Reflecting on the entire LRNT 525: Leading Change in Digital Learning course and the first post that I wrote about being a good versus an admired leader (Dunn, 2019), I was given a few prompts to consider.
- Think back to your initial post on leadership – has your perspective changed?
My perspective regarding how leadership should be approached within my own context has remained the same. As mentioned in my previous post, utilizing a combination of reflective and distributive leadership would be the best option for my own context (Castelli, 2016).
- In your current role, how can you help lead a change within your organization?
One of the main things that I can do to help lead change, is work towards getting myself and other more comfortable with the idea of change. As discussed by (Weiner, 2009), an organization’s readiness for change has a huge impact on if change will be successful. Understanding that we are in a time where change should be expected, we can now start to condition ourselves. - What can you envision doing in the future?
For me, I can envision taking leaderships role with more formality. Understanding that the success of changes within organizations are impacted so heavily on the state before the change even begins (Watt, 2014; Weiner, 2009; Weller, & Anderson, 2009). In reflection, I believe I am someone who use to jump right into projects, and did not fully assess the current situation. Throughout this course, it was clear that spending more time laying the groundwork is beneficial to leading successful change. This can be done by assessing and improving organizational readiness, working on the resilience to change, as well as making sure to have a good understanding of the important areas project management. Lastly, due to my school already utilizing an LMS that gathers data information, it would be interesting to better utilize learning analytics a the potential there seems great (Sclater, Peasgood, & Mullan, 2016).
It is interesting considering leadership traits, as someone who has no formal training in leadership, but often put in those roles, there are some things that I have inherently done, and others I am noticing that I should put more energy into. In your own leadership journey, are there skills/traits that you have always done just because, and then later realized they were part of being a formal leader? If so, what were they?
References
Castelli, P. (2016). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236.
Dunn, A. (2019). What makes a good leader versus an admired leader? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0052/what-makes-a-good-leader-versus-an-admired-leader/.
Sclater, N., Peasgood, A, & Mullan, J. (2016). Learning analytics in higher education: A review of UK and international practice. Jisc.
Watt, A. (2014). Project Management. Victoria, BC: BCcampus.
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(67).
Weller, M., & Anderson, T., (2013). Digital Resilience in Higher Education. European Journal of Open Distance and E-Learning, 16(1), 53-66.
I appreciate your reflection on how you believe you are someone who use to jump right into projects, and did not fully assess the current situation.
It is great to hear how you will take more time upfront to to lead the change. I find many times we are pressured with tight deadlines and unrealistic expectations by the organization, executive team or even at times the project lead. It is something you may need to not only influence within your repertoire of skills as a leader, but also those around you so it becomes also a part of the organizations DNA that yes change is essential and doing it with agility and flexibility is important, however we must do it in a disciplined way as that is so essential and critical for its success. Without that many times you may find critical pieces that have been missed or not considered, as well sometimes the need for rework becomes necessary.
Dorothy
Hi Dorothy,
Thank you for the comment. I agree, and organizations overall culture can greatly influence the pace of a project. This is something that I find difficult at times going against. It is just easy to get swept up into the rush and implementation stage. I agree with you that rushing will often lead to either missing vital information, or having to redo things.
Amanda