CDP Communication Development Plan (Connie)

Report for CDP

Communication Development Plan

BA318 COMMUNICATIONS IN LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION

Lincoln University MBA program (Toronto)

Instructor: Dr. Sylvia Y. Rippel Schoemaker

Student: ChaoQun (Connie) Zhang

Deadline: May 21, 2006

Introduction

How much time managers spend on various activities reveals that communication occupies 70 to 90 percent of their time every day. As you can see, strong communication skills are very important for every one’s career, including mine. When I took the leadership communication course, I learned a lot skill from the instructor and the textbook. As part of the course, I developed a communication development plan report. I trust that this plan will very helpful for my building future career. In this report, The first part is current assessment of my skills, knowledge and experience. I used the checklist of overall leadership communication skills (Leadership Communication, P13-19), including Assessment of Core Skills, Managerial Skills, and Corporate Communication Skills. In the second part, I used a worksheet to help me develop my personal leadership communication plan. This included an assessment of my own leadership communication abilities, a determination of my leadership communication goals and the development of a plan to achieve my goals.

Checklist of Overall Leadership Communication Skills*

Read through the list of skills and for each one check off your present capability in the chart below.

1. Excel = you have mastered this skill and are excellent in it.
2. Competent = you are competent in this skill but could polish it some.
3. Need to Develop = this is a skill you need to develop further.

Area and Skill Excel Competent Need to Develop Part I-Assessment of the Core Skills Audience Analysis and Strategy 1. Analyzing the context for communication √ 2. Analyzing audiences √ 3. Tailoring messages to different audiences √ 4. Selecting the most effective medium (channel) √ 5. Developing a complete communication strategy √ Written Communication Skills 1. Deciding on communication purpose √ 2. Clarifying your purpose √ 3. Generating support for each purpose √ 4. Organizing your written communication √ 5. Using formatting effectively √ 6. Using language correctly √ 7. Writing clearly √ 8. Writing concisely √ 9. Writing confidently √ 10. Using an appropriate tone √ 11. Writing correspondence (e-mails, memos, letters) √ 12, Writing formal reports √ 13. Writing executive summaries √ 14. Proofreading your own work √ Oral Communication Skills 1. Delivering an impromptu presentation √ 2. Delivering an extemporaneous presentation √ 3. Organizing your presentation √ 4. Creating PowerPoint slides √ 5. Talking in small groups √

Area and Skill Excel Competent Need to Develop Oral Communication Skills (continued) 6. Talking in large groups √ 7. Answering questions √ 8. Asking questions √ 9. Drawing others out √ 10. Summarizing and clarifying others' ideas √ 11. Keeping to the topic √ 12 Summarizing a discussion √ 13. Dealing publicly with more senior people √ Part II-Managerial Skills Ethos/Image 1. Understanding how you are seen by others √ 2. Knowing how your personal style differs from others √ 3. Asking others to comment on your style √ 4. Assessing your own strengths and weaknesses √ 5. Setting goals for personal change √ 5. Willing to work on improving personal effectiveness √ 7. Influencing the behaviour of others √ 8. Inspiring trust in others √ 9. Projecting confidence √ Skills at Dealing with others 1. Listening √ 2. Being sensitive to others' feelings √ 3. Asking people how they feel √ 4. Acknowledging people's feelings √ 5. Helping others express their feelings √ 6. Dealing with anger √ 7. Dealing with hostility and suspicion √ 8. Being comfortable with conflict √ √ 9. Withstanding silences √ 10. Mentoring others √ 11. Coaching others √

