How to Create a Leadership Development Plan

Female Leaders Share How They Created a Leadership Development Plan

You don’t need us to tell you an entrepreneur wears many hats. But, the community at FemCity does want to help you balance them. One of the most significant learning curves that business owners face is tackling the new slew of job responsibilities that come with running a company. Perhaps you started your own LLC because you were passionate about one thing — but now you are also a bookkeeper, a therapist, a CEO, a salesperson… and the list goes on. Sometimes it’s hard enough to stay afloat, so the thought of forward-thinking is tricky. 

One area to focus on that will improve your skills, and those of your employees is a leadership development plan. This allows you to think critically about where you are today — and where you hope to be three, six and twelve months down the line. By devising a concrete blueprint, you will inspire a new generation of leaders within your organization, too. Here, we spoke with thriving female entrepreneurs about how to be an example of a leader — and how to always be working towards a more prosperous, fulfilling tomorrow: 

Be honest about your strengths and growth opportunities. 

Before you can guide others in their career path, you have to take an honest look at where you may be able to improve. As Anna Crowe, the CEO and founder of Crowe PR put it, understanding both your strengths and your growth opportunities is an essential first step in building a leadership development plan. There are plenty of ways to explore this on your own, all depending on what you’re comfortable with and what will bring you the most value. Her ideas include:

• Taking a self-assessment. 

• Asking for feedback from mentors, clients, employees and others.

• Reading professional development books. 

Create goals and ways to measure them. 

It’s one thing to make a list of goals on how you can be a better example of a leader. And it’s another thing to make specific, actionable aspirations that you can track, measure, complete and celebrate. As Shannon Miles, the co-founder of BELAY, explains, when you have the big vision picture ahead of you, it’s easy to create the micro-steps that will help you find success. Say you want to hire two new full-time employees and speak at one conference in the next year. Great! Now you can start to break down the work required to reach these goals. And you can include other promising leaders within your company to come along the journey with you. Or better yet: make their own leadership development goals, too.

“Find a process for measurement beyond simply ‘we met it’ or ‘we didn’t,’” Miles recommends. “The goals can be tracked weekly or monthly, and then reviewed with management monthly. Lastly, we have quarterly reviews to align goals and determine if there are roadblocks in the team’s way to achieve them.”

Listen with compassion. 

One of the most effective ways to be an example of a leader is to be compassionate. Improving your soft skills is a personal journey and one that requires vulnerability and self-exploration. So when you invite others in your organization to create leadership development plans, you need to be available to them. As Jessica May Wolfe, the founder of the Heart Rise Movement says, when people feel heard, they will deliver their best. “Setting up time to regularly check-in one-on-one or group sessions, where leaders can really listen with compassion to help resolve issues both personally and collectively,” she explains.

Read, listen and learn. 

Once you have a good understanding of your strengths and growth opportunities, Crowe says you’re ready to put your development plan in place. Where do you begin? Going on a scavenger hunt to find people, books, tools, and workshops will help you become a better example of a leader. “When finding mentors, it’s helpful to look for experienced leaders across various industries that have a similar mindset or outlook. Reading professional development books is another great way to not only generate self-awareness but gain practical tips on elevating your leadership style,” she explains. 

If you aren’t tapped into the best-of-the-best out there, Crowe recommends books like Multipliers and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive as go-to's. 

Make their work visible and acknowledge it. 

When you’re encouraging team members to step up and improve their leadership skill set, you need to give positive encouragement along the way to ensure they remain motivated and excited about the future. Lou Cysewski, the CEO of Coolperx says it’s vital for promising leaders to have visibility into how their work impacts the larger organization. During a work-from-home set-up, this can be tricky, but it should still be a priority. “It is important to make time to receive an acknowledgment from co-workers for their efforts. We take time to call-out their efforts in monthly meetings. The person who receives acknowledgment then gets to pass it on to a deserving co-worker the next month,” she shares. 

Make it collaborative.  

As Miles reminds us, creating a leadership development plan is a collaborative effort. “This ensures each team member is working toward not only the big company goals but also working toward a career they desire for themselves,” she continues. “The transparency not only is useful as an accountability tool but allows everyone to feel invested in the big picture goal and understand how they fit in.”

Part of keeping the conversation positive and thus effective is creating opportunities for others to contribute. What ambitious employees can you promote? Who can you give more responsibilities to? Who can you ask to be a mentor to others? 

Invest in your company’s community. 

Everyone learns in different ways, but most professionals will benefit from having a community to bounce ideas off, ask questions to connect. Wolfe says it’s your job as an entrepreneur and your organization's CEO to create a dedicated, safe space for a company-wide discussion. This could be via platforms like Slack, an internal website, or another collaborative and supportive channel. “Knowing they have a safe place to be held and supported really empowers the energy to implement and see the initiative through,” she continues. “When we work with teams, we set up a weekly time where everyone can come to check-in, share their individual and collective breakthroughs, challenges and use our HeartRise Method to reframe circumstances and arrive at a resolution. By doing this in the group, it becomes even more empowering for everyone who witnesses the experience and is inspired to take action themselves.”

Need more ideas on creating a leadership development plan? Join FemCity and connect with like-minded female entrepreneurs near you.