Overview - case based assessment

This assessment is weighted at 40% of the final mark for this course.

Observing and studying the leadership behaviourof someone in a leadershiprole can be helpful in developing an appreciation of how leadership works in practice. For this assignment you are required to choose someone you consider to be a leader from a movieof your choice and investigate their approach to leadership. You may use any movie/leaderyou wish with the exception of those movies on the banned list (see document below).Length of Submission:Your submission should be no more than 1750 words in length (excluding references).

Criteria for Assessment:This submission will be marked against the following criteria:

oProvide a short description of the background to the movie. This should identify the leader and the nature of the leadership challenge or context.

oDiscuss the main leadership lessons that you have taken from the case.

oReview how any of the leadership theories covered on the course have helped you develop an understanding of the leadership scenario you have chosen.

For each piece of assessed coursework, you are required to complete your work within the range of 10% above or below the stated target word count. You must include your actual word count on the submission.Note that for this submission your references at the endDO NOT count towards your word count.

Submission Dates:

oBefore Saturday 30thAugust 2020, 11.59 pm. for full time and part-time students.

Movie banned list

You MUST NOT use any of the following movies as the basis of your assessment:

1.Apollo 13

2.The Devil Wears Prada

3.The Godfather

4.Shawshank Redemption

5.Braveheart

6.Coach Carter

7.Wolf of Wall Street

8.Invictus

9.The Intern

10.How to Train Your Dragon

11.Kung Fu Panda (all movies)

12.Moneyball

13.The Darkest Hour

14.Enders Game

15.McFarland

16.Iron Lady

17.The Lion King

Syllabus:

Day 1 - slides

file:///Users/s.h./Desktop/AFG - ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY/Leadership/Leadership Assginments /Cirrculum /Day 1 - slides - Core Leadership theory .pptx

Day 1 - Part 1 - The Different Dimensions of Leadership

Overview - The Different Dimensions of Leadership

The aim of this part is to help you:

Develop an understanding of different leadership traits - and their limitations.

Appreciate the range of theories and frameworks that have been developed to help us understand leadership

For this session you will be involved in three learning activities:

Group work exploring the different traits leaders may have and the applicability of these traitsto different leadership settings

Lectures looking at the range of leadership theories and frameworks

The preparation tasks for this session are available in the folder below.

Preparation - Theories and Frameworks

Overview - The Different Dimensions of Leadership

Preparation Report: Dimensions of Leadership

Theories and Frameworks Preparation

To prepare for the session on theories and frameoworksplease watch the following video:

Watch Video

Ten Leadership Theories in Five Minutes. Duration: (5:05)

But please remember this is only a very very brief overview and not a substitute for academic reading!

Now complete a piece of independent research into the frameworks and theories which underpin the following:

oTransactional Leadership

oTransformational Leadership

oAuthentic Leadership

As a starting point you might find the relevant chapters in Northouse(8th Edition)- Leadership Theory and Practice helpful.

For each of the above Transactional, Transformational and Authentic leadership please identify:

oThe main components of the theory/approach.

oAnd three strengths andthree weaknesses of the theory/approach for understanding leadership behaviour.

Please upload your findings as a brief report (c500 words) using the link below.

Be prepared to discuss your views in the class.

Day 2 slides - file:///Users/s.h./Desktop/AFG - ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY/Leadership/Leadership Assginments /Cirrculum / Day 2 - Coaching neuroscience and Insights.pptx

Part 2 - The Supportive Leader

Overview - Tools and Techniques for Supportive Leadership

The aim of this session is to help you:

Appreciate how coaching can be used to support leadership development.

Be able to demonstrate how to give and take constructive feedback.

Understand how the mind affects leadership behaviours.

For this part you will be involved in three learning activities:

Try out coaching as a leadership development tool.

Providing the constructive feedback on the work of your peers.

Lecture examining the brain and its impact of leadership.

The preparation tasks for this session are available in the folder below.

