Leadership Written Assessment - Reflection
This assignment requires you to compare your own experience of leadership encounters with the content outlined in two set coursework research articles which explore the types of leader skill sets that will be most appropriate for a changing economy and technological base.
The readings to be utilised are:
1) Raelin's (2011) 'From Leadership-As-Practice to Leaderful Practice', and
2) Kempster et al's (2011) 'Leadership as Purpose: Exploring the Role of Purpose in Leadership Practice'.
The assignment should be constructed as follows:
Part A: Consider a company or organisation where you have worked or volunteered in the past, or work today, and reflect on various leadership encounters you have experienced (involving either a direct, or related leader enactment, you have witnessed). By drawing on the set questions provided this will enable you to reflect on the style of leadership exhibited and provide space to contemplate potential impacts on yourself/your team/your organisation. Your analysis will therefore include:
- A brief introduction to the company and the scenarios identified
- A summary of the style, characteristics, and leader behaviours that you experienced
Part B: Engage a critical evaluation of the observed leadership approach by drawing on the evidence outlined in the two readings. This will allow you to include ways in which the leaders in question could change their style (and approach) to become a more effective leader in relation to managing their teams, appropriate systems, and facilitating organisational leadership innovation. The readings will show you that leadership capabilities are also impacted by the situation in which practice takes place and lead to potential positive and negative consequences which you should outline. Consider impacts on staff morale, along with a range of stakeholders including middle/other senior managers, shareholders, customers and/or the community, as appropriate.
Assignment Requirements:
Written Assessment - Reflection
Application of contemporary leadership models: Demonstrate that you understand the evolving approaches to leadership capabilities as they relate to changing organisational contexts/conditions, outlined by the course content and in connection with your first-hand examples.
Use of research: Integrate the evidence drawn from the course research material in your comparisons with the leadership behaviours you identify.
Language use: Avoid (i) the use of commercial language (e.g., salesperson/marketing discourse that aims to "boast" the leader's achievements), (ii) exclusion by engaging non-gendered terms (i.e. - she/he or they, not one or the other).
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Reflect critically on what it means to be a leader in today's context, identify the challenges and opportunities for positive change.
2. Articulate and identify how individual experiences and background influence leadership styles, attitudes and success.
Leadership prompting questions - the first 3 are more general and the following list more specific to allow you to interrogate the important elements of leadership practice.
Q1. Provide your personal evaluation of a leader's approach in engaging with their team (i.e. relay observable effects of their impact - not just their intent).
Q2. In relation to your direct experience have you had empowering feedback from your appointed leaders relating to your workplace role/performance?
Q3. In the past has your leader sought out or received meaningful feedback regarding their approach and potential wider impacts?
Q4. Do they understand the workplace context and its impacts on their staff?
Q5. Do they work with people well and assess team dynamics accurately?
Q6. Do they provide time and space for necessary innovation to be created?
Q7. Do they build alignments by encouraging constructive dissent, including of their views?
Q8. Do they articulate a compelling sense of purpose which integrates perspectives?
Q9. Do they manage paradoxes through collaborative sense making?
Q10. Do they explore new thinking that enables progressive leadership solutions?
Q11. Do they facilitate the expression of team capabilities by linking to worthwhile decision making processes?
Q12. Do they deploy capabilities to match significant priorities (including stakeholders)?
Q13. Do they work to develop a culture of reflective thinking and learning together (not just ill-informed "doing")?
Q14. Do they make sure formal processes add value to outcomes and performance - and eliminate those that don't?
Q15. Do they adopt facilitating, rather than autocratic, power tactics?
Q16. Do they balance governance and control with taking risks and aspects of flexibility?
Q17. Do they resolve task uncertainty by ensuring clarity on role and priority measures?
Q18. Do they address de-motivators wherever possible?
Q19. Do they account for delivery of their own and the team's performance?
Q20. Do they see beyond immediate set targets by focusing on meaningful outcomes? - (i.e., do they seek sustainable approaches to achieve outcomes rather than just a 'quick fix'?)