Introduction
Contemporary leadership theory is focused on the transformation of the organizational and individual view on the role of leaders in building the sustainable corporate culture and addressing change management and uncertainty in the modern corporations. While a number of frameworks are developed to evaluate and concept and find a set of factor and personal qualities, which define a great leader, the reality shows that leadership unique and the success of one or another individual as a leader depends on upon a number of intrinsic and external factors (Bennis and Thomas, 2002). With that in mind, self-awareness, understanding of the future goals and the strategy for personal and professional development are critical for the successful career development and growth as current and future leaders (Northhouse, 2013). My personal view on leadership seconds the opinion of Sims, McLean and Mayer (2007), who argue that great leaders are not born, but are those individuals,who are able to bring their personal life experience into their professional life and those, who are able to make learning a continuous experience in their daily routine. The PPDP, prepared as part of this exercise focus on three timelines: short-term planning, limited to 12 months from today, medium term planning up to 24 months from the time of PPDP preparation and the long-term 5-year strategy of leadership. The point that should be made here is that leadership is not a skill and it is not possible to completely isolate professional and professional development in Leadership Development strategy. With that in mind, the PPDP will comprise both sides of learning (Sadler, 2003).
PPDP Report
My Current State
Building PPDP is the complex exercise, which demands an in-depth analysis of the self and personal goals along with recognition of areas, where I need improvement. Based on the nature of learning and the approach,that I have chosen for PPDP, one of the applicable theories is the Path-Goal Theory, which demands to create a link between the current self, expected self and the path, which is to be chosen to achieve the short, medium and the long-term goals (Northhouse, 2016).
My Current Capabilities
When it comes to the analysis of self and understanding of how I would like to develop my medium and the long term personal and professional development strategy, it is important to analyze not only the wishes and desires for the future but the current competencies and values. This will allow building a critical part of PPDP - capability gap analysis and strategy to close the gap. The first step is to identify specific professional capabilities, which I believe I possess.
1. Diverse experience in informal leadership in sport, retail and accounting industries;
2. Good organizational skills;
3. Leadership experience in non-business environment;
4. Good diversity awareness;
5. Good understanding of commercial and financial sides of the business and their interaction.
My Values
Leadership is based on personal example and values, which individual passes to the followers and people who work with him. I grew up n a close-knit family with the strong focus on strict informal Code of Conduct and values that my father fostered in our family. With that in mind, it is important to create self-awareness in terms of the elements, which constitute the informal rules for my life and expectations from other people in business and social setting.
1. Trust;
2. Passion about what I do;
3. Empathy
4. Respect to diversity
5. Sympathy
The above five values are based on the way I expect to build my relationships with people and the types of treatment that I would like to receive. While trust, passion and respect for diversity as personal and professional values are self-explanatory, I make a great distinction between the empathy and sympathy and would like to elaborate further on it. One of the important elements of relationships between individuals is the understanding of diversity (Groysberg and Connoly, 2012). Sympathy is extremely important to build healthy relationships between people. Bennet (1979), however, outlines that people often fail to recognize the differences between people as they ground their attitude on the concept of "golden rule", where sympathy is central, as opposed to personal differences. This assumption from the leadership standpoint demonstrates distorted behavior as it only allows the analysis of actions of other people through the standpoint "self". Empathy, on the other hand, attempts to bring in the understanding of the cognitive and emotional response to other people through recognition of their feelings. With that, both, empathy and sympathy are crucial for a personality of a great leader.
Strengths and Areas for Improvement
It is difficult to judge and draw an accurate picture of self without the understanding of how other people see you and what they find critical as your strength and weakness. To be able to come up with the core strengths and areas for improvement I extended this exercise to some of my friends and family, who know me and can give honest and open feedback. I asked 5 people to highlight 5 major strengths and areas for improvement, looking at my personality. At the same time, the knowledge I received from MBTI tests and other personality evaluation exercises, conducted during the course, helped me to complete the exercise and choose the characteristics, which are common among respondents and with my personal view. As the result of this exercise, I was able to build the following table:
One of the important theories, which can be applied in this situation is the Leader-Member Exchange Theory. One of the important learnings is the need to have the different approach to the members of the team or social environment. In this exercise, I was the subject of the analysis and I asked each member to give me feedback in a different way, recognizing that these individuals should be approached in a different way to ensure that the feedback received is open and complete. In practice, such leadership approach offers flexibility that leaders and other members of a team should have in role-taking and role-making.
My Priorities
The priorities outlined above are the milestones and objectives, limited to the period of 24 months. The achievement of these milestones allows me to build on more long-term goals and ensure that my long-term leadership development strategy is aligned with the mid and short-term achievements. It is important to recognize that these priorities should be regularly reviewed and adjusted according to the external environment and achievements (Zelenik, 2004).
1. Grow from “leading self” and “leading others” to “leading groups”
2. Better understand the operational environment of the organization;
3. Learn to independently lead complex change projects;
4. Gain international and cross-functional experience;
5. Further, develop management experience on middle and senior management levels.
One of the first elements is growing from “leading self” and “leading others” into “leading groups”. My experience as a tax accountant and manager in Sweets Shop make me believe that I have progressed from leading self as part of a team to a leader of others. While there is still a room for growth in this area, one of the priorities for the next two years is to learn to lead diverse teams of individuals in a formal way (Goleman, 1998). Football team leadership gave me an insight into this leadership function but did not provide with formal authority and responsibility, which is important in a business setting. Furthermore, the role of accountant and the commercial manager gave me an insight into the diversity of functions, to achieve my goal and become more generalistic as a manager, I need to gain experience in the operational environment. Finally, I worked in reasonably lean organizations without strong hierarchy and it is my objective to develop management and leadership experience in the projects on a higher level, where I have to lead with stakeholders in top management and Board level.
Planning for the Future
The final step of this plan is to outline specific and measurable goals and the timelines of their achievement. The goals, which I set for myself, are split into three categories, based on the deadline for their achievement. Further down in this document, I will comprise a table with the core strategic elements for the assessment of these goals. This table will be based on the understanding of the goals and the analysis of the competency gaps, which need to be addressed to ensure successful implementation of the strategy.
Action Plan
Conclusions and Observations
The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that the personal and professional traits and competencies are developed. My objective was to look at the timeframe of 5 years with the focus on both, major professional areas of development to help to pump my career growth as well as personality traits, which, if developed further can help me reach my professional and personal objectives. The capability gap analysis, conducted as part of this plan, also contributes towards the understanding of the areas, which I should prioritize for the short and medium term in order to successfully implement the leadership development strategy for myself. I believe that the set goals adequately reflect my career and personal goals and getting back to the plan, reviewing and evaluating the progress are a great way forward.
References
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