Unit no 01

Strategic Management and Leadership

Name: Ali Abbas

Strategic Management: Strategic Management is the management of
an organization’s resources to achieve its desires and targets.

Strategic management includes setting objectives, analyzing the aggressive environment, studyin
g the internal organization, evaluating strategies, and making sure that management rolls out
the techniques throughout the organization.

Leadership: Leadership is the ability of a character or a set of individuals to

steer and guide followers or other contributors of an organization.

Leadership includes making sound and often tough decisions, creating and articulating
a clear vision, establishing possible desires and presenting followers with
the information and equipment necessary to attain those dreams.

Link between Strategic Management and Leadership:

The word management is based on the verb "manage" that implies "do something and get
something." Practically, it is the art of planning tasks using skills such as directing people and
organizing tasks for assuring its development. The tasks of strategic management include making
organizational plans, carrying out assessments, shaping or reshaping an organization for making
it prosper and achieving its key objectives. One the other hand, the term leadership is based on
the verb "lead" that means guide or show direction. If an organization doesn't have an effective
leader, or its leaders lack charisma, it will never achieve its goals on time. In the nutshell, leaders
structure an organization and lead it for achieving the pre-decided organizational goals. Strategic
leaders make plans, start implementing them, and control the workflow. They also support the
process by giving deadlines or extending them. They evaluate the performance to assure that the
direction of the organization is correct.

Leadership as a process that a leader adapts to influence other people for a common objective.
Research shows that leadership and strategic management are significantly correlated, which
means that leaders and strategic managers have some special traits, which help them convince
others to do what they want for organizational success. Moreover, strategic management is
another form of management that creates competitive edge for achieving organizational
objectives. Generally, the top management acts as strategic management because they have
authorities and job descriptions, which legitimize their positions for implementing certain
strategies. It is commonly observed that the leadership wants change, so it creates the need to
make an important strategic shift/change. It is already mentioned that the leadership has
influence on the people, and it convinces them to achieve the organizational objectives. The
leadership has impact on the activities that an organization performs; so, the concepts and
practices of leadership and strategic management are interrelated. Different styles of leadership
have impact on the organizational vision, goals, mission, culture, structure, and rules, which are
also linked with the organization's strategic management.

1.2 Analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic

decisions:
Many case studies show that strategic decisions mainly affect the long-run business
performance that is directly linked with its objectives. Normally, they are decided by the top
management, and generally, they involve high risk but still, effective strategic decision-making
is quite fruitful. It is specifically true for the current business era when leaders and managers
have to make their businesses survive and grow in the changing environments.

They do this by continuously accepting and adapting the changing business scenarios. They have
to maintain pace with the changing business world for gaining a significant competitive
advantage. Since the business world is fast moving, many leadership styles and decision-making
forms are practiced such as autocratic leadership, negative leadership, participative/democratic
leadership, free-rein leadership and leadership by example. Leadership styles refer to the method,
through which, a leader/manager treats his group members; therefore, leadership styles may be
charismatic.

The mentioned styles have a deep impact on the decision-making processes and the kinds of
formal and informal hierarchies in an organization. Good leaders are flexible, and they can adapt
themselves and transform their businesses according to the requirements.

Autocratic leaders take decisions without asking for other employees' opinions; therefore, their
own decision-making skills must be very good but still, this leadership style demonizes and
suppresses others; therefore, it is applicable to just a few businesses. Generally, a democratic
leader's style and behavior are quite contrary to the autocratic leaders because democratic leaders
discuss their strategies with the employees and other stakeholders depending on their expertise.
Only one thing is common: It is the leader, who takes the final decision.

The effects of leadership and management styles on formulating strategies may be different
under changing situations, for instance, applying autocratic style in large organizations is not
advisable but it may be used in a small organization. Moreover, the effect of a style also varies,
and it affects strategic decisions, which are essential for the organizational success.

 Types of Leadership:

1. Autocratic leadership: Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is

a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input
 from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their ideas and
judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves
absolute, authoritarian control over a group. Like other leadership styles, the autocratic style
has both some benefits and some weaknesses. While those who rely on this approach to heavily
be often seen as bossy or dictator-like, this level of control can have benefits and be useful in
certain situations.
When and where the authoritarian style is most useful can depend on factors such as the situation,
the type of task the group is working on, and characteristics of the team members. If you tend to
utilize this type of leadership with a group, learning more about your style and the situations in
which this style is the most effective can be helpful.

2. Negative leadership: combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors

that. Have adverse effects on subordinates, the organization, and mission performance.
This leader lacks concern for others and the climate of the organization, which leads to
short- and long-term negative effects.

