, Commitment and Role‐breadth Self‐efficacy. British Journal of Management, 20(3), pp. 279-291. Read More