Any effective leader needs to plan that would drive them to success. This comprises of a personal growth plan and a professional improvement plan (Kempster, Turner, & Edwards, 2017) . In this paper, I will highlight the strengths and weaknesses that drive me as a leader, pinpoint the areas I need improvement, and reveal the leadership skills and practices that I will need to develop in order to realize future growth as a leader. The paper will also outline the goals that I perceive as priority as well as a timeline for realizing this advancement. The overall result will be a comprehensive leadership plan that I will utilize in growing myself together with my future organization. The evaluations in the paper offer clear insight regarding the skills I possess as a leader. Every evaluation has challenged me to assess and theorize the manner in which I handle situations presently and ways in which I would address different ones. Every situation reflects applications in the real world that highlight the form of a leader I anticipate to become. This mostly becomes apparent by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in my capacity as a leader.
Strengths
All leaders need the ability of drawing on their strengths to allow them to lead their subordinates better (Northouse, 2018) . In my case, I have the capacity of identifying the diverse areas where I have strengths. For example, I am an exceedingly organized individual. Organization serves as among the major aspects of serving as an effective leader. I normally find it to handle my day once I follow a to-do-list. In this manner, I am able to identify the tasks that need completing for a particular day. Sticking to the list allows me to remain orderly rather than leading my work to become chaotic. My followers have the capacity of looking up to me to offer guidelines regarding the day’s duties. My to-do-list comprises of things, such as personal goals, meeting agendas, and follow-up emails among other goals. This form of organization allows me to ensure that my tasks and goals remain in line. I plan applying a similar structure in my future leadership position. The workforce responds effectively when a leader offers clear instructions, such as those related to meeting itineraries to offering follow-up emails that link all the presented information together.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
With tangible and well-organized material, it becomes possible to work toward similar goals. I lay emphasis in working together with my followers in developing and attaining their personal goals. The additional strengths that I portray comprise of being responsible, structured, articulate, determined, task-oriented, confident, visionary, effective planner, and capacity for administrating resources in an effective manner. Being a structured individual allows me to set parameters, which allow us to work toward attaining the overall goals of the company (Al Bolea, 2015) . Structure facilitates in establishing bonds as well as a sense of cohesiveness in the place of work. This form of unity is vital in driving an organization toward success. All individuals in the workplace need to work together to realize common organizational goals that each person understands (Berard, 2013) . All the other strengths follow an effective structure.
Merging the skills as a future leader will provide followers who have sufficient knowledge as well as eagerness of embarking of a journey for realizing the goals of an organization. This would entail utilizing my skills for resource management in an effective manner as well (Wichert, 2018) . This practice entails utilizing the resources that I have in a healthy manner. Every person has something different to contribute toward an organization, and I feel the need for adopting and encouraging the differences to make sure that each person within the organization feels valuable. Concerning these positive attributes, they will boost the relationships that I have with my followers since they will regard me as an individual capable of leading in line and a knowledgeable one as well. I anticipate that my subordinates will have the ability of mirroring the skills to make sure that the company we represent emerges successful.
Weaknesses
Understanding and acknowledging my weaknesses would play an essential role in allowing me to improve my position (Kempster, Turner, & Edwards, 2017) . I have identified various areas that I need to improve in order to emerge as an effective leader. Some of the areas that need improvement comprise of broadening my administrative skills, expand my interpersonal skills, and grow self-confidence. Since I am heavily reliant tasks while laying less emphasis on relationships, I might experience challenges in gaining my subordinates’’ trust. I experiences hindrances when it comes to interacting with my followers past workplace relationships.
I have experienced challenges in the past in keeping relationship lines clear while sustaining an authority position without sacrificing the need for knowing them individually. This serves an area that I will need to deploy significant effort to improve. For instance, a relationship-oriented style is one of the effective approaches that I need to adopt. This entails linking with individuals as opposed seeking completion of tasks. Absence of self-confidence might result from lacking knowledge in particular areas (Northouse, 2018) . Feeling that other individuals have more experience, training, and experience than the one I possess leads me to experience anxiety, which results to reduced esteem in my case. In the event of this preconceived idea that other persons are superior to me, I feel it serves as one of the major reasons behind the poor interpersonal skills, thus requiring improvement.
Any good leader needs to have the ability of outlining the areas requiring improvement. This would allow me work on bettering myself to ensure that my leadership emerges effective. I have identified several areas that require improvement to allow me to emerge as an effective and successful leader. These comprise of interpersonal skills, communication skills, confidence, emphasizing on relationship rather than just tasks, and advancing technical competence. Communication skills are vital in getting vital communication across to my followers (Morse & Buss, 2014) . Oftentimes, miscommunication serves as the major source of conflict in the workplace. In my case as a leader, I feel the need for having the capacity for articulating vital information across in an effective manner. This might be via verbal or written communication.