3. Transactional Leadership: Transactional leadership is defined by control, organization,

and short-term planning. Leaders who adopt this style rely on a system of rewards and
punishment to motivate their followers. As you can see, there are many similarities
between transactional leadership and autocratic leadership. The main difference is that
transactional leadership, as the name implies, involves a clear exchange between the
leader and the team members. For instance, in exchange for compliance and high
performance, an employee might be rewarded with a promotion.

4. Bureaucratic Leadership: Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command,

strict regulations, and conformation by its followers. As the name implies, this is a
leadership style that’s commonly found in government entities, as well as military and
public organizations.

5. Charismatic Leadership: Charismatic leadership is defined by a leader who uses their

communication skills, persuasiveness, and charm to influence others. Charismatic
leaders, given their ability to connect with people on a deep level, are especially valuable
within organizations that are facing a crisis or are struggling to move forward.

6. Transformational Leadership: Transformational leaders create a vision based on

identified needs and guide their teams toward that unified goal through inspiration and
motivation. The main difference between transformational leadership and the other styles
we’ve covered so far is that this one is focused on changing the systems and processes
 that aren’t working – unlike transactional leadership or bureaucratic leadership, which
doesn’t aim to change the status quo.

7. Coaching Leadership: Coaching leadership is a style defined by collaboration, support,

and guidance. Coaching leaders are focused on bringing out the best in their teams by
guiding them through goals and obstacles.

8. Democratic Leadership: Democratic leadership, which is also commonly known as

participative leadership, is about letting multiple people participate in the decision-
making process. This type of leadership can be seen in a wide range of contexts, from
businesses to schools to governments.

9. Collaborative Leadership: Collaborative leadership is focused on encouraging people

to work together across functional and organizational boundaries. The purpose of this
leadership style is to encourage collaboration with other teams and departments to
accomplish shared goals.

10. Servant Leadership: Servant leadership puts the needs and wellbeing of followers first.
In other words, these types of leaders adopt a serve-first approach and growth mindset to
prioritize their organization, employees, and community above themselves.

11. Laissez-Faire Leadership: Laissez-faire leadership takes a hands-off approach to

leadership and gives others the freedom to make decisions. While leaders still provide
their teams with the resources and tools they need to succeed, they remain largely
uninvolved in the day-to-day work. This is a leadership style you’ll commonly find in
creative settings, such as advertising agencies or startups, due to its encouragement of
independent thinking.

Impact of Management and Leadership on Strategic Decisions: Strategic

management causes the association to envision the changes, and make procedures as per the
changing condition and changing business sector requests. Strategic management includes
business planning by making suitable strategic decisions while giving attention to business
goals and objectives.
In such long-run planning, the business can’t take instinctive choices; consequently, SBM is
a legitimate method of decision-making, which turns into a competitive edge for the
business. It causes associations to recognize the dangers from the environment and
afterwards making systems to change over those risks into opportunities.

This whole process is grounded upon an adequate strategic decision making utilizing the
influence of management and leadership styles.

Strategic Decision Making: The process of preparing a plot based on long-term goals and
longer-term vision is known as strategic decision making. It can be reckoned as to create a
big picture including the short-term plans as well as broader objective maintaining your
operations’ simplicity and uniformity.

The managers of different top successful businesses and industries accomplish more than just
figuring out how to bring in cash and sell stuff. In addition to the fact that they handle the
everyday undertakings of selling, they likewise think about the 10,000-foot view and settle
on choices that will get the organization to where it needs to go. This is called strategic
decision making in which every decision made is based on the organization’s objectives or
mission.

This sort of decision making aides the decisions that are made harmonizing them with the
organizational goals. It requires out-of-the-container thinking as administrators need to
consider future situations that could conceivably occur. These are such situations which will
decide where the company is heading towards and proceed with its next steps.

How Management and Leadership Styles Impact Strategic Decisions:

It is very well said that “Managers are who do things right and leaders are who do the right
thing”. In any business, organization, company or enterprise the leaders are those who lead
people, group or team while the managers are those who tend to manage all the activities,
things going around in the organization. For this, we can have a look at the diverse operations
of managers and leaders:

Managers:

 Managers administer
 Monitor the established course
 Safeguard that people do things
 Make sure that people do things better

Leaders:

 Leaders innovate
 Set up the course that managers follow
 Make sure that people want to do things
 Safeguard that people do the right things
 Confirm that people do better things

The manager comprising all of the management skills as well as the leader having leadership
skills with various leadership styles, both of them are equally important in the process of
strategic decisions making.

