Developing Personal and Management Skills

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, leadership skill and managerial practice are important for the leader and management team to run the business operations an ensure business excellence in long run (Hallinger and Kovačević, 2021). Through this report, it is possible to evaluate the leadership and management models and theories for acknowledging the skill set and knowledge of the leader for running the organisational activities and leading the staff towards achieving the future success. After that, evaluating own leadership skill and creating the personal and professional skill development plan will be there for enhancing own capabilities to lead the staff towards achieving the organisational objectives and personal reflection would be conducted through Gibbs reflective model. In the second part of the paper, it would be possible to identify the transferrable skill set that will be effective for the leader to manage the working activities and create good culture to motivate the employees to achieve the future success.

Part 1: Reflecting on own management and leadership skills

Gibbs reflective model

Gibbs reflective model is effective for developing personal reflective practice, where it is possible to share own experience and knowledge in a systematic way. There are six steps as per the Gibbs reflective model, which are such as description, feeling, evaluation, analysis, and conclusion and action plan. Through these stages, it is possible for me to describe my experience as a leader in the organisation through reviewing the leadership and managerial skill set.

Description

Management includes the activities to control a group or the set of entities to accomplish the ultimate goal and on the other hand, leader refers to an individual ability to motivate, influence and enable others to contribute toward the organisational success. Hence, the leadership and management are crucial, to run the operational activities strategically and fulfil the company aim and objectives (Hallinger and Kovačević, 2021). As per the transformational leadership style, the leaders focus on creating good corporate culture and maintain individuals’ trait to support the staff members (Bellibaş, and Gümüş, 2019). Managing transparency and accountability, resect others, equality And diversity, cultural diversity management, enhancing cooperating or partnership working practice, flexibility and health and safety at the workplace are the major activities of the leader to create good corporate culture (Chen, 2018).

In addition to this, the transformational leaders focus on managing change through enhancing communication and cooperation, where individual stimulation, inspirational motivation and knowledge management are good strategies of the leaders to handle the workforce and continuously motivate them to perform better (Bellibaş, and Gümüş, 2019). As an employee in the retail company Lidl, it is beneficial for me to follow the transformational skill set and manage own performance through continuous innovation and business creativity. As an employee, I try to develop my leadership skill and in this regard the practice of transformational leadership skill further helps me to improve my leading style and lead the employees towards achieving the future success.

Feeling

Lidl is a German based retail organisation providing quality products and services to the customers at discounted price. As an executive in their organisation, I try to follow the leadership style and adopt major skill to develop my leadership and managerial practice, so that it would be possible for me to become a successful leader and handle the team members strategically. I also try to handle the employees, through developing partnership working practice at the workplace which further provides me a scope to enhance communication and internal cooperation successfully. I feel that enhancing communication at the workplace is important, where the workers can interact with each other and share their experience and knowledge for better performance. Hence, the transformational leadership practice would be beneficial for me to become a successful leader and lead the employees towards achieving the organisational aim and objectives.

Evaluation

The leaders of the corporate firms are engaged to develop people oriented workplace, maintain attitude and create good corporate culture at the organisation, as well as inspire and motivate the people in the workplace to lead them towards achieving the future success. In this regard, the leaders also create vision and strategy of the firm and maximise values for all the stakeholders, who are engaged with the business (Hallinger, 2018). On the other hand, the transformational leader also tries to motivate the staff through providing monetary and non-monetary incentives, where the performance related pay, structured salary, bonus, flexible working culture and continuous support are effective to motivate the employees and encourage them to contribute successfully in the organisational performance. Hence, the transformational leadership style is beneficial to handle the workforce and provide good corporate culture for working collaboratively.

As a staff of the management team in the retail firm Lidl, it is my duty to handle the employees by developing trust and loyalty among the employees and I try to fulfil the commitment towards the employees. I also focus on improving my communication and cooperative skill set for better engagement with the staff, where I always arrange group discussion and interact with others for knowledge sharing and working as a team. This further provides a scope to manage the team and lead the employees towards achieving the success.

Personal SWOT

Analysis

For becoming a successful leader, it is necessary to improve own skill and capabilities to lead the followers in the organisation and make the business successful by achieving the organisational aim. The major leadership skills are active listening, empathy, strategic thinking skill, creativity and innovation, technical knowledge, flexibility, ability to inspire others and convince the employees, ability to share clear message, creating vision and change management knowledge (Castillo and Hallinger, 2018). The ability to create visions of the organisation and inspire others to follow the business strategic planning is also important, skill of leadership to become a successful leader.

