Free Essay Containing a Personal Leadership Development Plan

Leadership is the ability to effectively lead or rather influence other people in working towards a common goal that positively benefits the society. In other words, not all people can be leaders since leadership requires skills, knowledge, and characteristics that positively influence difficult situations. Leaders need to be quick decision makers, have the courage to take risks for the sake of the people as well as transform situations in the best way possible. In this case, this paper aims to evaluate my leadership style as well as theory, and further make a comparison of my skills to that of another successful leader, thus come up with goals that will improve my leadership ability.

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My Leadership Style

As an assertive, confident and courageous person, my leadership style is the transformative type given the fact that this is a style that initiates change not only in an organization but the society as a whole. As a transformational leader, I would love to motivate my followers in order for them to perform their duties diligently and with passion, thus creating an environment that is full of positive energy. Moreover, to ensure I have committed followers, I always believe in setting up challenges that need to be solved efficiently beyond expectations and in return achieve excellent performance. Arguably, through transformational leadership style, I can move the people into attaining the set standards. This is because my followers have trust and believe in my ability to represent them in any given forum or situation. With this trust, it is easy to empower the people and positively transform their efforts in developing activities that will better their lives (Giltinane, 2013). Furthermore, as a transformative leader, I am a creative builder in that I can inspire my followers into embracing positivity in all situations regardless of how difficult it may seem to appear. This style does not limit me to a formal acknowledgement of my roles but allows me to handle my followers as friends or family, thus treat them with love and care.

My Leadership Theory

Despite the existence of multiple leadership theories, I currently portray the trait theory, which asserts that leaders possess innate traits that enable them to lead the people successfully. Furthermore, with the fact that I have characteristics such as assertiveness, dependability, adaptability, and persistence, the trait theory allows me to become more ambitious as well as achievement-oriented, thus able to set goals that are achievable in a short or long-term process. In most cases, the trait theory assumes that leaders inherit certain traits which put them in a better position of leading others. Therefore, through traits like confidence, knowledge, and charisma, I can effectively achieve my stated goals which can positively develop an organization and the people (Giltinane, 2013).

How I Currently Handle Challenges and Lead Teams

Challenges are unavoidable, and despite being a difficult moment for any leader since he or she is expected to make relevant decisions, they tend to strengthen one's ability to rule effectively. In leading teams, I encounter various challenges that require my skills in handling. For instance, by being courageous, I always succeed in handling issues that arise in the team due to varying views and expectations. Whenever the group members disagree with each other, a situation that slows any collaborative efforts, I embrace non-violent call by talking to them and explaining how important it is to listen and understand each other. Through the art of communication, I can deliver any message to my team and move their minds into commitment and immeasurable efforts suitable for any goal achievement. It is also through this art that I effectively solve challenges that arise from misunderstandings in the process of communicating goals. Additionally, by having faith in my team, I always make sure to show them that I believe and have unwavering faith in their abilities. By doing this, the team members can bring out their best and in return work extra hard to achieve any goal. It is for the fact that challenges in most cases tend to separate members in the team but through showing them I believe in each one of them makes it easy for them to stick together and through collaborative efforts solve any situation.

SMART Goals to Improve on My Leadership Skills and Ability

Communicate Better

Communication is vital in any situation. In this case, I plan to develop my communication skills by first understanding the weakness of each team member, hence come up with a suitable way of communicating in the best way possible. Understanding that people are different makes it simple to use a language that each person understands and further prevents prejudice and prejudgment since these are issues that hinder productivity.

Improve My Leadership Skills

To achieve this goal, I will engage in coaching lessons and other programs that deal with bettering leadership skills. The skills that need improvement may involve learning deeply on the ways of motivating my followers to build a strong team. Furthermore, improving my leadership skills will better my ability to solve challenges correctly, quickly and independently.

Practicing Individual Recognition to Make Goals Attainable

In view of this goal, it is for the fact that all people love to be recognized whenever they are accomplishing a task. In this case, intrinsically motivating team members gives them the energy to work extra hard with the aim of being recognized by not only the people around them but also those above them. The tactic I will employ in motivating my team members to by giving positive recognition for any little accomplishment since this boosts a person's self-esteem encourages them to more and further improves their self-image.

Introducing Rewards

Motivating the team members alone cannot be enough for them to inject extra efforts in their duties. In this case, setting up a goal of rewarding those who have done their best in various tasks will be a suitable motivation for all of them to go extra miles in bettering their performance.

Personal Assessment in Comparison to My Mentor

Dr Martin Luther King was an inspiring leader who possessed transformational traits. It is through inspiring others that Luther King became a successful leader. In comparison to my leadership skills, I realize I need to embrace the same spirit of inspiring my team and other people around me to ensure goals are achieved on time. Additionally, Luther King always injected his entire energy and time in serving others. This is unlike me since I always spend much of my time and efforts in achieving my personal goals as opposed to those of others and the society. The realization makes me aware of my lack of creativity in setting goals and handling other vital issues (Hogan & Hogan,1994). Arguably, by comparing myself to Dr Luther King, it is visible that I like the leadership trait of perseverance he embraced and thus the need to make improvements. Luther King was able to penetrate and fight through the multiple challenges that he encountered through patience and perseverance. For my case, I believe that embracing the same trait will better my leadership ability and positively change people's lives.

An Action Plan to Achieve My SMART Goals

The leadership goals I initially set cannot be successful without an action plan. In this case, the following are my plans.

I will focus on breaking down the goals into activities and tasks that are attainable each given day.

Another plan is to create and follow a checklist that will make me committed to achieving each set goal.

A further plan is to break the goals into groups to ensure at least one or two are accomplished each day, week and month.

References

Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41).

Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership: Effectiveness and personality. American psychologist, 49(6), 493.