ssessment Traits
Benchmark
Requires Lopeswrite
Assessment Description
The purpose of this assignment is for students to identify and discuss different leadership theories exemplified in business leaders. Students will also describe power bases leaders use to resolve challenges and explain behaviors that leaders should demonstrate or avoid in order to be successful. Specifically, identify one business leader you either know personally or are able to gain access to for the purpose of conducting an interview who meets the following criteria:
- The leader may be a former or current manager, educational leader, civic/business leader (including for nonprofits), coaching staff, or religious leader.
- The leader must have served in a managerial capacity for at least 3 years within an organization or department with oversight of at least 10 employees.
- The leader may refer to their current job or a previous job as long as the experience meets the criteria noted above.
- Please note that your chosen leader must first be approved by your instructor if you have not already received approval prior to starting this topic.
This interview can take place virtually over video conference (e.g., Zoom) or in person. For assistance on using Zoom for the interview, refer to the “Zoom” resources information, located in the Topic 6 Resources.
Part I: Preparing for and Conducting the Interview
In advance of the interview, be sure to read and understand the presentation guidelines below and be prepared to ask additional/follow-up questions to ensure that information adequate enough to address each point has been retrieved. For example, you would not necessarily want to ask a leader about the power base(s) they have utilized, as they may not know what you are talking about, but you will want to have enough information pertaining to how the leader handled their challenge to articulate which power base(s) you believe they used.
Before scheduling the interview with your approved leader, confirm with your interviewed leader that they will provide verbal consent during the interview for you to video or audio record the interview for ease of notetaking.
Additionally, refer the attached “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template prior to the interview to review the skills and characteristics associated with servant leadership and the entrepreneurial mindset. Use the first three worksheet tabs of this “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template to automatically calculate the scores your leaders receive for each concept. Note that during the interview, you will walk through these assessments with the interviewee and fill it out as you talk through the questions together. Do not give the template to the interviewee and expect them to fill it out independently.
Evidence of the Interview and Conducting the Interview
At the beginning of the interview, remember to ask your interviewed leader if they provide consent for you to video or audio record the interview for ease of notetaking that you may refer back to as you complete the remaining parts of the assignment. Students must receive permission from the interviewee to record the interview.
In addition to your own insights, note that throughout the PowerPoint slides and the speaker notes, you will need to provide cited documentation to justify any factual statements made and to support your positions. Review “Assignment Submission Guidelines,” located in the Class Resources. Remember that PDFs are not an acceptable format.
Address all of the following questions with your interviewee:
Background Information:
Address the basics with your interviewee:
- Do you confirm your previous consent for me to record this interview?
- Who are you?
- Where do you work? How long have you been there in your role?
Interview Topics:
Reflect upon either your current job or a previous one:
- Which industry is/was representative of the organization, what is/was your role, and how long have you been or were you in that position?
- Consider your greatest career achievement in that role. Provide details, including the time period and the persons, products, and services involved. What management principles, strategies, or processes did you employ that you believe led to this effective organizational outcome? Why do you consider this achievement to have been so impactful? Refer to “1. Part A – Servant Leadership” of the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template and have your interviewee tell you how they rate themselves on each characteristic that they used in realizing their greatest achievement. Please provide an example of how just one of the characteristics was used in the realization of this achievement.
- Consider one significant challenge, preferably one with an ethical dilemma, you previously faced in that role. How did you handle it, and what was the outcome? Provide details including the time period, persons, products, services, competition, market conditions, etc. that may have been involved. Refer to “2. Part B – Servant Leadership” of the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template and have your interviewee tell you how they rate themselves on each characteristic that they used in overcoming their significant challenge. Please provide an example of how just one of the characteristics was used in overcoming the challenge.
- What was the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization, and how essential is the entrepreneurial mindset in achieving the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization? Refer to “3. Part C – Entrepreneurial Mindset” of the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template and have your interviewee tell you how they rate themselves on each characteristic in relation to how each characteristic is used to achieve the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization, and then you will enter the numbers accordingly. Please provide an example of how just one of the characteristics was used in achieving the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization.
- Apart from servant leadership and the entrepreneurial mindset, please identify two significant lessons/attributes that are essential for success. Describe anything you wish you would have specifically avoided that may have derailed or delayed your success?
Deliverables:
The following deliverables will need to be included in your final submission for this part of the assignment within the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template for these four tabs.
- Part A – Servant Leadership
- Part B – Servant Leadership
- Part C – Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Evidence of the Interview
Part II: Leadership Comparison
Note that in this part of the assignment, there is nothing separate to submit to the digital classroom. However, it is an essential part of what must be done next since, in preparation for Part III, you will conduct research to compare the leadership style used by your selected leader (interviewed in Part I) with the style of a well-known business leader from the attached “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template in the “5. Comparison Leaders List” tab. Your selected leader should be in the same industry (e.g., technology, finance, hospitality, etc.) as the leader chosen for comparison. Investigate the strengths and weaknesses of both leadership styles. Your analysis will be presented in the “Leadership Style Comparison” and “Leadership Lessons” sections of the Part III: Presentation.
