Executive summary
In order to achieve my aspirations in the future, I am focusing on establishing a leadership-based plan. Specifically, I would want to become a chief finance officer in a multinational firm. It is important to state that the competencies of persons influence their leadership styles. In order to identify and appreciate my key competencies, it would be crucial to isolate my future goals and try to analyse them on the platform in terms of my weaknesses and strengths. The Central Michigan University (CMU) competencies model would be applied. Some of the ways of the model that is adopted in this report are process flow and a timeline. The timeline is important to ensure that various tasks are completed within set deadlines.
Introduction
Prudent leadership within organisations is essential in ensuring that firms achieve their short-term and long-term objectives (Dawson et al. 2005). Leaders are involved in influencing social changes that are important to aid and support others to accomplish their tasks. Some scholars also recognise leaders as persons within an organisation who guide or direct their juniors (Derue & Ashford 2010). In addition, it is common to encounter leadership being defined as a process of structuring and organising groups of persons to achieve their personal goals and common goals of a business establishment. However, it has been shown that it is difficult to assess the extent to which leaders can lead their juniors towards achieving objectives (Derue & Ashford 2010). It is vital to underscore that effective persons who act as leaders should be able to help their personnel to know their job competencies and traits that are critical in producing excellent performance outcomes. With regard to assessments of personal effectiveness levels, the CMU model is applied to obtain results that help people in many ways (Dawson et al. 2005). However, it can be noted that the model can be utilised for assessing competencies in personnel in different professions. Thus, it is pertinent to state that the CMU model is a perfect model that would be applied to assess and develop my leadership framework with regard to becoming a Chief Finance Officer in the future. In fact, it would yield excellent results that would go a long way in helping me to achieve my future objectives.
The CMU competencies model
The model is exemplified by the following:
- Leading others
- Self management
- Task management
- Innovation
- Social responsibility
Although various studies have shown that a person could be good in the 5 leadership dimensions of the framework, it is critical to recognise that one identifies his or her strengths and/or weaknesses with regards to the elements (Eddy & VanDerLinden 2006). Leading other people within a business establishment would be characterised by excellent communication, development approaches that encourage others to grow personally and professionally, motivation, and creation of awareness in persons with regard to their strengths and weaknesses (Eddy & VanDerLinden 2006). Self management would be important to manage stress in the workplace, adopting excellent work habits and work attitudes, developing learning skills. Task management skills of workers could require solving problems amicably, improving performance outcomes, performing job tasks, and managing human and information resources. The innovation leadership element in the CMU model entails being creative, enterprising and managerial. Lastly, social responsibility requires high levels of integrity, ethical traits, social ethics, and civic responsibility (Eddy & VanDerLinden 2006).
Future aspirations
I have always noted that becoming a Chief Finance Officer would require excellent attributes and planning processes. Currently, I am a student with limited experiences in the corporate world. However, I am confident that this plan would go a long way in aiding me to achieve my future goals. In fact, I would regard an accomplishment of the leadership plan as a critical first step in my professional ladder. Once I get my first job after graduation, I am sure that I would be promoted on the basis of acquired experience and knowledge. The first step in doing so is to achieve a junior finance officer position, facilitating various operations in line with objectives of a firm. This would require a high level of organisation and keenness to listen and learn. I aspire to develop innovative financial products that would be key to attract and retain consumers. For example, it would be important to innovate a product that would enable consumers to enjoy unique products across the world, which would not be based on their countries of origin. At this level, it would be key to form productive teams that would go a long way in motivating members and providing a conducive environment for learning. Formation of external professional networks would help me to grow professionally at a relatively fast pace. I hope to be promoted to middle level management within a span of 4 years. Thereafter, I would aspire to become a Chief Finance Officer within a span of 4 to 6 years. Thus, I think that I have taken a bold step at my current age to recognise what I need to become in the future and competencies that would be required. This role requires taking charge of financial operations and managing a number of country financial managers, requiring to exhibit high levels of professional communication and prudent leadership skills. Financial outcomes and future growth trends of a company that I would work with would greatly depend on my style of leadership. Thus, I would aim at making it achieve excellent results while adhering to set standards with different nations around the world.
