HRM219 LEADING AND MANAGING

Individual Self-development plan

Self-Appraisal of my leadership style

Module Leader – Jeff Lee

Student (0951824)

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My experience in the Leadership Trust coupled with the experience at my work

place has highlighted that I am moderately inclined towards reflector style learning
(Honey and Mumford, 2000).During my experiences at the trust it was brought to
light that my innovative skills were improved as well there was an effective co-
ordination amongst the team members in a group. The key learning points that I
developed was always made the priority to be implemented at the tasks and
reviewed so that I would improve in my task at a regular basis. I would like to
develop my personality traits when losing focus under pressure and by maintaining
calmness at all times. Step back – think – Organize – Plan (S.T.O.P) is embedded
in me to avoid lack of co-ordination and overall performance. Being an extrovert
person I tend to demand things to be done my way resulting in me being an
influencing initiator most of the times. At the trust when our group members were
pressurized with the task I maintained calmness by supporting and enlighten the
team with good mood which indeed motivated the team with energy which resulted
in better focus and result. As a leader I was democratic and caring throughout the
task and would let team suggest their views and choose the best alternative
possible.

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From Development WEAKNESS: Lack quantitative analysis and number

Phase crunching and weaker in problem solving skills, Lagged
behind in co-ordination and communication with the peers,
Losing patience while under pressure, Poor linguistic
skills, Unassertiveness, Undecided, Lack of trust,
Unambitious.

Learning Phase

LEARNING: Improve Innovative and Creative thinking,

Identify
Concentrate on helping and supporting peers, Play active
New
part in the planning process, Improve Co-ordination,
Weakness
  Maintain focus and Involvement at all levels.

Development Phase

To Weakness DEVELOPMENT: Utilized the feedback from learning at

Phase a regular basis, Instilled the key learning points, Gained
self confidence in learning phase, Improve innovative
skills, Maintain Calmness most of the people.  

Learning and development framework portrays my personal experience at the trust

from learning prospective. As can be seen the Four stage learning cycle by Kolb
was applied however it was only partly successful I got to realize my Strengths
which were already known to me through the psychometric test and OPQ
questionnaire (Kolb, 1984).Thus I learned no new strength of myself just found a
validation of the knowledge I received from the OPQ questionnaire. Hence I need
to research a new learning framework to seek out any new strength through
continued learning. This four stage learning cycle did however enhance my

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knowledge about my weakness and various development points. Therefore it was

partly successful.

Consequently I have realized that I have a long way to go before choosing any
particular leadership style as my own because I am yet to learn the various
dimensions to my own personality which is the fundamental basis to any

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leadership style I may choose to follow in the future. Until then I prefer the Kolb’s
learning cycle for its ease in learning through trial and error methods.

Thus my Immediate plans involves utilizing any personality development courses I

can find to improve my knowledge and communication skills along with my
confidence levels. This should aid in my becoming more of an extrovert with a
purpose more intellectual. I also aim to join and English language courses with a
business etiquette focus to more understand the western context of functioning in
organization because while they speak the same words its often a different
language.

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As per key learning points attained at the trust and work life I have noticed my
strength and weakness and development areas where I lagged behind.

I attempted to involve myself differently in different situation at the leadership

trust because I was eager to find out what leadership style would suit me the best
for each given occasion. This set of practices closely resembles Hersey and
Blanchard theory of situational leadership. During the leadership trust I could only
attempt the supporting style of leadership which led to others taking the initiative
and maximizing all the opportunities they received. Depending on the situation I
played quite a good role in maintaining calmness and energy levels which helped
the whole team as well and this was noticed by the team members. Lack of co-
ordination was also visible when pressurized with the task but was handled with
care due to the qualities of STOP. At the Trust with the feedback received our team
was not good in planning as it resulted in confusions and tension at a particular
task with the time limit. While being appointed as a leader I utilized the supportive
style of leadership by delegating task to my team members, cross-questioned them
with the objectives and allocated jobs accordingly, maintained enthusiasm and
drive throughout the task and giving a chance to let the team members express
their views. I Had issues managing across cultures these were mainly due to
communication problems because of my poor linguistic skills and lack of
intellectual knowledge applicable to the task at hand this hindered any attempt on
my path to take the lead. I tend to possess a mix of affiliative and democratic style
leaderships where my strength is on the positive note which diminishes the
weakness (Goleman, 2000).I have tried to assess the impact of my traits on my
leadership through the concept of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2000) this
psychological study helps me to test my ability to understand people relationship

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on an emotional level and also how I apply this understanding in the various task I
am involved in. In future I will also aim for improving my analytical skills and my
intelligence to learn information and proper methodology to apply this information
in the best possible manner in every endeavor I partake in. I intend to gauge my
emotional intelligence on a more detailed scale through further psychometric and
psychoanalytic tools. This view indicates that I should improve my capabilities and
competencies which consist of two types my personal and social sets. In my
particular case personal competence consist of self-awareness, Improving
intelligence, knowledge and improving my linguistic and verbal communication
skills. Social competence involves improving my group communication skills and
team motivational skills while taking actual control of the team. This premise is
influenced by the notion that if I am more sensitive in my emotions and the impact
of my emotions on others then I will be a more effective leader.

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