Business Leadership

Week Ahead - 1

Personal Growth Assignment # 1:

  • To be completed and handed in on Friday Feb. 8th.
  • Assignments should be handwritten and contain a cover page.

This week and activities.

Note:

  1. This week will focus on orientation to the course, team building and personal growth diagnostics. There will be three Personal Growth assignments. These assignments cover different areas from personal growth plans to teams and group awareness. The purpose is to introduce your own abilities as well as working with others and realizing skill levels.

Monday

  • Short class – 35 min. only due to exam review day.
  • Introduction to the course and welcome.
  • Personal Growth Assignment #1

Tuesday

  • Introduction to the course and welcome.
  • Personal Growth Assignment #1

Wednesday

  • Introduction to the course and welcome.
  • Leadership group discussion
  • Personal Growth Assignment #1

Thursday

Personal Growth Assignment # 2:

  • Pick your teams and complete in class.

Friday

Personal Growth Assignment # 3:

  • Pick your teams and complete in class.

.

TIP: Choose your partners wisely!

Assignment #1

PERSONAL GROWTH ASSIGNMENT

The Personal Growth Assignment (PGA) is an opportunity for each individual to assess personal managerial strengths and weaknesses, and to establish a plan for continued professional growth and development.

Your PGA should include:

1.Career Objectives: A statement of your immediate post-graduation employment plans. A statement of your post-graduation career objectives for five and ten years in the future.

2.Work Setting: A description of your anticipated work settings for two time frames: (a) immediately upon graduation, and (b) five years after graduation. These descriptions should be as complete as possible, including the type of organization in which you expect to be employed, its location, your expected job description, and anticipated number of subordinates. List any characteristics of this work setting that you feel may create special challenges to your managerial skills.

3.Assessment of Managerial Strengths and Weaknesses: A statement of personal assessment regarding strengths and weaknesses in dealing with the managerial responsibilities associated with both work settings described in (2) above. Special attention should be given to anticipated challenges that stem from problems at the individual, group, and organizational levels, and in acting more generally in a leadership capacity. Any insights gained through participation in class-related activities throughout the term should be highlighted. References to managerial models or theories from the scholarly literature may be used to add depth to your analysis.

  1. Professional Development Plan: This plan should be a statement of what you intend to do in the five-year period immediately after graduation in order to build upon your strengths and overcome weaknesses. Very specific activities should be detailed (e.g., continuing education, reading, training, special job assignments, personal activities, etc.). In general, you should answer the question: “What should I do to build strengths and overcome weaknesses so that my five-year career objective will be achieved?” The format of your plan should be of the type indicated on the following page. Details and elaboration should be added in a supporting narrative.

5.A letter addressed to yourself assuming it will be opened in 5 years: You choose what you want to say. Somewhere in the letter reference should be made to “checkpoints” that could be used to evaluate your career progress and professional development as a manager.

The PGA is a very personal assignment. There are no right or wrong answers. The assignment will be evaluated purely on the depth of your reflections and on the apparent rigor and sincerity that you apply in analyzing your managerial strengths and weaknesses. This is a chance to demonstrate that you have thought most seriously about the various learning activities included in the course. It is also a time for final one-to-one communication with your instructor. A sincere, reflective, analytical and well-written PGA will receive high credit; superficial and/or inadequately written PGAs will suffer accordingly.

Name ______

Professional Development Plan (sample)

5-Year Career Objective:To become regional sales manager for a major insurance company.

TimeActivityGoal

______

Fall ????Attend NTL workshop on groupIncrease personal skills as a participant in task-

Dynamicsoriented work groups.

March ????Formal assignment as SalesExperience direct supervisory responsibility

Managerand test anticipated strengths and weaknesses.

And so on 

Support and Justification: (Hand in)

Assignment # 2

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GROUP FORMATION EXERCISE[1]

You have been assigned to a work group that requires your participation during the coming weeks. As with any new team, committee, or task force, you and your group need to accomplish four things as soon as possible.

