Learning Goals Essay Examples

Personal Learning Plan

Personal Learning Plan
In order to become an effective leader, it is important to determine the particular leadership style best suited to my personality and personal beliefs. Leadership concerns the ability to influence others in order to create understanding and bring about agreement on actions necessary; leaders promote efforts by individuals and groups to achieve a common goal.
After introspection and conversations with people I trust, I have come to the conclusion I would function best within the definition of the “Authoritative” leadership style. The Authoritative leadership style displays a “come with me” attitude. It is the most positive of the styles and has significant impact in the workplace by promoting a shared vision. The style is effective when strong direction is needed.

APA – 4 pages ( 1100 words) – 3 sources
Competencies: where I want to be when I’m older, affiliation,
1. Improve ability to keep disruptive emotions and impulses under control
Action Plan #1: Act appropriately in potentially volitile situations. Watch for early signs of anger or frustration. Stop, take a deep breath, and literally count to 10. Imagine how I will look to others if I display disruptive emotions.Focus on changing the situation so everyone will leave the area feeling postive.
Potential obstacles to Action Plan #1 is the influence of others in the stressful situation. They may obstruct my attempts to create solutions. My strength as a leader and alliances I may have created politically will assist in others following my actions.
Action Plan #1 fits within the structure of my life and work as I continue to develop the mindset and personal self-control needed for my influence in the workplace.
My learning flexibility will allow me to switch between the reality of the situation and the way I want it to develop. I do not need to operate completely in the present; I can envision the immediate and long-term future to shape the situation to one in alignment with my goals.
In order to enact Action Plan #1, I must develop the ability to recognize situations where I might lose control of my emotions. In the past, the time from the point where the situation potentially became a problem to the point when I lost control was almost immediate. With training and practice, I am confident I will be able to gain the control I need to be an effective manager.
Action Plan #2: Take active steps toward learning self-control. One part of the mind knows when self-control is needed, but another overrides the intellectual with the emotional loss of control. The inappropriate patterns of behavior my mind learned in the past need to be broken with conscious effort.

Potential obstacles to understanding how to disrupt these patterns are lack of education in methods to do so.

