Leaders are Leaders are Leaders: No Matter Where

You Are
Inspiring Positive Change in Leadership

Learner Contextual Task Analysis

EME 620
Janet Lee and Richard Brandt

Contents
Learner Analysis..............................................................................................................................2
Organizational Environment........................................................................................................2
General Characteristics................................................................................................................3
Specific Entry Characteristics......................................................................................................3
Contextual Analysis.........................................................................................................................5
Orienting Context........................................................................................................................5
Instructional Context...................................................................................................................5
Transfer Context..........................................................................................................................6
Task Analysis...................................................................................................................................6
Critical Incident Analysis............................................................................................................6
Topic Analysis..............................................................................................................................8

Learner Analysis
Organizational Environment
Participants will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about
leadership. This will help identify the various types of personalities and
attitudes that are present in training. It will also help the participants
reflect on the leadership topic and to get in the mindset of the training.
Some of the questions may be:
Why are you in a leadership position?
How would you describe your leadership style?
Describe an effective leader from media or literature.

General Characteristics

Specific Entry Characteristics

Attitudes of Leadership Participants
Participants in the leadership training will likely having one of the
following attitudes:
Annoyed Some participants may be forced to be there by their
company.
Excited Some participants will be attending willingly on their
own accord as their interested in becoming a leader.
Intrigued - Some participants will be in attendance because their
new into a leadership role.
Aptitude Needed for Success in the Leadership Course

Participants need to have the following skills and abilities in order to be

successful in the training:
Ability to use a computer
Organizational Skills
Emotional Intelligence
To be gain more from the training, participants will also possess
some level of soft skills Soft Skills (i.e.: ability to communicate,
approachability, body language awareness, ect.)
Academic Information
Upon registering for the course, participants will be requested to enter
the following information:
Education Level
GPA
Standardized Testing Scores
Any Special Training
This information will be used solely for the purpose of the training
leader to understand their audience. None of the information will be
required except for the Education Level.
Personal and Social Characteristics
The following characteristics of potential participants will be considered
when designing the training.
Age and Maturity Level:
Various age and maturity levels
Motivation and Attitude towards the Subject:
Dont care
Actively resists
Eager Beavers
Jumping through the hoops of the corporate world by
attending the training.
Vocational Aspirations:
Wants to continue up the ladder
Want to be a successful Leader
Wants a raise
Forced to complete the requirement
Wants to make a difference

Special Talents:
Working with People
Goal Setting

Motivating Others
Life-long learner
Effective Communicator
Current

and Previous Work Experience:

Academic-Teaching, Consulting
Faculty-Teaching, Specialty Area experience
Corporate-Leading Smaller teams, working in team
environments, collaborating with others for a common
goal
Non-Profit-Volunteer work

The following activities and skills will be employed when developing

and conducting the training.
Data Collection:
Interviews
Success Data
Discussions
Questionnaires
Literature
Methods for Maintaining Attention:
Active Listening
Discussions
Current Examples
Credibility

Contextual Analysis
Orienting Context
Learners Goals
Learners take a pre-assessment of what their typical day/week
consists of.
Write down daily tasks for a week that demonstrate a
typical week of work
Categorize whether it's a task related to employee
development or task based.
Calculate percentage of time spent on each type of task
Training starts with participants sharing their goals for the
training and motivation for taking the course. Evolving goals will
be posted and tracked throughout the training.
Perceived Utility of Instruction (How will they use this?)

Facilitator goes through training objectives and relates them to

learners goals.

Perceptions of Accountability
Participants will receive a certificate of completion.

Instructional Context
Storyboarding of Instructional Environment
Information
Major Tabs
What Type of Leaders are there?
What Type of Leader am I?
I am a Better Leader!
Items needed to conduct training:
Tables
Projector
20 seats (max)

Transfer Context
At the end of the training users will take various skills, tools, and
information that will allow them to improve the way they interact with
their direct reports. It may take additional practice, but theyll now be
more aware of how they interact. They will also be provided with
additional resources and tools that will be continual reminders of
different ways they can be better and more effective leaders in their
current and future roles.
While in the training, participants will network with others in
attendance, as well as gain access to a virtual network of former
attendees, that allows them to leverage the knowledge and
experiences of other leaders around the globe.

