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CMI Assignment Help > Blog > CMI Level 5 >  CMI 526 Assignment Example

 CMI 526 Assignment Example

  • June 16, 2026
  • Posted by: Scarlett
  • Category: CMI Level 5
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Introduction

Leadership practice sits at the centre of how contemporary organisations create value, adapt to change, and sustain the commitment of the people who deliver their objectives. This assignment examines the principles of leadership practice as set out in CMI Unit 526. Task 1 explores leadership practice within organisations, evaluating theoretical approaches to responsible leadership and analysing the internal and external factors that shape how leaders behave. Task 2 examines the relationship between management and leadership and evaluates the impact of different leadership styles on team cohesion and strategic objectives. Task 3 analyses the techniques and methods leaders use to lead others and evaluates how a culture of empowerment, trust, and shared vision can be developed. Throughout, the discussion draws on current scholarship and professional evidence to reflect leadership practice as it is understood today.

Task 1: Leadership Practice in an Organisation

AC 1.1 Examine leadership practices within organisations

Leadership practice refers to the observable behaviours, routines, and interventions through which leaders influence individuals and teams towards shared goals. Rather than a fixed set of personality traits, contemporary scholarship treats leadership as a practice that is enacted in everyday organisational life and learned through experience (Northouse, 2022). Within organisations, leadership practice is expressed through a recurring repertoire of activities: setting direction and articulating vision, role-modelling values and standards, communicating and listening, developing and coaching people, making and explaining decisions, allocating resources, managing performance, and leading change.

A widely applied framework for understanding what effective leaders actually do is Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, which identifies modelling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart as the core behaviours that distinguish strong leadership (Kouzes and Posner, 2023). These practices are intentionally behavioural: they describe things leaders can choose to do, which makes them useful for development and reflection. Modelling the way, for example, requires leaders to clarify their own values and then align their daily conduct with those values so that credibility is earned through consistency.

Leadership practice is also distributed rather than confined to those holding senior titles. Increasingly, organisations recognise that leadership is exercised at every level, from frontline team leaders to executives, and that distributed or shared leadership improves responsiveness and innovation in complex environments (Northouse, 2022). The practices a leader emphasises will vary according to the situation: a leader stabilising a struggling team may prioritise clarity, structure, and performance management, whereas a leader driving growth may prioritise vision, empowerment, and challenge. This

contingent quality means that examining leadership practice requires attention not only to the behaviours themselves but to the context in which they are deployed. Professional bodies reinforce this view, with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI, 2023) emphasising that effective managers blend technical competence with people-centred leadership behaviours such as coaching, ethical role-modelling, and inclusive communication. AC 1.2 Evaluate the use of theoretical approaches to responsible leadership Responsible leadership describes approaches to leadership that explicitly integrate ethical conduct, stakeholder consideration, and long-term sustainability into the way leaders influence others. Two of the most influential theoretical approaches associated with responsible leadership are authentic leadership and servant leadership. Evaluating each reveals both their contribution and their limitations. Authentic Leadership Authentic leadership theory proposes that effective, ethical leadership flows from leaders being true to themselves. Its four commonly cited dimensions are self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing of information, and an internalised moral perspective. Proponents argue that leaders who are self-aware and act in line with deeply held values build trust, encourage openness, and model integrity, which in turn supports follower wellbeing and ethical organisational climates (Gardner et al., 2021). The approach has clear appeal for ...

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