Area and Skill Excel Competent Need to Develop Observation and Feedback Skills 1. Being aware of high and low participators √ 2. Noting if people are excluded √ 3 Recognizing who talks to whom √ 4 Being aware of who takes on leadership roles √ 5. Giving feedback on behaviour in the group √ 6. Giving praise and appreciation √ 7. Providing constructive feedback to individuals or groups √ 8. Helping team members give each other feedback √ 9. Soliciting feedback from others √ 10. Receiving feedback without being defensive √ Team Communications and Dynamics Skills 1. Sensing tension in the group √ 2. Being sensitive to how people in the group are feeling √ 3. Being aware of how open or closed the group is √ 4. Identifying those issues that are avoided √ 5. identifying and clarifying goals and objectives √ 6. Clearly defining the problem under discussion √ 7. Examining all facets of the problem √ 8. Exploring people aspects of the problem √ 9. Surfacing vested interests and feelings about the problem √ 10. Encouraging others to generate ideas √ 11. Using creativity to develop new ideas √ 12. Evaluating options √ 13. Helping groups make decisions √ 14. Helping groups explore their commitment to groupdecisions and/or agreements √ 15. Encouraging groups to develop action plans √ 16. Helping the team to confront difficult issues √ 17. Drawing attention to unhelpful behaviour √ 18. Helping the team deal with conflict or other tension √ Area and Skill Excel Competent Need to Develop 19. Supporting individuals against group pressure √ 20. Helping team members acknowledge each other's strengths √ 21. Facilitating team review and critique √ Skills at Dealing with Your Own Feelings 1. Being aware of your own feelings √ 2 . Identifying your feelings √ 3. Asserting your own ideas and rights √ 4 Stating your own needs √ 5. Expressing feeling to others √ 6. Expressing the following feelings √ • Warmth √ • Affection √ , • Comfort √ • Discomfort √ • Anxiety √ • Frustration √ • Fear √ • Irritation √ • Annoyance √ • Gratitude √ • Satisfaction √ • Confidence √ • Uncertainty √ • Anger √ • Excitement √ • Determination √ Part III-Corporate Communication Skills 1.Developing an internal communication strategy √ 2. Developing a vision √ 3. Communicating a vision √ 4. Targeting messages to different levels in an organization √ 5. Creating a change communication program √

Area and Skill Excel Competent Need to Develop 6.Impolementing a change communication program √ 7. Developing an external communication strategy √ 8. Manage corporate image √ 9. Analyzing external stakeholders √ 10. Developing targeted messages for all external stakeholders √ 11. Communicating with the news media √ 12. Dealing with a communication crisis situation √

Part 1-Assessing Your Own Leadership Communication Abilities

1. Using the information gained from completing the Checklist of Overall Leadership Communication Skills, assign a score for your improvement need in each skill area (use the scale provided next to the table).

1= substantial need to improve

2 = some need to improve

3 = little need to improve

4 = no need to improve at this time

Worksheet to Help You Develop Your Personal Leadership Communication Plan

Score Skill Area 2 Communication Strategy 3 Written Communication Skills 3 Oral Communication Skills 2 Ethos/Image 1 Skills at Dealing with Others 2 Observation and Feedback Skills 3 Team Communications and Dynamics Skills 2 Skills at Dealing with Your Own Feelings 4 Internal Corporate Communication 3 External Corporate Communication

2. What do you consider your major communication strengths?

My major communication strengths are in generating support from my audiences, particularly in small groups composed of senior people. This strength comes from knowing my audience and using effective language and concepts with the right tone of expression. In generating support from my audience my strength is my ability to draw out from people their issues and concerns and being able to respond directly in a relevant manner.

3. What do you consider your major communication weaknesses?

My major communication weakness is the development of a complete communication strategy. In particular, my main weakness lies in my ability to communicate with others in confliction situations. I am also weak in my ability to be sensitive to others feelings, particularly in asking people who they feel and listening to them. Finally, I have some weaknesses in ethos and image, especially in assessing my own strengths and weakness and in my sensitivity to understand how I may be seen by others.

4. What leadership communication roles do you currently play in your organization?

I am a manager in my organization in the area of manufacture and technologic service. Communication plays a key role in stakeholder management, both in terms of the need to understand their issues and concerns and in the need to communicate employee and customer responses in a clear, relevant and timely manner.

Part 2-Determining You’re Leadership Communication Goals

Answer the following questions to help you develop your goals and plan.

1. What communication leadership roles would you like to play in the future (at your organization or in your career overall)?

I would like to be my comprehensive my overall communication skills.

2. What are your short-term and long-term leadership communication improvement goals?

My short-term leadership goal is to be become more self aware of the impact that my communication has on others, both internally to my organization and to the external stakeholders that I regularly communicate improvement conflict.

My longer- term leadership goal is to improve by communication ability to sense conflict both internal and external to the organization and to respond to conflict in a direct and constructive manner that addresses the issue(s) identified.

3. What new-skill do you want to work on first, second, third, etc.?

First: I want to improve my self-assessment skills.