This can be explained in such a way that the leaders utilizing their effective leadership skills
bring change to the organization which in turn assist the business to make efficacious
decisions for meeting the future goals. On the other hand, the managers can be regarded as
the part of the association who uphold the day to day organizational activities which is
eventually supportive for the business to make strategic decisions involving its short term as
well as long-run plans.

Strategic decisions are influenced by the management and leadership styles:

The management and leadership styles influence the strategic decisions in such a way that
management has a scheme and methodologies and it emphasizes on the implementation of
the strategy while the leader keeps up the human resource and organizational behavior and
guide the personnel, control, coordinate, and persuade them to carry out the strategy with
their optimal performance so as to achieve the final objective of the company. The
management and leadership styles can impact the strategic decisions in view of the fact that
the right leadership style is essentially required while making effective strategic decisions. If
a correct/ appropriate leadership style is not pursued in the process of strategic decision
making that would engender failure of the decision. Hence, the company should be well
aware of which leadership style should be followed in making which kind of strategic
decision.

In the present scenario of modern and ever-developing technologies and competition, the
organization should employ the best ever management and leadership skills in making
strategic decisions in order to meet the organizational objectives and future goals.

The leadership styles and management have a great impact on the strategic decisions
which in turn prove to be beneficial for making effective strategic decisions.
Appropriate management and leadership skills lead strategic decisions to achieve the
organization’s goals.

1.3 How leadership styles can be adapted to different situations:

 Identify your own intrinsic leadership style. Three main categories of leadership
styles are autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. Autocratic leaders tend to
maintain control and tell workers what to do. Democratic leaders support a sense of
 teamwork and listen to worker opinions before making a decision. Laissez-faire
leaders are very hands-off, almost not leaders at all. Laissez-faire leaders, however,
are usually available when their help is requested. Knowing and understanding your
own natural leadership style is the first step toward adapting your behavior to the
needs of your workers.
 Recognize the pros and cons of the three main leadership styles. Autocratic leaders
often get things done in less time and their workforce is usually quite productive.
Productivity slumps when the manager is not present, however. Democratic leaders
often gain the respect of their workers. Workers appreciate feeling valued and will
work harder for that manager. This type of leadership style can be ineffective when
there is a lot of conflict among the staff. Laissez-faire leadership works when there
is a high degree of skill and knowledge among the workforce but is sorely lacking
when employees are less skilled. All three leadership styles are appropriate in
different situations.
 Appreciate the diversity among your staff. Diversity in organizational psychology is
often seen as differences among people that define or create the culture of the
workplace. Dimensions of diversity include gender, age, sexual orientation,
religions, ethnicity, education, work experience, military experience, family status
and income level. Leave any preconceptions or prejudices at the door, and observe
how your staff members relate to one another and to their jobs. Workers with more
skill will most likely respond well to democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles;
those with less experience will likely respond more to a more autocratic style.
 Experiment with different styles to see what works best with your group of workers.
Maintain an "open door" policy so that workers can approach you to discuss work-
related issues. As you get to know your workers, you will get a sense of how much
direction and how much freedom they need to be productive.

Task No 2
2.1: Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on
organizational strategy:
Effective leadership is an important element for every organization. Every company requires
efficient leaders who have the skills to guide the organization in the desired direction while
accomplishing the objectives of the company. According to studies, there are various
management or leadership theories which include: transactional theory, transformational
theory, behavioral theory, contingency theory, tri-dimensional theory, and situational theory.
Metrocon Company has adopted behavioral theory for leadership management in their
organization with positive outcomes. Their implementation and results will be further
discussed and reviewed.

Behavioral Theory: According to behavioral theory, there are certain behaviors that a
leader should adopt, such as:

 Consideration of the task: leaders should know how to divide the task among their
employees to maintain their productivity and meet the company’s objectives.

 Consideration for employees: it is the responsibility of every leader to consider their

employee’s interests, values, concerns, and problems rather than treating them only as
sources of production.

 Directional leadership: leaders should provide a direction for their employees to follow.
They should take responsibility and make the final decision that will ultimately allow a
progression towards business objectives or away from them.

 Active participation: leaders should actively participate in the decision-making process

and not rely on employees to take all the responsibility for their decision.

Leadership strategy and organizational direction:

 When creating any strategy, the company should always focus on making plans long-term,
knowing the competition and rivalry they may face in the future. Considering these factors, the
company needs an efficient and effective leadership plan for its organization. This leadership
strategy includes setting workshops, training, developing professionalism, and developing
trust, belief and respect, and emotional intelligence.

