Having managed various education, programming and building automation projects in the past, working through the readings over the past two weeks has been interesting. Based on the readings it appears that both my past leadership training, as well as my negative experiences with a number of leaders, have in some part been tied to leadership styles that were employed.\u00a0 In particular, much of the leadership training I have received previously has been presented in terms of the \u201cGreat Man Theory\u201d (\u201cWhat is the Great Man Theory?,\u201d 2019), where someone is born to be a leader, possessing innate traits for leadership while those born without them are lacking and cannot be trained to lead. Having initially studied theology my personal views on leadership lean towards stewardship, servanthood and community. As such, I found myself drawn more to the descriptions and findings regarding Indigenous leaders, particularly the idea that Indigenous leaders view their roles in spiritual terms (Julien et al., 2010, p. 125).<\/p>\n
Julien et al. reference Conger (2001) in stating that this preference may be due to my being a part of Gen-X, though I have not yet read further in that regard and so cannot comment. With that said, it was interesting that our Team\u2019s discussions, particularly between Shelley Dougan, Vanessa Tran and I, seemed to relate back to this shared background, as well. For instance, many of the choices we made when working through our own leadership rankings, as well as further reflections on the established research, appear to reflect stark differences between our rankings and that of the research (Dougan et al., 2021). As Julien et al. have pointed out, while I can recognize that some behaviours may be beneficial in leaders, focusing only on these character traits is problematic since they will not only take a lifetime to cultivate all of them, some (i.e. Narcissism and a high personal integrity) are also in conflict with one another (2010, p. 116). Again, this leads me to believe that a combination of those attributes noted by Julien et al., along with the reflective leadership framework detailed by Castelli (2016), would be more in place in both this current age and, in particular, in digital learning environments. They also appear to align more closely with constructivist learning theory which relies on community-building, reflective learning and the integration of previous experiences in order to build new connections for learning retention (\u201cConstructivism\u201d 2021).<\/p>\n
As a South African immigrant, one thing that I am curious to look into is readings regarding African leadership traditions. While I have a cursory knowledge of concepts such as Ubuntu, (Kamwangamalu, 1999) the combination of growing up outside of South Africa with a White Afrikaans heritage has clearly limited my understanding of how leadership styles might differ between the various tribes, groups and backgrounds. On a personal level, I am curious how much of the friction in my birth nation\u2019s past is due to these differing viewpoints and how they are being resolved. Especially as South Africa is often noted to be a \u201cmelting pot,\u201d a term which Dantley describes as impotent from an African-American perspective (Dantley, 2002), the combination of readings on decolonization of leadership and differing South African leadership methods may offer a broader understanding of leadership expressions. It is my hope that this investigation might provide clarity on how to bridge any current gaps, whether in understanding or practice, between Western and non-Western leadership methodologies. Finally, It may also be interesting from a Canadian perspective to see how these same African ideals regarding leadership might compare to those of Indigenous Peoples. One possible link in this regard might be that of storytelling, a concept that has a good deal of history within Afrikaaner culture, and in particular White Afrikaaner culture, as well as in Indigenous cultures.<\/p>\n
Overall, it has been great reflecting on leadership theory. As noted, while I agree there is value in studying leadership traits, I believe that the concepts of community, spirituality and servanthood align more closely with my own beliefs on leadership. In addition, I would enjoy digging into more African-centric leadership literature, particularly regarding South Africa, as I believe that there may be overlaps and concepts of value in our increasingly global society. Combined with reflective leadership principles, these ideals will allow for a more constructivist learning environment that is in line with my views on the ideal digital learning environment while also providing a richer environment for current leaders to encourage a more distributed leadership approach (Huggins, 2017).<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/sub><\/p>\n Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. The Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217\u2013236. http:\/\/dx.doi.org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/10.1108\/JMD-08-2015-0112<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n Conger, J. (2001). How \u2018Gen X\u2019 managers manage. In I. Rubin (Ed.), The organizational behavior reader (pp. 9\u221220). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.<\/sub><\/p>\n Constructivism (philosophy of education). (2021). In Wikipedia. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Constructivism_(philosophy_of_education)&oldid=1004759668<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n Dougan, S., Joubert, J.-P., Tran, V., & Yu, E. (2021). Characteristics of Admired Leaders<\/sub><\/p>\n Worksheet. Retrieved from https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1DPHc42J4eBinSMmuD3lTTm_VuBMgkyZa<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n Huggins, K. S. (2017). Developing leadership capacity in others: An examination of High School Principals\u2019 personal capacities for fostering leadership. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 12(1), Article 1. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.22230\/ijepl.2017v12n1a670<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n Julien, M., Wright, B., & Zinni, D. M. (2010). Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 114\u2013126. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.leaqua.2009.10.009<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n Kamwangamalu, N. M. (1999). Ubuntu in South Africa: A sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-African concept. Critical Arts, 13(2), 24\u201341. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/02560049985310111<\/a><\/sub><\/p>\n