Assignment: Individual Reflection: Reflecting on Leadership Styles Part I
In his article “Leadership That Gets Results,” leadership expert Dan Goleman (2000) describes six leadership styles. Successful leaders do not employ only one style; instead, they select the appropriate style for the situation, deftly switching from one style to another, as circumstances demand. The scenarios and leaders that Goleman describes in his article demonstrate the contingency theory of leadership in action.
Bjugstad et al. (2006) approach the contingency theory of leadership in a different way. Instead of examining profiles of leadership styles, they examine styles of followership. After illustrating the different styles that followers employ, the authors align the styles of leadership that should be used for various followers.
For the Week 4 Individual Reflection, you will use the frameworks of examining leadership and followership styles provided by Goleman (2000) and Bjugstad et al. (2006) to analyze two leaders with whom you are familiar.
Your Individual Reflection will be in two parts, with Part I submitted in Week 4 and Part II submitted in Week 5.
By Day 7
Submit Part I of the Individual Reflection by doing the following:
Select two leaders with whom you have interacted as a follower in your personal or professional life. The leaders you select could be current or former managers or executives in your professional life. However, you may also select current or former coaches, teachers, mentors, etc. from your personal life. Once you have selected the leaders, download and view the Week 4 and Week 5 Individual Reflection Template in this week’s Learning Resources. The template will provide you the format for the Individual Refection. Then complete the following:
Create an APA-style title page with a tentative title for your Individual Refection. Use the Week 4 and Week 5 Individual Reflection Template as a guide to format the title page correctly.
Create a resource page. This page will contain the APA-style references of the two resources—Goleman (2000) and Bjugstad et al. (2006)—as well as at least one relevant resource that you or your colleague posted in the water cooler discussion. List the resources in alphabetical order.
Submit your Assignment.
To prepare for Part II for the Week 5 Individual Reflection:
Reflect on reasons for why you chose each leader.
Consider how the behaviors and actions of leaders you selected were consistent with contingency theory and the styles referred to in the Learning Resources. In other words, consider how the leadership styles of each leader aligned, or did not align, to the challenges they faced.
Reflect on whether the leaders were, or were not, effective.
Consider the reasons you, or others, chose to follow, or not to follow, these leaders and the risks you and others take on when making this choice.
You will need to support conclusions with references to the articles by Goleman (2000) and Bjugstad et al. (2006), as well as at least one resource you or a colleague posted in the water cooler discussion from this week. An exemplary paper will also integrate resources from previous weeks. Remember to review the appropriate rubric for this assignment so that you know how the Instructor will be grading your paper.
The paper you will submit next week will need to be a minimum of 3 pages and a maximum of 5 pages, not including references. The pages should be double-spaced. Please refer to the Week 4 and Week 5 Individual Reflection Template in this week’s Learning Resources for a format and style guide for this Individual Reflection.