The measures should be quantifiable, and should be continually evaluated and adjusted. The fifth element of my five-year leadership plan is to find myself in a management position. Taking on leadership roles within low-level positions is an important first step, but by the end of the five-year plan I want to be in a management position, characterized not only by staff but also by a budget. At this point, I believe I would be in a position to implement another five-year plan.
4. Three steps to undertake right now relate to my five-year plan. The first is to begin taking courses about motivation or communication, in order to improve my skills in these areas. The second will be to ask my supervisor at work to provide me with a project that will allow me to show some of my leadership skills. I may need to suggest a project to the supervisor, so I will be prepared to do that. The third thing will be to write a detailed vision of myself in five years. This will be used to help guide the decisions that I take over that period to make myself a better leader. Each of these three steps can be undertaken immediately, and they all build towards the final objective. A target date can be set for each of these -- the first within two months, the second within two weeks and the third within two days.
Although in past I have tended to gravitate towards leaders much my same style, I feel that I prefer in this instance a visionary leader strong in communication and motivation, to help guide me in these areas. I would take a Steve Jobs or a Fred Smith (FedEx) because they have built large companies from scratch and created staffs of tens of thousands of people, all of whom have bought into their vision for the company. That one company is progressive and the other conservative makes them good bookends as CEOs to sit on my personal board of directors and guide me with respect to the motivation function. I also appreciate that both men have been successful at the smaller tasks that make companies work, so they are more than just transformational leaders, they are transactional as well. This is ultimately the type of leader that I want to be, and to do that I need people around me who already know what it takes to combine those different leadership styles with a high degree of motivation.
Works Cited:
Leboeuf, M. (1999). Developing a leadership philosophy. U.S. Army. Retrieved February 14, 2011 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/milreview/leboeuf.htm
McCall, M. (2010). Recasting leadership development. Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Vol. 3 (1) 3-19.
