Developing Leadership Skills: Personal Development Plan for Leaders

This report outlines a personal development plan tailored for leaders, specifically within the context of a Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc program. It begins by establishing the program's aims, which include expanding practical knowledge and developing specialist skills in procurement and supply chain management. The report details the program's learning outcomes, such as securing jobs in various business organizations and gaining expertise in analytical techniques, supply chain strategy, and financial acumen. The report also explores the importance of leadership and management, transferable skills, and the evaluation of professional development models. The program emphasizes the development of practical business knowledge, real-world challenges, and the application of various tools and techniques for solving problems in the supply chain. The report highlights the significance of sustainability, ethics, and corporate responsibility in the modern business environment. The program aims to develop professionals who can drive significant differences in the industry and marketplace, ensuring participants develop their understanding of financial acumen to increase profitability through supply chain management.

Personal development for
leaders

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1 Programme aim........................................................................................................................1
2 Programme learning outcomes.................................................................................................3
3 Review of occupation, organisation and the industry..............................................................7
4. Audit of transferable skills......................................................................................................7
5 Exploration and evaluation of models of professional development.....................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management play a vital role in an organisation as they uses various
approaches and styles. This study will cover and show about the importance of leadership skills.
They help the company in order to achieve their determined goals. Development plan is an
effective tool that help leaders in order to developing skills.
1 Programme aim
The Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc is accredited or licensed by The
Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport and The Charted Institute of Procurement and
Supply (Christopher, Mena and Van Hoek, 2018). Procurement and Supply Chain Management
MSc Programme aims at providing help to its participants or students for expanding the practical
knowledge in the field of procurement and supply chain management. This programme is
developed in a way that participants of programme can effectively develop the required and
specialist skills and knowledge of the specific field. They can also increase and gain advance
knowledge of supply chain management and procurement foundation through this leadership
development programme. Students are provided and trained for practical understanding of
procurement and supply chain through applied theories and practices (Procurement and Supply
Chain Management MSc, 2019). This development programme aims and ensures that
participants or students develop their understanding for financial acumen so that it ensures
increasing profitability through the supply chain management. Curse programme is developed in
a way that it covers all the required elements of the business environment. Various compulsory
modules are the parts of this procurement and supply chain management programme, such as,
Principles of Strategic Procurement, Inventory and Operations Management, Analytical
Techniques for Supply Chain Management, Supplier Selection and Evaluation, etc. There are
even some Elective modules that are the part of this course programme, it includes Sales and
Operations Planning, Six Sigma, Business Model Generation, etc. From the list of Elective
Modules, selection needs to be made according to the needs of the participant.
The leadership development programme are held in order to bring and develop required
skills and knowledge in the person through which he can gain great benefits and bring effective
results in his professional career (Rudolf and Spinler, 2018). The main aim of this development
programme is to develop the supply chain and procurement professionals who make use of the
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developed skills on the programme and leads to bring significant differences in the industry or
marketplace. The faculty of the development programme are the leading experts of specific
areas, they combines excellent reputation of teaching and the experience gained from the
commercial world. The teaching approach of this programme is designed in a way that it helps in
nurturing the practical business knowledge and skills of participant and it also helps in
developing the confidence level. The development programme places great and huge emphasis
on various important aspects and elements such as real-world challenges (Qazi, Quigley and
Dickson, 2018).
Participants of the procurement and supply chain management programme can effectively
gain the understanding for important elements of professional activities and elements. In-depth
understanding can be gained through this programme regarding the procurement strategy,
supplier evaluation and selection, supply chain strategy, sustainability, negotiation, analysing and
designing effective operations for supply chain management and knowledge for contract
management. Participants can also gain knowledge for how to make use of the data, various
software and model for solving various problems and also to inform decisions. In-depth
understanding for accounting, operations and inventory management, project management and
freight transport. During the course programme, participants are provided with effective
guidance and support so that participant can plan good and effective strategy for the personal and
professional development. So, the participant can even look for securing the first management
responsibility or even take the career to a next level.
The programme provides specialist skills and knowledge which participants need in their
future career as a supply chain and procurement professional. The duration of the programme is
1 year which is delivered 60% in taught modules and other 40% through individual projects.
Persons who are in their early stages of career in procurement and supply chain professionals can
gain many benefits and advantages by learning and gaining knowledge through this development
programme. They can enhance required skills and knowledge and also move and step for the
next stage in professional career (Tiwari,Chan and Mubarak, 2018). The programme is
conducted using various course activities, lectures and sessions of guest speaker and these all are
well thought and planned by the management in order to achieve great results and outcomes.
