Personal Leadership Action Plan - Essay Example

Personal Leadership Action Plan and Report Name: Student Number: Course Code: Word Count: Date of Submission: Personal Leadership Action Plan and Report Drawing a personal leadership report and action plan as well is more like doing a self-assessment test. The importance of this is appreciated as it helps one to establish their current position relative to desired goals and objective achievement. As evidenced in this report, the self-assessment majors on the critical areas as self-awareness, team work and leadership, academic as well as professional communication.With consideration of these subjects as the defining facets of the report, a viable assessment is achieved. Self-awareness The desire of this is to be fully equipped with enough information of the current position or standpoint in trying to achieve particular goals and objectives as a scholar. For this reason, the report chooses to approach this task as a social affair and thus relations with others and the surrounding environment. The view is that it makes one validly concerned and responsible of their social welfare.Welfare is often associated with needs, but it goes beyond what people need; to achieve wellbeing, people must have choices, and the scope to choose personal goals and ambitions. Social welfare and social work are both terms that refer to the development and provision of public or private social services to promote social justice amongst individuals and groups of individuals. While the term social welfare refers more generally to the well-being of groups and individuals as well as the system of social service delivery, the term social work refers more specifically to the professional practice of delivering these social services. The scientific study of social welfare involves the application of physical science, social science, and technology to the goals of informing social work practice and improving human well-being.More relevantly, and from personal experience, self-awareness has and will help in identification of strengths and weaknesses (Zeger et al. 2007, p. 5). This is vital for leadership as it inculcates assertiveness, honesty and integrity. From the learning processes, leadership projects and personal experience as well, it was observable the social and cultural subjects go hand in hand. This is see in most discussions, reviews, researches and reports. It will thus be of great importance to include the aspect of culture in this report. Evidently, culture influences leadership to a great extent, especially if the lead group comprises of individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. The finding is that modern societies and workplaces are culturally diversified in terms of personnel composition. This then necessitates the essences of intercultural communication, which the report also discusses later on under the umbrella of academic and professional communication. Contextually, the goal of communication is to effectively pass and share information. When this is projected to the aspect of differences in culture between the communicators, the competences that are necessary to learn are; ability to adjust and accept differences in culture, understand the extents to which the aspects of life like behaviour and reactions are under conditioning by culture, and the skills of identifying and solving problems in intercultural. Most of the intercultural issues that will arisein leadership are in evidence by the chosen ways of communication (Crainer&Dearlove2008, p. 41). In my view, the importance of intercultural communication tries to bridge the gaps created by intercultural issues and differences. I think that intercultural communication skills are the answer to the complex issues that cultural diversification present to us today contemporarily. Aiming to improve personal communication styles and skills, it was noted that intercultural communication techniques recognize that languages and registers lack exactness. In the relational level or even business scenario, as written by Posner (2010, p. 535), good communications skills is one of personal values that have positive congruency with organizational values. The techniques of cross-cultural communication reconcile the differing cultures and identities so as to contain the decisive factors that establish success in a commercial relationship. Apart from language differences, communication also happens differently in the various cultures; that which is acceptable in one culture is not necessarily as okay in the next. For that reason, it is requisite that people in interaction also take into account the differences in communication techniques Academic and professional communication. Appropriate management skills improve, or rather, are meant to improve personal performance. Nevertheless, achieving this desired personal performance is dependent on various factors, theories and concepts that influence the area of management skills. For students, both the learning and professional environment changes so rapidly that necessity of skills of resource management goes without mention. The resources may include, primarily, time, funds, course projects and access to pedagogical materials. In education it is all about self-management which involves monitoring and evaluating one’s own behaviour and reaction to the changes and environment in which they are. Monitoring and evaluation of affective aspects enhances completion of tasks that one is assigned (Posner 2010, p. 534). Consequently, with recognition of other areas and