Course: School Leadership (8618)

Level: B.Ed (2.5 and 1.5 Years) Semester: Autumn, 2022

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 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.

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

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

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

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 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 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.

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.
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
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 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

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 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.

 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.

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 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 

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.