Assessment task 1: Essay
For this assignment, interview two nurses or midwives from any location or specialty with

experience in leadership. (Please do not identify them in your written work unless they have given

permission.) Integrate your findings from the literature and your interviews to construct an 3000

word essay that addresses the following question:
How can leadership approaches, and a leader’s characteristics, influence practice change?
Additional Information
The two people you choose to interview do not have to hold an official leadership position; they

may simply be people that you perceive as leaders in their field. You may choose two people with

similar leadership characteristics or styles, or prefer to compare and contrast two different

leadership approaches.
The marking criteria for this assignment require you to take a ‘position’ on this topic. By

‘position’, we mean the viewpoint or opinion that you are taking towards the topic you have chosen

for your exploration, or the lens you have used for your critique. For example, your position might

be to explain those specific professional and personal characteristics that you believe make a

successful clinical leader. Or you might look at some of the leadership theories and choose to

argue that one particular theory is more correct than the others. Or again, you might choose to

examine the characteristics of a leader through a particular critical lens, such as feminism or

Marxism, to show how these accepted characteristics have developed and who they have benefited. You

will argue this position using evidence gleaned from the literature, your interviewee’s evidence,

and your own experience, but the important thing is that we can hear your voice in your

argument/discussion and understand your conclusions on the subject.