Leadership Professional Development and Career Management - Admission/Application Essay Example

Leadership Professional Development and Career Management: The Individual Learning Portfolio Leadership Professional Development and Career Management: The individual learning portfolio Task 1: Personal Career Management Plan Long-term career objectives (over 5 years): 1. Goals: My career goal is to become a project manager with multinational that cooperates with a Chinese company. 2. Research activity or other training needed to attain this goal As part of my preparation for this career goal, I completed my Bachelor’s Degree course in 2014, with a major in Business Computing (Second honour first class). I proceeded with further studies in 2014-2015; obtaining a Masters degree in Project Management majoring in Logistics ( I am currently still pursuing this course). Short-term objectives (1-2 years): 1. Research results: As a part of my research, I intend to post publications in press on the role of project management in spurring growth in global business. I will also undertake this task through blog posts. In the course of my studies, I will be attending conferences, workshops, coursework, and seminar presentations. 2. Acquired research skills: I have acquired training in Business Computing at a bachelor’s level, and I will soon graduate with a master’s degree in project management (logistics). 3. Research management: I acquired an international scholarship to study business computing in the UK. As part of my career pursuit, I have developed project management skills in proposal writing and supervision during my part time job in a local hotel and restaurant. I learned to work within the stringent deadlines and delivery schedules. I have personally negotiated with higher education funders in China to support my financial needs. Working with a busy hotel in the UK, helped me to acquire skills in team work and teambuilding. 4. Communication skills. My personal presentation skills have improved over the years due to training and experience. For instance, I have participated in poster presentations, report writing skills, and completing academic papers, which are a mandatory requirement for my coursework. I look forward to utilize the skills gained to write and publish books in my professional career. I have successfully defended a research proposal in seminars during my undergraduate studies. Very often, I have participated in conferences and seminars during my master’s studies. During such seminars, I have contributed to the promotion of public understanding of logistics as an important field in project management profession. 5. Other professional training (course work, teaching activity): As president of the student union in my senior high School in China, I was personally involved in supervision and mentorship of freshmen joining the school. At the moment, I am working in a mentorship program under my research supervisor. 6. Anticipated networking opportunities. Together with fellows in my department, we are developing a co-operative network that will help us build working relationships with other global logisticians. This is a network connecting us to research supervisors, peer career fellows, and colleagues within our institution and even to the wider global research community in logistics field within the project management profession. 7. Other activities (community, etc) with professional relevance. Being a Chinese, I am seeking career links in China to facilitate the transfer of my skills. I look forward to getting enrolled in the China Network Logistics Group to help me manage my career progression as a logistician, develop my employability, and become aware of the expectations of potential my employers. Task 2: A review of group presentation exercise The Presentation The presentation is an account of the application of the participative management theory in transformational leadership. The presenters offer a list of attributes they consider to portray the qualities of a transformational leader. Some of the attributes they cited included: integrity, clarity of goals, exemplary leadership, clarity of communication, positive expectations, supportive, encouraging, recognizer of individual and group efforts, stimulating, emphasizing the needs and interests of teams, and inspiring. They summarized these into Charismatic or idealized influence Inspirational motivation Intellectually stimulating Individualized consideration or attention Using a comparative analogy, the presenters show the variations in the application of these attributes by global leaders. This comparison was used to lay groundwork for the role of the theory of participative management in leadership. The presentation successfully used the Toyota case study to explain participative management theory. The presentation ended with a show of different global leaders that were evaluated by individuals in the audience. Connections with professional knowledge and understanding From the presentation, it is possible to determine that transformational leadership is a style of leadership aimed at inspiring positive changes among followers. It is evident that transformational leaders in this context are full of energy, enthusiasm, and passion. From the list of good examples of transformational leaders, it is showed that they are not only concerned about the process of production; but also focus on assisting all members of the teams to succeed in their efforts. There is link with the leadership traits that make a transformational leader. First, intellectual stimulation of the transformational leaders challenges the status quo and also motivate followers to become creative. Some of the examples of transformational leaders enlisted demonstrated their ability to encourage followers to explore new approaches of doing things, as well as take advantage of new opportunities of learning. They also analysed the individualized consideration of a transformational leader, by looking into the way they offer support and encouragement among their followers. Although not overemphasized, this attribute leads to building of supportive relationships by keeping open lines of communication with followers feel, encouraging them to freely share ideas thereby recognizing the unique contributions they are making to the entity. On inspirational motivation attribute of transformational leadership, clarity of vision is emphasized as a means of helping followers to develop and experience passion and motivation about the corporate goals. Lastly, transformational leadership is about idealized influence as an example for followers. Based on these key attributes, it is possible to conclude that groups led by transformational leaders show higher performance and satisfaction levels. As expressed under the participative management theory, such high performance