Confirming Your Plan
With the leadership development plan you prepared in hand, you should take the final two steps necessary to confirm your plans.
Step One. Coordinate your plans with your supervisor, your mentor, and/or others who may need to approve them or assist you.
There are significant benefits to taking this step, including...
- Clearing up any misunderstandings about your assessment (if your supervisor assessed you).
- Understanding your supervisor's expectations more clearly.
- Letting your supervisor and/or your mentor in on your goals and aspirations.
- Obtaining your supervisor's commitment to support your efforts.
- Finding out about and avoiding potential embarrassments over permissible activities, available resources, or allowable time.
Step Two. If necessary, make adjustments to your tentative plan based on the feedback you get from your supervisor.
You may wish to follow the Guidelines for Discussing Assessment Results with Your Supervisor below to make the most of this sometimes sensitive step.
Guidelines for Discussing Assessment Results with Your Supervisor
Discussing your leadership assessment results or development plan with your supervisor may make you feel uneasy or awkward. How you handle the discussion can either minimize or maximize these feelings.
Consider the following guidelines:
- Schedule the meeting in advance. State the purpose of the meeting and indicate to your supervisor that his/her input is important to you.
- Be prepared. You should have thoroughly reviewed your assessment results and have the following prepared:
- Questions about your data. You may want to bring your assessment results reports with areas for discussion circled or highlighted.
- Your completed plan. You may also want to bring a list of all of the development areas you identified, not just the priorities.
- Try not to be defensive. This is probably easier said than done; however, keep in mind that this discussion is for your leadership development.
- Try to remain objective so that your assessment results and your development plan can be put to the best use for you.