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Chris Jankun
Interpersonal Relations
December 3, 2014
Personal Leadership Development Plan
Step 1: Personal Mission Statement-
From henceforth, Christopher Michael Jankun will conduct himself following this series
of statements. Every day will be looked at as an experience to learn and gain knowledge on
subjects I have never previously studied, for a leader can learn something new every day. I will
take every human interaction as a situation to practice my emotional intelligence and improve
my verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Being able to read others emotions and react
accordingly is important for leaders to do in professional settings. I shall never look at a difficult
task as an obstacle, but rather a tool to teach me about hard work and perseverance. Leaders
don’t admit defeat and any failure will not be failure, but rather feedback. There is no such thing
as failing in life, only when you admit giving up. Most importantly, I will be humble, as well as
confident and assertive. I shall conduct myself in a manner that values the opinions of others and
see them as an opportunity to learn something new, while also forming my own opinions as well.
Lastly, I shall carry myself as someone that my friends and fellow classmates can look up to at
all times. A leader is someone who is respected, as well as loyal to his team. Three years from
now after implementing these skills into my daily life, I hope to be an assistant manager or
manager at a marketing or sales organization.

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Step 2: Leadership Learning Goals-
When developing a plan, you need direction in order to map out your steps and the
progress you make. By developing three specific learning goals, I will then be able to break
down my process into even tinier goals that relate to the overall ones. Progress must be taken
slowly and developing into an effective leader requires baby steps towards your final goals. For
my first goal, I wish to improve my relationship with my fellow students and employees, in order
to be more successful in a team setting. A person who is able to work well in a group with others
will gain respect. Gaining respect and showing your collaboration and interpersonal skills will
help you become a better leader. During college, there have been many times where I’ve
received a group project and thought to myself, “Why can’t I just do this on my own, it’d be so
much easier.” Four years later, I’ve learned that everywhere you go in life you may have to work
with people. From school to a job, working collaboratively in a team is a very vital tool to have.
Working on group projects in school helps to progress you towards a job where you must
complete tasks with your fellow employees. To keep this goal manageable, I want to practice my
skills first in a group project at school, then apply it to my job at Cannon Mountain. Although
this goal will take time to work towards, by the end of the winter semester, I hope to have
developed the characteristics and habits of an effective team member. To determine the
effectiveness of achieving this goal, I will use the interactions I have and the results we obtain to
help measure it.
Another important characteristic of a leader is the ability to make decisions. I sometimes
find myself to be tentative when it comes to making decisions. Occasionally, I’ll question myself
and that directly affects the choices I make when faced with making a decision. For my next
goal, I wish to improve my decision making skills by using different techniques. What I mean

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when I say different techniques, is that I will utilize, self-awareness, communicating, motivating,
leading, teaming, and problem solving to help me gain the confidence in making decisions.
When a major decision must be made that affects other people, everyone will look towards their
leader to have the knowledge to be able to make that decision. By improving in different specific
areas of those attributes, I will then be better equipped to trust myself and the choices that I make
as a leader. To measure the success of this goal, I will implement my improvements into my
daily life. I will look at every decision I must make and dissect the options I have by using the
skills I will develop. The big final test of the success of this goal will come right before
graduation. Already facing two job offers, I will use the techniques and skills I learn to help me
decide where the best position for me is. Choosing a career path in life is difficult and at times
quite scary. However, once you develop into a person capable of making tough decisions, it will
only help you that much more on becoming a great leader.
One important characteristic that every leader must have is patience. There will come
times when you are managing a team or are in charge of a project and you get extremely
frustrated. This frustration may be caused by the time constraint you have, the amount of work
you must complete, or the people that you are in charge of. Recognizing when you are becoming
impatient and finding the root of that frustration is what will ultimately help you successfully
cope with it. For me, personally, I have always struggled with being impatient when things start
to go wrong or something doesn’t go how I’d like it to. For my third learning goal, I want to
develop a way to become more patient and to cope with my frustration, especially if I’m the
leader of a team. Specifically, I want to have a way to recognize when my frustration stems from
an external source or if it’s caused internally. If the frustration I’m experiencing is caused
externally from someone I’m working with, then I must utilize my high emotional intelligence to

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effectively cope with the situation. To measure this, each time I’m frustrated with someone, I
will practice a breathing technique that will initially calm me down. I will take deep breaths and
slowly exhale, as a way to exhale all the bad thoughts going through my mind. Then, I will go to
the source of my frustration and deal with it in a constructive manner. I will not express anger at
someone, but rather I will talk with them about how we can more successfully deal with the
problem we’re faced with or the task we must complete. By being open and honest with the
person, without showing anger or negative emotions, we can work together and go step by step
to get things on the right track. This goal is important to me because in the past I’ve let my
frustration get the best of me and hinder my performance when doing something. Like I stated
earlier, it’s always something I’ve struggled with, so I really want to utilize successfully patience
techniques to help me be the best leader I can.

