Leading Organization - Achiever Papers

Pls see attachment

Project 1: Assessing Your Strategic Leadership Capacity and Potential

Step 1: Define a Career SMART Goal

For this step, think about one long-term career goal. Where would you like to be in your career in three to five years? How will you get there? What resources do you need? What short-term skills do you need to enhance your chances of achieving your career goal? To help you achieve your career goal, complete the following tasks using a leadership development plan (LDP):

· First, download the

LDP Template

(see below) and save it in local storage using the following file-naming protocol: lastname_firstname_preliminary_LDP x

· Second, identify and describe in writing one long-term career goal using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) format. Read

SMART goals

(see resources) for specific guidelines.

· Third, place this goal in the LDP template section entitled Long-Term Career Goal.

· Fourth, identify and list five to six short-term development skills that you will need to acquire in order to make progress toward your long-term career goal. Place these skills in the Short-Term Skills Development section of the LDP.

When you have completed your preliminary LDP, proceed to Step 2, where you will work on a preliminary skills gap analysis.

Step 2: Complete A Skills Gap Analysis

The preliminary leadership development plan allowed you to identify and develop a plan to help you achieve one long-term career goal. Step 2 will introduce you to a skills gap analysis, which will assess your specific skills as they pertain to each of the four course projects and help you identify the skill areas you want to enhance. You will revisit the skills gap analysis at the end of the term in order to measure the progress you made as a result of completing the four course projects.

Complete your preliminary

skills gap analysis

(see attachment) and related

skills gap table

(see attachment). Carefully follow the instructions below:

· The preliminary skills gap analysis has four parts that parallel each of the four course projects. After you complete the preliminary skills gap analysis, select one skill area from each of its four parts where a meaningful gap exists. These should be skill gaps you want to reduce during this term to enhance your leadership skills, bolster your current career, and ultimately achieve your career goals.

· Place each of the four skill area gaps you identified from the skills gap analysis in the skills gap table. The table has a separate space for each of your four gap goals.

· In the skills gap table, list the developmental activities, completion date, resources and costs, and expected outcomes associated with each of the four skills gap goals you identified. The table serves as an action plan that leads to the accomplishment of each of the four skills gap goals. It details the activities you will undertake to reduce each of your four selected skill gaps during the remaining weeks of this term.

· Consider all appropriate activities and resources that would help reduce each of the four skill gaps. These resources might include conferences, books, free online classes, mentorship, coaching, observation, professional associations and groups, networking, volunteering, journaling, and so forth. Select the appropriate activities related to each of your four skill gaps and list them in the skills gap table.

Step 3: Reflect on Your Leadership Development

In this project, you have had the opportunity to create two different, yet complementary, development plans. The first was the leadership development plan, which focused primarily on those behavioral competencies that would enable you to develop skills to achieve your career goals and assume leadership responsibilities as a professional in your field. The second was the skills gap analysis, which focused primarily on specific task-driven skills that you could improve with the intention to meet predetermined goals.

To measure your progress on the skill gaps you identified earlier in this project as being integral to your personal leadership effectiveness, you are encouraged to reflect on your progress in developing those skills. With this in mind, complete the following steps:

· Write a reflection summary of between 500 and 750 words on the lessons you learned and the progress you made toward reducing the gaps identified in your preliminary skills gap analysis. The reflection summary should identify and briefly discuss the skill gaps that require further development and how that development would occur in the MBA program and throughout your career. You may also wish to integrate material from other aspects of the course in your reflection summary.

Remember, career and leadership development is an ongoing process that will continue well beyond receipt of your MBA. You are encouraged to assume responsibility for this process.

Leadership Development Plan

This Leadership Development Plan serves as your road map for short-term training and development activities that will enhance your leadership competencies. You will review, revise, and update your plan several times during the course of your MBA degree program at UMGC.

