Hướng dẫn viết assignment môn Leadership and Decision Making (BUSM4188) - RMIT

Leadership has been proving its important role in organisational success, as well as an individual's career path. Assessing leadership capabilities is important to design the leadership development plan. In this paper, the leadership development plan is developed based on the diagnostic tools, and the industry feedback is incorporated to finalise the development plan. The leadership development plan incorporates three leadership attributes, including cultural intelligence, ability to work under ambiguity, and networking.  

The first selected attribute is cultural intelligence that refers to the skills and ability to work and communicate effectively in culturally diverse situations(Afsar et al 2020). Within the rising diversity in the workplace as well as the common of job transfer, cultural intelligence is the bridge of career’s success as it helps to handle workplace conflict, strengthen team bonding, developing networking, and improving organizational effectiveness (Cristofoli et al 2020). Cultural intelligence is defined as the important leadership trait because it enables leaders to aware of individuals’ difference in behavior, and thinking, and through that to have strategy to make inclusive team and connecting people from different culture together (Coutts 2013). As the undergraduate, developing cultural intelligence competency is significantly important for me as it is the skill for me to work in the international working environment as well as being the global leader (Guzmán et al 2020). In addition, from the cultural intelligence diagnostic tool, it is found that there are certain areas of cultural intelligence that need to be improved. In terms of cognitive subscale, I need to focus more on the rule of non-verbal communication in these cultures. For example, in Japan, using eye-contact too much is considered as disrespect. In addition, with regards to physical subscale, I need to develop the ability of adapting to the listeners’ accent and tones when communicating with them. Developing these competencies are significantly challenging and it requires not only theoretical learning about other cultures in the World, but also the practical learning through real-world situations to strengthen the skills(Nachatar Singh 2021). In details, within the studying period at RMIT Vietnam, I would seek for a chance to work with foreign students and apply for the part time job as the tour guide for foreign tourists travelling to Ho Chi Minh city. In addition, after graduation, I have made the plan to apply for the job in the multinational companies in the supply chain and logistics sector, such as Cisco system, FedEx, etc. The plan to achieve cultural capability of using non-verbal behavior effectively in other cultures is set in the timeframe of three years. Measurement metrics for the plan are shown in the table below: 

Table 1: measurement metrics and methods of the development plan 

The second leadership attribute – the ability to manage ambiguity 

In terms of the second leadership attribute - ability to work under ambiguity, it is the leadership attribute determining the leader’s ability of managing people, managing change, making decision, and leading people (Walk 2022). Within the business environment, or project management, there are always an involvement of ambiguity due to effects from external environment, and it requires immediate response. According to Einhorn (2021), ambiguity happens in all scope of business activities, and it has strong effect on all people, thus leader needs to be the person that have great ability to manage ambiguity, and this is the only way to influence others and inspire them. The Covid-19 global pandemic is the great example of ambiguity that had strong impact on all corporations, and all managers in the corporations need to adopt to the new working styles and managing change in the department. For example, many companies were switching to remote working, and employees are required to work at home, and have scheduled meetings during the week for task allocation, and performance measurement. These examples highlight the importance of the ability to manage ambiguity within the contemporary business environment. From the diagnostic tool of assessing the ability of managing ambiguity, I score 50 in the total of 105, and the score 50 indicates that I am quite tolerant to ambiguity. The score shows that I am not willing in all situations to cope with change, and thus, I still need to develop certain skills to improve my ability to manage ambiguity. When approaching to design of the development plan for developing the ability to manage ambiguity, it is challenging to plan appropriately, or including real-life activities to gain experience, as ambiguity always come unexpectedly(Andreau et al 2019). Therefore, the development plan focuses on developing the change mindset, as well as practical skills to embrace and lead change. The change mindset is the opened mindset which always welcome change, and experiment in which this mindset would put individual in the ready state for dealing with ambiguity. Apart from the change mindset, individuals also need to develop key skills to lead change, including strategic thinking, effective communication, and measurement and analysis.  The planned activities to develop the change mindset include participating in voluntary works, and seeking for new experience, such as trying adventurous sports, learning new skills, etc. The change mindset will be gradually developed and established the competencies to deal with ambiguity in different situations. In terms of the development plan of improving strategic thinking, effective communication, and measurement and analysis, the practical activities include reading journals related to the development of these skills, taking note to practice applying these skills in real-world situations, and writing reflection for improvement. The time frame for achieving the ability to manage ambiguity is set within one year. Measurement metrics and methods for the development plan of the the ability to manage ambiguity is shown in the table below: 