If others at work know I am actively working on issues with losing self-control it may effect my leadership credibility. On the other hand, others may see it as an attempt to make myself a better leader.
I am an intelligent person and I believe I am capable of discovering the necessary changes I need to make for improvement in self-control.
In order to make time to learn how to control my emotions, I need to restructure my spare time to allow for options for education.
Action Plan #3: Surround myself as much as possible with people I know to have excellent self-control. By being around these people as much as possible, two influences occur. First, I will observe how they react in situations where I would imagine I would exhibit loss of control. Second, I know they will be watching me and expecting the same type of behavior. That would motivate me to try to me their expectations in order to gain the approval of people I respect.
Potential obstacles include not finding the opportunities to be around the type of people who exhibit self-control, not recognizing the abilities in others unless I am in a stressful situation where they show their self-control, and the possibility these types of people don’t want to associate with me because they are aware of my inability to control myself.
This action may prove difficult to fit into my life and work structure, depending on the recognition, availability, and cooperation of these types of people.
I strongly believe that, with the proper tools, my learning flexibilities will allow me to modify my behavior.
In order to make time for these types of associations, I have to alter my social time to include going to functions these types of people attend, including free time at work (breaks and so on) if necessary.
Action Plan #4: Join community groups specializing in learning self-control. Many times, community or mental health groups offer free membership in group therapy to learn self-control methods that work for others and the consequences of losing control.
Potential obstacle may be the lack of the availability of these types of groups to me. It may be they are not free and I will have to budget my time and income to accomodate the necessary expense.
Attending groups of this type may possible require re-structuring my time outside work. There may be the possibility that human relations could host meetings over lunches for other employees strugging with this matter.
I believe my learning flexbilities would be enhanced with attendance to meetings of this kind.
2. Become a better leader with an Authoritative leadership style. This aligns with my objectives discussed in the “Vision and Values” paper.
A. Action Plan #1: Determine my level of explicit knowledge. As the type of knowledge I can communicate to others, I need to be confident in the quality of the information and show to share it. This is possible through continuing my education by reading business journals, attending seminars, and other methods to stay current.
Only by conferencing with others at my managerial level and above can I create a sense of how others view my credibility. I need to know if I am unwittingly making mistakes in the explicit information I am passing on and using. A potential obstacle to this is creating doubt in my superiors about my abilities. In the context of organizational politics, managers on my level may see this attempt at improvement as an opportunity to lessen my position in the workplace.
These actions would not fit well within the structure of my work. Alternatives would be to improve and reinforce my education with external sources such as seminars, online courses, and research.
My learning flexibilities fit well with this type of strategy. I have the motivaton to better my leadership skills by any means necesssary. My critical thought processes and analytical skills are some of my personal strengths.
I have to step back and realize when asking for evaluation is appropriate and when it is not. By creating a relationship with several trusted mentors, I can use workplace relationships for improvement.
B. Action Plan #2: Assess my tacit knowledge, which is more intangible and is comprised of topics that are subjective and more difficult to relate to others. I need to decide what are the best ways to incorporate my intuitive skills.
Potential problems are difficulty in the accuracy of my assessment. These types of skills may not be as obvious as explicit information.
It is important to work on improvement of tacit knowledge, but there are sensitivity issues which may not make active improvement on them appropriate for the general workplace. If I listen carefully to feedback in performance reviews or conversation with co-workers, they may become more clear to me.
My learning flexibility may not be adequate in this area. Introspection to date has not been a strong point, and I will need assistance in this action.
I see how acquiring this knowledge is essential for effective leadership. Therefore, I would allocate the necessary time to learn to recognize and improve on my intuitive skills.
3. Develop greater organization awareness, understanding the relationships between social groups or organizations. This skill will allow me to recognize political forces within the organization.
Action Plan #1: Identify and acquaint myself with the influential people in terms of taking charge of activities, shaping decisions, and changing policy.
Potential problems with this type of activity is being viewed as being politically ambitious. For many, this is not a good trait, while for some it is a sign of a willingness to succeed. Therefore, discretion must be practiced when performing this action plan.
The workplace is an excellent location for this action plan, but social situations may be more so. Using the company location is optimum for identification, but socializing is an excellent way to initiate relationships with the most influential employees of the company
My learning flexibility in this area is high. My personality lends itself well to this type of activity, but I need to practice control so as not to appear too ambitious

This is another example of prioritizing my time to allow for the necessary time for this plan.

Action Plan #2: Co-workers talk about the managers they view as the most effective and those as the least effective; I need to listen.
Again, I need to be careful not to appear to be garnering information for the purpose of exploiting relationships with the more influential members of the company. Sincere conversations about effective managers is certainly appropriate.

Both the workplace and social situations are excellent opportunities for this type of informaton-gathering.

My learning flexibility is good in this area, as I am sincerely interested in the people viewed as most influential, their characteristics, and the leadership styles.
Action Plan #3: By identifying the most influential manager, I can study their leadership styles. In addition to forming relationships with these people, I also need to analyze why they are influential. Active conversation with the people themselves, with co-workers, and by observation are all excellent ways to learn effectivenss.
I have to be careful not to appear overly interested in gathering the information or it may come across as trying to copy successful management. Although in effect I am, it is only as a way to improve my own leadership style.

The workplace and social settings are definitely appropriate for this types of learning activity.

My learning flexibility is certainly suited to these types of activities.
Integrated Timeline
Conclusion
The acknowledgement and development of my Authoritative leadership skills don’t end with the completion of the Action Plans. There are some times when this style of leadership can cause problems. There is a possibility I will be seen as dictatorial or controlling; this leads to resentment from my co-workers. Since I would generally make decisions without consulting others, others may feel I don’t value their input. This could lead to fewer creative solutions offered and a resulting less than optimum result. In situations where I have the most knowledge,, this could be an advantage.
Therefore, once I have achieved my primary goals in the Authoritative style, I need to address acquiring the skills of the other leadership styles. Each style particular strengths in the workplace and only by incorporating all the styles into my own personal set of skills can I be the optimal leader for my organization.

References

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