A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF MY LEADERSHIP STYLES AND CAPABILITIES

A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF MY LEADERSHIP STYLES AND CAPABILITIES

it). Explain the behaviours displayed when using these styles and give
evidence to support the styles used- refer to PDJ’s, feedback from others
and self report questionnaire data. Discuss the impact of the styles (and
behaviours used). Also comment on the extent to which you use styles
effectively and the range of styles used. Do you need to use a wider
repertoire of styles?
Evaluating Two Other Areas of Leadership Capability
· In evaluating two other areas of leadership capability, you need to select 2
aspects of leadership covered by the module. To help you make your
choices, use the model in chapter 2 of the Leadership Development
textbook .Leadership in different textbooks can be seen as covering all
sorts of behaviours – please only evaluate those covered by THIS module.
You need to explain WHY you have made your choices – for example,
referring to issues or needs in your current job or to areas that will be
important to you in achieving your future career plans. So for example, you
may choose to evaluate, say, your active listening skills and conflict
handling.
Using Data
· Your evaluation must be supported by data to justify what you are saying
about yourself and this data MUST include PDJ data, self report
questionnaire data AND feedback from others. For example, if you claim to
be good at motivating others, what evidence can you provide to support
this?
· Feedback from others: this may be feedback you have been given in the
past or feedback you gather specifically for the assignment. However, if
you are relying on feedback given in the past, you MUST ensure it relates
to the specific aspects of leadership behaviour you have chosen to look at.
Also, it must include references to your BEHAVIOUR. General comments
about your performance will not be helpful. For these reasons it is strongly
recommended that you gather feedback specifically for the assignment,
and in relation to the areas of leadership you are evaluating.
· It is important to make clear how the feedback was gathered (face to face
conversation, through a questionnaire, as part of a performance appraisal
etc) and who provided the feedback. We do not need to know the persons
name but we need to know their relationship to you e.g. work colleague,
boss, friend. Feedback will only be helpful if it is precise in nature and
relates to what you do i.e. behaviour. You may need to ask some specific
questions and probe to get really useful feedback. You should summarise
feedback (if you send out feedback, do NOT include each form returned)
and feedback information should be included in your appendices so that
you can make reference to it.
· Self report questionnaires: these could be questionnaires such as the
MBTI, Belbin or Hay Inventory of Leadership Styles questionnaires or
the Learning Styles questionnaire you completed during Induction. Do
remember that the results of these questionnaires cannot be treated as
‘facts’. They do not tell you what you ARE but suggest how you might
be. A self report questionnaire is a questionnaire which you complete
about yourself so is based on your self perception. However, if it is a
reputable questionnaire which has proven reliability and validity it can
be a way of looking more objectively at your style and approach,
especially if you discuss the results in the context of real experiences.
Questionnaire results e.g. scores, should be included in the
assignment or appendices but we do not need a copy of the
questionnaire itself.
· Personal Development Journal (PDJ) entries: these are explained in
chapter 4 of the textbook and were looked at in seminar 1. Also do note
the guidelines on PDJ’s in the LD Resource Centre. PDJ’s essentially
provide a structured way of exploring experiences to help understand
what you do and why you do it, as well as the consequences of your
actions. You should only include PDJ’s that are relevant to the
aspects of leadership behaviour you are evaluating. But do note
that a PDJ may be relevant to more than one of the skills you are
evaluating e.g. one PDJ may provide data on empowering, handling
conflict and assertiveness. You should include AT LEAST 5 PDJ
entries to support your assignment, but probably no more than 10.
These should be attached as appendices and numbered for ease of
reference in your assignment.
When referring to PDJ’s in the assignment, make sure you do not
repeat the PDJ otherwise you will run out of pages. BUT you do need
to draw out the key behaviours and learning points to support the point
you are making.
You may have other data you feel is relevant and wish to include. If you
are in any doubt about what to include, do contact your tutor.
· Be careful using questionnaire data e.g. MBTI, Belbin questionnaires
provide some insights relevant to leadership and some which are not
directly relevant. Ensure you select out relevant aspects to discuss.
· Make sure you evaluate your leadership behaviour. Do not get drawn in to
evaluating each set of questionnaire results. You need to use insights from
completing the questionnaires as relevant to provide support for the
assertions you are making.
· You may find that there seem to be contradictions in your data and with
certain aspects of your leadership behaviour e.g. you seem to be very
good at influencing colleagues but you are submissive and fail to influence
your boss. Sometimes we do behave differently in different situations.
What is important is that you recognise when there are contradictions and
you discuss these even if you are not fully able to explain why you behave
differently.
Discussing Behaviour
· You must discuss your leadership behaviour in terms of specific
behaviour (verbal and non verbal) and not in terms of broad aspects of
personality. For example, rather than just saying ‘I am visionary’ you need
to discuss what you DO that makes you think you are visionary e.g. ‘I have
