Assignment: Pitching A Interview
Prepare to interview two organization leaders, and write an assessment in which you outline the intended purpose and focus of your interviews, along with the interview questions.
Over the course of your career, you will develop your own theories of leadership that will inform your attitudes and actions. Interviewing leaders after having done some research about leadership allows you to see effective leadership in action through the lens of scholarly research.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
• Competency 3: Create an effective theory of leadership.
o Describe the purpose and rationale for leadership interviews.
o Describe the level of leadership selected for interviews.
o Prepare relevant interview questions for an interview protocol
Preparation
As part of Assignments 3 and 4, you will need to interview two leaders in organizations of your choice. To prepare for these two interviews, complete the following at this time:
• Decide on the level of leaders you would like to interview (for example, individual contributors, middle managers, or top managers).
• Research and choose an aspect of leadership based on the topics in the Cashman text (personal mastery, purpose mastery, change mastery, resilience mastery and coaching mastery) to use as the focus for your interviews.
• Request and schedule 45-minute interviews with two different leaders at your chosen level. You should conduct the interviews between now and when you begin work on the Assignments 3, as you will need to complete the interviews in order to complete Assignments.
Interview Pitch
Submit the following components for this assessment:
• State your intended purpose for the interviews. Provide an explanation of the aspect of leadership on which you plan to focus and why you chose it.
• Describe the level of leadership selected for your interviews.
• Outline your schedule for both interview sessions; include the names and titles of the leaders with date and time of interview. If you have not been able to solidify your schedule, please include a report of your progress.
• List the interview questions you plan to use for your chosen aspect of leadership. If you wish, you may use some of the questions from the reflection exercises in the related chapter of the Cashman text. You can use any leadership theories you like to help you develop your interview questions, including servant leadership, Kevin Cashman, Margaret Wheatley, articles from the Center for Creative Leadership, leadership stage theory, and other sources.
Cashman, K. (2017). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
• Chapters 4, 6, 7, and 8 of this e-book are particularly applicable.
Conducting Your Interviews
As you conduct your interviews, remember the following:
• At the start of each interview, explain who you are, what you are doing, what leadership mastery you will be exploring in the interview, and how you will use the interview material.
• Clarify with your interviewees whether you have permission to use their names and organizations.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.