Leadership Development Plan

Leadership Challenges

• One of the key challenges faced by an organization is deciphering and addressing the causes of high turnover. Experiencing constant turnover of employees will affect morale and productivity within the organization. According to Yukl (2013), voluntary employee turnover can be an indicator of dissatisfaction in the leader.
• Another key challenge faced by an organization is lack of motivation and productivity. Specific productivity issues can include employees spending longer than required on nominal tasks, doing non-work related activity while on the clock, or abusing time off. This can negatively impact revenue and team morale.
• A final leadership challenge in an organization is maintaining an effective flow of communication between departments. In my current organization, maintaining communication between departments is paramount to success. A lack of communication will result in a negative impact on productivity and customer satisfaction, as well increased interdepartmental conflict.

Improvement Goals

• The single most important change I will make to improve my leadership is to provide inspirational motivation to my coworkers.
  
  • One concrete behavior I will change is to become more forward-looking and envision the future of the department and the company. 
  • Another concrete behavior I will change is to talk with my team members more often about personal and professional future goals. This will allow me to better develop a vision of the future department as a whole.

Behaviors That Obstruct My Goals

• I do not share ideas or feelings in large group settings.  
• I tend to answer questions directly rather than turn the question into an opportunity to be a teaching moment. 

Cognitive Appraisal

• I have a difficult time opening up to others and sharing my personal beliefs and values. 
• I often take setbacks and criticism personally. 
• I often do not step into a leadership role because I am not in a supervisory position. 

Operationalized Behaviors

• I need to define my personal set of values and share them with my team members.
• I need to focus my attention on my values and ensure my actions are aligned with my expressed values.
• I need to seek opportunities to lead. 
• I need to find my passion for the future of the department and share it with the team.  

Leadership Pathway

In ORGL 600, I am learning to view leadership from many different perspectives. We started the course with dysfunctional leadership views. This awareness of dysfunctional leadership will help me be cognizant of dysfunctional behaviors in myself and others. It will allow me to understand the common dysfunctions and be aware of how this might affect employees within the organization.

Positive leadership is typically associated with organizational changes (Kouzes & Posner, 2003). In my professional goals, it will be very helpful to understand the five frames presented by Dr. Carey in Heraclitean Fire: Journeying on the pathway of leadership (1999). This will allow me to visualize change within from different perspectives and allow me to focus on combining these viewpoints in order to create a more comprehensive solution.

In The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner (2003), the authors present a path to be an exemplary leadership through five practices: model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. These practices will help guide me in my path to develop into a leader within my organization. Specifically, I want to focus on the behaviors presented in The Leadership Challenge regarding clarifying personal values, setting the example, and inspiring a shared vision.

References

Carey, M. (1999). Heraclitean Fire: Journeying on the pathway of leadership. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.