My Developmental Goal Is to Improve My Skills in Effectively Leading a Team at My Workplace.

STUDENT ABC

OB712 paper

12-6-2016

My developmental goal is to improve my skills in effectively leading a team at my workplace.

PART A: Why does this goal matter given your current or potential organizational context?

The processes involved in bringing a drug successfully into the market involve concerted efforts between several departments that balance actions ranging from research to production, marketing and sales. Hence, every drug in the pipeline has a team that comprises of representatives from each of these functions that meet on a monthly basis to assess and align critical activities to ensure that the drug in “on-track” to reaching the clinic. This implies that every member of the team is accountable for the input they provide that guide the strategy and decisions made by the team.

As a research scientist working in drug discovery at a biotech company, I am currently a part of a collaboration program between my company and a small start-up biotech to develop a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. This particular group has monthly meetings where aspects of the drug design and development are discussed and I have recently been appointed as the team leader. In the past, monthly team meetings have been usually conducted without an agenda. Members have presented their own data and then have proceeded to sit quietly throughout the remainder of the meeting. This has been similar to a working group rather than a team (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993).

As my goal for the year, I want to convert this group to be one of the top-performing teams in the company. As the team leader, I will aim to establish efficient processes to align individual contributions with the main goal (i.e. drug development), guide the activity of every member, and create an environment where every member is involved in crisp and high-quality decision-making based on input from the key stakeholders.

PART B: What is your action plan and timeframe for developing this skill or behavior?

My time frame for working on, and achieving my goal is 12 months, beginning January 2017. I have outlined a series of steps I intend to take to ensure appropriate progress on this goal:

a. For all further meetings throughout the year, I will first set the meeting agenda prior to the meeting, to give the team a sense of the topics that will be discussed. For this, I will seek input from the constituents regarding updates on their projects. This will also provide an opportunity for everyone to come prepared with their own queries and suggestions irrespective of their individual style of learning (Argyris, 1991), and help to provide a platform where every member is prepared to contribute.

b. I will work to lead the discussion during data presentations and seek ideas and critical feedback from the team during the meeting itself. Also, at the end, I will draft a list of action items that will be addressed before the next meeting. This will give everyone a sense of purpose and help set a guided timeline to align efforts on the critical questions.

c. I will also take minutes during the meeting, and circulate them within a week of the meeting for everyone to provide feedback. This will help each contributor to re-evaluate the meeting, and suggest action