Management Assignment: Personal Development For Leadership & Strategic Management

Question

Task: Management Assignment Details: You have been a senior manager for a number of years and have decided that your next career move should be to or take responsibility for an aspect of strategic management in an organisation. Some interesting posts have been advertised recently and you have registered with a recruitment agency Harris Hall, which specialises in senior positions.

Task 1.
Harris Hall has sent you a guidance pack titled ‘Preparation for Application and Interviews’, which includes some tasks for you to complete. This will provide the foundations for the applications you will make. You are required to produce a file of information. In section 1 you must:

• analyse the knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management which are required to support the creation and achievement of organisational vision and strategy
• assess the contribution that factors other than skills and knowledge in leadership and strategic management make to the achievement of organisational vision and strategy
• review theories of leadership and management and assess the implications for your personal development.

Task 2
The second part of the file enables you to manage the development of your own personal knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management. This will support achievement of personal and organisational vision and strategy. This audit must be done in the context of an organisation where you are employed, where you work in a voluntary capacity, where you wish to gain employment or where you are studying. You must:

• carry out an audit of your own personal leadership and management knowledge and skills. The knowledge and skills identified must facilitate the creation and achievement of organisational vision.
• set objectives to meet your personal development needs in the context of strategic organisational needs
• prepare a personal development plan to develop own leadership and management skills to support the creation of organisational vision and strategy

Task 3
Harris Hall has sent you an email about an interesting post which is advertised in Management Today and you have decided to apply. As part of the application the organisation wants you to send a CV and a paper on ‘Developing and Communicating Organisational Vision’. The SHR Department in the organisation will use this information in the shortlisting of applicants, who will then be invited to interview.

Prepare a paper which:

• analyses the factors which impact on the creation of organisational vision
• assesses the different approaches to developing vision
• evaluates the key factors which impact on the communication of vision to external stakeholders.

Task 4
Congratulations you have been shortlisted for the post and been invited to interview. You are required to prepare a presentation which:

• assesses the benefits of review and explains when this tool can be used in the achievement of personal and organisational strategy.

ou are required to produce a paper which:

• evaluates the sources of information needed to review progress with achieving personal development plans.

Task 5
In the guidance pack Preparation for Application and Interviews’, Harris Hall have asked you to review progress to date with your personal development plan. You understand the importance of review in supporting individual and organisational progress.

• Produce a report which reviews your progress against the outcomes stated in your personal development plan.

Answer

Background Information of Management Assignment
Currently, I am appointed as a senior manager in a reputed organisation for a number of years. Now, I have decided to take next career move and want to become a successful strategic manager in an organisation. In order to get effective job opportunities, I have registered my name and portfolio with Harris Hall. Harris Hall is a reputed recruitment agency, which has committed me to screen the job opportunities for senior positions in different organisations. Major objective of this assignment is to analyse the leadership knowledge and strategic management skills, which are required for achievement of the organisational vision. In this assignment, different contributing factors towards leadership and strategic management are also assessed. Most importantly, an audit will be done on my leadership skills and management knowledge, which will help me in facilitating the creation as well as achievement of the organisational vision. A personal development plan has been created in this assignment to develop individual leadership and management skills. Development of these individual leadership and management skills will help in supporting the development of organisational vision and organisational strategy. The responsible factors for the creation of organisational vision are also evaluated in this assignment. Most importantly, impact of important factors on communication of vision to external stakeholders is also evaluated in this assignment. This assignment has assessed the benefits of reviewing in the achievement of personal goals and organisational strategy. The required sources of information to review the progress are also having been discussed in this assignment.

Task 1
Harris Hall has provided me a guidance pack for the purpose of successful application for the post of a senior strategic manager in reputed organisations.

AC 1.1: Analysis of Knowledge and Skills in Leadership and Strategic Management
In order to become a successful strategic manager in my future workplace, it will be important for me to analyse and identify appropriate knowledge and skills in leadership and strategic management, which will help me to create and achieve organisational vision and organisational strategy. First of all, it is important for me to have active listening and strategic thinking skills. Secondly, it is also important for me to have the sense of creativity and flexibility. Thirdly, it will be important here for me to have the ability to inspire and convince others in my workplace unit. Fourthly, I should look after effective assessment of my individual strengths and weaknesses. Fifthly, I need to have effective time management skills. Sixthly, effective trust development ability will help me to become a successful strategic management professional in my future workplace. Seventhly, I should have the ability to interact and communicate freely and transparently. Eighth of all, I need to showcase optimistic approaches to become successful in my future workplace. Last but not the least; it will be important for me to have effective persuasion skills and strong charisma to support the creation and achievement of the organisational strategy and organisational vision respectively.

