Capstone: Apl Prac & Princ Ldg

5.3 Assignment. Leadership Principles and Practices

Getting Started

Have you ever noticed how many books some people (leaders, professors, etc.) have on their bookshelves? Have you ever heard reports about how many books a month certain leaders or professionals read? While there are some people who seem to consume much more material (e.g., read books, listen to podcasts) than others, it does seem to be true that learning is fundamental to leading. Leaders never stop learning.

Although leaders may read a lot of material, they also become quite skilled at distilling key information from what they read. They can summarize the essential information, see patterns, and build a mental schema that allows them to integrate what they are learning with prior learning. We might say it this way – “they learn the important stuff.”

This assignment will give you the opportunity to reflect on the important stuff – the principles and practices of effective leading that you have gathered during your academic program.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Summarize important leadership principles and practices.

Background Information

This brief  video (new tab)  describes the Pareto principle. Consider what it might mean for what you read (content) as well as your time management and use of resources as a leader.

Instructions

1. Review all the materials assigned in Workshop 5. Consider some of your assignments in past courses (including devotional reflections). Conduct any new research that might be needed to complete this assignment.  

2. Write a two- to three-page reflection paper (500 – 750 words double-spaced in a Word document), addressing the following reflection prompts: 

a. Principles and Practices (2 to 3 pages in length): 

i. Reflect on your past work in the program. During your LDR courses, you were frequently asked to summarize key principles and practices of leaders as well as “tools for your leader toolkit.” 

ii. Consolidate your list of principles and practices. However, as you analyze the set of items you have collected during the program, develop a way to structure or present them into a cohesive structure. For example, imagine that you have devised 20 important principles and practices. Is there a way you might group them? Perhaps you can conceptualize organizing your 20 principles into four groups of five principles or five groups of four principles (or any other arrangement that helps you make sense of the principles through common threads, ideas, or emphases.  

iii. After you have consolidated and grouped your list, provide some category names. Be creative. Develop something that will be memorable to you and easy to remember (e.g., perhaps all the category names start with the same letter or have some type of consistent phrasing). Although your presentation of the principles and practices can be a bulleted list, you may also present them in some type of graphic form such as an infographic or table.  

b. Summary Statement (no more than 1 paragraph or ½ page). 

i. As you review your categorized schema of important principles and practices of leadership, what seems to be a central idea, summary thought, or the “one thing” that binds them all together?  

3. NOTE: Do not include an introduction or conclusion for this paper. Simply provide a title page, the three sections noted above, and a references page. This assignment is part of the larger project for the course. You will compose your introduction and conclusion for the larger project in workshop six.  

4. Inasmuch as this is a reflection paper, first-person voice is acceptable.

5. When you have completed your assignment, submit a copy using the Assignment submission link by the end of the workshop week. 

6. Feel free to utilize  Academic Writer (new tab)  (APA formatting resource) and Grammarly (grammar and plagiarism check) on the  IWU Resources (new tab)  page.

a. All papers must be written per  APA Guidelines (7th ed) (new tab) ,  including format guidelines. Papers must be logical, well organized, grammatically correct, and have correct spelling and sentence structure.  Write in complete paragraphs of at least three sentences in length.  

b. Proofread your paper using Grammarly. Grammarly is provided to you as a student at no cost to proofread and spellcheck your paper. Proofreading your papers prior to submitting them ensures the highest quality of presentation. 

7. The maximum number of pages is given to encourage you to be concise and use meaningful words.  

8. Failure to meet these minimum writing and formatting requirements will result in a lowering of the overall grade.  Use a #12 black font in Times New Roman.