The document provides guidelines and a rubric for Part I of the final project for an MBA course. For Part I, students will conduct a self-assessment and analyze a selected leader by researching their career and comparing their leadership style to their own. They will write a 2-3 page paper or create a 4-6 slide presentation comparing their self-assessment results to the leader and analyzing the leader's career track, leadership skills, and management roles. The rubric outlines criteria for evaluating elements like the self-assessment analysis, comparison to the leader, analysis of the leader's career and skills, and the quality of writing.

1. MBA 550 Final Project Part I Guidelines and Rubric
Final Project Part I Overview
MBA 550 has two final projects: Final Project Part I: Self-
Assessment Investigation, due in Module Three, and Final
Project Part II: Leadership Assessment, due in
Module Nine. The course has a milestone assignment in each of
the following modules: Two, Four, Five, and Seven. You will
select a corporate or organizational
leader who could be a personal role model. The professional
self-assessment taken during the course will be the lens through
which you will select this leader.
You will research the leader’s professional career track,
management and leadership styles, team-building skills,
organizational vision and culture, and problem-
solving and conflict-management abilities. You will then
compare aspects of your own leadership style to the leadership
style of the person you selected.
The leadership and management of a business or organization
must have a strong mission and vision and be able to
communicate this information well. This
successful communication process is vital because the mission
and vision are the base of the organizational culture.
Organizational culture, in turn, affects job
performance, employee engagement, job satisfaction, and
personal growth and development. Leadership and management
skills are foundational for leading an
organization and making managerial decisions. In Final Project
Part I, you will review your leadership self-assessment and your

2. chosen leader analysis by
researching the leader and comparing your leadership abilities
to those of the leader.
Final Project Part I: Self-Assessment Investigation is due in
Module Three. For this assessment, you will select a leader in
Module Two from the list provided (or
you may select a leader not on the list with instructor
consultation and approval). Your selection of a leader should be
informed by the self-assessment you
completed in Milestone One in Module Two. Ideally, the leader
you select will be similar to you in many areas. After selecting
a leader, you will analyze the
results of your self-assessment and then focus on your chosen
leader, analyzing his or her career track and explaining what
impact his or her leadership skills had
on the organization and how the leader’s management style
helped him or her accomplish goals.
Final Project Part I addresses the following course outcomes:
-assessment tools for
informing personal appreciation of leadership skills and areas of
professional development
and functions for improving organizational structure,
operations, and communication
Final Project Part I Prompt
Your chosen leader analysis should answer the following
prompt: Select a leader from the list below. Your selection
should be informed by the professional self-
assessment that you completed in Module Two. With instructor

3. consultation and approval, you may select a leader who is not
on the list provided. If you select a
leader not on the list, you should either have personal
experience working with the leader, or the leader should have
experience in a publicly traded company.
This knowledge is necessary for you to find the required
information related to the leader.
List of suggested leaders:
After you select a leader, submit a short paper or presentation
on your self-assessment and your analysis of your chosen
leader. Analyze the results of your self-
assessment and then focus on your chosen leader, analyzing his
or her career track and explaining what impact his or her
leadership skills had on the

4. organization and how the leader’s management style helped him
or her accomplish goals. Refer to the Final Project Part I Rubric
(below) for submission
guidelines.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Self-Assessment
A. With your focus on leadership, analyze the results of your
professional self-assessment. In your analysis, make sure to
consider your strengths,
areas for development, and your skills, abilities, and tendencies.
You could also consider results such as your communication
and team-building
styles.
B. Briefly compare and contrast your self-assessment results to
the leadership characteristics of the leader you selected. In
other words, what skills
and abilities does the leader have that you also have? What
skills and abilities does the leader have that you do not?
II. Leadership and Management
A. Analyze the leader’s professional career track and growth,
focusing specifically on the leader’s management roles and
functions. How are the
leader’s leadership skills and abilities different from the
management roles and functions he or she fulfilled?
B. What impact did the leader’s leadership skills have on his or
her ability to improve organizational structure, operations, and
communication?