AC 1.2: Assessment of Contributors in Leadership and Strategic Management
Skills and knowledge in leadership and strategic management are considered as two important factors for the achievement of organisational vision and organisational strategy. As a future strategic manager, I need to acknowledge that there are other contributing factors too rather that skills and knowledge in leadership strategic management. These are identified and assessed below.

First of all, effective employee engagement is an effective contributing factor to achieve the organisational vision and strategy. Secondly, the contemporary organisations are focusing on two-way communication network to successfully achieve the organisational vision and organisational strategy (Ongaro & Ferlie, 2020). Thirdly, the culture of innovation is also required. Majority of the contemporary organisations are developing the culture of innovation in organisational practices to achieve the developed organisational strategy and organisational vision. Last but not the least; effective conclusion is important to achieve the developed organisational strategy and organisational vision. Effective conclusion includes effective evaluation, feedbacks, and reviewing. A transparent and unbiased approach is required in order to achieve the developed organisational strategy and vision.

AC 3.1: Theories of Leadership and Management and Assessment of Implications
Implication of personal development plan requires effective application of leadership skills and managerial approaches.
Behavioural leadership theory can be reviewed here to assess the importance of leadership and management skills in the implications of personal development plan.

Behavioural Leadership Theory
According to this leadership theory, creation of personal development plan effectively depends on the behavioural traits of the individuals. These behavioural traits are nothing but the existing leadership and managerial skills, which allow those individuals to become successful strategic management professionals and organisational leaders. There are three types of behavioural leadership styles, such as autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. In autocratic leadership style, leaders or strategic management professionals adopt authoritative approaches to get a strong and centralised hold on the decision making activities. In this leadership style, autocratic leaders do not involve employees or other individuals in the decision making process. In democratic leadership style, leaders or strategic management professionals adopt participative approaches in allowing the employees to share their views in decision making activities (Bogers et al., 2019). In this democratic style, leaders play active roles in decision making processes, but consider the suggestions of the team members. In laissez-faire leadership style, the leaders or the strategic managers allow the employees to take active role in the strategy development and decision making process. The reviewing of the behavioural leadership theory has suggested that behavioural traits of individuals are important to create and implicate a personal development plan. Most importantly, the inherent nature or organisational situations will not be important factors here for the creation and implication of the personal development plan (Lejeune et al., 2021). The behavioural traits like authoritative approach or participative approach will be considered as important factors for implicating personal development plan.

1M1: Justified Ranking of Leadership and Management Knowledge and Skills
Following table will help in providing a justified ranking of the leadership skills and management knowledge to successfully develop and achieve organisational strategy.

First of all, it is important to develop a fruitful plan for the development of organisational strategies. Without effective planning, leaders or strategic managers cannot manage required resources to achieve objectives. Secondly, effective two-way communication approach is important because it not only helps the leaders or strategic managers to share their views with employees, but also allow the leaders to determine the perspectives of employees (Bintani, 2020). Thirdly, effective employee engagement is important for the leaders and strategic managers as it can allow in generating innovative ideas in business. Most importantly, it will create opportunities for the leaders to develop unique organisational strategies. On the other hand, it also can help in motivating staffs. Fourthly, effective decision making skills are also important for the leaders and strategic managers to develop and achieve organisational strategies. Effective decision making skills allow sourcing and allocating of important resources, which are important for achievement of the developed strategies.

Fifthly, it is important for the leaders and strategic managers to enhance delegation activities. Effective delegation allows the leaders and strategic managers to assign appropriate job roles for the sub-ordinates in a workplace setting. Sixthly, the leaders and strategic managers need to develop effective problem solving skills, which will assist the managers to overcome the challenges associated with the organisational strategy (Kivimäki & Meriluoto, 2018). Seventhly, it is important for the leaders and strategic managers to apply effective employee motivation skills to boost the motivation and performance level of staffs to achieve organisational strategy. Lastly, effective reviewing of the performance is important for the organisational leaders and strategic managers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of adopted strategies regarding achievement of the organisational goals.

