ASSIGNMENT

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A STRATEGIC MANAGER

UNIT: 7001

PREPARED BY: Najam Sehar Siddiqi

Reg No: P 04324586

Presented to:

KINGS COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT MANCHESTER UK

Table of contents:
1. Introduction 2. Strategic direction 3. Personal skills to acquire strategic ambition 4. Leadership development 5. Leadership development plan 6. Staff welfare 7.

INTRODUCTION This assignment is based on Personal Development as a strategic manager. It will encompass all the leadership skills one needs to possess, at strategic levels, in order to run an organization effectively. It will also unravel personal skills required as a strategic manager to support the strategic direction of the organization by analysing the strategic direction in order to determine what personal and leadership competencies are required. Besides, it will look at personal leadership development and the opportunities to support this development by formulating a leadership development plan. Finally, it will divulge the secret of promoting an environment which supports a culture of staff welfare by ensuring the strategic aspects of staff welfare, managing health and safety and promoting a health and safety culture. In order to elaborate all the theories and ideas in the assignment I have chosen Burger King as a practical example. Burger king is an international fast food chain initially founded in Florida in 1953. It has 12,400 outlets in 73 countries and has annual revenue of $1636.7 million.

PERSONAL SKILLS AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION:

A corporate mission statement is a description of the road ahead. It describes the purpose of the organization, identifies how an organisation defines success, outlines the strategy that will be followed to achieve success and incorporates the shared values and behaviour that the organisation expects from employees.(CMI) A well-articulated mission statement defines the aims of the organisation, its primary stakeholders: customers and shareholders and how the organisation value to these stakeholders and a declaration of an organisations sole core purpose. (Wikipedia) A commercial mission statement consists of 3 essential components: 1. Key market who is your target client/customer? 2. Contribution what product or service do you provide to that client? 3. Distinction what makes your product or service unique, so that the client would choose you? (Bart Christopher K 1997, pp. 371-383) For example McDonalds mission statement is like this; McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favourite place and way to eat. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which centre on an exceptional customer experience People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers' experience.

Burger Kings mission statement is; We will prepare and sell quick service food to fulfil our guest's needs more accurately, quickly, courteously, and in a cleaner environment than our competitors. We will conduct all our business affairs ethically, and with the best employees in the midsouth. We will continue to grow profitably and responsibly, and provide career advancement opportunities for every willing member of our organization." An entrepreneur needs a clear vision in order to run a business successfully. A mission statement or strategic direction serves as a guiding star and it guides where the business is going to. In case a company loses track of itself, they can review their strategic direction to set their activities on the right track. STRATEGY: The word strategy is a new form of Greek word strategia which mean art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship , detailed plan of action to achieve a common goal. Henry Mintzberg defines strategy: a pattern, that is, consistency in behaviour over time. In management strategy is a set of decision making rules to guide organisational behaviour. It is the formulation of future oriented plans in a competitive environment to achieve organisational objectives. A typical planning hierarchy works like this;

GOAL

AIM

OBJECTIVES

STRATEGY

PLANS

BURGER KING : Goal: The aim of burger king is to become the worlds largest burger chain. Aim: To serve the people with freshly made burgers and quality food.

Objectives: Maximizing profit Customer satisfaction Brand quality Strategies: Advertisement Employees training Setting sale target Speedy service Plans: Queue management Staff positioning Travel path

Strategy and the leader:

Strategy effects the organisation at three levels. Firstly, at corporate level it suggests as what business we are in and as how should we finance our business. Secondly, it impacts the organisation at business level by guiding us what market sector should we target? Thirdly, it affects the business at operational level and aims at various functions within the business. It may involve the communication of strategic plans by the senior managers to their team.

At the operational level, any business may fall into either deliberate or emergent strategy. Both kinds of strategies identify the intention of the business. Deliberate

strategy marks the exact or intended business intention. While, one the other hand, emergent strategy is unrealized and it evolves with the passage of time. One of burger king strategies is to provide freshly made beef and chicken burgers to the customer (deliberate) but where most of the population is vegetarians , it has now introduced veggie burgers and veggie wraps in order to boost the level of sale and to expand its operation (Emergent).

