How can you create a plan to address gaps in your leadership skills?

Being honest when assessing your current leadership skills is a big part of personal and professional growth, so remember that when taking assessments and working with others. This allows you to clearly understand your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement as a leader and displays real self-awareness. This genuine approach fosters trust, credibility, and stronger connections with your team. Additionally, honest assessment helps you focus your development efforts, set meaningful goals, and create targeted development plans addressing your unique needs to enhance your leadership skills more effectively. Embrace being open about where you are as a catalyst for growth and unleash your full leadership potential.

Define specific objectives aligned with personal and organizational goals. Prioritize skill gaps based on impact and urgency, setting SMART goals for each. Identify diverse learning resources – workshops, courses, mentorship – tailored to your preferences. Solicit ongoing feedback and consider hiring a coach for personalized guidance. Break down goals into actionable steps, allocating dedicated time for development. Practice learned skills in real-world scenarios, measuring progress regularly. Celebrate achievements to reinforce commitment. Maintain flexibility, iterate the plan, and continuously reassess for sustained leadership growth.

An easy (and free) way to assess your leadership skills is to do a “mirror test.” First, write down 3 areas you feel you’re most effective as a leader. Asked another way, what are the 3 areas you want to be known for as a leader? Then, ask 6 people individually who have current perspective on your leadership and what it’s like to work with you for the 3 areas they feel you are most effective. Next, compare the three areas you collected from the 6 people to the 3 areas you wrote down. Where are you in alignment? What did they say that surprised you? How self aware are you? What areas do you need to work on? Once you’ve identified a few areas to focus on, determine a few actions to take to improve.

Start with a raw self-assessment or seek feedback from peers and mentors to identify areas for improvement - it will be uncomfortable and can be emotional - that’s a good thing! Create an action plan with specific goals, like enhancing communication or decision-making skills. Engage in targeted learning through courses, workshops, or reading materials. Find a mentor or coach for guidance - find one that is going to give you honest, constructive criticism. Practice new skills in safe environments, like leading small projects or volunteer groups. Regularly reflect on your progress and adjust your approach as needed. Don’t shy away from challenging situations – they often provide the best learning opportunities.

Assessing your leadership skills is the crucial first step in creating an effective enhancement plan. Through tools like self-assessments and feedback surveys, you gain insights into strengths and areas for improvement. For instance, if you discover a gap in your strategic thinking during this evaluation, you can develop a targeted plan to enhance that specific skill. Comparing your skills to organizational expectations provides a roadmap for development. This assessment not only pinpoints gaps but also establishes a baseline for setting goals. With this understanding, you can create a tailored plan to address and bridge the gaps in your leadership skills, ensuring a more effective and targeted development journey.

> Specific Goals: Define leadership skills; improving communication and strategic thinking. > Measurable Objectives: Set criteria; achieving communication proficiency or completing a strategic thinking workshop. > Achievable Targets: Set realistic skill development targets within a specified timeframe for practical improvements. > Relevant Skill Prioritisation: Prioritise skills based on their relevance to your role and organisational needs. > Time-Bound Development Plan: Create a time-bound plan outlining milestones for improvement in each skill area. > Importance, Urgency, and Impact Assessment: Assess goals based on importance, urgency, and potential impact on leadership effectiveness; improving communication for team cohesion.

In my coaching practice, we co-create what is called a Leader development Plan. It starts with running some leadership diagnostics on both the inner core and the outer core of the leader using a combination of psychometric tools, feedback survey reports and discussions with the leader. This is followed by drawing out a complete development plan keeping in mind the desired development goal. Both interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies of the leader are considered in co-creating this plan. This is followed by coaching, in helping the leader implement these strategies and create progress for themself. Further stakeholder feedback helps in tracking progress.

Desired level should also be viewed with the two angles- 1) the level you desire for yourself, 2) the level your colleagues and friends feel you must possess. This will help in targeting the level and setting the strategy to achieve it. You might get contented at some level or you might want to achieve the highest, but if you combine self and others assessment for desired level you will reach optimum level which should be minimum threshold to achieve.

Based on the role, your current state of leadership skills, gaps that you have identified and the career progression path, the coach and the leader need to identify priorities that will have maximum impact on your current skills. List and prioritize.

Hear out the leadership story first of the incumbent. Find some unique success factors and work around polishing, those covenants rather viewing it from set benchmarks. As the Human DNA is unique; So is the leadership style. We cannot have a "One Fix for All" sort of solution to leadership development. As leadership development very much relies on the leadership story and usually only, 20% are set rules rest all have to be tweaked and customized as per the situation and the personality practicing the leadership style.

