My Individual Leadership Development Plan Assignment

During the first seven weeks of the semester, you have been actively engaged in exploring different Leadership theories, your individual Strengths, MBTI, Values Perspective, and Emotional Intelligence to understand YOU better, your views on Leadership, and most importantly, how you see yourself as a LEADER.  You have engaged in four online discussions to build a community of practice, completed individual post-class reflections, participated in various in-class exercises, and reflected on your learning. Each of these activities has provided you with an opportunity to identify aspects of and critically explore your authentic self – leading you to uncover your emerging leadership voice and vision. 

Assignment Details:

The assignment comprises four key sections: Leadership Profile, Assessments & Reflection, Developmental Goals (SMART Goals), and Leadership Vision.

1. Leadership Profile (maximum 500 words)

In this section, share a brief biography, including your leadership experiences, thoughts about leadership before joining this course, and the key question(s) you are looking to answer during this course. Remember that this is your leadership profile, so personalize it to show your emerging leadership identity. Share your story and leadership journey.

Note: Use relevant leadership theories to support you ideas/claims and cite all sources in-text and references.

Some points to consider for the Leadership Profile section:

· Provide a summary of your experiences with Leadership, your questions about Leadership entering this course, what you believed about leadership, and your aspirations for the future?

· What specifically has informed your view of leadership?

· How does what you have learned about the 21st-century work environment inform your emerging definition of Leadership?

· How might you characterize the 21st-century environment? How does this inform your leadership style or idea about leadership?

· What metaphor would you use to characterize the 21st-century organization? How does this inform your leadership style or idea about leadership?

· Which dominant and/or emerging leadership theory resonates with you? How does this inform your leadership style or idea about leadership?

· How does understanding the leadership theory/theories mentioned above link to what you have read/understood before?

· How do these theories "fit" with my own definition and ideas of my emerging leader identity? Where are the gaps? Where might there be alignment? What might this mean to my understanding of leadership?

· What are the implications of the answers above for your emerging leadership identity and how you lead or would lead?

· Now that we better understand the interconnections between Strengths, MBTI,  Values, and EQ-i in a leadership context, how might you put your new understanding into practice within a team setting?

2. Assessments and Reflections (maximum 800 words)

Note: Use relevant leadership theories to support you ideas/claims and cite all sources including the assessments in-text and references.In this section Summarize your Values, MBTI, Strengths Finder and EQi assessments. How do they inform your leadership style or how you might lead?

· Compare and contrast the results and your critical reflections for each assessment (StrengthsFinder, MBTI, Values Perspective, and EQ-i). Identify what, if any, correlations there are among all assessment findings.  Identify both the positive and the shadow or blind spots. Identify key themes that are emerging in your reflections. Explain what this suggests about you as a leader. Explain why it might be important.

Note: To complete this section successfully, you will need to draw on your:

· StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment – Determine your top 5 themes – how do they resonate, provide examples of when you have demonstrated these themes, explore both the positive and shadow side of the themes as they relate to leadership

· Values Perspective Inventory – Determine your top 9 values – how do they resonate, provide examples of when you have demonstrated these values, explore both the positive and shadow side of the themes as they relate to leadership.

· MBTI Personality Type Indicator Assessment - What is your Myers-Briggs Type – does the type assessment resonate? What do you believe your strengths are based on your M-B Type? What possible underdeveloped areas might you have? What are the positive and shadow sides of your type as it relates to leadership? Why is this important to know this?

· EQ-i (Emotional Intelligence) - What does your EQ-i report suggest to you about your "self-perception," "stress management," "self-expression," "decision making," and "interpersonal" skills?  Do these results resonate?  Were you surprised? Please provide examples of how and when you have demonstrated these skills, explore both the positive and shadow side of what your assessment results suggest as they relate to leadership. In what areas might you need further development? Why?

· Connections - What connections do you see across your StrengthsFinder, Values Perspective, MBTI Type, and EQ-i findings? Similarities? Differences? Gaps? Areas of growth/development? Areas to leverage in leadership contexts?

