Consider the following learning objectives as you move through the lesson:
Define leadership and its role in organizations.
Identify the personal characteristics associated with effective leaders.
Explain the situational use of task-oriented and people-oriented leadership behaviors.
Explain how followership is related to effective leadership.
Identify sources of leader power and the tactics that leaders use to influence others.
Explain how intrinsic and extrinsic rewards impact motivation.
Describe how interpersonal influence tactics affect leadership.
Preparing for Task 1: Sections B and C
The following section is designed to help you prepare for submitting Task 1 of the performance assessment.
B. Leadership Evaluation
In this section, you will perform a personal leadership analysis of three of your strengths and three of your weaknesses. You will then make three recommendations to improve your leadership effectiveness. Apply one scholarly leadership theory (listed below) to all three sections of this task: B1, B2, and B3.
Transformational leadership
Transactional leadership
Situational leadership
Participative leadership
Servant leadership
Behavioral leadership
Trait theory of leadership
Note: It is highly recommended that you use at least three distinct and unique scholarly sources to support the scholarly leadership theory.
B1. Personal Leadership Strengths
In this section, discuss three personal leadership strengths, describing in detail how the three strengths you identified align with your chosen scholarly leadership theory.
This section of the task requires scholarly research.
Provide specific examples to support each strength, and include at least one in-text citation using a scholarly source.
Write a separate paragraph for each of the three strengths.
Note: A scholarly source could be a reputable journal, a published book, or any source from a university faculty member or business leader. Scholarly sources also include any article or book in the WGU library.
B2. Personal Leadership Weakness
In this section, discuss three personal leadership weaknesses, describing in detail how the three weaknesses you identified align with the chosen scholarly leadership theory.
This section of the task requires scholarly research.
Use the same scholarly leadership theory that you used in B1.
Provide specific examples to support each weakness, and include at least one in-text citation using a scholarly source.
Write a separate paragraph for each of the three weaknesses.
B3. Recommendations for Personal Leadership
Now that you have reflected on your current leadership strengths and weaknesses, recommend three specific actions, behaviors, or practices that would improve your effectiveness in leading people and organizations. The recommendations address your identified leadership weaknesses and align with the chosen scholarly leadership theory.
This section of the task requires scholarly research.
Use the same scholarly leadership theory used in B1.
Provide specific examples to support each actionable item, and include at least one in-text citation using a scholarly source.
Write a separate paragraph for each of the three recommendations
C. SMART Goals
For each goal write a full paragraph that includes a full sentence about each SMART criterion:
Specific: Goals should be precise. Include why you are setting each goal, how the goal is linked to your leadership development, and what you hope to accomplish as a result of achieving the goals.
Measurable: Goals should include a measurement to assess the extent to which the goal is accomplished.
Attainable (Achievable): Goals should be realistic, challenging, and attainable.
Relevant: Goals should focus on the end result. State what results you can realistically achieve, given available resources. The statements should start with “to” followed by a verb—complete, acquire, increase, decrease, etc.
Time-bound: Goals should specify target dates for duration and completion. Periodicity is required.
Write a separate paragraph on each of your two SMART goals. Brief example:
A specific goal I would like to accomplish is improving my mentoring skill set. It is critical that I become a better mentor to my staff so that I can facilitate their professional development.
I will measure the progress of developing my mentorship skills by having a senior manager complete a progress report for me weekly.
This goal is attainable because it is within my capacity to become a better mentor if I apply myself to training.
The goal is relevant to my role as a manager trainee and a leader to others.
I will accomplish this goal during the time frame of sixteen weeks.
C1. Specific Actions
Discuss two specific actions that will help you reach each of your two SMART goals.
Make this a separate section from C by including its own header.
Brief example: I will meet with a senior leader of the organization for mentorship training once a week for an hour over the course of sixteen weeks.
Brief example: I will also attend a four-week training course in mentorship from our organization’s training database.
D. Sources (Reference Page)
Your paper is required to include in-text citations that correlate to your reference page. All sources require a corresponding in-text citation and all in-text citations require a corresponding source on the reference page.
