Dynamic Leadership: A Personal Development Plan

This article provides a personal leadership development plan based on critical analysis of various leadership theories. It identifies a transformational leadership style and focuses on consistent learning, sustained growth, and overall development. The article also includes a table of contents and a critical analysis of six leadership theories.

Running Head: Dynamic Leadership
Leadership
Dynamic Leadership-Leadership Plan

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Executive Summary
The assignment here is a reflection on self-development as a leader to build awareness.
In the assignment a critical analysis of various leadership styles are provided, on the
basis of which I have identified my leadership style to be transformational in nature. I
believe that there are three pillars for the development of leadership in a person are
consistent learning, sustained growth and overall development

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Table of Content
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Critical analysis of Leadership Theories................................................................................................................. 4
Great Man Theory (1840s)...................................................................................................................................... 4
Trait Theory of Leadership (1930s-1940s)...................................................................................................... 5
Behavioural Theories (1940s-1950s)................................................................................................................. 5
Contingency Theory (1960s).................................................................................................................................. 6
Transactional Leadership Theories (1970s).................................................................................................... 7
Transformational Leadership Theory (1970s)............................................................................................... 7
Personal Leadership Development Strategy......................................................................................................... 8
Strength Finder-Gallup/Clifton Strength............................................................................................................... 9
Leadership Development Plan................................................................................................................................. 12
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................................ 13
References........................................................................................................................................................................ 14

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Introduction
Leadership is both an art and a practical application of skill encompassing the ability of
an individual to lead, influence and motivate the individual and the organization to
achieve the goals and objectives of the organization (Storey, 2016). Leadership is the
virtue of an individual to ensure that the business process, practices, policies and
strategies all are inclined and streamlined to achieve the goals of the
organization(Miner, 2015). Leaders are the flag bearers of an organization and they
have to ensure that the means employed by them to achieve the end would be based on
the concept of utilitarianism. Utilizing the above description as an introduction, the
underlying purpose of the assignment here is to explore and reflect on self-development
as a leader to build self-awareness. A personal leadership style will also be depicted by
critically analysing different types of leadership styles. The focuses of the report will
heavily li on creating a continuous and a self- development plan for consistent learning
and sustained growth. Thus, the report will be a comprehensive reflection of my
leadership ability, style and a self -development plan.
Critical analysis of Leadership Theories
The section here will critically analyse 6 leadership theories, and will also help me in
choosing the leadership style which suits me the best. The critical analysis will help in
developing an insight on the best practices in the leadership to ensure application of the
right leadership in the business organization.
Great Man Theory (1840s)
This is one of the early theories in leadership which gave researches to further explore
the study area in detail. According to the great man theory, the leaders are born,
naturally. The leaders have certain intrinsic characteristics which defines them as a
leader. The Great Man Theory sees that the leaders are born, because they are destined
to become leader (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). It totally rules out the
possibility of developing leadership ability in an individual. An addition to the theory

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was that leaders some rose out of situation, that is it implied that in times of grave
concern, a leader is born to solve the trouble.
Critically analysing this theory, the biggest limitation of the theory is that it totally rules
out the scope of development and training to create a leader. The theory also fails to
recognize some of the traits which make a person a true and a global leader. Thus, thus
to plethora of criticism and lack of empirical evidence, this theory was succeeded by the
Trait theory of leadership (Landis, Hill & Harvey, 2014).
Trait Theory of Leadership (1930s-1940s)
Trait theory of leadership is most certainly an improvement over the Great Man Theory.
The theory states that a leader is either born or is made by certain qualities which
would help him to ace in his role of leadership in any walk of life. The trait theory
realized a lot of traits such as intelligence, honesty, integrity, creativity, value learning
etc. to be some of the most vouched upon traits to become an effective and successful
leader. The trait theory went a step ahead, and combined mental, physical and social
elements in order to gain a deeper insight on the characteristics of an effective leader
(Dutta & Sahney, 2016).
Despite the fact that trait theory of leadership was by far the most developed model, it
too had a lot of limitation, which masked the efficiency of the theory. For instance, the
lack of empirical evidence put the theory in jeopardy; also, the study was conducted on
low level managers, which does not qualify for an organization wide leadership. Also,
when some traits were analysed alongside the abilities, only intelligent and tall were the
identified characteristics, which was not comprehensive. I too believe that Trait theory
did have some improvement, but it wasn’t something which made sense to the people
looking to develop their abilities to become an effective leader (Bolman & Deal, 2017).
Behavioural Theories (1940s-1950s)
Behavioural theories of leadership was propounded just after the trait theories, it was a
reaction or an improvement over the earlier propounded trait theory. According to this
theory, it focused on the behaviour of leader akin to his leadership, unlike the
characteristics as mentioned in the trait theory of leadership. The theory was also in
sync with the revolution in the technology which leads to psychometric analysis and the