and motivation is driven by the leadership providing room for contribution of ideas by individual stakeholders. However, this goes beyond the idea of contribution because for increased performance, there is need for employee empowerment as they participate in organizational decision making. Understanding about professional practice of a transformational leader The core values of a transformational leader as explained in the participatory management theory can be summed up in five perspectives that differ on the purpose of the participatory management and the rationale for employee participation. First, it is about the managerial approach. The approach is largely inspired by the goals of productivity and managerial efficiency. In the emerging perspectives, organizational design effectiveness needs to provide a competitive advantage for the enterprise. Lawler et al. (2001) observed that transformational leadership offers a reasonable attention to such issues as organizational design and change management based on new work structures or ways of employee positioning for effective work. Second, it denotes the humanist psychology approach inspired by the goals of human growth and development. This is where participation is used as a means of enhancing the welfare of individual workers through promotion of hierarchical issues as individual creativity, self satisfaction, self-esteem, and ego. Cassar (1999); and Sagie (1997) noted that this approach to transformational leadership is a reflection of the positive view accorded to human nature through emphasis on the need for retraining managers to unlearn authoritarian behaviours by developing their participative leadership skills. Third, the management theory denotes the industrial relations approach inspired by goals of corporate democracy. In this case, participation is a means for creating strong democracy within the organization through actively participating citizens. It is a reflection of the importance of external stakeholders and environment to the management and image of the organization (Zhang, et al. 2014). Such democratic participation at the workplace contributes widely to high effectiveness and justice in the organization as a society (Bachrach & Botwinick 1992). Fourth, we see the political approach that is inspired by goals of industrial revolution where participation is used as a means for changing the entire ownership structure and for educating the workers about class consciousness). This transformational leadership approach addresses the role of organized labour in which Bachrach & Botwinick (1992) noted that transformation towards greater worker participation is largely dependent on the strength of the labour movement. Lastly, it highlights the psycho-sociological approach (or the anthropological approach). This is an approach inspired by synthetic and multidimensional goals where worker participation is used as a means for acculturating and pushing the workers into internalizing the organization’s economic norms (Marchi 1998). It emphasizes on fundamental issues affecting human nature and the means of getting the best from every worker in the organization. The emphasis also captures the social interactions that are fundamental in the workplace, as well as the role of employee participation in handling issues such as resistance, engagement, and motivation. It clearly contrasts with the traditional Taylorian models that were an outright bureaucracy and attempted to remove all forms of subjectivity and creativity. Instead, this approach integrates subjectivity and creativity into the overall culture of the enterprise. By the end of the presentation, it could be understood that transformational leadership applying the participatory management principles is a responsive approach to leadership that is flexible and adaptable to varying organizational scenarios. A comparative assessment of different approaches by different global audiences was an essential part in the presentation that helped understand this approach to leadership and management. Task 3: Reflective review of a presentation episode This reflective review follows the Gibbs reflective cycle model (Gibbs 1998; and Jasper 2003). Description of the event The event was the CILT 2015 Student Conference. This was a CILT-sponsored day for students held on February 25, 2015 at the London Metropolitan University Graduate Centre, Room GC 108 (London Metropolitan University 2015). The one-day event discussed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Humanitarian Responses in Transport in which participants were taken through the effectiveness and responsibilities of handling CSR and humanitarian activities. In this case, we sought to know the leader: Government, Business entities, or Professional Bodies. Among the speakers at the event included: Hugh Sumner (one-time Director of Transport at Olympic Delivery Agency)  Professor John (CEO Transport Intelligence at the Manners-Bell)  Maggie Heraty (Humanitarian Logistician at OBE), and Steve Agg (CEO CILT) In the conference, we shared our experiences as training logisticians and our aspirations as professionals in the field. Feelings The event to me was a reconnaissance meeting ahead of my anticipated walk in my career field. Therefore, it offered a chance to peep into the expectations in the field. I was particularly interested in understanding the position of a professional in facilitating service delivery. This was discussed through the question: “who leads? “ Evaluation To me, this event was a dilemma because it felt helpless to struggle in a profession in which you cannot call all the shots. However, I later understood that the government, businesses, and professional bodies are facilitators working in collaboration with one another to support individual efforts of professionals. All the same, it was not clear how these entities work to facilitate professional activities of international magnitude. This is because most of the speakers at the event majored on local and regional business. Analysis Given the focus on local and regional business field, it was not easy for international students from outside this regional bloc to fit in. Although most of what was talked about found universal application across the world, the speakers paid little attention to the spatial, cultural, social, and political variations that would limit the effectiveness of handling CSR and humanitarian activities. Altogether, the discussion on humanitarian logistics sufficiently captured the experiential aspects of field practice in logistics. The speaker took us out of the office mentality and helped us understand a logistician as a field officer with hands-on responsibilities. Conclusion Having gone through the conference, I feel there was a lot of information that was shared among the participants. Amidst the limitations in