Developing Professionalism: The progress of every organization lies in the professional

attitude of its management, leaders, and employees. Implementation of a positive and
professional environment needs the active participation of leaders who can guide their
employees to follow the rules and regulations of the company.

Developing Trust and Belief: Developing trust and belief among employees is also a major
component of an effective leadership plan. The management system should properly plan to
develop trust and belief among their employees, provide them with a healthy working
environment, solve escalated problems, and take care to avoid discrimination. It has been seen
time and again that discrimination and favoritism among employees have a negative impact on
the efficiency, morale, and overall effectiveness of the company.

Training Programs and Workshop: The introduction of workshops and training programs
for employees is helpful; this will guide them on best practices and industry innovations
provide them a direction to work towards and help the company accomplish its objective.
Metrocon is already working on this perspective. They have arranged different workshops for
their employees to understand the method for implementing plans that favor growth in the
company.

Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is a term that means the ability for people to
understand the emotions of others, and it is a common trait in good leaders. Emotionally
intelligent leaders support their team in a stressful situation, peacefully evaluates the situation,
and finds the resolution to the problem. Goleman has presented a theory in this respect, which
includes few features: motivation, empathy, self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, and
encouragement. By actively practicing or honing these traits, leaders can successfully
implement changes and bring quality intervention into workplace policies.

Application of Goleman Theory: Metrocon has adopted the Goleman theory described above
to guide their leaders. This theory has helped the organization achieve its objectives, helped the
company increase effectiveness, reliability, and capability, and empowered them to increase
their resources. This theory is a proper guide for a new entrepreneur or the CEO of an
established organization.

2.2 Leadership strategy that supports organizational direction:

Organizations can consider the following elements in their leadership development strategy to
better position themselves for success:
 1. Ensure Executive Support: No executive support, at the very least, means there is no
budget for leadership development. However, successful strategies go well beyond securing
a budget in engaging organizational leaders in this process. Involve top leadership early.
You could formalize this involvement through key stakeholder interviews or by building a
steering committee to advise on and approve key milestones. Alternatively, you could
garner buy-in through less structured practices. Set up informal meetings with leaders who
champion learning and development, listen to their experiences, and ask for input and
feedback along the way. Whether a formal or informal approach will work better for your
company culture, executive buy-in is critical to gain broad participation and engagement.
2. Understand Organizational Needs: Before designing a solution, it’s vital to understand
the problem. Just because the executive team deems leadership development mission-critical
does not mean that there is a solid grasp of the underlying issue — or that leadership
development will solve it. According to Harvard Business review, this misalignment is one
of the many reasons leadership development efforts fail. In one example, the crux of the
issue was that managers did not understand what practices and behaviors were expected of
them. It’s best to tackle these systemic issues before implementing a learning program. To
embark on that discovery, start with data. Interview key stakeholders to understand what
leaders need, or review the rich data sources from company surveys and exit interviews to
identify themes about culture dynamics.
3. Start with Leadership Competencies: Between the insights gained from the need
assessments and L&D’s knowledge of best leadership practices, it may seem that there’s a
laundry list of skills to organize into a curriculum for existing and emerging leaders. Don’t
get caught in this trap. Instead, use the desired behaviors as an input to define a holistic view
of leadership at your organization. Filter that definition through company values and
existing performance competency models to develop a framework on which to build the
program. The goal is to create a structure for how leaders at all levels develop leadership
capabilities over the course of the employee life cycle. You can then attach learning goals to
this framework to provide an overview of what success will look like. Tailor this step to
your organization, with a focus on capabilities and desired behaviors.
4. Craft a Change Management Plan: A best-in-class leadership development initiative can
fail without paying due diligence to supporting the organization through change. At its
core, change management is about helping employees adapt to a new way of working — in
this case, within a new culture of leadership development. Elements of a change
management plan include (but are not limited to).

 A communication plan and materials to align expectations around participation and

leadership behaviors.
 An internal marketing plan to broaden engagement and excite future learners.
 Risk mitigation strategies to prepare for potential barriers to success.
 A resistance management plan to address pushback from vocal employees.

