Inspire a Shared Vision
This leadership behavior had the lowest score of 22-23. Inspiring a shared vision revolves around understanding the entity’s primary aspirations for the future. This understanding among leaders fosters the ability to strategize on how daily activities can achieve the vision. The ability to convince followers about the importance of the primary goal is necessary as well. When followers are convinced about the primary goals, they are likely to show significant commitment, which leads to the achievement of the objectives (Kouzes & Posner, 2009).
I recognize the importance of being able to inspire a shared vision as a leader. This characteristic is acknowledged as one of the most important for any leader. In most cases, the vision is usually clear because the leaders promote the company’s goal. In other cases, a leader must develop this vision. However, the leader is expected to personalize the vision and sell it to the followers. The process of personalizing that vision involves understanding its core tenets, aligning it with the followers’ goals, and finding practical strategies that can lead to this end (Martin, McCormack, & Fitzsimons, 2014). When a leader fails to inspire a shared vision, the team lacks a common goal to work towards.
Once the vision is clear, I should communicate it to the followers in words and actions. The process of communication is important because it determines whether the followers understand the message (SHRM, 2021). It is during this process that I should identify the benefits that the followers stand to gain. This aspect excites followers and gets them on board the vision achievement process. Based on this information, my ability to inspire a shared vision has an inherent effect on my leadership, thus making it important (Kouzes & Posner, 2009).
SMART Goals
Critically evaluate the company’s vision and mission.
The process of inspiring a shared vision begins with understanding the current vision. This calls for a critical evaluation of the company’s vision, mission, and goals (First Nations Development Institute, 2018). Through comprehensive analysis of the current activities that the organization undertakes and their connection to the future vision, it is possible to comprehend the most important aspects. In addition, the process will involve a deep analysis of the strategic direction and activities that the company utilizes. During this step, I will also be able to identify the benefits that employees/followers obtain from the vision/mission’s fulfillment. This basic step lays a critical foundation for identifying the alignment of the vision/mission and the goals/ strategies.
Objectives
- Review the current vision
- Assess the main mission
- Review the current organizational objectives and strategies
Metrics
After a critical evaluation of the entity’s mission, vision, and goals, I should be able to identify the connection between my job description and the vision. My job description is the first metric I intend to use to assess my understanding of the company’s vision. I should compare the current job description to identify my role in the organization clearly. These two elements should be congruent. The second metric is an alignment of the company’s goals to the vision and mission. The elements’ alignment will be measured using a 5-point Likert scale.
Tools
The necessary tools for the entire evaluation include.
- The company’s vision
- Mission
- Goals/objectives
- My Job description
- Rating scale
The skills that are important for this process include an understanding of the elements that make up a mission or vision, the importance of objectives and the role they play, and the ability to analyze the job description. At this point, I will require assistance from the Human resource department because the staff members are more enlightened on the elements of a job description. The HR will also help me assess the required competencies that a team requires to meet the company’s goals. These competencies are important because I will use them to assess the readiness of my team.
Relevance
The main goal demonstrates significant relevance to the objective. Achievement of the goal is critical for the improvement of leadership ability. As already established, the ability to inspire a shared vision is a critical element of effective leadership. Understanding the company’s mission and vision is important in inspiring followers to work towards a common goal. Consequently, the organization’s objectives are easily achieved because all employees identify with them through the inspired vision.
As a leader, I am confident that the development goal will improve my ability. Once I can convince my followers regarding the importance of the company’s goal and its role in its achievement, I can also tell them the benefits that could be gained from the effort. As a leader, my followers should be able to look up to me for direction and guidance.
Table 1: Timeline
Activity | Timeline |
Vision Review | 21st-30th November 2021 |
Mission assessment | 1st to 15th December 2021 |
Review goals and strategies | 16th to 31st December 2021 |
The completion of the main activities will be concluded with a report that details the results obtained from the 5-point Likert scale. In addition, a summary of my understanding of the vision, mission, and goals will be included.
References
First Nations Development Institute. (2018). Successful Evaluation: Creating SMART Goals & Objectives. Retrieved from https://www.firstnations.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/EvaluationTips_SMARTGoalsObjectives.pdf
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. (2009). To Lead, Create a Shared Vision. Harvard Business Review.
Martin, J., McCormack, B., & Fitzsimons, D. (2014). The importance of inspiring a shared vision. International Practice Development Journal, 4(2).
SHRM. (2021). Developing Organizational Leaders. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/developingorganizationalleaders.aspx
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Question
Scenario
The organization you work for as a director of leadership and learning is looking to create an adaptive leadership toolkit to help improve employee leadership skills and behaviors over the next two years. To begin this work, you conducted a personal leadership self-assessment to take a leadership inventory of yourself. Now that you know areas that you can improve upon as a leader, you decided to create a personal development plan that will identify actionable steps toward improving these areas you’ve identified. Your intention is to incorporate your personal development plan into the adaptive leadership toolkit to serve as an exemplar that can be used by all people leaders in the organization.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Prompt
- Leadership behavior: Based on the results of your personal leadership self-assessment, describe the leadership behavior you scored lowest in and explain how developing this could have a positive impact on your ability to lead.
- SMART Goal: Apply SMART goal setting to create a personal development plan that aligns with the leadership behavior you’re looking to improve. Keep in mind that your personal development plan will be used as an exemplar for the adaptive leadership toolkit in Milestone Two. Your SMART goal should address the following:
- “S” Specific: Your goal must be specific.
i) State your personal development goal.
ii) Describe the reason for this goal.
iii) Describe the objective(s) needed to ensure this goal is met. - “M” Measurable: Your goal must be measurable.
i) Describe the metric(s) that will be used to determine if you meet this goal.
ii) Describe the metric(s) that will be used to measure the performance of meeting objective(s) along the way. - “A” Achievable: Your goal must be achievable.
i) Describe the tools and skills you will need to achieve this goal.
ii) Describe who needs to be involved to allow you to be successful in achieving this goal. - “R” Relevant: Your goal must be relevant.
i) Explain how this goal can be linked to an overall business objective.
ii) Explain how this goal will increase your knowledge and improve your overall performance as a leader. - “T” Time-Bound: Your goal must be time-bound.
i) Provide an overall timeline for the completion of this goal.
ii) Provide tangible deliverables (s) with due dates that support the objective(s) you indicated above.
- “S” Specific: Your goal must be specific.