My leadership development plan using King, Altman, and Lee's framework
Leader Development Plan
Brief Overview
Leadership takes place at all levels within organizations, communities, and also families. In the course of life, there are numerous prospects to become a leader irrespective of whether an individual holds an official leadership position. An individual must gain a personal understanding of how leadership fits into their life, the distinctive qualities and individualities that bring them to leadership, and the impact that they can have on the world as leaders. This assignment mirrors upon and discusses the role of leadership in my life through the five areas of King, Altman, and Lee’s Discovering Leadership Framework. This framework comprises of five different components that include current organizational realities, leadership vision, leadership values, leadership profile, and current personal realities.
Organizational Realities
As a leader, it is critical to understand trends in organizational life and their influence on one as a leader, varying points of view on leadership, and their prospective costs of leadership. Current organizational realities assist in understanding the wide-ranging situations that influence their prevailing leadership circumstance (King, Altman, and Lee, 2011, p. 12).
One of the tensions as a servant leader is that the need for being a servant and authoritative can take place at the same time. These roles especially come into conflict when serving and authority are necessitate at the same task and significant to performing well in both roles. If I were able to lead my life in an ideal manner, it would look like Christ. As a servant leader, leading my life would be providing services to others, fundamentally concentrating on their growth and wellbeing. It would also encompass emphasizing facilitating and assisting others in growing, developing, in addition to capitalizing their maximum potential and empowering people to be successful. As a servant leader, ideally, I would share the authority that I have, place the needs of the followers first and help them develop and perform as significantly as possible. I would exist to offer service to other people.
The assumptions that are precluding me from making progress is authority being undermined. Notably, there are circumstances when a leader needs to take a firmer position. However, servant leadership does not usually permit for many magnitudes of authority. For instance, when a leader is compelled to become more authoritative, it is conceivable that the followers or subordinates will lack the belief that the leader is serious. This is largely owing to the reason that the followers might have perceived the leader waiving on other matters beforehand while being an empathetic leader.
Consequently, the leader’s authority ends up becoming undermined. Also, servant leadership can bring about deteriorated levels of motivation. With servant leadership offering assistance, the other members can choose to cease being effective, and ultimately, diminished motivation can manifest (Greenleaf, 1998).
My local Christian counselor at the church is an individual that I know who has managed to balance effectively. What this person could share that might help me is not to be assertive and authoritative and, at the same time, servant-like. Also, what could help is guaranteeing motivation at all times. There are several tactics that I will try that can be employed in the present day and also in the future. One of these tactics is, at times, pushing the followers to work on their activities without swooping in and offering service immediately. Also, being constructively authoritative is a tactic that I will employ. This encompasses ensuring that the followers are aware that they need to be accountable for their actions.
Leadership Vision
A leadership vision is primary to your perspectives of leadership and your longstanding success as a leader. It surpasses basic anticipations and points of view regarding the role of a leader. It encompasses and delineates the sought after future that you perceive for yourself and your team, organization, or community as a whole. Leadership vision can also be delineated as a manifestation of what you endeavor to construct, undertake, or achieve when you are in a leadership role (King, Altman, and Lee, 2011, p. 49).
A leadership vision is pivotal to one’s perspectives of leadership and longstanding success as a leader. It seizes and delineates the sought after future that a leader perceives for himself or herself, the team, organization, and community as a whole. One’s leadership vision is an expression of what a leader endeavors to create, undertake, or achieve when in a leadership role (King, Altman, and Lee, 2011, p. 49). What I am trying to accomplish through my leadership is helping people realize their goals and enable them to reach their full potential. What others would say about the guiding force for my leadership is servitude. Following in the footsteps of Christ, others would say that my endeavor is serving others, not for my benefit but for the benefit of others (Houghton, Neck, and Krishnakumar, 2016).
If I were to outline the elements of my leadership vision, several aspects would be included. First, it is inclusive by incorporating others to take up the vision and consequently create a better vision. Secondly, it connects to the greater good as it endeavors to make a difference in the lives of other people and play a contributory role in making the world a better place. An additional element of my vision is that it is positive. It emphasizes how the future will be brighter. By building up the potential of individuals and enabling people to make a difference, the vision paints a picture of a better future. It is imperative to note that these elements are compatible and not contradictory. They work in alignment to facilitate servant leadership.
