Interviews with Leaders

The following is an analysis of the information gathered from the interviewed leaders. The leadership level of focus was the individual level. These interviews aimed to investigate the characteristics of individual contributors and how they contribute to their ability to assist organizations in achieving their goals and objectives. These results will demonstrate that individual contributors’ personal and purpose mastery is essential to their role in an organization.

Examine interviewees’ personal characteristics and describe alignment to effective leadership.

Lydia Raymond

Lydia is an accounting clerk in a small organization. Her job role requires her to perform clerical functions such as inputting financial information in the respective books they are to be recorded. She stated that she loves her job but does not feel like her position is given the level of importance it deserves. One of the characteristics identified in this interview is that this leader is a good communicator. Lydia was very good at clearly conveying her sentiments. She mentioned that her job is dependent on how effectively she communicates with people from different departments. In the interview, we also identified that she is good at collaboration. She mentioned that she has to coordinate her work with other departments to get financial information in time so that she can perform her role. This leader was also a good planner. She has to plan her work effectively to avoid mistakes, which can affect the organization significantly. Her organization and planning skills help to minimize mistakes, thus, avoiding financial issues in her organization. Most importantly, she is hard-working. Lydia mentioned that she loves working for the organization and puts a lot of effort to ensure that she meets the organization’s expectations.

Mark Brown

Mark is an ICT employee in a small-sized business. His job entails managing the information and communication systems of the organization he works for. He ensures that the systems are working well for the rest of the organization to be able to function effectively. Mark mentioned that he is very satisfied with his job at the moment. One characteristic identified is that he has good interpersonal skills. Mark mentioned that he is good at communication and collaboration, two characteristics that are vital to his role in the organization. He needs to communicate and collaborate with other employees so that they can communicate the issues affecting the systems to help him fix them. Another characteristic identified in the interview with Mark is that he is intelligent. He understands his work perfectly and how he must interact with people to enhance the effectiveness of his role. He is also passionate about his role. He loves technology and enjoys the contribution he makes to the organization.

Explain the significance of these leadership characteristics and how they apply in your own career progression.

The two leaders interviewed in this project have some shared characteristics. They are both good at interpersonal skills. They both greatly communicate and collaborate with other employees in their organization. Communication and collaboration are important characteristics of individual contributors. Employees who do not play leadership roles in the organization also need good interpersonal skills to work effectively in teams within the organization (Garcia-Morales et al., 2007). Individual contributors do not guide the team members, but their ability to work well with people enhances their contribution to the success of the organization.

Other characteristics that contribute to these leaders’ roles are hard work and passion. Just like leaders, contributors must be motivated to perform their roles effectively. The two leaders interviewed love their job roles. In particular, both leaders demonstrated an understanding of their roles and contribution to the success of the organization. This is an important trait because it contributes to the creation of a purpose. The individual contributors tend to have a purpose within the organization by understanding how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success (Maurer & London, 2018).

The interview also identified great organization and planning skills in one of the leaders. This is an important trait in a leader because it enables them to meet their objectives and targets. Planning helps a leader to achieve their goals with ease and promptness. This is an important trait for an individual contributor because it ensures that they maximize effectiveness, thus, helping the organization to progress.

Contribution to Career Progression

The characteristics of these leaders have a direct effect on their career progression. There are some learning points that can be taken from these leaders for anyone who may want to progress in their careers. First, they are good at teamwork. Interpersonal skills enable leaders to collaborate effectively with others, thus, enhancing their role effectiveness. This leads to better performance, which gives a person a chance for growth (Ladkin, 2008). Hard work and passion are also important in helping a person pursue achievements that contribute to career progression. For instance, a leader who is motivated may want to learn more about their role by learning from their leaders and even additional education. This enhances their skills and enables them to have a better chance at career progression. Therefore, it is important for individual contributors to have great skills, not only for the success of the organization but also for their own progression.

References

Garcia-Morales, V. J., Lloréns-Montes, F. J., & Verdú-Jover, A. J. (2007). Influence of personal mastery on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation in large firms and SMEs. Technovation, 27(9), 547-568.

Ladkin, D. (2008). Leading beautifully: How mastery, congruence and purpose create the aesthetic of embodied leadership practice. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(1), 31-41.

Maurer, T. J., & London, M. (2018). From individual contributor to leader: a role identity shift framework for leader development within innovative organizations. Journal of Management, 44(4), 1426-1452.

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[u04a1] Unit 4 Assignment 1: Interviews with Leaders

Execute your plan. Interview two leaders and write up your notes, including examining interviewees’ personal characteristics. What worked? What did not work? What would you do differently next time? What did you learn about interviewing? What did you learn about your topic and its potential for helping leaders examine their leadership skills and characteristics? How might the alignment to effective leaderships be used in its own career progression?

Resources

• Interviews with Leaders Scoring Guide.

Interviews with Leaders Scoring Guide

Due Date: End of Unit 4.
Percentage of Course Grade: 5%.

CRITERIA	NON-PERFORMANCE	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
Examine interviewees’ personal characteristics and describe alignment to effective leadership. 50%	Does not examine interviewees’ personal characteristics.	Briefly discusses interviewees’ personal characteristics.	Examines interviewees’ personal characteristics.	Examines interviewees’ personal characteristics and describes alignment to effective leadership that might be of use in own career progression.
Explain the significance of these leadership characteristics and how they apply in your own career progression. 50%	Does not explain leadership characteristics application to own career progression.	Briefly discusses leadership characteristics application to own career progression.	Examines interviewees’ leadership characteristics application to own career progression.	Examines interviewees’ leadership characteristics and how that might be of use in own career progression.

You have Weeks Three and Four to conduct the actual interviews so that you can respond and complete U04a1 “Interview with Leaders” and part of our Course Project One [individual portion of the team project].

To complete the interviews each Learner, you, must have agreed with teammates [collaboration] on two decisions. First, you must have selected and agreed with regarding topic(s) for the actual interviews. The topic was selected from Cashman’s textbook. For example, you must use masteries such as Personal, Purpose, Change or others listed in the Table of Contents.

Here is expectations for U04a1:

Interviews with Leaders

Resources

• Interviews with Leaders Scoring Guide.

Execute your plan. Interview two leaders and write up your notes, including examining interviewees’ personal characteristics. What worked? What did not work? What would you do differently next time? What did you learn about interviewing? What did you learn about your topic and its potential for helping leaders examine their leadership skills and characteristics? How might the alignment to effective leaderships be used in its own career progression?

Remember click the blue Scoring Guide hot link to view grading questions. After reviewing the actual Scoring Guide’s grading questions, ask yourself “have I adequately answered both questions – grading criteria?”.

1. Examine interviewees’ personal characteristics and describe alignment to effective leadership.
2. Explain the significance of these leadership characteristics and how they apply in your own career progression.

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards