Overview
For your final project, you will submit an essay in which you reflect on the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership and how they apply to real-life situations. Throughout the course, you will develop a leadership development action plan to outline how you will use the five practices to improve the three areas of leadership you will identify in Module One. In Modules Three and Five, you will complete milestone assignments that will help you assemble your final deliverable in Module Seven. These milestone assignments are short papers that will summarize the progress you have made on your leadership development action plan. In Module Seven, you will complete a reflective essay that will allow you to put into practice the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership as well as the leadership theories and approaches covered in the course. Note that the milestone assignments do not specifically address the last of the five practices (Encourage the Heart), but you will do so as part of the final project.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Assess leadership skills and abilities that apply to interpersonal and intra-organizational situations and effectively influence workplace dynamics
• Evaluate leadership decision-making strategies for their effectiveness on the achievement of organizational goals
• Analyze various leadership theories and approaches for their ability to enhance organizational effectiveness to improve sustainability
• Explain the influence of international and cultural differences on leadership strategies and organizational dynamics in fostering shared visions and purposes
Prompt
You have learned about each of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership and, on a weekly basis, have developed a leadership development action plan to improve selected leadership areas. Through the milestone assignments, you have analyzed how you will use the leadership practices to assist with the process of improving your selected areas. Using your milestone submissions, your textbook, your course resources and discussion posts, and your leadership development action plan, address the following critical elements:
• Describe the concept behind each of the five practices with supporting evidence.
• Apply each of the five practices to an organization of your choice.
o Identify an organization you are currently a leader of or would like to be a leader of in the future.
o Identify how many employees you are leading or would feel comfortable leading in the future.
o Reflect upon your acquired knowledge of the five practices and write about how the concepts you have learned might be used in the organization you selected with the quantity of employees you selected.
• Select two leadership theories or approaches you learned about in Modules Two through Six and describe how you will apply those theories (with supporting evidence) to the three leadership areas of improvement you selected in Module One.
Milestone One: Model the Way and Inspire a Shared Vision
Milestones
In Module Three, you will submit a short paper that discusses these two Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way and Inspire a Shared Vision.
This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Challenge the Process and Enable Others to Act
In Module Five, you will submit a short paper that discusses these two Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Challenge the Process and Enable Others to Act.
This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Final Submission: Reflection on the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
In Module Seven, you will submit an essay in which you reflect on the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.