Personal Leadership Action Plan (PLAP)
Order Instructions:
Objective: Personal Leadership Action Plan (PLAP) requirements and guidelines
Purpose: Submit a Personal Leadership Action Plan.
Parameters: The Personal Leadership Plan Action should be written in the first person and should be critically reflective. Double spaced, and written in accordance with APA writing standards. Moreover, you are required present a plan that is critically reflective yet scholarly in nature.
Assignment Description: You are to integrate authoritative sources in the form of appropriate citation and in accordance with APA writing standards based on the required reading thus far in the course and / or peer-reviewed literature available to you in the University research library. The purpose of the PLAP is to objectively examine your current leadership style, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Also, you should take a careful inward and candid look at where you are as a leader and envision the future direction of your leadership career. Your PLAP should contain seven components listed below:
1. Introduction.
2. Statement of personal purpose and values.
3. An assessment of who I am now.
4. What I want to achieve: Leadership vision.
5. Summary of leadership strengths and weaknesses (very specific).
6. Development of an action plan – what to achieve and how to achieve it.
7. Conclusion.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Introduction
As I embark on a mission in pursuit of my personal leadership action plan; I am reminded of an illustration that has immensely inspired my vision in leadership. A lecturer in an institution known as Putt is known for his limping due to a sickness he contracted during his childhood. Putt is considered one of the best teachers within one of the local educational institutions. During one of his lectures one afternoon, Putt noticed one thing that changed his perception to teaching. After completing his class, it happened that his students were leaving for a lunch break (Allen, Miguel, & Martin, 2014).
As Putt walked along the corridors of the school, he noticed there was a trail of people following him behind. When Putt turned back, he was shocked to see his students imitating his walking style. This boggled his mind but after giving it a careful thought; Putt discovered that he had influenced his student’s lives immensely to a state where all his students decided to imitate in his walking style. This analogy gives a clear picture of leadership and its ability to influence people in various ways.
As a leader, I am determined to push myself beyond the limits to influence and impact the lives of people within my society. My Personal Leadership Action Plan will be developed to suit within my leadership context in which I will pursue approaches aimed at influencing, encouraging, providing the right tools and cultivating visions that include the community in collectively changing the challenges that they face (Allen, et.al). I admit to the fact that a leader may have some shortcomings; however, I am determined to take the criticisms of the people I serve in developing and enhancing my leadership skills. I will from time and again challenge myself in developing myself not only on an individual basis but as a team by mobilizing other into personal development. Just like in receiving a bumper harvest, there has to be the element of rain, so is in achieving my personal leadership action plan, there is need of a vision and a theory that supports my plan. Through this paper, I will address my personal leadership action plan in achieving and enhancing my leadership skills.
Statement of Personal Purpose and Values
In my personal leadership action plan, there is a set of values and personal purposes that direct my approach to leadership (Bradt, Check, & Pedraza, 2009). Loyalty and objectivity remain essential elements in my action plan. Through loyalty, I am in a position to increase the longevity of relationships with my subjects while on the other hand, objectivity will allow me to make justifiable decisions based on facts rather that emotions and politics that have the capacity to bias a judgment. It is, therefore, essential to note that I value loyalty, open-mindedness, honesty, creativity, self-discipline, innovative minds, and the willingness to achieve goals.
Who I’m Currently
Currently, I am a man entirely focused on how to inject my leadership skills in my family since they say charity begins at home, my country, my faith, and my cultural heritage. In order to achieve this, I have developed personal approaches geared towards improving my educational skills in community development. In order to achieve this, I have derived leadership theories that can support my plan. These approaches include the transactional and transformational leadership approach. In college, I have been elected as one of the student leaders, in ensuring that the student’s needs are addressed efficiently.
I admit to the fact that as a leader I have some shortcomings; however, I am determined to take the criticisms of my subjects in developing and enhancing my leadership skills. I will challenge myself in developing myself not only on an individual basis but as a team by mobilizing other into personal development. In achieving my personal leadership action plan, there is need of a vision and a theory that supports my plan.
Through this post, I have been able to influence the lives of students in ensuring that they strive towards the attainment of their goals. This position has also allowed consistently learning and growing into the leadership function I envision after my studies. My action plan for achieving my goals as a leader lies in assessing my progress through an outlined plan. The platform has enabled me to exercise my leadership skills a factor that will immensely impact my service delivery approaches in the community.