Task Analysis
Critical Incident Analysis
Training for the entire course will cover the various co-collaborative
topics below (the on in bold identifies the main topic that will be
covered in the unit that is focused on in this paper):
How to work on a team
Facilitating effective discussion
Designing meetings that matter
Being a global citizen

Research Conflict resolution

Recording Method The learner will document their responses to a
self-reflection exercise on a designed worksheet via pen and paper.
Questions - Consider two situations when the conflict was
successfully resolved. What strategies did you use? Were the strategies
similar? What did you learn about leadership?
Critical Incident Interview
The leader has prepared an example and answers the following
questions in regards to 1 (un)successful employee interaction.
1) Elaborate on the incident
Where and when did it occur?
Who was it between?
*The instructor will initially share a situation when resolution of a
situation was unsuccessful.
Educational Example - I was the literacy leader at a high school of over
68 staff members. My job was to incorporate literacy into each subject
area classroom. Approaching staff members about my literacy topic
was often difficult because of the various levels of understanding
exhibited by teachers. On one occasion, several teachers were arguing
over the validity of standardized testing. One teacher mentioned that
she was stressed about having to teach to the test while another
argued that the test shut down creativity. The negative conversation
shut down any possibility to advance teachers' understanding of
literacy strategies.
I engaged in the discussion thinking I could turn the tides of the
negativity by bringing up positive aspects of testing. This manner of
testing only made the group skeptical of my motivations. The group
became more negative because they considered my statements as a
declaration of my loyalty to the system they were fighting against. This
method was unsuccessful leadership.
Corporate Topic The company has been developing a new intranet for
employees to access company information and is rolling it out this
summer. When reviewing the new site in our latest team meeting, a
handful of employees stated that the site was not user friendly and
seemed much more complex than its predecessor. I responded to
these particular employees that they need to get used to the new site
because its rolling out regardless of how they feel about it. The

employees almost immediately shut down and were disconnected for

the remaining of the training session.
2) What were the actions?
Thought processes as the event unfolded?
How did they respond (verbally or physically)?
*Next, the instructor will talk through the scenario and ask for
suggestions from the group about different ways they could have
handled the situation.
Educational - I could have asked different questions of the group. What
frustrates you the most about the testing? How does this impact your
teaching? How do you think this impact effects students? How can we
protect them from our stress and help them to be successful on this
test anyway?
Corporate I could set up an additional meeting to review the new site
more in depth and allow the employees to ask further questions and to
explore it more in depth. In this additional meeting, I couldve asked
questions about why they were resistant to the new site and what they
liked about the old site. Then demonstrate how the new site is similar.
3) Did this impact the productivity (negatively or positively) of
the team? How?
Finally, the instructor guides the group through the same process of
Situation, Action, Result, and Reflection. Consider a situation when a
leadership conflict was not successfully resolved. What strategies
might have been successful?
NOTE: Participants may decide to share situations when they were not
the leader or manager, but rather they were part of the leaders team.
After allowing time for individual reflection, participants will
turn and talk to other participants about solutions for their
situations. Partners generate solutions for the problems and share
strategies with the rest of the class. Participants record common
strategies in a table.
The process of debriefing situations can lead to a new understanding of
leadership. Leaders will be able to learn from each other and see new
perspectives on potential leadership challenges in the workplace.
Interaction/Follow-up
To evaluate the understanding, the instructor will pose a new situation.
Participants will independently read the situation and decide on an

appropriate leadership action. Next, participants will try and project the
intended outcome.

Topic Analysis
The major tabs that were presented in the Instructional Context
section are further outlined and detailed below:
What Type of Leaders are there?
Review different case studies
Discuss different leaders they identified from
literature/media
o Why did they choose these leaders?
o Categorize them based off reasons
Personable, strong, motivating, etc.
What Type of Leader am I?
Review and share pre-assessments
Participants will have been provided a copy of
Strength Finders 2.0 and will have completed the
assessment and read their applicable sections prior
to attending the training.
o Part of sharing their pre-assessments will be
having the participants break off into groups
based on their most dominant strength that
was identified. This will show the variety of
different personalities in the session.
I am a Better Leader!
Workshop of different skills that can be implemented
to improve interaction/development of staff
Use real examples of times that they felt they
could've been a better leader and role play various
ways to improve it