Leadership Development Plan - Personal Statement Example

Name Course Lecturer Date Personal Leadership Development Plan Leadership Statement As a leader, I hope to inspire my followers to achieve the collective vision of the organization or the team. My leadership will be based on empowering, influencing and enabling others to achieve the organization’s objectives. My conduct will act as an example for others to follow and will inspire others to work with passion like me. I will ensure I am a credible leader by being competent technically and behaving ethically. My Leadership Objectives 1. Become a strategic thinker: As a leader I should be able to appreciate the bigger picture and take the wider perspective of the organization's business. I should ensure my focus goes beyond the daily tactical decisions of the organization. Strategic management should include a long-term focus on managing human resources. 2. Be a better listener: I have learned that an effective leader is one who values the feedback of his followers. I want to pay attention to what my followers have to say including encouraging them with body language and open-ended questions. 3. Allow Initiative taking by my followers: Instead of relying on directing and telling I will assist my followers come up with plans to direct their work. 4. Improving my knowledge and perspectives: In the modern organizational setting a leader needs to have a cross-functional perspective to lead effectively. 5. Organizational Knowledge: As a leader I feel I should have comprehensive knowledge of the organization’s industry, competitors and customers. By obtaining this knowledge, my credibility among my followers will increase considerably. According to Bryman, good leaders are continuously engaged in learning (693). A leader should make a list of areas where he/she needs improvement and focus on making these improvements. Industry conferences, lunch, and workshops are great ways for leaders to improve their knowledge of the business environment. Participating in online courses or involve themselves in professional blogs can also improve their knowledge and job performance. 6. Leadership Charisma: I want to become an inspirational leader who can motivate followers towards achieving our common goals (Yukl, 189). Charisma will enable me to inspire my followers to achieve their personal goals that are aligned with those of the organization. I will focus on making them feel part of the organization’s success. Setting high standards of performance and discussing with my followers how these high standards can be achieved will be one of my methods to enable them become better performers. I will also use rewards to appreciate the effort of my team. 7. Ethical Leadership: I want to be a moral leader who can catalyze a movement of ethical management in the business world. 8. Collaborate: I have realized that success in leadership can only be achieved by collaboration with peers and with followers. I wish to be a better \team player who understands the rest of the team and their motivation. 9. Effective talent management: I want to make sure that our human resource management practices are focused retain talented individuals in the organization. 10. Effective time management: I want to ensure that activities that I am put in charge are finished on time. 11. Continually improve my skills: Good leaders are open to change and keep developing their leadership skills. According to Bryman, the goals and priorities of modern organizations are changing rapidly thus needing leaders to adopt accordingly (702). 12. Improve my Interpersonal skills: People skills will ensure that my followers do not feel uncomfortable or intimidated when they want to approach me with a problem. As a leader, I aim to seek the opinion of my followers and colleagues as these reflect on my charisma. I also aim to commit to memory the names of every person I come in contact within the organization to promote familiarity. 13. Skill assessment: I hope to carry out a periodic assessment of my skills and leadership competencies to ensure they are at the level I desire. I will also investigate my areas of weakness and work on them to ensure that I become an effective leader. 14. Effective Workload management: Effective workload management should be one of the key goals of a good manager. A good leader should know how to delegate task effectively to other in the organization while setting realistic deadlines for followers. Good leaders are also focused on their work and avoid distraction that might occur during the pursuit of organizational goals. My Leadership Qualities Using the leadership self-assessment found in the textbook, I have been able to discover some of my leadership qualities. My score for inspirational appeal was 7 indicating that inspirational appeal is one of my most highly valued influencing tactics. Leading by inspiration is based on building leadership credence with the followers (Bryman, 699). To gain credibility in my leadership among my subordinates, I lead by example and hope my followers will be inspired by my action. Setting high personal goals is one of the ways I use to build credibility among my colleagues and followers. In a business world full of corruption and unethical dealings, a truly inspirational leaders behaves ethically and is of high moral standing (Bryman, 702). As a leader, I will strive to ensure that I maintain professional integrity