Leadership vision
My vision in leadership is in shaping the future of my community by preserving our cultural heritage, sharing the resources that we have been endowed with, and discovering new knowledge aimed at improving the status of my community members who have constantly in absolute poverty for quite a long period of time. Through my vision, I envision a society in which we all-even the unprivileged hold hands to create opportunities for ourselves that will impact our community.
Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses
In any leader, there is the aspect of strengths and weaknesses. The following detail some of my strengths and weaknesses;
- Decision Making
In every situation, we are bound to make decisions. It is important to mention that the process of decision-making involves a careful judgment and may at times prove to be complicated. This remains one of my weakest areas (Bradt, et.al). This resulted from my family’s orientation in which all the decisions were bound to be made by the head of the house in the family. It is upon this foundation that I believe that this process remains the duty of a father. However, I am fully conscious that I have a deep understanding and judgment in addressing situations and issues even though I have not fully exercised my decision-making skills.
I have realized that it is difficult to determine the outcomes of a decision, but it is easy to take particular steps in coming up with a range of solutions to issues. The process of decision-making is always coupled by risks that a decision maker may encounter. In managing this weakness, I have developed approaches aimed at exercising my decision-making skills (Casey, & Wuestman, 2015). I have resorted to carefully plan before arriving at a decision with the aim of avoiding negative implications of a decision. The study and analysis of a situation would also be an essential element in planning activities before making a decision to avoid the pitfalls in decision-making.
- Effective Communication;
Individually, I am certain that effective communication has the capacity to initiate a healthy relationship between people in am leading especially n instances where my opinion is required (Edelist, Davis, & Vega, 2012). It is through effective communication that good relationships are elicited a factor that improves the quality of life, influences and motivates people and develops better interpersonal relationships within my area of leadership. This area, therefore, remains my strength since I am always effective in relaying information verbally with prompt feedbacks.
I am also skilled in verbal communication, a factor that determines my strength since through this; I have been able to communicate my vision to my community members, a factor that garnered the support of my community members (Fortenbery, 2015). I have also discovered in listening to the views and suggestions of my community members in line with the vision we have and listen to the concerns the raise before giving a personal opinion of a situation. This has therefore opened a communication line between me and the community, a factor that has fostered a smooth relationship.
- Leadership Skills;
This remains one of my strengths considering the fact that I am flexible, and I have learned my leadership skills through experience. I have the capacity to rally my community members behind me in achieving a goal, a factor that has gained me respect by my subjects. My community members look up to me not only because I have achieved several objectives but because of the approach and the manner in which I lead them in such projects (Gentile, 2014). I have developed an approach that does not only seek to influence my community members but coaches them through imparting leadership skills to them since they will be the next leaders. Coaching ensures that once my term is over, there will be a leader who will be suitable to wear my shoes and fit into the society. This therefore keeps the cycle of leadership ongoing.
I also have the qualities of a good leader that include determination in achieving our community goals, self-confidence, the ability to handle stressful situations and to influence other people, working hard to complete the responsibilities on time and so on (Gentile, 2014). Due to this factor, my community members have also embarked on enhancing their skills in the areas they have been assigned. They are therefore inspired to work hard in meeting their individual goals. I have discovered that caring for the welfare of my community members is one of the greatest tools that a leader can employ in achieving the objectives of the community. I have therefore achieved significant milestones through collaboration with my community members.
Community Action Plan
Preserving our cultural heritage, sharing the resources that our community is endowed with and discovering new ideas and knowledge remains essential elements in securing our communities future (Margetts, John, Hale, & Reissfelder, 2015). In order to achieve these objectives, we developed a community planning team in formulating an action plan that would direct our vision. This session was run with the aid of our community members with several dignitaries brought on board.
Several people participated in the training process with the principal directions of achieving the communities vision developed. The approaches to achieving the visions of the community were established with the need for a long-term commitment from the patricians in the project clearly defined (Packendorff, Crevani, & Lindgren, 2014). These training sessions saw the development of groups that were assigned duties and responsibilities that were to be achieved over the duration of time. This brought together the entire community in a meeting in which the community decided to develop a proposal that would help it frame its initiatives.
