Leadership Development Plan and Strategic Direction at ABC Travels

This report delves into the strategic management and leadership development of ABC Travels, a full-service travel agency. It begins by analyzing the company's strategic direction and evaluating the strategic skills required for leaders operating in a complex environment. The report then assesses the relationship between existing, required, and future skills to achieve strategic ambitions. Furthermore, it discusses opportunities for supporting leadership development and designs a personal development plan for the company's leader, including an implementation process. The report evaluates the achievement of outcomes against original objectives and explores the impact of leadership style and corporate commitment to employee welfare on strategic organizational objectives, offering critical reviews and updates to the leadership development plan. The analysis includes skill-gap assessments, the development of a personal development plan, and the evaluation of corporate commitment to employee welfare, providing a comprehensive overview of the company's strategic management approach.

Development as a
Strategic Manager

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Critically Analyse the Strategic Direction of the Organisation..............................................2
Critically Evaluate the Strategic Skills Required of the Leader Operating in a Complex
Environment to Achieve Personal and Organisational Strategic Ambitions..........................2
Assess the Relationship between Existing, Required and Future Skills to Achieve the Strategic
Ambitions...............................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
Critically Discuss the Opportunities to Support Leadership Development............................4
Design a Personal Development Plan to Direct Leadership Development in a Complex
Environment...........................................................................................................................4
Devise an Implementation Process to Underpin the Success of the Development Plan that Can
Realise Substantial Changes in Leadership Style...................................................................6
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................6
Critically Evaluate the Achievement of Outcomes of the Plan Against Original Objectives 6
Evaluate the Impact of Leadership Style and the Achievement of Objectives on Strategic
Ambitions in Different Organisational Settings.....................................................................6
Critically Review and Update the Leadership Development Plan.........................................7
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................7
Critically Evaluate the Impact of Corporate Commitment to Employee Welfare on Strategic
Organisational Objectives......................................................................................................7
Discuss How an Employee Welfare Environment Can Effect Achievement of Strategic
Organisational Objectives......................................................................................................8
Determine the Influence of Corporate Commitment to Employee Welfare on the Development
of Organisational Values that will Realise Strategic Ambitions............................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The strategic manager of an organisation is the one who is accountable to the senior
management for undertaking all the important decisions associated with the tactics as well as
strategies of the entity in the long term. There are various tools as well as techniques that can be
leveraged by the strategic manager of an enterprise to be able to determine the personal skills
which are considered as being necessary and essential for the accomplishment of the strategic
ambitions of the enterprise. This is done by virtue of taking into account the strategic direction of
the entity in the global landscape that is changing at a rapid pace. Within an enterprise, an
individual can be said to achieve success only when the organisational culture and organisational
value are supportive enough to facilitate their learning as well as development in the long term.
The strategic manager of an enterprise needs to have certain key skills to be able to take
important decisions on the part of the company and execute the same within the organisational
premises. These skills are acknowledged to be communication, analytical, observatory,
interpersonal, and tactical skills.
In this relation, the current project demonstrates the development of the strategic manager
of a company by adopting the right set of tools and techniques. The organisation selected for
carrying out this project is ABC Travels. This is a renowned private owned full service travel
agency corporation that has its headquarters situated within the bounds of Houston, TX, United
States. Over the course of time, this organisation has grown under the guidance and supervision
of its leader who has driven the workforce with the communication of vision of ABC Travels for
the long term. Existing in the tourism industry for a time span of almost 42 years, this company
has impeccably evolved and grown into a complete guide for travelling. Now, the current project
consists of strategic direction of the company and strategic skills required by a leader in a
complex corporate scenario. Furthermore, the opportunities for supporting the development of
leadership are explored in the report. In addition to this, personal development plan is developed
for the leader of the company and its implementation is discussed. Moreover, the comparison of
outcomes of the plan is done with the actual objectives. At the last, the effect of corporate
commitment as well as employee welfare environment upon the achievement of organisational
objectives is explored.
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Task 1
Critically Analyse the Strategic Direction of the Organisation
The strategic direction of ABC Travels can be depicted as the association's activities to
accomplish its technique's objectives. The organization uses the vision and mission statement to
characterize where it expects to be later on. This statement tend to act as a path for the
organization to set the direction the organization needs to follow and characterize what it plans to
become later on.
Along these lines, ABC Travels' strategic direction includes the activities and plans set up
to pursue the vision of the organization's future. The vision of the respective enterprise is to
arrive at the pinnacle with regards to offering the best types of assistance and encountering
quality upon the forefront of their client base. The vision of this association paints a picture of its
future. The association can use the vision explanation to organize current arranging and
spending. The association's mission explanation is to give the best blend to amusement, quality
administrations, and brilliant client support. Besides, the organization expects to offer fun,
sheltered and obliging travel where the clients and colleagues are eager to participate in
aggregate social communication. This mission offers reason to ABC Travels, and it gives the
organization, a long run strategic direction for organizing the fulfilment of clients.
Critically Evaluate the Strategic Skills Required of the Leader Operating in a Complex