Consistency can be more effective than intensity. Approaching development as a daily practice rather than a one-time sprint yields a bigger payoff. Look for short, discrete actions you can execute with total commitment in 5-10 minutes each day.

develop a plan that outlines how these goals will be achieved. This should include specific actions, resources required, timelines, and milestones. The plan should be detailed enough to provide a clear path forward but flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. It's important to remember that personal development goes beyond job-specific skills. Soft skills like leadership, communication, and problem-solving are just as important and can significantly enhance team dynamics and performance.

Identify a leadership gap, like effective delegation or public speaking. Design your action plan using the GROW model: set a Goal (enhance delegation or improve public speaking), assess the Reality (evaluate current practices), explore Options (enrol in training, seek mentorship, or read relevant literature), and determine your Will (commit to actions like shadowing or joining a speaking club). For delegation, set milestones like shadowing a skilled colleague. For public speaking, commit to deadlines and engagement indicators, ensuring a targeted approach to bridge leadership gaps through diverse learning methods.

It's said that 70% learning happens on the job. As leaders work on their development, they should also seek out assignments and live projects that will give them the experiences they need to grow to the next level in their capacity.

The most important thing is to practice. For example, if your selected area for improvement is 'the 1:1 conversation' learn a better way and try it. Observe yourself. Note down. Reflect how did you do it. How did you feel. How did the other person feel. Adjust along the way.

In my experience, stakeholder buy-in is important for implementing any sort of action plan may it be related to leadership development or change management.

Use a blend of quantitative and qualitative methods to measure progress. Quantitative metrics, like team performance KPIs, and qualitative feedback from team members offer insights into your leadership's impact which will help you evaluate your action plan. For instance, while monitoring engagement metrics, conduct anonymous surveys to gauge changes in team motivation. This dual method provides a holistic view of progress. To bridge leadership gaps effectively, merge self-reflection, structured feedback, realistic yet ambitious goals, diverse learning resources, a thorough development plan, and ongoing progress evaluations. Leadership growth demands commitment and adaptability as it's a continual journey. Happy Learning :)

Addressing leadership skill gaps, should always begin with self-assessment. Reflect on past life and work moments to assess specific areas needing improvement. If you're having trouble nailing down your gaps, reach out to former peers, direct reports, and supervisors for specific examples of when you failed to show up as a leader. Now, creating a plan for each skill gap requires clear and measurable goals with set progress milestones. Your plan should be tailored to your learning preferences and lifestyle. Leveraging books, courses, mentorship, workshops, and on-demand content to acquire new skills that apply to real-world scenarios. Find opportunities to practice new skills and receive regular feedback so you can adjust the plan as needed.

Minor adjustments should be made to make the plan effective and the desired results efficient. Action plans should be adjusted to enhance the capabilities of the stakeholders and align their competence to the agreed goals and objectives.

Invest in Yourself. As a leader, why do you need to invest in yourself? Because your overall quality of life depends on what you choose for yourself. Your personal and professional choices, even basic things like the food you eat on a daily basis, impact your life. Your physical and mental health rely on your choices. Your success and failure rely on your choices. Clearly, it is critical to take care of yourself and invest in yourself to lead a team, lead a business and healthy life in all aspects.

In my experience, whether a leader oversees a small team or they support and mentor a large group of people, making a plan to keep developing is an effective way to become a better leader. The reason we want to have an action plan : 1. Encourages self reflection and assessment 2. Sets a timeline for achieving the milestones in the career. 3. Outlines actionable steps towards the professional development. Following ways provide an outline for creating an action plan: 1. Assess your strengths and weakness 2. Create your mission and set goals. 3. Set a timeline with measurable actions 4. Track and evaluate progress. 5. Adjust your action plan as necessary.

One must be open to feedback to develop and improve. As a leader it may be difficult to hear the feedback; if one has the perspective that it is well-intentioned, then it enables leaders to find opportunities to grow their leadership.

If it was easy, we would only have phenomenal leaders. Reality is that leaders are so busy with their work and deliverables that their own learning takes a back seat. While many things are known cognitively, there's a need to bridge the knowing and doing gap. Having a coach who keeps you accountable is important for real sustainable development to take place..

In my perspective, We can identify leadership skill gaps through self-assessment and feedback. Set clear, measurable goals, and leverage diverse learning resources, including mentorship. Apply new knowledge in real situations, seek feedback, and adjust goals as needed for continuous improvement!