Assignment #02

Subject : School Leadership

Course Code (8618)

Submitted by:

ID 0000244204

B.ED 1.5 YEAR

Semester: Autumn, 2023

Assignment no. 2

Q.1 What do you understand by the term Decision making discuss in

detail?

Decision making is the process of making choices by identifying a decision,

gathering information, and assessing alternative resolutions.
Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help you make more
deliberate, thoughtful decisions by organizing relevant information and
defining alternatives. This approach increases the chances that you will
choose the most satisfying alternative possible.

Step 1: Identify the decision

You realize that you need to make a decision. Try to clearly define the nature
of the decision you must make. This first step is very important.

Step 2: Gather relevant information

Collect some pertinent information before you make your decision: what
information is needed, the best sources of information, and how to get it.
This step involves both internal and external ―work.‖ Some information is
internal: you’ll seek it through a process of self-assessment. Other
information is external: you’ll find it online, in books, from other people,
and from other sources.

Step 3: Identify the alternatives

As you collect information, you will probably identify several possible paths
of action, or alternatives. You can also use your imagination and additional
information to construct new alternatives. In this step, you will list all
possible and desirable alternatives.

Step 4: Weigh the evidence

Draw on your information and emotions to imagine what it would be like if
you carried out each of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need
identified in Step 1 would be met or resolved through the use of each
alternative. As you go through this difficult internal process, you’ll begin to
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favor certain alternatives: those that seem to have a higher potential for
reaching your goal. Finally, place the alternatives in a priority order, based
upon your own value system.

Step 5: Choose among alternatives

Once you have weighed all the evidence, you are ready to select the
alternative that seems to be best one for you. You may even choose a
combination of alternatives. Your choice in Step 5 may very likely be the
same or similar to the alternative you placed at the top of your list at the end
of Step 4.

Step 6: Take action

You’re now ready to take some positive action by beginning to implement

the alternative you chose in Step 5.

Step 7: Review your decision & its consequences

In this final step, consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether
or not it has resolved the need you identified in Step 1. If the decision has
not met the identified need, you may want to repeat certain steps of the
process to make a new decision. For example, you might want to gather
more detailed or somewhat different information or explore additional
alternatives.

Q.2 What mistakes we do while setting common goals? Also Discuss how
a leader can craft a vision?
Team goal-setting is an art. It differs from how we set personal goals and
think of our resolutions. While personal goals tend to focus more on
individuals and their personal or career development, team goals focus on
achieving company-wide objectives.

Unfortunately, most managers are prone to making common goal-setting

mistakes when planning and working towards team goals. These mistakes
cost the team time, money, and can negatively impact the team’s overall
performance.

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In this post, we’ll walk through the importance of setting goals for teams,
along with 11 common goal-setting mistakes managers make:

1. They go far from company-wide objectives

2. You set too many goals

3. You don’t have one goal-setting system

4. Your goals are vague or negative

5. You set them based on feelings and not data

6. You underestimate time and distractions

7. You don’t allow for failures

8. You set them without the team’s input

9. You forget about schedules and deadlines

10. You set them and forget them

11. You don’t write them down for the whole team to see

Let’s dive in!

Why setting goals is so important for teams

Goals are crucial to the success of any organization and team. They provide
guidance and direction to the team. Goals also offer leaders and employees
alike the opportunity to understand how each individual on the team is
performing.

Beyond that, there are many reasons why goal-setting is such an important
practice for any team.

Let’s walk through a few.

Goals ensure that the team is aligned

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When employees lack information about company-wide (or, at least project-
wide) goals and how their work ladders up to them, chances are, they’ll get
confused and won’t understand how their particular tasks influence the
overall success of the company.

With a lack of clear goals and ownership, it’s likely that employees will: •

Interfere with one another’s work

• Overlap work with their peers, making the team less productive

• Be confused around what their responsibilities are (and are not)

Goals provide clarity around roles for better performance

According to research from Leiden University, teams with clear goals

experience 20– 25% improved work performance. That’s because it helps
team members focus efforts in the right direction, get more self-confidence,
and, as a result, become more productive at work.

By setting goals for your team, you’ll give them a clear sense of direction and
purpose for the work they’re doing. Once they clearly understand what’s
expected of them and the team, they’ll be able to organize their time better
throughout the goal period.