In addition to these materials, remember to identify change champions who can use their social and
professional capital at the organization to influence others in embracing and participating in
leadership development.
 5 Design an Evaluation Plan: Proving impact will be impossible without evaluation. Thus,
successful strategies include the creation of an evaluation plan in advance of launching the
initiative. Tie metrics to the learning goals, focusing on measurable outcomes and key
behavior changes. Create surveys and assessments, and identify performance outcomes. The
most successful strategies also ensure alignment with executives on how you will measure
success. While it’s important to understand the employee experience and skills gained, work
with leadership to agree on key metrics around business impact. Once this foundation is in
place, prepare a communication plan to share evaluation dashboards and impact reports with
the executive team upon launch and onward.
6 Infuse Culture and Processes With Leadership Competencies: Formal training content is
often forgotten within weeks (or less) unless learners make an effort to relearn or apply the
material. On top of the limitations of the human brain, a leader may return from training to
an organization that discounts his or her learning through its current culture or process.
Thus, it is crucial to bolster learning through ongoing conversation, continued leadership
engagement, and a systemic integration of leadership capabilities in the culture and core
processes. Consider the following places where you can measure and embed leadership
competencies to support program success:

 Culture surveys
 Performance management systems

 Internal transfer processes

 Talent review cycles

Through a more holistic approach, your learning organization will find itself better poised to
succeed and less likely to fall victim to the common missteps in realizing the benefits of its
investment in leadership development.

Task no 3

(3.1) Appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements:

With the introduction of technology and the advancement of internet, business is spreading at a
much faster rate globally. There is a constant race for customers, global challenges, suppliers,
diversity and also race for better sales. There are few steps which an organization can follow
to convert their employees into leaders.
1) Communicating with employees, leaders should often communicate with their employees; this
will guide them in the mission of the organization.

2) Provide proper coaching and training to their employees, this will help them to utilize their
expertise in the right direction

3) Engaging employees in most productive manner, good leaders always know which of their
employees is capable of which kind of work, and they utilize their abilities accordingly.

4) The handling attitude of employees is also the responsibility of leaders; they should know how
they can be a role model for their employees, with the right kind of attitudes that everyone would
like to follow.

It is a quality of good leaders, to know how they can use their interpersonal expertise, to
ensure that their company is running or heading in the right direction, and also to respond
positively to external and internal changes in the environment which can affect the basic
structure of the organization. Employees are the most important asset of the organization.
Therefore it is the responsibility of leaders to create a healthy working environment for them so
that they can work hard, to motivate them so they can utilize their expertise in a more conducive
manner. Another responsibility of leaders is to avoid a negative impact within the organization;
this can be done by avoiding jealousy factor among employees and encourage them to work
together as a team.

1. The emergence of new technology: The emergence of new technologies is also very
challenging for leaders; proper knowledge or information is also very necessary for every
organization. They should know how to utilize this new technology for their benefits, a
growing trend of virtual or e-business, which means doing business from the internet or
online business, employees and leaders have direct access to each other through the
internet, which helps them to coordinate with each other easily.
2. Merger or Takeover: Merger or takeover of organizations creates complexity and
competitive environment, here the role of leaders is to deal with difficult situations, due
to different policies of both companies there is a constant backlash among two
organizations. Therefore, good leaders should focus on getting their teams together, to
work on policies which provide the satisfaction of customers, employees, and
stakeholders and also try to hold the prime objective of the company.
 3. Regulatory Compliance: Maintain regulatory compliance is another responsibility of
leaders, which requires efficient selection, recruitment and training procedures. Selecting
right employee, for the right job is also a skill, brakes are working on these principles,
and they are recruiting people with skills that can help their company to grow so that they
can maintain the compliance of the organization.
4. Diversity in Culture: Cultural diversification is another important concern for every
organization; employees working within the company belong to different regions or
different cultures. Therefore the leader has a responsibility to create an environment
which is healthy, positive, and which treats everyone equally. They should focus on
increasing the working skills of employees which will not only benefit them but also
benefit their company.

Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement:

To progress, an organization needs effective leadership and also effective planning for the
development of leadership skills; in this regard, there are few features which can be followed by
every organization

 Formal learning procedures

This segment includes arranging different formal training sessions, workshops or seminars for
employees, which will help them to understand the importance of learning, or introducing new
skills in their working methods, also help them to improvise their skills and bring innovative
changes.

 On job training

Another effective method is on the job training; employees learn more in this session; in this
learning, procedure management trains their employees and leaders; this will increase their
knowledge and skills to work better.

 Building leadership qualities

Management is also responsible for building leadership qualities in their employees, they should
urge every employee to learn leadership qualities, and this will benefit each employee and also
benefit their company. By focusing more on learning, outcomes will help the company to excel
more in the business world. Effective and efficient training programs will help the employees to
efficiently represent their organization and also help leaders to lead their company in the right
direction which will eventually help the company to grow in the industry. Globalization,
challenges, and demands of the future business world have emphasized the need for proper
development of leadership skills for every company. Better leadership requires self-confidence,
mission, vision, enthusiasm, and empowerment; all of these factors will help leaders to convert
their ideas into actions and also help to implement positive changes in the company.