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Step 3: Connecting Goals to Interpersonal Skills-
Goal #1: improve relationships with students/employees to work collaboratively-
Skill/attribute
Objective:
to improve my
relationship with
fellow
students/employees
to complete tasks
Evidence RelatedGoal
Self-Awareness
Traits Use my current personality
characteristics and manage
them in an effective and
timely manner.
Managing my traits
positively will in turn affect
my peers as well. How I act
and the traits I give off will
showthe type of person I
am.
Use characteristic
management to help me
become more self-aware
when I’m interacting with
my peers.
Emotional Intelligence Utilize EQ to show that I’m
a personable person and that
I can use my people skills to
successfully complete tasks
or objectives.
When you can relate to
people and more importantly
deal with their
actions/emotions
accordingly, it will make
tam collaboration that much
more effective.
Develop a strong emotional
intelligence, so that I can
manage myself based off of
what my peers are doing.
Communicating
Interpersonal messages Make sure that all
communication is clear and
not ambiguous.
Talking to anotherhuman
being brings a level of
communication that must be
understandable on the giver
and receiver’s ends.
Use clear, concise language
that will keep everyone on
the same page.
Listening & nonverbal Use listening and non-verbal
communication to reinforce
ideas and to promote a
healthy relationship among
all team members.
Non-verbal communication
helps people to recognize
that you’re listening to what
they’re saying.
Use active listening to show
peers you’re open to their
ideas and perspectives.
Utilize eye contact, posture,
and voice tone to make
spoken communication
clearer.
Motivating
Setting goals for others Help others set goals for the
overall good of the team, by
providing them with
manageable tasks,designed
for their skills.
It is important when
assigning team members
tasks,to try and give goals
that are SMART goals. This
helps provide direction.
Set goals for peers that are
specific, manageable, and
fit for the right person.Help
people improve by giving
them a task out of their
comfort zone.

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For my leadership learning goals, I broke them down into even smaller goals that will serve as
baby steps on the way to completing my overall objectives. My first goal was to improve my
relationships with students and employees to develop a collaborative style of working together.
Collaboration is the most successful way to complete tasks and assignments and it requires the
complete involvement of the entire team. In my first chart I really focused on my traits and my
emotional intelligence. I’ve always been a very outgoing person and I think that my humor and
upbeat personality can be contagious when I’m around people. By utilizing emotional
intelligence, I will be able to understand how and why my fellow employees are feeling about
something. By showing them that I understand how they feel and that I care about their
emotions, this will highly improve the relationship we have. You want your team to be able to
relate to their leader and to have them understand that not long ago you were in their shoes as a
follower. Another baby step in this process was communicating effectively, both verbally and
non-verbally. Being a communication major, I have studied and understand many effective
techniques that help to make communication more open and free flowing between people.
Communicating messages that are clear and to the point help to wave confusion and also help the
group understand the task at hand. Specifically, I will communicate messages that are free of
ambiguity and designed especially for my team.

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Goal #2: become a more effective decision maker-
Skill/attribute Objective:
become a more
effective decision
maker
Evidence RelatedGoal
Communicating
Interpersonal messages Communicate openly with
my team, so that we may
develop the best way to
come to a solution
Openly communicating
with your team with help
to weigh the options you
have, as well as the
possible solutions and
how well each one will
work
Don’t just make
executive decisions
without consulting other
people. Every person
that’s part of the team
has a right to an opinion
and it’s my job to
facilitate the open
discussion.
Listening & nonverbal Understand where each
member of my team
stands when making a
decision. Show them that
I’m open to any and all
possibilities and that I
care about what they have
to say.
When you are the leader
you don’t always want to
tell everyone what to do.
When important
decisions come along,
including your whole
team in the process will
showhow much you
value them.
Improve my active
listening to showthat not
only am I listening to
what they’re saying, but
I’m valuing their ideas
and factoring it into
making a decision.
Leading
Leadership Style This section is important
because it truly defines
how your followers see
you. I want to show them
that I value everything
they say and that our team
is not a dictatorship, but a
collaborative democracy.
Involving your group
members into decision
making shows that you
don’t just see them as
workers, but rather as
people with valuable
opinions and ideas.
Implement a leading
style that most
effectively involves
everyone in all
processes.
Problem Solving
Decision making Develop the right process
to come to a decision.
You don’t want to rush
into making decisions
because that could have
negative results.
When you make a
decision, it will either
help or hurt yourteam in
the long run. Weighing
all youroptions and the
consequences ofeach
decision will make you
much more able to make
that decision.
Utilize my team, all
opinions and ideas, and
develop a process that
can be used to come to
the decision with the
most positive outcomes.
Resolving conflicts Recognize when people
disagree when you’re
trying to make a decision.
Nobody is going to agree
on everything all the time,
you it’s important to come
up with ways to work
When there’s conflict
between group members,
it can often be difficult to
come to a consensus
when making a decision.
Use open discussion and
communication
techniques to look at all
the ideas that everyone
has and figure out a way
to decide on which one
will be the most

