Dynamic Leadership Week 5 Weekly Briefing

Last week you explored the concept of leadership styles and considered how they can be appropriately exercised within a contingency perspective. This week you examine the roles that values, principles, and ethics play in shaping how leaders can both reinforce and undermine their influence. You will have the chance to choose targeted readings from the course text, Passion and Purpose: Stories From the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, that match your own passions and interests. Take advantage of this opportunity and explore the compelling stories in this resource. This week, the specific Learning Objectives include: • Analyze practices of leadership in business settings • Analyze the role of leadership for affecting positive social change • Analyze leadership styles in business settings In terms of the course-level Learning Outcomes, you will: • Develop strategies for becoming a more effective leader or follower within various leadership contexts • Integrate best practices for communicating in professional settings Discussion: Shared Practice: Will Your Passion Find Purpose? In this Discussion you are given the opportunity to customize what you read from the course text, Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, so that you can focus on the accounts of MBA graduates that resonate with you and can help inspire your own future actions. The assignment allows you to choose one or more accounts to paraphrase (there is that technique again!) and discuss. (Hint: For an exemplary response, explain how the account(s) you selected support, expand on, or contradict concepts we have explored in the course to date.) This should be a really fun assignment, as there is quite a range of accounts to choose from. (Hint: this may be a great opportunity to help you think about the passions you share with your colleagues who could become part of your Walden network!) Assignment: Individual Reflection: Reflecting on Leadership Styles

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For this assignment you will need to select two leaders with whom you have interacted as a follower and identify readings to help you analyze these leaders’ styles. You will writing an Individual Reflection paper, so, this is a great time to review the resources in the Learning Support Docs that pertain to writing and APA and visit Walden’s Writing Center. In writing a paper, the most important outcome is the argument(s) that you make, the evidence that you weave into those argument(s), and your support for explicitly identified conclusions or recommendations.

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Dynamic Leadership Week 5 Weekly Briefing Having said that, it is also important to recognize that the style of your writing matters— and that whenever you rely on someone else’s thoughts and ideas, you document that appropriately. The Academic Integrity Module you completed last week along the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students will help you to avoid plagiarism (inappropriately using other people’s ideas as your own) and to ensure proper documentation and format. So, while it is not the most exciting thing in the world, now is the time to learn and apply a little bit of APA writing guidance as you write this short paper. You are being asked to analyze how the behaviors of leaders that you have chosen are consistent—or not—with the readings from this week (or throughout the course) and to explain how and why, given your understanding of concepts from the course, your chosen leader is/was effective or not in his or her role. Remember, analysis means weaving in and connecting insights that you have about your leader’s behavior with concepts from the course. Analysis goes beyond opinion. Anyone can have an opinion, but unless they have analysis to back it up, it is likely not going to be persuasive—and leadership is about being persuasive. The four bullets provide a basic structure/outline you could follow in writing the paper, and you could devote a paragraph or two to each bullet—and that should suffice. If, however, you want to integrate your writing more fully, feel free to reorganize how you write the paper. However, make sure that all four elements are woven into your analysis. • A summary of the reasons why you chose each leader for this paper. • Your analysis of how their behaviors and actions were consistent, or not, with contingency theory and the styles referred to in Goleman (2000), Bjugstad et al. (2006), and at least one other resource that you selected from the water cooler discussion in Week 4. In other words, you will explain how the leadership styles of each leader aligned, or did not align, to the challenges they faced. • Your analysis on the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of each leader you selected. • An analysis of the reasons you, or others, chose to follow, or not to follow, these leaders and the risks you and others take when making this choice.

Submit your paper including:

A summary of the reasons why you chose each leader for this paper.
Your analysis of how their behaviors and actions were consistent, or not, with contingency theory and the styles referred to in Goleman (2000), Bjugstad et al. (2006), and at least one other resource that you selected from the water cooler discussion in Week 4. In other words, you will explain how the leadership styles of each leader aligned, or did not align, to the challenges they faced.
Your analysis on the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of each leader you selected.
An analysis of the reasons you, or others, chose to follow, or not to follow, these leaders and the risks you and others take when making this choice.

Support your conclusions with references to the articles by Goleman (2000), Bjugstad et al. (2006), and at least one other resource that you selected from the water cooler discussion in Week 4. An exemplary paper will also integrate resources from previous weeks