Creating a personal leadership development plan is all about realistically chalking out your objectives, based on a vision, and taking the first step from being just a manager to a leader. In this article, I share some tips on how to create a personal leadership development.
This quote by General Eisenhower who later became the President of United States of America underlines the importance of picking the right people to do the right job and the important job of a leader to be a motivator. Having authority doesn't make one a leader. A leader is the one who leads from the front, sets the standards and earns the respect of his followers through his exemplary vision and actions. To make the transition from being a boss or a manager to a true leader is a process of self introspection, planning and execution. The process begins with introspection and takes a realistic form through the creation of a personal leadership development plan. In this article I talk about how to create a leadership development plan that is your blueprint of success and path to effective leadership.

What is a Personal Leadership Development Plan?

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

This quote by another great US president underlines the importance of action in leadership and action has to be guided by a vision and plan. That is what a personal leadership development plan is. It has a detailed analysis of what are your strengths and weaknesses are and what is your vision as a leader. It is based on an analysis of where you stand as a leader of an organization and what are the roadblocks that need to be overcome for your organization to go ahead and progress under your leadership. This is not just personal goal setting. It is the creation of an action road map for you as a leader of an organization and what are the changes you need to make to increase your personal,as well as the organization's productivity.

It is a part of an endeavor to bring out the best out of you and the people you lead to achieve larger goals as a team. A leader cannot be called one unless people let him lead and believe in him. A major part of the leadership development plan is improving your own performance and bringing out a positive change in yourself as you set the example for those you lead. Writing a plan down makes you commit to an action plan. So in summary, a leadership development plan is your action plan to lead your team or organization in a better way and achieve precise and realistic goals in a fixed time frame.

How to Create a Leadership Development Plan?

To create a precise personal leadership development plan, you need to go through a process of extensive introspection about your own leadership style, the working of your organization, its strengths, weaknesses and the work culture you have created. Think as an outsider to analyze your leadership style without bias. Make a list of things that you would like to improve in your style of leadership. As a leader, you are responsible for every one that follows you and your leadership development plan has to include a motivational plan that you can implement to bring out the best out of them. Talk to your mentors and ask for a frank analysis of your leadership style. That may give you an idea about where you are going wrong.

The next step is acting on the basis of this introspection and the insight you have gained from it. You can browse through leadership development plan samples available online. They can tell you about how to chalk out a leadership development plan template effectively. However these leadership development plan examples cannot tell you what to do in case of your organization as the problems of every organization are different.

Your leadership development plan has to include the goals you plan to achieve as a leader, the ways in which you plan to achieve them and the way you are going to motivate your workforce to achieve those goals. A great leader inspires his followers to reach higher levels of excellence. The best example of a leader is a good mother or father who has successfully raised her/his kids to face this world with confidence. Ultimately what needs to be done will be apparent to you through introspection. Start executing the plan and make changes as you realize the improvements that need to be made. Trial and error is the way to go about it while taking calculated risk. Let your personal leadership development plan evolve with time, but keep your objectives clearly before you.

Remember that your greatest asset is your people and your objective is take everybody with you on a journey of success. If you make this a guiding principle, the leadership development plan will be clear before you!