{"id":348,"date":"2022-02-06T18:17:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T02:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/?p=348"},"modified":"2022-02-06T20:40:49","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T04:40:49","slug":"lrnt-525-%e2%94%82-leadership-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/lrnt-525-%e2%94%82-leadership-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"LRNT 525 \u2502 Leadership Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

We participated in a group activity where we individually ranked\u00a0 20 common leader attributes from least to most important. After reading various resources, our team met synchronously to discuss a group order of attributes. Common themes that arose in our discussions were the importance of context and telling stories of each others experiences and leadership preferences. After enjoying this surprisingly challenging activity, I chose a prompt provided to reflect on the activity and leadership:<\/span><\/p>\n

What you think are the most important attributes of a leader working in digital learning environments?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Communicator<\/span><\/p>\n

After my initial thoughts, readings and discussions I’ve developed a greater appreciation for several aspects of leadership I may not have particularly identified before. As mentioned by Sheninger, communication is a key pillar for leaders, especially in the context of digital learning environments. Many of us in MALAT are so used to digital communication, amplified by COVID-19, but purposeful strategy and considerations from leadership’s communication is imperative (2019). From personal experience, great communication can go basically unnoticed, while poor communication completely stops\u00a0 you in your tracks. This shares a lot of similarities to adaptive leadership outlined by Khan (2017), as leaders must have the capacity to consider external factors and communicate in a consumable format for those they are collaborating with. I loved an example shared by Julien highlighting good communication, the vice-president of the company communicated his answer to a subordinate’s question through a allegory with a spider web (2010). It was a well-thought out and meaningful response that help support his colleague.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Supportive<\/span><\/p>\n

With support in mind, our first choice in our group leadership attributes list was supportive<\/em>. When we discussed supportive<\/em> as our top pick, I recognized how valuable it was to me in both professional and personal contexts. Leaders can support you in so many ways, they can empower, motivate, guide, inspire and more (Workman, 2012). Many of the great leaders I’ve encountered had different styles of leadership, but were always supportive when it mattered most. As Khan highlighted, there is “no leadership theory can address all required actions”, so it’s not an exact science in being a supportive leader, but important for the wellbeing of your group and its members (2017). When thinking of support specifically in digital learning environments from personal experiences, leaders have helped with idea generation, clarifications, calling in backup, providing feedback and encouraging further research\/professional development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dependable<\/span><\/p>\n

With the context of digital learning environments in combination of working primarily in a technical role, I would also include dependability as a very important leader attribute. Dependable is described as the quality of being trustworthy and reliable, which sounds simple initially, but can incapsulate so much. I’ve depended on leaders to drive strategy, consider the big picture and capture requirements because as a individual, I likely wouldn’t have the time or knowledge to effectively complete these tasks. Additionally dependable leaders have shared values and will advocate for the group’s vision, mission and people (Workman, 2012). Dependable leaders will trust your expertise and you can trust their recommendations. This mutual dependency drives a relationship of reliability for each other. The reassurance a leader is dependable speaks to their character and competence to help those around them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

References:<\/span><\/p>\n

Julien, M., Wright, B., & Zinni, D. M. (2010). Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders.\u00a0The Leadership Quarterly<\/em>,\u00a021<\/em>(1), 114\u2013126. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/J.LEAQUA.2009.10.009<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Khan, N. (2017).\u00a0Adaptive or Transactional Leadership in Current Higher Education: A Brief Comparison<\/a>.\u00a0The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning<\/em>,\u00a018<\/em>(3), 178-183.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheninger, E. (2019) Pillars of Digital Leadership<\/em><\/a> International Center for Leadership in Education. http:\/\/leadered.com\/pillars-of-digital-leadership<\/span><\/p>\n

Workman, T., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2012).\u00a0Leadership, personal transformation, and management.<\/a>\u00a0The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13<\/em>(4), 313-323. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.19173\/irrodl.v13i4.1383<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We participated in a group activity where we individually ranked\u00a0 20 common leader attributes from least to most important. After reading various resources, our team met synchronously to discuss a group order of attributes. Common themes that arose in our discussions were the importance of context and telling stories of each others experiences and leadership […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt525"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0226\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}