Leadership And Management Skills Portfolio The WritePass Journal

Leadership And Management Skills Portfolio Introduction Leadership And Management Skills Portfolio ).   In this regard, I missed the first finance class because I was attending a meeting at work where I was presenting an important report to senior management. Negotiating as a Client My colleague and I assumed the role of a client negotiating with a software vendor on delivery times and price. As clients, we argued and debated with the software vendor on the relevant issues. For instance, there was prolonged argument and debate on the delivery times because we were considering small insignificant factors on this issue. The outcome was that the arguments related to the main issue of delivery times were largely neglected. Indeed, it is suggested that it is important to have awareness of any insignificant arguments that might derail the negotiation process (Pinet Sander, 2013). In our case, we concentrated on being right rather than winning the arguments associated with the price and delivery times. The negotiation process deviated from the agenda established prior to the meeting with the software vendor.   Consequently, a lot of time was wasted on these arguments and compromises were achieved after a protracted process. Portfolio Section 3 This section presents an action plan for developing my postgraduate, management and leadership skills further. The action plan covers skills required for group leadership, management consultant, appraisal manager, coaching, negotiation, and task prioritization as presented below. Action plan for group leadership skills Objective To improve my skills in leading and managing groups in completion, of course, related tasks Tasks Read and brainstorm with my peers on available literature including books, reputable online articles and journal articles about team leadership. I will focus on literature that looks at leadership functions on the different phases of teams namely the transition and action stages. The transition stage is a time when a group or team focuses on activities associated with the team’s structures, planning tasks, and assessing the performance of the team in terms of the whether the team has the ability of achieving its objectives (Marks, Mathieu Zaccaro, 2001). The specific leadership skills that I will learn about for this phase include defining the mission of the team, goals, and performance standards, structuring responsibilities and roles in the team, and promoting feedback processes (Morgeson et al., 2010). The action stage is where the team or group members are focused on tasks that directly contribute to goal achievement (Marks et al., 2001). In this phase, I will learn relev ant leadership skills including creating a positive climate in the group, encouraging autonomous actions by members, resource acquisition   for the group, problem solving, involvement in the group’s work, and monitoring the group(Morgeson et al., 2010). Discuss with managers and leaders in my workplace about effective approaches for leading and managing groups or teams Evaluation After acquisition of the necessary leadership skills, I will apply to future group assignments in my course work. I will evaluate the acquired group leadership skills by asking my peers to rate my performance as a leader. I will design a checklist where the group members will provide their responses about my overall leadership skills and areas that require improvement. Review date The reading of literature, applying the relevant knowledge to actual practice, and evaluating leadership skills will be reviewed on a regular basis whenever there is a group assignment. Action plan for coaching skills Objective To become a very effective coach Tasks Read books, journal articles, and online publications on the coaching process and the required skills and competencies for this activity followed by a brainstorming exercise with my colleagues. Participate in training in coaching provided by my organisations to equip with necessary skills. Ask a senior manager in my workplace to act as my coach to enable me to understand this process from a practical perspective and model it. Evaluation The knowledge acquired from literature, training, and on-the-practice will be utilised in coaching my peers in coursework on different topics. The performance data that will be collected to establish the level of my effectiveness as a coach will be obtained from interviewing the individual that I will be coaching. Review date Ongoing throughout my course work. Action plan for management consultant skills Objective To enhance my skills as a management consultant Tasks Read available literature on management consultancy and look at case studies on the process of management consultation. After reading alone, I will brainstorm these issues with my study group. Discuss with management consultants within and outside my organisation to learn the criteria for success. Evaluation Evaluation will be based on establishing the extent to which the client is able to achieve desired outcomes in relation to the consultation services I will offer them. This will be achieved by using a questionnaire to ask the clients whether I demonstrate the skills of a management consultant. Review date Ongoing based on management consultancy projects. Action plan for managerial skills in appraisals Objective To improve my skills in conducting performance appraisals Tasks Read widely and brainstorm on skills for performance appraisals. Role playing with my peers on posing the right questions to the individual under appraisal. Discuss with senior managers in my workplace about successfully performing performance appraisals. Evaluation The assessment of my skills in this area will be based on determining to which I successfully complete a performance appraisal. This will involve asking individuals involved in the appraisal process to rate my performance using a checklist. Review date This activity will be completed on a monthly basis. Action plan for negotiation skills Objective To improve my negotiation skills as a client Tasks Reading widely and brainstorming with colleagues on negotiation skills for clients to understand negotiation skills, negotiation phases, and sources of conflict in negotiation process. Engage in role play to assist in clarification of responsibilities and roles in working in a negotiating team. Evaluation Evaluation will involve collecting evidence indicating whether I applied competencies and skills required in negotiating as a client. This will be achieved by interviewing the other parties to the negotiation process to determine the level of my skills in negotiating as a client. Review date This will be completed by February 2015. Action plan for task prioritization Objective To enhance my skills in prioritizing both work and education tasks. Tasks Listing all the tasks that I have to perform on a daily basis in my work and college and categorising them based on their impacts on my work and educational pursuits. Using a personal calendar to plan my tasks. Using a checklist to determine completion of tasks on daily basis. Evaluation Performance in task prioritisation will be evaluated by assessing the extent to which I complete all the tasks required in my workplace and at college. Review date This activity will be completed on a daily basis. Conclusion This reflective work has identified areas that require further development in improving my managerial and leadership skills. Based on this reflective work, it is evident that I lack skills in different areas including leadership, task prioritization, effective coaching, managerial skills in performance appraisal and management consultancy. Therefore, these skills have to be improved to ensure that I am effective as manager and leader. Therefore, action plans for improving the different skills have been presented. It is expected that implementation of the action plans will equip with skills that are applicable to my workplace and educational setting. References Armstrong, M. (2012) Armstrong’s handbook of management and leadership: developing effective people skills for better leadership and management. PA: Kogan Page. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2014). Performance appraisal. [Online]Available from: cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/performance-appraisal.aspx (Accessed: 15 Dec. 14). De Caluwe, L., Reitsma, E. (2010) `Competencies of management consultants: a research study of senior management consultants’, In Buono, A., Jamieson, D (Eds), Consultation for organisational change, pp. 15-40. NC: Information age publishing. Goleman, D. (2006) Social Intelligence: the new science of human relationship. NY: Banam books. Heslin, P., Vandewalle, D. (2011) `Performance appraisal procedural justice: the role of a manager’s implicit person theory’. Journal of Management, vol.37, no.6, pp.1694-1718. Institute of Management Consultants (2014) The management consultancy competency framework. [Online] Available from: imcusa.org/?page=CONSULTINGCOMPETENCY (Accessed: 15 Dec. 14). Jarvis, M. (2005) The psychology of effective learning and teaching. UK: Nelson Thornes Ltd. Maltbia, T., Marsick, V., Ghosh, R. (2014) `Executive and organisational coaching: a review of insights drawn from literature for inform HRD practices’. Advances in Developing Human Resources, vol.16, no.2, pp.161-83. Marks, C., Mathieu, J., Zaccaro, S. (2001) `A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes’, Academy of Management Review, vol.26, pp. 356-76. Morgeson, F., DeRue, S., Karam, E. (2010) `Leadership in teams: a functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes’. Journal of Management, vol.36, no.1, pp.5-39. O’Broin, A., Palmer, S. (2009) `Co-creating an optimal coaching alliance: a cognitive behavioural coaching perspective’. International Coaching Psychology Review, vol.4, no.2, pp.184-94. Pinet, A., Sander, P. (2013) The only negotiation book you’ll ever need. Littlefield Street, MA: Adams Media.