| • Name• Student ID• Course• Assignment Title- Leadership development plan • Word Count-2608 |
Table of Contents
2.2. Plan for leadership development 4
2.2.1. First leadership diagnostic tool 4
2.2.2. Second leadership diagnostic tool 4
2.2.3. First leadership diagnostic tool 5
2.2.4. Summaries of the above results. 6
2.3. Draft leadership development plan. 7
2.5. Final leadership development plan. 8
2.6. Impact on the future lives and careers. 14
4.1. Draft leadership development plan. 16
5.1. How good are your Decision-making skills?. 20
5.2. Cultural Intelligence: Self-assessment 26
1. Part A
There are world renowned leaders who are inspiring millions of people. For this assessment a leader is chosen who is employed in a real-life organization and has been a personal inspiration. The chosen leader is a production manager who is working in an organization based in Melbourne Victoria. Presently, he is 28 years old and is managing a bunch of crews. He is responsible for overseeing the entire process of production and operations. He is also responsible for the technical pre-production arrangements, including sourcing, scheduling and logistics with all the festival venues and artists who are working alongside the producer. Despite his young age, his leading skills allow him to manage a larger employee base. He has been successful in coordinating activities and in motivating the employees to achieve the objectives of the organization. He also develops strategies and sets goals for the individual employees and then he motivates them to achieve it. He acts a communication medium between the employees and the top management and therefore, he effectively leads the crew and the different artists. He is able to do because he understands the individual strengths and limitations of the employees. this allows him to align the individual goal to the organizational goal and he remain effective in yielding the best performance from the employees.
2. Part B
2.1. Introduction
Leadership is defined as the ability of an individual to influence others perform at their best level to achieve the designated goals (Bargau, 2015). In the present business scenario, this is a highly demanded skill as the management of any organization want good leaders who are able to lead and influence the performance level of the workers (Gandolfi, & Stone, 2016). The leaders are required to scan their personal limitations and strengths so as to provide best form of leadership in any given situation. In this assessment a leader is chosen who is a production manager. His leadership style is described and key lessons are derived for enabling personal growth. his feedbacks are taken for the leadership development plan. A leadership development plan is a blueprint which helps an individual to establish career towards senior managerial and leadership roles in an organization (Elkington et al., 2017). Therefore, his contribution is valued for the personal leadership development plan.
2.2. Plan for leadership development
A plan for the development of leadership is made after assessing the strengths and limitations of self. Therefore, three leadership diagnostics tools have been completed. The results of these tools are described below. These tools are attached with this document in the appendix B.
2.2.1. First leadership diagnostic tool
I took the first leadership diagnostic tool of “How good are your Decision-making skills?”. In this tool I had got 88 out of the total and this was a high score. This showed that I am an able decision-maker. I consider the benefits and risks of any option and then only take any action. Additionally, when I take a decision then I develop a concrete plan to achieve it and I do not review the assumptions frequently because then I am focussed on making my decision successful by executing it properly. This helps me in taking and implementing my decisions effectively.
2.2.2. Second leadership diagnostic tool
The second diagnostic tool for the assessment of my leadership ability was “Cultural Intelligence: Self-assessment.” This assessment revealed that I am weak in this aspect. I scored very low on this tool and this showed that I lack considerably in the cultural intelligence. I have been brought in a monoethnic background and this limits my ability to interact and communicate with the people of other cultures. I am not aware of other religions, cultures and the different traditions. I face difficulty in interacting with the people of different cultures and from different countries because I have little understanding of their cultures. I have also not developed my cultural competence in order to communicate both verbally and non-verbally with the people from different cultures. The leaders and managers of the present-day organizations need to be culturally intelligence (Guang, & Charoensukmongkol, 2020). This is because the organizations have gone multinational and there is an increased workforce diversity. The managers and leaders have to lead people from different cultures and traditions. This requires them to have high level of cultural intelligence. It is not only needed to lead the employees but also in communicating with the stakeholders of the business who are from different countries (Paiuc, 2021). Hence, I need to work on my cultural intelligence if I want to move to upper positions of management and leadership.
