Paper

Running Head: Personal Leadership Development Action Plan. 1

SAMPLE PAPER

My Developmental Action Plan

Define your goals.

My first personal goal is to finish my degree in Public Safety Administration. Once that is complete, I intend to work myself into a position here at NAS Patuxent River in the Public Safety Department. From that moment on, I will have more opportunities to leader people. My goals as a leader are not only to complete my goals that I have set for myself, but for my team to reach their set goals also. Everyone’s goals are different some are small and others are large but that does not make one more important than the other. I will need to ask my team what their aspirations are and what they intend to get from me. This way I can do my best to make sure; they succeed and can move on to their next goal. Developing your subordinates is an integral part of being a leader. In all actuality, we are training our replacements, no one keeps a position forever and we need to know that when we move on that there is someone knowledgeable to take our place.

The events that I have witnessed over my twenty-year naval career has motivated me to do whatever I can to help protect my family and community. Our Nation has recovered from attacks over the last decades but the key now is prevention. Preventing the loss of life during floods, fires, and other safety issues are now the topics that interest me. Whether this be developing a traffic safety plan or putting out a burning building, my family, community, and team are what makes it worth doing.

Prioritize.

If I were to prioritize my goals, the first would be with finishing my degree; this will assist the doors of employment to open up. I need this to allow myself the opportunity of even applying for the position and goal that I have set for myself. Making wise leadership decisions is also a huge priority for me, I am aware that not every decision that I make will be the correct one, but as long as there is a lesson learned it would create growth.

Set a deadline.

The deadline that I have set for myself for finishing my degree is spring of 2020. As of now, this is attainable and I am on track to completing this on time. The other goals that I have I cannot set dates on just yet, as they cannot be started until the first is completed.

Understand your strengths.

Being knowledgeable and understanding my strengths will allow me to attain the goals stated above. One of the strengths I have is that I will not discouraged by being wrong. I try to take every negative occurrence in my professional and personal life as a learning experience. The main issue with the common thinking of “It has always been like this” is normally the “it” is wrong. People see mistakes and carry one with their day because that is what they have always done. Becoming an effective leader starts there if you see something wrong and it needs to be changed, we should change it.

I have personally always enjoy when a member of my team corrects me, because this means that they are always learning also. When I was in my first leadership position I believed that what I said was correct and there was no other answer, but a mentor sat me down and helped me understand that a leader should always be open to new ideas. This is something that has stuck with me throughout my career and my life. I am now more open to criticism especially when it is constructive and it can make me a better leader. I hope to continue these trends in future endeavors and they continue to benefit my teams and I while completing our personal and shared goals.

Recognize opportunities and threats.

One of the areas that I seek improvement is that I tend to be more reactive than proactive. Although I still plan my jobs meticulously, my contingency plans are somewhat weak. When something in my plan does not work correctly, I normally have to stop the evolution and develop a new formula to attain my goals. I know that in the Public Safety Sector having a solid plan B is just as important as your plan A.

Take action.

I have done some reading on how to train myself to become more proactive. By using the five P’s a person can form this type of proactive behavior. I must learn to Predict and I believe that comes with not being complacent (Scivicque, 2016). Being able to predict future obstacles, I can set controls to Prevent them from happening or be ready when they do occur (Scivicque, 2016). Once I learn regular patterns during a process, it will help me to Plan more efficiently (Scivicque, 2016). Being more proactive will also require me to Participate in the tasking and not be a hands-off supervisor (Scivicque, 2016). Delegation is one of my favorite forms of leadership but I think that sometimes I rely too much on others to make sure that the job is completed. The last P is to Perform not to let this process wait until the last minute (Scivicque, 2016).

Conclusion.

This plan has identified my future goals and a clear pathway in attaining them. It has also made me more self-aware of my strengths and how I use them to my advantage. It also show an area or fault that needs improvement and how I can begin to make the correct changes. These changes will not only help myself but my team to perform more effectively and attain our goals.

References Scivicque, C. (2016). The Proactive Professional. Parker, Colorado: CCS Ventures, LLC.

Feedback

Your Personal Leadership Development Action Plan is due at the end of Week July 15, your final paper, 10% of grade.  In addition to the content listed below I want to see you develop and write SMART objectives for yourselves, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.  I also want to see a personal written mission statement in your paper, with a focus on who you are and aspire to be as a leader.  Your plan should incorporate your development at a minimum, over the next three to five years.  The final paper when completed should be a useful personal map and tool, to visit from time to time and reflect upon your progress in leadership. The areas in red this person did not hit on