Prepare a short write up on your personal leadership development plan based on the Four Pillars of Self-leadership.
• Identify areas where you excel and areas for improvement.
Knowing who you are
It is important for me to achieve my academic promotion to become Associate Professor and one day to become a renowned professor. These might be ambitious plans but these are my targets in my career which I hope to achieve. My other aims include making huge contributions through high-impact and highly-cited works as well as contribute to groundbreaking research in the field of language and education policy locally and globally. Another goal of mine is to be appointed to a top journal editorial board within the next 5-10 years. Overall, I am goal-oriented and career-driven, at the same time, I am a family man and would like to spend quality time with my young kids.
Knowing what you do
I am motivated to perform well as I have sacrificed a lot to be at UTM. I am inspired to be a lecturer as this is a job that I have aimed for ever since my years as a doctoral student. I am working hard to write papers, book chapters, books, newspaper and other articles in media outlets. I am also trying to master the delivery of the Bachelors and Masters courses that I am doing. I enjoy teaching students as well as supervising Masters and PhD students as these will be the times I get to share my experience and expertise with them. I have established some networks over the years as a student and later at the workplace (industry). I have also been invited to deliver talks and presentations at local and international events.
Knowing what you need to learn
I need to learn how to write academic writing for top peer-reviewed journals. I need to learn about ways to write a convincing research grant proposal to secure research grants. Of course, I need to also learn about curriculum review and academic audit processes. I also know that I need to learn about effective ways of PhD supervision. I also need to need to learn about team leadership and management of staff, as well as management of research grants. Moving forward, I need to learn about academic leadership, particularly within the challenging higher education sector. Lastly, and most importantly, I need to learn and master time-management, self-leadership and manage work-life balance well as an academician.
Using what you know
I need to develop a positive working culture, disciplined work ethics, have the right attitude and always remain passionate to achieve my academic goals in life. Be gritty and stay determined with the end goal in mind at all times. I will try my best to create a team and an environment for academic success. I will utilise my networks for collaboration and explore future opportunities. E.g., I will explore opportunities for research grant collaborations when I am travelling locally or abroad for conferences. Now I know the importance of self-leadership, I will continue to practise better work-life balance. Most importantly, I will constantly engage with my lifetime mentors to learn as much as possible to excel in the cut-throat academic world.