Personal leadership development plan for mental health director

Leadership Plan

My objective is to be the Director at a mental health and wellness agency, with a focus on working with children and families. I am presently working at such a facility now, but I envision myself being able to build a career through a variety of progressive roles until I reach the Director's role. To do this, I know that I must demonstrate leadership at all steps of the way. There is an old adage that one must dress at a job interview for the level above what that job is. This is the principle by which I will build my career demonstrating a level of leadership and competency hat is above my current level. In such a way, I will be able to continue positioning myself for the progressive career path that I envision.

Along the way, I will need ot build my leadership skills. Building leadership skills is a lifelong task, but the effort will be more successful with a coherent plan, complete with time frames. The first step is to have an objective in mind -- as noted above -- and then the subsequent steps are to determine the skills, knowledge and resources that I will need to acquire to reach this objective. It is also important to understand my present starting point, including my existing strengths and weaknesses.

My interest lies with the bio-social-psycho model, but with a spiritual element. This holistic approach to mental health and well-being. This approach posits that ill health stems from elements in the environment that act upon the individual. If these elements, be they biological, social or psychological, can be addressed then that is the pathway to health. Individuals do not simply find themselves in need of social workers; there are many elements in their lives that bring about crisis, at which point they will need social worker intervention (Sagy, 2014). I also subscribe to the person-in-environment theory, which holds that people are often products of their environments. By helping them make improvements to the systems that influence their lives, such as the biological, social and economic, social work interventions can be more successful (Green & McDermott, 2010).

My vision is to work within these perspectives and underlying philosophies to help clients. I will this for a few years, gaining experience along the way. After a time, I will progress into managerial roles, which will help me to take on a more formal leadership role, facilitating other social workers to help their clients. Within this vision, progressive managerial roles will expand my sphere of influence, and will allow me to help more people. Leadership is something that can be practiced at each stage of this journey, and that will be one of my main focuses throughout my leadership development.

There are a number of resources that are critical to cultivating this sort of career path. Self-efficacy is a baseline resource, referring to the belief that one has in one's own abilities. I understand that today I would not be able to step into the Director's role I envision for my future, but I know that over time, I will build the skills, knowledge and abilities required to fill this role. I have no doubts about my abilities; at this point it is only a matter of acquiring knowledge and experience. Then I will know that I am ready, and at that point it will be time.. At each stage, I will project readiness and self-efficacy, as this is a key resource to putting oneself in a position to succeed on a progressive leadership career path.

Another of the critical resources that one needs is mentorship. There is a substantial body of evidence to support the idea that mentors are critical to leadership development (Laughlin & Moore, 2012). A mentor is important because there is some knowledge that cannot be learned in class, but must be imparted by those with experience. Mentors provide years of knowledge and they also provide important perspective to help with the journey.

I see my current strengths as being that I am hard-working, and an example to others. I have strong communications skills as well, which is important for leaders, because communications skills help leaders to gain buy-in from followers (Fairhurst, 2011). I naturally prefer to lead, and hope that others are won't to seeing me as a leader. I listen well, and have the ability to be simultaneously sympathetic and analytical. I feel that these attributes are well-suited to social work, and that if I worked on my leadership skills that would go a long way to enhancing my ability to lead in the social work context. I know that I need to work on leadership in particular, building my self-efficacy and gaining the wisdom to lead more effectively. It is my belief that these particular attributes are necessary to lead -- there is more to leading than simply being a good social worker. One must have an unshakable confidence in one's own abilities, and I feel that the wisdom imparted by experience is another quality a leader must possess. So for myself, I know that I have the raw skills to be a great leader, but those skills must be tempered and refined.

Furthermore, I must address my weaknesses. I have inexperience, something that only time can address. I also need to maintain my focus, an area where having a plan like this one helps tremendously. Further, I need to be able to maintain my belief even when challenges are mounting, and I feel that having the right connections, and the right mentors, will allow for that. Building quality relationships with people who can help you is an important aspect of a leadership development strategy. There will definitely be challenges along the way; as a mixed-race lesbian I by no means fit the norm, and this creates some unique challenges that I occasionally have to deal with. But those sorts of challenges I am used to at this point, having experienced them all my life; they only make me stronger.