Develop an individual LDP analysis reflecting the results and evaluation of the LDP. The LDP exercise should include a personal action plan that includes specific development activities, necessary resources, and target completion date. The LDP should be about 10 pages in length, excluding the title page, table of contents (if utilized), bibliography/references, and appendices.
The overarching framework for your development plan is the following leadership development cycle.[1]
The LDP allows you to integrate the theories examined and apply the tools from the course to:
• Values. What values are most central and critical to how you approach work? What values do you want to be known for practicing (not just preaching)?
• Leadership legacy. What do you want to be your leadership legacy to others? What do you want others to say about your leadership after you've left your current position or the organization? What lasting impact do you want to have-not just on the organization but also on the people around you?
• Career aspirations. What kind of role would you like to have five or ten years from now? Describe the critical elements of what for you would be an ideal opportunity for leadership.
• SWOT Analysis: Reflect the results of the self-assessments and skill development exercises in the form of a SWOT analysis to describe accurately your current leadership ability and to identify future potential. [See note on SWOT analysis at the end of this document]
• Reflect on adaptive challenge and develop a specific action plan. What are your priorities for personal growth? What are those things that you will concentrate on, day in and day out, in order to become a better leader? Based on the foregoing analysis and self-assessment, establish a list of no more than five personal development priorities together with specific actions and a method for assessing your progress, to enhance strengths, overcome weaknesses, pursue potential, and mitigate risks.
Ideally this plan helps you to understand your leadership attributes, skills, and potential more fully. Think of it as document you might submit to your manager, demonstrating how you intend to develop your leadership ability to pursue promotional opportunities within your business or industry.
Finally, keep in mind that the key reason for this course is to give mangers and aspiring managers a more personal perspective about what it means to be a leader, as well as suggestions about how to become one. This course does not make becoming an effective leader easy. You cannot develop by reading a book, pushing a button, or filling a square.
Performing a personal "SWOT' analysis as part of the LDP
A personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) involves taking stock of your strengths and weaknesses as a leader and the opportunities and threats facing your future effectiveness. (Think of your future effectiveness in your present role as well as roles in different contexts that involve new challenges).
Identify and Collect Relevant Data. To do a personal SWOT analysis, begin by identifying all the sources of data you have available concerning your present and future effectiveness as a leader. Start Data you might have collected, include performance appraisals, developmental feedback at work, instrument-based assessments of leadership styles and preferences, current leadership challenges and opportunities in your work environment and how they might change over time (thus changing the relative importance of different competencies to your future effectiveness as a leader), and the self-assessment activities completed in this course.
Sort the Data Into SWOT Categories. After collecting this data, sort it into the various SWOT categories:
• Strengths. In what aspects of leadership do you do well?
• Weaknesses. In what aspects of leadership are you less effective?
• Opportunities. What present or potential situations at work-if you took advantage of them-could help you improve your effectiveness as a leader?
• Threats. What present or potential situations at work-if you failed to address them-pose a danger to your long-term success as a leader in this organization?
LDP SELF DEVELOPMENT PLAN PROCESS: Your paper should consider the following:
You do not need to organize your paper according to the LDP items below, but they may be helpful in your analysis.
1. Your Leadership Development Plan
a. Step One: What has caused my profile to be like it is (people, places, and things)?
b. Step Two: Consequences of my profile.
c. Step Three: What would my life look like if I changed my profile?
d. Step Four How would you like things to be different?
e. Step Five: What are the barriers to change?
f. Step Six: How can I overcome these barriers?
g. Step Seven what will I gain by making these changes?
h. Step Eight: What do I plan to do to bring about this change?
i. Step Nine: With whom will I share my change plan?
j. Step Ten: By what date do I intend to take action?