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researchers were able to identify a causal effect of the behaviour akin to their
leadership. Thus, the leadership can be viewed as anyone can become a leader if
imposed to various conditioning and stimulating factors. Behaviour theories
categorized leadership in two different categories; One who are concerned with the
task, and other who are concerned with people (McCleskey, 2014).
The leadership theory was pretty advanced, but it was not complete in description. It
failed to analyse the exact behaviour which made a person a true leader. The theory
further gave rise to the Managerial grid model and the Role theory, which were fairly
advanced and gave a good understanding of the behaviour specific to good leadership
style (Swanwick & McKimm, 2017).
Contingency Theory (1960s)
This is one theory which makes some sense in the present business organizational
context. The theory states that there is no single way of leading and that every
leadership style must and should be based on certain situations. This theory implies
that there are some people who rise to the occasion in extreme situation and perform at
their maximum level, whilst they perform at the minimum level in ordinary
circumstances. In my view this is very situation type of leadership theory, and it calls for
the leader to be flexible in their approach and apply leadership according to a specific
context. This theory is most definitely an extension of the trait theory, as leaders rise to
the occasion based on their traits, as identified in the trait theory of leadership (Piccolo,
Buengeler & Judge, 2018).
The contingency theory is practices by many leaders in the present day, for Instance, the
Ex Australian leader and captain used Contingency theory, and he always raised to the
occasion when his team needed him the most. The contemporary theory gave birth to
plenty of theories, which were created on the premise of contingency theory, such as:
 Fiedler’s Contingency theory.
 Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory
 Path-Goal Theory
 Vroom expectancy theory
 Cognitive Resource Theory (Yi & Zhao, 2018).

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 Strategic Contingency Theory
I personally believe in this theory of leadership as the business ecosystem has become
dynamic in nature, thus leaders have to adapt to the changing situation and create
solution for the business organization.
Transactional Leadership Theories (1970s)
Transactional leadership theory is also known as the exchange theories of leadership.
This type of leadership is characterised by a transaction which is made between the
leader and the follower. Thus, the leadership solely rests on a transaction, and depends
on the mutual relationship. The theory though has certain demerits, but it is still seen as
a positive and mutually beneficial relationship. In order to make the transactional
theory of leadership effective, the leaders have to look up for a motivation value to push
its followers. He has to create reward and punishment akin to the kind of tasks
performed by the followers (Morris & Corlett, 2016). It can only be said that
transactional leaders can be efficient only and only if a mutually reinforcing
environment is created in the organization. Thus, the theories imply that individuals in
general are always looking to maximize their pleasurable experiences and alienate un-
pleasurable experiences. And, people look forward to mostly associate themselves with
their strengths. However, I see this theory has kind of lopsided in its implementation.
Individuals are at times, unable to weigh the quantum of punishment in terms of the
poor quality of work they have done, which leads to demotivation. Thus, I don’t
personally follow this leadership style in any walk of my life (Sosik & Jung, 2018).
Transformational Leadership Theory (1970s)
This is the most recent and developed theory of leadership which is used by the plenty
of visionaries in the present times. The transformational leadership theory states that it
is the process in accordance to which a person interacts with others and is able to
create a bond of strong relationship which would eventually result in increasing trust
and motivation both for the followers and the leaders. The essence of transformational
leadership is that leaders transform their followers through the virtue of their
inspirational nature and charismatic personality. In this style of leadership the rules are
flexible, and are guided by the norms of the group. Transformational style of leadership

