WGU D253 Task 1 Guide and Example: Becoming an Effective Values-Based Leader (RSM3)

Updated on: Oct 19, 2026

By Dan Palmer, MBA · Academic strategy consultant for working adult learners · LinkedIn

WGU D253 Task 1 puts you in the role of the newly promoted customer service manager at Corollary Marketing Inc. and asks you to work out who you are as a values based leader before your first big decision. You take the VIA Character Strengths Survey, tell two stories about your strengths, choose three personal values, and then apply all of it to a hard moment: selecting and announcing a new team lead, and talking with the person who wasn’t chosen.

This is a personal task. Your stories, your survey results, and your values are the content, which is good news for working adults: you already have the material from your own job. Task 1 usually comes back for one of two reasons. Either a story stays general and never shows the strength in action, or Part C talks about values in the abstract instead of using them in the conversation the directions describe. This guide walks through every prompt in order and ends with a complete example written for a fictitious company with its own values.

D253 Task 1 Assignment

Introduction

Values-based leaders consider their values in every facet of leadership. Values dictate how they lead, govern culture, make decisions, develop employees, and measure performance, as well as a variety of other applications. Yet challenges arise that can sometimes entice leaders to compromise their values. For this task, you will use the provided scenario in which you assume the role of the newly promoted customer service manager for Corollary Marketing Inc. and complete tasks that will help you to develop as an effective values-based leader.

Corollary Marketing Inc. Company Values:

• Excellence: In character, decision-making, and service to our clients and customers, we strive for distinction and actions of which we can be proud. Each of the following values contributes to this overriding charge.
• Integrity: We do the right thing, regardless of whether someone is watching. Our word is our bond; we carry a duty of care and responsibility to act ethically.
• Humility: We conduct our work without our egos. Our actions embody respect, humility, authenticity, and openness and invite feedback and input. We actively seek ideas and feedback from employees and value every voice and contribution.
• Trust: We extend the belief and feeling that others can be relied upon. We strive to be trustworthy by showing compassion and consistency and by communicating with care and truthfulness. We are authentic and transparent.
• Growth: Our best today may not be good enough tomorrow, and we continually seek to improve. Both personally and professionally, we aim to accelerate employee learning so that we can become better able to meet customer and company needs.
• Respect: We believe that each person (employee, customer, vendor, etc.) has value and rights. We act based on facts and always assume positive intent. We celebrate the differences in people and seek to utilize each person’s unique knowledge, skills, abilities, and perspectives.

Scenario

Refer to the “D253 Task 1 Scenario” supporting document to complete this performance assessment.

A. Complete the VIA Character Strengths Survey using the “VIA Character Strengths Survey” web link and use the results of the survey to complete the following:

Note: Remember that this VIA Character Strengths Survey is not a test but rather a feedback tool. There is no wrong answer, so respond genuinely. If you download a copy of your survey results, you will receive a list of 24 items in order of your personal strengths, with the first five being your signature strengths and the last five being your lesser strengths. Refer to the attached “D253 VIA Character Strength Survey Instructions” supporting document for additional information on accessing the survey.

1. Describe an experience in which you used one of your five signature strengths (i.e., the first five) from the survey results to overcome a challenge.

Note: Consider experiences from a school, volunteer, personal, or professional setting.

a. Explain how you could apply the strength identified in part A1 as a values-based leader in your new position as the customer service manager from the scenario.

2. Describe an experience in which being stronger in one of your five lesser strengths (i.e., the last five) from the survey results could have positively influenced the outcome.

Note: Consider experiences from a school, volunteer, personal, or professional setting.

a. Explain how improving the lesser strength identified in part A2 will help accelerate your values-based leadership abilities in your new position as the customer service manager.

b. List three actions you can take to grow in the area identified in part A2.

B. To set the tone for your new team, explain to them who you are as a values-based leader by doing the following:

1. List your top three values as a values-based leader from the “List of Values” web link.

Note: When listing your top three values, consider those values you hold most important.

a. Explain how you will demonstrate each of the values listed in part B1 to serve both the team and the organization in the scenario.

C. Based on your understanding of who you are as a leader after completing parts A and B, do the following:

1. Discuss one leadership challenge relevant to ethics and values that you could face as the new customer service manager regarding selecting and announcing the new team lead.

Note: Consider your purpose as a new leader, ethical principles, relevant stakeholders, your expectations and point of view, and any assumptions you have made.

2. Discuss how you, as the customer service manager, would use one of your top three values from part B1 and one of the company’s values in a conversation about the hiring decision with the person who was not selected as the team lead.

Note: Consider values, ethical responsibility, and personal and professional consequences.

D. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

E. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

What WGU D253 Task 1 Asks You to Do

The scenario details for Part C come from the “D253 Task 1 Scenario” supporting document on your task page. Read it before you start Part C.