Methods that help to plan the development of leadership:

There are a few methods which will help the company for development of better leadership.

 Training programs:

Brakes Company has adopted this method, training programs always help the organization to
bring innovative changes within the organization, and due to this job training, the employees
learn new skills and new methods which can help them to increase their knowledge and to bring
new changes in their work.

 Practical learning

This method of training employees has proved to be very beneficial in terms of teaching them the
practical application of new strategies or new skills in their working methods. This learning
procedure helps to get feedback, to know if the application of the selected method is going in the
right direction.

 Rotation In job

Choosing the right person for the right kind of job is also a quality of a leader, job rotation and
recruitment of employees according to demands of the job is very important for fulfilling the
requirements of the company.

 Retention of current and future leaders

For retention of skilled leaders the company should set some incentives, rewards, and appraisals
for their leaders, this will help the organization for retention of their skilled employees, which
are playing a strong role for the betterment of their company.
  Executive coaching

Development of employees into leaders is another important quality of efficient management; the
company should focus on providing executive coaching which will help employees to enhance
their information and also their skills.

(3.2) Steps to creating a leadership development plan

1. Assess and identify talent:

Some organizations have a formal leadership development program and talent pools from which
they can select talent for a specific leadership development plan. However, some organizations
do not have formal talent identification or assessment procedures. For those organizations, a
simple 9 Box Grid. A 9 Box Grid measures potential (future performance capacity) vs.
performance (present performance). Ideally, you should select High Potentials, Stars, and High
Performers for a leadership development plan.

2. Obtain buy-in from key stakeholders

For a leadership development plan to work there must be buy-in from senior leadership, the
manager or supervisor of the targeted employee(s), and the employee.
 A leadership development plan often requires more significant investment into that employee.
This usually includes allocating a budget for it to be successful. The budget would need to be
approved by senior leadership before proceeding. A consideration Senior Leadership may
have before approving the budget is the degree to which the plan aligns with the
organization’s strategic objectives. The Senior Leadership may also want to be the final
approver on who is selected to participate in the leadership development plan.

 The manager/supervisor also needs to be engaged in this process. The reason for this is that
the targeted employee may need to take on additional projects and attend training that divides
the employee’s focus from current work commitments. They may also be temporarily
assigned to another team to develop additional competencies. Unless the manager/supervisor
has bought into this plan, it is hardly likely to succeed because the employee will feel torn by
these different demands.

 The employee(s) targeted for this plan also must want to participate. While this may seem like
a great opportunity, there may be an employee or two who may not want to participate or wish
to postpone participation for another time. This may be due to other personal commitments, or
the employee may not be interested. Not every employee wants to be in a leadership position,
even if they may have the capacity to be a leader.

An agreement among the senior leadership, the manager/supervisor, and the employee about the
plan’s objectives, how it will be achieved, by when, and who will participate is essential for a
successful leadership development plan.

3. Identify the leadership style

There may be an overarching leadership style within the organization that is expected of
potential leaders. This may be based on the organization’s culture and business needs. According
to American Express Business Trends and Insights, there are seven different leadership styles.
An eighth style, transformational leadership, has been gaining traction.

Autocratic Authoritative
 Democratic Pacesetting

Coaching Affiliative

Laissez-faire Transformational

An organization may prefer one or two of these styles. However, the current uncertainty and
volatility of business environments require leaders to function effectively in several of these,
depending on the situation.

This degree of agility may not come naturally, but it is an essential skill now that must be
acquired. According to American Express Business Trends and Insights, “an agile leadership
style may be the ultimate leadership style required for leading today’s talent.”

4. Determine the key leadership competencies

Identifying key leadership competencies needed for the organization’s current and future success
is essential to carrying out a successful leadership development plan. These competencies
become the foundation of the developmental plan. Developing them means ensuring the next
generation of leaders are ready for current challenges and unknown crises yet to be encountered.

According to Gartner survey findings, “currently, only 21% of HR leaders say peers share
accountability or partner with HR to determine future skill needs.” To be ready for another year
like 2020, there needs to greater partnership and shared accountability with HR Leaders.

SHRM categorizes leadership competencies into three groups:

 Competencies for leading the organization

 Competencies for leading others

 Competencies for leading the self

 These are 15 key leadership competencies every HR professional should know:

5. Assess key leadership competencies: To understand what the leadership development plan
will entail, the organization will have to assess the selected employee(s) against the critical
leadership competencies identified. The results of this assessment will highlight where the
competency gaps of the employee are. Then, use these gaps to identify and/or design the most
suitable developmental opportunities for the employee to bridge those gaps.