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with disagreements. successful.
For my second learning goal, I wanted to become a more effective decision maker. Going back
to elements of interpersonal relations that we learned from the text helped me break this big goal
down into smaller ones. Again, another extremely important aspect of decision making is
communication. When I lead a team, I will make it known right from the get go that any and all
ideas are welcome. I want my team to be able to speak their minds free from judgment.
Developing a form of open communication and discussion makes your team realize that you
value what they have to say. By them participating in the open discussion, I hope to show them
that they’re a valuable part of our system. I won’t make any executive decision without including
my team. Decision making also really comes down to the leadership style that you portray. My
goal when I’m a leader will be to open the floor to everyone’s ideas right from the start. I don’t
want to be the one talking at first because I want to hear what other people have to say. Even
though I might have my own opinions in mind, listening to other people’s ideas can open new
perspectives that I may have never even thought of. This open discussion will also be a part of
the decision making process that I wish to develop. It’s important when making a decision to
weigh the positive and negative consequences. One specific technique we will use is to write
down all the solutions that we come up with. Then, we will write down all the pros and cons of
the solutions. Having it down on paper and available for everyone to see will help show where
our best solution lies.

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Goal #3: improve my patience and develop ways to cope with frustration-
Skill/attribute Objective:
improve my
patience and
develop ways to
cope with
frustration
Evidence RelatedGoal
Self-Awareness
Traits Patience is a very
important characteristic
for a leader to have. It’s
important to recognize
when you’re getting
frustrated and how you’re
displaying your emotions.
People are very good at
picking up when you’re
in a bad mood or when
you’re expressing your
anger. This can then lead
to problems and work
may not be completed.
I want to recognize when
I’m getting frustrated
and how I display my
emotions to other people.
Recognizing them early
will help to solve the
problem.
Emotional Intelligence Understand how my
emotions affect how other
people are feeling and
how people react to
frustration and
impatience.
People tend to pick up
very easily on when
you’re upset or angry and
it’s important to not let it
put them in a bad mood
as well.
Realize when my
emotions are affecting
other people and figure
out ways to
communicate how I’m
feeling.
Communicating
Interpersonal messages Communication is key
when you’re are upset
with someone or how
something is going.
People will react better
when you tell them about
how you’re feeling. It
shows that you trust them
and that you want to
figure out a way to solve
the issue.
Utilize communication to
let yourteam know that
there is a problem, but
that we’re going to deal
with it by being open and
talking about what the
best solution is.
Listening & nonverbal By listening to others,you
may be able to quickly
find the root of the
problem.
Listening to your team is
important if you are
getting impatient. There
may be an external
problem that can be dealt
with easily by hearing
what everyone has to say.
Show my team that
although I’m frustrated,I
will not take it out on
anyone.Listening to
others can help you
recognize the root of
impatience and then
progress towards fixing
it.
Providing feedback If someone is causing the
impatience, constructively
discuss ways in which the
problem can be dealt with
and how that person can
learn and improve from
the situation.
People don’t react
positively if you simply
yell at them or call them
out. Providing feedback
helps someone learn from
mistakes and improve the
overall quality of the
team.
Help my team
understand that feedback
will only make them
better and that it’s
designed to improve
them overall.
Motivating
Setting goals for others By setting goals for others
you can control the
When you’re in charge of
creating goals, you must
Set goals for my team
that are specific and