Goals promote better accountability and collaboration

Not only do clear goals allow you to come up with specific KPIs for each
team member (increasing accountability that way), but they also help
promote collaboration within the team. Knowing each other’s goals,
colleagues will have a better understanding of what they can do to support
their peers to hit the team goals.

More than that, clear goals will motivate employees to search for creative
ideas and alternative strategies to deal with all the KPIs the best they can.

Common goal-setting mistakes managers make

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Now that you know the influence of goal-setting on the team’s motivation
and overall performance, it’s time to walk through some goal-setting
mistakes to avoid.

#1. They aren’t aligned with company-wide objectives

One of the worst goal-setting mistakes a manager can make is to set goals
that don’t align with org-wide objectives. Misaligning your team’s efforts
with company objectives will cause so many challenges, including:

• Proving the team’s value to the company, and in turn, making it harder to
secure budget, promote individuals, and grow the team.

• Giving your team a clear vision of the why behind the work they’re doing.
Without this, it will be harder to keep employees engaged and motivated.

• Slowing down the company’s overall growth. When your team is focused
on things that aren’t relevant or don’t contribute to company objectives, it
can stifle growth.

As you build your future team goals, it’s important that they stem from org-
wide objectives. If they don’t, it’s back to the drawing board for you.

#2. You set too many goals

It’s great to be a goal-oriented person, but, as a manager, you should

understand the influence of multitasking on a team’s overall performance
and mental health. (As we know, the human brain can’t focus on more than
one thing at a time.)

In fact, studies found that just 2.5% of people are able to multitask
effectively. For the other 97.5% of people, doing more than one thing, like
texting and driving, seriously compromises our ability to complete the tasks
well.

Use the same rule of thumb when setting goals

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According to Andy Grove, the pioneer of OKRs, leaders should think of
setting no more than three to five goals at a time. He says that more
objectives can lead to over extended teams and effort diffusion.

To avoid this goal-setting mistake with your team, focus on 3-5 objectives for
any given time period, be it quarterly or annually. As you build out these
objectives, attach measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) to each.
These KPIs need to be measurable milestones that will help you achieve
your overall objective. Think of outcomes, not activities, including the
credible and discoverable evidence of their completion.

Bad OKR example:

Objective: Increase marketing-attributed revenue this quarter

Key results:

• Write more blogs

• Run a webinar

• Improve relationship with sales

Good OKR example:

Objective: Increase marketing-attributed revenue this quarter by 150%

Key results:
• Produce and publish 10 bottom-of-funnel blogs

• Run 3 webinars with an attendance rate of 40%+

• Achieve a Sales and Marketing meeting rating of 80%+

#3. You don’t stick to one goal-setting framework

Beyond just your team, it’s important that your company follows one goal-
setting framework across all teams. Not only will this make cross-
functional collaboration easier, but it will also ensure that every team can

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easily access and understand how other departments are tracking against
their goals.
Take GitLab for example. They follow the OKR framework and make their
goals accessible org-wide within their own platform, but also publicly
accessible (to an extent).

As a manager, you should ensure that you’re not only setting goals within the
same framework used by the company but that you also stick to it. If you
prescribe team goals with the SMART framework today but then OKRs
tomorrow, you’ll confuse your team.

#4. Your goals are vague or negative

To avoid any confusion or misunderstandings, it’s important that your goals

are clear and measurable. It’s not enough to say, ―We need to attract more
customers this month.‖ Instead, think of the SMART and OKR goal-setting
frameworks.

The SMART framework intends your team goals to be:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

For example: Increase conversion rate between sign-ups to pro customers by

5% this month.

All these criteria make goals more actionable.

The same is true for OKRs, aka Objectives and Key Results. By specifying
what they need to achieve and what 3-5 key results are necessary to achieve

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your objective, you’ll encourage your team to take the actionable steps
towards each goal you set.

Remember that objectives should be your ―North Star‖ and key results should
be written using the SMART framework.

For example:

Objective: Attract more customers this month

Key results:

• Increase average monthly inbound leads from 250 to 350

• Improve lead to demo-booked ratio by 10%

• Increase demo-booked to closed-won ratio by 15%

To make team goals even more actionable, it’s important that you also avoid
negative language when setting them. Negative connotation makes people
focus on what they don’t want, making it hard to concentrate on how to
change that.

