Personal Leadership Perspective: Short Individual Paper (25%)
Key Deliverable: The personal leadership perspective is a paper that provides an understanding of your leadership experience, perspective and future. Write a short paper of approximately 1,500 to 1,700 words (not including title page, abstract, or reference list) that demonstrates mastery of the major seminar theories and concepts pertaining to project leadership.
Purpose: Leadership in this case refers not to a position but to the mix of traits, behaviors, knowledge, and skills that enable a person to inspire others to achieve their potential and goals. This short paper offers you an opportunity to analyze, reflect upon, research, and write about effective and ineffective leadership.
Process:
1. Consider your professional life as a leader. Think about specific challenges and critical incidents that most clearly stand out in your mind. What are the most noticeable characteristics and behaviors associated with effective leadership or mistakes that you have made? Select examples sufficiently meaningful that cause you to reflect upon your leadership capacity and goals.
2. Use the following to help guide what you present in the discussion and analysis section of your paper.
Why (or why not) does this serve as an example of exemplary leadership?
Which source or sources of organizational power did you employ and to what extent was this handled optimally?
To what extent have you been constrained by the existence of environmental factors? Describe how and why?
What influence tactics were used and were they effective? Are there others that might have been used and, if so, how and why?
What strategies were used to build a high performing team?
What ethical issues were involved and were they handled in a way that supports your conclusions about the type of leadership your example illustrates?
What are the relative merits of the decision-making style(s) employed?
Which best describes this leader, transformational or transactional and why?
What role did stress play in this situation either as a cause or as a consequence, or both?
Which motivation theory or theories are most relevant and why?
Did your example have a measurable impact on performance and/or commitment and, if so, was it positive or negative and why?
3. Seek and effectively incorporate insights and support from the assigned readings and other relevant articles/journals.
-I expect at least ten references or citations to specific theories, models and organizational frameworks. These can come from the textbook (Whetten and Cameron) or other sources. A reference or citation reinforces your writing by using appropriate theory (e.g. how to gain power; how to build a high performance team; self awareness) to support your main points.
4. Use the following format for your paper:
Title page (including your name and date)
Introduction: In one short paragraph explain the purpose of the assignment, the main points you will be making from your analysis of this case example, and the organization for the paper.
Organizational Challenge or Problem: Describe the organizational challenge or problem the leader must address and solve.
Discussion and Analysis: Use the theories and ideas examined throughout this seminar, and the additional articles, to critically analyze your example and to address the above guiding questions. Provide specific examples of leadership behaviors and approaches used to solve the problem or manage the project.
Conclusions and Reflections: Offer a summary of what you found and concluded along with reflections about the lessons you will take from this assignment as a current or future manager/leader. You may use this as an opportunity to comment upon the results of the assessments you have taken this semester and the implications for managing situations such as the one you analyzed.
References: Annotate and list all citations and references used in this paper. I expect at least ten references or citations to be used in this paper to support your views and analysis.
Academic Integrity Statement: \”I, (student\’s name), affirm that I have completed this assignment in accordance with the Code of Academic Integrity.\” https://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html
5. Leave sufficient time to proofread your paper before submission to ensure it not only accomplishes the task but that it meets acceptable graduate level standards for writing mechanics and clarity. Also, be certain the paper complies with APA formatting rules, including treatment of in-text citations and references.
GW is committed to high academic standards and integrity. Intentionally representing the words or ideas of another or failing to attribute quotations, paraphrases, or borrowed information represents academic dishonesty and will not be tolerated. All assignments will be uploaded through SafeAssign, the plagiarism prevention tool by Blackboard, to detect unoriginal content in student papers. Students in violation of GWs Code of Academic Integrity may be subject to sanctions.