2.2.3. First leadership diagnostic tool
The third leadership diagnostic tool which I had used is the “Skill inventory.” This tool is used for assessing the capability of an individual in the three sets of skills required by a leader. These three skills are the technical, human and the conceptual skills (DuBrin, 2020). The technical skills are meant for the lower level of management, human skills are meant for the middle level of management while the conceptual skills are meant for the upper management. In this diagnostic test I came to know about my scores in these three different skill sets. In technical skill I scored 17 which is low. This means that I have certain weakness in my technical skills which limit my understanding of the objective aspects of the organizational work. In the human skill section, the score was 21 and this was a middle level score. This shows that I have adequate human skills however, this is not very high which could meet the requirement of the leadership role in the present-day volatile business environment. This means that I have to work on my human skills in order to become a good leader. Thirdly, the conceptual skill score was found to be 24 which is relatively good but I need to work hard on this too. This will help me in making and implementing strategies for the entire organization and I would be able to lead the organization in the volatile business environment.
2.2.4. Summaries of the above results
According to the above-mentioned diagnostic tools there are certain strengths and weaknesses which I have identified. My strength is my decision-making skill as I have score quite high in this diagnosis. The leaders and the managers have the most important task of taking decisions. They are responsible for taking big and small decisions every day and hence, this skill is very important in leading an organization. However, I still need to learn the various technical models and theories which are used in the complex organizational problem. There are new technologies which are used for making decisions and these also have to be learnt by me in order to maintain an edge in my professional life.
The second diagnostic tool was about the cultural intelligence. This showed my major weaknesses is the low cultural intelligence. I need to develop my cultural intelligence so as to be able to work in multinational corporates and be able to work alongside people of different cultures.
The third test was the skills inventory and this also revealed my strengths and weaknesses. I learnt that I have strong conceptual skills but I have some weaknesses in the human and the technical skills. I need to gain more technical skills and develop my human skills so that I have a range of skill set which are required in managing and leading an organization.
2.3. Draft leadership development plan
A template has been provided by the institute and this has been used for generating a leadership development plan for self. This is shown in the appendix:
The above given leadership development plan will be helpful in gaining new qualities of leadership and strengthening the existing qualities. This is a time bound plan which has SMART objectives as it is seen from the above table. The goals or the objectives are specific, these are attainable, relevant, time bound and measurable.
There are leadership theories and concepts which show that the leaders must have the qualities to be able to function in any environment and in any situation (Amanchukwu et al., 2015). Managers are encouraged to flexibly use their leadership style on the basis of situation with the help of situational leadership model. This leads to the achievement of better productive results at different the managerial levels. The motivational level of any organization is highly impacted by the approach chosen by their leaders (Salihu, 2019). A motivated workforce is the most important factor of any organization’s success. Therefore, it is the leader’s job to keep a check on the motivational needs of his employees. The situational leadership model comprises of four-leadership styles that can be chosen according to the subordinate’s motivational need. These styles are telling, selling, participating and delegating (Thompson, & Glasø, 2018). Therefore, a leader must have the qualities to be able lead by adopting any style of leading. This requires the leader to have a range of qualities and skills. Therefore, the above given leadership development plan will help me in gaining many skills and qualities which I can use to adapt my style of leading according to the requirements of the situation.
2.4. Industry feedback
The industry feedback checklist was given to the chosen leader and his feedbacks were then taken on the above-mentioned leadership development plan (Appendix C). His feedbacks regarding the leadership development plan are given as follows.
The production manager commended the leadership development plan. However, he mentioned some areas where improvement could be made. He noted that for the conceptual skill development it was not enough to focus on the strategic management concepts and theories rather there are many other aspects which have to be considered. He said that the strategic leaders also have the capabilities of forming vision and mission and these also have to be learnt (Wheelen et al., 2017). He also noted that I needed to have a separate goal for the communication skill as this is one of the most required skills in the leadership positions. The leaders communicate daily with a variety of people and therefore, this skill is very important for them. After gaining the feedbacks from the chosen leader, the above given leadership development plan has been modified.