A few Leadership Assessment Tools that can be considered are:

1. APT Metrics Lead IN Leadership Assessment Suite

2. CCL’s Benchmark for Executives

3. DDI Leadership Mirror

6. Design the leadership development plan:

Consult your organization’s Learning & Development subject matter experts to develop the
appropriate learning opportunities for the employees. Incorporate as many of the learning
solutions as possible listed below to provide a rich learning environment for the employee:

 Self-paced micro-learning – Similar to LinkedIn Learning and Google Grow.

 Complementary leadership mentoring – This type of mentoring pairs potential leaders with
leaders who are strong in the competencies they are weak in.

 Job shadowing – This allows the employee to get a realistic view of how a job flows. It also
presents an opportunity to meet key stakeholders, and understand the challenges on the job.

 Job rotation – The employee assumes new roles for a period of three to six months, often for a
temporary period.

 Professional development course – These are usually 2-3-day offsite training for a particular
skill or competency.

 Professional certifications – Employees may need to acquire and maintain professional

certifications to perform in certain roles and be deemed credible by their peers.

This is, of course, not an exhaustive list. You should combine the learning strategies in a way
that helps your employees meet their goals.

Gartner’s report recommends, “Organizations should take a dynamic approach to rescaling and
redeploying talent in which all impacted stakeholders work together to sense shifting skill needs
and find ways to develop skills at the time of need. With the dynamic approach to rescaling,
employees apply 75% of the new skills they learn (far more than with other approaches), and
learning begins sooner, as needs are identified faster.”

7. Conduct continuous 360-degree leadership assessment:

You want to know if your leadership development program is effective and reaches its goals.
That’s why you need to create a way to monitor the employee’s progress during and to determine
readiness after completion of a leadership development plan.

One of the ways is a 360-degree leadership assessment from key stakeholders. Continuous
feedback and engagement ensure the success of the employee and the plan. Engagement during
the process provides an opportunity to tweak the plan’s objectives to mirror organizational
changes in real-time. Ultimately, the employee becomes the leader the organization needs.

For example, OPM Leadership 360™ or Right Path 360 assessment may be good options.

Challenges to creating a leadership development plan:

There are potential challenges to successfully executing a leadership development plan. For
example:

 Limited resources such as a designated budget and allocated time.

 Lack of commitment from the leadership, managers, and the organization in general not
having a culture of learning.

 Inability to create skills development solutions fast enough to meet the evolving skill needs.

 Ineffective succession management programs and initiatives that fail to produce the right type
of leaders.

However, knowing the challenges enables leaders to take preemptive action to avoid potential
obstacles to the plan’s successful implementation.

TASK 4

4.1 Developing Leadership Skills: Leadership skills can be learned, and leadership
development benefits individuals and organizations. Leadership development refers to
any activity that enhances the capability of an individual to assume leadership roles and
responsibilities. Examples include degree programs in management, executive education,
seminars and workshops, and even internships. These types of learning opportunities
focus on developing knowledge, skills, self-awareness, and abilities needed to lead
effectively.

Successful leadership development is the result of three things:

 Individual learner characteristics, including willingness and ability to learn.

 The quality and nature of the leadership development program, including its structure and
content.

 Opportunities to practice new skills and receive performance feedback.

1. Methods of Leadership Development: Leader development takes place through

multiple mechanisms: formal instruction, developmental job assignments, 360-degree
feedback, executive coaching, and self-directed learning. These approaches may occur
independently but are more effective in combination.

2. Formal Training: Organizations often offer formal training programs to their leaders.
Traditional styles provide leaders with required knowledge and skills in a particular area
using coursework, practice, “over learning” with rehearsals, and feedback (Kozlowski,
1998). This traditional lecture-based classroom training is useful; however, its limitations
include the question of a leader’s ability to transfer the information from a training
environment to a work setting.

3. Developmental Job Assignment: Following formal training, organizations can assign

leaders to developmental jobs that target the newly acquired skills. A job that is
developmental is one in which leaders learn, undergo personal change, and gain leadership
skills resulting from the roles, responsibilities, and tasks involved in that job.
Developmental job assignments are one of the most effective forms of leader
development. A “stretch” or developmental assignment challenges leaders’ new skills and
pushes them out of their comfort zone to operate in a more complex environment, one that
involves new elements, problems, and dilemmas to resolve.

