Personal Plan for Becoming a Leader of the Future

Personal Plan for Becoming a Leader of the Future

Introduction

We all have learned a great deal about leadership qualities and characteristics during our academic careers, while going through research papers and past literatures on leadership, attending several related workshops, watching the interviews of great leaders of the past while also seeing some of the leaders in action. These readings and experiences surely have inspired each one of us to aspire or even try becoming a leader one day. However, few of us really know that leadership is not solely about acquiring status or position, authority or wealth; it is neither about becoming a hero nor about attaining the position of Chief Executive Officer in an organization of your choice. True leadership is based solely on building a “relationship” - one in which somebody leads while others choose to follow.

While developing my personal plan for becoming a leader of the future, I questioned myself whether leadership is inborn or is it something that everyone can be? The answer is: Everyone can be a leader. It is all about the character and what you chose to do in life. It is about making a strong selection to lead people, become their role-model and inspire them to achieve high while showing them “the way”. A person can be a leader of his own team; even if he does not have a very influential position in his organization. He can lead his family, his friends and those who choose “to be led” under him. Learning leadership skills must be everyone's priority since it is an innate ability that one can nurture throughout his or her life. It is not the case that “following” should be less preferred than “leading”; however, there are leadership opportunities existing everywhere in our society, and we must at least, opt to become leaders once in our life. It is very aptly said by John Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:

“To lead tomorrow, learn today. Leadership doesn't develop in a day. It takes a lifetime (Maxwell, 2007, p. 15)”.

This paper discusses my personal plan for becoming a leader of the future in the light of a comprehensive analysis of the key concepts and models that thoroughly present some insights that can assist people including myself, in becoming “future leaders”.

Discussion and Analyses of Relevant Studies

Scholar Practitioner Leader Analysis

Leadership development initiatives, in the present era, typically reflects in offering performance support or giving opportunities to apply learned skills to real-world problems in order to learn how to lead in critical situations and to work under pressures. However, it is very important to inspire a culture in the organization (be it the person's educational institution or the workplace) wherein a person nurtures his skills as an individual leader while the organization must offer support and create an environment for a successful implementation of all types of related skills (Morrisette & Schraeder, 2010). While the primary goal of leadership development ...