Hey there, welcome back to the channel. And if you're new around here. Well,
my name is Mak and I'm a leadership and team-building coach,
but I work specifically with first-time team managers.
So I'm really excited about today's video because it's going to be a little bit
different as I'm going to be walking you through how you can create a personal
leadership development plan. Now, if you've been with me for some time,
then I'm pretty sure you've noticed that I've moved. I mean,
I know I haven't addressed that on the channel at all. Like I haven't said,
Hey guys, I'm moving,
but I'm pretty sure that you can tell from this background and this background
that I've moved within the last couple of months, right.
They're completely different. And you know how it is when you move, right?
You find all sorts of things all over the place in nooks and crannies.
And I think actually in this video right here,
I mentioned that I had found a couple of my journals from back in the day when I
first became a manager, as well as some of my planners.
But the other thing I found that was pretty cool, I think anyways, was a stack,
literally a stack of my personal leadership development plans from back in the
day, you see about six or seven months in. Yeah,
I think it was like six or seven months into my role as a newly promoted
manager.
I really realized that the problems that were happening within my team were
basically as a result of me, essentially, I realized that I was the problem and,
you know, I really wanted to change things. And so I,
I really invested in myself and, and, and developing my skills.
And one of the things that I did at that time was I went to a two day leadership
conference.
And it was actually at that conference that I learned about the importance of
creating a personal leadership development plan. Now, as leaders,
we want to be constantly improving ourselves because otherwise it's really easy
for us to fall into the trap of believing that we're good at where we're at and
that everybody else is the issue because that's a fallacy.
The truth is that we can always improve in some way.
And if we honestly believe that we're good at where we're at and that everybody
else is the issue, then that's just our ego speaking.
And whenever the ego is making decisions on our behalf or whatnot,
that's dangerous and we can cause more damage than good.
Now I know that sounds harsh,
but it is the truth because here's what it is being in a leadership
position is very serious.
We've been given a very hefty responsibility that has to do with
people's lives. This is people's lives we're dealing with.
And so if we don't take the time to improve ourselves,
then what we're saying is that we don't value the responsibility that we've been
given and we don't value people's lives.
And I think there's a lot of managers that operate that way.
A lot of managers who just take positions for the pay increase or the title,
but they can give a rat's about people's lives.
And that's why we see a lot of toxicity in the workplace. In fact,
Gallop just came out with another study.
Man it was crazy talking about how we have a lot of managers or talking about
how be great resignation is really just the great discontent and that it stems
back to poor management practices.
I'm going to link to that article in the description box below because it was
really eyeopening. Like it's, it's really sad. Um, so that's why I'm saying,
like,
we want to take the responsibility seriously and try to improve ourselves as
much as possible.
Now I know for you watching that this is not the case for you because obviously
you're subscribed to the channel and you're trying to, you know,
figure out how to, how to do this thing.
Otherwise known as people management and, you know, you're,
you're trying to glean as much information as you can,
but the trap for us is that it's very easy to get complacent,
very easy to get complacent where you're feeling like, okay,
I've learned this and I'm good.
That's also just as dangerous because that means that we're not moving forward.
And you know, what do they say? Like if you're not moving forward,
then you're staying the same or actually getting worse. So,
so complacency is also an issue,
which is why creating a personal leadership development plan is so
important because what it does is it commits you to making improvements in the
area in which you need to improve.
So that's why we're going to take the time and do this together today.
I'm going to share with you bits and pieces of mine, or at least like,
let's say the, the outline itself so that you can create one.
And at the end of the video, I'll,
I'll share like the one page template with you so that you can create your
own and, you know, just print it out and use it every quarter. Okay.
So let's get started. Okay.
So the first part of the plan should have who you aspire to be as a leader.
So for me, I tend to think in reverse order,
meaning like when I'm planning anything out,
I like to think of the outcome and then reverse engineer from there.
And so when I created my own personal leadership development plan,
I did that first.
I started out with describing exactly the type of leader that I wanted to be.
And so for you, I want to encourage you to do the same.