The Supportive Leader The supportive leader covers a set of ideas that essentially see the leader working closely with his people to help, coach and encourage them to do the right things in support of the business.

In many ways these approaches are the opposite of the command and control style of leadership (transactional leader theory, path goal leader theory etc) and could be argued to be co-located within situational, transformational, authentic, psychodynamic and servant leader theories.

In this sense the argument is that the leader's role is to maximise the talent of the people they lead (cf Hersey and Blanchard 1969; 1977). The leader does this by understanding their people well enough to know when and how to modify his or her behaviour in order to help followers to develop their skills and experience.

We will now turn to examine some of the ideas of supportive leadership.

The fundamentals of performance - understanding the brain at work

Some argue that, at a fundamental level, our behaviours are a product of the 'hard wiring' in our brain. There are numerous studies that suggest this occurs in early childhood, and that our beliefs and behaviours are shaped at an early age. While still contested (and studies continue to appear) the argument is that neural network in our brain becomes a framework within which each of us sees the world, and informs how we make decisions. The idea here is that of establishing core preferences - the ways we prefer to work, and our typical 'types' as Carl Jung would see them. Being consciously aware are of these is important to making us reflective leaders.

Some object to this view of human beings on the basis it could suggest that we cannot change how we are and therefore how we behave towards others. This goes to the age old debate over free will and determinism: do we have free will or are our actions pre-determined? The good news is that the studies suggest the brain has plasticity - we can build new networks. However this takes time and energy: we have to focus on the changes we want to make and to practise them as it is easy to slip back into older ways of working. The theory is that of neurological 'attention density' - the things we pay conscious attention to become increasingly 'hard wired' in our brains. Providing we pay attention to the right things then we form new (and helpful) 'habits' that replace older (less helpful) ones. These translate into behaviours. The rough rule of thumb to form a new habit is 40 to 60 focussed repetitions over 28 days.

David Rock is currently writing some interesting papers on how important it is that we reflect on these issues. Please take a look at the following video where Rock gives us the basics of how our brains work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUbLjdTYmA

Please take a moment to think about what these ideas mean for you - what does it mean for how you study for instance?

Rock's SCARF model is also a helpful way to understand things in an organisational context please review the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiSOeMVJQk

...and think about where these ideas have been relevant to you in the past. Does the SCARF model resonate for you - have you seen situations where this becomes a useful way to describe the reality of organisations you have worked in and we will discuss this in class?

This also sits within the area of Emotional Intelligence - made popular by Goleman and others - which suggests that the more we understand ourselves the more likely we will be able to moderate and change our behaviour to support he people we are leading.

Core personality type

If we accept that behaviours depend wholly, or at least to a significant extent on 'hard wiring' then categorising these is useful as it allows us to describe what is going on at a human and relationship level. There is an almost inexhaustible supply of measurement tools. We must be careful in taking such tools as undisputed fact; rather it is better to think of these tools as 'indicators' rather than absolute truths of who we are. As an indicator the Discovery Insights psychometric tool (Insights Inc.) is helpful here and we will work on this in a pragmatic way in class. For now please take a look at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pq_tCgDkT4

...and think hard about your core operating style. Ask yourself: what is your impact, how do others see you? How do you want them to see you? If I asked people you worked with in the past to describe you, what three words would they use?

You can also use your MBTI profile - generated using the link in the preparation materials provided. MBTI uses the same core background Jungian psychology. Please reflect on your core style as you go through the leadership week and especially the Everest simulation. Ask yourself: what profiles do you have in your team, who are the introverts and extraverts and why does this matter, how well do you work together, what goes wrong and why at a behavioural level, how is the language of behaviour helpful to you as you come together to solve problems?

Another interesting view of core personality types can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYvXk_bqlBk

The 'big idea' for your own development is the act of being consciously aware of who you are and your impact on others. Impact plays a disproportionately large role in the communications cycle - essentially the way you say and do things can be more important than the content - particularly when you are seeking to influence. Please reflect on your style using the Insights method as we will refer to this during the teaching week.