If you would like to compare your leader to a leader not provided on the “5. Comparison Leaders List” tab, the selection must first be approved by your instructor.
Part III: Presentation
Create a PowerPoint presentation of 10-12 slides (including a title slide and references slide). All content slides must include developed speaker notes in which you fully explain your ideas presented on the slides.
You will then need to navigate to Connect to create your recording. Make sure to keep the following details in mind for your submission after you review:
- Review the “GCU-420 GoReact Tutorial” resource, located in the Topic 6 Resource, covering important details about how to use the GoReact tool within Connect to create your recording with the slides showing and also with at least your face showing as you present.
- Note that points will be deducted for audio-only submissions.
- Given that you are required to have 10-12 slides, the time for the video should be about 10-12 minutes, so there will be a point deduction for going above or below that range.
- You will submit your final version of the recorded presentation within Connect for this assignment.
The first seven sections outlined below are based upon your interview above in Part I in addition to your corresponding research. Address the following in your presentation under the appropriate headings:
Business Leader Description
- Identify the leader and justify the selection of that particular leader.
- Discuss the organizations with which the leader is affiliated and the industry in which that the leader is most recognized.
- Discuss how long the leader has been in a leadership position.
Greatest Career Achievement of Leader
- Describe the leader’s greatest career achievement(s).
- Provide justification on why this achievement was so impactful. Include which management principles, strategies, or processes they employed that led to this effective organizational outcome and improved stakeholder satisfaction.
- Using the attached “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template, complete the scoring in the “1. Part A – Servant Leadership” worksheet based on your conversation with your leader. Use the Likert scale provided to evaluate the extent to which the respondent (i.e., the interviewed leader) applied servant leadership characteristics when the respondent experienced the greatest success. Review the leader’s score earned for each characteristic in this area and provide an explanation of how these elements relate to the leader’s greatest career achievement.
Handling a Challenge
- Identify the significant career challenge the leader faced.
- Explain how the leader handled the challenge.
- Based on your perspective, differentiate whether the response aligns more with a managerial role or a leadership role.
- Using the attached “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template, complete the scoring in the “2. Part B – Servant Leadership” worksheet based on your conversation with your leader. Use the Likert scale provided to evaluate the extent to which the respondent (i.e., the interviewed leader) applied servant leadership characteristics when the respondent experienced the most significant challenge. Review the leader’s score earned for each characteristic in this area and provide an explanation of how it relates to the handling of the challenge.
Power Bases and Impact of Behavior
- Based upon the responses received in Item 3 of Part I (above), describe which power base(s) you feel the leader utilized in handling or resolving the challenge and justify your choice.
- Discuss the impact of the leader’s behavior on the situation based on the power base demonstrated.
Mission, Vision, Strategy, and Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Using the attached “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template, complete the scoring in the “3. Part C – Entrepreneurial Mindset” worksheet based on your conversation with your interviewee. Use the Likert scale provided, rate the extent to which the interviewee (i.e., the interviewed leader) possesses an entrepreneurial mindset.
- Explain the association between possessing an entrepreneurial mindset with achieving the organization’s mission, vision, and strategy.
Application of Leadership Theory
- Discuss which leadership theory, model, style, or behavior best describes the chosen leader’s approach to leading people.
Leadership Style Comparison
- Compare the leadership style used by your selected leader in Part II with the style of the selected, well-known business leader in the same industry.
- Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both leadership styles.
The next two sections below are based upon your research on your selected leader in Part II as well as the lessons learned in the interview in Part I.
Leadership Lessons
- Identify and explain three characteristics that a leader should demonstrate or avoid in order to be successful.
- Provide justification for the characteristics selected.
Critical Reflection of the Interview and Research Processes
- Why did you choose to interview the leader in Part I, and why did you choose the selected leader in Part II?
- What additional or follow-up questions did you ask in order to arrive at the responses you provided within your presentation? For example, how did you prompt responses from your interviewee to answer questions about less common concepts, such as “Generalized Self Efficacy,” “Internal Locus of Control,” or “Healing”?
- Provide a short reflection of what you learned from this interview and research process, including any challenges you faced and how you overcame them.
Other Requirements:
You are required to submit the following deliverables:
- From Part I: The completed “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template for “1. Part A – Servant Leadership,” “2. Part B – Servant Leadership,” and “3. Part C – Entrepreneurial Mindset” tabs.
- From Part I: In the “4. Evidence of Interview” tab within the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” template, include the link to your recorded interview.
- From Part III: PowerPoint presentation with detailed speaker notes within the designated notes sections. These robust, detailed speaker notes are required to support and explain the bullet points in each slide. Include scholarly support to validate your position and be sure to cite any charts or graphs included in your presentation and speaker notes.
