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It is not as simple as it would seem to narrowly define key attributes of a leader in a digital learning environment. The context alone requires a breadth of technical, social, and organization skills. Therefore, I aimed to find one attribute that would encompass key values and roles within digital learning organizations. Understanding encompasses several traits required to fulfill the role of a leader.
Understanding, defined as comprehension (Oxford dictionary) is a broad enough quality to include the knowledge required to fulfill the role of a leader. This aligns with Group B’s first value, “competent” (2021, Beeby, Grymaloski, Koval, Norum, & Stoesz). To be a skilled leader, one requires an understanding of the overall processes, tools, resources, and roles. Having an understanding is considered necessary by Sheninger in order to make effective improvements to the culture and achievement (2014). I would include that demonstrating an understanding also makes a leader more effective in dealing with or supporting other employees. For example, if an employee is requesting more resources, a leader with an understanding of that employee’s role, tasks, and processes will make a more informed and therefore more effective decision.
Beyond having comprehension, being understanding also means being “sympathetically aware of other people’s feelings” (Oxford). Aside from having understanding, being understanding can inspire others to perform optimally. This then aligns with Team B’s (2021) second and third ranked values, supportive and caring. Being sympathetic allows a leader to anticipate changes or struggles and thereby address these sooner and with greater effectiveness (Sheninger, 2014). While, Sheninger claims trust is the foundational quality of current digital leaders, trust is developed through communication, openness and sympathy. Additionally, while being able to adapt to change is important, especially in this time of the pandemic, the pandemic has also shown us that we cannot plan for each possible scenario. In most scenarios, being understanding can be used to recognize where the problems lie and to outline careful and thoughtful solutions (Khan, 2017). Khan goes on to consider the importance of leaders to recognize their followers values, struggles and responsibilities when including them in processes.
Both definitions of understanding are relevant beyond the western perspective too. An understanding of previous experiences and ingrained behaviours towards minorities (Batliwala, 2010) allows an empathetic approach to leadership. By acknowledging the past we enable greater capacity for value-driven growth and justice. A leader with understanding will be better able to take on differing perspectives (Barton, T. as cited in in Batliwala, 2010). Raising other up also follows “transformational leadership” as described by Batliwala (2010). The idea of instilling leadership in others is also recognized by Huggins et al. (2017) through distributed leadership. These lawered levels of leadership are evident in my current environment within the formal titles of Superintendent of schools to the Instructional team leader to those informal leaders that spark change or growth. For a leader to lead successfully they must use understanding to encourage leadership from others.
Effective leaders are understanding of processes, tools and are empathetic to all members of the digital education environment. This image of a leader is best described by a metaphor of the unobservable current in water. The leader guides others through obstacles towards a common goal. A leader with thorough understanding will be better at using an effective amount of pressure to suite the people and the context.
References
Batliwala, S. (2010). Feminist leadership for social transformation: Clearing the conceptual cloud. Retrieved from https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/feminist-leadership-clearing-conceptual-cloud-srilatha-batliwala.pdf
Beeby, K., Grymaloski, W., Koval, D. Norum, S., & Stoesz, R. (2021, February 3). Team Forums [Discussion post]. Royal Roads University, Moodle. https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=733512
Huggins, K., Klar, H., Hammonds, H., & Buskey, F. (2017). Developing leadership capacity in others: An examination of high school principals’ personal capacities for fostering leadership. International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, 12(1). 1–15. https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2017v12n1a670.
Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or Transactional Leadership in Current Higher Education: A brief comparison. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3). 178–182. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i3.3294
Oxford Dictionary. 2021. www.oed.com.
Sheninger, E. (2014). Pillars of digital leadership. International Center for Leadership in Education. 1–4.
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