Work groups were therefore established in this project that opened a door for the community to join and participate. Different community members participated in the planning process with the recommendations collected used to form a community action plan. Through this initiative, the community decided to preserve its culture by passing it to its generations and formulating functions through which the cultures of the community could be displayed (Packendorff, et.al). The community also discovered that they are endowed with a wealth of resources including the rich culture, and the minerals that surround the community. In their view, the community, therefore, developed an approach that would ensure that these resources are dispensed for the benefit of the whole community, through the development of factories within the community.
In order to achieve this vision, the community has taken the initiative to involve themselves in this action plan by ensuring that each member plays a role. The essence of unity and collaboration was one of the main elements that were considered as a unifying factor that would bring the people together. The community structures such as churches, schools and other organizations also played a role in contributing to this initiative (Waldman, & Balven, 2015). The schools and other learning institutions were required to embrace and align their curriculums with a cultural torch in order to preserve the community’s rich cultural heritage. They were also needed to develop activities and functions that would allow the students to exercise their cultural heritage, a factor that would sell the value of the community to the outside world.
In determining the manner in which resources that our community is endowed with would be discovered, the community decided to involve the services of the government that would support it deriving resources aimed at developing industries that would be impactful to the society. The community also decided to take individual initiatives designed to preserving the environment and ensuring that the habitat was conserved.
Conclusion
My Personal Leadership Action Plan will be developed to suit within my leadership context in which I will pursue approaches aimed at influencing, encouraging, providing the right tools and cultivating visions that include the community in collectively changing the challenges that they face (Whittle, Housley, Gilchrist, Mueller, & Lenney, 2015). As a leader, I am determined to take the criticisms of the people I serve in developing and enhancing my leadership skills. I will from time and again challenge myself in developing myself not only on an individual basis but as a team by mobilizing other into personal development.
In my personal leadership action plan, there are values and personal purposes that direct my approach to leadership. Loyalty and objectivity remain significant elements in my action plan. Currently, I am a man entirely focused on how to inject my leadership skills in my family since they say charity begins at home, my country, my faith, and my cultural heritage.
My vision in leadership is in shaping the future of my community by preserving our cultural heritage, sharing the resources that we have been endowed with, and discovering new knowledge aimed at improving the status of my community members who have constantly in absolute poverty for quite a long period of time. It is therefore imperative to mention that leaders play a significant role both in the corporate and in the society in ensuring that the functions are achieved and goals are meet.
References
Allen, S. J., Miguel, R. F., & Martin, B. A. (2014). Know, See, Plan, Do: A Model for Curriculum Design in Leadership Development. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 79(2), 26-38.
Bradt, G. B., Check, J. A., & Pedraza, J. E. (2009). The New Leader’s 100-day Action Plan : How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Casey, J., & Wuestman, D. (2015). Lean Leadership: Coaching To Connect The Dots. Strategic Finance,97(5), 23-25.
Edelist, I., Davis, M., & Vega, D. (2012). Change in ACTION. Benefits Canada, 61-65.
Fortenbery, J. (2015). Developing Ethical Law Enforcement Leaders: A Plan of Action. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 1-5.
Gentile, M. C. (2014). Giving Voice to Values: An Action-Oriented Approach to Values-Driven Leadership. SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 79(4), 42-50.
Margetts, H. Z., John, P., Hale, S. A., & Reissfelder, S. (2015). Leadership without Leaders? Starters and Followers in Online Collective Action. Political Studies, 63(2), 278-299. https://www.doi:10.1111/1467-9248.12075
Packendorff, J., Crevani, L., & Lindgren, M. (2014). Project Leadership in Becoming: A Process Study of an Organizational Change Project. Project Management Journal, 45(3), 5-20. https://www.doi:10.1002/pmj.21418
Waldman, D. A., & Balven, R. M. (2015). Responsible Leadership: Theoretical Issues And Research Directions. Academy Of Management Perspectives,3015(1), 19-29. https://www.doi:10.5465/amp.2014.0016.
Whittle, A., Housley, W., Gilchrist, A., Mueller, F., & Lenney, P. (2015). Category predication work, discursive leadership and strategic sense making. Human Relations, 68(3), 377-407.
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