DIV 5013 Module 5 Personal Leadership Development Plan Example

Ask Before Deciding: A Twelve-Month People-Centered Leadership Development Plan for a Payroll Manager

Student Name

American College of Education

DIV5013: People-Centered Leadership

Module 5 Assignment

Instructor Name

November 6, 2028

Introduction

Over this course I have examined my leadership of a payroll and payables group in a Louisville hospital system's finance office from four angles: my approach compared with people-centered models, the strengths of the people I lead, the team's psychological safety and my own authenticity and respect. Each paper produced findings and early changes. This final paper brings them into one twelve-month development plan. It sets three goals, explains how I will develop toward each through experience rather than intention alone, names the support and feedback I will use and sets measures that will show whether I am changing.

What Development Research Suggests

Reviewing leader development research published over 25 years, Day et al. (2014) concluded that leaders grow slowly and mainly through what they do, and that the pace depends on the challenges a person takes on, the feedback they receive and how they reflect on both. Ashford and DeRue (2012) offered a practical version of this view, which they called mindful engagement: approach experiences with specific learning goals, try new behaviors and seek feedback during the experience, and then reflect systematically afterward on what happened and why. Gollwitzer (1999), in research on goal pursuit, found that tying a goal to a concrete cue, in the form of an if-then plan, made follow-through considerably more likely than simply intending to reach the goal.

Evidence From the Course

The earlier papers point to a clear pattern. My consistency about accuracy and fairness is a real strength that staff want me to keep. But I tend to decide alone and announce the result, which staff rated lowest in the feedback on authenticity, at 2.9 of 5 for balanced processing. Errors on the team are hidden more often than reported, with only 18 percent self-reported, partly because of my habit of quietly fixing mistakes myself. And remote and evening staff, along with less visible team members, feel less valued than senior specialists. These three findings become the plan's goals.

Goal One: Consult Before Deciding

The first goal is to make balanced processing a habit. Every decision that changes how team members work will go through the sequence set in the previous paper: describe the problem and my thinking, collect views for at least a week through both meetings and a written channel, then explain the decision and which suggestions shaped it. The implementation intention is: if I notice myself drafting an announcement of a change, then I will first write the problem statement and send it for input instead. Success means staff ratings on balanced processing of 3.6 or higher within six months and at least three decisions per quarter visibly changed by staff input.

Goal Two: Treat Errors as Learning

The second goal is to change how I respond to mistakes. When someone reports an error, I will thank them before asking anything else, then ask what happened and what would prevent it, and I will stop correcting errors myself without involving the person who made them. Once a month, I will describe one of my own mistakes in a team meeting. The implementation intention is: if I find an error in someone's work, then I will message the person with a question rather than fixing it. Success means the self-reported share of errors rising from 18 percent toward 50 percent and the survey item on mistakes being held against people improving.

Goal Three: Spread Respect and Recognition

The third goal is to make sure every team member feels valued as a member and as an individual. The alternating meeting schedule will continue, every meeting will still have a written summary posted the same day and announcements will reach everyone at once. I will hold a brief monthly conversation with each person in turn and keep a recognition log, checked each quarter, to make sure it reaches remote, evening and less visible staff. The implementation intention is: if I recognize someone in a meeting, then I will check the log that week for anyone not recognized in the last two months.

Developmental Experiences

Following the research's emphasis on experience, each goal is tied to a specific stretch assignment. For consulting before deciding, I will lead the consolidation of vendor setup forms with a working group of four staff, two of them newer, and let the group make the final recommendation. For handling errors, I will join a cross-department review of payroll errors with human resources and timekeeping, where the habit of looking for causes rather than blame will be tested in a setting where payroll is often blamed. For respect, I will spend one evening shift a month working alongside the evening payroll staff.

Mindful Engagement Cycles

Each experience will follow the cycle described by Ashford and DeRue. Before it begins, I will write one learning goal, such as asking for three opposing views before forming my own in the working group. During it, I will ask one or two participants for brief feedback at natural break points. Afterward, a brief written reflection will record what I tried, what happened, what I would do differently and what I learned about myself. These reflections will be kept in one document so that patterns across experiences are visible over time.

Feedback Partner and Support

Development is hard to sustain alone. I will ask the colleague from the learning and development office who ran the earlier feedback to serve as a feedback partner, meeting monthly to review my reflections and the measures. The three goals will be shared openly with the team as well, which carries some risk, since they will then notice when I fall short, but makes it easier for them to point out lapses. My own director has agreed to include the goals in my annual review, which gives the plan weight beyond this course.

Likely Obstacles

Three obstacles are predictable. Payroll deadlines are fixed, and under pressure I will be tempted to decide alone and announce; the plan allows quick decisions in true emergencies but requires me to explain them afterward. The error-handling change may at first increase visible error counts, since more errors will be reported, and leaders above me could read that as decline; I will explain the measure in advance. And monthly conversations with 34 people take time; the rotation keeps each to fifteen minutes, which is modest compared with the time spent correcting problems that people were afraid to raise.

Timeline and Measures

The plan runs for twelve months. In the first quarter, the goals are shared with the team, the vendor form working group begins and the recognition log starts. In the second quarter, the cross-department error review begins and the first six-month feedback round is run by my feedback partner. The third and fourth quarters continue the experiences and adjust the plan based on results. Measures reviewed each quarter are the self-reported error share, decisions changed by input, recognition coverage and meeting attendance by evening and remote staff. Feedback on authenticity, respect and psychological safety is repeated at six and twelve months.

Conclusion

This course turned a general wish to be a more people-centered leader into three specific changes supported by evidence: consulting before deciding, treating errors as learning and spreading respect and recognition across the whole team. Research on leader development explains why these changes need experiences, feedback and reflection rather than resolve alone, and why simple if-then plans help. With stretch assignments, a feedback partner and quarterly measures, the plan gives me, and my team, a way to judge whether my leadership is actually changing over the coming year.

References

Ashford, S. J., & DeRue, D. S. (2012). Developing as a leader: The power of mindful engagement. Organizational Dynamics, 41(2), 146-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2012.01.008

Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493-503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493