My vision for leadership contributes to the success of other people, my team, and also my organization. As a team or organization as a whole, my vision of serving other facilitates empowerment as it places the members of the team first, but simultaneously takes into account the general purpose and objectives set out by the organization and team. Also, as a servant leader, I draw on the strong suits of other members of the team and empower them to undertake what they are best at. This leadership vision connects to my general personal vision. That is, being a servant leader encompasses sharing authority with others, placing the needs of the team first, and assisting individuals in growing and developing and maximizing their full potential.
Some obstacles hamper the enacting of my vision for leadership. One of the key ones is the other people taking advantage of my service. Notably, when other members and individuals gain knowledge of my vision always to be ready to serve, they easily lag because they know that the leader will always be willing to serve. This compromises the effectiveness of the team and can also limit the efficacy of capitalizing on potential.
Leadership Motivation and Values
I prefer to be a leader in serving people and making the world a better place. I think that I am here to serve, and this leadership is not intended for individual gain but rather the desire to provide service to others. As a leader, I am most satisfied when I have made a significant involvement and contribution to the growth of people by working in tandem with them and personal engagement. I am also satisfied if I can multiply leaders. I believe that God seeks out men and women who provide discipleship, coaching, and mentoring other leaders, who subsequently become leaders of other leaders that efficaciously train other people. I am fully satisfied when I can mentor an individual into becoming a leader and becomes prepared to offer service to others (Miscenko, Guenter, and Day, 2017).
Motivations and values inform people on why one leads. A core value is delineated as an extremely internalized deep-thinking guide that greatly influences the setting of goals, making decisions, resolving conflict, and how one lives their life. One of my core values is a community, which encompasses servitude and supporting a purpose that surpasses personal preferences and making a difference. A second core value that I have is integrity. I am always keen to be accountable to God and his commandments. Integrity is a way of glorifying God, safeguards me from losing my way, and also encourages my growth. An additional core value is helping others. I have an endeavor to assist other individuals in achieving their objectives, providing care and support at all times. I also dedicated to lead with love and personal development. Not only am I deeply involved in affectionate relationships, but I am also dedicated to ensuring that the potential of such an individual is maximized.
In several circumstances, one’s core values may conflict, which implies that in a certain case, serving one core value may impede another. There are conflicts that I experience in my relationship with my core values. One of the critical values is integrity, and in this world, at times, to make a difference, there is a need to partake in shifty ways to make a difference. However, shifty ways are not in line with Godly accountability.
My motivations and core values are in connection with my leadership vision. My vision for leadership takes into account serving. Personal development, integrity, love, and mentorship are all geared towards providing service for the enablement of others rather than my individual growth. By ensuring that a person’s potential is fully maximized, I am providing service with the intention that such an individual experiences growth and development.
Leadership Profile
In delineation, a leadership profile describes the qualities and traits that a leader should have. The elements essential to a leadership profile include leadership profile, leadership roles, learning styles, change styles, derailment factors, and developmental assignments and life experiences. There are patterns that I see amongst my responses to these elements of the profile. One of them is empathy. As a servant leader, I can acknowledge and comprehend the feelings and sentiments experienced by team members. Another perceptible pattern is stewardship. By taking up total accountability for planning and managing of all accessible resources, I ensure that all members can become better and attain prosperity. These patterns give me insight into why I am in the zone. My endeavor is the dedication for the growth of others and building a better community. I take it upon myself to facilitate the growth and development of others and also generate a sentiment of belonging to something greater than every individual.
One of the key areas that I might develop is awareness. I must work on being mindful of my weaknesses. That is, being entirely aware of my strong suits, weaknesses, philosophies, emotions, and feelings. Imperatively, this sort of self-awareness will enable me as a leader to comprehend personal biases that I am usually not aware of and placing them aside while undertaking decisions. Another area that I also need to develop is healing. For the most part, followers are constantly in pursuit of a leader with a genuine interest an inclination in cultivating their emotional and spiritual welfare. By improving this area, I will be able to take an active role in the promotion of the psychological and emotive strong suits of others. This will also appeal to a remarkable level of trust and belief from others.