2.5. Final leadership development plan
The feedbacks which have been given by the leader is incorporated into the plan as follows.
| Goal | Leadership strength/weakness/ skill | Reasoning | Anticipated challenge or justification if none | Activities to help develop strength/weakness/ skill | Where can you practice or apply this strength/weakness/ skill | Timeline for achieving this goal | Measurement |
| Learning technical tools of decision making | Decision-making | In the present-day scenario, it is important to have knowledge of different decision-making tools used for solving complex problems | There will be challenges in achieving this as I would have to learn technical knowledge | I will learn this skill through coaching from experts in this field. | This skill can be used in the organization where the problems are complicated and there are multiple factors to be considered. | I can achieve this goal in three months’ time | It can be measured by assessing my capability in solving complex organizational problems using these tools. |
| Communication skills | This is a leadership weakness | Leaders need to effective communicator. They must dexter their nonverbal and verbal communication skills. | There are challenges in learning this skill as it requires practice and time. | This skill will be developed by taking online courses and by studying books on this topic | This is applicable in all the areas of management function. | It can be achieved in three months’ time | It can be assessed with the online tools available for this skill. |
| Cultural intelligence has to be improved | Cultural intelligence is my weakness | The present-day multinational organization have a diverse workforce and they have their presence in different nations and hence, the leaders must be culturally intelligent | There will be challenges in achieving this I will have to learn about different cultures and there are hundreds of these. | I will learn this skill by taking admission into online courses and training. | This skill is highly useful for me as this can be applied in different contexts and organizational settings. | I have planned to achieve this goal in six months and shall work on this throughout my life. | It can be measured by assessing my interacting and communicating ability in the different contexts of cultures which are the high and the low contexts cultures. |
| Conceptual skills | This is my strength but I need to develop it further | The conceptual skill is needed in the strategic management and the top-level management. hence, it is highly required in any organization. | There will be challenges in achieving this as there are core concepts which have to be learnt to be able to function at the top-most level | I have planned to gain this skill by gaining knowledge of the strategic management concepts, theories and the ability to establish vision and missions | This is applied in the top-level management in any organization. This is highly required as it helps the organization in competing effectively in the industry. | This can be achieved in time span of 30 days. | This can be assessed by assessing my knowledge about the strategic management. |
| Technical skills | This is my weak skill | It is required in the organizations as there are technical aspects of the leadership job | It will not be very challenging for me as I have some technical background and I would be able to gain this skill easily. | I will have to learn the technicalities of the role in my job in any organization and this shall vary from organization to organization. | This skill can be used in different organizational settings. this is because any managerial or leadership job has some technical aspects which they must understand | I have planned to gain this in one month’s time | It can be assessed by scoring objectively in the respective skills |
| Human skills | This is my weakness as I need to learn basic human skills of communicating and maintaining interpersonal relationships | This is required in the organizations as the leaders and the managers are required to communicate with different people in different positions. | It will be challenging for me to learn this as there are no specific method of achieving it. | I have planned to develop my interpersonal skill by working on own self like maintaining positive outlook and practicing active listening | This skill can be applied in different organizational setting and it is highly required from a leader who has to communicate and interact with the top management as well as with the employees. | I have planned to achieve this in six months’ time. | It can be assessed by assessing my abilities in maintaining interpersonal relationship and in communicating. |
2.6. Impact on the future lives and careers
The leadership development plan will have positive impact on my career and future live. I would be able to gain important skill which will help me in securing higher leading positions in the organizations. Hence, it will be useful in moving up the career ladder. I would also master this skill in order to become an effective and inspiring leader in my life. This shall give me a fruitful experience which I could cherish in my life.
2.7. Conclusion
It is therefore, concluded that the leadership is an important skill which is demanded by all the industries. The professionals must assess their strengths and weakness with respect to this skill. They must develop their leadership development plan in order to enhance their career prospects. The chosen leader is a production manager who has also guided in the development of this plan.
3. References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), 6-14.
Bargau, M. A. (2015). Leadership versus management. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 10(2), 197.
DuBrin, A. J. (2020). Essentials of management.
Elkington, R., Pearse, N. J., Moss, J., Van der Steege, M., & Martin, S. (2017). Global leaders’ perceptions of elements required for effective leadership development in the twenty-first century. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2016). Clarifying leadership: High-impact leaders in a time of leadership crisis. Revista de Management Comparat International, 17(3), 212.
Guang, X., & Charoensukmongkol, P. (2020). The effects of cultural intelligence on leadership performance among Chinese expatriates working in Thailand. Asian Business & Management, 1-23.
