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Collins, J. (2001). Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review, 83(7/8), 136-146.

Coutu, D. L. (2002). How resilience works. Harvard Business Review, 80(5), 46-51.

Dhiman, S. (2011). Personal mastery and authentic leadership. Organization Development Journal, 29(2), 69-83.

Galinsky, A. & Schweitzer, M. (2016). Why every great leader needs to be a great perspective taker. Leader to Leader, 2016(80), 32-37.

Manikutty, S. (2003). From a manager to a leader: Bridging a gulf or jumping a chasm. Vikalpa, 28(4), 53-62.

Weitzel, S. R. (2000). Three keys to effective feedback. Leadership in Action, 20(3), 8-11.

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The action plan to become an inspiration leader comprises of the twin action elements of providing effective and positive feedback to employees while enhancing my personal ability to understand issues, situations, and responses from the perspective of others. Feedback helps individuals and teams to recognize their strengths and shortcomings, understand, evaluate, and improve their performance, and find out ways to fruitfully bring those improvements (Weitzel, 2000, p. 8). Positive feedback brings a sense of achievement and accomplishment in people, therefore, as a leader, I will instill this trait of highlighting employees’ strengths. Feedback about shortcomings can be challenging, during which I will be straightforward and honest while providing the rationale for the feedback, while being respectful and empathetic.

The second action element will be to enhance my ability to understand and take the perspective of others. In a team, each member’s opinion or perspective must be considered and employees must feel empowered to put forth their points in team meetings. Leaders who can take others’ perspective can “make better decisions, communicate more clearly, and lead more effectively” (Galinsky & Schweitzer, 2016, p. 36). To become proficient at this important leadership skill, I will be mindful in discussions of meetings where I find others’ viewpoints confusing or difficult. I will be conscious to step out of my own worldview to take someone else’s view or perspective. It is essential for this ability to become ingrained strongly through practice and habit.

The outcome of this goal will be the creation of a positive working environment within the team. It will augment the various facets required in a top performing team such as collaboration and communication between members, driving it to achieve excellence.

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My second goal is to become capable enough to inspire my followers or workplace employees to perform to their best potential and achieve excellence. According to Manikutty (2003), the difference between a manager and leader is that while managers can motivate their workforce, they fail to inspire them, whereas a leader is one who can ignite excellence in people propelling them to contribute towards objectives out of their will and passion (p. 57). In an organizational where the workforce has diverse skills and talents and come from multiple cultures, an inspiring leader can bring the best out of each individual and make them feel worthy and valuable

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To realize the goal to bring positive change within myself, my action plan comprises of self-improvement effort of instilling discipline in my thoughts and actions while cultivating humility. According to Dhiman (2011), an individual must “strive to be the very best in whatever one undertakes” by honing one’s capabilities and skills which requires inculcating discipline along with hard work and practice (p. 72). Moreover, humility is an important trait of high-performance leaders who Collins (2001) termed as Level-5 leaders. To cultivate humility will require channelizing myself to focus on the present and be grateful for what I have.

Resilience is a crucial characteristic of effective leaders which can be cultivated to advance and thrive in the competitive business environment of today. A resilient leader is one who can bounce back from setbacks and failures and can adapt in the face of adversity and stress while creatively finding solutions to difficult problems instead of finding scapegoats (Coutu, 2002, p. 52). Resilience requires accepting that change is a part of living and modifying our interpretation and response to events, for example, by not considering a crisis as an insurmountable problem.

The outcome of this goal will be that there will be increased commitment on my part towards the personal and professional initiatives. I will gain a broader and deeper sense of responsibility in my work which will reflect in my leadership output.

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A leader must be able to inspire her followers or workforce and must be skilled, supportive, and trustworthy to competently lead her team. In various situations at the workplace, the leader must keep her promises, choose her words carefully, and set realistic and achievable goals. An effective leader is one who responds to personal and professional challenges, with her best self, and in her most creative capacity and demonstrates flexibility in her strengths. This is akin to Dhiman’s (2011) concept of personal mastery which is a “quest for finding authenticity, meaning, and fulfillment in one’s life” (p. 70). Therefore, my first goal is to enable positive change in myself, like achieving personal mastery, in enhancing my leadership ability

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A leader must be able to inspire her followers or workforce and must be skilled, supportive, and trustworthy to competently lead her team. In various situations at the workplace, the leader must keep her promises, choose her words carefully, and set realistic and achievable goals. An effective leader is one who responds to personal and professional challenges, with her best self, and in her most creative capacity and demonstrates flexibility in her strengths. This is akin to Dhiman’s (2011) concept of personal mastery which is a “quest for finding authenticity, meaning, and fulfillment in one’s life” (p. 70). Therefore, my first goal is to enable positive change in myself, like achieving personal mastery, in enhancing my leadership ability

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On self-analyzing my leadership attitude and skills, it is essential for me to have a clear goal-based plan to become an effective and successful leader. The two specific leadership goals which I want to achieve are to empower myself with positive change and become capable to ignite and inspire excellence in my followers. To realize these the first goal, the two action items I will pursue are to instill in myself the ethic of discipline in thought and action and cultivate humility and develop a resilient mindset. For the second goal, the action items needed to successfully accomplish it are to create an environment where effective and positive feedback can be provided to the followers and instill in myself the ability to understand issues and situations from others’ perspective.