Project on

Assessment through Leadership Practice Inventory

Submitted By

Nancy Bhandari Shailendra Choudhury

Gaurav Pathak

Sec- ‘c’

In the branch of study Leadership Challenges

08/11

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are three people who have contributed their knowledge and efforts to make this leadership practice inventory analysis as a success.

We are heartily thankful to Ms.Vidya Iyer for her kind support and guidance. We are also thankful to our friends and group members for their support, cooperation and guidance. We are highly thankful to internet services for giving us solution whenever we needed.

INTRODUCTION

If we talk about leaders; we will see that when leaders are at their personal best they are applying the following 5 practices: Modeling the Way Leaders establish principles concerning the way people (constituents, peers, colleagues, and customers alike) should be treated and the way goals should be pursued. They create standards of excellence and then set an example for others to follow. Because the prospect of complex change can overwhelm people and stifle action, they set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives. They unravel bureaucracy when it impedes action; they put up signposts when people are unsure of where to go or how to get there; and they create opportunities for victory. Inspire a Shared Vision Leaders passionately believe that they can make a difference. They envision the future, creating an ideal and unique image of what the organization can become. Through their magnetism and quiet persuasion, leaders enlist others in their dreams. They breathe life into their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities for the future. Challenge the Process Leaders search for opportunities to change the status quo. They look for innovative ways to improve the organization. In doing so, they experiment and take risks. And because leaders know that risk taking involves mistakes and failures, they accept the inevitable disappointments as learning opportunities. Enable Others to Act Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful. Encourage the Heart Accomplishing extraordinary things in organizations is hard work. To keep hope and determination alive, leaders recognize contributions that individuals make. In every winning team, the members need to share in the rewards of their efforts, so leaders celebrate accomplishments. They make people feel like heroes.

About LPI LPI is a set of questionnaire and a way to interpret this questionnaire. Hence, in short it measures one’s leadership behavior. For that purpose, this questionnaire (a set of 30 questions) should be filled by the leader himself and his subordinates. Subordinates may include his coworkers, managers or those who have closely observed him. About the questionnaire It’s a set of 30 questions. Each question belongs to a particular practice e.g. modeling the way, encourage the heart etc. In this way for each practice 6 questions are allotted. Each question has 10 different options to be chosen as a reply and every option refers to a certain point. This questionnaire should be filled by both the leader and his subordinates. Leader will response for these questions as what does he think about himself as a leader while his subordinates will respond considering him as leader and the way he applies his leadership practices; not the way he should. Analysis and Interpretation of the scores After the questionnaire is filled, it will be evaluated by comparing the points of particular questions. Closer is the point, more is the trust between this leader and his subordinates. This analysis will highlight certain strengths and weakness about the relationship between team and team leader which will be covered in the suggestion for improvement. Brief Introduction of our subject For the analysis of this LPI project, we didn’t choose any political leader or a CEO but a group of four students who have lately won a live project competition for a well established company; Aircel. They found a leader within the coterie; Vishrut Pandey. They worked hard and smartly to achieve their goal.

SUMMARY PAGE

The table below gives brief, introductory but deep information about: Which practice the leader thinks he applies most Which practice does he apply most according to his subordinates. Average of the entire observer’s response to know the overall rating and

individual responses as well.

Profile for Vishrut Pandey

Self AVG AGR DEEPAK JAIN VIKRAM Model the Way

57 49.3 M 57 47 44

Encourage the Heart

58 46 M 58 46 34

Inspire A shared Vision

52 44.7 M 52 48 34

Challenge the Process

51 41.7 M 51 40 34

Enable Others to Act

55 38.6 L 55 32 29

AVG: average of the entire observer’s rating

AGR: Standard Deviation of the entire observer’s rating

Interpretation From Leader' point of view: In the above table leader rates Encourage the Heart highest among all other practices. So basically he recognizes the contribution of each member and eventually let them feel that they are the crucial part of the team. He also keeps the hope of achieving the ultimate goal. But at the same time he doesn’t look for the innovative ways to accomplish the task. Thus hardly take risks and he admits that this area (Challenge the Process) needs to be improved. From observers point of view: They feel that he creates standards how the work should be done and the goal should be achieved and thus he Models the Way. But he does not properly recognize the contribution of each member and he needs to improve this area. Similarity and Differences: One similarity is that both of the them agree on the part of the challenge the process where leader rates himself lowest and the observer rates him lowest penultimate. The difference in their perception can be seen in Encourage the Heart, where leader thinks he applies this practice while the observers’ feels that he needs to improve in this domain.