Paiuc, D. (2021). Cultural intelligence as a core competence of inclusive leadership. Management dynamics in the knowledge economy.
Salihu, M. J. (2019). A Conceptual analysis of the leadership theories and proposed leadership framework in higher education. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 5(4), 1-6.
Thompson, G., & Glasø, L. (2018). Situational leadership theory: a test from a leader-follower congruence approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy (Vol. 55). Boston: pearson.
4. Appendix A
4.1. Draft leadership development plan
| Goal | Leadership strength/weakness/ skill | Reasoning | Anticipated challenge or justification if none | Activities to help develop strength/weakness/ skill | Where can you practice or apply this strength/weakness/ skill | Timeline for achieving this goal | Measurement |
| Learning technical tools of decision making | Decision-making | In the present-day scenario, it is important to have knowledge of different decision-making tools used for solving complex problems | There will be challenges in achieving this as I would have to learn technical knowledge | I will learn this skill through coaching from experts in this field. | This skill can be used in the organization where the problems are complicated and there are multiple factors to be considered. | I can achieve this goal in three months’ time | It can be measured by assessing my capability in solving complex organizational problems using these tools. |
| Cultural intelligence has to be improved | Cultural intelligence is my weakness | The present-day multinational organization have a diverse workforce and they have their presence in different nations and hence, the leaders must be culturally intelligent | There will be challenges in achieving this I will have to learn about different cultures and there are hundreds of these. | I will learn this skill by taking admission into online courses and training. | This skill is highly useful for me as this can be applied in different contexts and organizational settings. | I have planned to achieve this goal in six months and shall work on this throughout my life. | It can be measured by assessing my interacting and communicating ability in the different contexts of cultures which are the high and the low contexts cultures. |
| Human skills | This is my weakness as I need to learn basic human skills of communicating and maintaining interpersonal relationships | This is required in the organizations as the leaders and the managers are required to communicate with different people in different positions. | It will be challenging for me to learn this as there are no specific method of achieving it. | I have planned to develop my interpersonal skill by working on own self like maintaining positive outlook and practicing active listening | This skill can be applied in different organizational setting and it is highly required from a leader who has to communicate and interact with the top management as well as with the employees. | I have planned to achieve this in six months’ time. | It can be assessed by assessing my abilities in maintaining interpersonal relationship and in communicating. |
| Conceptual skills | This is my strength but I need to develop it further | The conceptual skill is needed in the strategic management and the top-level management. hence, it is highly required in any organization. | There will be challenges in achieving this as there are core concepts which have to be learnt to be able to function at the top-most level | I have planned to gain this skill by gaining knowledge of the strategic management concepts and theories. | This is applied in the top-level management in any organization. This is highly required as it helps the organization in competing effectively in the industry. | This can be achieved in time span of 30 days. | This can be assessed by assessing my knowledge about the strategic management. |
| Technical skills | This is my weak skill | It is required in the organizations as there are technical aspects of the leadership job | It will not be very challenging for me as I have some technical background and I would be able to gain this skill easily. | I will have to learn the technicalities of the role in my job in any organization and this shall vary from organization to organization. | This skill can be used in different organizational settings. this is because any managerial or leadership job has some technical aspects which they must understand | I have planned to gain this in one month’s time | It can be assessed by scoring objectively in the respective skills |
