The leadership assignment provides students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of leadership by evaluating the skills, values, methods, and performance of someone in a leadership position. Through a personal interview, the student will determine the leader’s strengths and weakness, accomplishments and failures, but, most importantly, how that individual’s approach to leadership conforms or diverges from the 5 practices of exemplary leadership (model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act and encourage the heart) in the model presented by Kouzes and Posner. The student will comment on the leader’s compliance with the Kouzes and Posner model and provide recommendations on how that individual could improve his or her leadership in light of this model.
You should select someone who is a leader in your major/discipline. [Note: Exceptions to this should be cleared with your professor.] For example, if you are a literature major, you may want to interview a teacher or the leader of a literacy advocacy group; as a government major, you may want to interview a local council member or mayor; as a Christian ministry major, you may want to interview a pastor or local ministry leader. This assignment is designed to help you understand leadership in the field you have chosen. Please make every effort to make this relevant to you. Be sure to inform your interviewee that the interview will be held in the strictest confidence and will only be shared with your professor.
You may interview someone you know or have a relationship with; however, you must have your professor’s approval BEFORE contacting the potential interview candidate.
Make sure you provide all the below information (estimations are fine):
Name of the leader
Company, organization, or group associated with the leader
The leader’s position/title in the company, organization, or group
The size of the group for which the leader is responsible
The number of years in a leadership capacity
A brief description of the role and responsibilities of this leader, and how this leader relates to your discipline (major, minor, etc.)
Your chosen writing style (APA, MLA, Turabian)
This part of the process is very important…and is arguably the most frustrating. My job is to make sure that your subject is a leader who will facilitate your analysis of leadership skills through Kouzes and Posner’s model. Also…and just as importantly…I need to see clearly that you see your proposed subject’s leadership role clearly enough to analyze the right thing. So, don’t be surprised if I ask a follow-up question or two. Make sure you’re going back and checking your post for any reply – HOWEVER, MOST REPLIES FROM ME WILL BE AS I GRADE THE PROPOSAL.
What to avoid: The hardest part of this assignment is choosing someone who fits the definition of a leader. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to analyze your subject using the criteria of Kouzes and Posner’s model.
Choosing someone who is not a leader or in a leadership role:
A manager and/or managerial functions (payroll, scheduling, advertising, etc.) Ask yourself, “does this function involve directing, motivating, guiding or, in other words, leading people?” Some leaders perform managerial functions…but you need to stay away from them. Kouzes and Posner won’t help you analyze how a leader manages the payroll or schedules meetings.
Certain Pastoral functions. Pastors are a great leadership source…and are perfectly acceptable! However, creating and delivering a sermon are not strictly leadership functions (homiletics), but their purpose in leading a congregation might be…you have to clearly make the point. You should look towards someone in your major/discipline to interview. While it may seem intuitive, your interview subject should be in a position of leadership. Make sure you don’t confuse management (the organization and execution of various “business” practices within the organization) with leadership. Here’s a general rule of thumb…if your subject has no people who work for him or her (or are not directly influenced by him or her), then they are probably not a leader suitable.