#digitalleadership – Marshall's Blog

Image result for bowie changes The digital age is changing the way life is conducted. We learn differently. We access information differently. We work differently. We exist, differently. All of these realities, and we are still changing, so, how to manage this? Are we hanging on to the organisational structurees of work-life-education as a last vestige, a sentinel against the great digital unknown? The various mediums for life in the 21st century are constantly moving forward like a Space X rocket, but we are in many ways being guided through this journey by a gasoline powered engine because it is familiar. The rocket will carry us into unknown and potentially dnagerous new realms, but what marvels we will experience on the journey! The trusty old engine will get us somewhere reliable familiar and safe, but we will never reach the depths of untapped potential of the rocket. This is the challenge of managing and leading in the digital age. Continue reading Ch-ch-ch Changes! Turn and Face the New Digital Leadership

Approaches to Leadership

In my field of secondary education, leadership is increasingly becoming a shared experience. We still have our traditional leadership positions, but since I started in this field ten years ago, I have noticed a significant increase in leadership opportunities and responsibilities for common classroom teachers. We are encouraged to lead small professional learning committees (PLCs), or lead professional development opportunities. As an active participant in both of these scenarios, I have deferred to my intrinsic motivation to see anything I attempt done well, and also, to my humility and openness for the input and perspective of others. In this approach I acknowledge that I am not the complete master, and am in the presence of those who have value to add to any potential initiative.

Castelli (2016) identifies the importance of relationship building, and valuing the input of others as paramount to building trust. In a limited role as a lead teacher for E-Learning Professional Development within a large English faculty at a New Zealand high school, I built trust and relationships by empowering my more technologically capable colleagues to be leaders as well. I identified quickly who had a digital skillset to contribute, and I encouraged them to participate in my shepherding of colleagues through the process of digital upskilling, completely unaware at the time that I was engaging in a form of distributed leadership for the end benefit of schoolwide improvement (Huggins, 2017). This leadership style could best be described as both a shared and transformational method (O’Toole, 2008). I was aware of both my strengths as a leader, and those of my colleagues. By doing so, I enabled them to grow as leaders in their own right, and through this team effort we collectively helped to move our organisation forward.

Continue reading Leadership for the Digital Age