Week 1 Assignment: Analyze Leadership Theories and Best Practices, and Develop a Personal Philosophy of Leadership
Instructions
This week, you will write a reflection that responds to the following prompts:
Imagine that you are in charge of an educational organization that provides training to diverse adults who are learning skilled trades. Your organization is for-profit. The students are dissatisfied and staff morale is low. You need to exercise leadership in a way that will turn the situation around.
Using the assigned material and additional credible sources of your choice, explain which leadership theory or theories below you would use to correct the situation. Give reasons for your choice(s).
Situational leadership
Transformational leadership
Transactional leadership
Servant leadership
Next, instead of a for-profit organization, assume that the training was taking place in the military. Would your answer change? Explain how and why.
Now, assume that the entity providing the training was faith-based. How would your answer change? Justify your answer.
Which theory do you find least appealing? Give a reason for your choice.
Which theory most closely aligns with your personal leadership style? Why?
How might you use leadership practices like Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart in your own leadership practice? Refer to the self-check matching exercise to refresh your memory.
Did anything you read this week surprise you or cause you to change something in your personal leadership practice?
Your work must be presented as an APA-style essay and not in question and answer format.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages
References: Include a minimum of three credible resources appropriate to your specialization, of which at least one should be from a scholarly journal.