3. Development Goals and Strategies (maximum 300 words)

Note: Use relevant leadership theories to support you ideas/claims and cite all sources in-text and references.In this section analyze the EQi report and refer to page 3 of your EQi report to identify your lowest three subscales. Where do you believe you need to stretch, develop, grow?  Develop an action plan on how you intend to achieve your goals (See the developmental areas noted in your EQi report).a) Use the SMART goals Action Plan template on pg. 23 of your EI report to prepare your SMART Goals.b) Based upon your analysis and key themes emerging from your EQi, identify 3 EI skills or behaviours you would like to develop further (i.e., Leadership development-oriented goals). Refer to page 3 of your report to identify the lowest 3 subscales.b) Where do you believe you need to stretch, develop, grow?  Develop an action plan on how you intend to achieve your goals (See the developmental areas noted in your EQi report).c) Each SMART goal should be Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realist, and Timebound.d) For each SMART goal clearly how t will support your leadership development.Leadership Vision (maximum 300 words)Note: Use relevant leadership theories to support you ideas/claims and cite all sources in-text and references.In this section state your emerging Leadership vision? What do you aspire to be as a Leader? How will you "live" as a leader? Articulate how you wish to "operationalize" what you are learning about leadership and yourself going forward. Utilize specific examples where you might apply your new understanding – this semester, coursework, extra-curricular activities, in your workplace, and beyond. Consider, for example:

· What does it mean to lead?

· What does your analysis suggest about how you might lead? Self-lead, in teams, at work?

· How does what you have learned thus far help increase your understanding of yourself and your leadership potential?

· What are the implications of leading someone whose Strengths, Values, MBTI, and/or EQ-i results are different from yours?

· How might this new knowledge help you in a future leadership situation?

Note:  Leadership Vision. Use the guiding questions above to assist you in putting your leadership vision together.

Key Learnings and Implications for YOU as a Leader

Note Carefully: There is an expectation that you link current thinking and research on Leadership into your assignment. To that end, be sure to complete all of, and refer to, when appropriate, the required readings, including the chapters indicated in your weekly schedule, the additional papers (i.e. Values-Based Leadership articles) provided in SLATE, and the first 30 pages of Strengths Finder 2.0).  I also encourage you to explore additional peer-reviewed papers to support your exploration further. Cite all sources (in-text and references) that you draw on to support your ideas.

NOTE: A majority of our activities during weeks 1 – 7 and the reflective questions posed – both in class (during activities) or post-class were intentionally created to support your thinking and reflection for this assignment.

To assist you in this Assignment, consider applying Borton's Model of Reflection to support your thinking through the questions presented – starting with "What?".

Assignment Outline:

This assignment is a reflective essay and is to be written in the first person.  The use of examples from the literature and personal experience (in and outside of class/school) to support one's claims and assertions is expected.

See the suggested word count above for each section.

Minimum 12 point font, double spaced lines, 1-inch margins

Use of APA 7 formatting is required.

Rubric for Individual Leadership Development Plan Assignment

The core learning objective of this assignment is to challenge you to become more critically self-aware; to identify your emerging leadership vision, potential and development needs by leveraging your strengths, values, MBTI type, and EQ; expressly exploring the shadow or blind spots, and articulating which current leadership theoretical construct(s) resonate(s) most with you and why.

By articulating your emerging leadership vision, you are in a better position to become a more effective, intentional, and authentic leader.  By being more aware of what you want to be as a leader, you are also in a better position to engage in leadership behaviours for self purposefully, in teams, or official leadership constructs, identify the types of leaders you would like to work with and identify companies whose values align with yours.

The value in this exercise/assignment then is hopefully very practical and helpful for you.

NOTE: This assignment will be a core component of your final Leadership Creative Learning Portfolio Assignment due at the end of the term. I suggest that you refer to this document from time to time as a guide for your career and leadership path.