The Personal Leadership Action Plan
Approximately 3-4 pages
The final project in UWW 320 is the Personal Leadership Action Plan. We will explore leadership from many different perspectives, and I’m hoping that this project will make it possible for you to bring together some of the ideas, issues, and questions we discuss during the class in a way that means something to you.
The Plan is due towards the end of class, but you should be thinking about it now. If one of the approaches to understanding leadership rings true for you and helps you understand your own or your boss’s leadership behavior, make the connection in a sentence or two so that you can go back to it when you put the Plan together.
There are three parts to the Plan:
• A description of a current or future leadership opportunity or a leadership problem you have identified. In a few paragraphs, present either a leadership opportunity that you see for yourself or another person or a public leadership problem that should be addressed. The opportunity can be anything, obtaining a promotion at work, advocating for your child, running for School Committee in your town, or creating a fundraising campaign in your church, but it must be something real in your experience. The problem, too, can be anything that is connected with leadership, an incompetent boss, a territorial committee chair, or a co-worker that causes conflict at work. If this is a personal affiliate, please don’t use real names, or even real organizations. Just describe the situation briefly. (2 paragraphs at most)
• An analysis of the opportunity or problem in terms of one or more of the leadership ideas we have discussed in class. Now look at the situation you have described in the light of some of the ideas you have read about and we’ve discussed in class. If you’re contemplating moving into a new leadership position, how do you evaluate your leadership style, for example? What traits do you have that are common to effective leaders? What are some aspects of the environment or situation you would be entering that you need to pay attention to? What are the pressures on people in leadership positions in your organization? If you’re analyzing a problem boss, is he or she like Achilles in Ender’s Shadow (I hope not!), like Bean, like Poke? What skills or elements of an effective leadership style is the boss missing? Is there a way to help the boss become a more effective leader?
• A research/action plan in which you describe ( the steps ) as to how you will learn more about the opportunity/problem and what you will to do to carry out the plan. Now decide how you will proceed. What additional reading will you do about particular issues in leadership? List the books and articles you will examine in a bibliography. Will you interview some people that you regard as effective leaders? Who will you interview? Why? What questions will you ask? If you decide to run for office, how will you evaluate your support? Whom will you engage to help with your campaign? Why? What skills, knowledge, traits or styles would they bring to the project?
