Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course

This paper describes an MBA course assignment, the “Individual Strategic Professional Development Plan”. The assignment consists of three parts, requiring students to: 1) conduct an industry and job analysis 2) explore, benchmark and develop their leadership skills; and, 3) develop a personal strategic plan for guiding and achieving their leadership capabilities and career goals. As a core competency, leadership is needed by all business and management students. While courses in leadership may offer important theoretical and conceptual guidance for students, our assignment requires students to go further; they must reflect on their own identities (who they are) while considering the necessary and critical routes that must be followed on their paths toward becoming effective organizational leaders. In dynamic and uncertain global and technological environments, students' abilities to strategically map their careers and assess and develop key leadership skills critical to career success are more important than ever. Anecdotally, students in post-class assessments have voiced praise for the assignment, citing it as one of the most important outcomes in their MBA experience.