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helps in providing a sense of belonging to followers and they identify strongly with the
leaders. Jeff Bezos is one of the present visionary of his time who practices
transformational style of leadership at Amazon, Jeff Bezos uses his skill sets to not only
motivate and empower the employees, but he effectively communicates the vision of the
organization to the employees. He uses transformation as a virtue to communicate the
goals of the organization to its employees and also provides them a path to achieve the
goals (Braun et. al., 2018).
In my personal opinion, transformational leadership is the style which makes most
sense. The leadership is extremely powerful and contemporary, and it provides for
enhanced productivity of its employees. For instance, Amazon is the e-commerce
behemoth, and has disrupted the entire e-commerce and the online shopping
ecosystem. All the development done at Amazon and feet achieved at the company can
be also viewed as the resultant of the transformational style of leadership practices by
Jeff Bezos (Novo, Landis & Haley, 2017).
Personal Leadership Development Strategy
The critical analysis of the prevalent leadership theory has been useful to decide what
has to be done, and what can be ignored to make the most of the situation. My
Leadership development strategy is based on the three fold growth, which I created for
myself, and will help me in creating my leadership development strategy:
 Consistent Learning-I am of the opinion that if the learning of the person stops,
the clock of his life ticks off. Implication here is that there is too much to learn
from the world, peer, culture, business organization, concepts learning, analysing
the current landscape of business, human psychology and many more. With so
much to learn, it would be very imbecile if a person stops learning, does not
matter if one is at the pinnacle of his career. I concur with this notion, and that is
one of the reason I read plenty of books related to various topics such as history
of the world, understanding human psychology, autobiographies, business
management case studies, real world case scenarios and plenty of management
books to provide me a comprehensive understanding of a lot of topics which
would help me in my leadership. I believe that by the virtue of consistent

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learning I can be a better leader and would be in a position to manage my
followers effectively. Consistent learning leads me to my next goal which is of
sustained growth, and also the basis of my leadership development strategy.
 Sustained Growth-Every step or action a human takes in his life has to be really
thoughtful, what I meant to imply is that a person should always beforehand
think of the possible ramification of the action. My actions, as much as possible
are always in sync with my sustained growth. Hence, any skill I learn, or any new
competency I acquire all points towards sustained growth. For instance, I
believed that I need to work towards improving my people management skills, in
order to do so, I changed my personality to more open types, and this helped me
in making a better connect with people. Sustained growth is also a yardstick
which can be used to measure the development and the growth of the individual.
Thus, by focussing on the abilities and the competencies which are
contemporary and are most required in business organization will get in
becoming an effective leader.
 Overall Development-Just as human resources these days have started using a
360 degree Performance management system to evaluate the performance of the
employee round the year, the same strategy has to be used in one’s personal life
as well. The days are gone, when it mattered more if a person was “King of one
trade”, it has been transformed into “Jack of all trade”. I on a personal level
strongly agree with this hypothesis as this is the era of internet and globalization.
People are privy to millions of literature which they can consume on the net, and
learn something new. This would in –turn contributes towards the overall
development of a human being. I for an instance focus on all the areas, such as
business news, politics, sports, charity work, understanding the business climate
and many more things. Learning about all the different kind of things fills me
with confidence and contributes to my overall development.
Thus, it can be said that in order to become an inspirational and an effective leader, one
has to never stop learning, it is easier if you unlearn something and then learn a new
thing. But, the takeaway is that the development should be across all the areas possible
and should harbinger towards the development of the individual and his leadership
ability.

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Strength Finder-Gallup/Clifton Strength
I really was not satisfied with my approach towards leadership and in my opinion there
was most definitely a scope for significant improvement in approaching towards the
leadership. Hence, I wanted to identify what are my strength, focussing upon which I
will be able to better shape my leadership. Thus, Clifton Strength is a web based
assessment test with a positive focus. It is also used for promotion and interpersonal
development within the professional setting. The test undertaken gave me the following
result, which will help me in focussing on my strength and create my leadership
development plan.