Second: I want improve how I deal with conflict, which will involve improving my listening skills, being more sensitive to other and acknowledging their feelings. My goal is to become more comfortable in dealing with conflict.

4. What barriers do you anticipate having to overcome to reach your improvement goals?

The barriers I expect to face are largely those that are self-generated, including the following: listening to others’ perspectives and ideas without interrupting; helping to ensure understanding and commitment to ideas and decisions prior to implementing them; acknowledging and addressing problems and issues in an open, non-judgmental way; demonstrating sensitivity to the concerns and viewpoints of others; and expressing ideas and opinions openly and candidly and encouraging others to do so.

5. How long do you think it will take you to achieve your goals?

I expect to see observable and measurable improve to my behaviours with the next 3 to 6 months.

6. How will you obtain feedback?

New experiences, role-plays or working in groups

• Peer feedback
• Individual coaching
• Instructor viewed as coach or helper

I will obtain feedback from my supervisor, my peers and my subordinates. My feedback will come from both within my branch and from colleagues in the other part of the organization who have had the opportunity to observe my behaviours. I will also receive feedback from external customer using data collection, including surveys, focus groups and interviews to measure progress both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Part 3-Developing a Plan to Achieve Your Goals

Use this grid to help you plan and track your improvement.

Improvement Goal Action Steps to Achieve Goal Deadline Method to Measure Success Increasing my own self-awareness Assess my strengths and weaknesses Clarify personal goals and priorities Learn to accept responsibility for your own actions Identify which behaviors strengthen my self-image Examine the choices make and the impact on my accomplishments Take self study course Obtain counselling, mentoring, coaching Aug.1, 2006 Use Emotional Intelligence Assessments Evaluation Tool: 360-Degree Instrument Receive feedback from supervisor, peers, subordinates and external stakeholders before and after implementation of leaning plan. Recognize personal values, strengths and needs Reflect on my learning: Use a learning log Learn from both successes and failures Deal more effective with other people 1. Acknowledge problems and complaints and attempt to resolve them in a timely fashion 2. Develop techniques for improving group cooperation 3. Counselling, mentoring and coaching 4. New experiences, role-plays or working in groups Sept.15 – Dec. 15,2006 Obtain feedback from counsellor, mentor, and coach as well as from my supervisor, my peers and my subordinates. Feedback to come from both within my branch and from colleagues in the other part of the organization who have had the opportunity to observe my behaviours. Also receive feedback from external stakeholders using data collection, including surveys, focus groups and interviews to measure progress both qualitatively and quantitatively. Handling team conflict more effectively and win-win result. 1.One on one approaches to managing conflict: use five “A’s” steps to think of most conflict resolution situations 2.The way of dealing with conflicts can be depicted in two dimensional model for conflict handling behaviour 3.Classify conflict level Oct.15-Dec.30, 2006 Oct.15-Dec.30, 2006 Oct.15-Dec.30, 2006 1.five steps to integrative conflict management, find win-win result. Assessment: Assess your compromise points and assess what the other party’s concerns Acknowledgment: Listen to the other party’s concern’s and try to understand his or her viewpoint Attitude: Avoid stereotyping and making predeterminations, try to remain objective and remain as fixable and open as possible Action: Observe how the other party communicates verbally and nonverbally Analysis: 2.Conflict Metric as a measure of team conflict Avoiding is appropriate for less important issues or when the potential damage from conflict outweighs the benefits of the goal Accommodating is suitable when one party is wrong or the issue is more important to the others than it is to yourself. Competing is applicable when quick decisions are needed and a stronger influence is held by one side Collaborating is used when both views are important and an integrated solution is desired. Compromising is used when two opponents have equal power and the goals are not worth the effort or disruption of mutually exclusive solutions. 3. Use Conflict Diagnostic Model, dimension the issue viewpoint of difficult to resolve or easy to resolve.

Conclusion

By completing the Checklist of Overall Leadership Communication Skills I was able to achieve a comprehensive understanding of my strengths and weakness. The action plan that I have developed will enable me to address my primary areas of need, namely, enhancing self-awareness of my communication leadership and my ability to dealing with other especially in the resolution of conflict. My plan includes specific steps that I will take to achieve my learning objectives as method that I will use to measure my success in achieving these goals.