Developing Leadership and Management Skills

Assessment guidance

This section offers guidance on each area of the assessment brief. Drawing on the literature and/or current organizational practice, write an essay where you should:

– Describe at least three interpretations (each) of the concepts of leadership and management.

Assessment criterion: 1.1 Describe a range of meanings attached to the concepts of leadership and management.

Guidance

To complete this part of the assessment, you need to provide at least three different meanings of the concepts of leadership and management. For example, leadership as the capacity to influence to achieve a common goal vs management as organising and coordinating activities to achieve common goals.

You should also give examples of different models e.g. trait theories, style theories, transactional v transformational approaches.

– Explain and justify distinctions drawn between the concepts of leadership and management.

Assessment criterion: 1.2 Justify distinctions drawn between leadership and management.

Guidance

Note and justify distinctions between leadership and management. For example, the former being concerned with visioning and fostering ownership and commitment with the latter focusing on the translation of the vision into practice by organising and co-ordinating others.

– Evaluate at least four different approaches for developing leaders and managers.

Assessment criterion: 2.1 Evaluate a range of approaches for developing leaders and managers.

Guidance

You have been tasked to design a management and leadership program to develop your management team. Evaluate 4 different approaches and explain why you believe these are the most suitable ones identifying advantages and disadvantages of each. For example approaches could include; education-based programmes, coaching and/or mentoring programmes, action learning sets, secondments, job rotations, shadowing, development/assessment centres.

-Provide at least five examples of how the L&D function can support leadership and management development.

Assessment criterion: 2.2 Discuss the role of the L&D function in providing leadership and management development.

Guidance

Provide at least five examples of how the L&D function can support leadership and management development. For example, needs assessment, design and delivery of interventions, identifying and assessing potential leaders, advising on individual and group development and the context/ways of working in which individuals and teams work, evaluating outcomes.

-Identify at least four indicators of success for leadership and management development programmes.

Assessment criterion: 3.1 Identify indicators of success for leadership and management development programmes.

Guidance

Identify at least four indicators of success. For example, individual performance evidence, effective succession, key employee retention, participant satisfaction indicators.

-Provide a rationale for at least three methods to ensure the success of leadership and management development programmes.

Assessment criterion: 3.2 Justify methods to ensure the success of leadership and management development programmes.

Guidance

Justify at least three methods for ensuring the success of leadership and management programmes. For example, addressing the context in which the leader/manager operates alongside the individual competency development aspects, stakeholder mapping, involving and using contributions from key stakeholders, demonstrating and communicating achievement of success indicators.

Evidence to be produced/required

A written essay of approximately 3,000 words.

All reference sources should be acknowledged correctly and a bibliography provided where appropriate (these should be excluded from the word count).