- From Part III: The recorded presentation you will submit in Connect needs to include a video and audio recording while also advancing through the slide presentation. As noted previously, you will record the presentation directly in Connect using the GoReact resource listed in Topic 6 in Connect for this purpose.
- The completed PowerPoint slide file should be submitted in addition to the Excel workbook.
You are required to use at least two external industry reliable sources in addition to the textbook to provide evidence in support of the leadership style displayed by the selected leader. The rationale should be justified; this should not be completed based on an opinion. These sources must be cited in-text (i.e., parenthetically within the presentation), in addition to providing a references list at the end of the presentation.
General Requirements
Refer to the resource “Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
BS Accounting; BS Business Administration; BS Entrepreneurial Studies; BS Finance and Economics; BS Finance; BS Finance and Economics; BS Supply Chain and Logistics Management: (3.6). BS Business Analytics; BS Business Management; BS Marketing and Advertising; BS Sports Management: (3.4). BS Business Secondary Education: (6.3). BS Business Information Systems: (3.3). BS Homeland Security and Emergency Management: (2.1). BS Applied Management: (1.5)
Examine management principles, strategies, and processes that lead to effective organizational outcomes.
Rubric Criteria
Collapse All Rubric Criteria
Collapse All
Part I: Evidence of the Interview and “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” Document
5 points
Criteria Description5. Target
5 points
Evidence of the interview and the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” document with accessible links provide a substantial quantity of supporting detail.
4. Acceptable
4.25 points
Evidence of the interview and the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” document with accessible links are included and complete.
3. Approaching
3.75 points
Evidence of the interview along with the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” document with accessible links are somewhat complete; relevant details are missing.
2. Insufficient
3.25 points
Evidence of the interview and the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” document with accessible links are incomplete or incorrect.
1. Unsatisfactory
0 points
Evidence of the interview and the “Contemporary Business Leader Materials” document with accessible links are absent, inappropriate, or irrelevant.
Part III: Business Leader Description
7 points
Criteria Description5. Target
7 points
Introduction and description of the business leader (including the organizations that the leader is affiliated with, the industry that the leader is most recognized in, and the length of time the leader was in the position) are thorough and include substantial relevant supporting details.
4. Acceptable
5.95 points
Introduction and description of the business leader (including the organizations that the leader is affiliated with, the industry that the leader is most recognized in, and the length of time the leader was in the position) are clear and well-integrated and provide an above-average quality of supporting details.
3. Approaching
5.25 points
Introduction and description of the business leader (including the organizations that the leader is affiliated with, the industry that the leader is most recognized in, and the length of time the leader was in the position) are present but provided at a cursory level and lack relevant supporting details.
2. Insufficient
4.55 points
Introduction and description of the business leader (including the organizations that the leader is affiliated with, the industry that the leader is most recognized in, and the length of time the leader was in the position) are vague and incomplete or incorrect.
1. Unsatisfactory
0 points
Introduction and description of the business leader (including the organizations that the leader is affiliated with, the industry that the leader is most recognized in, and the length of time the leader was in the position) are absent, inappropriate, or irrelevant.
Part III: Greatest Career Achievement Using Servant Leadership, Mgmt Principles/Strategies (B)
7 points
Criteria Description
(C1.5, C2.1, C3.3, C3.4, C3.6, C6.3)
5. Target
7 points
Discussion of the greatest career achievement of the leader, including a justification of why the achievement was impactful through the use of management principles, strategies, or processes and an evaluation of the extent to which the respondent applied servant leadership characteristics based on the Likert scale, is thorough and includes substantial relevant supporting details.
4. Acceptable
5.95 points
Discussion of the greatest career achievement of the leader, including a justification of why the achievement was impactful through the use of management principles, strategies, or processes and an evaluation of the extent to which the respondent applied servant leadership characteristics based on the Likert scale, is clear and well-integrated and provides an above-average quality of supporting details.
3. Approaching
5.25 points
Discussion of the greatest career achievement of the leader, including a justification of why the achievement was impactful through the use of management principles, strategies, or processes and an evaluation of the extent to which the respondent applied servant leadership characteristics based on the Likert scale, is present but provided at a cursory level and lacks relevant supporting details.
2. Insufficient
4.55 points
Discussion of the greatest career achievement of the leader, including a justification of why the achievement was impactful through the use of management principles, strategies, or processes and an evaluation of the extent to which the respondent applied servant leadership characteristics based on the Likert scale, is vague and incomplete or incorrect.
1. Unsatisfactory
0 points
Discussion of the greatest career achievement of the leader, including a justification of why the achievement was impactful through the use of management principles, strategies, or processes and an evaluation of the extent to which the respondent applied servant leadership characteristics based on the Likert scale, is absent, inappropriate, or… [Content truncated to 3000 words]