Think of ―give the team more constructive criticism this quarter‖ versus
―provide the team with continuous feedback this quarter‖. One neglects to
share positive feedback with the team, while the latter includes both
constructive and positive feedback sharing.

Reframing goals so they would sound positive can make a big difference. #5.

You set them based on feelings and not data

Some managers are prone to setting so-called ego-based goals, guided by

personal preferences or gut feelings. Despite the numerous tests and
experiments, and the data the comes with them, some leaders keep returning
to prior initiatives in the hope of progress to come soon.

Not only does such behavior set back the company’s growth, but it also
damages the manager’s reputation and trust in the eyes of their teams.

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Before you plan your goals for the quarter or year, it’s important that you
run a quarterly planning and retro meeting to:

• Understand how your team felt about the past quarter, from how roadblocks
were handled to the overall workload

• Learn about what went well (and didn’t go so well)

• Gather ideas from the team on how you can crush your goals next quarter,
whether it’s around improving existing processes or testing out new ideas

• It’s also important that, before every retro meeting, you analyze your data.
Try answering questions like:

• What campaigns or projects performed well? Can they be repeated?

• Were your goals impossible to achieve? Too easy? How can you be more
accurate next time?

• Have you identified any gaps that need to be filled?

• If one particular customer segment converts more for your sales team,
maybe it’s worth focusing on that demographic more. If one specific channel
drives the most leads and revenue, why not reframe team goals a bit to
double down on that?

When you’re able to guide your goals and decisions with data instead of
relying on your emotions and ―gut feelings‖, not only will your predictions
be more accurate, but you’ll be more likely to achieve the hockey stick
growth most companies aim for.

#6. You underestimate time and distractions

As a manager, you need to stay realistic about time constraints, real life, and
your team’s abilities when setting goals for them. Some leaders assume their
direct reports will be ready to give up free time and sleep for work on your
ultimate goal, but that’s not a healthy expectation to put on your team. It’s
also a surefire way to burn your team out.

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Assume that things are going to come up, be it emergency bugs, employees
getting sick, or a global pandemic. Things are going to happen that you will
have little-to-no control over and that’s okay.

As a leader, you need to leave room for mistakes, setbacks, and vacation time
when setting goals.
Q.3 Describe leadership characteristics and skills in detail.

A good leader should have integrity, self-awareness, courage, respect,

empathy, and gratitude. They should be learning agile and flex their
influence while communicating and delegating effectively. See how these key
leadership qualities can be learned and improved at all levels of your
organization.

Leaders shape our nations, communities, and organizations.

We need good leaders to help guide us and make the essential large-scale
decisions that keep the world moving.

Our society is usually quick to identify a bad leader, but how can you identify
a good one? What would most people say makes a good leader?

What Good Leadership Looks Like: 10 Essential Leadership Traits

Based upon our decades of research, we’ve found that the best leaders
consistently possess certain fundamental qualities and skills:

What Good Leadership Looks Like: 10 Essential Leadership Traits

1. Integrity

2. Delegation

3. Communication

4. Self-Awareness

5. Gratitude

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6. Learning Agility

7. Influence

8. Empathy

9. Courage

10. Respect

1. Integrity

Integrity is an essential leadership trait for the individual and the

organization. It’s especially important for top-level executives who are
charting the organization’s
course and making countless other significant decisions. Our research has
found that integrity may actually be a potential blind spot for organizations,
so make sure your organization reinforces the importance of honesty and
integrity to leaders at various levels.

2. Delegation

Delegating is one of the core responsibilities of a leader, but it can be tricky

to delegate effectively. The goal isn’t just to free yourself up — it’s also to
enable your direct reports to grow, facilitate teamwork, provide autonomy,
and lead to better decision-making. The best leaders build trust in the
workplace and on their teams through effective delegation.

3. Communication

Effective leadership and effective communication are intertwined. The best

leaders are skilled communicators who are able to communicate in a variety
of ways, from transmitting information to inspiring others to coaching direct
reports. And you must be able to listen to, and communicate with, a wide
range of people across roles, geographies, social identities, and more. The
quality and effectiveness of communication among leaders across your
organization directly affects the success of your business strategy, too. Learn

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how effective communication and better conversations can actually improve
your organizational culture.