a clear view of the future, I can communicate enthusiastically, using
metaphors and animated gestures’.
Using Theory
· You must use academic literature in your assignment. This should be used
in evaluating your leadership behaviour and discussing your priority needs.
You should be drawing on the Leadership Development textbook and
further reading (see the list of Further Reading in the LD Resource Centre)
and using this in your assignment where relevant. Do make sure you are
using models and concepts to help you understand and explain your
behaviour rather than simply quoting theory and models and leaving the
tutor to guess why you have included them.
Priority Development Needs
· You must identify what you see as the key or priority areas of leadership
you need to develop, these needs must refer to aspects of the leadership
areas you have evaluated. DO NOT include as needs aspects of
leadership you have not discussed in your evaluation. You must give your
reasons why you see the needs identified as key or priorities for you. To
do this you could make reference to your job role and/or how these skills
may be important to your development in the future. Identify specific
behaviours you wish to change e.g. ‘be able to say no assertively, using a
firm tone of voice and confident facial expression’ rather than just broad
areas of need e.g. be more assertive. Do note that your needs are likely to
be specific issues within the aspect of leadership evaluated e.g. if you
evaluated communicating vision, you may have a specific need around
finding ways to communicate vision to staff who work at a distance.
· You should explain how you think you can address your priority needs –
that is how you can bring about the desired changes in your leadership
behaviour. You may wish to include a development plan in your
appendices which shows in plan form how you will address your need
(development plans are covered in chapter 16 of the textbook). You must
also comment on the challenges you think you will face in making the
changes.
· You can use any relevant material from your first assignment but
please make sure you are answering the resit assignment question and
the data is relevant.
Assignment Structure
Please note that this is a suggested outline structure for your assignment. You
do not have to follow this structure. It is only a suggestion. However, if you
follow a different structure you must still ensure you meet the assignment
criteria.
Your assignment should have, ideally, a list of contents (not included in the
page count). Remember you must also include the LD resit assignment tutor
feedback/declaration form when you post up your assignment. PLEASE only
post up one single word document.
Introduction
Briefly, explain key facts about yourself and your background, relevant to
understanding your evaluation of your leadership behaviour. For example,
current job, extent of managerial/leadership experience, cultural factors,
career plans.
Identify the 2 aspects of leadership you will be focusing on in the assignment
e.g. leading teams, empowering in addition to evaluating leadership styles,
and explain why you have made these choices. Explain the sources of data
you will be using to evaluate your behaviour: you should refer to PDJ’s, self
report questionnaire data such as MBTI, and feedback from others. Indicate
where the data can be found i.e. the relevant appendices. Explain how
feedback has been gathered: who from, when, how. This should be a BRIEF
section, no more than 1 or one and a half pages.
Evaluation of Leadership Behaviour
This is the MAIN section of the assignment.
You should define leadership (and, of course, make use of this definition in
the assignment).
Then it is suggested that you should have a 3 subsections, evaluating your
leadership styles and then the 2 other aspects of leadership chosen.
For your evaluation of leadership styles and the 2 aspects of leadership , you
should be identifying the behaviours you use in leading others and the impact
of your leadership behaviours.
You MUST support assertions made about your behaviour with data, making
reference to PDJ’s, feedback from others and self report questionnaires, and
relevant concepts and models (and remember to reference accurately using
the Harvard method explained in the Referencing and Citation Guide in your
Students Quick Reference Guide and in MBA Resources). Make sure you
discuss any apparent contradictions in your data. Do make links between
your sections as inevitably there will be some overlap in terms of what is
discussed in each subsection.
Key Leadership Development Needs
From your evaluation select what you regard as your priority leadership
development needs and explain WHY these are a priority for you, referring
either to your current job role or your future career aspirations. Note you may
want to build on strengths and/or address limitations.
Addressing your Priority Leadership Needs
Explain how you will address your priority/key development needs, being clear
about what you want to change, what actions you will take to make that
change, timescales and how you will monitor and review your progress.
Changing behaviour and producing development plans is covered in chapter
16 of the textbook.
Please note, you may want to attach a completed plan in the format shown in
chapter 16, in the appendices, but if you do you should also provide some
comments about your plan in the body of the assignment.
Please do not suggest further reading on the plan unless there is a good
reason for doing so – it is expected that you have completed reading and
understand key concepts as part of the assignment process. Explain the
challenges you will face in making the behaviour changes.
Conclusions
This will be very brief – just a couple of sentences to ‘round off’ the
assignment so that it does not suddenly stop . You may want to comment
here on what you have learned from completing the assignment.

 
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