LPI Behaviors Ranking

Q. No Self Observers 18 Enable Others to Act 10 10 9 Modeling the Way 10 9.3 4 Modeling the Way 10 9

15 Encourage the Heart 9 8.7 24 Modeling the Way 10 8.7 30 Encourage the Heart 10 8.7 5 Encourage the Heart 10 8.3*

14 Modeling the Way 10 8.3* 25 Encourage the Heart 10 8.3* 26 Challenge the Process 10 8.3* 11 Challenge the Process 8 8 7 Inspire a Shared Vision 10 7.7*

12 Inspire a Shared Vision 10 7.7* 21 Challenge the Process 9 7.7 27 Inspire a Shared Vision 8 7.7 17 Inspire a Shared Vision 9 7.3* 2 Inspire a Shared Vision 8 7

19 Modeling the Way 8 7 20 Encourage the Heart 10 7* 22 Inspire a Shared Vision 7 7 23 Enable Others to Act 9 7* 29 Modeling the Way 9 7* 3 Enable Others to Act 9 6.7* 6 Challenge the Process 8 6.7 8 Enable Others to Act 9 6.3*

13 Enable Others to Act 9 6.3* 10 Encourage the Heart 9 6* 28 Enable Others to Act 9 5.7* 16 Challenge the Process 9 5.7* 1 Challenge the Process 7 5.3*

Interpretation Under this LPI Behavior ranking, the leader rates Enable Others to Act as the

highest. Those ten behaviors which are considered least often practiced are mentioned

in black background. In case if there is a practice which form a cluster in dark background (in the

table) with at least three practices adjacent to each other then leader should pay attention to these practices as a whole rather than just as a single behavior. But we don’t find such cluster in the above table. Thought there is a group of challenge the process and enable others to act which should be properly considered as a practice and specially Enable Others to Act.

The items which are marked asterisk (*) because the score between self and observer’s rating differ by more than 1.5 Hence, needs investigation why there is such difference.

The leader chiefly follows Encourage the Heart and Model the Way, it’s admitted by both the leader and observer. But this behavior ranking table shows that he needs to improve in the domain of Enable Others to Act.

Individual Practice Page for Model the Way

Question No. Self AVG Deepak Jain Vikram 9 10 9.33 10 9 9

14 10 8.33 10 8 7 19 8 7 8 6 7 29 9 7 9 7 5 24 10 8.67 10 9 7 4 10 9 10 8 9

Interpretation

Leader’s highest ranking to Q. No. 9,14,24, and 4 indicates that under modeling the way he focuses more on: setting a personal example, making sure that members are following the principles, creates feasible goals and stands to his commitment. But his lowest response to Q. No. 29 says that he does not believe in following one step at time towards the goal.

At the other hand the average response of the observers says that mostly he makes sure that everyone is following the correct path and pays least attention to Q No. 19 and 29 that is he is not clear about the leadership philosophy.

Similarity can be noticed between highest and lowest rating for this model. Hence it shows there is enough trust among the group members.

Individual Practice Page for Inspire the Shared Vision

Question No. Self AVG Deepak Jain Vikram 22 7 7 7 8 6 7 10 7.66 10 8 5

17 9 7.66 9 7 7 27 8 7.66 8 7 8 12 10 7.66 10 9 4 2 8 7 8 9 4

Interpretation

The above rating says that his views about how the future would be; is inspiring for his team mates but he cannot talk about the higher meaning of the work allotted.

On the other hand observers rate this domain almost equally for all and they agree with the leader that he is continuously positive about the future possibilities and

Individual Practice Page for Challenge the Process

Question No. Self AVG Deepak Jain Vikram 1 7 5.33 7 6 3

21 9 7.66 9 7 7 16 9 5.66 9 6 2 26 10 8.33 10 8 7 11 8 8 8 7 9 6 8 6.66 8 6 6

Interpretation

As we know that the leader has already rated this domain which is less practiced over the other. So here his highest rating for Q. No. 26 says that whenever there is an uncertainty for the upshots he takes initiative to overcome to those problems but he does not asks others to find innovative ways to accomplish their work.

While the observers consider that he looks for the opportunities outside the traditional ways to prove that whatever the method we are applying is best suitable in current scenario but he does not try to test his own abilities by accepting challenges for himself alone.

The similarity lies in both the least score where leader and observers agree and highest score where each of them again agree for the following practice.

Individual Practice Page for Enable Others to Act

Question No. Self AVG Deepak Jain Vikram 18 10 6.66 10 5 5 23 9 7 9 6 6 3 9 6.66 9 7 4 8 9 6.33 9 7 3

13 9 6.33 9 6 4 28 9 5.66 9 1 7

Interpretation

Under Enabling Others to Act, leader gives the highest score to the statement which says that he gives more emphasis on supporting the decision; people take on their own over the other single practices.

And the observers rate the Q. No. 23 highest which says that he provides sufficient freedom to his subordinates to choose their own way of accomplishing the task but he does not let these people learn new skills while working.

Similarity lies in highest rating; the meaning of which is almost the same. The only difference is for Q No. 28 where leader thinks he allows other to develop their qualities while observers don’t think so.

Individual Practice Page for Encourage the Heart

Question No. Self AVG Deepak Jain Vikram 25 10 8.33 10 9 6 10 9 6 9 6 3 5 10 8.33 10 9 6

15 9 8.33 9 8 8 30 10 8.66 10 9 7 20 10 7 10 7 4

Interpretation

His highest rating for Q. No. 25,5,30 and 20 over others talks about one thing in all that he applauds his team mates when add value to the work.

And observer’s rating confirms that he really do so but they are never told that how much does he believes on him.

Reference

SI No. Date of access Book Name Auther Name 1 25-08-2011 Leadership Practice Inventory James M. Kouzes