We are weighed down by almost daily new books on leadership theories and we seem to have a rabid hunger for more information on leadership…� And yet at the same time, many of our organisations in the Western world struggle with change have chronic low levels of employee engagement
As a leader your skills must now more than ever match the needs of the changing situation. This presents a personal challenge to all leaders, of adapting and recreating yourself, in response to profound changes in work.
The leadership development plan bottom line: How to take on the �learning for life� paradigm, and make it a reality that works for you.
When you are ready to start thinking about developing a leadership development plan for your self and/or others; it is helpful to think about what leadership is and isn�t. In general terms, modern leadership theories cite the themes of visioning, strategic thinking, decision making and communication and influencing skills.
So before you start your leadership development plan, it begs the questions:
What kind of leader do you want to be?
What are your natural leadership styles?
What kind of leader does your organization need right now?
In the ground breaking article �Why Should Anyone be led by You� Goffee and Jones HBR 2000.
The most effective leaders have the following four characteristics:
1. Selectively show their weaknesses approachability and humility
2. Rely heavily on intuition collect soft data and interpret
3. Manage with tough empathy: empathise passionately with people and intensely care about the work they do
4. They reveal their differences � Capitalize on what is different about themselves.
Here are the 4 stages to creating and working a leadership development plan:
Asssessment
Can be done through a variety of methods from an assessment centre, 360 degree feedback, structured interviews, and self assessment. The bottom line it must provide good data from a mix of sources and others opinions. This is important because of a natural tendency we have rationalise our existing behaviour. This can get in the way of our learning.
�Faced with the choice between changing ones mind and proving there is no need to do so. Almost everyone gets busy on the proof.� John Kenneth Galbraith. The feedback process works best when facilitated by another person with some coaching skills. This is superior to just providing a written report. This allows the Leader to think their way through in an active way what all the data means for them.
Leadership Development Plan
Two critical components here: Firstly the Leader gets to choose what they want to work on. Secondly the Leader should focus on 2 or a maximum of 3 things to work on. Sometime more thinking is needed before the leader can clarify to themselves what they actually want to work on. Again coaching support from a colleague or Executive coach is useful here.
Declare Publically
Some developmental goals should remain private for example: integrity, ethics, respect for others. Most goals can be declared publically and if done this provides a multiple “whammy” benefit to the leader.
Firstly: It motivates the leader to hang in on there and stick with the goal
Secondly: Disclosure can help improve the relationship with the leader�s team
Thirdly: It may mean the team can help the leader with ideas, suggestions and feedback.
Fourthly: It is a public endorsement and reinforcer of individual development and continuous improvement with the team
Practice and Reflect
This is the implementation of the leadership development plan, and is really the engine of any learning change.
The leader thinks about what to do, tries out some different leadership styles and behaviours and then reflects on what has worked. It is also useful to check in with any of the original feedback participants from the assessment phase, for suggestions or more feedback. This is an active learning approach, based upon frequent small amounts of attention, over a period of time and is a natural way of learning for most people.
Last tip don�t forget to celebrate any achievements it is a lot of fun to do.
�� and it helps consolidate your learning.
Graham Hart is passionate about leadership learning and change in our work places.
So much so that he makes a living out of helping leaders create positive change for themselves, their teams and their organisations. He shares his ideas , tips and tools on Leopard-Learning
For a free ebook check out leadership development plan
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