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND STRATEGIC DIRECTION:

Strategic leadership refers to a mangers potential to express a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the management of employees.(Management study Guide) A strategic leader develops an organisational structure, allocates resources and expresses strategic vision. In order to work in the best interests of shareholders, he formulates and implements strategies to get goal congruence. He makes great use of incentives and rewards to coerce and encourage the employees toward the attainment of a corporate goal. An effective leader must demonstrate loyalty to vision by his words and actions. A strategic leader must possess the potential to understand his mood and emotions and their impact on others. He must understand the feelings and views of his subordinates and make decisions after considering them. In Burger King, the unit manager acts as a strategic leader. She takes into consideration and lends value to the suggestions and plans offered by the assistant and shift managers. These decisions revolve around from inventory to positioning staff and setting daily and weekly sales targets. A mystery shopper bonus has been introduced in order to motivate the staff to offer excellent customer services.

Strategic Leadership Roles:

NAVIGATOR: clearly and quickly works through the complexity of key issues, Problems and opportunities to affect actions (e.g., leverage opportunities and resolve issues).

STRATEGIST: Develops a long-range course of action or set of goals to align with the organizations vision. ENTREPRENEUR: Identifies and exploits opportunities for new products, services, and markets. MOBILIZER: Proactively builds and aligns stakeholders, capabilities, and resources for getting things done quickly and achieving complex objectives. TALENT ADVOCATEAttracts, develops, and retains talent to ensure that people with the right skills and motivations to meet business needs are in the right place at the right time. CAPTIVATOR: Builds passion and commitment toward a common goal. GLOBAL THINKER: Integrates information from all sources to develop a wellinformed, diverse perspective that can be used to optimize organizational performance. CHANGE DRIVER: Creates an environment that embraces change; makes change happen even if the change is radical and helps others to accept new ideas. ENTERPRISE GUARDIAN: Ensures shareholder value through courageous decision-making that supports enterprise or unit-wide interests. These nine roles are important at senior strategic levels because they help leaders Understand what to do to be strategic. (http://www.wip.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_WhatSeniorLeadersDoTheNineRoles_wp .pdf)

CONDUCTING A PERSONAL GAP ANALYSIS: Competency: The word competency shows an ability to do anything. In HRM, it means a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job. Different examples of competencies include decision making, planning, tolerance and team work. We need all these competencies when we design gap-closing strategies like employees selection, performance management and professional development. In Burger king, employees are selected by conducting them through different test and a series of complicated interviews. Similarly in order to assess the performance, inventory days and targets are counted and discusses. In order to improve staff competency and to brush up their existing knowledge, staff training workshop and CPDP are conducted.

Integrated competency model Consistency is the most critical factor in the implementation process of integrated competence model. If we use one set of competencies for selection process and another for professional development , it will mar the effectiveness of the competency model. Moreover, our competency model will be effective when everyone in our targeted classification gets what competencies the organisation considers critical in the successful completion of the job.

2. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:
Leader: A leader is the one who influences others. Leadership development refers to an activity which enhances the quality of leadership in an individual or in an organisation. Traditionally, leadership development has focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of individuals. People are not all born with the ability to lead. Different personal traits and characteristics can help or hinder a person's leadership effectiveness require formalized programs for developing leadership competencies. Yet everyone can develop their leadership effectiveness. Achieving such development takes focus, practice and persistence more akin to learning a musical instrument than reading a book. (Wikipedia) Leadership development enables leaders to focus on three areas of responsibility which are: i) ii) Achieving their personal objectives Developing their people to deliver great performance

iii)

Creating the environment for others to succeed (Rosemary Rayan,P.10, Leadership development,2008)

