Improvement Plan Mission Vision Goals

Commitment to Self-Improvement

Introduction

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Personal Mission and Vision

The vision statement is the description of an individual’s desired future state as they picture it in their mind (Carrier, 2017). A personal mission, on the other hand, is a statement of one’s philosophy, creed, and their life’s purpose. It states the deepest values upon which an individual’s existence is based, focusing on what they want to do (achievements and contribution) and what they want to be (Carrier, 2017). As Barney (2020) accurately puts it, the mission states the activities and plan towards which the individual directs their decisions, behaviors, and actions as a means to achieve the vision, which is the desired end. Simply stated, the mission is the plan of how the individual intends to manifest their vision in their daily life (Barney, 2020).

My vision is capitalizing on my gifts of optimism, charisma, and intelligence to cultivate the net-worth and self-worth of my students to enable them become the best that they can be (Martin et al., 2018).

My goal is to make a difference in the lives of learners to develop informed, self-sustaining communities. I will become an educator by undertaking the relevant certification and professional courses, including this doctorate course. Each day, I will participate in deliberations focused on addressing emerging and perennial issues in education, make research-driven contributions to education policy, and practice evidence-based leadership practices that foster an effective learning environment. Thens, I can engage in collaborative research-based inquiry and use my findings to help teachers and policymakers transform the local community.

Professional Values

Social justice: advocating for just, democratic, and inclusive institutions and communities (Larsen, 2021)

Authenticity: demonstrating problem-based, engaging, and authentic leadership capable of responding to dynamic conditions in education and leadership (Larsen, 2021).

Direct Engagement: focus on engaging directly with institutions, local communities, agencies, and school districts to shape the quality and direction of education

Research-Based Inquiry: commitment to supporting and conducting research geared at strengthening and informing educational policy and educational leadership

Mutual Respect: leadership committed to collaboration, collegiality, and ethical practice that emphasizes mutual practice and integrity for both practice and scholarship (Kemethofer, Helm & Warwas, 2022).

Personal Development: leadership focused on continuous education, capacity-building, and professional improvement through training

Areas of Development

Leadership

Areas of Excellence

Sources define leadership as the ability to motivate and mobilize people to pursue certain organizational and individual goals that are aimed at realizing the overall organizational purpose (Knippenberg, 2019; Olenrewaju & Okorie, 2019). According to Knippenberg (2019), the core of leadership effectiveness lies in how well a leader can motivate their followers to align their individual interests with the organizational purpose and work towards realizing the common purpose. Sources advocate for transformational leadership, where the leader motivates their followers by acting as a mentor or role model and encourages them to reason beyond what they are used to (Knippenberg, 2019). According to Olenrewaju & Okorie (2019), this differs from transactional leadership, where the leader depends on compensations and rewards to encourage employees to meet task goals. Transformational leadership is associated with higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and higher motivation among employees (Olenrewaju & Okorie, 2019).

In line with the insights presented in the above sources, my personal leadership philosophy will be driven by transformational leadership. Based on what the sources identify as the precepts of transformational leadership, I pride myself in several core strengths. First, I am able to adequately foster innovation and creativity among members of my team. In professional settings, I realize this through collaborating with, and empowering those working under me to solve problems and make decisions beneficial to the organization (Olenrewaju & Okorie, 2019). Secondly, I am good at getting employees to accept change. For this reason, I am often chosen to head the change management team whenever there is a major change at the workplace. The primary strategy that I use is engaging employees in the change process by getting them to give their views and ideas and then managing expectations by addressing any concerns that may cause resistance.

Areas of Weakness/Improvement

To determine what kind of the leader I am, I took the Leadership Compass Self-Assessment and the Four Leadership Styles Survey. The Leadership Compass measures leadership effectiveness based one’s ability to act and decide, to process information for decision-making purposes, to demonstrate empathy, and to balance between action and vision. The results showed that as a leader, I am highly empathetic and only fairly analytical. On the other hand, the Four Leadership Styles Survey results categorized me under the red code, which implies that I am inclined logical-based leadership.

I agree with the high score on empathy. Naturally, I tend to sympathize a lot with others and could consider myself a selfless leader. However, I think the score of 5 in analytical leadership is quite low. As the Red score on the Four Leadership Styles Survey indicates, I am highly analytical and will often base my decisions on logic, such as available facts and data. For this reason, I expected a higher score in the area of analytical ability.

