Assignment

Overview

This course explores the role of leaders in creating organizations that innovate. This requires an understanding of the skills and practices of the leader, as well as the global context of leadership. In this assignment, you will analyze leadership skills and practices in innovative organizations and your own strengths and weaknesses as a leader.

Assignment Instructions

Review your completed innovator or executor quiz from Unit 1. Use this assessment to generate insight regarding your own innovative leadership skills. Specifically, summarize the results and reflect on how your own strengths equip you and how your weaknesses hinder youâ€"in supporting innovation in the global context. Select and analyze at least two leadership practices and how they support innovation in organizations; see the articles you read for Units 1 and 2. Assess how you might develop these practices based on your personal innovative skills. Explain the relevance of these practices to your chosen exemplar leader or your own work environment. You will be evaluated on how well you communicate your insights and analysis. It is expected that you will communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions. To aid you in doing this, follow these guidelines:

o Carefully organize your assignment so each section is labeled with a heading and devoted to each of the following topics. Make sure that the reader can easily find:

- A section that explores your own strengths and area of opportunity in innovative leadership skills, and how they help or hinder your ability to support innovation in organizations.

- A section that analyzes how at least two leadership practices support innovation in organizations.

- A section that analyzes how your exemplar leader used their skills and practices to create and support innovation.

o Graphs or diagrams may be included in appendices, if they are well-explained and applicable.

o Each section of the paper must be supported using the course readings, and additional scholarly resources or reputable industry publications may be used, if needed. One to three supporting resources are recommended.

Your assignment will be scored on the following objectives; see the scoring guide for details:

o Explore strengths and areas of opportunity related to leadership skills and an individual's ability to support innovation.

o Analyze how established leadership practices support innovation in organizations.

o Analyze how exemplar leaders use skills and practices to create and support innovation in organizations.

o Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.

Submission Requirements

o Written communication: Writing should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.

o Paper length: 5-7 pages, excluding appendices, cover page, table of contents, and references page.

o APA formatting: References and citations should follow current APA style guidelines.

o Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.

Note: Feedback from your instructors is an important method to understanding where you are excelling, what you need to improve, and to be aware of your progress on course competencies. This feedback goes beyond a score on your assignment. It includes comments about each of the grading criteria and general comments about the assignment. This written feedback will help you know how well you are demonstrating the competencies associated with each assignment. Therefore, it is important to know how to access all of this feedback.

The brief slide presentation, Accessing Qualitative Feedback, linked in the Resources, will take just a couple of minutes to view. It will walk you through, click-by-click, what you will do to see your instructor's feedback for each assignment. Viewing this presentation will ensure that you are seeing all feedback that your instructor provides.

Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click on the linked resources for helpful writing information.

Resources

o Personal Assessment and Leadership Practices Scoring Guide.

o Accessing Qualitative Feedback [PPTX].

o APA Style and Format.

o Are You an Innovator or Executor? Take This Quiz to Find Out.

o Capella Library.

o Capella Writing Center.

o Research Guideâ€"MBA.

o Resource Guide | Transcript.

o Writing Feedback Tool.