How to use The Leadership Development Planner
The planner is designed for leaders who have received feedback using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and have begun a process of acting on that feedback. Research suggests that it takes ten years to develop expertise in something. Leadership is no exception.
Becoming a better leader needs to become a habit for the long term. The Planner can help instill that habit.
While the Planner can be used independent of outside assistance, coaching strengthens the likelihood that you will train and practice. We strongly encourage you to seek out someone who can help you stick with the steps in this process, ask you questions about how you're doing, and give you advice and counsel along the way.
The Planner picks up where the LPI Participant's Workbook leaves off
The Planner begins your next phase of leadership development. It is something you can come back to over a period of time and customise to meet your own needs. For example, you might use the Planner:
• In a two-day (or longer) workshop in which you more fully explore options for improving in each of The Five Practices
• In an expert coaching process in which you meet one-on-one every week or two with a leadership specialist
• In a peer coaching process in which you meet once a month or so with others who are also using the Planner to become better leaders
• On your own in preparation for a 90-day to 120-day developmental effort
• As a tool to integrate into your PDA or other day-planner
What's important is that you adopt the same kind of discipline for developing yourself as a leader that you would adopt for improving in any endeavour. You'll get the most out of it, and have the most fun, when you have both the will and the way—the desire and a plan.
By using The Leadership Practices Inventory Planner you will be able to:
• Articulate your ideal image as a leader
• Discuss how people learn to lead
• Integrate the best leadership learning practices into your routines
• Consciously review progress toward you becoming a better leader
• Select the kinds of developmental activities that best fit you
• Write a plan to continue in your leadership development
• Apply an easy-to-use process that can be repeated.
What is contained in the Leadership Practices Inventory Planner?
• In Step 1, we briefly review The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® —the fundamentals of leadership that you learned about in the LPI Workshop.
• In Step 2, we cover the ways in which people learn to lead—or do anything for that matter.
• Step 3, asks you to review your progress.
• Step 4, the steps of planning your developmental actions.
• Step 5 concludes with further observations about how to continue your quest in becoming a better leader.
Part II of Leadership Practices Inventory Planner
Provides a collection of more than one hundred ways to become a better leader. These activities are organised around each of The Five Practices and are divided into sections based on the three fundamental ways we learn. When you make your own developmental plans, you can use these activities as options from which to cherry-pick. They are also used as idea generators for inventing learning projects. Additionally, we describe the best practices of learning to lead, based on our own and others' research, as well as tips from those who've done it—people like yourself who've dedicated themselves to becoming the best leaders they can be.
Also included is a reading list and some blank Leadership Development Worksheets to use in recording your development plans.