CMU assessment analysis
It is important for competencies and job requirements to be aligned (Zaccaro 2007). The roles of a chief financial officer would be typified by high levels practical skills and attitudes, which would culminate in unique performance outcomes. Based on the results obtained from the assessment, I have found out that some areas need some slight improvements while others would need major improvements, which would positively impact my future professional growth trends. The analysis that is adopted in this report is founded on competencies with regard to the dream job and the CMU model competencies that I have formulated. Research has shown that job competencies are gained via experiences and skills that are obtained from mentors in the workplace (Zaccaro 2007).
Figure 1. A table showing my core competencies that needs improvement.
Figure 1 exhibits that I need to focus on improving some core competencies, which would go a long way in enabling me to achieve my dream. Based on the comparison of the assessment results and competencies, I have good ratings in self management, leading others and innovation. However, as shown in appendix 2 and appendix 3, I am relatively strong in innovation and task management. Thus, although I need innovative ideas and prudent approaches in relation to task management, I would be required to improve my social responsibility, self-management and leading others. The following evaluations demonstrate the competencies that I should concentrate on improving. However, it is important to appreciate that the estimated period should allow all the envisaged activities.
Self-responsibility
This is one of the lowest ranked dimensions in the CMU model assessment results. I understand that I would be expected to exhibit exemplary ethical and moral behaviours, which would go a long way in leading others. It is true that I am knowledgeable in terms of foreign languages, aspects related to philosophy and theory, and approaches to organising justice in society. Although I have a low rating in this dimension, I think that it is not very helpful for a chief financial officer. In fact, it is notable that the required job competencies do not align with the elements in the social responsibility dimension.
Leading others
Leading other people in organisations is important to achieve excellent results. Although I do not possess good ratings in terms of communication, I am aware of the fact that co-operation is a crucial competency that can support leadership. However, I need to focus on improving my communication skills, improving my interaction with my co-workers and members of professional networks. Research has demonstrated that effective leadership is key to adopting effective leadership skills in the workplace (Ilies et al. 2009). In addition, due to the high chances of my poor communication skills to negatively impact my professional growth trends in the future, I need to focus on working on strategies that would aid me to improve communication.
Innovation
Innovation determines the extent to which leaders are creative. It has been shown that creative leadership within firms is crucial in taking charge and conducting risk assessments that prevent companies from incurring both short-term and long-term negative impacts (MĂŒller & Turner 2010). The field of finance concentrates on determining the risks of various products in the long-term. In other words, personnel in finance are expected to offer effective strategic leadership. Thus, I have confidence that I would be an innovative and strategic leader in finance. Although I have attained a good rating in the dimension, continuous learning and demonstrations are important (Vroom & Jago 2007). My significant rating in creative thinking shows that I would be able to deal with problems that would negatively impact my organisation.
Task management
It is encouraging that I have obtained a good rating in task management. This dimension concentrates on various tasks that are assigned to personnel. It implies that I would demonstrate a high level of task comprehension and execution. In fact, I would work with my team members to ensure that various tasks are done within deadlines. Task management also relies on aspects such as decision-making and skills in terms of solving problems, which I have good ratings.
Self-management
I have a rating of 0.08 in self-management. However, it can be seen in the results that self-management skills do not correlate with job competencies of a chief financial officer. However, I understand that poor self-management skills could indirectly affect my performance in the workplace (MĂŒller & Turner 2010). Thus, I can also focus on improving some aspects such as learning, stress management and work habits. Improved self-management skills would aid in the accomplishment of tasks within deadlines. In addition, I am confident that the improvement would help me to become a better leader would also aid juniors to adopt more effective self-management approaches.
Evaluation
On the basis of the above analysis of the results, it is clear that I should aim to improve my communication skills, developing others and stress management. Effective communication would help me to interact with my seniors and juniors in a good manner. In addition, if I manage my stress, then I will be able to perform excellently in the workplace. In addition, I have concluded that I should develop my social knowledge skills so that I would be aware of various issues in society.
I have adopted a specific period, as shown figure 3, to improve my weak competencies. In fact, a 6-year period would be sufficient in enabling me to become a more effective leader in the future.
I have decided to start improving my communication skills because effective communication would be important to address the other two competencies. For example, improved communication would enable me to develop better knowledge about socialisation. The chart does not give details about the approaches that would be adopted to improve the highlighted competencies. Thus, clarifications are given below.