Now I would share mine with you,
but I am afraid that I might sway you in sharing,
kind of what I wrote and I want it to be based off of you.
So if you've never thought of this before,
like if you haven't really sat down and really thought about, you know,
what type of manager do I want to be, or if you're having troubles,
articulating it, then as a suggestion,
what you can do is just think back to maybe like one of the best managers you,
you had, or a couple of really great managers,
or maybe like a coach or something that you had in the past.
That was super awesome.
And just think about what it was about them that you really liked,
that you would like to emulate in your own leadership.
And if you're still having troubles,
then I suggest going to this video right here.
It's an older video of mine where I talked about like different leadership
styles.
But I think maybe going through that video will really help you just like get
the juices flowing so that you can have something clearly stated at the very
top. Now it doesn't have to be perfect. I mean,
you're not sharing this with anybody.
It's just so that you have a good idea of like who you're striving to be.
The second piece is to just determine the specific competencies that you need to
improve on in order to be the type of leader that you want to be. Now,
I'm going to do a separate video. I think on this,
in of breaking down the different skill sets that a truly effective manager
needs to have. Um, but for the sake of this, like one page template here,
I've listed out a couple. So about 10 that I think are really important.
So you'll see here that I have the ability to cast a compelling vision.
I have emotional intelligence, super important, number three,
communication skills, number four,
the ability to provide timely and effective feedback.
You need to be a great team builder. You need to be able to strategically plan.
You have to be able to, uh, you know,
conflict resolution is another important one. I've got here,
process and policy knowledge,
and then being able to improve the processes and policies. Um,
you need to be a critical thinker. And of course, I'm always talking about this.
You have to be able to set clear expectations and then hold the team
accountable. So these are all competencies.
I would say of a truly effective leader. I would say,
this is what takes someone from being a bad manager to being truly useful
in their role, right?
That's how someone becomes effective if they're able to develop these skills or
if they have these skills. Um,
now what I want you to do is to analyze those and ask yourself like, Hey,
where am I lacking? Like in what areas can I truly improve?
And be honest again, nobody is seeing this.
This is for you so that you can improve.
So analyze where you can be better choose, like, let's say two to three things,
because again, you're doing this every quarter. Um,
and then obviously focus on those two to three things,
but narrow it down to like two to three things that you can focus on for the
quarter.
The third piece that you'll see here in the template is to consider their
perspective of your team members,
because it's one thing for you to know what you think you need to improve on,
but it's even better to have a well-rounded perspective.
And so if you're listening and if you're actually running effective one-on-one
meetings and you already know the things that your team members think you need
to improve on. So what I want you to do is jot down those couple of things.
Again, pick two to three things, um,
that your team members have given you feedback on and, you know,
put listed right there in that third, third section right here.
The fourth thing you want to do is ask yourself this really vital question,
which is how can I support those around me now, when I say those around you,
I mean, obviously your team members and your bus, as well as your coworkers,
right?
I want you to think about what you can do to show that you want them to be
successful everyday. When you come in, you know,
my mentor really always like preached and hammered in his leadership principle
with all of us. That was that, Hey, I'm here to make you successful.
That's what I come into work, you know, for every single day is to,
to ensure that you guys are super successful in what you're doing.
And he was the vice president of the company. I mean,
for him to come in every single day and really live and breathe,
that really meant, really meant a lot.
And it made a world of a difference in our leadership team. And so for you,
I think as a manager,
it's even more important that you are coming into work with that exact same
mindset.
So I want you to stop and really think about what you can do over the next
quarter to ensure that when you come into work, that you are truly,
they're trying as hard as you possibly can to make those around you as
successful as possible.
Now the fifth piece is bringing it all together by jotting down exactly how
you're going to improve in these areas. So are you going to go to conferences?
Are you going to invest in training? Are you going to get a coach or a mentor?
Are you going to buy books? Like,
what specifically are you going to do to actually improve in these areas that
you've just jotted down? Because again,
there's a big difference in knowing you need to improve something and actually
doing it.
