You are required to complete a leadership personal development plan. A template will be provided and
attached below. Your plan should draw on both relevant academic theory and examples of your own
experience and practice.

There is no one correct way to approach this assessment. Essentially you are being asked to
demonstrate your understanding of leadership dimensions and practice in context and reflect on

 Your experience of being a leader
 Your experience of being led
 Insights gained from observing leaders
 Accounts of leaders and leadership that you have read or heard about

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There are a range of tasks to complete. These include:
 a leadership learning diary
 your self-reflection
 identifying preferred learning style
 Identifying your leadership style
 your self-assessment against 7 leadership practices i.e. Leading Yourself, Being on Purpose,
Power, Risk, Challenging Questions, Facilitation and Networking
 your action plan as a future leader

1. Your work will be assessed according to the following criteria (please see the marking rubric
later in this brief for details of what each requirement covers in relation to the task):

 Knowledge and understanding of leadership theory, insights and practice (30%)
 Critical analysis and interpretation of leadership theory, insights and practice (30%)
 Critical reflection, personal and professional evaluation and application (40%)

2. The key is to be able to integrate and synthesise relevant academic theories with reflection
on your own experience and practice.
 This means using each (theory and experience/practice) to inform, interpret, analyse
and evaluate the other.
 How might particular theories and/or approaches help to explain your personal
leadership practice or experience?
 How can your personal leadership practice and experience help to evaluate a
particular theory or approach?

3. It is usually more effective to aim for an in-depth analysis with a narrow focus, rather than
trying to cover many different things.
 You are not expected to provide a comprehensive account of your leadership career,
nor of theories and practices of leadership, but instead to use your experiences and
understanding from this module to inform your self assessment and analysis.
 You will be given credit for being able to select appropriate and relevant materials
and integrate them effectively.
 For example, you may choose to focus on some particular events which have shaped

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your understanding of leadership or use a particular theory as a lens with which to
examine your personal understanding and leader practice.
4. Relevant academic theories are considered in the module materials.

5. In your reflections and responses to the various element in your leadership development
plan, you may wish to consider one or more of the following:
 Has your understanding of leadership changed? In what ways, how and why?
 Do you see yourself as a leader, now or in the future? Why?
 In what ways does your experience of being a leader (or observing leaders) reflect
theories of management and leadership? In what ways does your experience
challenge theories?

EXTENSIONS : – If you need to apply for an EXTENSION to the deadline for submission of this work,
please complete the EXTENSION REQUEST FORM (EX1) here:
https://portal.chester.ac.uk/registryservices/Pages/forms.aspx and submit to the School Office
([email protected])
This will be reviewed by the Head of the Department. Individual module tutors do not decide or
allocate extension deadlines. You will be informed of the outcome of that decision by email from the
School Office.