Communicating
In most cases, I do not gather adequate confidence to speak in front of many people (public speaking). Due to the fact that I aspire to become a chief finance officer of a multinational firm, I recognise that I would be required to demonstrate excellent public speaking skills (Myers & Sadaghiani 2010). In order to develop the skills, I have decided to adopt three approaches. First, I will be at the forefront of group discussion teams. Specifically, I would always request my team members to give me a chance to present findings and/or give my ideas. Second, I will enrol in a short course that would focus on public speaking, which would provide me with the basics with regard to the competency. Third, I will use various materials on the internet to research on how to become an effective public speaker.
Stress management
Although stress management would not have direct impacts on my leadership performance outcomes in the workplace, I would towards preventing its negative impacts. First, I would focus on preventing family issues from interfering with issues in the workplace. Specifically, I would ensure that I deal with family matters while at home and job matters while at work (Rafferty & Griffin 2006). Second, I would involve a counsellor who would offer guidance and counseling to manage stress. Third, I will learn to communicate with my peers in order to relieve stress. It is expected that they would help me to focus on other things and avoid the causes of stress that would affect my performance (Eisen et al. 2008; Jahanian, Tabatabaei & Behdad 2012; MĂŒller & Turner 2010).
Social knowledge
In the contemporary world, social knowledge is important due to globalisation. In fact, many companies are expanding their operations to foreign markets (Eraut 2009; MĂŒller & Turner 2010). As a chief finance officer of a multinational firm, I would need to have excellent social knowledge. I would acquire the knowledge through reading books on various topics. Through this, I would gain information about what authors suggest with in relation to social skills and interactions.
Personal review
Based on the fact that I am 23, I have provided sufficient period for improving the three competencies. Specifically, each competence would involve a period of two years. However, I would be carrying out regular assessments to determine my competencies and the pace at which I would be learning.
Industry expert
I consulted my mentor a few days ago so that he could advise me about the plan. I was encouraged because he pointed out that my plan to improve some aspects that would be key to my dream career is perfect. In fact, he agreed that improvements on communication, social knowledge and stress management would be essential. In addition, he lauded me on adopting adequate periods. I would be consulting him frequently for pieces of advice when I encounter problems.
Figure 3. A summary of response from my mentor.
Conclusion
Prudent leadership is important to achieve excellent performance outcomes in business establishments. Persons are required to identify their competencies early before they would embark on their careers. In this report, I have highlighted that I need to focus on improving my communication, social knowledge and stress management skills. The CMU model was used to identify the competencies that need improvements. In the future, I would conduct regular assessments to ensure that I would be on track.
References
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Derue, DS, & Ashford, SJ, 2010, âWho will lead and who will follow? A social process of leadership identity construction in organizationsâ, Academy of Management Review, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 627-647.
Eddy, PL, & VanDerLinden, KE, 2006, âEmerging definitions of leadership in higher education new visions of leadership or same old âheroâ leader?â, Community College Review, vol. 34, no.1, pp. 5-26.
Eisen, KP, Allen, GJ, Bollash, M, & Pescatello, LS, 2008, âStress management in the workplace: A comparison of a computer-based and an in-person stress-management interventionâ, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 486-496.
Eraut, M, 2009, â2.1 Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settingsâ, Knowledge, values and educational policy: A critical perspective, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 1-9.
Ilies, R, Fulmer, IS, Spitzmuller, M, & Johnson, MD, 2009, âPersonality and citizenship behavior: the mediating role of job satisfactionâ, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol.94, no.4, pp. 945.
Jahanian, R, Tabatabaei, SM, & Behdad, B, 2012, âStress Management in the Workplaceâ, International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 34-38.
MĂŒller, R, & Turner, R, 2010, âLeadership competency profiles of successful project managersâ, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 437-448.
Myers, KK, & Sadaghiani, K, 2010, âMillennials in the workplace: A communication perspective on millennialsâ organizational relationships and performanceâ, Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 225-238.
Rafferty, AE, & Griffin, MA, 2006 âPerceptions of organizational change: a stress and coping perspectivâ, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 91, no. 5, p. 1154.
Vroom, VH, & Jago, AG, 2007, âThe role of the situation in leadershipâ, American Psychologist, vol. 62, no.1, p.17.
Zaccaro, SJ, 2007, âTrait-based perspectives of leadershipâ, American Psychologist, vol. 62, no.1, p. 6.
Appendices
Appendix 1. A Gantt chart showing the three competencies and periods of improvements.