Your name: Your current job title:

Long-Term Career Goal

Make sure your goal is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

In 3 to 5 years, my goal is to…

In 3 to 5 years, my goal is to secure a Human Resource Specialist position within a company so that I can apply my Human Resource training and further hone my managerial skills. After a few years I plan to grow into management position- overseeing the HR department. (This is what I have in mind, you can adjust it pls)

Short-Term Skills Development Needs

What skills will you need to acquire to achieve your long-term career goal?

My leadership skills training and development

Course Resources For Project 1

SMART Goals

At work you have probably been involved in setting, measuring, and evaluating progress in meeting goals. These goals may have been set for your particular position, or perhaps they were established for your unit or organization as a whole.

Our focus for this project is on setting goals designed to help you achieve your professional aspirations. Thus, before creating one or more SMART goals it is important to envision and clarify how you see your career progressing, the career path you wish to take to make this possible, and the personal competencies you believe will be important to get you where you want to be. Begin this process by writing a three- to four-sentence statement that summarizes your career aspirations and priorities.

Next, create and implement SMART goals to help you achieve the future you envision for yourself. The SMART model is described below, followed by an example and an explanation of some of its limitations.

Specific—Your goal should be sufficiently specific, such that you identify what you want to achieve, when, where, and why.

Measurable—You need to be able to measure and verify your progress in achieving your goal.

Achievable—Many of us have experience setting a goal that we eventually realize wasn’t really achievable, and it is important to reduce this risk. One approach is to discuss your goals with a mentor, coach, or someone you trust to give you honest and objective feedback.

Relevant—It should be easy to see the connection between your SMART goals and your longer term career and professional aspirations.

Time-bound (timely)—An important criterion for setting an effective SMART goal is that you indicate when it will be accomplished. Be specific about this and include mileposts and deadlines.

Examples

A broad (longer-term) career goal might be to achieve a position as a senior project leader within the next two years. Competencies needed for this position include advanced knowledge and skills related to creating and sustaining high-performing teams.

To achieve the objective of advanced knowledge, an associated SMART goal might be to read a minimum of six articles (M) by leading team scholars (S) by the end of this semester (T) and create a one-page personal briefing note (A) that captures the main lessons learned, along with follow-up actions (R).

To gain advanced skills, an associated SMART goal might be to practice active listening skills (S) with team members, arrange to obtain feedback on this practice from a team buddy (M), and include results and follow-up actions in a one-page briefing note (A & R) while working with a team to complete a project (T).

Limitations

One criticism of the SMART goal is that this approach may not be useful for those in positions or organizations requiring high levels of flexibility and innovation. Prather (2005) notes that innovation necessitates outside-the-box thinking, and the somewhat inflexible nature of SMART goals makes them less appropriate in settings where major innovations or breakthroughs are needed.

References

Prather, C. W. (2005). The dumb thing about SMART goals for innovation. Research Technology Management, 48(5), 14-15. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.umgc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=18241690&site=eds-live&scope=site

>Sheet

(where 1 is low, and 7 is high). See Part 1, Item 1 below for an example, and then overwrite the sample ratings with your own ratings for this item. The gap for each item will be automatically calculated.
Interpreting your results: In the example, the gap is

. The large negative number indicates an item where current proficiency is low and career importance is high—so, this might be an item to address. A gap represented by a large positive number (e.g., 5) indicates that current proficiency is relatively high and career importance is relatively low. In this event, you would not want to pick the item as one to address.

, and Implementation

Goal-Setting
1

2 7 -5

Using a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is low and 7 is high, please indicate your current level of proficiency with each of the following. Using the same scale, select the number that best represents how important each item is for your career success. Gap

Instructions: Review each item below and determine your current level of proficiency and the importance the item has for your career success. Use a scale of 1 to

–

Part 1: Personal Leadership Assessment,

Goal-Setting

Using a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is low and 7 is high, please indicate your current level of proficiency with each of the following.

Using the same scale, select the number that best represents how important each item is for your career success.