5. C. What impact did the leader’s management roles and functions
have on his or her ability to improve organizational structure,
operations, and
communication?
Final Project Part I Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your professional leadership profile
may be submitted as a paper or a presentation. If you choose to
submit a paper, it should adhere
to the following formatting requirements: 2–3 pages, double-
spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch
margins. If you choose to submit a
presentation, it should adhere to the following formatting
requirements: 4–6 slides, with speaker notes or voice recording.
Possible presentation tools include
PowerPoint or Prezi. Whether you submit a paper or a
presentation, you should have a minimum of five scholarly
references. Use current APA-style guidelines
for your citations and reference list.
Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in
Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade
Center. For more information,
review these instructions.
Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs
Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Self-Assessment:

6. Results
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
analysis demonstrates keen
insight into self-assessment
results
Comprehensively analyzes
results of professional self-
assessment, focusing on
leadership strengths, areas for
development, and skills,
abilities, and tendencies
Analyzes results of professional
self-assessment, but analysis is
cursory or inaccurate or does
not focus on leadership
strengths, areas for
development, and skills,
abilities, and tendencies
Does not analyze results of
professional self-assessment
20
Self-Assessment:
Compare and
Contrast
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response expertly balances
brevity with necessary detail

7. Briefly compares and contrasts
self-assessment results to
leadership characteristics of
selected leader
Compares and contrasts self-
assessment results to
leadership characteristics of
selected leader, but response is
wordy or vague
Does not compare and contrast
self-assessment results to
leadership characteristics of
selected leader
20
Leadership and
Management:
Career Track
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
analysis demonstrates nuanced
understanding of difference
between leadership skills and
management roles and
functions
Comprehensively analyzes
leader’s professional career
track, focusing on management
roles and functions and
explaining how these roles and
functions are different from
leader’s leadership skills

8. Analyzes leader’s professional
career track, but analysis is
cursory, inaccurate, lacks focus
on management roles and
functions, or does not explain
how these roles and functions
are different from leader’s
leadership skills
Does not analyze leader’s
professional career track
20
Leadership and
Management:
Leadership
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates
nuanced understanding of
relationship between
leadership skills and
improvements to organizational
structure, operations, and
communications
Accurately assesses impact of
leader’s leadership skills on
ability to improve
organizational structure,
operations, and communication
Assesses impact of leader’s

9. leadership skills on ability to
improve organizational
structure, operations, and
communication, but with gaps
in accuracy or detail
Does not assess impact of
leader’s leadership skills on
ability to improve
organizational structure,
operations, and communication
15
http://snhu-
media.snhu.edu/files/production_documentation/formatting/rubr
ic_feedback_instructions_student.pdf
Leadership and
Management:
Management
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates
nuanced understanding of
relationship between
management roles and
functions and improvements to
organizational structure,
operations, and
communications
Accurately assesses impact of
leader’s management roles and

10. functions on ability to improve
organizational structure,
operations, and communication
Assesses impact of leader’s
management roles and
functions on ability to improve
organizational structure,
operations, and
communication, but with gaps
in accuracy or detail
Does not assess impact of
leader’s management roles and
functions on ability to improve
organizational structure,
operations, and communication
15
Articulation of
Response
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization and is presented in
a professional and easy-to-read
format
Submission has no major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors
related to citations, grammar,

11. spelling, syntax, or organization
that negatively impact
readability and articulation of
main ideas
Submission has critical errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that prevent understanding of
ideas
10
Total 100%
Running Head: Self-Assessment 1
Self-Assessment 7
Assignment Title: Self-Assessment
Student:
Course:
Instructor:
Date:

12. Introduction
What makes an effective leader? This question can have
many different answers. It has been said that effective leaders
possess certain traits or characteristics and skills. According to
David Ulrich, “Leaders are learners: from success, failure,
assignments, books, classes, people, and life itself. Passionate
about their beliefs and interests, they expend enormous personal
energy on and give great attention to whatever matters to them.
Effective leaders inspire loyalty and goodwill in others because
they themselves act with integrity and trust. Decisive and
impassioned, they are capable of bold and courageous moves.
Confident in their ability to deal with situations as they arise,
they can tolerate ambiguity” (Ulrich, 2016). Below we will
look into some of my leadership traits as identified in
StrengthsFinder, as well as cognitive factors associated with
leadership effectiveness.
Summary of Results
The StrengthsFinder results provided my five most
dominant themes of talent out of 34 measured themes. The top
five themes are as follows:
1. Strategic – People who are especially talented in the Strategic
theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given
scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
2. Restorative – People are especially talented in the
Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are
good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.
3. Individualization – People who are especially talented in the
Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities
of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people
who are different can work together productively.
4. Competition – People who are especially talented in the