1D1: Evaluation of Leadership and Management Knowledge and Skills
An organisational leader and strategic manager needs to understand the fact that the required management knowledge and leadership skills for achievement of organisational operations are different in characteristics compared to required management knowledge and leadership skills for the achievement of organisational strategy. In terms of achievement of organisational operations, leaders and strategic management professionals require technical proficiency, product development skills, data processing skills, risk analysis skills, budget management skills, employee management skills, and strategic planning ability (Bukharina, 2018). On the other hand, same organisational leaders and strategic management professionals require effective planning skills, transparent communication skills, effective decision making skills, appropriate delegation skills, effective motivational skills, and adequate problem-solving skills to develop and achieve organisations strategies. Hence, it is clear that the organisational leaders and strategic management professionals require different kinds of skills to achieve organisational operations and organisational strategies.

Task 2
This task is all about the development of individual knowledge and skills in strategic management and leadership.

3.2: Audit of Personal Leadership and Management Knowledge and Skills
Following is the audit of my leadership skills and management knowledge. This audit will facilitate the creation and achievement of organisational vision.
First of all, I am an active listener and good learner. I think this particular skill will help me to earn respect from other group members in my future workplace. Secondly, I try to communicate clearly to convey my message to other group members transparently. I have the ability to use verbal as well as non-verbal approaches for communication with others. I think, I have the ability to use these verbal and non-verbal communication approaches depending on the demands of the workplace situations. Thirdly, I am optimistic and start any work with positive mind-set. It will definitely allow me to create and achieve visionary organisational goals and strategies (Utting, 2017). Fourthly, I want to lead by examples as I always want to take responsibility of the activities and consequences. I think this particular skill will help me to develop a sustainable long-term vision for my organisation. Fifthly, I always like to interact with people. In workplace setting, I always focus on engaging every individual to take their suggestions regarding strategy development. This particular approach will definitely help in developing and achieving sustainable organisational strategy. Last but not the least; I always try to follow visionary approach and big-picture view. In order to facilitate this, I follow different charismatic and visionary leaders as my role model. This will definitely help me to develop and achieve sustainable organisational vision.

3.3: Objectives to Meet Personal Development Needs
I have developed a SMART Objective plan to meet personal development needs in terms of strategic management organisational needs. Following is the SMART Objective Framework.

3.4: Personal Development Plan to Develop Leadership and Management Skills

3M1: Justification of Selection of Objectives and Plan

I have developed SMART Objective Framework to meet my personal development needs. In addition, I also have developed personal development plan in above section. These SMART Objectives and Personal Development Plan will definitely help me in achieving organisational vision and strategy.
First of all, the SMART Objective Framework has demonstrated how can I become a successful strategic management professional within next 24 months. The SMART Objective framework has clearly indicated that I need to develop some realistic, attainable, measurable, specific, and time-bound personal development goals to become a successful strategic management professional. Becoming a successful strategic management professional is my organisational need and I can significantly contribute towards the development of organisational vision if I become a successful strategic manager (Loomba et al., 2021). Hence, development of above realistic, attainable, measurable, specific, and time-bound personal development objectives are justified for me to develop and achieve organisational strategy and long-term vision. Secondly, development of above personal development plan is also justified to become a successful strategic management professional, which will significantly help me in achieving organisational vision and organisational strategy. In personal development plan, I have discussed on objectives regarding training, learning, social interaction, time-management, influential leadership, technological proficiency, and interpersonal skill development. Achievement of all of these objectives will help me to support the achievement of organisational strategy and organisational vision (Gould, 2017). Therefore, the developed personal development plan in the above section is highly justified.

3D1: Appropriate Personal Development Activities to Develop Knowledge and Skills
According to above audit results, I have identified valuable leadership skills and management knowledge. In order to achieve those leadership skills and management knowledge, I need to carry out the following personal development activities.

Task 3
This task has analysed the factors, which have strong impacts on the development of organisational vision. In addition, important factors for communication of vision to the external stakeholders are also identified in this task of the assignment.

2.1 Analysis of Factors Responsible for Creation of Organisational Vision
It is the responsibility of a strategic management professional of an organisation to consider seven important factors to create a sustainable organisational vision. These are specificity, honesty, personality, flexibility, ingenuity, boldness, and compatibility. All of these factors have a strong impact on the development of organisation vision. These seven factors are analysed below.

First of all, specificity is important for strategic management professionals to develop a meaningful, clear, and distinct organisational vision for near future. Secondly, honesty is important for the strategic leaders as it might help the management professionals to develop a practical and appealing vision for near future. Thirdly, personality is important because it might help the strategic management professionals and organisational leaders to develop an organisational vision with strong image of the project and core values of the business. Fourthly, flexibility is important because it might help the leaders and strategic management professionals to develop an open and optimistic organisations vision, which will be responsible for positive organisational transformation in the near future (Coombe, 2020). Fifthly, ingenuity is important because it might help the organisational leaders and strategic management professionals to develop a creative and expansive organisational vision. Sixthly, boldness is important for the organisational leaders and strategic management professionals as it might help in developing an organisational vision with a long-lasting impact once achieved. Lastly, compatibility is important for the organisational leaders and strategic management professionals are it helps in developing accessible organisational vision for the near future.

2.2: Assessment of Different Approaches to Develop Vision
The strategic management professionals of the organisations need to think about different approaches for the development of sustainable organisational visions. First of all, it is important for the strategic management professionals and organisational leaders to consider brainstorming. It can help in developing a valuable and strong organisational vision. Secondly, it is also important to consider creativity regarding the development of organisational vision. Consideration of intuition exercise is important in this. Thirdly, the strategic management professionals will be responsible for priority weighting of the variables. Fourthly, lateral thinking technique is important in which interaction of different stakeholders is important. Fifthly, effective visualisation is important because it will assist the strategic management professionals to identify required resource and factors regarding th development of organisational vision (Hollywood et al., 2020). Last but not the least; it will be important here to consider positive improvisation as it can help in developing a unique and creative organisational vision.

2.3: Evaluation of Important Factors Responsible for Communication of Vision
Customers, suppliers, media agencies, retailers, distributors, and community members are considered as the important external stakeholders of any company. It is important for the organisational leaders and strategic management professionals to communicate the developed organisational vision with important external stakeholders to enhance positive growth. This communication of vision depends on some important factors, which are evaluated below. First of all, it is important to identify and profiling of important external stakeholders. Identification and profiling of external stakeholders can allow the strategic management professionals of an organisation to develop the organisational vision in such a way that can attract the attention of those stakeholders. Secondly, development of goal for the communication is important. For example, creating awareness and improving productivity are two important goals of the communication (Vondracek et al., 2019). Thirdly, it will be important here to select appropriate communication medium to communicate the vision with the important external stakeholders. Fourthly, it is important to ensure that the communication message is clear and concise in nature. It will help the external stakeholders to understand the message of organisational vision quite effectively and comfortably. Lastly, it will be important for the strategic management professionals to ensure effective feedback and follow-up. The professionals need to consider same communication mediums for the purpose of feedbacks and follow-ups. These are five important factors responsible for communication of the vision with external stakeholders.

2M1: Important Factors Required for Gaining Commitment of Internal Stakeholders
In order to develop a sustainable organisational vision and communicate that developed vision, the strategic management professionals of the organisations need to gain commitment from internal stakeholders. This commitment depends on some important factors, which are evaluated below.
First of all, identification and prioritisation of the important internal stakeholders is highly important for the strategic management professionals and leaders of the organisations. Secondly, realisation of the expectation of the internal stakeholders and alignment of the expectation of those stakeholders is highly important for strategic management professionals to gain commitment from the important internal stakeholders. Thirdly, it will be important for the strategic management professionals to resolve all the disputes with the important internal stakeholders in a pro-active way. Fourthly, it will be important for the strategic management professionals to make realistic commitments to the internal stakeholders, which will be achievable and measurable in nature (Pham & Saito, 2020). Last but not the least; it will also be important for the strategic management professionals to enhance continuous communication with the important internal stakeholders. These activities will definitely help in gaining commitments of the important internal stakeholders when communicating the developed organisational vision with the important external stakeholders of the organisation.

Task 4
This task will assess the benefits of reviewing. Moreover, importance of reviewing in the achievement of personal strategy and organisational strategy has been significantly discussed.

