This first (leadership) module of the course has attempted to offer you models for analyzing organizations and research about the styles, skills and practices of effective leaders. My intention has been to help you understand the field of business leadership with a strong emphasis on practice – how can you improve your own leadership practice and effectiveness. So, this take-home final is intended to give you a chance to synthesize your learning . . . by applying it to a real-life situation that you have faced, or perhaps one that you currently are facing.
The length of your writing should be 5-7 pages.
As was indicated in the prelude to this assignment, please write about a leadership situation from your life during which you fell short in some significant way. I remind you that in leading you may or may not have been in “the” authority position, but you were in some way attempting to “mobilize others to want to struggle for shared aspirations” or to “mobilize others to do the work that only they can do.” Your job in the paper is to dissect your leadership breakdown. How do you understand what happened (or is happening, if the situation is live)? How has your understanding changed as a result of the class? What options did you see – and what options do you now see – relative to your understanding of the situation? How do you understand the causes of your and others’ behavior?
You should therefore first provide us a context for understanding the leadership challenge which you faced (or are facing). After your introductory paragraph, you should provide 2-3 paragraphs of context: who were the key players, what were their roles; what was the organization, its purpose, and important elements; what was/is your failure or breakdown or shortfall? You may want to share how you had been thinking about your failure, how you had framed it; and then share how that may have changed due to the course.
Your job, then, in this exam is to be a leadership analyst and consultant to yourself.
What new tools of analysis can you bring to assess the situation? How would/do you now understand it (and what do you still not understand)? What steps would you recommend taking? What guidance would you give yourself in taking those steps?
You have many tools to bring to your analysis:
Your personality style (drawing from Big 5 and/or MB and/or Goleman-Hay
The McKinsey 7-S tool for understanding the broader systems (“systems” analysis alone can tell you much: what systems were open or closed; what dynamics resulted?
Senges model of structural tension
Frederickson on positivity
Kouzes & Posners 5 practices and 4 characteristics
Leading by 2
OKRs
Skills and practices of Coaching, Managing, Clearing the Air
PAPER GRADING GUIDANCE (The paper is worth 20/90 course points.) The following elements will be roughly equally graded:
Accurate reference to course materials lecture and/or readings/videos for all key points made.
Argumentation: Do you offer coherent, supported positions on your hypotheses as to the root problems you now see and the options for leadership responses on your part.
Structure: Your paper should make your position clear from the outset (strong first paragraph, which you may have written before you began the whole paper and/or which you wrote after you had clarified your thinking and writing; and then should have good logic flow in the paper overall and well-structured paragraphs.
Personalization: Reflects heightened self-awareness through course tools, referencing what you have learned about yourself from course tools and how that learning can be applied to the leadership shortfall you are analyzing.
Style: This exam gives you an opportunity to write in a personal, revealing way (great leaders find ways to share openly); yet there should be some detachment, some willingness to ask yourself the hard questions about both your experience and your reflection.
References: Business writing doesnt use footnotes or any other kind of references. However, as this is an academic exercise, please use the end note function in Word to document your sources. You can use any format of citation. Just list each source one time without repetition. Any direct quotes in your paper should be contained within quotation marks. (We do look at the “Turn It In” score which will point out use of language that is not your own. The best way to avoid unfair appropriation of others’ ideas/language is to quote them accurately!)
Please Remember:
The paper should be about 5-7 pages long . Properly format your answers: 11 or 12-point Verdana font, one-inch margins on all sides. Single-spaced within paragraphs, double-spaced between paragraphs. It is important to organize your thoughts and break your essay properly into paragraphs. (It should be obvious that writing flows in this direction: words, sentence, paragraphs, pages. Paragraphs that exceed half a page will almost certain result in lost points.)
It is acceptable to label different sections of your essay if they lend themselves to discrete topics. This can enhance readability considerably.
Bullet-point lists will not score well. For example copying lecture notes without application, analysis and critical thinking will be obvious to us and will add little value. Explain course concepts as they make sense to you in assessing your situation.
If you have any questions, please drop me an email.