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SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT
Students will complete a reflective leadership paper to include each of the three sections detailed below. Papers must be double spaced with 12 point font with a minimum 12-14 pages.
I. Personal Leadership Self-Assessment
II. Personal Leadership Philosophy
III. Personal Leadership Development Plan
I. Personal Leadership Self Assessment
Look at yourself as a leader. Do you have the qualities to make a valuable leader to your group? After you have looked at yourself as a leader, answer the following questions providing detail including explanations and/or examples.
ATTRIBUTES
• Do I view problems as opportunities?
• Am I a priority setter?
• Am I customer focused?
• Am I courageous?
• Am I a critical and creative thinker?
• What is my tolerance for ambiguity?
• Am I positive attitude towards change?
• Am I committed to innovations?
SKILLS
• Do I debate, clarify, and enunciate my values and beliefs?
• Can I fuel, inspire, and guard the shared vision?
• Can I communicate the strategic plan at all levels?
• Do I recognize the problems inherent to the planning process?
• Do I ask the big picture questions and “what if”?
• Can I support the school staff through the change process?
• Do I encourage dreaming and thinking the unthinkable?
• Can I align the budget, planning, policies and instructional programs with the district goals and vision?
• Do I engage in goal setting?
• Can I develop and implement action plans?
• Do I practice and plan conscious abandonment?
• Do I transfer the strategic planning process to planning?
KNOWLEDGE
• Do I know board and superintendent roles and responsibilities in planning and implementing plans?
• Do I know the strategic planning process, short and long term planning tools?
• Do I know the board and district vision, beliefs, and mission?
• Do I know the relationship of the budget to district planning?
• Do I know local, state, and national factors that affect education?
• Do I know the best practices and research on improving academic achievement?
• Do I know the process of change and paradigm shifts?
• Do I know the strategies to involve and communicate with the community?
TRAITS
• What trait were you proud to say describes you?
• Was there any trait you would not consider desirable?
• What traits are you trying to make more descriptive of you?
II. Personal Leadership Philosophy
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY: GUIDANCE
A Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) must also be included in the signature assignment.
According to Ed Ruggerio the author of The Leader’s Compass: A Personal Leadership Philosophy Is Your Key to Success, 2nd Edition.
Successful Leaders know their Personal Leadership Philosophy and communicate it by living it passionately every day in all they say and do. They have taken the time to determine who they are. And they know their values and priorities. They also know their course and have set their internal compass, which gives them greater self-knowledge, greater self-confidence, and improved effectiveness as a leader.
This is accomplished by writing a Personal Leadership Philosophy, which states the core values you live by, what you expect of your people, what they can expect of you, and how you will evaluate performance.
Your PLP can be drafted as a short speech you will give or a memo you will distribute to your followers. It is for your use so the format is as you desire. Clarity, brevity and inspiration are the keys.
III. Personal Leadership Development Plan
Personal Leadership Development Plan: Guidance
Having completed your Leadership Self-Assessment, and Personal Leadership Philosophy, the next step is to develop a Personal Leadership Development Plan (PLDP). This plan, simply, is a list of some core traits, other qualities and skills on which you intend to focus your personal development efforts, either to sustain strengths that your Self-Assessment indicates that you have or to overcome weaknesses that you have found you have.
Your Plan should be one which identifies, for each trait, quality or skill listed, some general steps and some specific actions that you will take to further develop your strength in those traits, qualities and skills. It should be a plan which sets goals and deadlines for taking and completing the actions you intend. It should be a plan that you maintain in a readily available and visible format so that you can track your progress.
You may structure the Plan in any format and detail that will be convenient for you and assure that you keep it accessible so that you will constantly refer to it and follow it. Regardless of the format you use, however, adhere to the following guidelines.
-List the core traits, the qualities and skills on which you have decided to begin working. -Then, for each trait, quality or skill, state one or two general “steps” that you will take to strengthen it. -Finally, for each of those “steps” state a number of specific “actions” that you will take to begin working toward accomplishing that “step”.
–An effective “action” should be something you can do in your next job that will let you begin to practice improving your trait, quality or skill.
—Actions should be specific and scheduled (every day/week/month/etc) or have a deadline (by the end of the first quarter/etc.). —They should be supported by reminders elsewhere (entries in calendar/lists/journals) that make them readily visible so that you are reminded to do them. —There should be a place in the Plan to check them off when you have taken them or when they have been completed so that by seeing progress you will be motivated to continue implementing them until they become a habit.
The following example suggests one format for a Plan that can be maintained on several pages, referenced and used to keep track of implementation. As noted above, a specific format is not required and you may desire to format your Plan into your calendar/schedule/task book, keep a separate notebook, do it on a white board, or on your computer. Some examples of how other students have formatted their plans are included below.
-Just structure your Plan so that its “actions” do not just become another set of “New Year’s Resolutions” but really force you to implement the Plan and complete the actions.
Sign your Plan as a commitment to yourself that you are going to carry it out.
Example
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Background: NSA Civilian, expected job, etc.