The Leader as a Coach

Building on the above, the 'leader as coach' is an increasingly important issue for leaders, and your ability to take a coaching approach to developing teams and in getting the best performance from people is highly valued by modern organisations. Employers increasingly look for well-developed people and behavioural skills at interview and these are as important as your cv and background experience - so reflecting on and practising new skills is worth it - we encourage you to take the opportunity during the leadership week to reflect on these issues.

At its heart, coaching is the behavioural 'art' of facilitating ideas and confidence to emerge from the people we lead. The key here is the word facilitation. To facilitate you must recognise that it is the idea of the other person that matter - not yours, and leaders who coach tend to be great at listening to their people and creating a sense of psychological safety such that their people feel free to offer up ideas no matter how diverse or partly formed these may be. If the idea comes from them, they are far more likely to implement it than if it comes from you.

Again, this is the very opposite of the command and control style of leadership where the leader sets the rules and tells people how to accomplish tasks. Under a coaching approach, the leader sets the direction and the vision but allows their people to figure how to get there themselves. The leader supports and gives technical help where it is needed but the leader essentially follows the interest of their people, encourages them to do the job in the way that works best for them, and ensures they are thinking for themselves.

Linking back to content above, some argue that coaching also works at a neurological level; if the ideas emerge from the person being coached then that person builds neuronal connections for new habits faster than if they are simply told what to do. 'Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practise' (Rock and Page 2009) gives an overview of this idea.

There is an important point to bear in mind here: coaching is also situational in the sense that it is the right process to use in some situations, but not in all. In general, a rule of thumb might be to take a coaching approach as a starting point, but be prepared to vary your approach if the problem or situation is not likely to respond to coaching.

There is also a debate about the differences between coaching and mentoring and the following video might help you to take your own view. We will discuss this in class so please think about situations where you have either been the coach, or where you have been coached by someone else, or where you have been mentored by someone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K88mKpKSvfU

Leadership and Motivation

Ultimately leading people is about motivating them to do the right things in support of the organisation and in some ways the idea of the supportive leader comes together in the following video from Dan Pink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

There is a cultural aspect to this as reward and remuneration in some cultures are seen to drive everything. Pink argues that autonomy is far more important - and of course this is where coaching sits.

Ask yourself: Do you agree with Pink - is he right in your view or from your cultural mind set? Pink also introduces the idea of intrinsic motivation here - coaching works because it often talks to intrinsic drivers - it encourages people to do the job well because that's worth it in and of itself - not just for the reward from the outcome.

In some ways, anything you do as leader which encourages answers to emerge from your people can be defined as coaching - but there are some core coaching models that are helpful to use and we will cover and practise these in class. Please do some research on the subject of coaching and reflect on your experiences as a coach or a coachee over your career and we will discuss these in class.

Day two slides - the supportive leader coaching and neuroscience

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 3 - Leadership and culture

Overview - Leadership and Culture

The aim of this session is to help you:

Appreciate how different cultural dimensions (national/professional etc.) can impact on leadership behaviour.

Understand the challenges and opportunities associated with leading cross-cultural teams.

For this Part you will be involved in three learning activities:

Participating in the Leadership Challenge

Exploring geographical, professional and organisational culture as a dimension of leadership.

Reflecting on if, and how, culture played a role in the approach of your team to the Everest Challenge.

The preparation tasks for this session are available below.

To prepare for this part of the course you need to complete the following tasks:

1.Read the chapter in Northouse on Culture and Leadership - copy below.

2.Complete the 'Dimensions of culture' questionnaire at the end of the Chapter.

3.Think about your score relative to the cultural cluster for your geography given in the chapter and produce a 1 page report on same

4.Upload your questionnaire and report using the link below.

5.Bring your self-assessment to the sessions on Culture and Understanding my Leadership

6.Be prepared to discuss in the class.