1.To become acquainted with one another as individuals.

2.To develop a shared understanding of one another’s priorities or degree of commitment in regards to participation in the group.

3.To share expectations regarding what the group should be like.

4.To establish a shared sense of group purpose.

The following exercise is designed to help your group meet each of the above requirements. This exercise should be completed by the total group as soon as possible. It is strongly urged that this exercise be completed in one group meeting held in a quiet and private environment suitable for both task-oriented efforts and just plain old “having fun.”

A summary of all written assignments included in the exercise is due in class on ______.

Part 1: Getting Acquainted

Pair off with a person whom you do not already know. Spend 5-10 minutes in conversation, learning as much about the other person as possible. Jot down notes on the person’s name, major, interests, special skills, work experience, and any other bits of enlightening information. Reassemble with the total group and introduce your partner to the other members.

Written Assignment: Someone in the group should write a brief biographical sketch of each person in the group from notes provided by each of the interviewers. (Hand in)

Part II: Sharing Priorities

Use the diagram shown below to mark the point from 0 to 100 that identifies where this group stands in terms of your total work requirements and priorities. For example, you might say that the group has only a very minor priority (e.g., 10) based on your other time commitments. On the other hand, the possible learning value of the group may seem very high to you and thus deserve a score of 90.

Also write, in the blank space below the diagram, the total number of hours you have available to allocate to group activities in a typical week.

050100

______

Zero Highest

Priority Priority

Number of hours available per week: ______

Now share your priority and number of available work hours with the other members of the group. Each of you should explain why you made the choices you did, and discuss what they mean in terms of the group tasks ahead.

Written Assignment: Someone in the group should tabulate the results for each individual. A summary diagram showing the priority points for each group member should be prepared. Also, the frequency distribution of hours available, the total number of hours available, and the average number of hours available per person should be listed. (Hand In)

Part III: Sharing Expectations

Take five minutes to think about the group, its future and your place in it. Try to answer the following questions:

  • What do you want as a result of participating?
  • What worries you about the group?
  • What do you think the group should do to insure the most positive outcomes?

Now share your answers with those of the other group members. Be sure to express yourself clearly, and to listen carefully to what others are saying. Try to make sure that everyone participates. Learn as much about one another’s views of the forthcoming group experience as possible.

Written Assignment: Someone in the group should summarize the thoughts shared during this phase of the exercise. Every comment need not be listed, but the range of ideas and general mood of the group members should be fully expressed. (Hand In)

Part IV: The Group Goal

Now that you have gotten acquainted and shared some personal information with one another, it is time to clarify the group’s purpose. Obviously, you are part of a group because the instructor requires it. However, what do you think the ultimate goal of the group should be as it faces its formally assigned tasks? Write your goal statement in the space below.

Goal statement:

Share your goal statement with the other group members. As a group, prepare one goal statement for which everyone feels a sense of ownership and attachment. This goal should become a unifying force in the work ahead.

Written Assignment: Someone in the group should write down the formal statement of the group’s goal. (Hand In)

WRITTEN SUMMARY

All written summaries should be typed and compiled in the following format for submission to the instructor:

  • Cover page: group identification and group goal.
  • Group biographic profile: names and profiles.
  • Member priorities: date summaries.
  • Member expectations: summary of discussion.
  • Any additional comments deemed appropriate.

As with all written assignments, this material should be presented in a highly professional, neat, typed, error-free, and grammatically precise fashion. Make sure you use the appropriate subheadings and transitions from one section to the next. Do not treat this as either an essay with no subheadings or as a series of disjointed questions.

A FINAL NOTE

There is more to an effective work group than “work.” As long as you’re together, have a little “fun,’ too. Chances are, it will pay off in the long run! (Presentations to follow)

______

Assignment # 3

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GROUP DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Previously, your group participated in the Group Formation Exercise and also was involved in various class assignments. Now, it is time to assess the status of the group as a work unit, and to take action designed to increase both its task performance and the satisfaction of its members. The mechanism through which you can accomplish these goals is described below as the Group Development Project.

PROJECT DETAILS

The group is to complete each of the development activities described below. Then, a class presentation will be involved and during this presentation the group will communicate the results of the project activities in terms of both (1) a group assessment summary and (2) a set of future action plans. No written report is required. However, visual aids to improve communications during the meeting will certainly be useful. A final evaluation will be made by the instructor according to:

  • The apparent completeness with which the project activities were accomplished.
  • The ability of the group to communicate the results of its assessment and planning efforts.
  • The quality of the assessment and action plans.

Activity 1

Review the results of the Group Formation Exercise. Ascertain the group’s progress relative to your original expectations. Identify the implications of this analysis. Re-establish priorities, expectations, and goals where appropriate.

Activity 2 (DO NOT DO THIS ACTIVITY – JUST READ IT)

Prepare two group sociograms. One sociogram should reflect member responses to the question: “Who is the most influential person in terms of group task concerns?” The second sociogram should reflect the question: “Who is the most influential person in terms of group maintenance concerns?”

A sample sociogram is diagrammed below. To make a sociogram, have each member choose one or more persons in response to each question. Then draw arrows from each member to the persons chosen. The result is a diagram such as the following:

Schermerhorn

SquireCoor

Parker

Analyze the implications of the two sociograms for group functioning. Use the sociogram information as part of your group development effort.

Activity 3

Consider your group to be an open system with two outputstask performance and member satisfaction. Use the following outline as an aid for analyzing how these two outputs are affected by the nature of your group’s inputs and operational structure.

A.Inputs: With respect to inputs, focus on the impact on group performance and satisfaction caused by the nature of the tasks faced and differential traits, backgrounds, needs and values of group members.

B.Operational Structure: With respect to group operations, consider the impact on group performance and satisfaction caused by norms, cohesion, group maintenance and task roles, communications, decision-making and conflict. Relevant questions include:

1.What norms emerged in the group? How did these norms relate to the task at hand? How were they perceived by various group members? How did they influence group performance?

2.What level of cohesiveness was achieved in the group? What factors determined this level of cohesiveness? How did this level of cohesiveness influence group performance?

3.To what extent were group task and maintenance roles performed during the various phases of the group experience? Who performed these roles at various times? Why? To what degree of effectiveness? How did the ability of the group to account for these task and maintenance roles influence group performance?

4.How would you characterize the quality and levels of interpersonal communications in the group? What were some of the primary barriers and/or facilitators? How did interpersonal communications influence group performance? What communications network or structure was implemented by the group to accomplish its tasks? How did the communications structure influence group outcomes?

5.How were decisions made in your group? Were the decisions by majority rule, minority domination, vote, or consensus? How did the various members feel about certain key decisions? Was there an identifiable pattern for your decision-making activities? How did the group’s method of handling decisions influence group performance?

6.Was there conflict in the group? Over what? To what extent? Was conflict limited to certain individuals? Factions? How did the group handle conflict? How did conflict in the group influence (positively or negatively) group performance and satisfaction?

C.Outputs: The group should recognize that the type of analysis detailed above requires some determination of what its actual performance to date has been. As a group you should consider the productivity question and decide where you came out. Was your productivity high or low and why?

As individuals you must also contribute to the group some measure of individual satisfaction. Are group members satisfied with what has been accomplished and with what is taking place? Why?

Analyze how these input-operations-output factors have changed for your group over time as you pass through the various stages of group development outlined in lecture.

Use the results of this activity to make constructive changes in the group’s inputs and/or operational structure.

Activity 4

Each member should write a personal contract with the group stating what he/she will (a) do more of, (b) do less of, and (c) continue to do in order to insure the success of the group in its remaining work during the course. These contracts should be shared, discussed, and then modified to obtain maximum relevancy.

Presentations to follow.