I try to create vision and utilise own strategic thinking skill and critical analytical skill for developing unique solution to the business (Hammad and Hallinger, 2017). This further enhances the creativity and technological innovation to run the business operational successfully (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). I focus on critically analysing the data and information for developing creative solutions of the business by technological advancement and innovation. In this practice, I try to provide good working culture with flexibility and harmony, empower the employees in the decision making practice for mitigating the issue of resistance to change and internal conflicts. I focus on these leadership skill for developing own performance as a team members at Lidl.

Conclusion

As a member in the management team of the organisation, it is important for the individual. To develop the leadership skill set and manages the workforce efficiently for managing change, enhancing innovation and creativity to maximise business excellence. Active listening skill and empathy for others are important for the leader to handle the employees and acknowledge their needs and preferences (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019). These practices are effective for me to become a successful leader by inspiring the employees and involving them with brand activities and changed initiatives. However, I face difficulties to manage my leadership skill, where I may face difficulties to handle the diverse workforce in the recent era of globalisation. It is important for me to develop personal and professional planning for enhancing my skill set and knowledge to lead the team in the organisation. In this regard, the major skills that I would like to improve are communication and cooperative skill, change management skill, decision making and leadership skill, which are crucial for me to become a successful leader and manage the workforce efficiently.

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Action plan

Personal developmental plan

Through the personal and professional development plan, it is possible for me to improve communication and cooperation skill to engage the employees and improve trust. Change management skill set and knowledge of managing ethical practice at the workplace are also beneficial for me to run the business orations proficiently. Through leadership and management skill as well as decision making skill, it would be possible for me to achieve the organisation aim through creativity and technical innovation, where I would like to critically analyse the business environment and empower the staff for developing collaborative decision.

Part 2: Explaining transferable skills

Identifying transferrable skills and applying in the organisation

The transferrable skill set is effective for the leader to lead the followers and run the business operations in a systematic way (Liphadzi, Aigbavboa and Thwala, 2017). Through the transferrable skills, it is possible for me to manage the workplace and lead the employees towards achieving the future success where I am working in an operational staff in retail store of Lidl. The major transferrable skill set are discussed further, which are important for the successful leader to achieve the organisational aim by involving the employees with the organisational activities and innovative changes.

Supportive Communication:

Supportive communication skill is the ability to share ideas and information in a clear and concise manner to improve understanding, in the recent years, there are many communications platforms which support the leader and managers to enhance internal and external communication. It is one of the best transferrable skills for me to improve trust and loyalty and develop good bonding with all the employees in the workplace of the retail store of Lidl. Hence, for business excellence, it is necessary for the leader to improve communication skill and interacts with the staff in the workplace (Liphadzi, Aigbavboa and Thwala, 2017). I focus on one to one interaction that is essential for developing bonding and understanding to work with others. There is ICT or Information and communication technology at the workplace, which is an integrated system to enhance communication among the team. It is also beneficial for me to engage with the staff through telephone, software system, Wi-Fi and computerised chatting options, where the leader and other representatives in the workplace can interact with each other and share important ideas and information. On the other hand, the organisational leader must arrange group discussion and general meeting for enhancing communication and in this regard the leaders should encourage the staff to participate in the meeting and discussion session to share own perspective and opinion as well as ensure collaborative working practice through cooperation and partnership working (Zaman, Nawaz and Nadeem, 2020). Hence, for supportive communication, I try to interact with the staff through ICT as well as general meeting, and in the recent years there are social media platform which also enhances the communication. I also try to be interactive and encourage the staff members to communicate for sharing ideas and knowledge so that it would be possible to develop good working practice for achieving future success.

Motivation:

The ability to motivate the members in the workplace is another important transferrable skill of the leader, which is beneficial for the organisation to maximise performance and productivity of the stakeholders (Zaman, Nawaz and Nadeem, 2020). I mainly focus on monetary rewards to motivate the employees in the retail store of Lidl that includes structured salary, performance related pay and yearly bonus and incentives. I aim at developing the strategies of financial incentives for the staff, which is one of the major indicators of staff motivation, where the employees can fulfil their needs by getting good structured salary and rewards. On the other hand, I focus on creating good corporate environment through providing non-monetary rewards which further encourage the staff to improve their contribution. Working condition and managing health and safety of the staff so that the employees can work under safe environment, the safety measures, health and safety principles, insurance coverage and emergency exit, fire extinguisher and security management are important that I focused in the retail store of Lidl to encourage the staff to work with their full potential under safe working atmosphere. In addition to this, the leader should supervise and control the whole team with engagement and cooperation which further motivate and guide the people to work efficiently and contribute with their full potential to achieve the company goal (Zaman, Nawaz and Nadeem, 2020). Hence, co-worker relations, incentives, working condition, internal culture and the scope of personal growth are the motivational factors through which it is possible for the corporate leader to lead the team towards achieving success.

