Interview Guidelines
Required Length: 4-6pages (does not include the cover page or questions and answers).
Interview a leader you admire. This person must have at least 10 years of leadership
experience and be responsible for a minimum of 15 employees.
Create questions to learn about the leader’s personal experience and complete a write-up of
the interview. The following are suggestions on which you can build as you complete your write
up for the interview. Follow the subheadings included for your essay.
Students will be required to interview and analyze the leadership style of specific leaders and
submit a written essay to describe what you learned. Paper will be in APA format.
Q&A should be included in the appendix of the paper. These may be typed or attached as an
audio file. Q&A does not count toward the page length requirement.
Each student should select a supervisor, manager, or leader that he or she believes exemplifies
outstanding management and leadership skills. This individual may be a leader in any context
(business, education, social, religious, political, or sports). This individual, however, should not
be a relative or be married to a relative of yours. If you have any questions about the person
you intend to interview, check with Dr. Webb.
The student should contact the individual and arrange an interview, which can be conducted in
person or by phone. Ideally, it would be helpful if you could spend some time observing the
leader in his or her work setting and talk to the leader’s coworkers, supervisors, and
subordinates, however this may not be possible in many cases.
In your interview, try to learn as much as possible about the person’s style. The questions you
ask will ultimately be reflective of the individual you are profiling.
The leadership essay must include the following subtitles:
Leadership Essay on Person’s Name, Title, Company
1) Introduction to Leader or Manager
2) Description of Organization
3) Leadership Philosophy and Leadership Style
4) Strengths, Skills, and their Most Effective Leadership Behaviors
5) Challenges of their Leadership Role
6) Lessons Learned as a Leader
7) Process for Developing Leaders in the Organization – Describe the process in your
organization and your thoughts for improving the process.
8) Personal Insights Gained and/or Things Learned from this Interview
9) Advice for Improving This Leader’s Effectiveness
(4-6 pages)
The following list of questions may be helpful in planning for your interview. You should ask at
least ten questions.
1) How would you describe your management style?
2) How would you describe your leadership style?
3) What skills or abilities have been most helpful to you as a business/organizational
leader?
4) How did you learn and develop your management style?
5) What is your personal philosophy of leadership? What makes a good leader?
6) In your opinion, what is different about a that distinguishes him or her from other
managers?
7) What training materials or experiences have been the most helpful to you in
developing your skills and abilities?
8) What leader has made the greatest impact on your life? How do you know them
and what impact did they make?
9) Among people who are still living, who do you greatly admire or consider as the
greatest leader/s in the world today? Why?
10) What skills do you think are most important for an effective manager? What
recommendations would you make for me to consider?
11) What do you think is most helpful in leading a diverse workforce?
12) How do you motivate and inspire people when times are tough?
13) How do you go about figuring out the right direction to take an organization? What
is your process for creating and sharing your vision?
14) Once you know where your organization is headed, how do you align people with
your vision?
15) What are some of the most important lessons about managing and leading people
that you have learned?
16) What do you think is the most difficult aspect of being an effective manager/leader?
17) What advice would you offer for future leaders?
18) What are you most proud of in your role as a leader?
A list of the student’s questions and the leader’s responses should be submitted to your
professor. You may also record the interview and submit the audio file. This may serve as a
substitute for typing the questions and answers if you prefer.
(Your questions should be typed and if requested, emailed to the leader, before you conduct
the interview)
Important Information Regarding Written Assignments
• Assignments are to be prepared in Word or other word processor and should include
your name, date, and section number on the front page.
• Assignments are to be formatted with one-inch margins on all sides and double-spaced.
• Pages must be numbered.
• Use only 12-point Arial font and use a cover page.
• Avoid the use of first person in your writing. Instead, use “This writer believes…” or “This
researcher found…” to indicate your opinions.
• Avoid contractions in formal writing.
• Do not begin sentences with “So,” “But,” “However,” “And.”
• Do not plagiarize. I reserve the right to use the Turnitin software to check for plagiarism.
• When using outside sources, use a sourcing format consistently within the paper (APA).
• Use spell check and grammar check – spelling errors cost 5 points each.
• Do not write in a “familiar” tone. All of your papers should be written in an academic
context, even when your opinion is expressed.
• This is a graduate level course and assignments will be graded accordingly. It is expected
that the student will use proper English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Spelling
and grammatical errors will have an adverse effect on assignment grades.
• Assignments presented in any other format will have an automatic reduction of on