After successful completion of the course programme, participants can achieve great wealth of
opportunities which exists in the marketplace or industry. The programme has full-time faculty
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group of people or team that works closely with the advisory board of senior logistics,
procurement and supply chain professionals from the different organisation across the globe. The
team faculty of the programme uses their knowledge, advices, experience and expertise skills for
effectively driving continuous development of the procurement and supply chain management
courses. The expert faculty team of the programme ensures that they are relevant with the today's
global environment of procurement and supply chain. The faculty team of the programme is
supported by the diverse team of international visiting industry speakers and professors.
2 Programme learning outcomes
On completion of my programme I will be able to:
1. After successfully completing the Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc
programme, I can gain great benefits in form of having secured jobs with the various
range of business organisations. It may include Tata Consultancy group, Airbus, Adidas,
BMW Group, Eli Lilly UK, Deutsche Bank, HelloFresh, Kuehne & Nagel, Saint Gobain,
Group Lotus, Lidl, Toyota Motors, KPMG, Bentley, United Biscuits, Heineken, Unilever
and many more. The roles, duties and responsibilities which I can have in the
organisation may be classified as Demand Planner, Logistics Manager, Buyer or Supply
Chain Analyst and Supply Chain Operations Manager (Abdel-Basset and et.al., 2019).
2. I can learn and gain knowledge about how procurement has developed, the various
information and skills which are required by the procurement professionals through
learning this course programme. This course programme ensures that I learn about
academic theories and accumulate knowledge for specific subject areas that can be
utilized in the professional career (Villena, 2018). I can also gain the knowledge for
making use of the specific techniques and tools which are employed in for managing the
function of procurement. I can also gain the knowledge regarding the strategic and also
for tactical issues which are available in the procurement management. The course
programme ensures that I properly and effectively understand about the purpose of the
procurement function and also about its role and importance in the industry. The
programme also provides me with the practical knowledge about the role and uses of
various web-based and automated applications that are used in the operations of
procurement and supply chain management. Through learning this course programme, I
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am able to develop an effective procurement strategy that is relevant with the operational
and supply chain needs of the business organisation.
3. Analytical techniques for Supply Chain Management is one of the module of this course
programme that effectively helps me to gain various knowledge and skills that is required
in the professional career (Louis and Pagell, 2018). This module focuses on providing
brief introduction about the role and relevance of analytical techniques within the
logistics and supply chain management within an organisation. I can effectively and
critically evaluate the strength, weakness and limitations of the different analytical and
statistical techniques. This course programme also teaches me to appraise the different
options available and select the most appropriate one for resolving particular or given
problem. This course programme helps me to apply statistical methods in an appropriate
way or manner to particular problems which are relating to supply chain management.
The various statistical methods include confidence intervals, sampling and hypothesis
testing. I am also able to construct models of mathematics that comprises of decision
objective and associated constraints. This models are then used for resolving specific
decision problems and evaluating results. Through this procurement and supply chain
management programme, I am able to make effective use of appropriate software tools to
solve the decision problems and realistic supply chain problems and also for correctly
interpreting the results.
4. In today's business environment, purchasing of goods and services have the considerable
part of business's turnover (Tiwari, Chan and Mubarak, 2018). Business organisation puts
much money on the line, increases the reliance on outsourcing and external resources,
thus, suppliers are considered to be important for the buying companies as it plays crucial
role in the success of business operations. Through this programme, I am able to critically
appraise the decisions related to sourcing within the supply chain management system
and also for formulating appropriate strategies for sourcing. I am also able to evaluate
and propose about the supplier selection model or framework for gaining positive results.
I am able to apply multi-objective and multi-attribute decision making frameworks and
various weighing, ranking and rating models into business situations. The procurement
and supply chain management programme also teaches me about the construction of
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financial and non-financial metrics for monitoring the performance of suppliers. I am also
able for comparing and contrasting the supplier appraisal standards.
5. The procurement and supply chain management course programme consists of a Supply
Chain Strategy and Sustainability that focuses on exploring supply chain sustainability,
such as ethics and corporate responsibility (Rudolf and Spinler, 2018). This programme
module helps me to analyse and also debate about basic principles which underlies the
supply chain management and also about the potential impact on sustainable competitive
advantage. Through this course module I am able to distinguish the evolving supply chain
relationship from the arm's length to the joint ventures. I can also effectively explain and
discuss about the potential role and importance of collaboration and co-ordination. The
learning modules helps me for applying various approaches for measuring lead time gap
and also evaluate solutions for improving the same, this may include applying lean
thinking. The modules of this course programme guides me for applying various
approaches that helps in segmenting the supply chain strategy that go beyond the idea of
agile and lean supply chains. In today's business environment, much important and
emphasis is put on the concept of sustainability, thus, this module also puts emphasis on
guiding activities that supports sustainable supply chain management (Qazi, Quigley and
Dickson, 2018). I am able to evaluate the different concepts of sustainable retailing,
sustainable development, corporate responsibilities and ethics as well.
