Personal Development Plan

Your Definition of Leadership

The way you engage with leadership is influenced by how you define leadership. Before you continue your journey as a leader through this
program, we want you to take some time to reflect on what leadership means to you.

Step 1: Respond to the following question (200-300 words) – How do you personally define leadership?

By definition, leadership is a process whereby an individual influences group of people come together to achieve a common goal. To me, leadership is
when a person develops each group member based on their specific goals, aiming to achieve the goal sooner and in an easier way. It is a process. Each
follower in a group has their own way of participating, so it is necessary for a leader to understand and adapt to each followers’ style. Providing a vision
will help followers understand the leader’s goals as well. Creating an environment that welcomes brainstorming is important because collaboration can
render great ideas. It is also crucial to make sure each group member feels encouraged to include their ideas. Leadership needs to be ethical because
unethical or toxic leadership can leader to followers thinking they have done something wrong. Some leaders offer rewards to their followers and while
doing this motivates members to complete a task, there is no personal relationship developed. Successful leadership requires personal development,
because any manager can be task oriented, but only leaders focus on achieving a task while developing the relationship with their followers. High task
and relationship-oriented leadership will create a calming environment and evolve the workspace into a group of people working together instead of a
manager telling subordinates what to do.

Your Leadership Coach

We aim to match every Leadership Certificate participant with a coach to guide you in your leadership development. In order to facilitate the matching process,
we need some personal information from you.

Step 2: Please share below any personal information that might help us match you with a Leadership Coach (e.g., hobbies, personality traits, campus or
community involvement, academic or career interests). If someone you know has agreed to serve as your Leadership Coach, please share their full name and
email address so we can match you with them.

On campus, I am involved in Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA), Illinois Sports Business Conference (ISBC), Phi Eta Sigma, and
Delta Chi Fraternity. I am a Journalism major but have applied to transfer into the Gies College of Business in Fall 2020. I am
interested in a career leading technical consultant, specifically in cyber security. I enjoy cooking, running, soccer, and swimming. I am
extroverted, optimistic, compassionate, and a symbol I would pick to represent me is running shoe because I love running.
Personal Development Plan

Your Leadership Competencies

Step 3: Select one competency from the Personal/Self level of practice and one competency from the Interpersonal/Team level of practice. Next select two
competencies from any of the four levels of practice. Ultimately, you should have selected a total of four leadership competencies.

• Personal/Self: Self-Knowledge, Self-Management, Reflection, Empathy, Openness, Integrity

• Interpersonal/Team: Common Purpose, Communication, Relationship Management, Group Dynamics, Followership, Cultural Competency
• Organization: Change Management, Diversity Advocacy, Systems Thinking, Innovation
• Community/Society: Human Dignity, Social Justice, Global Competence, Service-Minded, Sustainability

Step 4: Fill in the competencies you have selected in the spaces below and address the following three questions for each competency. We strongly
encourage participants to complete all four modules of the ILI before completing this step, as it will help with developing objectives.

Justification: Why did you choose this competency?

Reflection: What do you already know about this competency?
Objective: Which experiences and resources do you plan to utilize through this program to help you develop this competency? List at least three for
each.

1. Empathy 2. Relationship Management

Justification: I chose this competency because I think being able to Justification: I chose this competency because a key part in leadership is the
understand one’s own feelings is necessary in order to understand others relationship between the leader and followers. A bad relationship might lead
feelings too. to poor work while a strong relationship encourages followers to work harder
and feel more of a purpose.
Reflection: I know that empathy is something that requires a lot of practice
and being empathetic towards followers can lead to trust and respect, which Reflection: I already know that relationship management is on a personal
is something that is necessary in a leader-member relationship. level and takes time to develop a strong relationship.

Objective: I plan utilize the Petullo Insight I-program to develop self- Objective: I plan to work on relationships in my RSOs especially the ones that I
awareness, attend the empathy workshop, and complete the ClifstonStengths hold leadership positions in, attend the Imprint I-program, and do the
assessment to learn if I have empathy. communication skills workshop.
 3. Advocacy
4. Self-Knowledge
Justification: I picked this competency because I was the president of my high
Justification: I chose self-knowledge because I can sometimes think I know
school’s advocacy club and I loved advocating for real world problems and
more than I do, which can make me look bad.
developing solutions.
Reflection: I know that self-knowledge requires a lot of reflection and
Reflection: I know a lot about advocacy because of my experience leading the
knowing about oneself and learning about my personal character.
Advocacy Club.
Objective: I will take time every two week to reflect on myself and ways that I
Objective: I would find a service organization on campus and help them
have acted so I can develop my self-knowledge, I will attend the Personal
advocate for what they believe needs help in the world, attend a workshop
Development: Self-Knowledge workshop, and try to define my values as a
on Strategic Planning for Organizations, and work on advocating for my
person.
beliefs to to others.

Personal Development Plan

Your Timeline

Step 5: Use the chart below to map out your timeline for completing the Leadership Certificate Program. This plan is intended to serve as a guide to get started
and approach your journey through the program with intentionality!

Requirements: One academic course (AGED/LEAD 260), two i-Programs, two team experiences, 10 hours of leadership trainings & workshops, and an ePortfolio
Semester 1 _(e.g. Fall 2019)_______________ Semester 2 ____________________________ Semester 3 ____________________________

Semester 1 (Spring 2020) Semester 2 (Fall 2020) Semester 3 (Spring 2021)

• Submit PDP • Meet with Cohort • Meet with Coach

• Lead 260 • Meet with Coach • Complete 5 hours of training and
• Intersect I-Program (Summer 2019 July • Complete 5 hours of training and workshops
Inbound) workshops • 2nd Team Experience
• 1st Team Experience • Completion workshop
• Complete 2nd I-Program • Submit ePortfolio

Step 6: Please include a copy of your current resume when you upload your PDP to the ILC website! It will help us match you with a Leadership Coach.