Personal Leadership Plan

With the current fast-paced technological advancements as well as changes in the business environment, great leadership is one of the main essentials that organizations need to ensure competitiveness within the market. Also, in today’s business world, the qualities of a leader are highly connected to employee productivity (Rampur, 2016). Nonetheless, an individual may have the traits of a leader, but that is not enough for the efficient running of any corporation in the modern world hence bringing the need for effective leadership (Patel, 2017). Moreover, in such scenarios, leadership development is critical to ensure that an individual possesses the qualities of an effective leader. This paper will, therefore, create a personal leadership plan aiming at the growth from a typical manager to an effective leader. It will also entail the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to help come up with the leadership qualities that require improvement. Also, the strategies that ought to be cultivated as well as any further training required will also be presented. Therefore, the development of effective leadership is a significant activity in the current business world and requires the following of various steps as well as alterations of some actions and behaviors.

SWOT analysis

One of the primary tasks that one ought to carry out to further their leadership qualities are constantly updating their skills (Krow, 2017). Therefore, there is a need for one to assess their capabilities to understand the areas that need improvements as well as attain personal growth which may also reflect in the company.
Current position (based on personal approach and feedback received from mentors and colleagues

Strengths

Employees in any organization not only need someone to guide them but also look for a role model in their leaders. As such, having a personal appeal can not only influence one’s subordinates to increase productivity but also makes a leader approachable thus leading to the creation of strong relationships. With such an attribute, an individual can work effectively with the employees leading to increment of productivity. Furthermore, with the continued alteration of the business environment, a leader possessing the ability to aspire others can easily inspire action among the staff thus leading to increased organizational competitiveness and full adaptation to the environment. Also, optimism in a manager leads to the seeking out of the positives in his or her team as well as assisting them to conquer the feelings of self-doubt hence resulting in improved performance (Economy, 2013). Integrity and fairness, on the other hand, are quite essential in the management of the current diverse workforce. Possession of such qualities can help the employees become motivated to show up to work besides developing a sense of belongingness. Lastly, excellent communication skills are also key in effective leadership. Provision of up-to-date information to all workers can also help them reach high levels of excellence.

Weaknesses

An effective leader should be able to maximize the potential of his or her staff (Krow, 2017). Obtaining the best recruits within the field can be useless if a manager does not provide them with the tools and freedom to enhance their talents or trust their judgment. Moreover, the workload of a manager is always growing and therefore there is a need for delegation to help him or her concentrate on more important tasks like ensuring the growth of the firm. Also, employee motivation is one of the primary reasons behind increased employee productivity. As such, an effective leader should come up with various ways of motivating their people.

Opportunities

With the right people, the volatility of the business environment can be an excellent opportunity for any company. Due to the changing nature of the environment, current business students learn ways of handling any uncertainties as well as ways of staying updated and innovative. Having such individuals in a firm can lead to adaptation to any modifications within the field for the employees understand how they ought to react to different situations. Also, the dynamic nature of the business environment combined with the new technologies also inspires innovativeness which can keep an organization on top of its industry regarding implementation of new ideas and constant growth.

Threats

Despite increasing performance in companies, technological advancements are also significant threats to effective leadership. With poor cybersecurity, a firm’s system can easily be affected with malware leading to loss of information which can be quite costly to retrieve. Furthermore, cyber-attacks can result in the ruining of a company’s reputation as well as that of the leader.

