Reflective Questions

Instructions:  Please answer eight (8) questions following the options listed below.  For each response, do your best to: (a) clearly and coherently synthesize concepts and examples covered in class recordings, readings, and TED Talks; (b) offer your own unique insights in a way that demonstrates your understanding of the course materials; and (c) produce a clear, coherent, well-written document. As a guideline, each answer should be approximately 1-2 pages (double-spaced).   As an upper limit, please do not exceed 16 total pages.

Please note that your work will be reviewed by an academic plagiarism detector on Canvas.  As a “take home” exam, you are free to use your notes, the readings, and materials provided in class in order to answer the questions.

As you prepare your answers, keep in mind that the overall objective of this exam is twofold: (1) to give you an opportunity to reflect on the materials covered in the course for your own synthesized and cumulative learning; and (2) to demonstrate your unique understanding of the course materials in a written format that you can refer back to and use.  Please remember to incorporate specific materials from class recordings (including group presentations), readings from our HBR packet, and assigned TED Talks to support your answers.

For each answer, please indicate by number which question you are answering.  You do not need to cut and paste the actual question.

REQUIRED QUESTIONS:  Please answer the following four questions (questions 1 – 4)

Question One (required):  This question has two parts: (1) Reflecting on your current status as a leader, identify thepositive qualities and attributes you believe contribute to your potential as a leader.  Explain these strengths in terms of how they can enhance your overall leadership effectiveness.  (2) Identify the areas you believe you need to work on to become a better leader, and explain how you will improve your leadership potential and effectiveness.  Based on the areas for improvement you identified, what actions or strategies will you employ to enhance the competencies needed for effective leadership?

Question Two (required):  This question asks you to apply the main practices of leadership covered in the readings and class recordings to explain how you can demonstrate leadership in your life.  To answer this question, identify a particular type of social situation that you are currently involved with, or may become involved with in the future.  This could be a department within an organization you work for, a project group at school, a community association, a neighborhood group (such as a Homeowner’s Association), a church group of some kind, or a family unit.Select 3 of the 5 main leadership practices covered in class and explain how you will enact those practices to create change for the collective good.  For the 3 practices you have chosen, provide examples of specific actions and strategies you can take to

put these practices into effect. For instance, how can you challenge the process in ways that help facilitate new and improved ways of doing things?  Or, how can you enable others to act to help people be more effective in accomplishing meaningful work?  Or, what is your vision of the future and how can you inspire others to help you achieve it?  In your answer, be sure to address specific aspects or areas of your life where you can apply the practices of leadership, and the people involved (potential followers).

5 Leadership Practices:

Model the way

Inspire a shared vision

Challenge the process

Enable others to act

Encourage the heart

Question Three (required): Reflect on how you can create and build your influence to become a better leader.  In what ways can you become more influential in order to enlist others to support your efforts?  One way to think about this question is to consider the “sources and means” of your persuasive power that would compel others to follow your lead willingly.  You may wish to select a specific situation or setting involving others.  If so, describe the situation and the people involved, discuss your strategies in using them to gain greater influence in order to achieve desired outcomes.  Do your best to be specific about how you can develop influence to enlist people to help you achieve your goals.

Question Four (required):  Discuss how you can develop an effective network of followers in order to improve your efforts as a leader.  Thinking about the followership needed by a leader to make progress toward his/her vision of the future, what strategies will you employ to enlist an effective network of followers?  To answer this question, think about the kinds of followers you wish to have, the strategies you will use enlist those followers, and how you will inspire them to take action to support the change you are promoting as a leader.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS:  Please answer one of the following two questions (either question 5 OR question 6).

Question Five (optional):  There are two parts to this question: (1) What is the connection between emotional intelligence and grit in achieving effective leadership?  In other words, how does a person’s grit enhance his/her emotional intelligence in ways that will make him/her a better leader?  And how does a person’s emotional intelligence enhance his/her grit in ways that will make him/her a better leader?  Explain how grit and emotional intelligence work together to achieve leadership effectiveness. (2) How can you improve your own leadership potential through greater emotional intelligence and/or grit?  Select specific aspects of emotional intelligence and/or grit, as covered in our class sessions, readings and TED Talks, and identify areas you plan to work on for greater leadership abilities.

