Q Project 1: Assessing Your Strategic Leadership Capacity and Potential Step 1: Define a Career SMART Goal As MBA students, you are career-directed professionals constantly striving to strike a practical work-life balance. You may not always have the time or resources to manage your career effectively. The following resources will serve as basis to develop your career goal or goals: • Career Exploration • Career Planning and Changing • Individual Career Management • Career Goal For this step, think about one long-term career goal. Where would you like to be in your career in three to five years? How will you get there? What resources do you need? What short-term skills do you need to enhance your chances of achieving your career goal? To help you achieve your career goal, complete the following tasks using a leadership development plan (LDP): • First, download the LDP Template and save it in local storage using the following file-naming protocol: lastname_firstname_preliminary_LDP.docx • Second, identify and describe in writing one long-term career goal using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) format. Read SMART goals for specific guidelines. • Third, place this goal in the LDP template section entitled Long-Term Career Goal. • Fourth, identify and list five to six short-term development skills that you will need to acquire in order to make progress toward your long-term career goal. Place these skills in the Short-Term Skills Development section of the LDP. • Finally, submit your LDP after reviewing the instructions in the last step of this project. Career and leadership development is an ongoing process that will continue well beyond receipt of your MBA. This submission of your leadership development plan is preliminary, as you will have the opportunity to update your LDP in Step 5 of this project. Having two submissions gives you the opportunity to assess and reflect on knowledge you have acquired throughout the term. When you have submitted your preliminary LDP, proceed to Step 2, where you will work on a preliminary skills gap analysis.