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The above figure is a strength assessment of mine in accordance to the 34 strength of
Clifton test. The above mentioned characteristics are inherent in my personality or
something which I have learnt and developed over the time. The Clifton strength is can
be divided into four domains of Executing, influencing, relationship building and
strategic thinking. These skills will help me in polishing my leadership development
skills:
 Restorative-Restorative falls into the domain of executives and the people with
these characteristics enjoy the problem of challenge and work hard towards
finding a solution for it. This is one of my strengths which also tells that I really
love discovering new ways to work and finding new and better solutions to solve
the problem. Thus my strength here will help in:
o Discover something which is not working.
o Finding resolution
o Guiding people
o Increasing the functionality
 Developer-This falls within the domain of relationship builder, and here the
strength of developer lies in seeing and realizing potential of other people. These
kinds of people feel that everybody has a potential and propensity to grow and
excel in life. I totally agree with my assessment here because I really do believe in
the abilities of the people and of the opinion that right guidance and path pushes
the people to do even unrealistic tasks(Ward, 2016).
 Relator-As the name suggests, relator describes the person’s attitude towards his
own relationship with people. In other terms, relator pulls one towards the
people they already know. This is most definitely help in creating long term
bonds with the internal and external stakeholders of the business organization
and ensures long term loyalty of them.
 Positivity- The strength of positivity lies in the fact that a person has the
capability to transform the mood of the people from negative to positive. Such
people are also known as the mood healers and are very important for the
morale of the organization. This element here makes me connect positively with
people, and they can easily confide in me, certainly a trait or characteristic for
effective leadership.

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Based on the understanding and critical analysis of the leadership theory, I am creating
a plan of self- development which will help in developing my skills and pull me closer to
effective leadership. My ambition in life is to lead the digital marketing team of an e-
commerce organization, thus on the basis of it, I am creating a self -development plan
towards leadership.
Leadership Development Plan
This is created on the basis of my aspiration and analysis of my strength, weakness and
the areas identified for improvement.
Time Period -2 Years
Area of
Improvement
Description Utility Timeframe
Business
Communication
Business
communication
consists of email
etiquettes, usage of
business
communication
technology and the
nuance of effective
communication.
This will help me in
gaining the required
amount of
confidence and
learning ways by
which I can
effectively
communicate and
present my opinion
to the management
2 Years
Leadership
Development
Programme.
This module will
cover in depth all
the skill sets related
to leadership. It will
help me in
understanding the
nuance and the
criticality of
leadership in
business
organization.
This will help me in
realizing how
business leaders
took their
organization to the
pinnacle of success.
2 Years
Business
Technology
This module will
cover the skills
required to excel in
the business
environment
related to the
industry domain, in
this case, e-
This will help me in
getting a step
forward and have a
competitive edge
over my peers
2 Years

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commerce
Business Ethics It is important for a
leader to take
ethical decisions,
and it always have
to be on the concept
of utilitarianism.
It is important for
me to learn
business ethics, so
that not only I
follow it, but also
make the entire
organization walk
on an ethical path
2 Years
Conclusion
Leadership has evolved in the recent past due to evolution in technology and
globalization. In the present business days, the need of the hour for leadership has to be
flexible and not rigid, leaders have to adapt according to the changing business climate
and make most of the situation. My personal leadership style is inspired by the CEO and
Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. I believe that I am a transformational leader because my
intentions are always to push, motivate and transform the people to delivery best for
the organization and themselves.

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References
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Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John
Wiley & Sons.
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Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 4: From theory to practice. Routledge.
Novo, B., Landis, E. A., & Haley, M. L. (2017). Leadership and its role in the success of project
management. Journal of Leadership, Accountability, and Ethics, 14(1), 73-78.

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Piccolo, R. F., Buengeler, C., & Judge, T. A. (2018). 17 Leadership [Is] Organizational Citizenship
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