As a leader, it is beneficial to have a core set of practices that can be effective in routine times and also during difficult or very challenging times. The leadership practices by Kouzes and Posner are based upon the transformational leadership model. Organizational leaders must plan to continually improve as leaders while also seeking to improve the performance of other leadership team members and of the rest of the organization. Adopting guiding principles or practices can help in the planning phases for leading when hard times occur.

In your paper,

Analyze a difficult leadership situation in the business world that has impacted a company or companies.
Develop a plan for positively increasing the performance of the organization, the leadership, and the teams within the organization using the five practices of exemplary leadership as developed by Kouzes and Posner.
The Leadership in Hard Times paper

Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Centers APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Students name
Course name and number
Instructors name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
Must use at least three scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Centers Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.