in all my actions. I will offer my assistance in developing and observing ethical codes of conduct for my profession. Hopefully, I can educate my followers about the importance of behaving ethically in organizational dealings. My self-assessment on participatory leadership also shows I have a high preference for involving subordinates in leadership. The modern organization needs to hand more initiative to line employees so they can become more innovative and creative. As a leader, I have also learned that it is more effective to tell subordinates what to do rather than detailing how they should do it. However, as someone who leads by action, I sometimes feel like I am losing control. However, there is a lot to gained by allowing followers to devise solutions to the problems they face is that they become more trusting and confident. In addition, they become increasingly innovative and creative. The self-assessment also reveals that I have a high preference for consultation with my followers. As a leader, I feel that the input from my team is important in decision-making. By collaborating I am able to get rid of weaknesses in the team while enhancing strengths (Yukl, 126). As a leader, I will take several initiatives to obtain the collaboration of my team in making decisions. My score for the information sharing aspect of participatory leadership was 4.5 revealing that I prefer to share information with my subordinates. We discuss information on sales, budgets, revenue targets and other challenges in the business world. To ensure effective collaboration, leaders must put in place a communication system that uses modern technology to communicate with other team members. One of the great ways to improve collaboration between leaders and followers is to hold frequent face-to-face meeting with them. At these meetings, team members can present challenges they are facing in their work to colleagues who can brainstorm on innovative solutions. Although my score for on the goal emphasis measure was 5.6, I feel that goal emphasis is one of my strongest leadership qualities. In my leadership, I focus on setting realistic goals for my followers and emphasizing to them the importance of achieving these goals. I also spend considerable time researching strategies and methodologies to enhance the achievement of these goals. I scored 7 for the personal support measure as I think developing talent is essential for the success of the organization. I feel that empowering employees enable them to contribute more to the organization’s goals. I feel responsible for the success of my subordinates both professionally, at work and in their careers. Recognizing the career ambitions and professional development goals of your team is critical in enabling their personal development succeeds. Good leaders should guide their subordinates on professional courses that can enable them realize their long-term career goals. Sometimes, employees need assistance in working out problems that they face in their work although they are given autonomy. Supporting the team means I am also ready to take responsibility when someone on my team makes a mistake. An indication to subordinates that mistakes can be accommodated gives them the freedom to try new ideas without fear that they are going to fail. Supportive leaders also assist their employees in maintaining an excellent family work/balance. As part of my effort to gain credibility among my followers, I seek self-improvement. I have learned that leadership qualities can be enhanced and obtained through self-reflection, self-study, formal education and communication (Heath and Heath, 62). Being an inspirational leader means I have to struggle constantly to keep my leadership competencies high. I have also become aware of valuable leadership qualities that I can apply in school and the future. The self-assessment revealed I am a leader with a high preference for collaboration to achieve the team goals. I found out that I like others to be involved in the process to come up with a solution for the problems we may face in a team. My leadership qualities also include accommodation, communication, and motivation indicating that my leadership style is biased towards the transformational leadership style. This means that I have the ability to manage in contemporary organizations where inspirational leadership is in high demand. I have also found out that my leadership style is characterized by intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, influence (charisma) and individualized consideration (Avolio & Yammarino, 111). These are clearly characteristics of a transformational leadership style that has been quoted as a very effective leadership style. I have also discovered a weakness in my leadership style through the self-assessment of my leadership qualities. I found out that I care too much about people, and this means that enough attention is not paid to the task. Instead of firmly dealing with poor performers, I have a preference for accommodating and compromising hoping they can improve. This weakness has meant that I have had to spend extra hours tutoring my colleagues when we have group work assignments. However, I hope to overcome this weakness by balancing my concern for people with my concern for the task. Leadership practice as a student leader To build my leadership competencies and enhance my qualities I will offer my skills to the student