{"id":281,"date":"2018-02-18T09:18:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T17:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/?p=281"},"modified":"2020-01-24T22:18:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T06:18:39","slug":"adaptive-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/adaptive-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptive Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leading in a Digital Learning Environment<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lead by example and lead from behind.\u00a0 If I had an ethos to briefly describe my leadership style, that is how I would summarize my approach.\u00a0 Through motivation and inspiration, I strive to foster autonomy and innovation from the teams I work with.\u00a0 Often saying \u201cI trust your judgment,\u201d as I push a team member out of the nest and offer support and assistance on their flight(s).<\/p>\n

To develop my leadership style, I have spent a considerable amount of time making mistakes and reflecting upon those mistakes, adapting my approach, and making more mistakes before realizing that leadership evolves. \u00a0Leaders must continue to adapt and evolve to be effective.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Important Attributes of a Leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

An adaptive leadership style is especially important for education leaders working in digital learning environments.\u00a0 The digital learning environment is ever evolving and archaic leadership practices and traditional thinking could stagnate an organization, not allowing growth or evolution (Castelli, 2016).<\/p>\n

As an education leader, my goal with team members is to curate curiosity and creativity through fostering autonomy and independence. \u00a0I appreciate that this seems like a grandiose statement with more fluff than substance.\u00a0 It is, however, rooted in fact.\u00a0 I lead my team in the manner in which I like to be led.\u00a0 When I look to those leaders I admire or refer to as mentors, the traits that stand out the most with them are the same traits that I try to emulate.\u00a0 Inspiration and motivation, constantly asking why we are teaching the way we teach.\u00a0 Reassessing our processes against our goals and mission and asking how we could improve the student experience, not for convention, but rather to improve student success.<\/p>\n

As a team member, I work best when given a defined goal and the autonomy to complete the project without micromanagement.\u00a0 This is the same approach I take with my leadership – provide team members with attainable goals and the support and encouragement to complete each goal.\u00a0 I have found that this approach produces favourable results while empowering team members to be innovative and forward thinking. \u00a0Great ideas that I would not have thought of have come from this approach.\u00a0 It is reassuring to read academics such as Hughes (2015) and Castelli (2008) support my leadership approach in their published research.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

My approach to leadership in a digital learning environment has been fairly simple:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be open to change and encourage change.<\/li>\n
  2. Explore tools to make the tasks enjoyable and easier to manage.<\/li>\n
  3. Know the tools that team members and students are using and adapt to use these tools to their full potential.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Being open to change has always been easy for me, especially with improving technology or popular culture trends.\u00a0 Accepting that some individuals adapt more slowly to change was more challenging for me.\u00a0 As most students and educators adopted smartphones and apps as part of their everyday life, some educators held firmly onto their flip phones.\u00a0 Spending time with these individuals, exploring their motivations, concerns, and helping them adapt was laborious, but it was worth it.\u00a0 To now see these individuals bring forth a new app to trial, or return from a conference with a new way of thinking is rewarding for our entire team and subsequently the students.<\/p>\n

    As students use their smartphones more and more, I feel we must continue to try to integrate them into our classrooms.\u00a0 It seems hubris to attempt a ban on this evolving technology or an understanding of the driving forces of current technology when the educator distances or excludes themselves from the trends.\u00a0 I feel that to understand a venue such as social media, you need to be involved in social media or study it extensively through academic research.\u00a0 Can social media be used for education, and can we increase our engagement with students in these environments?\u00a0 Adopt it, try it, and find out first hand.\u00a0 We have had continued success integrating technology using this approach and adapting to evolving student trends.<\/p>\n

    It should be noted that although I now adopt change with a purpose, it was sometimes easy to get caught in the excitement and try to adopt the next big thing into the curriculum.\u00a0 Now, purpose shadows convention and apps or technology are adopted with defined goals and objectives and after trial periods with smaller groups providing feedback throughout.\u00a0 By adopting the Bates (2016) SECTIONS approach and carefully exploring new technology before incorporation, we continue to have great success. \u00a0(The SECTIONS model will be explored in greater detail in a separate blog post.)<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Impact of Digital Technology <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Digital technologies have made a tremendous impact on how I lead and how I perform within my teams.\u00a0 Our digital tools, such as smartphones and tablets with apps including, but not limited to, Slack, Trello, Wunderlist, and our learning management system have not only made our tasks more enjoyable and easier, they have also brought our teams closer together.<\/p>\n

    These apps are almost intuitive with their project sharing tools.\u00a0 Threaded messaging, file sharing, common calendars, and task managers have been great assets to help ensure project completion.\u00a0 These tools are great; however, are secondary to the inclusive community afforded by these apps.\u00a0 Educators previously unable to attend regular meetings and offer input or feedback are now able to be part of the ongoing conversations.\u00a0 Ideas are easily shared, distance bridged, and all educators have easy access to the shared resources these apps provide.\u00a0 This helps ensure every team member is given equal opportunity to be part of all projects and to use their creativity to continue to move the student experience forward.<\/p>\n

    To conclude this blog post I will reference a quote from Steve Jobs that succinctly summarizes my approach to leadership: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning<\/em>. Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/CBO9781107415324.004<\/p>\n

    Castelli, P. A. (2008). The leader as motivator: coach and self\u2010esteem builder. Management Research News<\/em>, 31<\/em>(10), 717\u2013728. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/01409170810908471<\/p>\n

    Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development<\/em>, 35<\/em>(2), 217\u2013236. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/JMD-08-2015-0112<\/p>\n

    Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., & Curphy, G. (2015).\u00a0Leadership : Enhancing the lessons of\u00a0<\/em>experience<\/em>\u00a0(Eighth edition. ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.<\/p>\n

    Schwantes, M. (2017, October 17). Steve Jobs Once Gave Some Brilliant Management Advice on <\/em>Hiring Top People<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.inc.com\/marcel-schwantes\/this-classic-<\/a>quote-from-steve-jobs-about-hiring-employees-describes-what-great-leadership-looks-like.html<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning <\/em>by Tony Bates is available for free at https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/teachinginadigitalage\/<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Thank you for taking some time out of your day.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on leadership?\u00a0 What is your approach to leadership?\u00a0 Please comment below.<\/p>\n

    Enjoy the rest of your day!<\/p>\n

    Image “Steve Jobs Action Figure” by Sip Khoon Tan\u00a0<\/em>is licensed under\u00a0CC BY 4.0<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-SA 2.0 license).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Leading in a Digital Learning Environment Lead by example and lead from behind.\u00a0 If I had an ethos to briefly describe my leadership style, that is how I would summarize my approach.\u00a0 Through motivation and inspiration, I strive to foster autonomy and innovation from the teams I work with.\u00a0 Often saying \u201cI trust your judgment,\u201d … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Adaptive Leadership”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,19,65],"tags":[38,21,35,55,45,37,50,56],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-learning-and-technology","category-lrnt525-archive","tag-blog","tag-edtech","tag-education","tag-leadership","tag-rrumalat","tag-teaching","tag-teamwork","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}