Leadership Project Proposal

1. Read the Journal of Management Education article titled "Personal Leadership Conundrum" (referenced in the Module). This article is available through the Saint Leo online library. (See the syllabus and the link in the course Resources area for more information about accessing the online library).

2. Identify the leadership conundrum you will look into as you lead the group (what personal issues do you need to address, etc.). State it in the first person and in the form of a question. See examples of conundrum topics in the Recommendations section below.

3. Explain why you have chosen this conundrum: Why is it of interest to you? How does it relate to your experiences? How does it relate to who you are? In other words, what about yourself and your experience are motivating you to seek the answer to this conundrum?

4. Create a bibliography of at least two peer-reviewed, academic journal articles that deal with the conundrum (see below the Recommendations section for examples of journals that qualify as academic and peer reviewed), at least two periodical articles (newspaper, magazine, website, etc.), and at least two books, stories, myths, parables, movies, poems, or songs that will help you better understand and gain insight into your conundrum.

5. Identify at least two leaders you will interview to gain their insights into your conundrum and explain why you have chosen them to interview regarding your conundrum as you work on guiding your group. Provide the title and contact information for each leader.

6. List between five and seven interview questions you will ask to each leader (the questions should be the same or at least partially the same). The questions should be directly related to the personal conundrum that you are trying to solve in leading the group.

7. For this proposal (and the Final Leadership Paper), you will use the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting guidelines. If you have any questions concerning proper citation procedures, then ask the instructor prior to submitting your work.

8. Submit the completed Project Proposal to the Dropbox

Recommendations

The following are recommendations to consider as you complete your project:

1. When necessary, please seek out advice from your instructor. Although you are responsible for your learning, the instructor is available to help you make this assignment meaningful and successful.

2. You should choose a conundrum of your own interest. In the past, students have explored
such specific conundrums as:

a. "How do I balance confidence and humility to be an effective leader?"

b. "How do I lead, influence, and work with negative people?"

c. "How do I lead people who don't believe I should be doing the leading?"

d. "How will I be able to effectively lead those who have negative stereotypes of working

for/or with females?"

e. "How do I institute change in a group while maintaining high standards?"

f. "How do I lead older, more experienced people?"

g. "How can I be a role model of hard work and dedication and also

balance work and non-work domains?"

3. There are numerous academic journals on management, leadership, psychology, sociology,

philosophy, education, and religion available through the library. Below are a number of  academic management journal titles:

a. Academy of Management Journal

b. Academy of Management Review

c. Leadership

d. Leadership Quarterly

e. Leadership and Organizational Development Journal

f. Organization

g. International Journal of Management

h. International Journal of Leadership Studies

i. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies

j. Journal of Management Inquiry

k. Journal of Organizational Behavior

l. Journal of Management and Organization

m. Journal of Management Education

4. There are, of course, many different leadership styles you can use in completing your project (refer to your text and/or other sources) and there are, of course, a number of different project you can lead people on-some of the ones that have been done in previous classes are (organizing an office area, helping team members to lose weight, leading a group in donating time at a Red Cross or other social service agency, organizing a group to run a race for a particular benefit, organizing a group to take a train ride to a particular part of the US or elsewhere, etc.).