6. The Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc programme aims at introducing
various traditional and contemporary accounting approaches through the Accounting and
Finance module. These approaches helps in increasing the visibility for financial
information and also supports management decision making process. The accounting and
financial module of this programme has five different themes that guides and supports me
for understanding the main variables that may lead to affect working capital management
of the business organisation. I am also able to judge about the different effects of
transactions, decisions and events on financial performance of the company. This course
module guides me for creating simple sets of accounts through the basic information
available (Myerson, 2018). I am also able to interpret about the financial statements that
supports planning, controlling and decision making within the business organisation. The
course programme also teaches me about the application of appropriate costing approach
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that helps in solving different business issues and problems. Through learning this course
programme, I am able to apply different financial techniques and tools for appraising
alternative opportunities for capital investments. This programme also teaches me to
make effective use of financial information for making informed and appropriate
management decisions.
7. There are certain elective modules present in the Procurement and Supply Chain
Management MSc programme (Louis and Pagell, 2018). The selection of modules needs
to be made as this is the part of the course programme. Designing and Managing
Resilient Supply Chains is one of the module of this course programme. In today's
interconnected world, the future procurement and supply chain professionals needs to
have the knowledge for recognising the potential risk related to experiencing disruption
in the supply chains. The professionals needs to have ability for preparing, reacting and
recovering from such unforeseen supply chains, i.e. developing resilience (Hopkins and
Sohal, 2019). Through learning with this course programme, I am able to identify various
key concepts from the business practices and literature and also to synthesis them in the
resilience supply chain design approach or framework, that is subjected for review,
further development and critique it. I am also able to identify various important steps
which are involved in the development and implementation of resilient supply chain
designs.
8. The course programme helps me to effectively evaluate various management issues and
challenges related to formulation and implementation of resilience into the supply chains.
The course module also guides me to effectively assess the effects and impacts of
contemporary supply chain practices into routine and non-routine business situations. I
can also describe about causalities and relationship between supply chain vulnerability,
supply chain risk management and supply chain resilience (Cordell and Thompson,
2019). The modules of the course programme guides me to have an appreciation
regarding how business organisation and human beings can prepare and also respond to
disruption in the specific contexts and situations of business. This also guides me about
how efficient and effective recovery can be enabled and how business organisations learn
through the past supply chain disruptions.
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3 Review of occupation, organisation and the industry
I participated in the Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc programme
through which I learned many things and gained important skills and knowledge required in the
field of procurement and supply chain management (Christopher, Mena and Van Hoek, 2018).
This fields put focus on identification and purchasing of raw materials which are needed for
creating products and services. My preferred professional role is to work in procurement and
supply chain management department. Because procurement is considered to be the important or
key part that helps in keep going the supply chain process in every business. The supply chain
management is concerned and related with the production process, shipment and also distribution
of products. This covers everything of the business starting from inventory to the sales, therefore,
it is crucial aspect of the business which makes and sells products. Therefore, I prefer to work as
Supply Chain Operations Manager.
I effectively learned and gained knowledge about basic and specialist skills through the
Procurement and Supply Chain Management MSc programme. This programme enables and
ensures that I can achieve professional development in the field of procurement and supply
chains. Thus, I chose to prefer the profession as a Supply Chain Operations Manager in the
BMW Group. This organisation is part of the Auto-mobile Industry (Supply Chain Management
in Automotive Industry, 2019). BMW Group is a German multinational company that was
founded in the year 1916. The company produces range of motor vehicles in different countries
including China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, United Kingdom and United States.
I chose this organisation and industry because I feel I can effectively make use of my
current skills and competencies within the industry and gain effective results. The industry will
also allow me further opportunities for developing skills and competencies through certain
business situations and contexts. The preferred role or professional in the selected organisation or
industry will allow me to make effective use of the learned skills and competencies in the
business contexts and situations (Abdel-Basset and et.al., 2019).
4. Audit of transferable skills
SWOT analysis:
With the help of SWOT analysis, the individual can evaluate their strength, weakness,
opportunity and threat for becoming leader in the field of procurement and supply chain
management(Wang and Li, 2016).
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Strength:
The strength shows the positive attributes of the leader that are controllable. To become a
leader of procurement and supply chain management industry, they have to develop number of
strength such as:
Listening skills: It is an ability to accurately receive as well as interpret messages in the
communication with the suppliers and employers. Listening is very big strength of the leaders to
make an effective communication with supplier that helps to provide the growth to leaders in
their leadership.