Irrespective of the communication method, it needs to be thought out clearly with the goal of eradicating any confusion while making sure that all team members understand what it expected of them. Interpersonal skills are considered as people skills. This revolves around the manner in which I interact with my followers (Brennan, 2014) . As such, I feel the need for stepping past my comfort zone to allow me boost these skills. It is essential to make a sincere approach when highlighting the individual and less on tasks. Every team member needs to feel important. This emerges when leaders make sure to remain in touch with their individual feelings to allow them to relate to the feelings of others.
The insight of interpersonal skills entails social perceptiveness. Social perceptiveness revolves around understanding what others perceive as important, the things that motivate them, the challenges they encounter, and the manner in which they respond to change. Technical competence entails having expert knowledge concerning the work being done and guiding others on ways of doing it. This is vital for each leader (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2012) . In my situation, I believe that I need to know as well as understand everything concerning the organization before instituting change and setting clear goals that the subordinates can follow. Exercising flexibility and diversifying my knowledge will assist me in boosting my capability in this area.
Improvement Goals
After setting my strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement, I believe that it is essential to set goals for improving myself in order to grow my strengths while addressing my weaknesses. While setting goals for my followers, I also believe in the need for setting my own goals. I have decided to focus on five key goals, which I can focus on improving to advance my leadership skills. These goals comprise of boosting interpersonal skills, enhancing communication skills, boosting confidence, broadening technical expertise, and emphasizing more on relationships and less on tasks (Morse & Buss, 2014) . These goals revolve around my weak areas, which I highlighted previously. Enhancing my communication skills will need me to consider assess the manner in which critical thinking would lead to success in my organization. Several communication types prevail, while I will emphasize on utilizing several avenues of communication. One of the major communication means is verbal. Here, my goal will entail making sure that I have sufficient knowledge to ensure that I will have the ability for issuing concise, clear, as well as reliable information when required.
I will employ hard work to allow me to articulate my anticipations to make sure that my followers can meet organizational goals easily. To realize this goal, I will need to evaluate possible barriers to communication. These barriers might comprise of misinformation or nonverbal communicators. I would be able to address these pitfalls in communication by making sure that I work written text carefully, including memos, emails, and letters. Spellchecks are essential in this area as well. Here, I can consider having a person to listen to the speeches I make while proofreading them for any errors before handing them out to the team members. Failure to have sufficient communication skills can have great impact on the progress that my followers would realize within the organization. I will ensure to improve on offering friendly non-verbal ques. I should ensure to have awareness concerning my tone when delivering a speech to others in order to make sure that they remain receptive to the instructions that I give. When it comes to boosting my interpersonal skills, I will emphasize on instituting an open-door policy, which will make sure that my followers portray comfort when interacting with me when discussing issues disturbing them (McCarthy, 2012) . I need to show my concern for them past physical labor that they offer to the organization.
For this goal, it coincides with an additional area I believe needs improvement, which entails emphasizing on relationships more and less on tasks. I need to make sure that I get out of my comfort zone and focus on establishing the appropriate balance to ensure that my subordinates feel that I value them. This is normally carried out by participating in non-work associated conversations (Brennan, 2014) . Additionally, I can consider making small gestures, including identifying their birthdays. These kinds of small measures would contribute toward boosting the relationships that I have with my subordinates. However, boosting confidence will be a challenging task in my case (Al Bolea, 2015) . My target for improving this area results from my interest in boosting my technical competence area. The lack of confidence results from lacking sufficient knowledge in my diverse areas of operation in the organization. These result from apprehension feelings, which affect the way in which I relate to relay information to my followers. I will exercise hard work to allow me to gain distinct organizational areas, while taking special care to gain deeper understanding of the manner in which the company operates internally.
In the event that am not sure of anything, I will emphasize on asking for help. I will ensure to challenge myself to pursue extra sources, which will offer the training that I need to allow me to boost my experience in the distinct organizational areas. I would also be able to increase information from manuals, meetings, and attending seminars. I can utilize the material learned and deploy it my area of work. When my followers approach me with question, I would be able to give answers in a confident manner and feel assured that the information I offer is the correct one (Morse & Buss, 2014) . In preparing for meetings in the event of areas that require a speech, I would be able to have improve my confidence by having PowerPoint slides for portraying my information.
By having adequate preparedness in this case, it can play an essential role in allowing me to eradicate any anxiety that I might have. In the event of this change, and growth, I would manage to emerge as a better as well as an ever-present manager (Morse & Buss, 2014) . If managers wish to establish a sense of loyalty from their subordinates, they should make sure that the goals they set refine the leader’ s talents. This reveals that the process would continue to ensure that the entire leadership career of a leader keeps improving (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2012) . In my case, I would take measures and set goals, although I should also show willingness in emerging as a better leader and communicator. This would ensure that my organization remains successful and efficient, allowing me to emerge competent in the eyes of my subordinates.
