Leadership development plan identifying opportunities for improving skills and behaviors

Development Goals
Action Plans
Time Line
Criteria for Success
Communicate more effectively by:
· Engaging in active listening
· Obtaining feedback from workers
· Communicating a vision
· Using social and emotional intelligence skills
· Gain cultural competence
· Ask for input from workers and listen attentively when it is given
· Establishing regular meeting times (formal and informal) so as to engage with workers evenly
· Set time aside to reflect each day on worker feedback
· Develop cultural competency by studying one new culture every week and revisiting old material
· Study human behavior and how people respond w/ words, body language so as to develop SI and EI
· Practice developing and communicating a vision
Open-ended in general, but specific goals can be set for each month:
· Obtaining input should be weekly
· Formal and informal meetings should take place once a week
· Reflection should be 15 mins each day
· 1 hour for cultural studies per week
· 1 hour for human behavior studies
· 30 mins for studying how to communicate a vision
· Worker morale has improved as determined by self-reported surveys
· Workers are more engaged with the leader and vice versa
· The crew is oriented towards the same vision and has bought in to it
· Workers express more positive feedback as a result of leader’s use of EI and SI
Having a leadership development plan is essential for identifying the opportunities available for improving leadership skills, behaviors and styles. It enables one to see which competencies need to be acquired, what key behaviors should be developed, and what styles of leadership should be practiced. The aim of the leadership development plan is to promoted and foster more effective leadership. Shanks and Buchbinder (2012) explain that “leadership development includes both formal and informal efforts” (p. 279). This paper will focus on the competencies, behaviors and styles required to develop effective leadership skills.
Leaders Must be Effective Communicators, Listeners and Engaged in Serving Others
The most important competency for any leader is the need to communicate effectively (Ruben & Gigliotti, 2017). This skill is one that actually includes a number of other competencies: emotional and social intelligence acquisition, cultural competence, the ability to listen and obtain and accept and reflect on feedback; the ability to communicate and express a vision that others can buy into; the ability to serve others and make sure their needs are met (Mikkelson, York & Arritola, 2015). Leadership styles that are needed to gain these skills are transformational and servant leadership styles (Atkin-Plunk & Armstrong, 2013; Warrick, 2011). There are numerous opportunities for me to develop these competencies in my workplace and this plan will identify these opportunities and show how they can be put to use.
Opportunities
Opportunities to engage in the development of leadership skills are all around. First, they are present whenever there is a chance to engage with others in the workplace. In my workplace, I have the chance to speak with workers daily and weekly, in informal settings and formal settings. Taking advantage of these opportunities is one way to develop as a leader. How take advantage of them is the question. As a leader, my goal is to be a better communicator, and that means I have to be open to what others have to say and must be sensitive to the challenges they are facing. Therefore, the need to develop basic core competencies that will facilitate communication is required first. These basic core competencies include: social and emotional intelligence (SI and EI), cultural understanding, the ability to serve others, and the ability to develop and express a vision so as to inspire and motivate others (Doody & Doody, 2012).
Competencies
The competencies to be gained are 1) cultural intelligence, 2) emotional and social intelligence, 3) communication, 4) service of others. These competencies can be achieved by being mindful of one’s surroundings and engaging in practices that will help me to acquire these competencies through routine practice. Just as one becomes stronger by working out in the job, one can gain each of these competencies by engaging in specific routine practices that will help to build competence in each of the four areas of behavior. These practices can be broken down into specific sections.
Cultural Intelligence
The behaviors needed to have cultural intelligence are empathetic appreciation for others’ cultures. This behavior is not something that can be faked (Leininger, 2008). The leader must truly have a sense of the culture of others and why those cultures are important and what they signify. To practice this behavior, the leader must first study the different cultures of the world and come to appreciate them. By doing this, the leader is mentally preparing to demonstrate empathy towards diverse people in the workplace. For me, this practice is something that must be done weekly by devoting one hour of time per week to the study of different cultures. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions website at Hofstede-Insights.com is a great way to get this practice started. There are tests that can be taken to measure how well the cultural competence has been gained, and these can be taken each month.