4.1: Assessment of Benefits of Review
Reviewing is important and beneficial for the strategic management professionals in personal and organisational strategy development because it helps in identifying new value-creating scopes and opportunities. Effective strategic reviewing enhances strategic advantages, financial benefits, operational benefits, and positive employee management. Overall, it helps in identifying associated challenges and resolute them through effective follow-up and feedbacks. Reviewing of the personal strategy can be done once an individual follows and applies a pre-determined plan. Most importantly, this tool or technique is applied to ensure whether the planned development approach has helped an individual or not towards the achievement of his or her goals. Similarly, reviewing approach of organisational strategy can be taken once an organisation follows and applies a pre-determined plan (Makarenko et al., 2018). Specifically, this tool or technique is applied to ensure whether the planned development approach has helped an organisation or not towards the achievement of strategic goals.

4.2: Evaluation of the Sources of Information Required for Review Progress
Some valuable information sources are required to review the progress with meeting the personal development plans. Those information sources are evaluated below.
First of all, it will be important to set personal development metrics. Development of SMART Goals or Objectives will help in giving a prompt overview for reviewing the progress. This objective or goal development process will allow the professionals to get deadline oriented and goal oriented. Secondly, self-reflection is important. Self-reflection can help in identifying the performance of an individual against the objectives developed in the metrics. This self-reflection approach needs to be practiced regularly to ensure a clear frame of mind regarding future development (O’Reilly et al., 2020). Thirdly, it will be important for any individual to seek for the continuous feedback. Continuous feedbacks might help the individuals to identify the interpersonal strengths as well as weaknesses, which are important parts of personal development plans (Katic, 2018). Fourthly, it will be important for the future management professionals to meet the personal development goals by moving forward with the help of suggestions and feedbacks of the experts. Individual reviewing of performance against the objectives developed in metrics will also help in completing the review process. Different learning and performance monitoring skills also need to be applied by the professionals to complete the reviewing process in a successful manner.

Task 5
This task is all about the development of a report, which reviews the progress against the outcomes mentioned in the personal development plan created in above sections.

4D1: Report for Reviewing Progress against the Outcomes
I have developed an objective of effective training and learning for the next three months. I will attend professional skill development courses to enhance successful training and learning. However, I personally feel the admission in professional skill development courses will improve efficiency of my training and learning activities. In order to improve my technological proficiency, I will also attend different technical skill development courses. In addition, I will also follow the You Tube videos and online classes to improve my technological proficiency (Bridgstock, 2019). I also have decided to improve my social interaction and interpersonal skills. I think that spending time on social media platforms will help me regarding social interaction. In addition, participation in public speaking forums and group discussions will significantly help me to shape my personality and develop interpersonal skills in appropriate ways. I also have decided to improve my time-management skills. In order to improve time management skills, I have focused on development of routines and effective scheduling of daily tasks. These will definitely help me in prioritisation of important managerial tasks and meet the deadline of all the tasks quite successfully (Napitupulu et al., 2017). Apart from these, I have a dream to become an influential leader in the near future. In order to achieve this goal, I personally feel that my decision regarding implication of situational leadership style will significantly help me. After reviewing all of these objectives and monitoring points, I have decided that I must follow the leadership traits and direction of successful visionary leaders to become a successful strategic management professional of a reputed multinational organisation in the near future.

Conclusion
I have worked as a senior manager in an organisation for a long-time. Now, I want to move forward in my professional career and want to become a successful strategic manager in a renowned multinational company. In order to achieve this objective, I have understood that I need to develop a potential personal development plan, which will allow me to achieve my personal as well as organisational needs. My organisational need is to become a leader of a strategic management position of an organisation. On the other hand, my personal need is to become a visionary and influential individual in my future workplace. Therefore, I need to have some capabilities, skills, and traits to achieve both personal and organisational needs.

It is important for me to develop a fruitful plan for the development of organisational strategies. Apart from it, effective two-way communication approach is important for me to follow because it not only helps the leaders or strategic managers to share their views with employees, but also allow the leaders to determine the perspectives of employees. Most importantly, I need to focus on effective engagement approaches as it is important for the leaders and strategic managers as it can allow in generating innovative ideas in business. In addition, effective decision making skill is also important for me as it will allow sourcing and allocating of important resources, which are important for achievement of the developed strategies. I also need to adopt effective delegative leadership and managerial approach as effective delegation allows the leaders and strategic managers to assign appropriate job roles for the sub-ordinates in a workplace setting.

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