4. Self-Awareness

While this is a more inwardly focused trait, self-awareness and humility are
paramount for leadership. The better you understand yourself and recognize
your own strengths and weaknesses, the more effective you can be as a
leader. Do you know how other people view you or how you show up at
work? Take the time to learn about the 4 aspects of self-awareness and how
to strengthen each component.

5. Gratitude

Being thankful can lead to higher self-esteem, reduced depression and

anxiety, and better sleep. Gratitude can even make you a better leader. Yet
few people regularly say ―thank you‖ in work settings, even though most
people say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. The
best leaders know how to show gratitude in the workplace.

6. Learning Agility
Learning agility is the ability to know what to do when you don’t know what
to do. If you’re a ―quick study‖ or are able to excel in unfamiliar
circumstances, you might already be learning agile. But anybody can foster
and increase learning agility through practice, experience, and effort. After
all, great leaders are really great learners.

7. Influence

For some people, ―influence‖ feels like a dirty word. But being able to
convince people through the influencing tactics of logical, emotional, or
cooperative appeals is an important trait of inspiring, effective leaders.
Influence is quite different from manipulation, and it needs to be done
authentically and transparently. It requires emotional intelligence and trust.
Learn more about how effective influencing can be a game-changer.

8. Empathy

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Empathy is correlated with job performance and is a critical part of
emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. If you show more
inclusive leadership and empathetic behaviors toward your direct reports, our
research shows you’re more likely to be viewed as a better performer by
your boss. Plus, empathy and inclusion are imperatives for improving
workplace conditions for those around you.

9. Courage

It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea,
provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you.
That’s part of the reason courage is a key trait of good leaders. Rather than
avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester, having courage enables
leaders to step up and move things
in the right direction. A workplace with high levels of psychological safety
and strong conversational skills across the organization will foster a
coaching culture that supports courage and truth-telling.

10. Respect

Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important
things a leader can do. It will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and
improve effectiveness. Creating a culture of respect is about more than the
absence of disrespect. Respectfulness can be shown in many different ways,
but it often starts with simply being a good listener who truly seeks to
understand the perspectives of others.
Q.4 Discuss change management in detail and also Elaborate the concept
of changing agentry in detail.
Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition
or transformation of an organization's goals, processes or technologies. The
purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting
change, controlling change and helping people to adapt to change.

To be effective, the change management strategy must take into consideration

how an adjustment or replacement will impact processes, systems and
employees within the organization. There must be a process for planning and
testing change, communicating change, scheduling and implementing

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change, documenting change and evaluating its effects. Documentation is a
critical component of change management -- not only to maintain an audit
trail should a rollback become necessary, but also to ensure compliance with
internal and external controls, including regulatory compliance.

How does change management work

To understand how change management works, it helps to apply its concepts

and tools to specific areas of business. Below are examples of how change
management works for project management, software development and IT
infrastructure.

Change management for project management

Change management plays an important role in project management because

each change request must be evaluated for its impact on the project. Project
managers, or the senior executives in charge of change control, must
examine how a change in one area of the project could affect other areas and
what impact that change could have on the project as a whole. Project areas
that change control experts should pay particular attention to include the
following:

• Scope. Change requests must be evaluated to determine how they will

affect the project scope.

• Schedule. Change requests must be assessed to determine how they will

alter the project schedule.

• Costs. Change requests must be evaluated to determine how they will

affect project costs. Labor is typically the largest expense on a project, so
overages on completing project tasks can quickly drive changes to the
project costs.
• Quality. Change requests must be evaluated to determine how they will
affect the quality of the completed project. An acceleration of the project
schedule, in particular, can affect quality as defects can occur if work is
rushed.

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• Human resources. Change requests must be evaluated to determine if
additional or specialized labor is required. When the project schedule
changes, the project manager may lose key resources to other assignments.

• Communications. Approved change requests must be communicated to

the appropriate stakeholders at the appropriate time.

• Risk. Change requests must be evaluated to determine what risks they

pose. Even minor changes can have a domino effect on the project and
introduce logistical, financial or security risks.