Emotional and Social Intelligence
Every leader has to have EI and SI because they facilitate the interaction between leaders and workers. These skills depend upon the leader’s ability to demonstrate sympathy towards others, to read body language, understand human behavior and use this information to show support to those who need it. The behaviors that have to be practiced for this competency first require the study of human behavior. This means that the aspiring leader has to go to a public space and observe the way people talk, avoid others, and react and respond to situations. Reading literature can also help, especially classic literature that is taught in humanities courses. The humanities are taught primarily because they teach people what it means to be human. That is why they are called the humanities. To have EI and SI, once has to know what it means to be human, how people think, feel, act and react.
To acquire this competence, I will need to set aside 30 minutes each day dedicated to reading the great works of literature that have been taught in the humanities so as to develop a foundation for understanding human nature. I will have to measure my EI and SI skills development by taking online quizzes like the ones at GlobalLeadershipFoundation.com. EI and SI skills should be acquired within a month’s worth of study. They can be perfected over a lifetime, however, so this is one area that requires continuing education throughout life.
Communication
Communication is something that requires listening to others, obtaining feedback, reflecting, and expressing or verbalizing a vision that others can buy into. For this reason, transformational leadership style is often linked to communication: it is the one style in which the communication of a vision is so vital (Atkin-Plunk & Armstrong, 2013). For me to develop my communication competence, I need to schedule regular formal and informal meetings with my workers so as to engage with them, discuss issues in the workplace, obtain feedback, and give myself time to reflect on what was said. This should be done weekly and over the course of a year the practice should become routine and there should be a marked change in the moral of the people in the workplace. They should show a renewed sense of morale and motivation thanks to being included in the leader’s cogitations.
Communicating the vision is the only key behavior that has to be practiced. This can only be done through repetition and through getting feedback from workers. Surveys should be given to see how well workers are buying into the vision that I communicate, what they think of it, what they think of my approach, and so on. To measure effective communication, feedback is essential.
Service of Others
For me, servant leadership style is the other major style that I want to develop to be a better leader. Serving others is the root of leadership because a leader is one who has to provide others with what they need in order to succeed. A servant leader puts his workers first. This behavior can be practiced by getting to know the workers and their needs and then making myself available to them so that they can get the support they require. This has to be done on an individual basis to truly be effective, which means that each worker needs the opportunity to meet with me on a monthly basis. To measure effectiveness of this competency acquisition, interviews can be conducted to see whether workers are meeting their goals.
Conclusion
To be a more effective leader, this leadership development plan has identified the core behaviors, skills and styles that are needed within my workplace. The key to developing leadership effectively is to practice and study and obtain feedback because measuring one’s productivity and progress is essential in understanding whether one is moving in the right direction.
References
Atkin-Plunk, C. A., & Armstrong, G. S. (2013). Transformational leadership skills and correlates of prison warden job stress. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 40(5), 551-568.
Doody, O., & Doody, C. M. (2012). Transformational leadership in nursing practice. British Journal of Nursing, 21(20), 1212-1218.
Leininger, M. (2008). Transcultural nursing: Its importance in nursing practice. Journal of cultural diversity, 15(1), 37-43.
Mikkelson, A. C., York, J. A., & Arritola, J. (2015). Communication competence, leadership behaviors, and employee outcomes in supervisor-employee relationships. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 78(3), 336-354.
Ruben, B. D., & Gigliotti, R. A. (2017). Communication: Sine qua non of organizational leadership theory and practice. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(1), 12-30.
Shanks, N. H. & Buchbinder, S. B. (2012). Introduction to health care management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 
Warrick, D. D. (2011). The urgent need for skilled transformational leaders: Integrating transformational leadership and organization development. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 8(5), 11-26.