13. Competition theme measure their progress against the
performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel
in contests.
5. Analytical – People who are especially talented in the
Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the
ability to think about all the factors that might affect a
situation.
Cognitive Factors of Leadership
According to DuBrin, mental ability and personality are
important for leadership success. In order to inspire people,
bring constructive change, solve problems creatively, discern
essential information from less essential information and then
store the most important in memory, leaders need to be mentally
sharp (DuBrin, 2016). DuBrin refers to these problem-solving
and intellectual skills as cognitive factors, and isolates five
factors relating to analytical (cognitive) intelligence where he
describes “cognitive” as necessary to differentiate traditional
mental ability from emotional intelligence. These five factors
are (1) analytical intelligence; (2) Knowledge of the business or
group task; (3) Creativity; (4) Insight into people and situations
and (5) Farsightedness and conceptual thinking (DuBrin, 2016).
Each of the below mentioned StrengthFinder measured themes,
correlates to one of these five cognitive factors of leadership:
1. Strategic – This theme corresponds with Factor (2),
Knowledge of the business or group task. The leader possessing
the Strategic them creates the plan to proceed and can quickly
spot the relevant patterns and issues. The strategy to move
forward can only be effectively formulated if the leader is
competent in their understanding of the business as a whole, or
the specific line of business in which they are leading a group
of specialists.
The Strategic theme also relates to Factor (5), Farsightedness
and Conceptual Thinking. DuBrin notes leaders need the ability
to understand the long-range implications of actions and
policies (i.e. farsightedness). An example of this would be
hiring talented workers that will give the company a long-range

14. competitive advantage (DuBrin, 2016). He continues with
conceptual thinking, or the ability to see the overall perspective
that makes farsightedness possible. In order to develop a
strategy, the leader must have an understanding of the business’
overall perspective and the implications of actions and policies.
2. Restorative – People are especially talented in the
Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are
good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it. Because of
this, restorative leaders can also maintain the farsightedness and
conceptual thinking factor. Once the problem is determined, the
leader will need to be able to understand the effects of the
resolution to be implemented. The Creativity Factor would be a
good trait here as well when developing the plan to resolution.
3. Individualization – This theme relates to Factor (4), Insight
into People and Situations. Leaders strong in individualization
and insight into people, have a gift for figuring out how people
who are different can work together productively. This can be
useful in speedy decision making and also allow the leader to
adapt his or her leadership on a per-situation basis (DuBrin,
2016).
4. Analytical – This them corresponds to the Analytical
(Cognitive) Intelligence Factor. Possessing the ability to
analyse company operations from finance to inventory to
ensuring compliance with regulators, is an imperative trait of an
effective leader. DuBrin notes research spanning 100 years has
demonstrated that leaders receive higher scores than most
people on mental ability tests. He further notes intelligence
tests confirm the top 1 percent in combined mental ability and
income, includes large numbers of successful professionals such
as doctors and lawyers (DuBrin, 2016). People who are
especially talented in the Analytical theme search for reasons
and causes and have the ability to think about all the factors
that might affect a situation. A doctor or lawyer would
absolutely need to possess the Analytical
Application of Examples
The leadership traits identified in my StrengthFinder most

15. closely related to my current position as a Financial Institutions
Examination Manager, are Analytical, Strategic and Restorative.
In order to lead a successful examination of a licensee I have to
be able to read the examiners personalities and working
strengths and weakness to determine who will be best suited to
examine the licensee and which examiners will work best
together to efficiently and effectively execute the examination.
The Analytical trait is imperative. All examiners hopefully
possess this trait although it can prove very difficult to evaluate
whether a potential examiner candidate is analytical and in what
capacity. The more analytical, the better because we have to
analyse the licensee’s operations, finances and compliance with
federal and state regulations. This trait allows us to obtain an
understanding of these things and then discern compliance with
regulations. The Restorative trait can be beneficial in
determining resolutions between examiners as well as areas of
non-compliance for licensees. It can also be helpful when
discussing a licensee’s non-compliance with their management,
which can sometimes be volatile. If the examiner can
understand management’s true concern, they can diffuse the
volatility.
Conclusion
Overall a leader can possess various traits and skills.
Sometimes leaders are born with these traits and skills and other
times they are learned. In either instance, training and hands-on
experience are important in developing these skills. Once the
leader identifies his or her strengths and weaknesses, they can
become a huge asset to the company and be a monumental force
in the company’s profitability and success.
References
DuBrin, Andrew J. (2016). Leadership: Research Findings,
Practice, and Skills. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning
Ulrich, D. (2016, November 10). What Is an Effective Leader?
Retrieved from American Management Association:

16. http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/What-is-an-effective-
leader.aspx