Environment to Achieve Personal and Organisational Strategic Ambitions.
Executing the responsibilities in the domain of leadership within an intricate climate
requires having skills that will guarantee successful tackling of issues that might be experienced
by the workers to accomplish individual and authoritative desire. The skill-gap investigation
model has been utilized to recognize the leader's skills to convey the strategic course. Right off
the bat, a leader working in a perplexing climate will require skills in self-advancement.
Organizations in the contemporary world work at fast and leaders must organize a break to zero
in on them. Basically, this implies gaining some new useful knowledge or preparing. A leader
may look for speedy learning encounters to get bits of knowledge on the best way to work with
muddled people, handle troublesome discussions, and rouse representatives who appear hard to
get persuaded. Self-advancement skills help a leader to turn out to be more purposeful. Besides, a
leader must have skills in strategic reasoning.
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An association in the current society must be responsive and spry to change to stay
powerful. A strategic methodology in leadership is basic to the idea of adequacy. A strategic
reasoning leader takes a long-reach and expansive methodology when tackling issues and settling
on choices that include arranging, examining destinations, and thinking ahead. Thirdly, skills in
moral practice and civic-mindedness are fundamental for a leader. An association normally plots
morals and civic-mindedness as composed techniques and policies which leaders should learn. A
leader must acquaint themselves with the policies and strategies to get ready on the off chance
that a moral circumstance emerges. At last, innovation skills are vital for a leader, particularly in
the present serious market. The advancement of innovation skills must be a priority of the
association, and the way of life must beginning with the leader. Imaginative skills are a decent
path for a leader to change things and attempt other new ones. Remarkably, this could prompt
extraordinary thoughts and astounding techniques, particularly in a difficult organisational
scenario.
Assess the Relationship between Existing, Required and Future Skills to Achieve the Strategic
Ambitions
The accomplishment of an association's strategic aspirations requires a viable connection
between the current, required and future skills within the domain of leadership. The Skill-Gap
Analysis model will be fundamental in estimating the current skills, creating skill profile,
recognizing the gap in skills, building up an arrangement to close the gap, building up a vision,
and assessing future skills. Relating the current, required, and future skills will guarantee that the
association viably finishes its undertakings and works as indicated by its strategic bearing.
Basically, this infers that the association will be working per its strategic objectives and targets
with the direction of its mission and vision statements. As indicated by the skills examination,
there are three skills that the association needs to improve in the following 3 to 5 years to achieve
its strategic desire. Initially, the pioneer must have the skills to perform explore and get
information that will help in making solid proof to the association's partners with respect to the
issues being knowledgeable about the association. Besides, the pioneer must have viable
correspondence with the right informing and outlining focused to the right crowd. Prominently,
this will help fabricate mindfulness, change the staff's recognition, and move them energetically.
At last, the pioneer will be needed to have skills in building a solid, drawn in, and diverse
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organization base, which will intensify their impact. A pioneer can be a proficient backer, yet
with bound together networks and coalitions, there is a higher possibility of effectively
actualizing approaches that will upgrade the association to accomplish strategic desire. Making a
relationship with accomplices and deciding how the affiliation can be commonly gainful will
help in presenting accomplices to reinforce the messages used to impact the way toward
improving the specialty unit.
Task 2
Critically Discuss the Opportunities to Support Leadership Development
As of now, the business associations work in a changing business climate that is portrayed
by vulnerability, vagueness, unpredictability, and intricacy. To guarantee leadership
development in such a scenario, it is necessary that pioneers must establish an open climate that
tends to give importance to aspects such as variety, disclosure, and experimentation. Pioneers
should likewise do iterative discoursed that give thoughts on the association's work, fortify nice
dynamic, unload business challenges, and recognize powerless signs that identify changes in
client dedication or innovation. Also, the authoritative climate can be influenced by the passage
of new generations into the labour force, accordingly unfavourably influencing leadership
development. There is a requirement for the old generation to change for the newcomers. The
most recent generation of labour force is globally centred, visually drew in, socially
characterized, and educationally changed. Accordingly, to permit integration into the work
environment and to guarantee constant leadership development, abilities must be created that can
ensure the development of productive and collaborative groups within the bounds of the business
association.
Design a Personal Development Plan to Direct Leadership Development in a Complex
Environment
The personal development plan can be said to be the written documentation of the
measures and course of action that are undertaken by an individual for the purpose of developing
or enriching their personality. The development of this plan leads an individual to incorporate
changes within their personality so that they can execute the duties within their job role in an
effective manner as required by the company. Now the Personal Development Plan as prepared
by the leader or the strategic manager of ABC Travels is as follows:-
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Developme
nt Action
Objective Resources
Needed
Measurement Target
Date
Certify as a
professional
senior
manager.
Complete senior
management
regime training in
preparation for the
certification.
Training
Time
Money
Training completed
successfully.
2nd
Quarter
Gain
experience
in the
management
of a complex
organisation
al
environment.
Successfully lead
the business unit in
solving a complex
organisational
problem
Assignment
to
organisation
al
management
responsibiliti
es.
Feedback from
stakeholders.
Experienced
positive outcomes
in the organisation.
4th
Quarter
Improve
public
speaking
skills.
Prepare and deliver
a minimum of
seven
presentations to a
large audience.
Time.
Opportunitie
s to present.
Presentations
completed
successfully and
feedback obtained
from participants.
4th
Quarter
Read books
on leading
change and
leading in a
complex
environment.
Lead the business
unit towards
positive change in
the underlying
environment
Time.
Finances.
Books.
Completing reading
the books and
obtaining an
analysis to show an
understanding of
the concepts.
1st
Quarter
Take a
course in
leading
Successfully obtain
strategic insights
to help in leading
Time
Finances.
Successful
completion of the
course with
2nd
Quarter
5

