Reference no: EM132337386

Leadership and Followership Assignment - Develop strategies for becoming a more effective leader or follower within various organizational contexts.

Learning Objectives -

1. Recommend strategies for improving leadership and followership behaviors, based on an evaluation of leaders and followers, using an emotional intelligence framework.

 1.1: Evaluate one's own strengths and weaknesses, as a leader, using the lenses of the concept of emotional intelligence.

1.2: Evaluate one's own strengths and weaknesses, as a follower, using the lenses of the concept of emotional intelligence.

1.3: Based on one's evaluation of EQ-based strengths and weaknesses, provide three specific recommendations for how one can improve their own effectiveness as a leader.

1.4: Based on one's evaluation of EQ-based strengths and weaknesses, provide three specific recommendations for how one can improve their effectiveness as a follower.

2. Evaluate the effectiveness of leaders and followers using insights from leadership best practices and theoretical knowledge.

2.1: Describe experiences in which effective leadership occurred within one's professional or personal life.

2.2: Identify characteristics of effective leaders.

2.3: Explain aspects of an individual's leadership that makes it particularly effective.

2.4: Discuss any interesting connections between more formal, academically-backed concepts that explain how and why the leader was effective, with observations about a chosen leader.

2.5: Describe experiences in which ineffective leadership occurred within one's professional or personal life.

2.6: Using relevant, documented best practices and theoretical frameworks and concepts from leadership theory, explain how and why this leader was ineffective and why people did not willingly follow them.

2.7: Discuss any interesting connections between formal, academically- backed concepts that explain how and why a leader was ineffective and the list of descriptive adjectives.

3. Use critical self-reflection to explain the impact of adversity in shaping the effectiveness of leaders and followers.

3.1: Describe the circumstances that led up to a transformational experience, and describe the transformational experience itself, being sure to include what happened and how it affected one's perspective.

3.2: Share the leadership lessons that one has learned as a result of this experience. Provide an explanation of how you can or actually do apply these lessons in your personal and professional life to be a more effective leader (or follower).

Overview - For this Work Product Assessment, you will demonstrate your ability to develop strategies for becoming a more effective leader or follower within various organizational contexts. You will also be assessed on the Professional Skills of Written Communication and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. You are strongly encouraged to use the Academic Writing Expectations Checklist when completing this Assessment.

Access the following to complete this Assessment:

• Leadership that Gets Results
• Academic Writing Expectations Checklist

This assessment has three-parts. Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.

Part I: Improving Leadership Practice Through Emotional Intelligence-Based Self-Assessment

The concept of emotional intelligence (EQ) has become very important in understanding the effectiveness of leaders in many situations. Understanding one's strengths and weaknesses, from an emotional intelligence perspective, is a valuable outcome of reflection as you critically assess your leadership capabilities.

To complete Part I of the Assessment:

1. Read the Goleman article "Leadership That Gets Results."

2. Carefully reflect upon your life experiences as a leader and as a follower. These can be professional or personal experiences.

3. Then, using the emotional intelligence framework by Goleman (2000) as the basis for your analysis, complete the following:

a. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, as a leader, using the lenses of the concept of emotional intelligence. Self-assess on each of the emotional intelligence concepts listed in the table on page 4 (Goleman, 2000). Your evaluation should be approximately 200 words.

b. Repeat (a) above, but now evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, as a follower, using the lenses of the concept of emotional intelligence. Self-assess on each of the emotional intelligence concepts listed in the shaded table on pages 7 and 8 (Goleman, 2000). Your evaluation should be approximately 200 words.

c. Provide three specific recommendations for how can you improve your effectiveness as a leader, based on your evaluation of EQ-based strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to explain how and why these recommendations are appropriate, and support your response with appropriate references to concepts about emotional intelligence and best practices in leadership (reaching beyond the Goleman article). Your response should be approximately 200 words.

d. Provide three specific recommendations for how can you improve your effectiveness as a follower, based on your evaluation of EQ-based strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to explain how and why these recommendations are appropriate, and support your response with appropriate references to concepts about emotional intelligence and best practices in leadership (reaching beyond the Goleman article). Your response should be approximately 200 words.