Creative thinking: This skill also an important strength that an individual need to
develop to become a leader of procurement and supply chain management because in
procurement process of the organisation where leader need to introduce some new ways time to
time to make they management effective.
Quick learner: The individual have ability to learn quick for managing the procurement
and supply chain and implements new concepts of the managing procurement and supply chain
management. It strength helps to provide quick growth to the individual as leader(Bull and
et.al.,2016).
Critical thinking: This strength helps to individual to analysis and evaluate the issues
related to procurement and supply chain management in order to solve that helps to make
effective process.
Weakness:
It is also internal factor of the leader that may create barriers in the ability of the leader to
meet their objectives. It helps to examine those area that an individual need to improve to
become a leader in the field of procurement and supply chain management industry such as:
Poor organisational skill: The individual do not have good organisational skills that is a
biggest weakness of the individual to becoming a leader because when they work in an
organisation they need some organisation skills such as goal setting, delegation, team
management and many more. Without organisation skill, they can not maintain effectively the
procurement and supply chain management.
Lack of problems solving skills: In procurement and supply chain management, there
are so many problems arise in every step. If the leader ignore the problem that can be reduces
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efficiency of the goods and services as well as the leader can not manage properly the supply
chain management.
Technical skill: It is an ability and knowledge that is needed to perform a specific task.
This skill needs an experience that come to work in procurement and supply chain management.
An individual as fresher do not have technical knowledge about the procurement and supply
chain management that may be creates problems in the effective management.
Time management: If the individual do not have ability to manage time that create delay
in achieving objectives of the organisation as well as leader. Time management is very important
to become a leader. If the person do not know to manage time then they can not able to perform
their role and responsibilities effectively(Blockeel and et.al.,2016).
Opportunities:
It is related to external factor that should develop by individual to become a leader. The
individual can take advantage from the external factor in determine their career as leader of
procurement and supply chain management.
Learning from other leaders: It helps to enhance the knowledge of the individual in the
field of procurement and supply chain management and make confident to resolve conflict that
arises in this field.
Taking leadership courses: It is also an important opportunity to enhance their
knowledge and experience in the field of procurement and supply chain management. It helps to
encourage introspection, enhance valuable skills, clarify the vision and also helps to lead to the
next level.
Public speaking: It is also a weakness of the individual that they have fear of specking in
front of people. As become a leader they have to speak about their work to the outsider if the
individual are not able to do this that may be create barrier in becoming leader.
Threat:
It is also related to external risk that are not controllable and can create risk for leader. It
helps to analysis those factor that hurt the individual chance to become a leader of procurement
and supply chain management.
Receiving too much praise from other leaders: The praise from other leaders makes
the individual overconfident and distract their efforts towards the goals.
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Becoming too personal with team and followers: It distracts a leader from their goals
and motives and enhance their interest towards the personal life of the team and followers that
may create barrier in become a successful leader in procurement and supply chain management.
According to Bull and et.al.,(2016)listening skills is an important for becoming the leader
of the procurement and supply chain management because the leader have to deal with their
suppliers so the effective communication is needed that comes from good listening skills. So, to
become a good leader their one of biggest strength is listening skill. The researcher also define
some other strengths that is also needed to become a leader of procurement and supply chain
management such as creative thinking, quick learner and critical thinking. This skills are biggest
strength of the leader and that helps to the growth of the organisation as well as individual.
As per the Blockeel and et.al.,(2016)the individual have some weakness to perform the
role of leader in procurement and supply chain management such as poor organisational skill. As
the individual do not knowledge about how to manage the organisation that may create the
problems to manage the procurement and supply chain management. One more weakness is the
leaders ignore the problems that arise in the procurement and supply chain management. The
weakness of the leaders can effect the overall performance of the organisation because the
management and decision making power is in the hand of leaders. If the leader do not consider
present problems at the time of decision making of the procurement and supply chain
management that may be effect the growth of the organisation.
Wang and Li, (2016)state that there are number of opportunities is there for an individual
to become a leader of procurement and supply chain management such as the individual can
learn from other leaders that have experience on this field that helps to enhance the knowledge of
the individual in this field that can be implemented at the time of their leadership to make
effective procurement and supply chain management. The research also talk about that individual
can enhance their knowledge in this field by taking some leadership course related to
procurement and supply chain management.
According to Blockeel and et.al.,(2016)the leader have some external threats that
effective the individual to becoming a leader such as receiving too much praise from other
leaders that makes an individual overconfident about their knowledge that may distract their
concentration from their work as well as effect the effective procurement and supply chain
management and some times create big issues. When the leader becoming too personal with
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