Choose Extra Leadership Mentor Interview
Instructions:
Step 1: Set up the Leadership Mentor Interview.
You will identify and schedule the Interview date no later than the end of Week Four. See the document Leadership Mentor Interview and Guidelines for guidance on how to identify a leader and to set up the interview. You will post information about the Interview in week 4 learning activity.
Step 2. Prepare for the Leadership Mentor Interview.
The document, Leadership Mentor Interview and Guidelines outlines how to prep for the Interview and a list of Interview Questions. You will choose a minimum of 20 questions under the following topics:
- Minimum of 5 questions about General Leadership adapted from the article:
- Minimum of 3 questions about Culture (taken from the Leadership Mentor Interview and Guidelines document)
- Minimum of 3 questions about Strategic Thinking (taken from the Leadership Mentor Interview and Guidelines document)
Note that some questions may not be applicable for your chosen Mentor. As a result, you will want to choose “extra” questions from this list and have them handy in case you need them.
Step 3. Attend the Leadership Mentor Interview.
The Interview can occur any time prior to Week Seven. It is recommended you complete this prior to Week 7, to allow you time in Week 7 to complete the report. You will want to take lots of notes during your interview, or record it and take notes later. You will be expected to demonstrate you asked the required number and type of questions by providing notes to the interview in the Appendix of this report.
Step 4. Write the Report.
Report Format:
Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) report should be no more than five pages double-spaced. Those five pages do not include a required Title Page, Reference Page and Appendix. You will use the following format.
Executive Summary.
- Provide a brief summary of the Mentor you interviewed including: Name, Job Title, Organization, time with organization, and time in current role. You may also briefly describe other parts of the Mentor’s work and leadership history.
The Leader’s General View of Leadership.
In this section provide a description of the following, using both examples from the interview and course materials as support:
- The leader’s view of the role of a leader.
- The leader’s view about leading change.
- The leader’s view about the best way to lead.
- The leader’s view about cultivating other leadership talent.
If you feel you have enough information garnered from the interview, also determine:
- What you feel is this person’s predominant leadership style (provide evidence of why you made this determination. What you feel is this person’s prevalent leadership theory (provide evidence of why you made this determination).
The Leader’s View of Organizational Culture.
Use both examples from the interview and course materials as support.
The Leader’s Approach to Strategic Thinking.
Use both examples from the interview and course materials as support.
Conclusion
Provide a summary of your general leadership lessons that you learned from this mentor as a result of this interview. Use course materials for support.
Reference Page
Provide references to match your in-text citations, written in APA format.
Appendix
Include your Interview Notes to demonstrate that your minimum 20 Interview questions were asked. There is no required format for this section.
Step 5. Submit the completed Report in the Assignment Folder.
Submitting the project to the Assignment Folder is considered the student’s final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor. It is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission. No exceptions will be considered by the instructor.
Other Required Elements:
- Read the grading rubric for the project. Use the grading rubric while completing the project to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.
- Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them.
- Paraphrasing is allowed for providing examples from the Interview. Use direct quotation marks if you are providing a direct quote from the interviewee. You do not need to cite or reference this leader for the purposes of this report.
- Direct quotes are NOT allowed if they are quotation from course materials. This means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document, but put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document, using in-text citations in APA format.
- In-text citations should be included in ALL SECTIONS of the report, and should demonstrate application of the course material. Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa