| Course | LDR 736 Architecture of Leadership (LDR/736) |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Doctoral leader development analysis |
| Length | about 1,152 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | DBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for LDR 736 Week 7
Provisional Selves on the Shipyard Floor: How a Reserved Engineer Develops Her Leadership Through Experience and Experiment
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
LDR/736: Architecture of Leadership
Week 7 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Bayou Coast Marine, its leaders and the development plan are composites written for a model paper.
Over six weeks, this course followed Camille Arceneaux, the invented general manager of Bayou Coast Marine, a shipyard of about 650 people in Houma, Louisiana. Week 1 showed that she succeeded a larger-than-life founder whose style workers equated with leadership, and later weeks traced how she has led through paradox, decisions, foresight, ambidexterity and a performance excellence effort. Each week also revealed her own growth. This week turns to her development directly: how she has learned to lead in her first 18 months and how she will continue. Camille, an engineer known as reserved, began the role unsure whether her personality fit it. This paper reviews research on leader development and analyzes her experience.
Provisional Selves
Ibarra (1999) studied junior investment bankers and consultants moving into senior roles and found that they adapted by experimenting with provisional selves. They observed role models to identify possible styles, experimented with trial identities by imitating aspects of those models and evaluated the experiments against internal standards and external feedback. Some imitated a single model wholesale and struggled; others combined elements from many models with their own strengths and found styles that felt authentic and worked.
Development Through Experience
McCall (2010) argued that leadership development should be recast around experience. Most significant leadership learning occurs through challenging job experiences, such as turnarounds, new responsibilities and hardships, rather than formal programs. Organizations, he argued, should deliberately assign developmental experiences and help leaders learn from them through feedback, coaching and reflection.
Challenge, Orientation and Feedback
DeRue and Wellman (2009) studied managers' developmental experiences and found that leadership skill development increased with developmental challenge up to a point, after which returns diminished. Learning orientation, an interest in developing competence, and the availability of feedback reduced the diminishing returns, helping managers learn from highly challenging experiences.
Experiment 1: Imitating the Founder
In her first months, Camille tried to imitate Gaston: walking the yard daily, speaking bluntly and making quick decisions in public. Workers noticed the change but described it as forced. Camille felt drained and uncomfortable. In Ibarra's terms, she imitated a single model wholesale.
Experiment 2: Leading by Data and Memos
She then moved to the opposite: leading through detailed schedules, data reports and written memos. Engineers appreciated the clarity, but floor workers felt she was distant, and 360-degree feedback rated her low on approachability.
Experiment 3: Small Conversations and Clear Systems
By her second year, Camille settled on a combination: short, regular conversations on the floor, often asking one technical question about a job, paired with the clear systems from the Baldrige work. She kept Gaston's practice of being visible but expressed it in her own way. Feedback improved, and she reported feeling like herself.
Camille did not find her style by deciding who to be; she found it by trying three versions and keeping what worked.
What Others Noticed
Feedback from others traced the experiments. The production superintendent said that in her first months Camille seemed to be acting a part, but that by her second year she seemed comfortable asking questions on the floor in her own way. An engineer said her memos had been clear but that people needed to see her. The board chair noted that her decisions became faster and more confident as she stopped comparing herself with Gaston.
Role Models She Drew On
Camille drew elements from several models, as Ibarra's successful professionals did. From Gaston she took visibility and knowing people by name. From a former supervisor at a naval architecture firm she took the habit of asking one precise technical question. From her coach she learned to pause before reacting in meetings. The combination, filtered through her own temperament, became her style.
The Experiences That Developed Her
Several experiences stretched her: succeeding the founder, winning and launching the electric ferry contract, losing the Navy subcontract and leading the recovery. Each matched McCall's description of challenging experiences that teach leadership.
Challenge and Overload
The Navy loss came during the ferry startup, and for several months Camille worked 70-hour weeks and felt overwhelmed. Following DeRue and Wellman's finding, the challenge may have exceeded the point of optimal learning; she learned most when her coach and board chair helped her reflect, which provided the feedback that counteracts diminishing returns.
Feedback Sources
Camille's feedback came from a 360-degree survey, monthly conversations with the board chair, an executive coach and informal comments from long-time workers, including the production superintendent.
Lessons From the Overload
The months of overload taught Camille that she had tried to carry the Navy recovery and the ferry startup personally. When she finally asked her production superintendent to lead the recovery's daily work, both efforts improved. The lesson, that development includes learning what to give away, shaped the delegation part of her plan.
What She Still Finds Hard
Camille still finds public speaking to large groups difficult and tends to avoid conflict with long-serving workers. Her plan treats these as areas for deliberate practice rather than weaknesses to hide, with her coach providing feedback after each all-hands meeting.
Development Plan: Experiences
Over the next two years, Camille will take on two stretch experiences: leading the yard's first bid for an offshore wind service vessel, applying foresight and decision lessons, and serving on a regional maritime industry board, which builds external influence and strategic perspective.
