Development Goals
Action Plans

Time Line

Criteria for Success

Communicate more effectively by:

· Engaging in active listening

· Obtaining feedback from workers

· Communicating a vision

· Using social and emotional intelligence skills

· Gain cultural competence

· Ask for input from workers and listen attentively when it is given

· Establishing regular meeting times (formal and informal) so as to engage with workers evenly

· Set time aside to reflect each day on worker feedback

· Develop cultural competency by studying one new culture every week and revisiting old material

· Study human behavior and how people respond w/ words, body language so as to develop SI and EI

· Practice developing and communicating a vision

Open-ended in general, but specific goals can be set for each month:

· Obtaining input should be weekly

· Formal and informal meetings should take place once a week

· Reflection should be 15 mins each day

· 1 hour for cultural studies per week

· 1 hour for human behavior studies

· 30 mins for studying how to communicate a vision

· Worker morale has improved as determined by self-reported surveys

· Workers are more engaged with the leader and vice versa

· The crew is oriented towards the same vision and has bought in to it

· Workers express more positive feedback as a result of leader’s use of EI and SI

Having a leadership development plan is essential for identifying the opportunities available for improving leadership skills, behaviors and styles. It enables one to see which competencies need to be acquired, what key behaviors should be developed, and what styles of leadership should be practiced. The aim of the leadership development plan is to promoted and foster more effective leadership. Shanks and Buchbinder (2012) explain that “leadership development includes both formal and informal efforts” (p. 279). This paper will focus on the competencies, behaviors and styles required to develop effective leadership skills.

Leaders Must be Effective Communicators, Listeners and Engaged in Serving Others

The most important competency for any leader is the need to communicate effectively (Ruben & Gigliotti, 2017). This skill is one that actually includes a number of other competencies: emotional and social intelligence acquisition, cultural competence, the ability to listen and obtain and accept and reflect on feedback; the ability to communicate and express a vision that others can buy into; the ability to serve others and make sure their needs are met (Mikkelson, York & Arritola, 2015). Leadership styles that are needed to gain these skills are transformational and servant leadership styles (Atkin-Plunk & Armstrong, 2013; Warrick, 2011). There are numerous opportunities for me to develop these competencies in my workplace and this plan will identify these opportunities and show how they can be put to use.

Opportunities

Opportunities to engage in the development of leadership skills are all around. First, they are present whenever there is a chance to engage with others in the workplace. In my workplace, I have...…leader’s cogitations.

Communicating the vision is the only key behavior that has to be practiced. This can only be done through repetition and through getting feedback from workers. Surveys should be given to see how well workers are buying into the vision that I communicate, what they think of it, what they think of my approach, and so on. To measure effective communication, feedback is essential.

Service of Others

For me, servant leadership style is the other major style that I want to develop to be a better leader. Serving others is the root of leadership because a leader is one who has to provide others with what they need in order to succeed. A servant leader puts his workers first. This behavior can be practiced by getting to know the workers and their needs and then making myself available to them so that they can get the support they require. This has to be done on an individual basis to truly be effective, which means that each worker needs the opportunity to meet with me on a monthly basis. To measure effectiveness of this competency acquisition, interviews can be conducted to see whether workers are meeting their goals.

Conclusion

To be a more effective leader, this leadership development plan has identified the core behaviors, skills and styles that are needed within my workplace. The key to developing leadership effectively is to practice and study and obtain feedback because measuring one’s productivity and progress is essential in understanding whether one…