Leadership Book Report and Reflection Paper

 This assignment provides students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of leadership by evaluating the skills, values, methods, and performance of someone in leadership. Through the reading of an autobiography or biography of a leader, the student will determine the leader’s strengths and weakness but, most importantly, how that individual’s approach to leadership conforms or diverges from the model presented by Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge. Finally, students will have an opportunity to reflect on the leader’s experience and describe what they learned and how it will help them in their own leadership journey. The Schmidt text (suggested readings) provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the influence that Christians have had in the world including in the areas of science, art, architecture, music, economics, business, healthcare, education, law, politics, literature, and, of course, theology and religion. For this assignment, identify a leader in your specific field (discipline, major, minor, area of interest, etc.); this can be a current leader or an historical figure. Select and read a quality academic biography or autobiography about this leader and write a book report. Your professor must approve your topic; an assignment submission link is provided in Unit 2 through which you can submit your book selection. The main body of the report must address the following: What individuals influenced this leader and in what ways? In other words, who are his or her role models? Identify at least two (2) major challenges the leader faced. Did the leader succeed or fail? Integrate the Kouzes and Posner text and explain how well the leader reflects the leadership framework. Be sure to show how the leader does or does not demonstrate each of the five leadership practices and related commitments. Provide examples. Were the successes or failures identified above due to leader’s conformity or divergence from those leadership practices? Explain. What events influenced his or her leadership journey? What influence (positive and/or negative) has this leader had on his or her profession or academic field and the culture? Does this leader demonstrate good character? Is humility essential to his or her approach to leadership? Finally, in a Reflection section of your report, explain what you learned from this person’s experience that can help you be a better leader. How has your view/definition of Christian leadership changed from the start of this course (re: introductory blog post)? How has this leader’s story contributed to that view? What insights do you have that you didn’t before—about yourself, your character (re: the Christian Character Index), your faith, the culture, and the world? This book report should be approximately 2000 words in length, and include the following sections: (1) introduction, (2) brief overview of the leader/book, (3) main body (addressing questions), (4) reflection section, (5) conclusion, and (6) references (not included in word count).