Gap

I am able to formulate a good long-term career goal.

I am able to analyze my personal knowledge proficiency.

I am able to analyze my personal skill proficiency.

I take actions to address self-identified areas of strength or weakness.

I am able to formulate goals that meet the SMART criteria to help me address areas of weakness or strength.

I monitor, critically analyze, and record my progress in taking actions and achieving goals.

I seek timely support and feedback from others to help track my progress and achieve my goals.

Self-Awareness

I know my areas of personal strength in the workplace.

I understand how to leverage my strengths to achieve success.

I know what I need to improve to be an effective leader.

I understand what I need to do to make the improvements I believe are important for my career success.

I recognize actions I can take to help improve my leadership competencies.

I recognize how my behaviors may impact others.

Awareness of Others

I have a good understanding of the needs of the people I work with.

I have a good understanding of how others perceive me at work.

I am interested in learning about the people I work with.

Self-Management

I handle criticism without becoming defensive.

I am calm under pressure.

I use personal failures as an opportunity for further growth and development.

I manage stress well.

I typically have a positive outlook.

I try to see and understand matters from others’ perspectives.

I am a good listener.

I wait to form judgments until I have all the needed information.

When I make a mistake I am not afraid to say so.

Management of Others

I am able to relate well with peers in the workplace.

I have good working relationships with those I supervise.

I have good working relationships with those I report to.

Gap for Leadership: Use your gap analysis to identify your gap for leadership and select one of the above to work on this semester.

Gap 1 (Provide the number from column B and the description from column C):

Part 2: Situation Audit

Organizational Strategy and Objectives

I am able to explain my organization’s mission, vision, values, and core goals to people who are new to the organization.

I am able to evaluate my organization’s mission, vision, values, and core goals and make recommendations for improvements if needed.

I understand the concept of valuable, rare, inimitable, and nonsubstitutable resources (VRIN) and can identify them within my organization.

I am able to explain my organization’s current strategy to others.

I am able to critically evaluate my organization’s strategy.

I am able to explain the pros and cons of alternative strategies my organization might want to consider in light of its current situation.

I am able to accurately explain my organization’s current structure.

I can discuss my organization’s size and understand the possible implications for organizational performance.

I am able to explain the pros and cons of the current organizational structure for achieving the mission, vision, values, and core goals.

I am able to explain the strategic and financial objectives my organization is using to help achieve its strategy.

I am able to critically evaluate my organization’s strategic and financial objectives and offer recommendations for possible improvements.

I can identify and explain my organization’s core competencies.

I can explain how and why each of my organization’s core competencies might serve as a source of competitive advantage.

I am able to explain how and why resource-based theory is useful in understanding my organization’s critical resources.

Human Resources

I am able to describe my organization’s human resource management system to those who are new to the organization.

I am able to evaluate the human resource management system and identify some aspects that may need improvements.

I am able to explain my organization’s performance management (PM) system (including talent recruitment, onboarding, development, and evaluation) to those who are new to the organization.

I am able to identify potential strengths and weakness in the PM system and make recommendations for possible improvement.

I am able to analyze and explain the extent to which my organization views its people as a source of competitive advantage.

Financial Resources

I understand how and why the information contained in my organization’s publicly available financial statements is helpful in explaining its financial situation.

I know how to find the information I need to identify typical accounting and financial management issues when analyzing an organization’s financial statements.

I can explain the process used to develop my organization’s operating budget.

I can evaluate the extent to which my organization’s master and unit level budgets appear to align with and support its mission, goals, vision, values and objectives (MGVOs).

Technology Resources

I can evaluate the extent to which my organization leverages the Internet as a source of competitive advantage.

I am able to evaluate my organization’s use of an Intranet (or alternative tools for internal collaboration and communication) and identify areas of potential strength and weakness.

I can explain the process used to develop my organization’s strategic technology plan and evaluate its alignment with the MGVOs.