Question Six (optional): There are two parts to this question: (1) What is the connection between triple focus and strategic flexibility in achieving effective leadership?  In other words, how does a person’s focus enhance his/her strategic flexibility in ways that will make him/her a better leader?  And how does a person’s strategic flexibility enhance his/her focus in ways that will make him/her a better leader?  Explain how focus and strategic flexibility work together to achieve leadership effectiveness. (2) How can you improve your own leadership potential through greater focus and/or flexibility?  Select specific aspects of focus and/or flexibility, as covered in our class sessions, readings and TED Talks, and identify areas you plan to work on for greater leadership abilities.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS:  Please answer three of the following questions (questions 7 – 17)

Question Seven (optional):  This question has two parts: (1) Select three of the leaders featured in the recorded class case study presentations, excluding your own group’s chosen leader. Identify each leader and explain the most important insight(s) you gained about leadership from the group’s presentation about him/her.  (2) Synthesizing what you learned collectively from the three leaders you selected, what do they have in common that you will carry forward in your thinking and actions to become a better leader?  In other words, what lessons did you learn from them collectively that you can apply to improve your leadership?

Question Eight (optional):  Explain how a leader can identify a vision of the future.  What are some ways a leader can clarify meaningful targets of change for the collective good?  One way to think about this question is to consider how you would identify strategic priorities if you were appointed to a new leadership role in an organization.  What would you do to establish direction for the people you are leading?  How would you go about envisioning the future and determining outcomes worth pursuing?  In your answer, be sure to clearly identify and explain the ways a leader can formulate a vision of the future that will inform his/her action plans.

Question Nine (optional):  Identify a situation in which you could improve your followership to enhance the efforts of a leader.  Reflecting on the types of followers and the qualities of effective and ineffective followers covered in class recordings, in what way(s) can you promote your leader’s efforts by becoming a better follower?  Describe the particular context/setting of your followership, explain how you could improve your effectiveness as a follower, and explain how your improvements in these areas would better support the leader and the group’s outcomes.

Question Ten (optional):  Describe two “polarities” that you feel you could manage more effectively in order to become a better leader.  Identify the specific polarities, discuss the “downsides” you have experienced from over-emphasizing one side of each polarity, and discuss the shift you can make to generate the benefits of the other side of the polarity (i.e., what you can do to make the shift effective).  In your answer, be sure to explain the relevant context (the setting or situation) of the polarity, and explain how managing these polarities more effectively will enhance your leadership ability.

Question Eleven (optional):  Explain your plans for developing personal mastery.  Considering the process of continuous personal improvement, the PDSA model, and the practices of personal mastery covered in the class recording, how will you go about achieving a higher level of personal mastery?  One way to answer this question is to consider how you can apply what you have learned from this class that can help you enhance your personal mastery in important ways.

Question Twelve (optional):  Provide your own definition of leadership, and explain how/why this definition is important in the way you personally enact leadership.  In your answer, be sure to identify and explain the specific components/elements of leadership according to your definition, and the importance of each component in your understanding and undertaking of leadership.  You may wish to distinguish leadership from management, and/or describe how “leaders” differ from “exceptional people” (those who do great things but are not leaders).  One way to think about this question is to consider how you would help someone who has never studied leadership to understand the essence of leadership, including its defining elements.

Question Thirteen (optional):  Identify a personal example of truly effective leadership that you have either observed in another person, or have enacted yourself.  The example you come up with should be “personal” in the sense that it was a part of your own unique experience – an example in which you acted as an effective leader in a situation, or an example of someone you know who acted as an effective leader in a situation.  In your answer, describe the example of leadership and how it demonstrates the three defining elements of leadership we have discussed in class.  Also, explain what you learned from this example that can enhance your ongoing development as a leader.

Question Fourteen (optional):  What are the three most important lessons about leadership you have learned from this class that will help you become a better leader?  Reflecting on the class recordings, readings, examples, and case studies presented throughout the quarter, what are the three most important learning points that you will carry forward to inform your own leadership development and improvement? Be sure to explain how you will apply each lesson (learning point) to become a more effective leader.

Question Fifteen (optional):  What are the most important lessons you have learned about how a leader can successfully build a team and establish effective group collaboration? In other words, what can a leader do to create a culture that promotes positive dynamics in the group in ways that help the members function effectively together?  One way to think about this question is to identify what actions you would take as a leader to help a group function most effectively and productively.

Question Sixteen (optional):  As discussed in class, leaders are agents of change.  The role of a leader is not to maintain the status quo, but rather to enact ongoing change that helps the social organization move forward in productive ways.  Question: How can a leader ensure that his/her efforts at creating change will be successful in creating a competitive advantage that sustains the group’s viability and productivity?  In other words, what can a leader do to give his/her change efforts the best chance of succeeding?

Question Seventeen (optional):  Other than the “core competencies” of leadership that we discussed in class, what are the qualities you believe are most important for a leader to possess?  Identify three specific characteristics and/or attributes that a leader should have in order to enlist and inspire followers.  Describe each of these qualities, and explain why each is important to a leader’s success and effectiveness.