Chapter 11 – Implementation Plan
Introduction
This chapter will discuss how I will put my leadership improvement plan into action. Chapter 3 reflects the ideas that I will improve upon; this chapter will discuss how I will go about each of those. My implementation plan will apply to my life at work, home, and in the MBA program. I will also discuss how the materials gathered throughout this web site are used to continue to better myself for that next promotion.
How I will implement my Improvement Plan at Work
The great thing about my current position is that I have the flexibility to put different concepts and ideas into place. My key strengths identified earlier are fairly simple to implement in the workplace, and because I am good at them, it is fun. I will also need to focus on improving my weaknesses, as I stated in chapter 3.
Below is a list of things I can do to enhance my strengths at work. I have noted which strength pertains to which activity in parentheses beside each.
- Volunteering on various committees (relationship building)
- Offering to mentor an associate (relationship building with that associate, and with my boss as I would report progress in periodically)
- Going out to lunch/out after work with co-workers (relationship building)
- Further studying my branch’s profit loss report (big-picture)
- Ask questions to my boss about the jobs I aspire for (big-picture)
- Ask questions about certain aspects of my boss’s job that interest me (big-picture)
- Coach an associate on how to thoughtfully think through a sales pitch, credit application, or another valid scenario (deliberative and disciplined decision making). I have actually recently begun this, and it is going over well.
Here are some ways I can improve my weaknesses at the work place. Again, the weakness in focus is in parentheses.
- Volunteer on various committees and take on speaking or leadership roles. (Not extroverted enough)
- Don’t back away from pushback received by subordinates. Work on candid speak and how to efficiently diffuse a situation. This can also be practiced at home. (Conflict avoidant/Pushover)
- When assigning tasks, give the person being assigned the task a time frame for which I expect the task to be complete (Impatient). This will help eliminate ambiguous waiting times when I often become impatient.
How I will implement my Improvement Plan at home/outside of work
Now, I will discuss a few ways I can enhance and utilize my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses while not in the workplace, but yet, with the end goal in mind of better myself as a leader and a person. This will benefit both my personal life and my work life.
How I can enhance my strengths while not at work:
- Spend more time with my wife (even if it is things I don’t like doing!) (Relationship building)
- Call an immediate family member once a week (Relationship Building)
- Talk through any big decision with my wife, but don’t sweat the small stuff (Disciplined and Deliberative)
Here are some ways I can work on my weaknesses outside of work:
- Start more conversations with friends/neighbors (Not extroverted)
- Learn to not be so quick to speak when a friend or family member disappoints. (Impatient)
- Work on prioritizing my needs with that of those around me. I often jump to help others and put my needs second. Working on this project has taught me a lot of that already. (Pushover)
How I will implement my Improvement Plan during the MBA program
The focus of my MBA career is to gain the most expertise in my area of emphasis as possible and to maintain excellent grades while doing so. Before entering into the MBA program, I thought having a generalized master’s level knowledge to supplement my undergraduate degree in business management was the way to go. It did not take long to realize that I should be approaching this program with a tailored focus in mind. After graduation, I want to be able to speak about my experience and say that I gained extensive knowledge in the area of financial management. This will supplement my career path and show that I have expertise in the areas in which I aspire to work.
Therefore, as I aspire to rise through the ranks of the financial system, I have decided to make financial management my area of emphasis. I would eventually like the opportunity to serve as CFO or CEO of a corporation – not entirely sure where that might be, it could be at my current company or it might be elsewhere. Either of these C-level positions requires extensive financial management knowledge. I will focus on taking courses in the MBA program that fit into my area of emphasis plan, but are also more geared toward corporate or large firm’s financial studies.
Using the material
Reading and relating the material on this web site to my life was valuable to me. The thought put into each chapter really got my gears turning as to how I can better improve upon each topic that was discussed. Also, by documenting a game plan, I have a better chance of remembering it, and make myself more accountable to it.