The first step toward the milestone of the development of effective leadership is the self-awareness. Leaders need self-awareness to know whats happening with their own emotions, maintain a positive state, keep distressing emotions out of the way, be empathetic, and prime positive emotions in others (London and Maurer, 2004: 228). From this perspective, self-awareness is key to being able to manage oneself and choose behaviours which will encourage certain behaviours from followers, resulting in effective leadership performance. A second factor which points to the importance of self-awareness has to do with the degree of power inherent in the leadership role. Bulls in china shops can be troublesome, but if a bull wields power over the lives of others, his lack of self-awareness can be dangerous. In order to exercise power ethically leaders need to be aware of the effect they have on others, as well as a sense of their conscious and unconscious motives. This notion of the unconscious leads to an understanding that self-awareness operates at different levels. There is a distinction, for instance, between a leader being aware that she is not very good at handling detail, and her being aware that every time a certain subordinate enters the office she finds herself addressing him in language similar to that she uses with her children. The first can be relatively easily handled, for instance, by the leader working alongside someone who is good at analysing detail. The second might require a much deeper level of selfinsight in order to interrogate and change the behavioural dynamic at play. (Donna Ladkin, Rethinking Leadership, 2010) The Johari Window model is a simple and useful tool for illustrating and improving self-awareness, and mutual understanding between individuals within a group. The Johari Window model can also be used to assess and improve a group's relationship with other groups. The Johari Window model was devised by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955.

Johari Quadrant

1. what is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others - open

area, open self, free area, free self, or 'the arena'

2. what is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know - blind

area, blind self, or 'blind spot'

3. what the person knows about him/herself that others do not know - hidden area,

hidden self, avoided area, avoided self or 'facade'

4. What is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others

- unknown area or unknown self. http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm

Personal SWOT analysis is also a very helpful tool in determining self-awareness. The overall all motive behind self-awareness is to identify the needs to develop and brush up ones skills in order to bring effectiveness in the performance of ones duties. Getting feedback from others can also be helpful in self-evaluation.

Leadership Development Plan:

Leadership means not only having a dream but claiming that dream and the role you want to play in it ( Bennis and Goldsmith, Learning to Lead, p. 132) A personal development plan should be a dynamic document that one is able to revisit from time to time to assess the performance one is making in ones leadership development. As one is constantly learning from his experiences and is growing as a leader, he must be updated to show his progress on his leadership journey, to document what he has learnt and to find the new paths to follow. This development plan serves as a compass to guide one to keep on the track. Leadership produces change. (Kotter, 1990, P.35). This process of change is not akin to developing a long range plan. This process of producing change focuses on setting the direction. After setting the direction , the next step to follow is to align the people toward a new direction. This is successful only in the presence of effective communication that is a two way process. The leader need to communicate his plans to the followers and he should also seek feedback from them in return. The next stage is to motivate and inspire the followers to pass through the hindrances lie in the way of change. Motivation and inspiration that is passed on to the followers from the leader is built upon the level of readiness for change among followers and the strength of relationship between leader and followers.

IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF DEVELOPMENT PLAN: After carefully planning what one need to develop as being a strategic leader, the next stage is now to implement the development plan. This can, very adequately, be done by identifying ones personal goals and performance requirements, by getting feedback on your capabilities, by monitoring progress reviewing your effectiveness as leader. A core competency map can also be used when one is trying to get where to focus in ones development efforts. A 360 degree assessment can also be useful to inform individual managers about his specific leadership attributes as well as his strengths and weaknesses.

At the end one need to assess the outcomes of the plan against original objectives to evaluate what was achieved at the end. At this stage , one is in a position to compare targets to the achievement and is able to review and modify the plan if something went wrong. In Burger King,

SUUPORTING STAFF WELFARE:

Refrences:
1. G Hill Jones( P.11 2008) 2. (http://www.wip.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_WhatSeniorLeadersDoTheNineRol es_wp.pdf) 3. Bart Christopher, K ,1997,( pp. 371-383) 4. (London and Maurer, 2004: 228)

5. Ladkin Donna, Rethinking Leadership, 2010

6. http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm

7. ( Bennis and Goldsmith, Learning to Lead p. 132)

8. Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide By Bill George, Andrew

McLean, Nick Craig