The Leadership Development

In order to develop a good leadership development plan, I have taken imaginary leadership role. For purpose of making my work easier, I have developed the plan in which I am acting in the capacity of marketing department leader/manager. In this role I am supposed to provide leadership to the marketing team of the Father and Son’s Company limited.    

Part 1: Self Assessment

I have been in the management post as a head of marketing department in Father and Son’s company limited for the last five years. Marketing is one of the important departments in the company as it determines the sales volumes and revenues that the company will realize each and every financial year. As a marketing manager I am supposed to provide leadership to the marketing team of the company. Therefore, I am expected to create a good team in which I am a leader and at the same time a team player. It is my duty to draw company’s sales and marketing strategies.

In order to ensure successful running of the marketing department, I usually use democratic leadership style. This style of leadership is where I allow employees/subordinates in the department to participate fully in the decision making process of the issues affecting the department. They are free to give their views and expertise contribution in the running of the affairs of the department. They are fully involved in development of department’s goals and objectives. This style of leadership has made notable contributions in improving the performance of the marketing department for the last five years.

As a department leader, I am very good at influencing other members of the department whom a provide leadership to, and this has helped in creating a sense of responsibility among the subordinates. Secondly, the ability to learn from my past mistakes and failures is another strength that I posses. This has helped me to rectify my past mistakes thereby improving my performance as well as that of the department. Thirdly, my credibility among the workers is another strong aspect of mine, which has helped me build trust among the subordinates. Finally, my ability to be empathetic has helped me in my leadership role. This has played a key role in managing indiscipline and inefficiency among the department employees in a professional and humane way.

Though I have managed to influence the marketing department in great way, I have some notable personal weaknesses as a leader. First of all, my risk adverse behavior sometimes affects the rate of growth and development of the department. This reduces creativity and innovation within the department, which is very vital for its long run progress. Secondly, my inability to be interactive is one of the major personality problems that I posses which hinders my leadership role. Finally, I have weakness when it comes to capacity building among the employees of marketing department. These act as a hindrance to improvement of efficiency and effectiveness among the employees.

Besides, I have a weakness when it comes to issues of motivating workers as their leader. I find myself most of the times not recognizing the achievement of the team players. This a great weakness as it makes the marketing team players feel that their efforts are not recognized, thus lowering their inputs to the work assigned to them. This has a direct impact on the quality of work that is done by these workers. This then is translated to poor performance, when it comes to the marketing department overall performance.

Part 2: Leadership Development Vision

My first priority as a leader is to change my attitude toward risk. I have to ensure that within the next year I will change my negative attitude toward risk in life. I have to develop risk taking attitude towards opportunities. This will go a long way in transforming the marketing department into a creative and innovative one within the company. This will also help in taking up risky marketing strategies that have high return levels. My risk taking attitude will help in improving the department’s performance, thereby becoming one of the most effective and efficient department with the company.

Secondly, I look forward to improving my social skills. I have to enhance my socialization skills within the next year. My ability to interact with other people has affected my personal growth as a leader. The social skills will help me fully interact with different people who can be a source of vital information, which can help me lead the marketing team effectively. It will also play a key role in improving my environment scanning ability, as the insightful information that I will be getting from social groups will help in through scanning of marketing environment.

Thirdly, I intend to develop a network of marketers. The network will mainly target service providers and marketers from different organizations. The network will provide a room for my growth and development as a marketer as well as that of my marketing team. It will also serve as an avenue for social release, where different people with different capabilities meet and are able to socialize. The network will also be a source of market for company’s products. The members of the network may be potential buyers and also may provide crucial information about other markets. Thus, the network will play a key role as a source of resourceful information on current market trends that will be vital in making marketing decisions.

My efforts and time will be directed to improving the capacity building skills. My skills in the area of building capacity for the marketing department are much needed to enhance competence among the marketing team members. The capacity built among the marketing department members will enhance their skills, where I will be training on different emerging trends in the marketing field.

The next item that I seek to improve on is my ability to motivate my team members. As a leader, I intend to improve the way I recognize the efforts and achievement of individuals or groups in the marketing department. This will help build a team of highly motivated players. The overall performance is what I seek to improve by ensuring that each and every individual player is motivated in all that she/he is doing.

Part 3: Action Plan

The following are the goals that I seek to achieve as a leader of the marketing department:

(i) Improve efficiency and performance of my team players in the marketing department;

(ii) Enhance motivation among my team members;

(iii) Raise the standards of performance within the marketing department;

(iv) Increase the sales volume of the company;

(v) Create networks in which my team members will be members.

In order to improve efficiency and performance among my team where I am a leader and a team member, I will build their capacity. To ensure that I achieve my goal, I will be providing in-service training to various employees within the marketing department. I will also provide forums of information sharing, such as organizing seminars and conferences. From these trainings and seminars their capacity will be built in terms of enhancing their skills, knowledge and experience. This will be reflected in improved efficiency and performance of the team players within the marketing department.

For the purpose of achieving the goal of building a highly motivated workforce, I will take up various motivational initiatives. These initiatives include promotions, providing recreation facilities, offering holidays to members of my team, among other initiatives. A highly motivated workforce will be built when I implement the above initiatives, and the employees will be highly productive, as their achievements are fully recognized.

The creation of a network is another very vital goal that I seek to achieve. In order to achieve this goal, I will start a club for various marketing professionals. To ensure that this objective is fully met, I intend to approach various professionals from different organizations to which I will sell the idea of networking. The network will incorporate various players in the marketing field together and provide them with a forum where they will be sharing on matters related to the field.

Finally, on personal level, I intend to improve on my weaknesses and enhance my performance in those areas in which I am good as a leader. In order to achieve this goal, I will take up personal initiatives of attending seminars and conferences on leadership training. From these forums I will acquire various skills that will be vital in attaining my goal. I will also take part in events that will help me improve my leadership skills other than seminars and conferences.

Part 4: Final Report

The whole process of developing leadership development plan has been a success. The process has helped me to identify the various areas that I am weak at as a leader as well as my strengths. The self assessment and the plan helped me to identify the various initiatives that I would employ in improving on my weaknesses as a leader. This plan has played a great part in transforming me as a leader.

I have improved my qualities as a leader, for example, those of interacting with people, developed a positive attitude toward risks and finally, enhanced my skills in capacity building. The benefits of this plan are evident in the improvement of efficiency and performance among the marketing team players. My competency as a leader has greatly improved, thereby enhancing my capacity to handle different issues as a leader.

The process have taught me on the various traits that I leader should posses in order to be successful. I have also learnt various ways of how one can improve his skills as a leader, such as networks, attending seminars and conferences. I have learnt how to build a highly motivated team in any given environment. The leadership development plan has been very helpful because it made me understand that challenges and problems associated with leadership may be caused by little capacity of one as a leader, which can be improved.

In conclusion, the entire process involved provides one with an opportunity to interact with practical world of leadership. The process is also a good avenue of preparing an individual for future leadership roles.