Leadership Development Report: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Leadership development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Literature review..........................................................................................................................2
Personal development plan..........................................................................................................7
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................9
Logbook.....................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Leadership styles..............................................................................................................3
Figure 2: Self awareness wheel.......................................................................................................6

Introduction
The workforce in an organization needs guidance and support to achieve the goals. The
leadership is such an art to engage, motivate and drive the workforce so that they can accomplish
the intended work with high efficiency. The report will discuss the definitions and concept
behind leadership. Also, core competencies and capabilities of the leader will be determined
along with inclusion of the self-awareness frameworks. The report will discuss how the
leadership theories and characteristics required for small and medium size businesses. The
personal development plan and reflection also will be discussed to share the future needs in the
skills and capabilities and performance within a small business environment.
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Discussion
Literature review
Leadership is an art to influence individual or group of people toward the achievement of
specific goals. Therefore, leadership is also a process to systematically engage the people into
operations and to achieve the goals effectively. Leader is a person who influences the people and
led the hope. Also, a good leader shape and share the vision with others so that they can find a
work point and can attain the goals (Cameron et al., 2014). Therefore leadership is also defined
as the combination of the strategy and character and without one of both; a leader cannot
accomplish the defined goals.
There are several characteristics of a leader those are also determined in managers but both also
have differences. For example, a good leader is goal directed, communicate the goals and take
risks to achieve the outcome whereas a manager focuses on tasks, inform the resources and
further focuses on the reduction of risks. A leader encourages and motivates the employees so
that ideas and inspiration can be fostered to develop trust among them but a manager aligns the
resources, approves the work, expects control and ensures execution of rules (Grint et al., 2016).
Therefore, a manager focuses on the implementation of the strategies to achieve the
standardization and optimization in the practices whereas a leader is the integral part of the team
and works with them to attain the specific goals with creativity, motivation and individual’s
development.
There are several ways to motivate the resources and to achieve the goals but the approaches and
styles are dependent on the business vision and situations. For example, autocratic leadership
style has centralization of the decisions making and focuses on the tasks for outcome. Therefore,
there is less integration of the resources in decision making and they are only directed t
accomplish the defined goals (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016). It is significant when employees are
not able to contribute in business decisions or there is need of liability management on the
outcome. However, it can reduce the satisfaction of the employees. Democratic leadership
focuses on the inclusion of the employees in the business decisions and helps to increase their
satisfaction and motivation (Saeed et al., 2014). It has values to achieve goals as shared practices
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and increases the acceptance of the decisions to improve the workplace culture. However, there
is need of strong motivation for participation and support.
Transformational leader is significant as it highly focuses on the people rather than the tasks. The
leader motivates and transforms the operations, process and approaches to attain the competitive
advantages. It has advantages to drive the workforce toward the improved practices and
strategies and keep them aligned to goals. It has values to transit from one position to another
and to integrate a change effectively (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013). Laissez-affaire leader can
help to achieve satisfaction among employees because of flexibility and work recognition but it
also makes the execution more oriented to the people with flexible implementation of the rules
and standard practices. Therefore, for a small and medium organization, the leaders have
significant role to transform the practices toward standardization and to engage the employees
into business decisions making to improve outcomes.
Figure 1: Leadership styles
A good leadership is supported through the better development and leadership competencies.
However, the position and requirements also define the need of the competencies among the
leaders. Following are major competencies for the leaders to attain so that they can ensure
quality decisions and actions in the practices.
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Leading the organization
The core competency of the leader is to lead the organization toward high quality, performance
and profitability. Therefore, leaders should be competent to manage the change through the
available team members and assets. They should make the decisions according to the situations
and to solve the problems effectively. Therefore, a leader is required to be competent for the
situations and subsequent changes. Also, a good leader should manage the politics at workplace
and influences the people in right direction (Bird and Stevens, 2013). The leader sets vision and
promotes innovation in the practices and encourages the individual toward learning and quality
outcome through risk taking and strategic planning. Leader also supports organizational growth
through work management, and enhancement in the business skills and knowledge.
Leading the self
Self development is also essential part of the leadership competencies because it helps to sharp
the skills and to adopt the situation for the quality outcomes. For example, a leader demonstrates
ethics and integrity and shows the purpose and directions to the others. The leader is also self-
aware to manage the work, improve learning and to develop skills and capabilities (Caligiuri and
Tarique, 2012). Therefore, the leaders have to present self as the stature in the leadership and it
should be reflected in the decisions and working.
Leading others
The leaders communicate the goals, vision and strategies with others so they can be integrated in
the business growth effectively. Also, they value the diversity and differences among the team
members. Relationship is focused with tea members for the work execution and monitoring and
it helps to make the process transparent and reliable for the resources (Seemiller, 2013). Besides
to manage effective team and groups, it is the competency of the leaders to develop the others
alongside the professional growth.
Besides these core competencies, the leaders of small and medium size businesses can consider
the global competencies. For example, they should be flexible and open-minded, able to deal
with complexities and stable in the personal life. At a global level, the leaders should be
culturally interested and sensitive (Bird and Stevens, 2013). Honesty and integrity is also
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required along with resilience, optimistic, resourceful and energetic personality. The leaders are
required to be competent for the global challenges to attain the business goals in the international
market.
