Q As the culmination of the class, students will complete the Skills Analysis/Personal Leadership Development Plan. This paper is designed to build on the course readings, course exercises, team feedback, assessments, and your own self-assessments. It will be a self-analysis of your leadership and management skills and should include the whole of your person. Do not restrict it purely to the work environment. As you prepare the paper, think of a corporate annual report as a metaphor - that is, you will be writing a report about ‘U Inc.’ (as an example, if I were writing the paper it would be titled ‘Gardner, Inc.’). 1. Foundation Your report should begin by providing a mission statement. Why are you doing (in life, not merely in graduate school)? You should provide a vision statement. Where are you going? What do you hope to be doing (in your career and perhaps other aspects of your life) in 5 years, 10 years? Then you should provide a statement of your values. What are the principles that govern your behavior? Note 1: Some of you may argue that you do not have a mission, vision, or values. This observation would be an interesting topic for additional reflection. 2. Assessments What are your assets (strengths)? What are your liabilities (limitations or weaknesses)? This section should describe and integrate the results of any assessments and feedback you have received. You should expand this somewhat to discuss how these strengths and liabilities relate to your mission, vision, and values statements. To help you assess your strengths, complete the Strengths Finder, which is free to all Texas Tech students (http://www.depts.ttu.edu/strengthsquest/), plus any other self-assessments you have completed in your course work and other settings (e.g., leadership surveys, the MBTI, etc.). 3. Customer Base What people, groups, or organizations are currently interested in the skills and products you offer? You should define ‘customers’ very broadly -- internal and external to your career – work, community involvement, social groups, family, interests, etc. Also, discuss your potential customers as they might relate to any of these areas. Note 2: Integrate some of the insights you have gained from a significant other, who is one of your key customers, into this section. 4. Product Line What do you offer others? Are your offerings narrow (specialized) or broad (generalized)? How do you differentiate your products from those offered by others? What is special or unique? To what extent are you creating a ‘product line’ that offers you a sustained competitive advantage (in the career marketplace or elsewhere) because what you offer is not easy for others to imitate and therefore adds unique value? Again, do not restrict yourself only to your work environment. 5. Capital Investments & Profit What investments have you made? Is ‘U Inc.’ more valuable today than it was one year ago? Three years ago? What measures do you use to assess your profitability? …Feedback from others (If so, who, how often?)? …Performance appraisals? …Benchmarking? Is your income (earnings) your only measure? What other measures do you need to develop? 6. Growth Objectives You should identify two skills that you want to improve. For the first goal, select one skill that will contribute to building your leadership and ethical competency within the next 10 – 12 weeks. For the second goal, select another skill that will require you to “stretch,” where progress will require greater effort, time, and attention (12 – 24 months). Select only skills that you will have a reasonable opportunity to improve. Provide your rationale for selecting the two skills. How will improving your skill in these two areas help your career or make you a more effective manager? For each of the two skills you selected, briefly describe your current level of competence. Be sure to include a detailed action plan for achieving each goal identified. A few final thoughts; as you write this paper, keep in mind that the following factors will be considered when evaluating your work: ? Be comprehensive (i.e., do not limit your analysis to only a few skills). ? Incorporate content from the readings to inform your self-assessments and demonstrate your learning from this key course reading. ? Use headings to demarcate the major components of the assignment listed above ? Be strategic o Consider how your assets and liabilities relate to other aspects of your analysis (your mission and values, your customer base, your development objectives, etc). ? Provide evidence to support each of your conclusions. ? Be specific o Use detailed behavioral examples from your experiences in work, class, and other aspects of your life. o Provide specific information from surveys and instruments (e.g., percentile scores) from the evaluations you have completed. ? Look for and describe interrelationships and or inconsistencies between various data sources o Consider formal and informal feedback from multiple sources (e.g., peers, direct reports, supervisors, mentors/coaches, faculty, and other students). o Describe relationships between various surveys, class activities, and feedback. ? Demonstrate an understanding of course concepts and interrelationships between them. ? Provide a reference section for sources used in your paper; follow APA or MLA style guidelines (as specified in the syllabus). The written plan should be approximately 8-12 pages double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, Times New Roman 12 pt. font. This should not be held as an absolute. If the discussion requires more than 12 pages to adequately present the issue, then I will expect you to exercise good judgment and prioritize content over length. Conversely, if the material can be covered well in less than 8 pages, I will not object. The primary purpose of the paper is to facilitate your personal development as a leader, not the length.