Tracking: The template on the last page is designed for use during a scheduled weekly review of how I’m doing in meeting the goals in this plan. Week 4 of each month will include selection of new topics and goals for the next month’s focus.
Update: Every six months (May and November), I should do a major review of the plan, deciding whether to continue focus on current trait, style, and skills, or to choose others on which to concentrate.
Future: Some ideas that come to mind are not realistically feasible to pursue until I complete the JMIC program (such as doing much additional reading or attending other classes). I’ve listed ideas that can’t be pursued immediately under the heading “Future,” as a placeholder for adding other ideas for post-JMIC consideration as well as keeping a running list of potential monthly focus areas and topics.
1. Leadership Trait – Caring
Step 1: Find and use opportunities to get to know and show interest in people.
Actions:
– As I develop new working relationships across the Agency and wider IC, make a point of getting to know something of colleagues’ work backgrounds and interests, and, where possible and appropriate, personal lives. Learn something new about somebody daily. Daily.
– At least once a day, consciously put down work and physically turn around to join office or class conversations, giving people my full attention. Daily.
– At least once weekly, stop to chat with the people in the extended office. Weekly.
– Plan to meet a different friend an average of once weekly for lunch in order to keep up relationships, even as we all find ourselves busier with each successive job move. Weekly.
– Work on a monthly focus area. November: Develop a habit of beginning conversations by exchanging greetings before launching into the issue at hand (“hello, how are you” instead of “hello, how’s the project going?”) Monthly.
– Take opportunities to socialize with officemates and classmates outside of work. Occasionally.
Future: add ideas here.
2. Leadership Style – Participating
Note: Although Delegating would also be a good style to develop, I’ve elected to begin with Participation for two reasons: 1) I need more time to assess how I will use Delegating in my new job; and 2) Participating is a step on the continuum to Delegating, so it won’t hurt to focus on these skills with a long-term view of these steps as building blocks for ultimately improving Delegating as well as improving Participating for its own sake.
Step 1: Build listening skills.
Actions:
– Choose one focus area each month on which to work during conversations. November: not interrupting. Monthly.
Future: add ideas here.
– Monthly focus areas: not tuning out; not planning next response.
– Post-JMIC: Read books and attend seminar on listening skills; apply lessons learned.
Step 2: Solicit and use other people’s ideas.
– Develop a style of encouraging people to develop their own initiatives. Each month, identify a skill or habit to promote a more-facilitating, less-controlling style. November: consciously refrain from responding to ideas with instant analyses of whether or not the ideas will work. Instead, solicit additional explanation; where appropriate, encourage additional development of ideas and implementation. Monthly.
Future:
– Monthly focus area: when starting a new project, before launching in solo, spend a few minutes thinking about others who could participate and how they could contribute. Then take steps to engage those people.
3. Leadership Skill: Leading Cross-functional Teams
Step 1: build upon existing interest and skills in leading cross-functional
teams.
– Choose one strategic topic monthly and read emails on that topic with an eye to consciously observing types of leadership techniques and participant interactions revealed in the workings of these virtual teams. November: will choose and note topic at work. Monthly.
– Lay foundation for a learning program to commence after completion of JMIC degree. Stay on the lookout for books, articles, and training opportunities on the topic of cross-functional teams and add to running list. Ongoing; begin list before end of Fall Quarter (10 Nov).
Future:
– Post-JMIC: supplement reading by attending meetings on focus topics.
Step 2: prepare for wider sphere of influence within Agency and IC by
increasing cross-organizational understanding and networking.
Note: Although I’ve listed this as a skill, it also relates to the trait of Vision.
Actions:
– Get to know more about JMIC classmates’ organizations and those organizations’ current issues. Try to have one conversation each week along those lines. Weekly.
– While reading the emails on the “strategic topic of the month” mentioned above, in addition to evaluating leadership interactions, also become familiar with the subject matter and IC players (organizations and individuals). November: choose and note topic at work. Monthly.
– Maintain notes of interest items and potential contacts for future reference. Especially note topics and organizations of potential future job interest. Ongoing; begin list before end of Fall Quarter (10 Nov).
– Continue research on overseas liaison positions opening in 2007. Make at least one personal inquiry by email, phone, or in person. Quarterly.
Future:
– Post-JMIC: Set goals for and commence learning program on cross-functional teams, using materials discovered while in JMIC program. – Post-JMIC: Begin attending weekly SINIO Council. (Cannot do so now because they are always held on Thursday—a JMIC day.)
RESOURCES TO BE USED ONLY
Leadership resources:
Leadership and Organizational Development Journal
Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/lodj/lodj.jsp
Journal of Leadership Studies http://www.academy.umd.edu/publications/journal_lead_studies/jls.htm
Servant Leadership http://www.greenleaf.org/
Leadership Quarterly http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620221/description#description
Integral Theory http://integral-review.global-arina.org/current_issue/index.asp
MBTI http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
International Leadership Association (ILA) http://www.ila-net.org/Publications/BLB/index.htm
Harvard Business Review http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu
