Profile assignment sample

HOW TO USE THIS TEMPLATE:

This is a template and checklist corresponding to your Assignment 1 paper, “My Leadership Profile”, due on Sunday of Week 3. It covers the Assignment 1 instructions and the grading rubric to help ensure that you include everything required by the assignment. See below for an explanation of the color coding in this template.

· All green text includes instructions to support your writing. You should delete all green text before submitting your final paper.

· All blue text indicates areas where you need to replace the instructions with your own information. Replace the blue text with your own words in black.

· Headings and subheadings are written in black, bold type. You may keep these or you may choose to rename them, as long as your titles still align to each section’s content.

In this paper you may write in first person, using “I”, as this is a self-analysis. Usually in academic papers, you will write in the third person, using “he” or “she”. However, in all academic writing, avoid using the second person “you.”

Formatting

· The body of this paper has one-inch margins and uses a professional font (size 10-12); we recommend Arial or Times New Roman fonts

· To aid ease of reading, use double spacing throughout the paper

· Align the manuscript flush left, resulting in an uneven right margin

· Indent paragraphs five spaces (or set your tab to .5)

· Page numbers are one inch from the top right of the paper, with no number on Page 1

Note that this Assignment 1 template is already formatted with all these specifications.

Finalizing your Paper

· Your final paper should be 4 to 6 pages in length. The page count does not include the Cover page at the beginning or the Sources page at the end of the paper.

· The final paper that you submit for grading should be in black text only with all remaining green text and blue text removed .

My Leadership Profile

Write Your Name here

Jack Welch Management Institute

Write Your Professor’s Name here

JWI 510: Leadership in the 21st Century

Write the Date here

Use the sections and sub-sections below to organize your paper. For each section, read the directions in green, which explain what topic to cover in that section. Then delete the green notes and write your paragraph(s) for that section.
Application of course materials is required in this paper. For this assignment, you will want to integrate course material from Weeks 1 to 3. This means you may be including references to course lectures, videos, your textbooks, articles, and your DiSC profile. See the end of the paper, for information and examples of the proper way to format your in-text citations, as well as a sample Sources (or References) page.
Introduction

Start your introduction with a general and brief observation about the importance of leadership in today’s organizations.

Write a thesis statement which is the “road map” for your paper - it helps your reader to navigate your work. In your thesis statement, be specific about the major areas you plan to address in your paper. The headings below are helpful, since those identify the topics to be addressed. We recommend you to write this part of your introduction after you complete the other sections of your paper.

In case you need more help with writing a thesis statement, here are two helpful links:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html

OR

http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/tips/thesis/

My Leadership Experiences

This section addresses number 1 from the assignment instructions. Use the following two subsections to organize your ideas. You may choose to write a short paragraph here under the main “My Leadership Experiences” heading that provides some brief context, or you may choose to just begin writing under the first subsection, while keeping the main heading in place.

My Current Role

In this section, describe the leadership and managerial aspects of your most recent professional role. Be specific about your role. Discuss whether you lead a team or teams or if you are an individual contributor. You may be a full-time student or between jobs. In these cases, think about the leadership and managerial aspects of whatever role you currently have. If you are not in a professional role and have difficulty finding leadership and managerial elements of your current situation, think about leadership you provide in your community, in your school, and in your family.

Key Leadership Experiences

In this section, briefly describe two key experiences that have impacted you as a leader or as an aspiring leader. Be specific by providing concrete examples and discuss each experience separately. You may have participated in a great experience that taught you a lot about who you are or want to be as a leader. Or you might have learned by being part of or observing a leadership situation that did NOT go well. Describe how each experience contributed in some way to your current beliefs and behaviors relating to leadership.

My Leadership Strengths

This section addresses number 2 from your assignment instructions. Describe two key strengths from Jack Welch’s Foundational Principles and/or 8 Essential Rules, which pertain to your own leadership development. Be specific about each rule or principle and connect your ideas to relevant course material for support. Discuss why you chose these particular strengths and why it is important to direct your energy into building these strengths as you proceed through your leadership journey.

My Emotional Intelligence
In this section, you address the first part of number 3 from your assignment instructions, which relates to Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI is discussed in your Week 3 Lecture Notes and in the Week 3 article by Daniel Goleman, “Leadership That Gets Results.” On page 4 of the article, under “Emotional Intelligence: A Primer,” Goleman defines several components of Emotional Intelligence (i.e., self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill). Think about your own EI, as you reflect on each of these capabilities and competencies, along with their examples. Choose a couple of components that you believe have contributed to the leadership strengths you identified in the section immediately above. Alternatively, you may identify a couple of areas that you need to strengthen to have maximum leadership effectiveness.

My DiSC Profile
This section addresses the second part of number 3 from your assignment instructions. Reflect on your DiSC Profile that was generated as part of your Week 2 requirements, as it relates to your leadership strengths. The DiSC is a behavior assessment tool that focuses on four different behavioral traits: dominance, influence, conscientiousness and steadiness. Think about how your DiSC style contributes to those strengths. For example, if you identified that one of your strengths was your ability to maintain harmony in your team and you have an “S” (steadiness) style, reference your DiSC report for areas where this behavior is addressed—you will find that maintaining harmony and being a peacemaker is a hallmark of an S style.
Leadership Skill Development
In this section, you address number 4 from your assignment instructions. Identify two or three leadership skills that you would like to master in the future. The skills that you identify should be drawn from any combination of the following: Jack Welch’s Foundational Principles, Jack Welch’s 8 Essential Rules, Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence competencies, and/or Daniel Goleman’s leadership styles. Clearly identify each of the three skills. Then, for each skill, specify what actionable steps you will take towards mastery, and explain how you will measure your success.

You have several options on how to deliver the information for this section: you may write a paragraph, or you may use a bulleted list, or you may use a chart (example shown below). If you use a bulleted list or a chart, firstly write a short paragraph here that offers some context and explains the rationale for why you chose these skills for development. Be sure to connect your selection of the three skills to the course materials.