Skills Development and Building Effective Relationships
The topics this week include leadership development, skills development and building effective relationships. Read chapters 2-3 carefully. If we accept the fact that not all leaders are “born,” then we need to know something about how leadership can be developed.
Note: Answers should be about 250 words for each question.
- Which Leadership Skill have you chosen for your Skill Building Assignment?. Tell us why you have made this choice and what your plans are to improve in this skill area.
- If you were to design the perfect leadership development experience for yourself, how would you do so and what would it include? How would you know whether it was effective?
- Some have suggested that women and minorities need different leadership development opportunities than white males. Agree or disagree and use at least one outside reference to make your case.
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Leadership and Skills Development
- Which Leadership Skill have you chosen for your Skill Building Assignment? Tell us why you have made this choice and what your plans are to improve in this skill area.
Leadership skills are vital concepts in influencing organizational performance. Creativity is an important quality for the modern business leader and hence I chose it for this assignment. Firstly, business face uncertainties which could result in risky outcomes if not effectively addressed, prompting the need for leaders to traverse uncertain and complex world (Hughes, Ginnet & Curphy, 2019). Besides, fields such as biotechnology’s development are underway and could spark unforeseen changes. In other words, systems continue to become complex and it would take a creative leader to maintain business bearings in such situations without prior knowledge of the outcomes (Hughes et al., 2019). A combination of mindsets and skills is vital to influence value creation in the dynamic world, by expressing the readiness to fail severally to realize the workable formula.
Further, business models are constantly changing and it is only through creativity that companies could secure survival. Growing a company from one point to another requires approaches to address situations in case of changes experienced in the new position. Such entails addressing ambiguity to make relevant adjustments to suit the market (Hughes et al., 2019). In this case, creativity will enable leaders to formulate radical ideas that remodel their industries and cannibalize product portfolio to develop new businesses.
Creativity is a continuous process and hence plans to improve the skill includes setting time for cohesive creative thinking. In this regard, I will commit at least thirty minutes of my time to working on new projects and creative thinking every day. The creative activities will involve developing business models and drawing pictures. I will also spend time with colleagues with similar mindset. Listening to their ideas will spark my thinking capability and make my ideas more consolidated.
- If you were to design the perfect leadership development experience for yourself, how would you do so and what would it include? How would you know whether it was effective?
Leadership development is a process and I would practice the skills to gain a stable momentum in the leadership bracket. Effective leadership is not built on a single day, but requires perseverance and pursuing success through embracing the challenges that come along (Hunghes et al.,2019). In this regard, I will establish strong relationships with my colleagues especially those who show interest in trying new ideas. I will then formulate ideas regularly to address complex situations influence my colleagues to buy the ideas. Once my ideas gain approval, I would lead the team in implementing them. However, I would assess the outcomes of the idea to enhance positivity. In assessing the effectiveness, I would gauge the chances by which the colleagues express interest and are willing to buy my ideas in future. High support for my ideas would depend on the trust I gain with them through creativity and productive outcomes of the ideas I present.
Further, I would express high rate of agreeableness scores with the colleagues’ ideas. People like it when their ideas are recognized and valued by leaders who show concern and support for the followers (Hunghes et al.,2019). By contrast, followers disqualify people with low friendship value for leadership. On this note, I would be friendly to colleagues and support their opinions. However, I would be careful to select the best ideas for implementation while carefully neglecting the irrelevant ideas to maintain a good empathy and relationship. Effectiveness can be gauged through the willingness of the colleagues whose ideas were neglected to participate in future discussions. Through this, I will understand whether the selection criteria I used for ideas was effective.
- Some have suggested that women and minorities need different leadership development opportunities than white males. Agree or disagree and use at least one outside reference to make your case.
The need for different leadership development opportunities for women and minorities is paramount, hence I support the idea. Various factors contribute to this argument. Firstly, the number of women and minorities in leadership roles continue staggering low despite the enormous efforts to improve workplace diversity (Leslie et al., 2017). The commonly used techniques such as sensitivity trainings have yielded little to no success with high turnover rates getting documented. Such is due to the white-dominance that has exerted roots for ages and eliminating such an error, is challenging (Leslie et al., 2017). Women and minority groups have weak bargaining power against the white males and the three groups have chances for leadership (Leslie et al., 2017). As such, it is important that different leadership development opportunities be implemented to accommodate these groups.
Further, most of the leadership structures adopt the White leadership styles and minority and women from other groups may find it hectic to adjust. In other words, leadership development plans are mostly established using the ‘White male’ system which gives them better opportunities to achieve leadership skills over women and minority groups who have to learn first and adjust to become productive (Leslie et al., 2017). In this regard, different leadership development plans that suit the ethnic needs and those of women would aid to develop their skills and capacities effectively.
Additionally, women and minority groups have faced discrimination in workplaces regarding promotions and pay rates. In this regard, leadership development opportunities that fit their social classification would be effective in promoting social justice for their colleagues. Such is because the white males are not victims of social injustices and hence may not feel the need for leadership styles that value ethnicity (Leslie et al., 2017). Therefore, women and minority groups require development opportunities that aid them to achieve equality in leadership roles.
References
Hughes, L. R., Ginnet, C. R., & Curphy, J. G. (2019). Enhancing the lessons of experience
https://1lib.eu/book/5008231/cec242 book
Leslie, K., Hopf, H. W., Houston, P., & O’Sullivan, E. (2017). Women, minorities, and
leadership in anesthesiology: take the pledge. https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/fulltext/2017/05000/Women,_Minorities,_and_Leadership_in.8.aspx