Key takeaways from this article
Creating a personal leadership development plan can help leaders to identify their strengths and weaknesses, set achievable goals, and chart a course for personal growth and development over time. Crucially, any personal leadership development plan example will usually include details of how the success of that plan will be measured.
An effective leader is always improving. To help them grow, improve and strengthen their skills they may create a personal leadership development plan. A personal leadership development plan is a roadmap that outlines the steps needed to achieve personal goals and objectives.
What is a Personal Development Plan in Leadership?
A personal development plan for leadership is a document outlining a leader or would-be leader’s goals, objectives, and strategies for personal growth and development over the coming months and years. It serves as a roadmap for achieving personal and professional success.
A personal development plan can help leaders to identify their strengths and weaknesses, set realistic goals, and create a framework for achieving those goals.
How do You Write a Personal Development Plan for Leadership?
A personal leadership development plan will be individual and will reflect the particular role, current needs and future ambition of its author. That said, most leadership development plan examples will usually contain a number of core steps. These include:
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Current Situation
The plan will begin by assessing the current situation of its author, including strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth. It will be informed by both self-reflection, as well as feedback from others to help identify areas where the individual needs to improve.
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Set Goals
The personal leadership development plan will outline clear goals in line with the personal and professional aspirations of its author. These should be SMART Goals, that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
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Strategies To Achieve Your Goals
A personal leadership development plan will also include clear strategies to help the individual achieve these goals. Typically, this will include leadership development programs as well as coaching and mentoring. It will also include the resources that will be needed as well as any potential obstacles and strategies and how they might be overcome.
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Action Plan
An action plan takes your strategies and builds a framework to put them into action. In practice, this means dates, deadlines and milestones that will be used to help you track your progress.
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Monitor & Evaluate Your Progress
A personal leadership development plan will also set out how progress will be monitored. This will usually include some key metrics, as well as feedback from others in order that progress might be measured, and adjustments made when necessary.
What are Some Examples of Personal Leadership Development Goals?
Personal leadership development goals can be varied, but frequently a personal leadership development plan will contain some key skills and competencies. These are likely to include:
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Improving Communication Skills
Leaders need to communicate effectively to motivate and inspire their teams. Improving communication skills can help leaders to build trust, support team members, and better achieve their objectives.
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Improved Decision-Making
Leaders need to be able to make informed decisions in the interest of their organisations. Enhanced decision-making abilities assist leaders in that task, helping them to evaluate risk, seize opportunities and develop effective strategies.
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Develop Emotional Intelligence
Leaders need not only to be able to understand and manage their own reactions and emotions, they also have to be able to do the same for others. Teams will often include a wide range of different personalities and forming that team into a cohesive whole with a strong sense of shared aims and objectives takes advanced emotional intelligence.
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Increased Self-Awareness
Leaders must be self-reflective and should understand their own strengths, weakness, and values. Better self-awareness helps leaders to make better decisions, develop stronger relationships, and to achieve their professional and personal goals.
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Network Building
Finally, a successful personal leadership development plan example might include clear goals around networking. Building a strong network can help leaders to identify new opportunities, learn from others, and to access valuable resources.
What are the Core Steps in Making a Personal Development Plan?
Making a personal leadership development plan will usually begin with an assessment of the leader’s current situation, their strengths and weakness and how they want to improve. It will then set out a strategy to achieve those goals.
Typically, any realistic personal leadership development plan will detail the leadership development programs, as well as the coaching and mentoring methods that will be used. It will also include details of how progress will be measured.
Your Personal Path to Success
Leadership Success can help you achieve your professional goals with tailored and targeted leadership development plans. Our experts have a wealth of experience and can help you grow, learn and develop as a leader.
Contact us to find out more about how you can take practical steps to achieve your own personal development goals.