Development Timeline
To allow me to realize development, I will set a timeline of one year. I presently have an advantage of operating under an astonishing leader, whom I believe will play an essential role in nurturing the plans I have toward realizing success. I commence by considering every goal as well as setting single timeframes for each. Whereas most of the goals that I have set are intertwined, I will emphasize on exercising care to ensure that each follows an individualized plan. I would prefer commencing with the goal that I perceive as the most challenging weakness worth overcoming. The major weakness in this case is one of relationships. I would prefer to commence by developing deeper relationships during my initial leadership months. The goal of communication will follow afterwards. I perceive the other goals as ongoing. I understand that I will not be able to realize change in my skills overnight, although I am willing to deploy the needed challenges of realizing improvements for every goal. It is essential to meet these goals before I pursue the leading task. I wish to have sufficient proficient and training in the different areas before pursuing the duty. I realize that I will learn various things no a practical setting, although I am employing significant hard work to allow me to emerge efficient in every issue before starting to lead a team.
Most Effective Skills and Practices in Leadership
During my daily life, I can deploy various leadership skills, which will make sure that I emerge an effective leader. Some of the skills have appealed me most since I perceive them as crucial to have as a leader. These skills comprise of managing resources, managing individuals, planning, and problem-solving skills. It is vital to deploy these skills to make sure that I direct my team to attaining the goals set within the organization in an effective manner. Managing persons needs hard work as well as patience mostly because every member of a team is unique. The team members usually bring individual skills while they bring diverse personalities toward an organization. Understanding this would provide me with the opportunity for situating team members in positions in which they can deploy their optimal potential. This would create room for realizing self-satisfaction in line with driving the organization toward success (Northouse, 2018) . I would ensure to work with every member to assist in formulating organizational goals that are possible to attain, while ensuring that all those who take part in the process realize benefits. Managing resources serves as a valuable skill too.
Each organization looks for ever leader to avoid being wasteful. In this case, I need to make sure to exercise mindfulness for available resources in a manner that it productive in meeting the goals that I plan for a group. This will result by making sure that I monitor the work output and supplies properly. I can do this by seeking additional resources to make sure that certain tasks are completed within a given deadline. The resources to consider within the organizational setting comprise of money, people, equipment, supplies, and supplies among other things that an organization would require to make sure that it operates in an efficient manner. Wastefulness is normally counterproductive when it comes to realizing the goals of an organization. Effective planning serves as a vital skill, which can play an essential role in allowing an individual to serve as an effective leader (Morse & Buss, 2014) . Establishing a clear plan would provide me with the opportunity for managing resources and subordinates in a more effective manner. Planning will serve as the initial point for every task handled. I should start by visioning, which entails knowing what I need to attain.
Visioning serves as a metal framework for an appropriate future state. Developing this vision would provide me with the opportunity of establishing a plan for the different parties involved. Every member of the team can play a critical role when it comes to the planning process within the organization (Berard, 2013) . To ensure that an organization emerges successful, each person within the company should have the ability of thinking about the values of the group and the manner in which the decisions made or actions a leader takes would influence diverse groups, while this would boost the value of the organization over time (Brennan, 2014) . Effective planning together with communication can facilitate in eliminating this challenge.
The ideal leadership initiative to exercise should be one that merges democratic and authoritarian leadership styles. The style that I would follow adopt would be based on the followers’ readiness level. Every team might require distinct directions when a need arises. I should make sure to evaluate the subordinates’ levels and administer them appropriately (Al Bolea, 2015) . This serves as the only means of making sure that the goals each member needs to meet are possible to attain. I would also monitor performance in the workplace and offer feedback on areas showing weaknesses and strengths. For effective leaders, they should have the capacity of understanding that each person is distinct. In this vein, I would ensure that the leadership style I adopt needs being flexible.
Overall, the paper has presented a comprehensive action plan for my future leadership growth. I have offered the areas that I require improving as well as depicted my strong and weak areas. This way, I have managed to identify goals as well as an achievement timeline. Thus, I believe that by formulating the action plan, I will have the capacity for instituting it fully and serve as an effective in a future organization that will work with. I believe that the organization will be happy to employ me since I will have the ability of leading the subordinates well to ensure that they realize organizational goals and drive the company toward success.
References
Al Bolea, L. A. (2015). Applied leadership development: nine elements of leadership mastery. Abingdon: Routledge.
Berard, J. (2013). Accelerating leadership development: practical solutions for building your organization's potential. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Brennan, M. A. (2014). Community leadership development: a compendium of theory, research, and application. Abingdon: Routledge.
Carter, L., Ulrich, D., & Goldsmith, M. (2012). Best practices in leadership development and organization change: how the best companies ensure meaningful change and sustainable leadership. Abingdon: John Wiley & Sons.
Kempster, S., Turner, A. F., & Edwards, G. (2017). Field guide to leadership development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
McCarthy, D. (2012). The great leadership development and succession planning kit: part one. Pennsauken: BookBaby.
Morse, R. S., & Buss, T. F. (2014). Innovations in public leadership development. Abingdon: Routledge.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership : theory and practice. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Wichert, I. (2018). Accelerated leadership development: how to turn your top talent into leaders. London: Kogan Page, Limited.