Table 2: measurement metrics and methods of the development plan 

In terms of the third leadership attribute – networking, it refers to the ability to build strong connection with other specialists in the major, sharing experience and learning new experience and knowledge from others(Joseph-Richard, and McCray 2022). With the leader, having strong network would support not only the leader’s career, but the entire team in project management and implementation. For example, during the work project, the team may encounter issues related to information technology, but there are no IT specialists in the team, and thus with the wide network, the leader could approach to IT specialists easily and seek for help. Within the networking leadership attribute, my networking ability was scored 58 out of 100, which indicates effective networking capability, however, there are still certain areas need to be improved, including public speaking, emotional intelligence, and the network of professionalists. As the undergraduate, I have little chance to develop networking with professionalists in the sector, thus, I would prioritize to develop certain networking skills, including public speaking and emotional intelligence skills. To develop these skills, I would undertake participating in group work, public speaking workshop, emotional intelligence workshop, and projects at non-governmental organizations. With the development plan of achieving networking capability, it is set within the one-year time frame. The measurement metrics method for the development plan of achieving networking skills and capabilities, is shown in the table below: 

Table 3: measurement metrics and methods of the development plan 

The industry feedback is provided by Mr. No Huynh who is the founder of Teo straw which is one of the Vietnamese companies pioneering in designing and manufacturing biodegradable straw. Mr. No Huynh is the entrepreneur who is inherited with the charismatic leadership traits that focusing on communication and influencing skills. Mr. No Huynh has been establishing three factories in Kien Giang, and creating jobs for over 100 people. Labour force at the factories of the company are mainly unemployed people with limited skills and they get used with farm works, however, Mr. No Huynh has successfully persuaded people to believe in his vision. Throughout my visit at the factories and communicate with employees in the factories, all employees are satisfied with the working condition, and express their gratefulness to Mr. No Huynh. Throughout my conservation with Mr. No Huynh, he had various comments on my draft of leadership development plan, as following:

•The draft lacks the course of actions on achieving the leadership competencies

•Leadership skills need practical experience rather than theoretical experience; thus, it is important to include participation in teamwork or project.

From these comments, I have made several changes to my leadership development plan, including actions to achieve these competencies, and plan to participate in teamwork’s projects. In addition, the leader also provides feedback on the timeframe of achieving these leadership attributes which it needs to be extended. I also considered the period of various workshops I plan to participate in, and then I have extended the timeframe of development to 1 to 2 years period. On the other hand, there are some areas in the feedback that considered to not incorporate into the development plan, including focusing on developing listening skills, and visual thinking. These two areas are not related to the three leadership attributes, and with the listening skill, I have been developing effectively listening skill through my learning period at RMIT Vietnam, and in terms of the visual thinking skill, it is the next level of critical thinking, measurement, and analysis skill, thus I would prioritize to develop critical thinking skill. 

The leadership development plan has vital roles in undergraduate’s learning process. In this paper, the diagnotic tools have explored certain weaknesses of the author in three leadership attributes, including networking skill, cultural intelligence, and the ability to manage ambiguity. Based on the diagnostic tools, and the literature review related to the three leadership attributes – networking, cultural intelligence, and the ability to manage ambiguity, the leadership development plan focusing on these three attributes are provided, and with the industry feedback from the experience leader – Mr. No Huynh, the author has finalized the leadership plan with practical activities, and realistic time-frame.