strategic
change.
the organisation. certification.
Devise an Implementation Process to Underpin the Success of the Development Plan that Can
Realise Substantial Changes in Leadership Style
Effective execution of the development plan will need an adherence to a specific procedure
in a bid to guarantee that considerable changes are incorporated within the style of leadership
adopted by the pioneer of an organisation. Certain things should be placed into thought to
guarantee the effective execution of the development plan. These incorporate putting time aside
to reflect and avoid distractions, being methodical, building up a plan, looking into it routinely
over the span of the year, and finding a person who will be unbiased while examining the
development plan.
Task 3
Critically Evaluate the Achievement of Outcomes of the Plan Against Original Objectives
The development plan has enormously added to the exhibition of my capacity as the
ranking director of the specialty unit just as the vital aspirations of the association. The
development plan has assumed a key function in guaranteeing that my expert and self-
improvement is focused on and sorted out. Strikingly, this, consequently, has empowered me to
arrive at my short and long haul profession objectives just as fortifying execution through the
arrangement of an organized methodology. Furthermore, it has given a system that has
empowered me to distinguish my qualities and shortcomings, consequently controlling the
capitalisation of existing abilities and capacities. Because of the development plan, I have
improved my leadership abilities. The entire group is more propelled to accomplish the focused
on objectives and improve the specialty unit's exhibition paying little heed to the intricate
scenario encompassing the association.
6

