16 Jan Professional Formatting Requirements

JWI510 Leadership in the 21st Century

Week 3 Assignment

ASSIGNMENT 1: YOUR LEADERSHIP PROFILE

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

John Quincy Adams

Leadership is a critical skill in business. Leading effectively requires an understanding of your own

unique leadership style and personality traits.

For this assignment, you will reflect on your leadership experiences, assess your strengths, evaluate your

emotional intelligence and DiSC profile, and develop a plan for mastering your leadership style.

Instructions:

Write a 4-5 page paper in which you address the following:

1. Reflect on your leadership experiences:

a. Describe the leadership and managerial aspects of your most recent professional role

b. Identify and describe 2 key experiences that have impacted you as a leader

2. Assess your leadership strengths:

a. Describe 2 key strengths, from Jack Welch’s Foundational Principles and 8 Essential Rules of

Leadership as they pertain to your leadership development

3. How do these experiences and strengths relate to aspects of your Emotional Intelligence and

your DiSC profile?

4. Develop a plan for mastering your leadership style:

a. Identify 2-3 leadership skills you would like to master in the future

b. Describe steps you can take to master those skills. How will you measure your success?

Professional Formatting Requirements:

• Typed, double spaced, professional font (size 10-12), includes headings and subheadings(to

identify main topics and subtopics), with one-inch margins on all sides. See the Sample

Professional Paper under Course Documents for an example.

• References must be included and provide accurate information that enables the reader to

locate the original source. Application and analysis of course materials and resources is

expected, and additional research is welcome.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, the professor’s name, the

course title, and the date.

• The paper’s length is 4 to 6 pages, excluding your Cover page and Reference list. You may

exceed 6 pages but be sure that the extra length is not redundant and adds value to your

reflections

JWI510 Leadership in the 21st Century

Week 7 Assignment

PART 1

CASE STUDY

“A good leader…is someone who has energy, can articulate a vision and inspire others to perform, makes

the tough decisions, has the skill to deliver, and never fails to deliver the financials.”

Jack Welch

Leadership comes with many challenges. You need to motivate, inspire and encourage your teams to work toward common goals. This assignment offers you an opportunity to apply what you have been learning about leadership to a complex business situation. It is designed to help you synthesize the leadership practices we have studied so far into informed recommendations that address the challenges presented in the case.

For this two-part assignment, you will evaluate how leaders can ensure collaboration and cohesiveness among all team members. You will also demonstrate your ability to lead (e.g. appraise, evaluate, interpret, etc.), through this case analysis. Be sure to consider suggestions from your reading of Lencioni’s, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Additionally, this case analysis should incorporate concepts and examples from the course lectures, discussions, videos, readings, and DiSC and TKI results.

NOTE: Assignment 2 is broken down into two parts. You will submit Part 1 (Problem and Analysis) of this

assignment in Week 7 and Part 2 (Executive Summary, Revisions to the Problem and Analysis, and

Recommendations) in Week 10.

Part 1: Problem and Analysis

During Weeks 4-6, we have explored a number of leadership topics from the perspectives of both team members and team leaders. This assignment will help to integrate these topics with the materials from Weeks 1-3 of the course. As you work on the assignment, be sure to make use of all that we have learned from Week 1 through Week 7, e.g., personal leadership style, the DiSC, TKI, etc.

Instructions

1. Read the case, Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear: Bringing the Executive Team Together

2. Write a 4 – 6 page paper to address the following:

a. Risk to the Business: Despite the success of the business and the talent of individual team members, the Executive Team at Blake Sports Apparel suffers from a number of dysfunctions that are impacting the business. What are the biggest risks this business is currently facing? Explain your position and cite specific examples from the case to illustrate the potential impact of these risks

b. Successes: It’s a natural tendency when exploring team dysfunction to focus only on the negative; however, Blake Sports Apparel and this Executive Team have a long track record of wins and high performance. Summarize the key successes and positive characteristics of this organization. What are the strengths of the Executive Team?

c. Analysis: Explore the possible causes for the team’s dysfunction, using the questions below to guide you. Include specific examples from the case to support your analysis.

i. How might the company’s early entrepreneurial success have sown the seeds for dysfunction as the business grew?

ii. How would you characterize the level of trust, communication and information sharing among this group?

iii. In what ways do alignment (or lack of alignment) around goals and incentives impact team performance and cohesion?

iv. In what ways are the current team structures and decision making processes impacting the business?

v. In what ways do CEO Cameron Barker’s leadership style and history with the company contribute to the team’s dysfunction?

Professional Formatting Requirements:

• Typed, double spaced professional font (size 10-12), includes headings and subheadings, with one-inch margins on all sides. See the Sample Professional Paper under Course Documents for an example.

• References must be included and provide accurate information that enables the reader to locate the original source. Application and analysis of course materials and resources is expected, and additional research is welcome.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

• The paper’s length is 4 to 6 pages, excluding your Cover page and Reference list

JWI510 Leadership in the 21st Century

Week 7 Assignment

PART 2

CASE STUDY

Executive Summary, Revisions, and Recommendations

During Weeks 7-10, we have explored a number of leadership topics from the perspective of leading in organizations. The assignment will help you integrate what you have been working on throughout the course. Make use of all you have learned since Week 1, including your personal leadership style, the DiSC, TKI, etc. You will need to formulate your recommendations with a consideration of the time and resource constraints described in the case that have the potential to undermine the trust the team leader is seeking to build.

For this assignment, you will continue your analysis of the Blake Sports Apparel case by providing an Executive Summary, revisions to the problem and analysis, and recommendations for improving teamwork and resolving conflicts more effectively. You will also have the opportunity to improve Part 1 (Problem and Analysis) based on the feedback that you received from your instructor.

NOTE: Since this component of the assignment is a continuation of the work you completed for Part 1, you should continue your work in the same document that you submitted for Part 1 (Problem and Analysis). Even though the Executive Summary comes first in the paper, it is often written last since it presents a synopsis (or overview) of the entire paper.

Instructions

1. Read the Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear: Bringing the Executive Team Together case again.

2. Write a paper that addresses all of the following:

a. Executive Summary: Briefly summarize key points of the paper:

• What is the problem or issue?

• What are the possible causes of the issue or problem?

• What solutions do you recommend?

b. Problem and Analysis from Part 1 of this assignment: Implement any feedback that you received from your instructor.

c. Recommendations: Acting as a leadership consultant to Cameron Barker (and applying principles and practices from this course), what recommendations would you make to improve teamwork and resolve conflicts more effectively? Use the questions below to guide you:

• What can Barker do to increase trust and improve communication?

• How can Barker incentivize the teams to improve alignment and meet their collective goals?

• What can be done to make team meetings more effective?

Academic Submissions and Evaluation

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further

distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This document is subject to change

based on the needs of the class.

• Should Barker change the teams either in terms of team leadership and members and/or or overall structure? Explain.

• What, if anything, does Barker need to change about his own leadership style and his behaviors in order to make his Executive Team more effective?

• What additional actions should Barker take to improve team dynamics and performance and ensure that both Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear improve collaboration and thrive in their market segment?

Professional Formatting Requirements

• Typed, double spaced professional font (size 10-12), includes headings and subheadings, with one-inch margins on all sides. See the Sample Professional Paper under Course Documents for an example.

• References must be included and provide accurate information that enables the reader to locate the original source. Application and analysis of course materials and resources is expected, and additional research is welcome.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student name(s), the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

• The paper’s length is 8 to 10 pages, excluding your Cover page and Reference list.