What makes a good leader versus an admired leader? Is Context important?
As our first unit wraps up for LRNT 525: Leading Change in Digital Learning and we are tasked with reflecting on our own experiences and opinions on leadership, I am left pondering the above questions. To introduce my context, I have been a teacher for 4 years, and although I have some formal experience with leadership in the workplace (Curriculum Department Head and occasional Teacher in Charge), the majority of my professional leadership experience has been informal. My current teaching position is at an online distributed learning (DL) school, and involves teaching multiple subject areas. Similar to many DL schools, the number of staff is relatively low, but subject materials, and our experience and comfort working online is varied.
Given my context, the questions above lead me to consider what it is that I admire in a leader. Initially, as we determined important traits of admired leaders, the word admired greatly influenced my opinion. The Oxford English Dictionary defined admired as someone who is “considered praiseworthy or excellent; highly regarded, esteemed” (Admired, n.d.). The vision of great leaders of social and political movements came to mind, such as Martin Luther King, and the traits of inspiring, forward-looking, supportive. However, as I shift my focus on leaders of digital learning environments, the traits that I envision them prioritizing are not the same, at least not all of them. For example, for me to admire a leader in digital learning environment, they still need to inspire, but not at the same level. Furthermore, not only do the traits slightly differ, but the theories that support the traits differ as well, as digital learning environments require different skill sets when compared to other learning environments. Sheninger (2014) discusses how trust becomes a priority as “leaders must give up control and trust to students and teachers to use real-world tools” (p. 2), a trait that I had not prioritized earlier. To establish the trust, I believe that a reflective leadership approach combined with a distribution of leadership tasks would allow for these changes to be implemented.
Trust is something that must be maintained over time. A reflective leadership approach “is the consistent practice of reflection, which involves conscious awareness of behaviours, situations and consequences with the goal of improving organizational performance (Castelli, 2016, p. 217). Using this leadership approach will allow for the needed space to ensure that trust is maintained. Furthermore, as discussed by Castelli (2016), reflective leadership improves performance, reengages staff interests and efforts, and further motivates them. In my context, this could be beneficial to the teachers and students with improvement to the learning environments, as well as beneficial to the Principal for overall school performance and funding. By utilizing reflective leadership, leaders are seen as supportive due to “raising the self-esteem and confidence levels of followers” (Castelli, 2016, p. 228) which translates to trust. The trait supportive was prioritized as one of my top traits of an admired leader, and is heavily intertwined with trust. Due to the ever changing nature of technology, it is crucial that educational leaders are even more supportive of followers as they experience change. Within my own school, not all staff are comfortable with technology and the learning curve associated with new technology can be difficult. Therefore, for our school to be successful when experience change, it is important that all staff feel supported, either by the Principal, or by other staff filling in informal leadership roles.
Due to the diversity of digital learning environments, and the staff that works in them, Principals may not always be the best choice to take on every task. Klar, Huggins, Hammonds, and Buskey (2015) discuss distributed leadership and how it can be used as “A purposeful approach to increasing school effectiveness through the involvement of other formal and informal school leaders in leadership activities” (as cited in Huggins, 2017, p. 3). Having a leader who understands this, and is able to distribute leadership tasks, supporting staff as they go, will allow for the entire team to function with more synergy. However, the risk of failure becomes more present when leadership positions are taken on by other people with less experience (Huggins, 2017). Whenever there is change, there is risk and fear of failure, and leaders must be supportive of potential pitfalls so that others may grow in their own leadership capacities. The Principal in these situations should be forward-looking, and consider that the minor pit falls now, will make their staff better leaders in the future. This mirrors Huggins (2017) discussion on how building leadership capacities in a process, and is one that takes time to develop.
As the digital learning environments continue to evolve, it is important that the leaders of these environments are able to guide us through the unknown. As every situation is different, ideas and solutions may differ depending on the situation. Therefore, it is important that leaders are aware of their strengths and weakness, and utilize their team’s strengths. To be able to do this, among many things leaders must be trustworthy, supportive, an forward thinking as discussed here. By utilizing reflective leadership, and trusting their team with distribution of the leadership, leaders will be able to successfully implement change within their digital learning environments.
Amanda
References
Admired. (n.d.). In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/view/Entry/2572.
Castelli, P. (2016). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organisational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236.
Huggins, K. (2017). Developing Leadership Capacity in Others: An Examination of High School Principals’ Personal Capacities for Fostering Leadership. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 12(1).
Sheninger, E. (2014). Pillars of digital leadership. International Centre for Leadership in Education.