You will be graded on your critical thinking: the ability to state your position and provide an event in your leader’s life (before they made their decision) that supports your position. This is not a history lesson, nor is it a biography.

Be sure your cover page includes the course number and name, your name, date, and your professor’s name. The 9-12 pages does not include your cover page and reference page.

The bulk of your emphasis should be on strengths and weaknesses (the traits that made your leader effective and the traits that made your leader ineffective), ethics, your analysis of that decision, and especially the lessons you learned from this research. Spend very little time in your paper on the background and the situation; we already know about it from your Week 2 DQ. This is not a biography, therefore utilize your critical thinking skills to explain why your leader’s actions caused the result they did. The lessons you learned and how you can apply those lessons to improve your own leadership acumen will carry the most weight.

I cannot stress enough that you need to cite your sources. Your analysis/position/conclusion will not be found in your research; if you do find that one of your references stated that your leader was , that will be that author’s position and not yours. The events that your research reveals is the evidence that you will use to support your position.

(Note: Please use headings for the sections below. They correspond to each seminar’s discussions, discussion questions and journals).

The situation

This is the situation that you are exploring; the situation that your case study focuses on. Give us enough detail to understand what happened, yet not too much to overwhelm us. Don’t make us think about what is important – that is providing too much detail. You want us to be able to remember the situation as we read the remainder of your paper. Be sure to cite your sources.

Leadership strengths and weaknesses

This is the section where you identify the strengths of your leader (those traits that made your leader effective), along with their character traits that worked against them (made them ineffective). Think of the leaders in “How the Mighty Fall” and use those steps in either the positive or the negative manner. You can also go to www.kevan.org/johari and www.kevan.org/nohari for additional traits. You must supply more than one strength and more than one weakness.

Ethics and community

What ethical boundaries did your leader come close to or cross – or which ones did they hold fast to? How did these actions affect the community in which they live and work? Be sure to explain the results of their ethical or unethical actions. Conjecture about “had they done this ….” or other such thoughts should be in the Results and lessons learned section.

Organizational Culture

What about their organization (or the environment in which your leader operated) permitted / inhibited / promoted or otherwise had an effect or an influence on the situation and the leader’s actions? Was there no check-and-balance? Was the culture more authoritarian and less participative? Were employees (including upper level management) concerned about retaliations if they spoke up?

Decision Making

How did their traits and ethics influence the decision they made? This section is a shorter section (you have already provided evidence for your analyses) and is a summary of their traits and ethics. Your emphasis should be on the traits and what role those traits played in the decision they made.

Using your critical thinking skills, analyze their decisions and state why you believe they took the action they did. Provide evidence for both the decision and your reasoning. Be sure to cite your sources.

My overall conclusion

Based on your research and analysis, answer these three questions:

Was your leader effective in this situation? Why or why not?

Which strength or trait of theirs was the strongest, and what effect did it have this decision?

How will you incorporate #2 into your leadership acumen?

References

All references you used should be listed here in APA format. They should be listed alphabetically by author. Use the Purdue Owl or www.worldcat.org for format.

**Be sure to cite all your sources**

The post You will be graded on your critical thinking: the ability to state appeared first on PapersSpot.