Action plan

For the meeting of career objectives and achievement of effective leadership, one has to take advantage of their strengths and the opportunities within the business environment. They also ought to come up with strategies regarding how to tackle their weaknesses as well as develop approaches for management of the threats within the industry. For a manager, it is no longer enough to be an expert in their field but rather they ought to familiarize themselves with other areas of expertise such as basic business practices, design or computing (""How to Become a Great Leader in the Modern Business World."", 2017). With information from various fields, the leader can be able to understand relationships hence produce creative ideas concerning ways of maximizing the organization’s value. Nevertheless, for the attainment of proper training in technology and how the manager can use in the management of the workforce, productivity, and the stakeholders, one would have to take training for about four-to-six months.
For improvement of the delegation skill, a leader should start by practicing assignment of simple duties to the employees. For instance, they could let each department create their own budgets for they have a better knowledge of their needs compare to him or her. That is, the Information Technology department needs vary from those of the finance department and by letting them generate their own budget can not only ensure correctness but also motivate them to work harder. However, things that motivate employees to go an extra mile in the workplace vary widely depending on the person. To ensure, the inclusion of all there is a need for an increment of both financial and non-financial motivators. For example, the leader can increase the workers’ salaries by ten percent or offer bonuses for people who surpass the set standards of performance. Improvement of the workplace to support the growth of the employees’ skills can also result in enhanced productivity as well as increased innovativeness within the firm thus leading to better competitivity in the current volatile business environment (Chuang, 2013). Also, to take advantage of the changes in the surroundings, the research and development department should stay up-to-date through obtaining all of the current information on the market that can affect the business either positively or negatively. The leader should also motivate them to convey information with immediate effect to him or her through giving them rewards such as gifts once they relay the data. With the possession of current market information, a company can obtain great positioning within the industry hence resulting enhanced productivity, improved reputation and brand name. Furthermore, one can also hire temporary employees to work on the firm under a contract of six months. Through doing so, there could be increased innovativeness due to the introduction of individuals with fresh ideas and different means of tackling problems which the company can harness to their own advantage.
Proper utilization of the new technologies can also assist a company in the improvement of its performance. However, for the attainment of the same, the manager should offer training courses within the organization for approximately three months which would cost around five million. He or she can also organize monthly seminars to update the workers regarding new technologies that they can utilize in the workplace for efficiency. Nonetheless, it is evident that keeping up with the pace of digital advancements, such as cybersecurity, emerging technologies, the harnessing of big data and automation, is quite a challenge (Morrison, 2017). Moreover, to mitigate the occurrence of cyber-attacks, the workers should be educated through drills whereby the Information Technology team can send an unexpected email that resembles spam email to see how many workers will view the content. Also, the team can then lead the other departments in the establishment of measures against cyber threats, particularly, activities like informing the manager immediately once they pinpoint a malicious activity on the computers. They should also be educated on ways of reprogramming the machines in case of an attack to avoid data loss.
For ensuring the implementation of the various mentioned strategies, the company will accumulate about $ 2 billion. Twenty-five percent of this amount will be allocated to the research and development department and nineteen percent to the Information and Technology team. Then, the remaining amount will be shared equally among the other departments for improvement of working conditions and equipment.

Conclusion

Effective leadership is one of the primary aspects required to ensure organizational competitiveness and improved performance in the modern business world. As such, there is a need for assessment of a leaders’ abilities to determine their strengths and weaknesses whereby one can use the strengths to attain exceptional individual and organizational performance. For the attainment of effectiveness, there is a need for improving the practice of delegating duties as well as acquiring of knowledge on different methods of motivating the workers to surpass the set standards of performance hence leading to improved productivity. Some elements such as the changes in the business environment and technologies can be a threat and an opportunity if utilized well. Therefore, with increased motivation, knowledge on technology and cybersecurity threats, increased training on how to take advantage of the opportunities within the business environment, a leader can become effective as well as help his or her corporation remain competitive.

References

Chuang, S. (2013). Essential Skills for Leadership Effectiveness in Diverse Workplace Development. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development, 6(1), 1-20.
Economy, P. (2013). 7 Traits of Highly Effective Leaders. Inc.com. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/7-traits-highly-effective-leaders.html
How to Become a Great Leader in the Modern Business World. (2017). Leadership & Success. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://topquestionsandanswers.com/home/2017/3/26/pvjj6o17fjnr9u5z1zpebeftp5bnua
Krow, E. (2017). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/07/26/five-qualities-to-improve-to-be-an-effective-leader/#56012217aa0e
Morrison, N. (2017). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2017/02/09/donald-trump-is-not-the-biggest-threat-to-global-business/#a1b787c1b73b
Patel, D. (2017). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/03/22/11-powerful-traits-of-successful-leaders/
Rampur, S. (2016). The Importance of Leadership Development in the Present Scenario. Buzzle. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-importance-of-leadership-development.html