I am able to explain and evaluate my organization’s technology governance practices.

I am able to summarize my organization’s current situation with respect to the effective use of advanced technologies.

Building and Equipment

I am able to summarize my organization’s physical plant and equipment.

I can evaluate whether the plant and equipment are used effectively.

I am able to evaluate whether there are physical assets within the organization that need to be retired or replaced.

I can explain the process used to develop my organization’s facilities plan and evaluate its alignment with the MGVOs.

I am able to evaluate the adequacy of the physical plant budget.

I am able to determine whether there are bottlenecks within my organization’s operations.

Leadership Effectiveness

I am able to identify the common managerial style within my organization.

I can determine the possible causes of the dominant managerial style, and discuss the likely consequences of this style for my organization’s MGVOs.

I am able to identify the types of support provided by my organization to its managers to enhance their knowledge, skills, and abilities.

I am able to identify issues with managerial effectiveness within my organization (if they exist).

I am able to recommend possible courses of action that my organization’s leadership might consider if issues with managerial effectiveness are identified.

I am able to identify the potential costs and benefits of my recommended courses of action.

I am able to identify the major management control systems in place within my organization and determine whether they help the organization achieve its MGVOs.

Organizational Leadership

I am able to identify the roles and responsibilities of my organization’s leader.

I am able to identify the power sources upon which my organization’s leader relies.

I am able to analyze the implications for the organization of the power sources used by my organization’s leader.

I am able to identify the major factors that limit the ability of my organization’s leader to exercise his or her power.

I am able to identify the influence tactics upon which my organization’s leader usually relies and discuss the implications for his or her performance.

I am able to recognize how my organization’s leader handles organizational politics and discuss the implications for his or her performance.

I am able to identify the approaches to conflict (organizational and/or interpersonal) used by my organization’s leader, and discuss the implications.

I am able to analyze whether my organization’s leader is an effective decision maker.

I am able to assess the ability of my organization’s leader to create and nurture relationships with peers and followers that contribute to success, both individual and organizational.

I am able to identify whether my organization’s leader uses a transactional or transformational leadership style and discuss the implications.

I am able to assess whether the behaviors, decisions, and actions of my organization’s leader contribute positively to the MGVOs and reputation of the organization.

Governance

I am able to describe the governance structure in place within my organization.

I am able to determine whether the current structure ensures independent and expert oversight and review of major organizational decisions.

I am able to determine whether my organization has provided appropriate protection against arbitrary, capricious, and/or unethical behavior on the part of leaders and managers.

I am able to assess whether the current management, leadership, and governance are effective.

I am able to assess whether any recent changes (management, leadership or governance) within my organization have had positive measurable effects.

Learning Organizations

If they exist, I am able to describe the metrics related to my organization’s commitment to learning.

I am able to determine whether the metrics (if present) align with and support the organization’s MGVOs.

I am able to determine the extent to which the metrics are being used to review performance and to make needed changes.

I am able to assess whether my organization is committing the resources and leadership attention required to create a sustainable learning organization.

I am able to describe my organization’s experience with implementing significant changes over the past five years.

I am able to determine which change model(s) best describe my organization’s experience with implementing significant change.

I am able to determine the lessons my organization’s leaders and managers should take from past change experiences to help ensure success for the future.

I am able to complete a preliminary situation audit for my organization and to identify specific aspects of the organization that require leadership attention.

Gap for Situation Audit: Use your gap analysis to identify and select one of the above to work on this semester.

Gap 2 (Provide the number from column B and the description from column C):

Part 3: Organization Culture, Climate, and Ethical Decisions

Research and Analytical Skills

I am able to find good research sources and then create an annotated resource list.

I am a strong critical thinker and use this skill consistently in my work and writing.

I understand the concept of evidence-based management and am able to determine whether my organization uses this approach.

Organizational Culture

I am able to define organizational culture.

I can evaluate my organization’s culture.

