Personal Development Report: Leadership Skills Enhancement

This report details a personal development plan focused on enhancing managerial and leadership skills within a team environment. The author, acting as a group leader, identifies challenges in decision-making, resource allocation, and communication while leading a team tasked with developing innovative product ideas. The report highlights the importance of self-awareness, goal setting, and the practical application of skills such as patience and teamwork. The author reflects on setbacks encountered, including poor communication and imbalances in workload distribution, and describes how mentorship and objective conflict resolution improved time management and team cooperation. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the significance of personal development in achieving professional growth, skill advancement, and effective leadership.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 1
Personal development
Name
Institution
Date

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 2
Personal development is a process that involves different activities that enhance a person
towards the enhancement of skills, experience, and self-actualization. It requires that an
individual set out a plan for development, implements it and carries out continuous evaluation
tests to ensure that actual results match the desired outcomes1. Unlike educational training,
personal development can only be carried out by the individual. For instances, gaining
managerial and leadership skills requires working with a team and exhibiting the most
appropriate expertise to achieve common goals. Personal development helps individuals grow
professionally through skills and experience advancement. Personal development helps in goal-
setting, self-empowerment, and relationship building. The current realities of one’s expertise are
adequately identified through personal development plan. The skills, knowledge, and
competence of an individual are also identified using personal development plan.
My plan in developing managerial and leadership skills requires overcoming my
weakness and maximizing my strengths. The objective of personal development is to increase
my chances of employability and enhance my performance. Therefore, as a group leader in a
team that addresses innovative ideas, I am tasked with leading the group towards developing
creative concepts that can be used in the marketing and production departments. During the first
day, the team had the responsibility of conducting a comprehensive research on new ways to
develop the company’s product. As such, the group was divided into four where each sub-team
was to address various aspects of the product and identify components that can be improved.
Though my strengths include patience, teamwork, and managerial skills, I realized that
making decisions can be challenging. When the group was split into four, it meant that as the
team leader, I had to balance between the cost and benefit of the researching exercise. Each sub-
1John Kotter. "What effective general managers really do." Harvard business review 60, no. 6 (1982): 156-167.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 3
group had to travel to various locations to conduct a comprehensive research. What’s more, some
members of the group are entitled and request quality company resources such as the
transportation2. However, irrespective of their requests, one group required using the transport
car due to the nature of their research. I was able to balance the division of resources among the
members eventually but not without facing resistance from a few. I, therefore, learned that a
leader needs to maintain objectivity irrespective of the relationship with various group members3.
Irrespective of my ability to balance the resources between the group members, some
setbacks were encountered. I realized that in dividing the group to carry out various research
tasks, I failed to balance the amount of work. One group ended up with little functions while
another group was overwhelmed. Additionally, due to the conflict on which group was to take
the company car, some team members were unwilling to be helpful and share the excess work. It
affected time management and introduced a delay in the innovation research project. One of my
identified skills includes communication. I was a leader of a group that required inspiration to
cooperate, and I was poor in communicating. At first, I tried to talk to different members by
exploiting their personal goals and their relationships to enhance how they interacted4. However,
it did not work eventually. As a result, this has built my skills and competence in the industry.
This setback affected the team and the project eventually. As the team leader, I
understood that poor communication affected my ability to motivate the members. Hence, I
sought the guidance of a mentor. In his advice to my crisis, he noted that my best strategy was to
set up a meeting and identify the issues in the group. Secondly, I had to exercise objectivity in
2 Max Messmer. "How small slights can cause big damage to morale." Strategic Finance (2006): 15-17.
3 Elizabeth Curtis, and Rhona O'Connell. "Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff." Nursing
management (Harrow, London, England: 1994) 18, no. 5 (2011): 32.
4Teresa, Amabile, and Steven J. Kramer. "The power of small wins." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (2011): 70-
80.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 4
trying to resolve the conflict. Thirdly, by aligning the members’ goals and those of the team, I
would inspire cooperation among members5. Following his advice, I addressed the conflict
among the members. One group felt that I favored the other more. Thus I promoted the
aggression. I solved the issue and communicated the need for cooperation6. Eventually, I had
attained communication time management skills as the innovation project was completed in
time. In conclusion, personal development plays significant roles in goals setting, skills and
competence advancement, assessment of current realities, and the determination of short,
medium, and long term goals.
Bibliography
5 Teresa Amabile, Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer. "The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy,
Engagement, and Creativity at Work." Harvard Business Review Press 36 (2011): 157-183.
6 Shane Downer , “Leadership & management in employee motivation” Communication Management Institute
(London, United Kingdom: 2017)

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 5
Amabile, Teresa, Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer. "The Progress Principle: Using Small
Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work." Harvard Business Review Press 36
(2011): 157-183.
Amabile, Teresa M., and Steven J. Kramer. "The power of small wins." Harvard Business
Review 89, no. 5 (2011): 70-80.
Curtis, E., and R. O'Connell. "Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff."
Nursing management (Harrow, London, England: 1994) 18, no. 5 (2011): 32.
Downer S., “Leadership & management in employee motivation” Communication Management
Institute (London, United Kingdom: 2017)
Kotter, J. P. "What effective general managers really do." Harvard business review 60, no. 6
(1982): 156-167.
Messmer, Max. "How small slights can cause big damage to morale." Strategic Finance (2006):
15-17.