FACULTY OF THE PROFESSIONS

BUSINESS SCHOOL

COMMGMT 7086
COMMGMT 7086EX
Fundamentals of Leadership

Individual Assignment

Due Date:

27 October 2015

Length:

2,500 words (tables, charts, pictures, references and appendices are

not included in the word count)

Assessment Value:

35% of your total marks

Cover Sheet

You must use the cover sheet found at the end of this information

Submit your assignment

Via email to david.pender@adelaide.edu.au (Files should be no

greater than 3MB, in a single file in MS Word format)

Before starting your assignment, it is recommended that you carefully read the
Communication Skills Guide. This is available in hard copy or on the Business School
website.
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INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
REFLECTIONS ON MY APPROACH TO AUTHORITY AND LEADERSHIP,
AND MY ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this assignment are academic but mostly personal/professional.
A. Academically, as with all assignments, the aim is for you to demonstrate your:
a. understanding of the topic [personal leadership skills] and how to apply the
theories to the case [you are your own case study];
b. ability to write engagingly: to tell a story
c. ability to critically analyse a subject area and write persuasively and critically.
B. Personally and professionally, the aim of the assignment is to help you to get to know your
present position and current level of leadership skills a little better; envision your desired
future reality; and help you monitor your progress as you journey through the course by:
a. increasing your level of self awareness, especially in relation to your current level of
leadership skills;
b. gaining insight into where you are at the moment and opportunities to use and
develop your leadership skills;
c. helping you to assess your leadership skills in terms of mental agility, mindfulness,
assumptions and dependence upon authority and your ability to observe, interpret
and take action in your context.
d. Identifying your values and future aspirations;
e. Presenting a personal development plan

OUTCOMES
The report must demonstrate:
1. your understanding of adaptive leadership and how it relates to your current or immediate past
context.
2. use of evidence from data collected about yourself as you have completed self-assessment
instruments and reflected in your journal
3. that you have reflected on your values and how they impact your decision making;
4. that you understand your core strengths and how you use them in a leadership context
5. how you might undertake a journey of self-development over the next few years through a plan
based upon deep reflection and self-awareness;
6. integration of the materials you have read and experiences you have had in this class.

3. THE ASSIGNMENT PROCESS

1. Gather data about yourself and reflect by keeping a Journal for the duration of the
Fundamentals of Leadership course
Journaling is a way of recording personal thoughts, experiences and evolving insights. The act of
journaling often triggers conversations with your work colleagues, family, friends and with
yourself. It provides you with the opportunity to review your reflections and hopefully see a
progression of thoughts and ideas. In adult education, particularly post graduate education it is
a powerful way of integrating new knowledge and experiences and applying them to your
working life. As you journal, you should reflect not only on your experiences at work but also on
your group work in the course and what you are watching and reading for your studies. If you
are doing more than one course at a time it is a useful way of integrating your learning.
Journaling can promote critical self-reflection where dilemmas, contradictions, and evolving
worldviews are questioned or challenged. The best learning takes place when we ponder on
things take time to think critically about issues.
Journaling in the context of this assignment will help you explain your sense of self who you
are, how you see the world, what assumptions you make (and whether they are borne out by
evidence) how you work, how you relate to others, and what you believe in and value (your
personal code of ethics).
Journaling can be done in a number of different ways the easiest is to create an electronic
journal but some people find writing and drawing more satisfying.
At some point or points in the course you need to make sense of your journal. Mind-mapping
might be a useful way of doing this.
2. Reflect on yourself your skills and abilities
In class we will explore several self-assessment instruments. You may have used other
assessment instruments through your work and you should feel free to include these in your
analysis. There are many other online self-awareness instruments available should you choose
to use them.
Consider the underlying values that affect how you work (particularly in groups).
3. Reflect on your context the social systems that you work in
Explore the social system in which you currently work or study using concepts from the course.
Gather information using a balcony view but consider your own subjectivity and assumptions as
you do this.
4. Reflect on yourself within your work context
Take a balcony view to reflect on the following questions: When have you taken a leadership
role? What happened in terms of heat and what were the outcomes? As you think back what
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did you learn? When have you avoided the work of adaptive leadership and what were the
consequences?
5. The future
Consider where you would like to go in the future. What are your aspirations? What impact do
you want to have on the world? What leadership skills do you need to continue to develop? Are
there any personal changes you need to make?
6. Personal Action Plan
What do you need to do in terms of developing your leadership skills in order to achieve your
desired future? How will you know your plan is succeeding? How will you make the changes you
want to make?

PRESENTATION
Refer to the Communications Skills Guide for guidance on structuring your assignment. It should be
structured in the same way as you would write a professional report using headings and subheadings to create clarity for your reader. Please note that this assignment does not require an
Executive Summary.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Your assignment should:

be written clearly and concisely with evidence of good well thought out structure;

show evidence of critical thinking and analysis rather than pure description;

integrate aspects of the literature and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your subject matter.
Do not plagiarise texts or literature, but comment on the relevance of the literature to the points
you have made;

be reflective about the usefulness of the assessment tools completed, in your context and for your
organisation; and

include a reference list. See the MBA Communications Skills Guide for how to use the Harvard
Referencing System. This guide is available on the Business Schools website.

PLEASE NOTE: YOU SHOULD NOT EXPECT TO GET A HIGH GRADE FOR ANY POST-GRADUATE
ASSIGNMENT UNLESS YOU READ WIDELY AND CRITICALLY APPLY YOUR READING TO YOUR
EXPERIENCE, REFERENCE YOUR WORK AND CITE YOUR REFERENCES BOTH IN YOUR TEXT AND
ALPHABETICALLY AT THE END OF YOUR PAPER.

BUSINESS SCHOOL

Cover Sheet for Individual Assignments

Name

Student ID

Course name Fundamentals of Leadership

Lecturer name: David Pender

Due date

Word Count (excluding headings, tables, references and appendices):

KEEP A COPY
Please be sure to make a copy of your work before you
submit it. On rare occasions an assignment gets lost in
the system. In such a case you must be able to provide
another copy.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the presentation by a student of an
assignment that has been copied in whole or in part from
another students work, or from any other source (eg
published books or periodicals or internet sites) without
proper acknowledgment in the text.
COLLUSION
Collusion is the presentation by a student of an
assignment, as his or her own which is in fact the result
in whole or part of unauthorised collaboration with
another person or persons.

CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM AND COLLUSION

In any case where a student has been involved in
plagiarism or collusion, this will be reported to the Dean.
It may be reported to Student Administration and
recorded on the students academic file.
In any case where a student has been involved in
plagiarism or collusion in an assessable task the marks
awarded for that task will be zero, and no substitution of
an alternative task will normally be permitted.
In any case in which a student has been involved in
plagiarism or collusion the Dean may refer it to the
Departmental Assessment Committee under the terms of
Statute Chapter XII. Where an allegation is
substantiated, penalties may include exclusion from the
University or a substantial fine.

DECLARATION
By emailing this assignment, I declare that this submission is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or
collusion.
I give permission for my assignment to be scanned for electronic checking of plagiarism.
Signature.
Date