Developing great leadership qualities will require questioning our own values and beliefs through self-development. (Photo credit to pixabay user ColiN00B)
In our first assignment for LRNT 525: Leading Change in Digital Learning, we reflect on our personal approaches to leadership and explore the larger question of the most important attributes of leaders in digital learning environments. Explaining my approach to leadership requires consideration of my past experiences as a leader and an exploration of why I believe in the importance of continual self-development through reflection. Ongoing self-development is a cornerstone in my personal leadership style and allows me to analyze my own strengths and weaknesses to improve my leadership skills.
Four years ago, after a stressful, work-related incident, I chose to engage in counseling to examine my reactions to a particularly challenging leader I had encountered. This process led to a significant revelation in my intrinsic motivations and gave me the skills to mindfully proceed forward in continual self-improvement. I identify with Castelli’s (2016) work on reflective leadership, in which she argued that leaders must be able to openly question their own values and beliefs to affect change and improve their skills. A leader’s ability to self-reflect in this manner may require significant personal work. Castelli’s (2016) critical examination of reflective leadership qualities found themes of promoting trust, building relationships, respecting diversity, and challenging assumptions; skills that strengthen with time and maturity. I am grateful to have been able to turn a negative career event into an opportunity to learn mindfulness skills and examine my motivations for success. The event allowed me to more deeply connect to those around me, increasing my transparency and helping me understand the value of diverse perspectives. This type of self-development may be crucial in order to create a safe space for teams members to develop themselves, feeling secure enough to be creative and lead innovative change.
Leaders have the courage to develop the potential of their team members. (Photo credit to Pixabay user sasint.)
In Dr. Brené Brown’s most recent book, Dare to Lead, she defines a leader as:
“anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and process and has the courage to develop that potential” (Brown, 2019, para 1).
Her belief in leaders being brave supporters of change matches my own. Brown’s definition of leadership presents an important consideration in digital learning environments, supporting the development of both people and processes. Leaders must provide their teams with guidance for both their personal development and for large-scale collaborative conversations. Sheninger (2014) offered that radical transformations of professional practice could occur via these conversations that are often supported by digital educational technologies. Leaders using digital learning environments will need to examine technology processes and navigate the potential for those processes to support innovative, positive change. Sheninger (2014) states that “In the end, leadership is about action, not position” (p. 1). Good leaders develop others as well as themselves, regardless of title.
When examining how the introduction of digital technology potentially changes the way we lead, we must consider many aspects of communication, knowledge creation and dissemination. Sheninger’s (2014) proposed 7 Pillars of digital leadership in education offers considerations of communication, public relations, branding, professional growth and the skill of leveraging increased network connections to create opportunity. Sheninger (2014) also proposes Constructivist approaches to student engagement via the creation of new artifacts for real-world use, listing podcasting, blog commenting, and remixing of resources as activities that develop the ability to apply and synthesize new information. This type of knowledge creation and networking is well-known to our RRU MALAT cohort as we are encouraged to push out of our comfort zones, interacting on our academic blogs and with the ‘Twitterverse’ to reflect on our course learnings. Our program curriculum is nurturing our ability to be bold, create discourse, and develop ourselves along the way; an ability which Sheninger (2014) also offered as necessary for digital leadership. As our abilities are nudged along, we are gradually learning how to re-envision learning spaces and environments; Sheninger’s final pillar of digital leadership. He offered that by understanding the main pillars, we create the foundational skills to boldly support the integration of technology into our learning environments in unique, transformative and sustainable ways.
After evaluating leadership traits that are supported by Sheninger’s and Castelli’s work, I agree with the following list of qualities and skills that future leaders in digital learning environments should have:
- Authenticity
- Honesty
- Transparency
- Patience
- Mindfulness
- Open-mindedness
- Inspirational
- Collaborative across multiple disciplines
- Outstanding listening and communication skills
- Constantly self-reflecting and learning
To lead groups in a digital age it is necessary to be able to build trust across distances as we commonly work in virtual teams. Gilson, Maynard, Jones Young, Vartiainen, and Hakonen (2015) argued that research evidence has consistently linked trust as one of the most important and highly-researched elements of virtual teams. Castelli (2016) wrote that trust mediated employee engagement, promoting cooperation and innovation. Understanding the unique needs and affordances of virtual teams will be crucial to leading in a digital age.
In final consideration of leadership theories that best support leading change in digital learning environments, I would argue that reading about and understanding all leadership styles would be beneficial to reflecting on your current qualities as a leader. Learning about transactional leadership may allow you to consider methods you are currently using to motivate your team (Khan, 2017). Reading about distributed leadership may allow insight into how to create conditions for your team to succeed and grow (Huggins, 2017). Understanding values-based leadership may allow you to consider the importance of acknowledging and supporting common values within your individual organization (O’Toole, 2008). Reflective leadership principles demand conscious awareness of actions and behaviors to improve leader success and results (Castelli, 2016). An examination of all these theories will create an opportunity for inspiration and further connected conversations that encourage future development of our leadership skills. Brown (2019) inspires us to understand that:
“Who we are is how we lead” (Brown, 2019, para 4).
As we identify our weaknesses and develop ourselves, we lead by example and inspire our teams to flourish.
CB
References:
Brown, B. (2019). Dare to Lead. [webpage] Retrieved from https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/
Castelli, P. (2016). Reflective leadership review: a framework for improving organizational performance. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236.
Gilson, L. L., Maynard, M. T., Jones Young, N. C., Vartiainen, M., & Hakonen, M. (2015). Virtual teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5), 1313-1337.
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).
Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or Transactional Leadership in Current Higher Education: A Brief Comparison. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3).
O’Toole, James (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1).
Sheninger, E. (2014). Pillars of digital leadership. International Centre for Leadership in Education.