Corollary Marketing’s Six Company Values

You’ll use one of these in C2. Each comes with a definition in your directions, so quote or paraphrase that wording rather than inventing your own:

For a conversation with someone who was passed over, Trust, Respect, and Integrity are natural fits, but choose the one that matches how you’d actually handle the conversation.

Part A: Your VIA Character Strengths

The directions describe the VIA survey as “a feedback tool,” not a test, and your results list 24 strengths in order: the first five are your signature strengths and the last five are your lesser strengths. Download or save your results before you write, because you’ll name your strengths exactly as they appear.

A1 and A1a: A signature strength

Choose the signature strength with the clearest story behind it, not the one that sounds most impressive. The directions allow experiences from school, volunteer, personal, or professional settings. A strong A1 has a specific situation, the challenge, what you did, and how the strength made the difference.

A1a moves the same strength into the customer service manager role. Think about what that role demands: handling escalations, coaching agents, setting expectations, and making fair decisions about people. Research supports this angle. In one study, using the strengths a job demanded predicted performance, as rated by supervisors, more strongly than using signature strengths in general (Mubashar & Harzer, 2023). Show how your strength fits what this specific role requires.

Vague A1a: “I will use my kindness to be a good manager.”

Specific A1a: Name two or three concrete situations a customer service manager faces, such as an agent struggling with call volume or an angry customer escalation, and explain how the strength shapes what you’d do in each.

A2, A2a, and A2b: A lesser strength

A2 isn’t asking about a failure. It asks about an experience where being stronger in one of your bottom five strengths could have positively influenced the outcome. Pick a moment where you can see clearly what would have been different.

• A2a explains why growing that strength matters for a manager specifically. A recent meta-analysis found that using character strengths at work is associated with both higher work performance and greater wellbeing (Rudolph et al., 2025), which gives you a reason grounded in research to develop strengths deliberately.
• A2b lists three actions. Make each one specific enough to start this month, with a way to tell whether you did it.

Vague action: “Be more patient.”

Specific action: “Pause for ten seconds before responding on escalated calls, and review two recorded escalations each month to check whether I did.”

Part B: Your Top Three Values

B1 asks you to choose three values from the course’s “List of Values,” the ones you hold most important. Choose values you can show in behavior, because B1a asks how you’ll demonstrate each one in ways that serve both the team and the organization. Many papers lose points by covering only the team, or by explaining what a value means without saying what they’ll do.

For each value, write three things: what you’ll do, how it serves the team, and how it serves Corollary Marketing. Your B1 values also carry into Part C2, so choose at least one that fits a difficult conversation.

Part C: The Team Lead Decision

C1: One leadership challenge

C1 asks for one leadership challenge relevant to ethics and values in selecting and announcing the new team lead. The note in the directions tells you what a thorough answer considers:

• Your purpose as a new leader
• Ethical principles, such as fairness and honesty
• Relevant stakeholders: the candidates, the team, and the company
• Your own expectations and point of view
• Any assumptions you’ve made

That last point is easy to skip and worth including. A new manager who notices an assumption, such as equating strong individual metrics with leadership ability, shows exactly the self-awareness this task is built around.

C2: The conversation with the person not selected

C2 asks you to use one of your three B1 values and one of Corollary’s company values in the conversation. Name both, then show them at work in what you’d say and do. The directions’ note asks you to consider values, ethical responsibility, and personal and professional consequences.

Evidence on selection fairness gives you a practical anchor: explaining how a selection decision was made improves how fair candidates perceive it to be (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development [CIPD], 2023). A strong C2 explains the criteria, gives honest, usable feedback, acknowledges the person’s value to the team, and offers a next step.

Values Based Leadership in D253 Task 1: How the Parts Connect

The task builds in order. Your strengths in Part A shape the values you choose in Part B, and both should be visible in how you handle Part C. If your signature strength is honesty and your top value is transparency, your C2 conversation should sound honest and transparent. Evaluators read the paper as a portrait of one leader, so make sure the three parts describe the same person.

WGU D253 Task 1 Example: Brightpath Utilities

Our WGU D253 Task 1 example is a complete, six page APA 7 paper by Dana Whitfield, a fictitious customer service manager at Brightpath Utilities, a fictitious company with its own four values. It isn’t the Corollary Marketing scenario. It includes:

• Fictitious VIA results, with a signature strength (honesty) story in A1 and its application to the manager role in A1a
• A lesser strength (self-regulation) story in A2, with A2a and three specific growth actions in A2b
• Three values in B1, each demonstrated for both the team and the company in B1a
• A C1 team lead challenge that names the purpose, principle, stakeholders, and an assumption
• A C2 conversation using one personal value and one company value
• Comments explaining which prompt each section meets

Here’s part of its C1:

I also have to check my own assumption that strong individual metrics predict strong leadership, because a team lead’s job is mostly coaching others.

The example can’t be submitted for D253 Task 1, because its company, values, survey results, and stories aren’t yours or the task’s. It shows the structure and depth each part needs.

