Personal Leader Project
Write a paper telling about a leader that has affected your life. This affect can be positive or negative (and may be both). This person needs to be someone that you have personally met and dealt with. Be sure and use headings in your paper. Paper will be written in two stages. The first stage will be early in the course and you will write a narrative telling about the person and why and how they affected you. The second stage will be toward the end of the course and you will take what you wrote in the first stage and analyze the leadership of this person using the knowledge you have gained from your studies on leadership. Follow the “written work” instructions for format. Below is further guidance for each stage.
Stage One:
Describe briefly the formal or informal organizational setting. Then discuss the leader’s role and what the person did that led you to conclude that they were a leader in more than name. Why and how did they affect you? What lessons about leadership did you learn from this person? Was this person inspirational, did they challenge the process, if so how? Paper need not exceed 6 pages.
Stage Two:
You may revise the first stage document as appropriate. Analyze this person in accordance with Kouzes & Posner’s practices of exemplary leadership. Address how this person would define leadership? What was their leadership philosophy? What did you learn from this person that can help you be a better leader yourself? Paper should be between 5 and 12 pages.
Other questions you might want to consider: How did they learn to lead? Did they practice what they preached? How did they handle mistakes? Did this person recognize others, and celebrate accomplishments? Are there areas where you can personally identify with this leader’s circumstances, struggles, insights, etc? What were this person’s vulnerabilities? Where or how could they have been more effective?