Empowerment:

Staff empowerment is important and thee leader must improve the ability to empower each employee in the organisational workplace. The leader should ensure performance recognition and reward in the workplace, so that it is possible for the management team to manage the staff engagement and empower the employees successfully (Golensky and Hager, 2020). I try to share the company goal and vision with the employees at Lidl retail store as well as provide significance to the employee task. It is essential for me to provide effective information about job role and individuals responsibilities with the employees and lead them with high cooperation and directions. For employee empowerment, I try to provide them equal opportunity to perform better as well as the working practice through providing equal chance and treating each staff fairly for better performance, sharing specific guidelines, encouraging own creativity and providing feedback to the staff are the major practices that I have focused, for successful staff engagement in the workplace. In the recent years empowerment of the organisational employees is crucial and in this regard, and I create good corporate culture with harmony and freedom to work, flexible working practice and continuous motivation, so that the staff can feel valued and work with their full potential to contribute in the organisational goal by being empowered.

Conflict Management:

Conflicts management is one of the major responsibilities of the leader to run the operations and lead the employees towards achieving the company goal. In this regard, the conflicts management skill is important for the leader to develop good working culture with equality and diversity. For conflicts management in the organisation, the leader must provide clear vision and mission of the organisation (Golensky and Hager, 2020). I try to provide clear objectives and job role to each member in the organisational store. For managing conflicts, I focus on enhancing communication and resolving the queries of the employees at the store. I also develop corporate bonding and fulfil the commitment towards each staff in the workplace. Providing support and directing them with sharing ideas, providing incentives and managing equality and diversity are helpful for me to lead the staff. Equality and diversity management is also important for me to manage internal conflicts where every staff member is treated fairly and equality in the organisation. This further creates values for them and provides them equal opportunity to perform. These activities further help the leader to manage the internal conflicts and lead the staff towards achieving the future success.

Team Effectiveness:

Team effectiveness is another important factor, where the leaders are able to utilise transferrable skills set for improving effectiveness of the team (Zaman, Nawaz and Nadeem, 2020). In this regard, I utilise team developmental skill and leadership style for maximising team effectiveness. In this regard, I try to encourage the team members to work through partnership working practice. The staff members are motivated to work with others through communication and cooperation. I also provide continuous support and direct the team for better working practice where sharing good ideas and information is also fruitful to manage team work and effectiveness of the whole team at Lidl retail store. There is collaborative development of organisational vision to provide good direction to the team members. Providing clear and concise roles and supportive leadership style are necessary for me to lead the employee towards achieving the future success. Hereby, the leader should show empathy and respect others for managing team work in the workplace of the organisation. It is important for the leader to lead the employees through teamwork and continuous cooperation. The corporate leader must focus on providing strategic planning, clear roles, team role and technological support to improve effectiveness and performance of the team in the company.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the leadership and managerial skill are important for the individual to become a successful leader, where in the recent years, through communication and cooperation, the leaders focus on engaging with the employees and lead them, through continuous support and guidance. The leader in this regard should focus on developing transferrable skill and create good working environment to maximising performance and contribution of the employees in the organisation. For maximising employee’s performance, the leader should motivate the staff continuously through monetary and non-monetary incentives, create good corporate culture, enhance communication and cooperation, and ensure team effectiveness and manage internal conflicts. These are important to follow transformational leadership style and manage the workers proficiently in the organisational workplace.

Reference List

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Chen, C.C., 2018. Leadership and management in China. London: Cambridge.

Golensky, M. and Hager, M., 2020. Strategic leadership and management in nonprofit organizations: Theory and practice. London: Oxford University Press.

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Liphadzi, M., Aigbavboa, C.O. and Thwala, W.D., 2017. A theoretical perspective on the difference between leadership and management. Procedia engineering, 196, pp.478-482.

Zaman, U., Nawaz, S. and Nadeem, R.D., 2020. Navigating Innovation Success through Projects. Role of CEO Transformational Leadership, Project Management Best Practices, and Project Management Technology Quotient. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 6(4), p.168.