Download the WGU D253 Task 1 example (.docx)

Why Posted D253 Task 1 Answers Don’t Work

Task 1 is built on your own survey results and your own experiences. A paper posted online describes someone else’s top five and bottom five strengths, so its stories won’t match your results, and its Part C uses the same scenario every student has. That’s the overlap WGU’s similarity checker is built to detect. Your own workplace stories are both safer and faster to write.

How Task 1 Sets Up WGU D253 Task 2 (RSM3)

D253 has two performance tasks under the RSM3 code, and they’re written as if by the same manager. In WGU D253 Task 2, you write to your new team about how you’ll lead with one company value and the four domains of emotional intelligence. Your Task 1 work carries forward directly:

Our WGU D253 Task 2 guide covers every prompt, and its WGU D253 Task 2 example is a team letter written for a fictitious company. For both tasks on one page, see our WGU D253 course guide.

Plan It Around Your Work Week

1. Lunch break (about 30 minutes): Take the VIA survey and save your results.
2. Evening one (about 1.5 hours): Choose your A1 and A2 stories, then write A1, A1a, A2, A2a, and A2b.
3. Evening two (about 1 hour): Choose your three values and write B1 and B1a.
4. Evening three (about 1.5 hours): Read the scenario document, write C1 and C2, add references, run Grammarly, and review the similarity report.

Common Reasons D253 Task 1 Comes Back

• A1 names a strength without a specific experience
• A1a describes the strength in general rather than in the customer service manager role
• A2 uses a strength from the top five, or one that isn’t in the bottom five of your results
• A2b lists fewer than three actions, or actions too vague to act on
• B1a explains each value but doesn’t say how you’ll demonstrate it for both the team and the organization
• C1 discusses selecting the team lead but not announcing the decision
• C2 names two values without using them in the conversation
• The research or definitions you used are uncited

Pre-Submission Checklist

• VIA results saved, with strengths named exactly as listed
• A1: one signature strength, one specific experience
• A1a: the same strength applied to the customer service manager role
• A2: one lesser strength and an experience it could have improved
• A2a and A2b: why it matters, and three specific actions
• B1 and B1a: three values, each demonstrated for the team and the organization
• C1: one ethics and values challenge in selecting and announcing the team lead
• C2: one of your values and one Corollary value, used in the conversation
• D and E: APA citations, Grammarly reviewed, similarity report checked

Related D253 Resources

• Our WGU D253 course guide covers both tasks and how they connect.
• Our WGU D253 Task 2 guide covers emotional intelligence, bias, and the culture of care.
• Browse all of our D253 Values-Based Leadership guides.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is WGU D253 Task 1?

It’s the first performance assessment in D253 Values-Based Leadership, under the code RSM3. As Corollary Marketing’s new customer service manager, you use your VIA Character Strengths results, choose three values, and work through the ethics of selecting and announcing a new team lead.

Which VIA strengths do I use for D253 Task 1?

One of your five signature strengths (the first five in your results) for A1, and one of your five lesser strengths (the last five) for A2. Name them exactly as your results list them.

Can my A1 and A2 experiences come from outside work?

Yes. The directions allow experiences from school, volunteer, personal, or professional settings. Work experiences are often easiest to connect to the manager role in A1a and A2a.

Where do the three values in Part B come from?

From the course’s “List of Values,” linked in your task directions. Choose the three you hold most important and can demonstrate in behavior.

Do I use a Corollary value or my own value in C2?

Both: one of your three B1 values and one of Corollary Marketing’s six company values.

How does D253 Task 1 connect to Task 2?

Task 2 asks you to write to your team about leading with emotional intelligence and a company value. Your Task 1 strengths and values are the best starting point, and using the same company value in both keeps the two papers consistent.

Can I submit the D253 Task 1 example on this page?

No. It uses a fictitious company with its own values and a fictitious student’s survey results and stories. It’s for illustration only.

Want a Second Look Before You Submit?

If you’re working full time and want structured assignment support choosing which VIA strengths to write about, sharpening your three growth actions, or planning the Part C conversation, message Gradevia on WhatsApp at +1 564 544 6924 or email Support@gradevia.com.

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Sources

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2023). Fair selection: An evidence review. Scientific summary. https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/evidence-reviews/2023-pdfs/fair-selection-evidence-scientific-summary.pdf

Mubashar, T., & Harzer, C. (2023). Character strengths at work: Predictive role of signature strengths and demanded strengths for work role performance and deviant behavior. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences, 17(1), 21–38. https://www.jespk.net/papers/2023/4484-character-strengths-at-work-predictive-role-of-signature-strengths-and-demanded-strengths-for-work-role-performance-and-deviant-behavior-17-1

Rudolph, C. W., Friedrich, J. C., Koziel, R. J., & Zacher, H. (2025). Character strengths use at work: A meta-analysis of relations with work performance and employee wellbeing. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 20(2), 753–788. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-025-10424-2

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