A good leader understands the requirements and expectations of the team members. Therefore, a
leader is required to adopt self-awareness frameworks including the motivation and other
theories. For example, the leaders can consider the use of Maslow’s hierarchical needs to
understand the needs of the employees to support the business. The leaders are required to
address the needs in a systematic manner to engage the employees and to conquer their trust and
reliability with the operations. It helps to increase the retention rate and satisfaction. Also,
Herzberg motivational theory can be used to understand the potential factors those can improve
or reduce the employee motivation at workplace (Laureani and Antony, 2017). The leaders are
required to learn how to balance the hygiene and motivation factors to attain the sustainable
operations. The theory is useful to engage the employees into internal decisions and to provide
reliable support and services to increase their satisfaction.
The self-awareness wheel is also useful to understand how to response to the issues and
challenges. For example, leaders have to collect sensory data through observation, examples,
descriptions and facts and figures whereas thoughts including assumptions, expectations and
interpretations can be used to understand the issues. The understanding for feeling and wants
also can help to move toward the quality actions on the challenges (Showry and Manasa, 2014).
The self-awareness wheel is significant to address the challenges with more appropriate and
reliable decision making.
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Figure 2: Self awareness wheel
Therefore, the leadership characteristics are developed with time and through the practices. They
are achieved with time and experience besides of knowledge. For example, a good has
characteristic of honesty, integrity, confidence, inspiration, commitment and passion. Also,
leader has characteristics of communication with others so that leader can influence them and
cam communicates the vision and mission to them effectively. Leaders have capabilities to make
decisions with high independence and they take accountability of the work and outcomes. Role
delegation and empowerment to the individual is also under the characteristics of a leader.
Besides these, a good leader also focuses on the creativity and innovation in the practices and
fosters empathy among others (Batool, 2013). Therefore, the leader works as integral part of the
team but brings all together and direct them to achieve the specific goals effectively. The skills
and competencies of the leaders are dependent on the situations but in most of the cases, they are
ideal for the team members to attain the particular tasks with high efficiency.
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Therefore, small and medium size businesses also have to promote the leadership skills among
the resources because it can help to reduce the internal complexities, improve the outcomes and
can align the resources to the objectives (Gonzalez, 2012). Leadership approaches and styles are
also required to adopt according to situations so that high profitability and growth can be
achieved. Training and development programs along with support from the internal structure and
execution are required to develop the competencies and to drive the workforce toward the
objectives.
Personal development plan
From the critical review of the leadership characteristics and framework, I have identified that
several skills and competencies are required to develop to attain the future state of leadership. As
a leader in an organization, it is essential for me to become compatible for the work and job
profile and to lead the business with high efficiency and profitability. Therefore, the present
skills are required to add up with future skill sets to ensure competent behavior during executions
of the strategies.
At present, I am good in communication skills. I can share the business goals, vision and
strategies to the employees. However, I have to learn how to understand the requirements and
expectations of the team members also and how to make a most acceptable and suitable
decisions through the participation of the team members. Therefore, I have to develop the
hearing capabilities also. Also, I am unstable in the behavior because the failure of the others and
delays in the outcomes might drive me in aggressive situations. I have to focus on the stable and
professional behavior at workplace to achieve the success (Gonzalez, 2012). I have strong skills
of motivation and positivism at workplace. I like to work with others and can encourage them to
attain the goals with the optimal use of the constraints and capabilities but I have to focus on the
creativity and innovation in the practices. I have to set the standards for the team members
through effective creativity and integration in the work. Rather than instruct them directly, I want
to develop the skills of analysis on the feedback to systematically plan and implement the
required capabilities.
Table 1; Personal Development Plan
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Skills/
competencies
Current status Future status Activities/ tools Time required
Communication
skill
-Fluent
communication in
English and one
international
language
- I can share
thoughts and
concepts
effectively.
- I consider equal
listening from
others to improve
decisions.
-Emotional and
expressional
integration
-Online video
lessons
-Participation in
group activities.
-Feedback from
colleagues.
Four month
Personality -influencing
-Formal
presentation
-Unstable in
different situations
-Clam and
engaging
personality
-stable and formal
behavior in
various situations
-using feedback
from colleagues to
improve personality
-Self-analysis of
behavior
-Marking on
situations and
contexts
Six months
Team work -Communicating
vision and
strategies.
-Supporting work
but not engaging
to resolve issues
-Working in team
-Understanding
problems and
issues
-Engaging to set
standards and to
motivate resources
-Celebrating
successes
-learning on team
building practices
-Revisiting roles and
responsibilities
-Motivating
resources
-Working as integral
component of the
team.
Two months
Creativity and
innovation
-Sometime being
task oriented
-Focusing on
outcomes and
-Motivate
individual to make
use of the skills
and capabilities.
-Updating
knowledge through
books and journals
to bring change
Six months
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deadlines -Promoting
creativity and
innovation
-encouraging risk
taking behavior
-Driving resources
from barriers
-engaged in team
and discussions to
observe creativity
levels
-Optimizing role
delegation according
to capabilities.
Problem solving -Enough skills to
resolve common
issues
-accepting
challenges but
unable to solve
them.
-Effective
integration of the
employees
-improved
understanding
with common and
expected problems
-improved logical
mapping and
reasoning
-independent to
get over the issues
-Reading and
understanding
business documents
-Using case studies
to improve
understanding
-Examine historical
decisions on same or
similar types of
problems
-Adding creativity in
decisions
-validating practices
with opinion and
feedback from
others.
Five months
Reflection
Cleenol Group is a leading small business providing cleaning material directly to the
wholesalers, businesses and agencies. The organization has goal to manufacture the products and
sale them under the owned-channel to achieve profitability. I am working in the production
department as the senior leader to design and develop the products and services. The leadership
experience is quite impressive as it has provided great opportunities to me to develop the skills
and capabilities and to achieve the professional growth.
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