Saturday, 1 March 2014

Nature of leadership



Nature of leadership:


1.Understand the different ways leadership has been defined.
2.Understand the controversy about differences between leadership and management.
3.Understand why it is so difficult to assess leadership effectiveness.
4.Understand the indicators used to assess leadership effectiveness

5.Understand what aspects of leadership have been studied the most during the past 50 years.


THE TASK



1. Explore the Central Michigan University competencies model

2. Identify your current strengths and weaknesses as a leader (or potential leader) within the context of the CMU

3. Review the leadership theories explored in this course and describe how they relate to you and your leadership development (again in the context of the CMU model)
4. Create a leadership development plan

5. Seek feedback on your plan from an established leader. This leader can be anyone you know who holds a leadership position in an organisation

6. Describe how you have incorporated this leader’s feedback into your plan

7. Describe how you will achieve the developments set out in your plan

8. Describe how you will evaluate whether or not you have reached the level of development set out in your plan



Word limit: 2000 words (not including your reference list or any appendices you may wish to attach)
a)Explanation of your contextualisation of the CMU Model (5 marks)



Questions:





Did you utilise the whole model or did you focus on a subset of issues within the model? Why?
b)Diagnosis of your leadership strengths and weaknesses (5 marks)



Questions:



How did you carry out this diagnosis? CMU Assessment tool, MBTI, Self reflection, peer evaluation, etc .




What information / journal article / other source will you cite in your report to support the diagnostic process?
c)  Industry-specific issues (e.g. manufacturing industry vs financial consulting) ( 5 marks)
Questions:
Considering the industry sector that you work in (or intend to work in) are there any issues that are either unique or especially important?
Examples: if you work in (or plan to work in) customer service you should have a pleasant disposition and manner and a high tolerance for stress and uncertainty or
If you work in accounting or finance you must have a good head for numbers and must be thorough and accurate and have attention to details.
d) Person-specific issues (e.g. gender, age, culture) (5 marks)
Questions:
Your personal characteristics are important in shaping your leadership development.
What can you say, for example, about the impact of your gender or your age group or your cultural background or the country / culture in which you are likely the work?
Examples: if you are a female and want to work in a male dominated industry like being a commercial pilot or being a military officer, what are some personal characteristics you need to bring to the role to succeed? Or
If you are male and want to work in early childhood education and teach in a kindergarten are there some issues that may limit you due to the bias for female teachers/ what will you bring to help you overcome this resistance? Or
If you are from a family that owns a business, how will you need to adapt to family norms and traditions to succeed in that business?
e) Timeframe for plan (multi-staged? 2 years? 5 years?) (5 marks)
Questions:
What time frames will you place on various aspects of your leadership development?
Examples: Some development activities can be immediate meaning that you can start now even before graduation and others could be three months upon graduation, within first year, on-going, etc
How soon could you reasonably expect to achieve a leadership development goal?
Examples: To be a more confident public speaker or presenter – within a year of working, able to present confidently by end 2014, etc
Very Important note :
When preparing your LDP be very specific with your planned goals and activities to ensure that the timeframes you have scheduled can be clearly validated against what you have planned.
Example:
Goal: To be a more confident public speaker
Activities planned:
Take up a public speaking course with Dale Carnegie Institute – June to September 2014
Join SIM Toastmasters group – immediate until graduation in June 2014
Etc, etc.
f) Plan evaluation approach(es) (5 marks)
Questions:
How will you know that you’ve achieved the goals set out in your leadership
development plan? What kind(s) of data and information will inform this?
Examples: From the last slide, if you had planned to be a more confident public speaker and have attended the class you will have a certificate to show you completed the course but it does not mean you are a better public speaker.
The mark of whether you have achieved your goal could be assessed from feedback from your peers, your bosses or from making a presentation or a speech and receiving good feedback
Other goals like for example stress management can be assessed by having less breakdowns, more patience as witnessed by family and friends, being in a happy state more often, etc
Your plan is supported by key theory and practice literature. This literature has been cited and formatted according to the Business Referencing Guide (15 marks)
Questions:
Which ideas, theories and approaches in leadership have you incorporated into your plan?
Examples: This could be theories you have been taught like Transformational Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Path Goal Theory, Servant Leadership or even those you have learnt from other management modules
Which reputable source will you “cite” when discussing these?
Examples: Warren Bennis in his view that “ leaders are made and not born”
There is clear evidence of input to leadership plan from
an industry leader. (5 marks) What did the leader suggest?
What did you change as a consequence of the
leader’s advice?
Questions:
What did the industry leader have to say about your draft leadership development plan?
Examples: Too brief, not focused, too ambitious in the short time frame, no clear objective, activities do not support your development, etc
How have you modified your draft as a consequence? (For example, if the leader you consulted said that your timeframe to achieve your leadership goals was unrealistically short, did you then extend the timeframe top achieve these?)
Examples: Extend time frame, cut out some planned activities, reduce the number of objectives, study full-time to reduce time taken to complete, etc

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