consideration of time particularly, this essay explores management skills by critically analysing the Theory of Constraints. The theory is a vital supplementary to tools and skills of management that help in analysis, solving of problems, planning and communicating. This then introduces communication as a factor of self-presentation, which goes from intrapersonal to interpersonal aspects(Goleman 2000, p. 78). For the basics, education and learning has the goal of not only improving mental faculty, but also to encourage self-reliance and independence. Application of appropriate management skills to manage the self, without external forces, then becomes the ultimate objective of a self-management plan. With these skills, action planning completes the cycle by respecting the essentialism of management skills and realizing their feasibility too. A discussion of management skills herein recognizes their ability to improve student performance; therefore, it explores the concepts involved by making professional references. Team work and leadership In the stage of assessing teamwork and leadership skills, it was important to look at the marketing sector of an organization as the template to compare with. Surely, it is observable that the international economy continues to grow in all aspects including products introduced to the markets. Therefore, the development of a company solemnly relies on the success of the marketing strategies and leadership styles put in place by this company Goleman 2000, p. 81). A practical lesson is that marketing strategies are not statements formed out a single person’s mind and simply tabled for implementation. Rather, laying out marketing strategies is a complex process that involves various experts with particular marketing expertise, alongside vital business tools for designing these marketing strategies. One of such tools is the SMART Objective Table which defines a strategy or plan in terms of its Specificity, Measurability, Attainability, Relevance and Time aspects. Another important lesson or observation made is that exploiting a competitive advantage is categorically a primary goal to every firm and a leadership that gets result (Goleman 2000, p. 80). A personal perception is that this is achievable by designing and deploying marketing plans with ability to sense or realize and meet demands of customers. The environment created by international marketing is engulfed in various factors that influence the expansion of an organization. Some of these aspects enhance while others hold back expansion, growth and development. These aspects are in particular categories of issues so as to facilitate a detailed understanding of the global marketing environment for purposes of strategic marketing. It is vital to note that strategic marketing grows beyond just production but it demands for innovative ways. I have also learnt that, marketing being a complex and time-consuming process, it necessitates the relevance of marketing research and strategic decision-making. Marketing is entirely vital for a sound business health yet it requires detailed research to be embedded in strategic planning. Marketing research defines the intended process of finding, satisfying and retaining customers. Information gathered from marketing research will enable Marks to formulate a feasible marketing plan and means of evaluating success. It is also a very important business tool that a company can use to know the types of clothing products that can be profitable to introduce in the targeted market. Therefore, before a business develops any strategic marketing plans, it is of the essence that it conducts an extensive market research on the on the target markets and marketing environment generally. On a conclusive note, there are some four important features that have been noted in relation to personal leadership. First, personal leadership also requires good personal management skills. The most important one, as identified by this report is time management. For this reason. Time management forms the basis of the personal action plan for this report.Secondly, diversity based on culture and ethnicity is becoming inevitable in many organizations of the modern society. It is, thus, only civically important that this difference is appreciated and celebrated. One important thing that I have noted is how much, relative to contemporary issues; organizations of the modern society seriously need the tool of intercultural communication. Thirdly, social and cultural are vital facets of a good leadership to any level. The social nature of the modern society is a vital aspect that has to be taken into consideration in almost all agendas. In a social setting, the various institutions and entities relate and interact with respect to each other’s boundaries. Lastly, Human societies are not perfect institutions and so prone to hitches. The problems that arise within the confines of a society or do require the attention of the society are social problems. Reference List Crainer, S. and Dearlove, D. 2008. ‘The Heart of Leadership’, Business Strategy Review, pp. 41-45. Goleman, D. 2000. ‘Leadership That Gets Result’,Harvard Business Review, pp. 78-90. Posner, B. Z. 2010. ‘Another look at the impact of personal and organizational values congruency’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 97, pp. 535-541. Zenger, J. H., Folkman, J. R. and Edinger, S. K. 2011. ‘Making Yourself Indispensable’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 4, pp. 3-9. 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