Not only was the material helpful, but I also learned the importance of just being connected into the academic and business publishing communities (i.e. Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal). I have a better understanding now of the impact that diligent reading can have on my knowledge of a subject. It also helps me gain knowledge of subjects I knew nothing about.
I will continue to re-read my selected material as well as new pieces that become published from sources like HBR and WSJ. As my group and I progressed through the semester, we found that each of us would periodically find interesting reads while researching for articles, and we would share them with each other. We vowed to continue to do this after the semester and as long as we can stay connected even after our MBA career.
As for the exercises in this book, they have all been performed at least once, but having the results documented allows me to go back and re-read. There were instances in which some results were not expected; in the future I plan to go back perform these exercises again from different angles to see if different results occur. An example of when the results differed from what I expected was my exercise in Chapter 4. I expected the Theory X management style to dominate and yield the most results, but it did not do that for every scenario. Going forward, I will use my knowledge gained from readings as well as experience to try to make a more educated determination as to when theory X versus theory Y type management styles should be used.
Conclusion: Always Moving Forward
A main focus of mine when crafting the writings in this book was to always be seeking ways to improve whatever it is that I am working on. That being said, there will certainly come a time when I realize that everything in this plan is not perfect. I may need to tweak a few things here or there. And as Professor Markham has told us over and over again, that is what this book is all about – use it as an ongoing tool.
After my MBA career is finished in a few years, I may find that I need additional emphasis on working on my strengths and weaknesses at work or home. Because of the time constraints of school and work, my home life often gets overlooked, so I imagine I will have additional thoughts to add to that section as time passes. Also, as my career progresses, and I take on greater responsibilities – larger branch, business/commercial banking, and up, my needs to develop my traits will change, too. I may need to brush up on my self-assessments at different career and life stages to reassess my strengths and weaknesses. I will also have to adjust the action plan set forth in the ‘implementation at work’ section of this chapter. Like Lowes’ Home Improvement’s slogan says: “Never Stop Improving”.
Introduction
This chapter will discuss how I will put my leadership improvement plan into action. Chapter 3 reflects the ideas that I will improve upon; this chapter will discuss how I will go about each of those. My implementation plan will apply to my life at work, home, and in the MBA program. I will also discuss how the materials gathered throughout this web site are used to continue to better myself for that next promotion.
How I will implement my Improvement Plan at Work
The great thing about my current position is that I have the flexibility to put different concepts and ideas into place. My key strengths identified earlier are fairly simple to implement in the workplace, and because I am good at them, it is fun. I will also need to focus on improving my weaknesses, as I stated in chapter 3.
Below is a list of things I can do to enhance my strengths at work. I have noted which strength pertains to which activity in parentheses beside each.
- Volunteering on various committees (relationship building)
- Offering to mentor an associate (relationship building with that associate, and with my boss as I would report progress in periodically)
- Going out to lunch/out after work with co-workers (relationship building)
- Further studying my branch’s profit loss report (big-picture)
- Ask questions to my boss about the jobs I aspire for (big-picture)
- Ask questions about certain aspects of my boss’s job that interest me (big-picture)
- Coach an associate on how to thoughtfully think through a sales pitch, credit application, or another valid scenario (deliberative and disciplined decision making). I have actually recently begun this, and it is going over well.
Here are some ways I can improve my weaknesses at the work place. Again, the weakness in focus is in parentheses.
- Volunteer on various committees and take on speaking or leadership roles. (Not extroverted enough)
- Don’t back away from pushback received by subordinates. Work on candid speak and how to efficiently diffuse a situation. This can also be practiced at home. (Conflict avoidant/Pushover)
- When assigning tasks, give the person being assigned the task a time frame for which I expect the task to be complete (Impatient). This will help eliminate ambiguous waiting times when I often become impatient.
How I will implement my Improvement Plan at home/outside of work
Now, I will discuss a few ways I can enhance and utilize my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses while not in the workplace, but yet, with the end goal in mind of better myself as a leader and a person. This will benefit both my personal life and my work life.