Evaluate the Impact of Leadership Style and the Achievement of Objectives on Strategic
Ambitions in Different Organisational Settings
The style of leadership adopted by an organisation tends to have a direct cause and effect
relation with the company and its overall success and progress in the long term. In addition to
this, it has been analysed that a pioneer is held answerable for deciding the way of life, values,
representative inspiration, and risk resistance. The leadership style decides the institutional key
targets, including their execution and adequacy. An effective leadership style assumes a basic
part in accomplishing an association's vital goals by impacting upon the individuals pertinent to
the company in receiving the extreme rewards from the resources available within the bounds of
the business association.
Critically Review and Update the Leadership Development Plan
It is important for the leader of an organisation to ensure that they take measures by way of
which their progress and development can duly take place in the organisational premises. In this
relation, it has been analysed that the leadership development plan is an effective of doing so in a
bid to achieve the favourable outcomes. Now, when a leadership development plan is made, it is
not necessary that the plan is suitably developed. This means that there are chances which
indicate that there may be the need to review the plan such that the need for incorporating
changes can be duly recognised. In this regard, the current leadership development plan has
made a more noteworthy commitment to driving strategic change inside a mind boggling climate
and improving public talking abilities. Notwithstanding, the commitment has been not exactly
expected in increasing administrative involvement with a complex authoritative climate just as
picking up accreditation for senior administration. The changes have come about because of an
absence of appropriate planning of the development plan. Remarkably, this might be stayed
away from in future by defining objectives for the development plan, making a course of events,
distinguishing qualities and shortcomings, deciding abilities that should be learned, and making a
move and estimating the advancement.
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Task 4
Critically Evaluate the Impact of Corporate Commitment to Employee Welfare on Strategic
Organisational Objectives
The efficiency of the staff is exceptionally advanced by the staff welfare, wellbeing, and
security measures. A portion of those welfare offices incorporate flask offices, accommodations,
and the workplace. Also, staff welfare expands human assets' value through wellbeing and
security measures, decreased pressure, and expanded solace at work. Compelling staff welfare
gives productive and appropriate results, rouses the workers, and expands efficiency.
Significantly, welfare plans help to make an effective, sound, fulfilled, and faithful labour force
in each association. Outstandingly, this, consequently, guarantees that the representatives pursue
meeting the strategic targets of the association. There are sure advantages of staff welfare, which
guarantee that they are focused on accomplishing the association's strategic destinations. These
advantages incorporate picking up the devotion of workers, augmenting their current level of
morale and lessening the work turnover. Staff welfare additionally upgrades efficiency and
competency among the workers and helps to maintain solid employment relations.
Discuss How an Employee Welfare Environment Can Effect Achievement of Strategic
Organisational Objectives
The welfare environment of ABC Travels targets giving better wellbeing and life to the
representatives. The workspaces are planned so they are agreeable and don't cause strain or
torment. Besides, the association has fused a wellbeing program that urges the staff to eat well
nourishments and to practice consistently. In addition to this, it participates in other welfare
exercises, for example, giving free meals to the representatives, offering flexible working hours,
offering free magazines and books, taking the workers on comprehensive outings and so forth.
These initiatives inflate the morale and productivity levels of the employees. As a result of this,
the employees get encouraged to give their best performance within the organisational premises.
When the company takes initiatives to boost the morale levels of the employees and provide
them with a suitable atmosphere to work, the employees start feeling valued and important. In
this relation, it has been analysed that this tends to instil a sense of loyalty as well as dedication
within them towards the organisation. In the long run, this leads to the accomplishment of
strategic organisational objectives as laid down by the company formerly. This implies that
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laying down emphasis upon staff welfare initiatives and schemes provides assistance to the
companies like ABC Travels to ensure that the workforce is positively motivated and thereby
works in alignment with the strategic goals of the company. It means that the entity needs to
constantly take measures with the help of which it can make sure that the workforce feels secure
and dedicated towards the company in the long term.
Determine the Influence of Corporate Commitment to Employee Welfare on the Development of
Organisational Values that will Realise Strategic Ambitions
Corporate commitment to representative welfare can prompt the development of
authoritative values, strategic targets, and staff inspiration. Basically, staff welfare guarantees
that representatives are fulfilled. Additionally, they feel battled with their current positions and
appreciate working in that association for quite a while. Fulfilled clients are bound to pursue the
accomplishment of the strategic destinations of the association. Also, staff welfare persuades
representatives to build their profitability since they are presently more agreeable, and they feel
that the association values their value. Additionally, fulfilled representatives are bound to cling
to the authoritative values and ensure they use those values in their everyday activities in the
association. Staff welfare guarantees that the desires contained in the values are very much
embraced by the representatives to guarantee expanded authoritative execution. Pioneers in
different associations have the perception that staff welfare guarantees representative and
customer fulfilment, deals of items, fulfilled staff, and colleagues, profoundly installed
hierarchical learning and information, and compelling progression planning.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be comprehensively stated that the strategic
manager of an organisation is the one who provides the company as well as the employees
working within it with the direction that can be opted for achievement of success and growth in
the long term. In addition to this, it has been acknowledged that the strategic manager employed
within the bounds of an organisation, irrespective of the size and scale of the company, is
expected to manage the process of their personal development as well as evaluate the progress of
their leadership development plan. Now, the strategic manager in an entity is considered to be
the leader as they are known to provide the workforce with a suitable vision and direction in the
domain of strategic management. It is important that such leader employed within the company
9

strives to realise the importance of carrying out development and growth of their personality.
This makes them capable and instils within them, the potential of taking important decisions in
complex situations in an easier and effective manner.
For carrying out the development, it is important for the strategic manager to develop a
personal development plan. This is a plan which acquaints them with the shortcomings in their
skill set and competences. As a result of this, the plan seeks to incorporate measures by way of
which the improvement in weak areas can be duly facilitated. When the strategic manager, or in
other words, the leader of the company takes personal development in a serious way, it leads to
enrichment of their overall professional development along with the progress of the enterprise as
a whole. This in the long run accounts to augmentation of revenues as well as profits of the
company as the entity is able to get proper guidance and leadership from the strategic manager.
10

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