Individuals at every level in the organization must take the initiative to become empowered within the organization to create meaningful change in the organization’s culture (Anderson, 2018). This requires self-awareness, and a desire to continually improve. This paper provides the results of a personal leadership evaluation by identifying the top three strengths and weaknesses. These identified opportunities are then leveraged to define a development plan for personal improvement in these areas. The personal leadership evaluation tool used, Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), measures both an individual’s creative competencies and reactive tendencies (LCP, 2019). These measurements are combined to provide a holistic view of an individual’s current leadership effectiveness and identify areas where growth is needed. The results of the LCP self-assessment are illustrated in a circle graph. The completed assessment results are provided below. The remainder of this paper analyzes the assessment results to identify the individual’s strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of defining a personal leadership development plan.
Leadership Strengths
Based on the results of the Leadership Circle-Profile Self-Assessment (2019), the individual’s top three key areas of strength include self-awareness, authenticity, and compliance. The self-awareness dimension measures the individuals drive for continual improvement and outlook on personal development. The results of the personal assessment completed show the individual assessed ranked at a median level for this dimension. Specific areas measured within this dimension include valuing service over an individual’s own interests, maintaining a balance between their personal life and work commitments, the individual’s ability to remain calm and focused when conflict arises, and the individual’s drive to seek out learning or growth opportunities. As illustrated in the circle graph provided above, the individual measured high for both being a selfless leader and composure. However, there are growth opportunities that can be leveraged in the personal leadership development plan in the areas of balance and personal learner. The second strength identified in the circle graph was the authenticity dimension. This dimension measures an individual’s ability to maintain their integrity and communicate in an authentic and courageous way. The results show the individual feels comfortable communicating in a courageous and authentic way consistently. The individual is not afraid to speak up on potentially difficult topics. However, there are opportunities for growth when it comes to integrity. The individual noted examples of setting deadlines and then occasionally needing to revise those committed dates, or the scope of a project due to competing priorities or change in the business stakeholder’s request.
The third strength identified in the circle graph was compliance. The complying dimension measures an individual’s need to step aside to allow others to take the lead or to try to please others at the potential sacrifice of the individual’s decision making. The assessment indicated the individual may think conservatively in adhering to organizational policies and procedures. However, they are also willing to think outside the box when determining the best solution. The individual is also not driven to fit in and is less likely to defer their perceived power to others. Although people-pleasing is not a huge driver for this individual, the circle grid does show the individual does compromise some in this area and would benefit from identified growth opportunities in this area.
Leadership Weaknesses
According to the Leadership Circle-Profile Self-Assessment (2019), the individual’s top three key areas of weakness include systems awareness, achieving, and protecting leadership dimensions. The first weakness identified, systems awareness, is a measurement of the individual’s awareness of the big picture when making decisions and providing strategic direction. This dimension incorporates an individual’s ability to incorporate a community or global based service mentality and develop holistic, long-term solutions to the overall organization. The individual rated relatively low on the circle grid. This is primarily attributed to the individual’s current organizational role and not having experience in determining the strategic vision at the larger organizational level. The second weakness identified in the circle graph was achieving. This dimension measures an individual’s ability to “offer visionary, authentic, and high-achievement leadership” (LCP, 2019). This dimension includes having a strategic focus, communicating with purpose and the strategic vision in mind, the ability to motivate high performance in others, and to quickly make decisions. Although the individual assessed measured high for their ability to be decisive, they ranked low in the areas of strategic focus, purposeful visionary, and achieves results. This was attributed to the individual’s lack of experience in this areas. The individual currently holds a team lead position and does have experience with supporting the strategy and direction of the smaller team within the department. However, the individual could benefit from opportunities to think of the larger organizational strategy and how the team fits into that scope.
The third weakness identified in the circle graph was protecting. This dimension measures an individual’s probability of being distant or overly critical. This individual may hold back and avoid connecting with others. Although the individual ranked in the lower spectrum for arrogance and being overly critical, they did measure in the highest percentile for distance. The individual is not held back by being overly arrogant or critical. However, they do maintain a distance with others. This is a result of being an introvert by nature and certainly holds some opportunities for growth and breaking outside that box.
Personal Leadership Development Plan
Torres (2010) defines a great leader as people that are preparing not just for the known circumstances of today, but also for the unknown possibilities of the future. This requires an individual to continually seek opportunities to grow and flex as the industry and organization grows. This next section defines a development plan for the strengths and weaknesses identified in this paper based on the completed Leadership Circle Profile self-assessment.
Leadership Strengths Development Plan
Through the analysis of the self-assessment results, four areas within the top three strength dimensions were identified. The first two, which fall under the self-awareness dimension, are balance and personal learner. These two areas require a greater awareness to time management. The assessed individual needs to create a defined schedule that allows a greater work-life balance and allows time for personal and professional development. The second two areas of opportunity fall under the authenticity and complying dimensions. Both integrity and pleasing are related to the individual compromising due to shifts with stakeholders. This is a common occurrence within the individual’s organization when it comes to project scope. The individual would benefit from documenting when the scope or deadline is compromised and complete a lessons learned with the stakeholders to minimize future occurrences.
Leadership Weaknesses Development Plan
The self-assessment results also identified six areas of development opportunities within the top three weaknesses. Under the systems awareness dimension, the individual would benefit from opportunities to be engaged with the larger strategic vision of the organization. This is a broader scope than the current department level vantage point the individual has access to now. Similarly, the areas of opportunity within the achieving leadership dimension are currently beyond the scope of the individual’s current role. The individual would benefit from creating a mentorship with a senior leadership member to dive further into these areas and to seek out case studies to review the outcomes for the given scenarios. The third area identified, the protecting leadership dimension, requires the individual to step outside their introvert based comfort-zone. The individual’s leadership skills would be improved by seeking networking opportunities to engage and interact more.
Conclusion
In conclusion, self-awareness and on-going self-evaluation is great for remaining relevant and marketable within your organization. Just as the organization does regular assessments to ensure the organization is on track and progressing forward with the defined strategic vision, so should the individuals within the organization seek to take an internal inventory of their professional development to ensure they are continually growing and improving.
References
- Anderson, B. (2018). Mastering Leadership. Retrieved February 17, 2019, from https://leadershipcircle.com/en/whitepapers/
- Anderson, R.J., & Adams, W.A. (2016). Mastering leadership: An integrated framework for breakthrough performance and extraordinary business results. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
- Leadership Circle-Profile Self-Assessment. (2019). Retrieved February 17, 2019, from https://leadershipcircle.com/en/sa-thank-you/
- Torres, R. (2010). What it takes to be a great leader. TEDTalks: Films Media Group. Retrieved February 17, 2019, from https://fod-infobase-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=66132