Personal Realities
The current leadership demands on me that provide motivation is the betterment of people and maximizing their full potential. As a leader, I am expected to enable people to achieve success and this is a motivation because it enables me to pinpoint their strong suits and lead them into the right direction and during all this time showing them their potential to become great. However, there are current leadership demands that also lead to frustration. One of them is the fact that constantly being a servant leader results in followers and other members of the team slacking. This is largely because they have the constant expectation that the servant leader will always be there to fully help and offer service (Frick, 2004).
I have clarified my views on leadership, and they are not fully compatible with others in the organization. Being a servant leader and seeking to follow the footsteps of Christ, some of my core values clash with the actions undertaken by others within the organization. For instance, having integrity at all times implies conflicting with others in the organizations who might carry out devious ways to enable the organization to succeed. Even though this is the main endeavor and ultimately, the organization achieves success, having integrity implies standing up against such actions. What I am experiencing now as the costs of leading at the moment are fatigue and diminished motivation. Being a servant leader through and through implies offering service to every beck and call at all times, which can be tiresome. There is also the cost of members of the organization having diminished motivation owing to the knowledge that the servant leader will be present at all times.
Strategies for Personal Development
Discovering who one is as a leader is an enduring and continuing process for making suitable choices and altering one’s choices as those challenges transform as they become modified. Based on the context given by King, Altman, and Lee (2011), there are several strategies for developing one’s full leadership potential. One of the strategies is the clarification of goals. By having an action plan, it will be conceivable to set deadlines; the resources necessitated achieving my goals, notions for overcoming barriers, and also a set of advantages that I will amass. Moreover, the action plan will enable me to develop my full potential by targeting the appropriate goals and ensure that they are clear (p. 163).
A second strategy that will enable me to develop my full potential as a leader is seeking the help that I need. As an individual, I do not gain anything by seeking this leadership journey on my own. One of the strategies for obtaining help will be through receiving both formal and informal feedback from other individuals. Significantly, truthful and straightforward feedback from members of my network will assist me in substantiating that the objectives and goals that I have set for myself are the suitable ones. Also, feedback will enable me to gain insight into how the changes I am in pursuit of for myself may either be advantageous or unsettling to other members of the organization and even to my close ones. Moreover, feedback will be beneficial in the assessment of hindrances or prospects (p. 164).
A third strategy will encompass remaining on track. To live out my full potential as a leader, it is significant to regularly examine how I am doing in my journey as a leader. Notably, leaders have numerous distinct approaches for assessing their progress, ranging from measures of organizational performance to official assessments such as multi-rater feedback on their performance to looking for informal feedback from equals. The significant aspect takes into account the development of a systematic monitoring and evaluation plan to obtain data, qualitative or quantitative, to aid in comprehending what is working effectively and what is working ineffectively (p. 168).
Conclusion
King, Altman, and Lee (2011) explain a systematic framework that links to who one is as a leader, including the visions, values, and profile, to the actualities of the organizational context and the actualities of one’s personal life. The paper reflects the role that leadership plays in my life based on the five components of the framework that includes organizational realities, leadership vision, leadership values, leadership profile, and current personal realities. As a servant leader, my mission is to provide service to all members of the organization to achieve success and, at the same time, enabling them to maximize their full potential. Some of the weak areas that I need to work on are developing awareness and healing skills.
References
Frick, D. M. (2004). Robert K. Greenleaf: A life of servant leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1998). The power of servant-leadership: Essays. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Houghton, J. D., Neck C.P., & Krishnakumar, S. (2016). The what, why and how of spirituality in the workplace revisited: a 14-year update and extension. Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion, 13(3), 177-20.
King, S. N., Altman, D. G., & Lee, R. J. (2011). Discovering the leader in you: How to realize your leadership potential. Jossey-Bass.
Miscenko, D., Guenter, H., & Day. D.V., (2017). Am I a leader? Examining leader identity development over time. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 605-62.
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