I am able to assess the effects culture has on my organization’s ability to achieve its MGVOs.

I understand how country cultural differences may affect my organization.

Organizational Climate

I can explain the characteristics of a healthy organizational climate.

I can objectively evaluate my organization’s climate and recommend changes if needed.

I can recognize the types of conflict organizations experience and how they may affect my organization’s success.

Business Ethics

I am able to assess whether my organization’s leaders make ethical decisions.

I am able to determine whether my organization places sufficient emphasis on ethical and caring behavior.

Organizational Behavior

I understand how and why the study of organizational behavior contributes useful information for managers and/or leaders.

Gap for Culture, Climate, and Ethical Decisions: Use your gap analysis to identify and select one of the above to work on this semester.

Gap 3 (Provide the number from column B and the description from column C):

Part Four: Virtual Teams

Team Organization

I know how to structure a virtual team (or teams) for optimal effectiveness.

I am able to manage a virtual team (or teams) for optimal effectiveness.

I can discuss the potential benefits and challenges of using virtual teams.

I understand the principles that should be applied in creating an effective team agreement.

I know how to create a project work plan to support the successful completion of a team project.

Team Types and Principles

I can explain the possible types of teams that can be used.

I am aware of the general principles that are important for leading and managing a virtual team.

I can identify the challenges associated with having a geographically dispersed team.

I can offer potential solutions to the challenges of being a geographically dispersed team.

I can explain the follow-the-sun work model.

I can determine whether the follow-the-sun model would be appropriate in a given set of circumstances.

Team Composition

I can explain the benefits and issues associated with team size.

I can explain how team composition (especially homogeneity and heterogeneity) effects team success.

I can discuss the various roles that team members need to fill in order for the team to be successful.

I know how team leadership differs from other forms of leadership within an organization.

I can identify the team leadership model that would work best in my organization.

Personality and Personality Assessments

I understand the effects that different personality traits can have on team dynamics.

I am able to identify some assessments that might provide me with useful insights into my own personality.

I am able to identify some assessments that might help team members gain a better understanding of one another.

I can explain how teams develop and understand the implications for teams within my organization.

Country Cultural Differences

I understand country cultural differences and can explain the impact they have on an organization that operates globally.

I can make recommendations for handling cultural differences within a virtual team.

Group Decision Making

I have a good understanding of how decisions are made within teams.

Training and Technology

I am able to identify the best information and communication technologies for use within virtual teams.

I can make recommendations for the types of training that would be most beneficial to high-functioning virtual teams.

I know how to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether my recommendations are sound.

Team Management

I understand the options available for managing virtual teams within my organization.

Gap for Virtual Teams: Use your gap analysis to identify and select one of the above to work on this semester.

Gap 4 (Provide the number from column B and the description from column C):

GAP TABLE: This table is for the four GAPs selected from the GAP Analysis.

GAP Goal 1:

Complete the following table with the details of your plan for GAP Goal 1.

Training & developmental activities toward Goal 1

Examples:
· Attend a conference on ethical leadership
· Read a book on the importance of cultural competence in my industry
· Learn several key phrases in a new language

Target completion date / actual completion date
Set your target dates at the outset.
Update with actual dates when you have completed each task.

Resources & costs
What costs are associated with completing this activity? What resources will you use to cover those costs?

Expected outcomes/measures
How will you know you have succeeded? How will you demonstrate your acquired competency? How might someone else be able to validate your new competency?

Target: Click here to enter a date.
Actual: Click here to enter a date.

GAP Goal 2

Complete the following table with the details of your plan for GAP Goal 2.

Training & developmental activities toward Goal 2

Target completion date / actual completion date

Resources & costs

Expected outcomes/measures

Target: Click here to enter a date.
Actual: Click here to enter a date.

GAP Goal 3

Complete the following table with the details of your plan for GAP Goal 3.

Training & developmental activities toward Goal 3

Target completion date / actual completion date