So this forces you to do that forces you to actually take action in improving
yourself, rather than just knowing, Hey, I need to improve in this area.
Now I've jotted down for you here in the template.
This one sentence structure that I want you to follow, because this is really,
really helpful. This is what I did for myself too.
So you'll see here in this template,
I've already created you a sentence structure that you can use.
So it says over the next three months, right, for the quarter,
I am committed to improving and learning blank.
So in there you would want to put specifically what the competencies are,
what are the skills or whatnot that you want to improve on.
And then it goes on by saying, by doing the following, right?
So this right here, this,
the section is where you would want to put specifically the house,
what you're going to do specifically. And then it concludes by saying,
I will measure my progress towards my improvement on, you know, whatever,
whatever the date is, because as we know,
goals need to be specific and measurable in order for us to obviously achieve
them.
And so creating a personal leadership development plan for yourself is really,
and truly no different.
So you want to make sure that you it's as specific as possible. And of course,
that it's measurable.
So the last piece of the leadership development template is simply like this
risk section right here. You'll see.
And that's just you calling out the risks associated with not doing the work.
Um, for me,
I'm the type of person that likes to analyze the risk and everything,
because I think that's important for critical thinking and decision-making hands
down. Um, if I want to make wise decisions,
I better be thinking through the rest. And a really, um,
important question that you can ask yourself is like, what's the downside.
You see? I think oftentimes when it comes to us achieving our goals, um,
because it's such such a lofty goal or something that we really strive to,
to achieve,
we oftentimes forget to think about the risks associated with not achieving
that goal, which doesn't hold us accountable to what we say we're going to do.
So for example, as a manager,
if you don't take the time to do the things that you need to do in order to
develop yourself, or in order to be better, you might get fired. Uh,
you might get demoted, you risk, you know,
never moving past the position that you're currently at. Um,
your manager might be, you know, looking at you,
side-eye thinking like this person is just simply not up to the task. Um, or,
you know, your team might be a mess. You might be stressed all the time.
Like there's a myriad of risks associated with not doing this work.
And so the whole point of calling it out right off the bat is so that, you know,
every time that you feel kind of lazy or you don't feel like, oh,
I don't want to do this work.
Then you can look at that and realize what's at stake.
Because I think sometimes we don't realize what's at stake if we don't do
certain things, right? So if you look at your development plan and you're like,
oh crap, if I don't do this, this is what's at stake. Then it puts your,
your button geared and do what you know, you need to do. Now.
Here's what I suggest when it comes to filling out your leadership development
plan.
I want to suggest that you go back to this every quarter and just reassess and
readjust because if you're doing it right,
and if you're holding yourself accountable to what you say you're going to do,
then you're going to have adjustments to me, right?
The competencies are going to be different if you're doing it right. Um,
so make sure that you have like a calendar appointment with yourself where
you're going back to it and going, oh, you know,
I've gotten better in this area,
but now this area is something I need to get better at. Um, so I'm going to,
like I said put the link to this template,
this one page template for you in the description box below,
because I promise you doing this work is so satisfying if you do it right
anyways. And you know,
if you're that type of person that truly aspires to be the best leader that you
can be like if being adequate, um, is not good enough for you,
then I highly suggest that you check out the details of my new manager
accelerator program,
because the accelerator program is for people who want to Excel in
what they're doing. Like those are the people that come to me that,
that apply and come to me and that are successful.
They have a desire to be excellent in what they do, right?
Like I don't tend to attract people that just don't care.
So if you truly care about being better than adequate, then definitely,
definitely check out the details of the new manager accelerator,
which I will put in the description box below for you. Alright.
So that is pretty much it guys, in terms of, you know,
creating your own personal leadership development plan,
I hope that you found this, this video to be enjoyable and valuable.
And if you did,
don't forget to give it a thumbs up and to subscribe so that you don't miss out
on any other pieces of fantastic content that I share on the platform
every single Tuesday. Thanks so much for being here.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week.
Do not forget to keep smiling and I'll see you in the.