Part II: Evaluating Leadership Behavior and Effectiveness in Action

An important part of mastering any topic in social science (and leadership is such a topic) is being able to explain how and why an observed practice, or set of witnessed behaviors and interactions among people, led to intended outcomes or not.

In this part of the Assessment, you will be asked to identify two experiences from your professional or personal life as a leader and/or follower, and to analyze and explain how and why the leader in each experience was effective or not effective. The key to your responses will be to use relevant documented best practices and theoretical frameworks about leadership to support your explanation. It is one thing to have an opinion about why someone is an effective leader; it is quite another to be able to explain how and why they are effective, using leadership knowledge to support your reasoning.

1. Effective Leadership:

a. Describe one example from your professional or personal life in which a leader you followed was effective and you and other followers were committed and supported the leader enthusiastically. Include a brief description of the setting in which this example of effective leadership occurred. (Please disguise all names and organizational identifiers.) This paragraph should be 75-100 words.

b. Create a list of the first 10 adjectives that come to mind when you think of the leader in your example.

c. Using relevant, documented best practices and theoretical frameworks and concepts from leadership theory, explain how and why this leader was effective and why people followed him or her. Be sure to include specific references that help you to make a strong argument. This element should be 3-4 paragraphs (approximately 400 words).

d. Discuss interesting connections between the more formal, academically-backed concepts that explain how and why the leader was effective (from #3 above), and your initial list of descriptive adjectives (from #2 above). This paragraph should be 75-100 words.

2. Ineffective Leadership:

a. Describe one example from your professional or personal life where a leader you followed was not effective and you and other followers were notcommitted and did not support the leader. Include a brief description of the setting in which this example of ineffective leadership occurred. (Please disguise all names and organizational identifiers.) This paragraph should be 75-100 words.

b. Create a list of the first 10 adjectives that come to mind when you think of the leader in your example.

c. Using relevant, documented best practices and theoretical frameworks and concepts from leadership theory, explain how and why this leader was not effective and why people did not willingly follow them. Be sure to include specific references that help you make the strongest argument. This element should be 3-4 paragraphs (approximately 400 words).

d. Discuss interesting connections between the more formal, academically-backed concepts that explain how and why the leader was not effective, and your initial list of descriptive adjectives. This paragraph should be 75-100 words.

Part III: Understanding the Impact of Leadership Crucibles in Shaping Leaders

Your Transformational Story

A transformational story consists of the retelling of a pivotal event in one's life and its effects upon the individual who experienced it. The person who recounts the story is the protagonist and shares how he or she is now a different person as a result of having lived through a particular experience.

Although some experiences can be negative or adverse, not all pivotal events that are transformational in nature are negative by definition. Positive and intense experiences can be just as impactful. In the article, "Crucibles of Leadership," Bennis and Thomas (2002) point out how pivotal experiences, which they call "crucibles," can also shape individuals into leaders. Individuals who are able to learn from pivotal experiences, especially negative experiences, often have the necessary skills to become extraordinary leaders.

For the Part III of this Assessment, you will write a transformational story where you (or, if necessary, someone very close to you) experienced a time of great crisis, adversity, and stress, which led to profound insights about your/their motivations and desires to lead and to improve as a leader. Using critical reflection, you will use documented best practices and theoretical frameworks about leadership to explain how and why the experiences shaped or reshaped your/their subsequent leader behaviors and effectiveness.

Reference: Bennis, W. G., & Thomas, R. J. (2002, September). Crucibles of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 80(9), 39-45.

To complete Part III of the Assessment:

1. Choose a transformational experience from your professional or personal life. (Note: This is the highly preferred approach. If you do not have such an experience, choose to discuss an example from someone very close to you. Remember, the crucible experience does not have to be a negative one.)

a. Describe the circumstances that led up to the transformational experience, and describe the transformational experience itself, being sure to include what happened and how it affected you. Your response should be 400-700 words.

b. Share the leadership lessons you learned as a result of your circumstances, and explain how you could-or actually do-apply these lessons in your personal and professional life to be a more effective leader. Be sure to make reference to appropriate leadership theoretical concepts and frameworks as part of your explanation. Your response should be approximately 400 words.

Attachment:- Leadership and Followership Assiignment Files.rar