Career progression plan for senior leadership in Catholic education

Learning Goals and Action Plans

Management Skills Learning and Development Action Plan

Career Goal and career Opportunities

Currently, I am midway in my career and all is going well. At this point in time, I have another 20 -- 25 years of service remaining. From the onset, it is important to note that I have spent the majority of my career in Middle Management with a strong yearning to delve into Senior Leadership. Towards this end, I have taken advantage of numerous Professional development opportunities and completed a number of degrees in Education to further my career prospects. I hold a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education, Masters of Education and a Graduate Certificate in Theology. I have largely immersed myself into the Catholic Education arena, specifically at the Secondary level. I have also worked in positions of middle leadership such as Director of Music, Religious Education Coordinator, Youth minister and Pastoral Care Coordinator. Within the next three years, I expect to be in a position of Senior Leadership such as a Deputy Principal or any other position of equal value. Having completed my Master's degree in Educational Leadership and having significant currency in Theology and Religious Education, I feel that if combined with my 24 years of teaching experience, these would make me well suited and primed to take on a Senior Leadership position in Education. The marketplace is continually abundant of opportunities for suitably qualified and experienced staff in the private Education sector. As a significant portion of my experience has been as a faculty leader in subject-based disciplines, the reason I have recently taken on a Pastoral Care Coordinator position is to further expand my leadership experience with staffing and students - particularly focusing in the area of behavior management and welfare. This will further develop my skills in human resourcing, time management, and particularly made my self-awareness become a priority.

2. About Myself

In addition to being ambitious, I also happen to be assertive; meaning that I always stand by that which I truly believe in. I also regard myself a caring, thoughtful, and honest individual. Being a courteous person, I have all along been able to relate well with my co-workers and peers. Going forward, I believe that this will also further enhance the way I relate with my subordinates. I also value hard work and creativity. To a large extent, these are the things that I regard critical in not only the way I work and live, but also in the way I relate with others. They determine my priorities -- meaning that I would be most comfortable in a position of leadership whose roles and functions do not conflict with the aforementioned values.

I am alive to the fact that to perfectly fit in a managerial position and execute my duties and responsibilities effectively, it would be prudent to be aware of my personality type. Indeed, as Ricketts and Ricketts (2010) point out, an individual's career choice ought to correlate with their personality type. To determine whether on not my career choice and future career prospects correlate with my personality type, I took the personality test found at the Human Metrics website (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp). The test is founded on Isabel Briggs Myers' and Carl Jung's approach (typographical) to personality. As per the test results: my personality type was categorized as ENTJ. ENTJ's, according to Butt (2014), "have a natural tendency to marshal and direct." People with a similar personality type as mine have been described in various quarters as being natural-born leaders.

It is also important to note that, in general terms, I tend to be a fast learner. More specifically, I am more of both an auditory and visual learner. This is to say that most of the things I remember are those that I hear and see. Given that I regard myself a life long learner, being aware of my learning style is critical as this makes me aware of the techniques that suit me best.

3. Current Skills Inventory

We all have unique strengths that could make an immediate impact on our planned or future roles. Upon evaluation of my current skills inventory, I have identified three skills strengths that I possess. These include: the ability to delegate tasks in an effective and meaningful way, confidence in not only the way I execute tasks but also in the way that I carry myself, and decisiveness. With regard to the ability to delegate tasks, it is important to note that I do not find it difficult to assign or share tasks with those whom I work with. In other words, I do not regard myself a control freak. Going forward, therefore, as a leader, I will find myself delegating tasks from time to various departments so as to free up my schedule. This will, in turn, impact positively on my performance. Confidence, on the other hand, is also a critical skill that I possess. I do not easily panic in the face of uncertainty. As a leader, I will most likely encounter worrisome situations -- especially when things do not go as planned. Key in such situations will be my ability to remain calm. This will be critical as I seek to maintain team morale. Lastly, I have also been known as a decisive person. When I make up my mind to pursue a specific course of action, I do not waver even in the face of uncertainty. My ability to make decisions without wavering will not only gain me respect from peers and subordinates, but it will also be of great relevance as I seek to enhance organizational efficiency.