4. 360 Degree Feedback: The 360 degree feedback approach is a necessary component of
leader development that allows leaders to maximize learning opportunities from their
current assignment. It systematically provides leaders with perceptions of their
performance from a full circle of viewpoints, including subordinates, peers, superiors, and
the leader’s own self- assessment. With information coming from so many different
sources, the messages may be contradictory and difficult to interpret. However, when
several different sources concur on a similar perspective, whether a strength or weakness,
the clarity of the message increases. For this mechanism to be effective, the leader must
accept feedback and be open and willing to make changes. Coaching is an effective way to
facilitate 360-degree feedback and help effect change using open discussion.

5. Coaching: Leadership coaching focuses on enhancing the leader’s effectiveness, along

with the effectiveness of the team and organization. It involves an intense, one-on-one
relationship aimed at imparting important lessons through assessment, challenge, and
support. Although the goal of coaching is sometimes to correct a fault, it is used more and
more to help already successful leaders move to the next level of increased responsibilities
 and new and complex challenges. Coaching aims to move leaders toward measurable
goals that contribute to individual and organizational growth.

6. Self Directed Learning: Using self-directed learning, individual leaders teach

themselves new skills by selecting areas for development, choosing learning avenues, and
identifying resources. This type of development is a self-paced process that aims not only
to acquire new skills but also to gain a broader perspective on leadership responsibilities
and what it takes to succeed as a leader.

7. Leadership Development Models: McCauley, Van Veslor, and Ruderman (2010)

described a two-part model for developing leaders. The first part identifies three elements
that combine to make developmental experiences stronger: assessment, challenge, and
support. Assessment lets leaders know where they stand in areas of strengths, current
performance level, and developmental needs. Challenging experiences are ones that
stretch leaders’ ability to work outside of their comfort zone, develop new skills and
abilities, and provide important opportunities to learn. Support—which comes in the form
of bosses, co-workers, friends, family, coaches, and mentors—enables leaders to handle
the struggle of developing. The second part of the leader-development model illustrates
that the development process involves a variety of developmental experiences and the
ability to learn from them. These experiences and the ability to learn also have an impact
on each other: leaders with a high ability to learn from experience will seek out
developmental experiences, and through these experiences leaders increase their ability to
learn. The leader-development process is rooted in a particular leadership context, which
includes elements such as age, culture, economic conditions, population gender,
organizational purpose and mission, and business strategy. This environment molds the
leader development process. Along with assessment, challenge and support, leadership
contexts are important aspects of the leader-development model.

8. General Electric Model of Leadership: Another well-known model of leadership

development is used by the General Electric Corporation. Managers with high potential
are identified early in their careers. Their development is monitored and planned to
include a variety of job placements to develop skills and experience, a rigorous
performance-evaluation process, and formal training programs at the corporate leadership
center in Ortonville, New York. For top managers, the CEO leads some of the training; the
CEO also reviews performance evaluations for high-potential managers during site visits
to the various subsidiary divisions.

4.2 Usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills:

Leadership development benefits an organization in a multitude of ways.

1.It drives better business results: Including higher financial performance and more
consistent achievement within departments guided by proficient leaders.
2. Skilled leaders are more agile: An organization with empowered leaders can
navigate today’s complex business environment and solve problems quickly and
effectively.

3. Good leadership drives innovation: A workforce with effective leaders will be

inspired to believe in, and work for, a greater vision.

4. Skilled leaders attract and keep employees: Good leadership can inspire higher
engagement from their staff and reduce turnover. A great leader will attract talented new
employees and will be able to keep the ones that they have, which leads to better work
satisfaction.

5. Improves employee engagement: More than half of American workers are

disengaged at work. Effective leadership that knows how to increase engagement within
teams using purpose and recognition has been shown to increase profitability within an
organization.

6. Improves communication inside and outside the organization: Good

communication can make or break a company. If the leaders within a company make
effective communication a priority, it leads to increases in productivity, better speed of
execution of tasks, and a more positive organizational culture.

7. Improves Customer retention: Customers will be more loyal when leaders are
effective in engaging employees. Leading by example improves the customer experience.

8. Increases employee loyalty: In-house leadership development inspires loyalty from

employees, as it shows that there are growth opportunities available for them. It is also
cheaper, and requires less time, than finding, hiring and training leaders from outside.

9. Proper leadership development strategy fuels business strategy: A properly

developed leadership development strategy is an invaluable tool for driving and
achieving the organization’s business strategy. In taking the time to understand what your
organization needs from its leaders, you will better understand the business strategy that
will work best for you. These two strategies go hand-in-hand, developing one will help in
achieving the other. No matter the industry, every organization can benefit from
developing leadership skills from within their organization and prioritizing leadership in
their company culture.