Creating a Personal Management Plan With(out) a Boss

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

How do we incorporate professional skill development that taps into a staff member’s strengths? Consider using a management plan model and learn how you can help staff identify ways to use their strengths.

How many of us have started staff meetings with the phrase “So I was reading this article about this leadership inventory and I thought we should try and do it as a staff development exercise!” After the groans, very likely the staff put the inventory away without a thought about what to do next.

But what if you were given the tools to put the inventory skills described into action? What if you were able to figure out how to make your skills work to your and the department’s advantage?

One of the best supervisors I ever had used this model, called the Management Plan Model. The model helped me focus my work for the year, separate from my own positional and department goals. The plan allowed me to identify areas of professional skill-building and ways to showcase strengths that benefited the department and division, without distracting from work that would be measured and evaluated.

Simply put, a management plan is different than developing and measuring operational and programmatic goals and objectives in your annual evaluation, since the focus of the management plan is on the…