Despite the skills strengths I have listed above, I feel there is yet another critical skill set that I need to improve if I am to make it in a position of leadership. These include skills regarding; communication, team building, and time management. I do not regard myself a good time manager. As a matter of fact, I, from time to time, find myself far behind schedule in various tasks. With regard to communication, I am not as effective as I would love to be when it comes to not only issuing instructions, but also maintaining lengthy conversations. I do not also regard myself a good team player. This is particularly the case given that I find it more comfortable to handle individual-based projects, as opposed to team-based projects. These are the skills that I feel I need to improve on.

Broad Goal: To enhance my team building and team management skills

SMART Goal: To develop the skills necessary to create, manage, and build efficient and productive teams. This I seek to accomplish within a time frame of nine months.

Strategies and Action Plans:

To begin with, to enhance the efficiency of the teams I manage, I will seek to not only understand the personalities of various teams which I may find myself managing, but also make use of such an understanding to further enhance the productivity of the concerned teams, i.e. In the assignment of tasks and duties. As Buckingham (2005) observes, "managers will succeed only when they can identify and deploy the differences among people, challenging each employee to excel in his or her own way."

I will ensure that my engagements with those that I manage is more conversational, as opposed from top-to-down kind of conversation. This kind of approach, as Groysberg and Slind (2012) point out has a key advantage: it helps leaders formulate some unique group cohesion qualities such as enhanced employee engagement and operational flexibility.

I will also be seeking to further enhance and sharpen my decision making abilities, a step that will enable me to better manage conflict and point teams towards goal accomplishment.

Effective team management also requires a certain level of an individual's innovative capabilities. I will, towards this end, seek to further enhance my ability to introduce new solutions to problems, as well as new methods to established processes. Some of the sources of innovation which are highlighted by Drucker (2002), and which I could also explore, include "unexpected occurrences, incongruities, process needs, and industry and market changes."

Next, I also intend to enhance my understanding of the dynamics of team work and group behavior. This I could do by studying the causes of team dysfunction and familiarizing myself with strategies for group motivation.

Lastly, I plan to look for informative resources on how to delegate tasks more effectively.

Skill 3: Time management

Broad Goal: To improve my time management skills and be more organized

SMART Goal: I intend to learn how to manage my time and be more effective in not only the accomplishment of tasks, but also in scheduling of activities. This I hope to have accomplished within the next one year.

Strategies and Action Plans:

Time, in the opinion of Schwartz and McCarthy (2007), is a finite resource. The relevance of effective time management cannot, therefore, be overstated. Below are the strategies that I seek to implement to better manage my time.

To begin with, I intend to learn how to appropriately my energy. In the words of Schwartz and McCarthy (2007), "most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally." Later on, this leads to greater disconnectedness levels, increased distraction levels, and lack of engagement -- causing us to take more time to accomplish tasks than it would have ordinarily taken under ideal circumstances. As Schwartz and McCarthy (2007) recommend, I intend to get rid of energy-depleting behaviors such as getting to bed late. This will in turn have a positive impact on my capacity. Greater capacity, as Schwartz and McCarthy (2007) point out "makes it possible to get more done in less time…"

Secondly, prioritization of tasks will be key in this endeavor. Indeed, as Birkinshaw and Cohen (2013) advise, to be effective and productive, one ought to delegate or do away with tasks that are not important, and replace them with critical or value-added tasks.

I also intend to start making use of the relevant planning and time management tools. These include pocket diaries, phone apps, and index cards.

Procrastination is yet another harmful habit I need to do away with. There are times I find myself putting off urgent tasks for invalid reasons. I could get rid of procrastination by setting realistic deadlines and breaking down duties so that I do not feel overwhelmed.

Next, I will also better manage or get rid of external time wasters. These include, but they are not limited to, constant checks on my mails, checking news items from the various online news channels, etc.

Lastly, I will avoid multi-tasking as much as I can, and instead concentrate on completing definite and time-specific tasks. Studies, as Call (2008) points out, have clearly indicated that "people are much slower when switching between tasks," meaning that multitasking actually contributes towards time wastage.