organization. This experience as a student leader will offer me an excellent opportunity to practice and improve my leadership skills. One of the advantages of being a student leader is that one gains confidence in his leadership qualities. For elected student leaders, the position boasts the confidence of the student. In addition, student leaders gain recognition for their roles in the university or college leadership. Many opportunities for student leaders exist in the form of campus clubs, press organization and event organization leaders. Communication skills are necessary skills for leaders in student organizations. Student leaders have to develop good public speaking skills that serve them well in future leadership positions. A student leader learns the art of diplomacy and persuasion at an early stage and can develop into an inspirational leader in later life. Student leaders get many opportunities to practices their public speaking skills in college events, school radio broadcasts and freshmen welcome speeches. In addition, they are part of student councils and sit down in meetings to make major decisions on student affairs within the campus. Student leadership is also an opportunity for the leader to familiarize themselves with leadership responsibility. Leaders manage multiple complex relationships. Student leaders also participate in decisions that impact the whole student population. They are also responsible for ensuring that members of their student body are working effectively. They also follow-up on their followers to ensure they carry out the tasks they are assigned. Therefore, student leadership offers valuable lessons in holding others accountable and delegating responsibility. According to Logue, Hutchens, and Hector, student leadership is also an opportunity to develop negotiation skills (393). Student leaders may oversee multiple projects with competing goals. Such projects call for prioritization and compromise. Success relies on negotiations that do not leave members of affected project teams dissatisfied. Therefore, student leaders learn negotiation skills that are valuable in solving conflicts or stalemate in professional groups. Student leadership is also an opportunity to network with a diverse number of individuals. Student leaders have the opportunity to meet different people from all types of backgrounds. They meet school administrators, other student leaders and off-campus managers. Thus, student leaders can network with these talented people who are valuable as professional and professional contacts. Furthermore, these leaders provide perfect role models for the budding student leaders. A student leadership role also provides an individual with an opportunity to enhance and develop their management skills. Organizational leaders are responsible for planning operational tasks, prioritizing workloads, making budgets, building consensus and other managerial duties. Such a role enables a young individual to start practicing these administrative tasks early. Student leaders also learn common mistakes made by managers but by learning to handle these mistakes student leaders become very effective leaders once they leave campus. This leadership role also enables student leaders develop creative problem-solving. A student leader has to handle multiple obligations including their course work and other personal responsibilities. Thus, student leaders are under pressure to make good decisions that do not influence other parts of their life. In addition, student leaders learn to multitask; a skill that is essential in maintaining work/life balance in the future. A student leadership position is also an opportunity to discover new talents. Student leadership is not just delegating work to others. The student leaders will occasionally have to complete organizational tasks on their own. For example, student leaders may have to develop content for their marketing campaign. These additional tasks are challenging on the leaders, but they provide a chance for the student to discover talents that can be useful in life after campus (Logue, Hutchens, and Hector, 393). A student leader also gains fame and recognition as he is the face of the school. Their success receives praise from all groups of people including administrators and lecturers (Logue, Hutchens, and Hector, 406). In addition, student leaders provide a point of contact between the student and the outside world. As a consequence, student leaders receive unique opportunities from the business world. Leadership work is also likely to result in awards for the leader. These advantages play a great role in developing leadership charisma and the ability to inspire followers in future positions in organizational leadership. Ethics in leadership High moral integrity is among leadership qualities that are in short supply in the modern business setting (Chen and Silverthorne, 282). However, I feel my personal values will assist me greatly in leading ethically and making decisions that do not hurt others. I will make sure that my decisions are within legal and moral boundaries and have no adverse effect on others. The organizational rules and code of ethics is a valuable guide to the ethical standards expected in the organization. A code of ethics set out expectations for employee professional conduct and recommends what they should or shouldn’t do. Leaders should reflect on how ethical behavior affects society and