Corporate Leadership and HR

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay

Overall Instructions
This assignment is in four parts, A, B, C and D. All four parts have to be completed.
Each part has its own set of instructions. Follow them carefully.
Give your assignment
1. A cover page with the KU logo
2. Your name and ID, and your section’s CRN,
3. The date
4. BUSS 301 Assignment 1 and include and the name of your instructor,
5. Paginate your assignment,
6. Number all your answers accurately.

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay
Your final submission will look like this:
1. Cover page
2. A 1 and A 2
3. B 1 and B 2
4. C 1-10
5. D Personal Development Program
Part A The Complexion of Your Personality
There are two deliverables here, a self-assessment and a Personal Career SWOT.
1. Access http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/ipipneo120.htm
2. Read the information. It is an introduction and explanation,
3. Click on the two tick boxes to indicate that you have understood the information, and
then click on “Send”. This will provide you with the first 60 questions,
4. Follow all the instructions and answer all 120 questions,
5. Save your results firstly as a hard-copy and also as an html or PDF file. This is important
to keep this in your e-folio,
6. Include the hard-copy in your assignment submission and number it A 1
7. Create a “Personal Career SWOT” using relevant data from your self-assessment from
the website above. See the SWOT format below. In your submission, head this up as
Personal Career SWOT. Number it A 2.

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay

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A 2 Personal Career SWOT
Below is a partially complete example. You should adapt it for yourself. Underneath the
SWOT table, include a more developed description and/or explanation for at least one
item (a few sentences for each item are sufficient) in each section to show you have
reflected on each area.

My internal strengths
For example:
I have excellent technical knowledge,
I’m good at working in a team

My internal weaknesses
For example:
I’m poor at time-management,
and I lack confidence in interviews and presentations

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay

My external opportunities
For example:
There’s a shortage of engineers in my field
I’m about to complete my degree
I have contacts in my fields who can assist me

My external threats
For example:
I’m competing for a job with others with the same
qualifications and more experience
The economic situation is not as strong as it was 2 years
ago

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay

Part B Your Most and Least Successful Leadership Experiences
1. See the two questions below, B 1 and B 2. Together they comprise a self-assessment on
your best and worst leadership moments,
2. Complete Parts B 1 and B 2 by explaining in 500-800 words in each case, what your most
and least successful leadership experiences were,
3. It is important to be honest with yourself, making a pretence of any kind will not assist
you to identify your errors and improve on them,
4. Include an appropriate amount of detail to make your experiences as clear to the reader
as possible.
Self-Assessment of Your Best and Worst Leadership Moments
(This part of the assignment was adapted from Hackman, M. and Johnson, C. (2009), Leadership – A Communication Perspective, 5 th
Ed., Waveland Press.)
Part B 1
Everyone has enjoyed leadership success at some point. At some time – whether within the
family, high school, KU situations, on the athletic field, in a community or religious group or in a
work situation – we have all made things happen by motivating and activating other people. We
have all been leaders to a greater or lesser extent.
Looking back over the last few years, what is the experience that you are most proud of as a
leader?

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay

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Part B 2
Just as all of us have enjoyed success, we’ve also experienced the pain of leadership failure.
Learning to be a leader requires looking back and learning from past mistakes so that you don’t
repeat the errors.
Looking back over the last few years, what is the experience that disappointed you the most
in your own leadership at that time.
Part C Leadership Lessons
1. In this part, list 10 leadership features that you have learned so far from your best and
worst experiences. To reach 10 items, you may also use features that you have learned
from others’ situations.
These are examples, and so you may not use them for yourself:
It is difficult to succeed as a leader when followers are not motivated,
Leadership works best when you have a clear sense of direction.
2. Describe each item from 1-10 so that they are clear to the reader. This may take one, or
even two to three sentences in each case.

BUSS 301 Corporate Leadership and HR Essay
Part D Personal Developmental Program (PDP)
1. Read the PDP below and copy the main frame. All the white internal fields act only as
simple examples.
2. Complete your own PDP according to this model by inserting information that is
relevant to you. Underneath the table, include a more developed description and/or
explanation for each item (a few sentences for each item are sufficient) to show you
have reflected on each area.
3. You may compress the timeline over a period of months rather than years, if you wish.