BUS 4012 CU Business Leadership Interview Paper
Prepare to interview two organization leaders, and write an assessment in which you outline the intended purpose and focus of your interviews, along with the interview questions.
Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.SHOW LESSBased on the readings from the Cashman text, linked in the Resources, consider the following:
Interpersonal Mastery: What are you learning about your tendency to open up or shut down communication and your personal beliefs underlying these behaviors? What are your growth commitments? How might you use these questions in your leader interviews?
Being Mastery: After reading Chapter 7, "Being Mastery," in the Cashman text, complete the exercise entitled “Reflection, Exploring The Leader Within” with an open mind. Then, consider your reaction to the exercise. What did you like about it? What made you uncomfortable? Why might this exercise help you be a better leader? Respond to the questions on page 164 regarding what you have learned, your commitments, and your obstacles to being mastery. How does our culture support or obstruct the pursuit and dialogue about the importance of "being" to being a leader? Why is it that this is such a difficult topic to discuss but yet is so essential?
Resilience Mastery: In general, how do you assess your ability to maintain balance in your life? What commitments and actions are needed in this area? Relate a story from your personal experience with a leader who lost balance. Did this leader experience health problems? Did he or she affect the health of employees, friends, or family? What happened to this leader's sense of humor, relationships, or effectiveness? Why is this important area often overlooked? What are the beliefs that drive us toward obsessive behavior? Consider the difficulty of maintaining balance in our culture and the implications for leaders in relation to the New Business Realities.
Servant Leadership: Consider the important attributes of a servant leader. Why does it appeal to you as an approach to leadership? What concerns do you have? Why does servant leadership seem appropriate given the Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart, and Imagination document?
Resources
The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.Capella Resources
Click the links provided to view the following resources:
New Business Realities of the 21st Century.
Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart, and Imagination.
Information Interviewing.
SHOW LESSLibrary Resources
The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:
Cashman, K. (2017). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Chapters 4, 6, 7, and 8 of this e-book are particularly applicable.
Course Library Guide
A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the BUS-FP4012 – Leadership in Organizations Library Guide to help direct your research.Internet Resources
Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.
SEDL. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/
You may use this Web site of the organization formerly known as the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory to examine the comprehensive leadership history and how the theory of leadership has changed over time.
Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.greenleaf.org/
Robert Greenleaf was the founder of the servant leadership movement, an alternate leadership approach.
Center for Creative Leadership. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/Leadership/
The Berkana Institute. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.berkana.org/
Margaret J. Wheatley. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.margaretwheatley.com/
Assessment Instructions
Preparation
As part of Assessments 3 and 4, you will need to interview two leaders in organizations of your choice. To prepare for these two interviews, complete the following at this time:
Decide on the level of leaders you would like to interview (for example, individual contributors, middle managers, or top managers).
Research and choose an aspect of leadership based on the topics in the Cashman text (personal mastery, purpose mastery, change mastery, resilience mastery and coaching mastery) to use as the focus for your interviews.
Request and schedule 45-minute interviews with two different leaders at your chosen level. You should conduct the interviews between now and when you begin work on the Assessment 3, as you will need to complete the interviews in order to complete Assessments 3 and 4.
Interview Pitch
Submit the following components for this assessment:
State your intended purpose for the interviews. Provide an explanation of the aspect of leadership on which you plan to focus and why you chose it.
Describe the level of leadership selected for your interviews.
Outline your schedule for both interview sessions; include the names and titles of the leaders with date and time of interview. If you have not been able to solidify your schedule, please include a report of your progress.
List the interview questions you plan to use for your chosen aspect of leadership. If you wish, you may use some of the questions from the reflection exercises in the related chapter of the Cashman text. You can use any leadership theories you like to help you develop your interview questions, including servant leadership, Kevin Cashman, Margaret Wheatley, articles from the Center for Creative Leadership, leadership stage theory, and other sources.