Northouse Chapter 16 - Culture and Leadership.pdf

https://learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/5a33b54d59cd9/7608836?response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Northouse%252520Chapter%25252016%252520-%252520Culture%252520and%252520Leadership%25281%2529.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200714T060000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLYI3L4QWN%2F20200714%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=b7c3b997667193206add8f4e858c58c6f77f117b800eb3c84c06a46674bf5f05

Part 4 - Leadership in Practice (Case Analysis)

Overview - Leadership in Practice

The aim of this session is to help you:

Appreciate how case study analysis can help develop an understanding of leadership behaviour.

Appreciate why context and situation are important dimension of leadership.

For this part you will be involved in two learning activities:

Exploring the value of case analysis as a tool for understanding leadership behaviour.

Sharing your own knowledge of two of the three cases studies you will have prepared for the course.

Working on your group assignment for the course.

The preparation tasks for this part are available in the folder below.

Preparation - Leadership in Practice

Undertake the following activities:

Review the leadership case studies in the folder below

Prepare and upload your reports

Bring these to case analysis class

Be prepared to discuss in the class

You may wish to consult the case study analysis guide below.

Case Study Analysis Guide

https://learn-eu-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/5a33b54d59cd9/7405600?response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Case%252520Study%252520Analysis%252520Guide.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200714T060000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLYI3L4QWN%2F20200714%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=2dded56a8621aade580781d356e20939bc9bcfd06b7a01eca063123d005087b7

Part 5 - Understanding my Leadership

Overview - Understanding my Leadership

The aim of this part is to help you:

Develop a better understanding of your own leadership style and how it impacts on others.

Appreciate how personality profiling tools are used to help individuals develop an understanding of their own leadership behaviour.

For this part you will be involved in the following learning activities:

Reflecting on your personality profile (completed by you) and shared with your team.

Sharing ideas about your and your team members Leadership and Followership with your team.

Giving and receiving constructive feedback to one another (which can also be evidence for your assessed reflective review).

Preparation - Understanding my Leadership

The preparation task for this session is available in the folder below.

Undertake the following activities:

Complete the personality profile in the folder below

Reflect on your experiences on the course as you go (use a personal log) - what does this tell you about your leadership and followership?

Reflect on the leadership and followership of your fellow group members.

Be prepared to discuss with your group in the class

Personality Profiling

We all have different personality traits and understanding your own personality can be helpful in developing your approach to leadership. Personality profiling tools are now used by many organisations to help them evaluate how an individual matches to a specific role in the business, or will fit in with the culture of the organisation. To help you explore your own personality in a little more detail we have provided access to one of these tests. To complete the test follow the instructions below.

Test: Myers-Briggs

Thepersonality profile we would like you to complete is based on the Myers-Briggs test. For a quick background to this profiling approach click here.

How to generate your profile

To complete the test follow the instructions below:

Copy this link into your internet browser and go to the page: https://www.profilingforsuccess.com/take-an-assessment.php

Select your preferred language - click on it and a new page will open

Choose the"client code + access + password"option

Enter the client code:tflhe

Enter the access code:uniaberdeen

Enter the passwordua080612

Add your email. This will allow you to receive feedback by email.

You will see a number of tests available. Please only complete the following test: Type Dynamics Indicator Form O. Click on Version 1 and do the task.

It should take you about 10-15 minutes to complete the test.

Once again please do not share the link as these tests are for Aberdeen University students only.

For an academic critique of the approach you should read the Pettinger paper below.

file:///Users/s.h./Desktop/AFG%20-%20ABERDEEN%20UNIVERSITY/Leadership/Leadership%20Assginments%20/Cirrculum%20/The%20Utility%20of%20the%20Myers-Briggs%20Type%20Indicator.pdf

file:///Users/s.h./Desktop/AFG - ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY/Leadership/Leadership Assginments /Cirrculum /The Utility of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.pdf