From the results of the two surveys, I may need to work on two areas of weakness in my leadership. First, I need to cultivate the tendency to consider all the sides of a situation before reaching a decision. According to Olenrewaju and Okorie (2019), insight and confidence are among the most fundamental qualities of effective leadership. The authors describe these as the ability to apply holistic understanding and confidence to deal with challenges. I reckon that to effectively demonstrate insight and confidence in decision-making, it may be prudent to cultivate the tendency to look at things from diverse perspectives to obtain a holistic understanding before reaching a decision.

Moreover, there may be a need to improve on my risk-avoidance tendency. According to Jung et al. (2020), risk-taking is a crucial leadership skill. The study found that leaders who are more open to taking risks are often a source of inspiration for employees and are more likely to drive creativity and innovation among their employees. As such, risk-loving leaders are often more effective drivers of organizational change (Jung et al., 2020). Risk avoidance may thus be an inhibitor to creativity and effective organizational change. For this reason, it is prudent to work on improving my perception of and openness to risk.

Communication

Areas of Excellence

Sources contend that effective communication is a crucial influencer of leadership effectiveness and follower motivation (Arendt et al., 2019; Banwart, 2020). The authors provide diverse perspectives on what constitutes effective leadership communication. The bottom line, however, is that for leadership communication to be effective, it has to be mindful (Arendt et al., 2019). Mindfulness has many behavioral correlates (Arendt et al., 2019). According to Arendt et al. (2019), leadership communication is mindful if it is non-judgmental and takes into account the context of what is happening at the moment. Non-judgmental communication occurs when communication is free of thoughts, emotions, and stereotypes; when it is cooperative, rather than one-sided; and when involves effective listening (Arendt et al., 2019). This is quite similar to Banwart’s (2020) view, which describes effective leadership communication as communication that effectively articulates the organizational purpose and goals, fosters diversity, and involves active non-judgmental listening.

Based on these insights I would consider myself objective. At the workplace, I maintain an open-door policy where all employees have an opportunity to express themselves freely despite differences in cultural perspectives. Further, I have learned the art of adapting my communication style to suit the needs of different audience in a setting characterized by diversity. Another communicative strength is that I tend to rely on logical communications that are supported by factual evidence. This ensures that I carefully scrutinize any information I obtain and only communicate what is supported by evidence. This minimizes the risk of using inaccurate information to inform organizational decisions.

Areas of Development/Weakness

To understand better what kind of communicator I am, I completed the Communication Style and the Activity-Communication Style Self-Assessments. The results showed that I am a thinker. Thinkers often rely in rational principles and observations in decision-making and tend to avoid skepticism or emotionalism in the communication process. I agree with the test results. In my view, the results support my risk averse nature that was identified in the previous subsection. I rarely take a position without obtaining sufficient data or facts to support it.

According to Haworth et al. (2018), an overly cautious communication style could lead to conflict with employees who may feel that the leader is impersonal or does not trust their abilities. Further, this kind of communication style could cause delays in management, when the leader overanalyzes information and continually asks for more recommendations from employees and other stakeholders before reaching a decision. Due to the danger posed being overly cautious, it may be prudent to build more trust in my employees to avoid affecting morale.

Technology

Areas of Excellence

Sources contend that leaders in a digitalized world play a crucial role in advancing technology at the organizational level. In turn, technology helps to facilitate monitoring and planning of internal systems, enhance customers’ trust, and increase accountability and transparency in management (Cortellazo et al., 2019). Leaders are often tasked with verifying technological tools’ suitability to the organization’s needs before they are approved (Cortellazo et al., 2019). Moreover, as Ramman and Thannimalai (2019) point out, leaders also play a crucial role in the internalization and integration of technology within employees’ routine duties. Thus, leaders significantly influence the rate of technology adoption in organizations.

As a leader, I pride myself in several strengths in the use of technology. First, I can adequately use basic technological systems such as computers and various forms of customer electronic networks. This has made it possible to advise on the relevance of certain technologies in the organization. For instance, as a result of my technological skills, I was selected to head the implementation team for the newly-installed system that monitors employees’ performance real time and provides immediate digital feedback. Further, I can adequately use online communities to foster regular interactions with employees as a means of maintaining ethical behaviors. These strengths, as Corteallazo et al. (2019) point out, help me to provide better technological leadership to employees and to foster positive attitudes towards technological advancements in the organization.