How I can enhance my strengths while not at work:
- Spend more time with my wife (even if it is things I don’t like doing!) (Relationship building)
- Call an immediate family member once a week (Relationship Building)
- Talk through any big decision with my wife, but don’t sweat the small stuff (Disciplined and Deliberative)
Here are some ways I can work on my weaknesses outside of work:
- Start more conversations with friends/neighbors (Not extroverted)
- Learn to not be so quick to speak when a friend or family member disappoints. (Impatient)
- Work on prioritizing my needs with that of those around me. I often jump to help others and put my needs second. Working on this project has taught me a lot of that already. (Pushover)
How I will implement my Improvement Plan during the MBA program
The focus of my MBA career is to gain the most expertise in my area of emphasis as possible and to maintain excellent grades while doing so. Before entering into the MBA program, I thought having a generalized master’s level knowledge to supplement my undergraduate degree in business management was the way to go. It did not take long to realize that I should be approaching this program with a tailored focus in mind. After graduation, I want to be able to speak about my experience and say that I gained extensive knowledge in the area of financial management. This will supplement my career path and show that I have expertise in the areas in which I aspire to work.
Therefore, as I aspire to rise through the ranks of the financial system, I have decided to make financial management my area of emphasis. I would eventually like the opportunity to serve as CFO or CEO of a corporation – not entirely sure where that might be, it could be at my current company or it might be elsewhere. Either of these C-level positions requires extensive financial management knowledge. I will focus on taking courses in the MBA program that fit into my area of emphasis plan, but are also more geared toward corporate or large firm’s financial studies.
Using the material
Reading and relating the material on this web site to my life was valuable to me. The thought put into each chapter really got my gears turning as to how I can better improve upon each topic that was discussed. Also, by documenting a game plan, I have a better chance of remembering it, and make myself more accountable to it.
Not only was the material helpful, but I also learned the importance of just being connected into the academic and business publishing communities (i.e. Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal). I have a better understanding now of the impact that diligent reading can have on my knowledge of a subject. It also helps me gain knowledge of subjects I knew nothing about.
I will continue to re-read my selected material as well as new pieces that become published from sources like HBR and WSJ. As my group and I progressed through the semester, we found that each of us would periodically find interesting reads while researching for articles, and we would share them with each other. We vowed to continue to do this after the semester and as long as we can stay connected even after our MBA career.
As for the exercises in this book, they have all been performed at least once, but having the results documented allows me to go back and re-read. There were instances in which some results were not expected; in the future I plan to go back perform these exercises again from different angles to see if different results occur. An example of when the results differed from what I expected was my exercise in Chapter 4. I expected the Theory X management style to dominate and yield the most results, but it did not do that for every scenario. Going forward, I will use my knowledge gained from readings as well as experience to try to make a more educated determination as to when theory X versus theory Y type management styles should be used.
Conclusion: Always Moving Forward
A main focus of mine when crafting the writings in this book was to always be seeking ways to improve whatever it is that I am working on. That being said, there will certainly come a time when I realize that everything in this plan is not perfect. I may need to tweak a few things here or there. And as Professor Markham has told us over and over again, that is what this book is all about – use it as an ongoing tool.
After my MBA career is finished in a few years, I may find that I need additional emphasis on working on my strengths and weaknesses at work or home. Because of the time constraints of school and work, my home life often gets overlooked, so I imagine I will have additional thoughts to add to that section as time passes. Also, as my career progresses, and I take on greater responsibilities – larger branch, business/commercial banking, and up, my needs to develop my traits will change, too. I may need to brush up on my self-assessments at different career and life stages to reassess my strengths and weaknesses. I will also have to adjust the action plan set forth in the ‘implementation at work’ section of this chapter. Like Lowes’ Home Improvement’s slogan says: “Never Stop Improving”.