Research paper

The purpose of this assignment is for you to develop a Relationship Building Action Plan.

Outcome Met by Completing This Assignment

use leadership theories, assessment tools, and an understanding of the role of ethics, values, and attitudes to evaluate and enhance personal leadership skills

develop and implement methods for establishing a constructive organizational structure and culture that fosters positive employee and employer relationships

assess the interactions between the external environment and the organization to foster responsible and effective leadership and organizational practices

Background:

After a relaxing weekend, you come to work, sit down at your desk and open your email.  The following is an email to you from Andrew Rockfish:

I am sending this email to you because of the personal nature of the material contained within your next assignment.  It is incumbent upon all good leaders to assess continuously their personal leadership skills, style, and approach. 

You will be developing a personal relationship building assessment plan.  Much like an annual doctor’s check-up, the goal of the assessment plan is to develop a procedure for evaluating the status of your personal skills, style, and attitude in your work with others.  Included in the assessment plan is a review of your leadership strengths, weaknesses, results of leadership assessments, feedback methodology, attitude, and leadership style.

Relationship building is a dynamic process just as situations change so too can the people skills needed to address the situation. Periodic review of those skills will benefit you by noting weaknesses and areas of change or improvement needed in your behavior.

So, what exactly am I asking you to do that needs confidentiality?  Well, your plan is going to be the result of the following hypothetical evaluation you received after your first year with GDD.  Although the hypothetical evaluation could be much better, we have found that the results provide trainees the opportunity to reflect upon one’s actual results and to prepare for personal growth moving forward. 

The hypothetical scenario is one in which you were promoted a year ago into a leadership position.  However, the past year has proved to show several issues and the results are not at all what we were hoping for when we promoted you.  Still, experience has taught us that help starts with an employee taking stock of their personal skills.   Since we believe that you have the potential for being an excellent department head, we would like to take measures toward your development.  Please follow the instructions below:

Step 1:  Preparation for the Assignment

 

Before you begin writing the report, you will read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements.  Not reading this information will lead to a lower grade:

Review “How to Analyze a Case Study” under Week 6 Content.  You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario focusing on using this information to determine opportunities and solve problems.

Read the grading rubric for the assignment.  Use the grading rubric while writing the report to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.

In writing this assignment, you will read and following these tasks:

 

Third person writing is required.  Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing).  If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link:  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.

Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment. 

You are expected to paraphrase and are NOT to use direct quotes.  You are expected to paraphrase, which can be learned by reviewing this link:   https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.

You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a reference list.  Cite the page or paragraph number.

You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the reasoning.  No more than three (3) external resources can be used in completing the assignment.  The expectation is that you provide a robust use of the course readings.  If any material is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced with a page or paragraph number.  No books can be used as resource documents.  A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.   

 

Step 2:  How to Set Up the Plan

 

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is double-spaced, 12-point font.  The final product will be between 6-8 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page and appendix.  Write clearly and concisely.

 

Follow a Report Format.   

Create a title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor’s name and date;

Introduction

Leadership Table (make sure the tables are formatted to fit within the report and are easy to read and interpret)

Leadership Assessment

Relationship Building Action Plan

Step 3:  Leadership Table

 

In this hypothetical scenario, your review has been completed and the results of the evaluation as well as feedback from your peers and direct reports are in your hands.  The key to success in this project is to accept that the content in the  “GDD Evaluation Form” as a real assessment of your performance at GDD for the first year’s work in this position.  Although the information within the form is obviously hypothetical, you must place yourself in the position and address the situation as if it were truly you.

 

Carefully review the Evaluation Form and Peer/Direct Report Comments:  

 

 Examine the comments and information from the two documents:  Evaluation Form and Peer/Direct Report Comments.  Identify those statements/comments that relate to the following concepts: your strengths as a leader, your weaknesses as a leader, communication skills, personality, emotional IQ, with respect to others – trust, leadership attitude, leadership style, and vision/strategic goal implementation.

 

Complete the Leadership Table with the statements/comments you have identified.

 

Topic

Comment Phrase (s)

Strengths as a Leader

 

Weaknesses as a Leader

 

Communication Skills

 

Personality

 

Emotional IQ

 

Trust

 

Leadership Approach

 

Demonstrated Leadership Style

 

Vision/Strategic Goal Implementation

 

 

 

  

Using the main topics listed in the table above, write one paragraph for each topic, relating the identified statements/comments to conclusions that you draw about your effectiveness as a relationship builder over the past year.  Use the course readings (weeks 1 – 6) to support your conclusions/reasoning.  Be brutally honest with the conclusions that you draw.  This is personal and means your future with GDD is on the line.

 

Step 4:  Leadership Assessment

To ensure you have a complete picture of your leadership skills, you will need to take the leadership assessments listed below.  If you took any of these assessments back in week 5, you may use the results but you must complete all assessments.  Copy the actual results in the appendix of the plan.  Note:  your results are confidential. 

Then, write a short summary of the results of each quiz or test.  The summary is your explanation of the results and not a copy/paste of the results.  

Jung Personality Typology Test

Emotionally Intelligent Quiz

Communication Skills

Self Esteem Quiz

Are you a Leader Test

Leadership Skills

Leadership Style Quizzes

  

Step 5:  Relationship Building Action Plan

Now that you have completed the Leadership Assessments, it is time to develop a plan of action for improvement. Think of the leadership action plan as a way to improve the relationship-building skills with others and influence the people within the department to accomplish the work in an efficient manner that meets organizational standards and satisfies customers.  In completing the Action Plan, you will identify the gaps between the statements/comments from the table and the leadership assessment results.  Focus on the process of how to bring about improvement rather than what you should do.  Consider the steps you will take to resolve the weaknesses you have?

To accomplish the action plan, you will complete the tasks listed below.  Be thoughtful in your responses reflecting upon the input documents (Evaluation Form and Peer/Direct Report Comments and Leadership Table). 

In completing each task, you will formulate a thesis statement and support the reasoning with rigorous, focused thinking that demonstrates the analytical skills GDD is looking from you.  Read all of the reports and information closely.

Provide a paragraph that explains why people skills are important for a leader to possess.

Identify and discuss the people skills that are lacking in your relationship with others as demonstrated in the assessments and feedback received in Step 3.

Explain how the missing or weak people skills are hindering your success at building relationships with followers.

Explain the significance of the leader-follower relationship to fulfilling the strategic plan of the leader.

Identify the one critical factor from the facts provided (aside from the weaknesses in personal skills), that will specifically affect your leader-follower relationship more than any other factor.  Explain how and why this fact will affect your future if not corrected now.

Provide at least three practical recommendations as to how you can improve the weak skills that you identified.

Step 6:  Appendix – comes after the Reference List

Use the appendix to provide the results of each of the leadership assessments.  

Make sure to label each leadership assessment.