11 Task 7: Develop Recommendations for Challenge Area 1
Christina Page and Lesley McCannell
Learning Objectives
By the time you complete this section, you will be able to:
- Analyze an example recommendation to determine the characteristics of a recommendation that meets assignment criteria
- Develop an outline for your first recommendation along with your group members
Analyze an Example Recommendation
In the exercise below, you will review an example recommendation to identify why it is well-written, and how it meets assignment criteria.
First, review the overall structure of the recommendation. Download a worksheet to use with your group.
Consider the following questions as you reflect:
- How many research sources did the author of this recommendation include?
- How is the research integrated into the recommendation?
- How did the writer of this recommendation use an appendix to support their work?
- Based on what you have observed, what must you include in each section to produce a successful recommendation?
Recommendation Example:
| Recommendation Content | Notes about what is included in this section |
| What to do:
A recommendation for Eva is to examine her personal leadership style and identify development opportunities and adjustments she could make as she transitions to her new role. This could include personal reflection and working with a leadership coach. |
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| Why do it:
Reflection is the start of developing effective leadership skills and qualities by considering your personal strengths and identifying areas for improvement (Hulu, 2017). Reflection, according to Weick, (1979) is all about “compartmentalizing experiences into meaningful parts, labelling them and constructing connections between them” (Weick, 1979, p. 98). Effective leaders need to constantly reflect on their own leadership behaviour in order to understand how it affects the behaviour of others. In addition, Ollila (2000) advises that leadership without reflection can reinforce unsuccessful leader behaviour and, in the long run, this behaviour can be “institutionalized as organizational incompetence(Ollila, 2000, p. 200). Working with a high performance leadership coach would give Eva a structure to explore her leadership approach and identify potential blind spots and a trusted advisor to help her identify a successful approach. (AMBA, 2017). This could also pave the way for her senior management team to work with leadership coaches in the future. If they see Eva using this approach and being successful it will encourage the leadership team to continue their development as leaders (AMBA, 2017). In addition, working with a leadership coach has been linked to increased productivity for executives and greater success with organizational transitions (Jillson, 2015) |
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| How to do it:
Eva could start personal reflection immediately by keeping a leadership journal. The following 10 questions have been recommended by Inam (2017): 1. “What’s present for me now? 2. What’s going well? 3. What’s creating that? 4. What’s challenging? What’s creating that? 5. What needs my attention? 6. What’s meaningful? 7. What strengths do I notice in myself? 8. What strengths and contributions do I notice in others? 9. What am I learning? 10. What is an action I am committing to?”(Inam, 2017, page 1) This personal reflection would give her a good foundation to build on when she starts to works with an Executive Coach Eva needs to select an Executive Coach that is a good match for her style and her development needs. Appendix E describes a process that Eva could use to select the best coach for her situation. |
Evaluate the recommendation above according to your rubric criteria. Download the worksheet and complete it with your group.
| Rubric criteria | Indicators | Grade /5 | Rationale (why did you assign this grade?) |
| Comprehensive recommendations are supported by analysis and research | Did I integrate research from multiple sources into each recommendation?
Does my analysis show critical and creative thought? |
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| Recommendations clearly state what to do and why. Detailed action plan provided | Do my recommendations include all of the required elements?
· A clear “what” (specific, measurable) · A clear “why” (rationale) · An action plan that includes specific actions and timelines |
