Requirement 4: Leadership Development Plan or Leading a Social Innovation Plan

Due: Session 14

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to help students understand leadership as a learning
process, and develop a leadership development plan.

Process: You will prepare a 1-year Leadership Development Plan for yourself [1] OR using the social
innovation project discussed in HOL 6700 (Human Behavior and Learning in Organizations), you will
develop a plan to lead a solution of the social problem identified. The plan should be based on a
reflection of current leadership practices and identify actions to be taken to enhance future leadership
practices.

Since this is a development plan, it will require a substantial amount of thinking, reflection, and library
and online database research of academic (scholarly and practitioner-oriented) journals or books. No
Wikipedia or unauthenticated website information should be used for writing this plan. Please start
working on this assignment earlier in the semester to ensure you are able to write a high-quality
paper. You are required to include a minimum of 10 recent academic sources. Also, be careful not to
over-rely on any single source.

Your plan must be written within 4-7 pages, excluding references. It must include the following
sections:

1. A title page, including your full name, title of the paper, submission date and course
title/number
2. An abstract of fewer than 250 words on a separate page
3. Body of the paper that provides:
a. Introduction (1-2 pages): Please provide background information about your strengths
and improvement areas, leadership needs, including how these were assessed and
when. If you are writing a plan for leading social innovation, provide information on what
the social problem is, what is its scope/ context globally, what benefits are likely to occur
if you find a solution and what challenges do you foresee (more like a SWOT Analysis).
b. A current and future development plan (2-3 pages): What are your overall future goals
and how the development plan aims to fulfill these goals. Your focus should be on
development and not simply training. You may want to offer some theoretical views and
industry trends (how are other organizations pursuing leadership development, what is
the leadership development trend, how are your colleagues developing themselves, etc.
OR what is currently being done to address the social problem you identified) here and
discuss how these would be applied to the development plan. Please note that your plan
must reflect future leadership practices. Clearly outline how many years does your plan
cover (3, 4 or 5 or less or more). How would you identify leadership development
opportunities? Who would assist with leadership development (coaches, mentors,
 programs, instructors)? How will the leadership team (for personal development- your
organization and the manager or the family) support the plan? You should also include
a step-by-step guide of the plan.
c. Monitoring and Evaluation or Measurement of results (1-2 page): How (and how often)
would you continue to track the performance and ensure effective implementation of the
plan? How would you continue to evaluate your leadership capabilities?
d. References (on a separate page)

Please make sure to use the APA format for font, spacing, headings, references in text and the
reference list. You must cite all references you use, both in the text and the reference list.

You are also required to share your development plans with your classmates via a video link as well
as comment on others’ plans during the last week of the class. More details about this aspect of
classwork will be shared with you in class.

Paper Evaluation:

The following criteria will be used to evaluate your paper:

● Organization (15%): Was the organization pattern (i.e. introduction and conclusion,
sequenced material within the body, and transitions) clearly and consistently observable
and skillful? Did the organization pattern make the content of the presentation cohesive?
● Content/ Substance (40%): Did you include all the relevant information that was needed
to develop an interesting, thorough and well-informed assignment- review of the literature/
industry trends, description of self, application and action plan/ monitoring and evaluation?
● Communication (15%): How clear and coherent were you in raising main arguments? Did
you write clearly using Standard English free of errors in grammar or syntax?
● Research (15%): Did you correctly cite relevant (and a combination of) scholarly and
practice-based research? Did you reference others’ work appropriately? Who did you
collect data from? What kind of questions did you ask?
● Critical Thinking (15%): Did you just describe information, or go further to exhibit critical
thinking skills (i.e., synthesize multiple ideas, evaluate the merits of ideas and recommend
sound and supportable actions derived from research and analysis)?

[1] A full-fledged organizational development plan will be discussed and developed in the next-level
leadership class- Theories and Practice of Leadership Development (HOL 6709)- an elective course.

HOL 6704: Learning in Organizations 2 of 2