Assessment 1: Building Self-Awareness as a Leader

Instructions for completing the Gallup Strengths Finder

The learning design of this subject is to focus on your own leadership journey and not to study leadership as some remote,theoretical concept that applies to other people. Assessment 1,

Part A, starts to build self-awareness by analysing your results on the Gallup Strengths Finder psychometric instrument. Assessment 1,

Part B, increases your self-awareness through a reflexive journal, working with your partner, understanding your current capabilities and preparing a report on your leadership journey to the present time.

Assessment 2 is a report on your plans for your continuing leadership development. The assessment reports should build on each other and should be seen as an integrated plan for your continuing personal and professional development.

Your Task: Your task in Assessment 1, Part A, is to complete the Gallup Strengths Finder and submit a brief report on the results and their implications for your development as a leader. Instructions for completing Gallup strength finder:

See further instructions under Assessment 1 brief in the LMS for detailed instructions to begin the test online. It is highly recommended to set aside 30 minutes of noninterrupted time to complete this test as the questions are set on a short timer to capture initial and instinctual responses. Analysing results: When you receive your results, look at your report and read the background document on the Gallup psychometric assessment. You should then prepare a 500-word report which covers the following issues:

1) A brief discussion of your understanding of the conceptual framework behind the Gallup Strengths Finder and why it is important.

2) A brief description of your results. Provide a copy of your report as an Appendix. It will not be included in the word count.

3) Your initial reactions to your results: any surprises, any concerns, any connections with your own self-perceptions of your leadership strengths and personality preferences, any consistencies or inconsistencies with other feedback that you have received, either from colleagues or other psychometric tests.

4) Your initial thoughts on the implications of the results for your current and future leadership: how you can draw on your strengths to enhance your current and future effectiveness.

You should write in the first person, because this is about YOU, your reflections and your interpretations.

(e.g. “I considered this advice to be….. because it had a big impact on my……..and it helped me to understand my..........”) Try to be as specific as possible, use brief examples to illustrate your points and try to select examples that enable you to demonstrate learning against the attributes in the rubric. All other principles of academic writing apply, including strict referencing, acknowledgement of the work of others and avoidance of plagiarism.

Referencing: You should include a list of specific references that you have actually used in your report. For this assessment, a minimum of three journal articles, academic papers or textbooks is expected.References to any secondary sources or web sites are additional.The reference list and Executive Summary (if you choose to use one) and any appendices will not be included in the word count. It is essential that you use appropriate APA style for citing and referencing research. Please see more information on referencing here