Development Plan: Feedback and Reflection
She will repeat the 360-degree survey annually, meet her coach monthly and keep a short weekly reflection journal on decisions and their outcomes.
Development Plan: Support and Pace
To avoid overload, she will delegate more daily operations to the production superintendent and a new operations manager, keeping time for strategic work and learning.
Developing Others
Camille will also apply these lessons to others, giving promising supervisors challenging assignments with feedback, as McCall recommends.
Developing Others
Camille's own experience shapes how she will develop supervisors: pairing them with a challenging assignment, a feedback partner and regular reflection rather than sending them to a course alone.
Measures
Measures include 360-degree ratings on approachability and strategic leadership, workers' engagement scores and progress on stretch assignments.
How Development Connects to the Architecture
The development plan feeds the architecture she will present in Week 8: stretch assignments test the flexible layer, feedback checks whether the foundations are visible to others and reflection keeps the frame from becoming routine.
Conclusion
Research shows that leaders develop by experimenting with provisional selves, that experience is the main source of leadership growth and that challenge produces learning best when combined with a learning orientation and feedback. Camille's first 18 months illustrate each point: she tried and discarded two personas before finding a style that fit, grew through demanding experiences and learned most when feedback and reflection helped her process them. Her plan builds on these lessons with chosen challenges, regular feedback and attention to pace.
References
DeRue, D. S., & Wellman, N. (2009). Developing leaders via experience: The role of developmental challenge, learning orientation, and feedback availability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(4), 859-875. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015317
Ibarra, H. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764-791. https://doi.org/10.2307/2667055
McCall, M. W., Jr. (2010). Recasting leadership development. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3(1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2009.01189.x
What the LDR 736 Week 7 instructions ask
Week 7 of LDR 736 often focuses on the leader's own development. Students examine how leaders learn from experience, how leader identity develops, the role of feedback, reflection and developmental challenges and how to design a personal development plan. Many prompts ask for a self-assessment and plan. Strong papers use research on experience-based development and identity, analyze specific experiences that shaped the leader with evidence such as feedback, distinguish challenges that develop from those that overwhelm and propose a plan with experiences, feedback sources and measures. Reviewers expect honest reflection on what has not worked as well as what has. Cite peer-reviewed research in APA style.
How this LDR 736 Week 7 example is built
In her first 18 months, Camille Arceneaux tried on several leadership personas: imitating her predecessor's daily yard walks and blunt talk, which felt false; relying on data and memos, which felt distant to workers; and finally a style of small, regular conversations on the floor combined with clear systems, which felt authentic and drew positive feedback. The paper uses research on provisional selves, which describes how professionals in transition observe role models, experiment with possible selves and evaluate them against internal and external feedback. An argument for experience-centered development holds that most leadership growth comes from challenging assignments with reflection. A study shows that developmental challenge helps learning up to a point, especially with a learning orientation and feedback. A development plan with stretch assignments, feedback and reflection completes the paper.
LDR 736 Week 7 grading rubric: where the points go
Reviewers of self-development papers look for research on how leaders actually grow, applied to particular episodes, and for candor about missteps. A plan built around named experiences, not reading lists, earns the most credit. Reviewers expect theories of identity experimentation and experience-based learning to be applied to particular experiences, supported by feedback rather than self-report alone. They reward recognition that too much challenge can overwhelm and that feedback and reflection turn experience into learning. A development plan with named experiences, feedback sources, timelines and measures, connected to the student's emerging leadership architecture, demonstrates applied understanding.
LDR 736 Week 7 help: mistakes to avoid
Development papers often list strengths and weaknesses and promise to read books or attend workshops. Research suggests most growth comes from challenging experiences with feedback and reflection. Plan experiences. Another frequent weakness is self-assessment without outside evidence. Use feedback from others. Some students describe an ideal leader they intend to become, ignoring authenticity. Research on provisional selves shows that people find a fit through experimentation. Describe your experiments. Others forget to calibrate challenge; assignments that are too hard without support produce stress, not learning. Ask others what they have seen change in you. Finally, include measures of progress, such as changes in feedback ratings, so development can be tracked.
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LDR 736 Week 7 questions, answered
What does LDR 736 Week 7 usually cover?
It usually covers leader self-development, including learning from experience, leader identity, feedback and reflection, and creating a personal leadership development plan.
Where can I find a free LDR 736 Week 7 sample paper?
A full doctoral Week 7 paper on how a reserved engineer built her own leadership style at a composite shipyard is posted above.
What are provisional selves?
Provisional selves are trial identities professionals try out during role transitions, modeled on others and adjusted based on feedback until they find a style that fits them and their role.
How do leaders learn from experience?
Research suggests leaders learn most from challenging assignments when they have a learning orientation, receive feedback and reflect on what happened, though too much challenge can hinder learning.
What should a leadership development plan include?
Specific developmental experiences, sources of feedback, time for reflection, support such as a mentor or coach, a timeline and measures of progress.
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