Home Library Translate
A A A
Share »
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect »

Blog: Leadership

Menu

  • This Blog's Home
  • Guest Writer Submissions
  • Policies
  • To Subscribe to a Blog
  • About
  • Feedback

Leadership IDP

By Carol Mase on June 18, 2012

It’s that time of year again – time to create your Individual Development Plan or IDP.   Staring down at the “official” corporate IDP form, one is reminded how limiting management theory has become (see Gary Hamel’s new book and website for more).   So here’s a thought, for yourself and your key talent, do some management 3.0 pre-work before you fill in the blanks.

IDP 3.0 Structure

Before you get too SMART, get out your MAPS – Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose, and Strengths.  Blending Dan Pink’s Motivation 3.0 with Gallup’s StrengthFinder gives you something to write corporate about.

Mastery – “Solving complex problems requires an inquiring mind and the willingness to experiment one’s way to a fresh solution. …Only engagement can produce Mastery [which is] essential in today’s economy.”  Dan Pink

Autonomy – “…no one can plan effectively for someone else.  It is better to plan for oneself, no matter how badly, than to be planned for by others, no matter how well.”  Russell Ackhoff

Purpose – “Ultimately, each person has a significant degree of control over how many challenges she deals with.  Even the simplest task, if carried out with care and attention [Purpose], can reveal layers and layers of opportunity to hone one’s skills.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Strength – “Building on your strengths isn’t necessarily about ego.  It is about responsibility.  …It is your opportunity to take your natural talents and transform them through focus and practice and learning into near perfect performance.” Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton

IDP – The Prequel

Start with Purpose. For the foreseeable future, and these days 12-months is a long time horizon, what is your calling?  How do you fit into the organization’s “grand design”?  In the position you currently occupy, what is the source of your power and how will you use that to accomplish something significant?  Becoming aware of your Purpose, you can design an IDP that generates conscious competence.

Layer in Strengths. This ensures your performance plan is both excellent and personally fulfilling.  To do this you have to, first, know your strengths.  But don’t just read the results…really digest them, embed them into your leadership IDP.  How can you naturally combine these five elements to create a synergism that supersedes what they accomplish singularly (conscious competence)?  Is there a shift in emphasis that, combined with the context of your current role, can catapult you to a new level of performance?  Can this year provide you the challenges to polish one (or more) themes to produce real growth – growth of Phoenix proportions?  Looking at your profile what complimentary strengths are essential to your work and WHO in your network has them?  How do you enroll these folks to your cause this year?

Mastery generates the Plan. Into this fertile ground ask:

  • What available challenges excite me?  Be curious.
  • What work leaves me deeply satisfied?  Be engaged.
  • What performance goals led to learning? Be mindful.
  • What fuels me and gives me energy?  Be joyful.

Autonomy delivers the Plan. Every day for as long as the plan is relevant, autonomy adapts the plan to change over the course of the year.  What choices do you make, daily or hourly, to keep your plan in play?  How will you achieve both autonomy and interdependence – the reality of working in a network organization?  What boundaries exist and must be worked within?  Are they negotiable?  Shifting focus from “what” you must do to “how” you can do it places you squarely in Intrinsic Motivation, a learning mindset, and a positive attitude.

So there you have it, the MAPS of you – today, in this job – that will produce a SMART IDP and a successful, fulfilling year of work.

« Previous Next »

Search Our Site

Meet the Blog’s Hosts

Carol Mase, President of Cairn Consultants, is an educator and coach-consultant who has worked in global marketing, strategic planning, and large scale organizational change. [Read more ...]


Kristin Keffeler, MSM, of Kinetic Enterprise, is a business development and leadership coach who specializes in supporting entrepreneurs and business leaders to bring their Big Ideas to life.
[Read more ...]


Dr. Steven Ober is a senior executive coach and consultant. He has worked successfully with executives and managers in high tech, business and industry, health care, government, and education.
[Read more ...]


Recent Blog Posts

  • What kind of a Tough Leader are you?
  • Unleashing the Power of your Story: Creating a New Leadership Story
  • Unleashing the Power of your Story: Working with your Story
  • Unleashing the Power of your Story: Leadership and the Hero’s Journey
  • Expanding awareness
  • Pathways for Leaders
  • Unleashing the Power of your Story : The Larger Context – Ideas and Meaning
  • Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…
  • Embedding the Ethos of Community: Moonshot #2
  • Mending the Soul

Categories

  • Boards of Directors
  • Change
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Civic Leadership
  • General Resources
  • Guiding Others
  • Leadership
  • Leadership Theories
  • Leading Groups
  • Leading Organizations
  • Leading Others
  • Leading Yourself
  • management
  • Missions, Visions, Values
  • Power and Influence
  • Supervision
  • Uncategorized

Related Library Topics

  • Boards of Directors
  • Chief Executive Role
  • Continuous Learning
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Decision Making
  • Ethics
  • Leadership (Overview)
  • Leading Groups
  • Leading Organizations
  • Leading People
  • Leading Yourself
  • Management
  • Organizational Change
  • Planning
  • Power and Influence
  • Problem Solving
  • Sustainable Development
  • Systems Thinking

Library's Blogs

  • Boards of Directors
  • Building a Business
  • Business Communications
  • Business Ethics, Culture and Performance
  • Business Planning
  • Career Management
  • Coaching and Action Learning
  • Consulting and Organizational Development
  • Crisis Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facilitation
  • Free Management Library Blogs
  • Fundraising for Nonprofits
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Marketing and Social Media
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Social Enterprise
  • Spirituality
  • Strategic Planning
  • Supervision
  • Team Building and Performance
  • Training and Development
About Feedback Legal Privacy Policy Contact Us
Free Management Library, © Copyright Authenticity Consulting, LLC ®; All rights reserved.
  • Graphics by Wylde Hare LLC
  • Website maintained by Caitlin Cahill

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.X