should present the bigger picture of effects of unethical conduct to the society. Many codes of ethics concern the culture and the desirable climate for work in the company. I feel a code of ethics for the organization, and the profession will assist me in making ethical decisions in my work. Unfortunately, codes of ethics are mostly treated as irrelevant statements that are never applied. However, as a leader I will strictly adhere to codes of ethics in my area and insist that my subordinates do the same. Applying judgment and problem analysis skills will also enable me make ethical decisions in my work. A leader gains a lot of knowledge and experience in evaluation and problem analysis before assuming any leadership position. Ethical theories can be applied in the problem analysis in case a leader faces an ethical dilemma. Leaders must have in mind that an effective decision is based on the amount and effectiveness of information that is collected for making the decision. As leader, when I am faced with a decision I gather as much background information as possible and try to quantify the impact of the decision on different stakeholders. What I have learned from this course This course on leadership has taught me a lot about what it takes to be an effective leader. Leadership can be described as responsibility for human and other resources. This course taught me that individuals need to be taught the importance of leadership positions and their societal impacts. It also taught me how important it is for every person to develop effective leadership skills as everyone assumes a leadership position at least once in their lives. From this course, I have also learned my potential as an inspirational leader. I have always taken for granted my ability to empathize with others and care about the success of their initiatives in life. I ensure that fellow students who have difficulties in learning overcome them. I am concerned about their plight and offer assistance in coursework and group discussions for those experiencing difficulties. Reflecting on my concern for others, I found it is a decisive leadership quality that can help me inspire followers in a future leadership position. Inspiring is one word that appropriately defines an effective leader more than any other word (Yukl, 123). In his views, a leader should not rely on reward or coercion power to influence supporters to do what he wants. Inspirational appeal should be an effective leader’s choice influencing tactic. Good leaders focus on the strengths of team members and how to improve them. They are also supportive if team members are experiencing difficulties and thus they ensure that they overcome their weaknesses. Effective leaders also ensure that the organization’s environment is inspirational and encourages employees to do their best for the organization. I also learned that current leaders should be focused on leading in a constantly changing environment. Leaders need to be constantly aware of changing leadership circumstances and adapt their leadership style accordingly. This leadership course emphasizes the need for leaders to seek continuous improvement of their leadership competencies and knowledge of their organizational environment. According to Owens and Valesky, a competent leader is respected by his followers and his leadership is viewed as credible, and thus he can inspire their actions (38). The course has also taught me the importance of investing in people and relationships. Leaders have the responsibility of ensuring the personal development of the organization's workforce (Owens and Valesky, 63). Organizations also need to recognize the contribution of their staff to the success of the organization. Simple recognition includes rewards, praise and positive feedback whenever a successful project has been undertaken. The organization benefits as employees become motivated and high-performing while leaders gain the admiration of their followers. Moreover, the organization gets a favorable public perception as it is interested in the personal development of its employees. I have also learned that leadership does not require a position of authority like that of a supervisor or manager. You can exert influence over others from any position in the organization. Since leadership is the process of influencing, every individual in the organization is a leader and can contribute to improved organization performance. I am now aware that I am already a leader and all I have to do is enhance my leadership skills to become more effective at influencing my supporters. Works Cited Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead. San Diego, CA: Emerald. 2002 Bryman, Alan. "Effective leadership in higher education: A literature review." Studies in Higher Education 32.6 (2007): 693-710. Chen, Jui-Chen, and Colin Silverthorne. "Leadership effectiveness, leadership style and employee readiness." Leadership & Organization Development Journal 26, no. 4 (2005): 280-288. Owens, Robert, &Valesky, Thomas. Organizational behavior in education.Allyn&Bacon. 2007. Heath, C., & Heath, D. Leadership is a Muscle. Fast Company 1, no. 117 (2007): 62-63. Logue, Christen T., Teresa A. Hutchens, and Mark A. Hector. "Student leadership: A phenomenological exploration of postsecondary experiences." Journal of College Student Development 46.4 (2005): 393-408. Yukl, Gary. Leadership in Organizations. London; Pearson. 2012 Read More