Checkpoint: Task 1 and 2 - Personal Development (7001V1)
Please complete Task 1 and 2 in the below template and upload here.
Task 1.1
Analyse the vision and strategic objectives of your organisation or those of an organisation of your choice.
Guideline word count: 300 - 340.
AC 1.1. Analyse the strategic direction of the organisation.
- Deliberate and Emergent Strategies
- Stafford Beer: Purpose of an Organisation
- Spender and Grant: a Resource-Based View
- Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety
- Missions, Objectives and Goals in the Fast-Changing Dynamics of the 21st Century Business Environment
Task 1.2.
Evaluate the managerial and leadership competencies required to deliver the strategic ambition over the period of the plan. Demonstrate that you have used one or more attributed skills analysis models from management theory.
Guideline word count: 300 - 340 words.
AC 1.2. Evaluate the strategic skills required of the leader to achieve the strategic ambitions.
Guidance: this criterion requires that you evaluate and not merely describe the strategic skills of a leader and how these in turn link to the strategic ambitions and direction of the organisation and will build upon section 1.1. You might explore the key components of Skill as being the required Behavioural Competencies and Underpinning Knowledge. In the process of evaluating the skills, you might reference writers to underpin your analysis. This might include some of the following but can include others with which you are familiar:
- Analysing Strategic Direction
- 21st-Century Management - Morgan
- Internal Alignment - Burgoyne
- The Transformative Leader - Bennis
- Strategic Leadership Roles - de Vries
- Leadership Competencies - Thompson and Martin
Task 1.3
Present the conclusions of your analysis, identifying the four most significant skills the organisation needs to enhance in the next year to begin to deliver the strategic direction. In addition, identify at least three new skills the organisation will be likely to need to enhance in the next 3-5 years to achieve strategic ambitions. Discuss the implications of the skills gaps you have identified.
Guideline word count: 300 - 340 words.
AC 1.3. Assess the relationship between existing, required and future skills to achieve the strategic ambitions.
Guidance: This assessment criterion builds upon 1.1 and 1.2 and may call upon models used in those sections. You might use your personal experience to assess the relationship between your existing skills, those required in the current role and those that you might need in the future if the organisation is to achieve its strategic ambitions. Once again, this section requires more than a description. At this level you might underpin your narrative with models and concepts that include the following although this should not be seen as an exclusive list:
- Analysing Strategic Direction
- Strategy and Change - Mintzberg
- The Personal Development Planning Cycle
- Strategy and Decision-Making Cycle - Boyd
- Three Levels of Strategy - Johnson et al.
- Strategic Leadership Skills - Millar
Task 2
Describe at least three different methods of developing strategic leadership skills and relate these to differing individual learning styles based on one of the well-known models.
Guideline word count: 400-500 words.
Assessment criteria: 2.1 Discuss the opportunities to support leadership development.
Guidance: this learning outcome focuses on being able to manage your personal leadership development in order that you can enable the organisation to meet its objectives. In your answer you are asked to discuss and not merely describe, and so your response could include the following as part of your discussion:
- How you identify your current and future leadership capability requirements
- How you might plan to meet your leadership development needs, including resources and support
- Learning styles with reference to a model, for example, Honey and Mumford or Kolb’s learning cycle
- Your own responsibility for personal development
- Problems in behaving strategically with reference to the different “skills” required to support a deliberate or emergent strategy
- Strategic leadership style - Thompson and Martin
- How you are seen as a manager and how others might perceive your capabilities using models to support your analysis and this might include use of The Johari Window framework – Luft & Ingham
- Opportunities for development - education, training and development options both internally and external to your organisation and any resource constraints
- Career planning - Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell
- The organisation’s role in career development - Burgoyne
- Career anchors - Torrington, Hall and Taylor and Schein
Download and use the full CMI assignment template to submit this practice task