Leadership personal development plan template
Leadership development plans can be a great way to encourage growth in both business and personal situations. They’re infinitely customizable, they can be altered to suit the needs of each individual team member, and all of this can happen without damaging the overall potential impact of the tool. So, let’s start by talking about the tool itself. What is it, and how can it be used to improve business leadership skills and strategies? Read on to find both the answers to these questions, and a step-by-step guide that will assist you in the task of assembling your own plan. Don’t be worried about a lean; the template below will be general enough to be used for either business or personal development.
What is a Leadership Development Plan?
A leadership development plan is defined as “a detailed plan that helps you set your career on a strategic leadership track.” Simply put, it’s your vision statement. The goal behind it is to give you the ability to see your current situation in the context of where you would like to be in 3, 5, or 10 years. You wouldn’t open a business without a business plan, and you shouldn’t start your career without a plan either.
Most people choose to simply remember their plan instead of writing it down, but there’s a wealth of data to indicate that path may be less than productive. Harvard University polled all of its graduating seniors in 1976. The question they asked was simple: Did you write down your vision statement? Do you have a plan for how your future will progress?
97% of the seniors polled said “no”. 3% answered “yes”.
10 years later, Harvard found out that the 3% of the graduates that had written out their leadership development plans were worth more than the other 97% combined.
Imagine what a personal leadership development plan could do for you today.
Personal
Below, you can find a compilation of some of the best leadership development plans available. As they’re presented, we will also go through step by step and explain how to use them to create a plan for yourself.
Step1: Choose Your Medium. Your development plan is something that you need to be able to review frequently, so the medium you choose is of utmost importance. Are you one of those people that remember things better if you write them by hand? If so, consider setting up your plan on a large poster board or tri-fold board. You can write in the events and goals that are permanent and unlikely to change in a heavy marker, and any events that are likely to be altered can be written on easily removable post-it notes.
If writing something by hand makes you shudder, consider using a program like or to store and edit your plan. These two, specifically, make ideal candidates for this type of application because they can be accessed from anywhere you have an internet connection. That includes your mobile phone, which is an important bonus. Having your plan easily accessible is essential.