5. Appendix B
5.1. How good are your Decision-making skills?
Instructions
For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be). Adapted from Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_79.htm
| 18 Statements to Answer | Not at All | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Very Often |
| 1 I evaluate the risks associated with each alternative before making a decision. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 After I make a decision, it’s final – because I know my process is strong. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 I try to determine the real issue before starting a decision-making process. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 I rely on information and experience to find potential solutions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 I rely on information before making decisions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 I am not surprised by the actual consequences of my decisions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 I use a well-defined process to structure my decisions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 8 I think that involving many stakeholders to generate solutions should be a better approach. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 9 If I have doubts about my decision, I go back and recheck my assumptions and my process. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 10 I take the time needed to choose the best decision-making tool for each specific decision. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 11 I consider a variety of potential solutions before I make my decision. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 Statements to Answer | Not at All | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Very Often |
| 12 Before I communicate my decision, I create an implementation plan. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 13 In a group decision-making process, I tend to listen to other people’s proposals. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 14 When communicating my decision, I include my rationale and justification. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 15 Some of the options I’ve chosen have been much easier to implement than I had expected. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 16 I prefer to make decisions with other people’s input. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 17 I determine the factors most important to the decision, and then use those factors to evaluate my choices. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 I emphasize how confident I am in my decision as a way to gain support for my plans. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Score | Comment | ||||
| 18-42 | Your decision-making hasn’t fully matured. You aren’t objective enough, and you rely too much on luck, instinct or timing to make reliable decisions. Start to improve your decision-making skills by focusing more on the process that leads to the decision, rather than on the decision itself. With a solid process, you can face any decision with confidence. We’ll show you how. | ||||
| 43-66 | Your decision-making process is OK. You have a good understanding of the basics, but now you need to improve your process and be more proactive. Concentrate on finding lots of options and discovering as many risks and consequences as you can. The better your analysis, the better your decision will be in the long term. Focus specifically on the areas where you lost points, and develop a system that will work for you across a wide variety of situations. | ||||
| 67-90 | You have an excellent approach to decision-making! You know how to set up the process and generate lots of potential solutions. From there, you analyze the options carefully, and you make the best decisions possible based on what you know. As you gain more and more experience, use that information to evaluate your decisions, and continue to build on your decision-making success. Think about the areas where you lost points, and decide how you can includ those areas in your process. | ||||
5.2. Cultural Intelligence: Self-assessment
The job of a manager demands a lot, and before long your activities will include situations that will test your knowledge and capacity for dealing with people from other national cultures. Are you ready? To find out, think about your experiences in other countries or with people from other countries.
To what extent does each of the following statements characterize your behavior? Please answer each of the following items as Mostly True or Mostly False for you.
SCORING AND INTERPRETATION: Each question pertains to some aspect of cultural intelligence. Questions 1–3 pertain to the head (cognitive CQ subscale), questions 4–6 to the heart (emotional CQ subscale), and questions 7–9 to behavior (physical CQ subscale). If you have sufficient international experience and CQ to have answered “Mostly True” to two of three questions for each subscale or six of nine for all the questions, then consider yourself at a high level of CQ for a new manager. If you scored one or fewer “Mostly True” on each subscale or three or fewer for all nine questions, it is time to learn more about other national cultures. Hone your observational skills and learn to pick up on clues about how people from a different country respond to various situations
5.3. Skills inventory
Instructions: read each item carefully and decide whether the item describes you as a person. Indicate your response to each item by circling one of the five numbers to the right of each item.
Key: 1 = not true; 2 = Seldom true; 3 = occasionally true; 4 =Somewhat true; 5 = Very true
| 1. I enjoy getting into the details of how things work. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2. As a rule, adapting ideas to people’s needs is easy for me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 3. I enjoy working with abstract ideas. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4. Technical things fascinate me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 5. Being able to understand others is the most important part of my work. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6. Seeing the big picture comes easy for me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 7. One of my skills is being good at making things work. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 8. My main concern is to have a supportive communication climate. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 9. I am intrigued by complex organizational problems. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 10. Following directions and filling out forms comes easily for me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 11. Understanding the social fabric of the organization is important to me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 12. I would enjoy working out strategies for my organization’s growth. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 13. I am good at completing the things I’ve been assigned to do. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 14. Getting all parties to work together is a challenge I enjoy. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 15. Creating a mission statement is rewarding work. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 16. I understand how to do the basic things required of me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 17. I am concerned with how my decisions affect the lives of others. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 18. Thinking about organizational values and philosophy appeals to me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Scoring
The skills inventory is designed to measure three broad types of leadership skills: technical, human, and conceptual. Score the questionnaire by doing the following. First, sum the responses on items 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16. This is your technical skill score. Second, sum the responses on items 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, and 17. This is your human skill score. Third, sum the responses on items 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. This is your conceptual skill score.
Total scores: Technical skill =………, Human skill=………… and Conceptual skill=
Scoring interpretation
23–30 high range, 14–22 Moderate range and 6–13 Low range
The scores you received on the skills inventory provide information about your leadership skills in three areas. By comparing the differences between your scores, you can determine where you have leadership strengths and where you have leadership weaknesses. Your scores also point toward the level of management for which you might be most suited.
6. Appendix C
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