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amount of frustration that
may stem from any
mistakes.
tailor them so that they fit
each person’s skill sets.
designed to help them
succeed.
Delegating Delegating helps to
provide direction for
people and will help me
motivate people to want to
do well in the position I
give them.
People who are placed
into tasks or roles where
problems can arise is
what will cause me to be
impatient.
Develop a systemto
recognize each person’s
skill sets and then design
position and roles that
will utilize those skills.
This third learning objective is one that I really want to focus on in the future. Having patience is
so crucial when leading a team, simply because everyone looks to you to be calm, cool, and
collected when facing problems or issues. A major concentration is developing my smaller goals
was placed in motivating. Sometimes people can frustrate you, but you must not let it negatively
impact how you deal with it. For example, under motivating we learned a lot about setting goals
for others. When I am a leader I will develop SMART (specific, measureable, attainable,
realistic, and time oriented) goals for my team, so that they will have a clear understanding of
what I expect from them. Also, I will give my team members roles in project and task that are fit
to their skill sets. If I give someone a job of creating an excel spread sheet on the amount of sales
last week and they don’t even know how to use excel, then impatience and frustration is eminent.
Another important aspect of communicating, which I also thought sort of fit into motivating, was
providing constructive feedback. What I mean by constructive is not telling them what they’re
bad at, but rather looking at it from a learning perspective. It’s important to let your team know
that you want them to grow and improve each day. When I’m a leader, I will make sure that I sit
down individually with each member of my team and go over areas where they excelled in and
then areas that may need improvement. I want them to understand that this feedback is only for
their benefit and that I want them to be the best employee they can be. Lastly, openly

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communicating how I’m feeling about a particular situation will help my team know how I’m
feeling and what we must do to fix the problem.
Step 4: ReviewPlan with People in your Life-
Some people that I really wanted to share my leadership development plan with are my
roommates, who all happen to be on the Rugby team. What I wanted to do is share with them
what my learning goals are and then have them relate by comparing them to their rugby games. I
realized when developing this leadership plan that it does not have to be strictly applied in a
work setting. Being a leader takes various other forms, from playing a sport and leading your
team, being a teacher and educating your students, and even being a parent and being in charge
of your family. Being a leader is something that many people from many different backgrounds
can relate to. When I talked to my roommates, they all talked about how when leading the team,
they all try and set a good example for everyone to follow. I asked them if they had any specific
techniques that they used. One thing they really put a heavy focus on is communication. Talking
on the rugby field and letting your teammates know where you are and where the ball is helps
them move as a unit. They also talked a lot about the different roles that everyone plays while on
the field. Each person plays the position based on their skill set. This really resonated with my
goals of delegating and setting goals for others based on their skill sets. It’s cool to see the many
similarities that there are between leadership in an office, as well as on a sports field. I also chose
to share my plan with my mother and father. They are two of my biggest mentors in life and I
think of them as lifelong leaders with helping me develop into the person I am today. One thing
that they could easily connect to was when I talked about how I get impatient and frustrated
easily. As parents, they have experienced this feeling many times while my brother and I were
growing up. I asked them for advice and shared with them how I am going to use breathing

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techniques and effective communication to deal with it. They then provided me with some
advice and said that the biggest key to fighting impatience is realizing that everyone makes
mistakes and that the world will keep on spinning. Talking to other people about my
development plan helped me realized just how important being a leader is. You will always have
people who will look up to you and by achieving my goals, I will only become that much more
effective in any leadership role I fill in life.
Step 5: Revisiting and Revising Goals-
One thing I want to drive home about my leadership development plan is that it is a
living, breathing document. This is not something I will simply complete and then that’s it. The
whole purpose of this plan is to apply it to my daily life and then use my experiences to alter and
improve it. So, specifically, I want to strictly apply this plan into my daily life starting today. At
the end of the semester, I will look into my smaller goals and look to see if I have been working
to achieve my overall objectives. I will reflect on my progress and then use feedback from
others, as well as myself, to help me add or take anything away from my plan. My next intent for
this plan will be to utilize it in the first job that I have. I’ve already landed one job offer and hope
to have a few more by the end of the year. Deciding where you want to start your career can be
very difficult and a hard to decision to make. Luckily for me, I’ve developed a plan to help with
my decision making. Upon deciding on my first job, I will then look to see how much of it can
be applied to the role I’ll play and the tasks I’m given. Then, once the end of 2015 rolls around, I
will look to see if there are any areas that need improvement. This leadership plan will help me
with whatever I do in life because it provides me with a vision and with direction. I will use this
plan to become an effective leader and I will successfully lead in any position I have in life.