Milestone 1
Melissa Lasley
Southern New Hampshire University
MBA 530: Leading People and Organizations
Professor Ellington
March 10, 2024
Self-Assessment
In the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) self-assessment, my lowest ranked leadership
behavior was that of inspire a shared vision. My score was a 34 which ranked me in the tenth
percentile. According to the ten Commitments of Exemplary Leadership, this behavior
encompasses “envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities” (Kouzes)
and “enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations” (Kouzes). Kouzes
(2021) states, “A vision of the future is much like a literary or musical theme. It's the paramount,
persistent, and pervasive message that you want to convey, the frequently recurring melody that
you want people to remember; and whenever repeated, it reminds the audience of the entire
work” (K-95). Inspiring a theme is so vital to an organization’s success, and I believe to inspire a
shared vision, a leader needs to find the inner strength to not give up on the vision even when it
seems daunting. Kouzes (2021) claims, “envisioning the future requires you to connect with your
deepest feelings. You have to find something that's so important that you're willing to put in the
time, suffer the inevitable setbacks, and make the necessary sacrifices. Without an intense desire,
a solemn concern, a consuming question, a grave proposition, a fondest hope, or a cherished
dream, you can't ignite the spark necessary to energize aspirations and actions” (K104). I have
witnessed many short-lived inspired visions within my nursing career, and it’s had to inspire
employees when they have seen multiple visions come and go. I do believe this will be the
greatest challenge in behavior modification for me as I grow in leadership, however, it’s
probably the most important. “Nobody likes being told what to do or where to go, no matter how
right it might be” (Kouzes, K-107). To inspire the vision, a leader must show mutual meaning,
purpose, and benefit with collective dialogue and active listening to hear what is important to
employees and their future with the organization to increase retention and employee satisfaction.
In this Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) self-assessment, my highest ranked leadership
behavior was that of encourage the heart. My score was a 45 which ranked me in the thirtieth
percentile. According to the ten Commitments of Exemplary Leadership, this behavior
encompasses “recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence”
(Kouzes) and “celebrate values and victories by creating a spirit of community” (Kouzes).
Encouraging the heart is also vital to the success of an organization and Kouzes (2021) states,
“people need emotional fuel to replenish their spirits” (K-25C). Everyone wants to feel valued as
not only and employee but as an individual as well. Encouraging the heart means a leader is
believing in the employee, expecting the best, and celebrating who that employee is as an
individual and their good works. This behavior helps a leader be more effective in that they are
building a trusting professional relationship with the employee. They are recognizing the
employee in a way that is individualized and meaningful to each employee while setting clear
expectations about performance and goals. In return, the employee will feel like a valued
member of the team and thrive on the positive culture the leader is modeling.
Adaptive Leadership toolkit
The prosthetics organization has a few different leadership challenges, as seen in the employee
engagement survey, related to social & emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills of
effective leaders. The organization should focus on the following leadership behaviors;
Encourage the heart, enable others to act, inspire a shared vision and challenge the process.
Encouraging the heart focuses on recognizing staff inputs by showing gratefulness for individual
merits and by creating a spirit of community that celebrates victories and values. By focusing on
encourage the heart, leadership will help build trust with staff and help them feel more valued in
an individual way as explained above in my self-assessment. It will address the survey results
related to recognition, praise, rewards, and trust.
The leadership behavior, enable others to act, focuses on improving collaboration through trust
and relationships while strengthening others by developing competence and increasing self-
determination (Kouzes, k-193). Kouzes (2021) states, “extraordinary performance isn't possible
unless there's a strong sense of shared creation and shared responsibility” (K-196). By
invigorating collaboration, competence, and a sense of shared responsibility, leadership will
begin to address the low scores within training and development. While doing this, trust will be
fostered also addressing low scores within the working conditions and job satisfaction categories.
Another low scoring leadership behavior, challenge the process, focuses on seeking
improvements through innovation, and opportunities while taking risks and consistently creating
wins. Kouzes (2021) claims, “change requires leadership and every person, down to the most
junior member of the organization, can drive innovation and improvements in a team's
processes” (K-152) and that leaders “want people to speak up, offer suggestions for
improvement, and be straightforward about their constructive criticism. The more frequently
direct reports indicated their leaders ‘challenge people to try out new and innovative ways to do
their work,’ the stronger were their feelings of accomplishment and belief that they were making
a difference” (Kouzes, k153). If this organization can start to embrace the employees and
encourage them to bring forward ideas, it will bolster the low scores within working conditions
and recognition & praise categories and also bring the organization into the future with
innovation and ideas.
The prosthetics organization had a couple leadership wins, as seen in the employee engagement
survey. Leadership is modeling the way well by caring about employees, maintaining a safe and
clean work environment and by standing by their mission and vision. Kouzes (2021) states,
“becoming an exemplary leader requires you to fully comprehend the deeply held values—the
beliefs, standards, ethics, and ideals—that drive you. You have to freely, and honestly, choose
those principles you will use to guide your decisions and actions. You have to express your
authentic self, genuinely communicating your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you
are” (K-48). According to the survey results, the organization is driving decisions based on their
mission and vision while showing employees and customers they care. Maintaining the
leadership behavior, modeling the way, helps in managing relationships between leaders and
direct reports by bringing them all together in an authentic space. Kouzes (2021) states,
“although personal values clarity is essential for all leaders, it's not enough by itself. That's
because leaders don't just speak for themselves, they speak for their constituents as well. There
must be agreement on the values that everyone will commit to upholding” (K-68). Employees
can see the values the organization holds in highest priority, and they feel cared for based on
those values.
The second leadership behavior this organization is doing well is that of inspiring a shared
vision. This behavior imagines the future, visualizing exciting and exalting possibilities by
enlisting employees in a mutual vision of shared aspirations (Kouzes, k-93). The leadership is
doing this based on the high scores within company and strategy, as well as some of the high
scores in job satisfaction. Kouzes (2021) states, “Everyone has hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
Everyone wants tomorrow to be better than today. Shared visions attract more people, sustain
higher levels of motivation, and withstand more challenges than those that are exclusive to only a
few. You have to make sure that what you can see is also something that others can see” (K-96).
By maintaining this leadership behavior, this organization will continue to build trusting
relationships between managers and direct reports while helping employees to feel invested and
valued in the organization which will increase employee satisfaction and outputs.
Overall, the prosthetics organization has a solid start on the ten commitments of exemplary
leadership, modeling the way and inspiring a shared vision. If they can continue these practices
while growing in the areas of encouraging the heart, enabling others to act, and challenging the
process, they will be in prime leadership condition for the expansion into the Canadian markets.
References
Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2021). LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. LPI Self-Assessment – Reviewing Your Scores.
LPI: Leadership Practices Inventory: Percentile Ranking