participant sharing, the facilitators delivered as much as we may have needed to know about the effectiveness and responsibilities of handling of CSR and humanitarian activities. However, I acknowledge that the event would have been more successful if it had captured the international aspects beyond the national or regional blocs. Action Plan In case of a similar event in future, I will commit myself to extrapolate regional issues to global perspective to fit in the missing links. It is my wish that in future, such an event should be facilitated by speakers with an international experience in the field. This will facilitate experiential sharing among the participants. Further, I will have a list of questions prepared beforehand. I will use these to determine how much I gathered from the conference and ask clarifications on questions that I feel were not addressed. Task 4: Review on an experience in a leadership exercise This review of the Reshaping Business and Management evening workshop follows the Driscoll review cycle (Driscoll 2007). Description of the event The 21st Century Leaders: Reshaping Business and Management evening workshop was a platform for employers and academics to meet and develop their shared vision in the business and management curriculum as taught in business schools through the UK. It was a forum that engaged regional and national business leaders in the regional boards of CMI. It was a facilitated event in which we were the audience. Analysis of the event I found this event to be an opportunity to only to hear from experts in the field, but also to meet and network. As we shared on areas of interest from the academic perspective, we also got an opportunity to hear from the business world. I must agree that to become successful in this field, one needs more than academics. However, I found out that the very principles and concepts we learned in class were widely applied in the field, according to the field experts. Proposed actions From what I heard and saw during the seminar, I gathered that a career person cannot succeed alone. Networking, to me, is not just about creating opportunities for employment, but also for sharing ideas. This means that business practitioners and academicians can use networks and common platforms to develop more concepts and ways of handling similar issues. It will give both the academicians and the business people an opportunity to move away from traditional ways of understanding and doing things in business processes. References Bachrach P & Botwinick A, 1992, Power and Empowerment: A Radical Theory of Participatory Democracy. Temple University Press, Philadelphia. Cassar V, 1999, ‘Can Leader Direction and Employee Participation Co-Exist?’ Journal of Management Psychology, vol. 14 no. 1, pp. 57-68. Driscoll J, 2007, Practising Clinical Supervision: A Reflective Approach for Healthcare Professionals, 2nd ed. Bailliere Tindall Elsevier, Edinburgh. Gibbs G, 1998, Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning, FEU, London. Jasper M, 2003, Beginning Reflective Practice – Foundations in Nursing and Health Care, Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham Lawler III EE, Mohrman SA & Benson G, 2001, Organizing for High Performance. Employee Involvement, TQM, Reengineering, and Knowledge Management in the Fortune 1000: The CEO Report. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco. London Metropolitan University, 2015, CILT 2015 Student Conference, viewed March 4, 2015 MARCHI, LUIGI DE. 1998, ‘Psycho-sociological analysis as a basic tool of social change’, International Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 3 no. 3, p. 267. Sagie A, 1997, ‘Leader Direction and Employee Participation in Decision Making: Contradictory or Compatible Practices?’ Applied Psychology: An International Review, vol. 46 no. 4, pp. 387-452. Zhang Y, Lepine JA, Buckman BR, & Feng W, 2014, ‘Its not fair...or is it? The role of justice and leadership in explaining work stressor–job performance relationships’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 57 no. 3, pp. 675-697. Appendices Appendix A: Curriculum Vitae Name: Project Manager Career summary I am a highly motivated individual with a proven track of success in project management with methodical and diligent work. I naturally build relationships and I am focused on driving organizational change. I am flexible and capable of adapting positively to different challenges. Right now I wish to join an international company with operations in China but with a well known industry leadership talent, unmatched portfolio, and high commitment to satisfaction of customer needs. Work experience Logistics Officer - Hotel and Restaurant (June 2014 – Present) Responsible for safe delivery of all delivery operations according to company policy and logistic procedures as I: Worked with clients in understanding their needs Managed day-to-day logistic operational aspects in the hotel Arranged and managed all logistics meetings in the department. Attended client meetings to guide them through our logistic processes. Produced the delivery timings, costing, and scope documentation Academic qualifications London Metropolitan University 2014 – present MA (Logistics) Chinese High School 2011 – 2013 A levels Mathematics (A) English (C) Geography (A) Physics (B) Accounting (A) Key skills Acquired Project management Logistics IT skills Procurement Project planning Budget control REFEREES Available on request CONTACT DETAILS Name: Physical Address: Phone: Email: PROJECT MANAGEMENT JOB DESCRIPTION About the job Project managers are engaged in planning and organizing human and material resources in making sure a project is finished within scheduled time, budget and set requirements of the client. This requires a good juggler that can take several tasks simultaneously and one who has excellent people skills demonstrating team leadership. To get the job, one needs substantial experience in project work as part of the support team in a project. Work activities Find out the needs of the client or company to be achieved Agree on timescales, costing and resource allocation Draw detailed plans and schedules for every project stage Select and lead project teams Negotiate with project contractors and material and service suppliers Ensure every stage is handled according to time, budget and quality standards Regularly report on the project progress to project stakeholders Manage risks to avert project delays. Skills, interests and qualities The project manager will need demonstrate: Excellent skills in organization, planning and management of time Ability to think logical and be creative in problem-solving Keep attention to detail Excellent communication skills An understanding of making an controlling of budget Team working An understanding of business processes Good it skills Read More