• Procurement. Changes to the project may affect procurement of materials

and contract labor.

When an incremental change has been approved, the project manager

documents the change in one of four standard change control systems to
ensure all thoughts and insight have been captured with the change request.
Changes that are not entered through a control system are labeled defects.
When a change request is declined, this is also documented and kept as part
of the project archives.

Q.5 Write note on the following:

i Use of traditional media

As we continue to evolve in an ever-increasing digitally-focused world, many

tend to think that traditional media and traditional marketing is a thing of the
past. This though, is not true, even in 2021, traditional media still plays an
important role in your advertising plan.
Utilizing both traditional and digital media, you can maximize both your
reach and frequency to best reach your target audience. Here are our top 5
reasons why traditional media is still important in 2021:

1. Consumers Still Trust Traditional Media

With the onset of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020, after floods
of misinformation from all media sources, according to the Edelman Trust
Barometer, trust in all media sources has gone down.

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Looking beyond this though, traditional news and traditional media are still
seen as the most trustworthy source. Journalists and news channels almost
always ensure that all facts they are relaying are the truth and make sure to
vet their sources. Digital media sources like social media even use traditional
sources as something to link to in their posts.

What this means for advertisers is that traditional media, like news channels
and publications, are still being used as the main source of acquiring news
which means that these mediums are still an ideal place to advertise.

2. You Won’t Just Reach an Older Audience

Many see traditional media as a way to only reach an older demographic, as

older generations are the ones who tend to consume this form of media the
most. This is not necessarily the case though when it comes to certain
traditional media.

Specifically looking at news channels and newspapers/online publications

of newspapers, many younger generations use these mediums as a way to
conduct further research into a topic they are interested in or to use as
another way to stay informed.

3. Best for Local Advertisers

If you are a business that solely services one key, local area, advertising on
traditional mediums is always a great option. With outlets like local
newspapers, billboards and cable tv that offer local news channels,
advertising on these mediums will get you right in front of your target
audience without wasting any money on advertising that may not even be
reaching your target area.

4. Traditional Media and Digital Media Work Best Together

In saying all this, it does not mean to only advertise on traditional mediums.
For the most effective marketing strategy, advertisers will need to utilize
both digital and traditional media.

What type of media you choose from traditional and digital will vary based
on your goals. Researching your target audience and their interests will give

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you the best idea of what media they are consuming the most. From young to
old, every audience watches a mix of both traditional and digital platforms,
meaning you could miss out on a wider reach by not advertising on both.

5. Traditional Media is Not Going Away

Though digital media and digital marketing have become the more popular
way to advertise these days, that does not mean that traditional media is a
thing of the past. Traditional media has been around for decades and is the
reason advertising is the way it is today.
Digital media has become increasingly popular with it being a major outlet
of consumption for people. Traditional media though has long stood through
the ongoing changes of the world and will continue to be trusted by
audiences, so advertising on these mediums will never be a waste.

ii Technological communication

For as long as humans have been on this planet, we’ve invented forms
of communication—from smoke signals and messenger pigeons to the
telephone and email—that have constantly evolved how we interact with
each other.

One of the biggest developments in communication came in 1831 when the

electric telegraph was invented. While post existed as a form of
communication before this date, it was electrical engineering in the 19th
century which had a revolutionary impact.

Now, digital methods have superseded almost all other forms of

communication, especially in business. I can’t remember the last time I hand
wrote a letter, rather than an email at work, even my signature is digital these
days. Picking up the phone is a rare occurrence too—instead, I FaceTime,
Zoom, or join a Google Hangout.

When I look back at how communication has advanced over the years, it
really is quite incredible…

The Telephone

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In 1849, the telephone was invented and within 50 years it was an essential
item for homes and offices, but tethering impacted the flexibility and privacy
of the device. Then, came the mobile phone. In 1973, Motorola created a
mobile phone which kick started a chain of developments that transformed
communication forever.

Early smartphones were primarily aimed towards the enterprise market,

bridging the gap between telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs),
but they were bulky and had short battery lives. By 1996, Nokia was
releasing phones with QWERTY keyboards and by 2010, the majority of
Android phones were touchscreen-only.

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