Leadership Defined
Leadership is defined by Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines as follows: one, the office or position of a leader; two, the quality of a leader; and three, the capacity to lead (Agnes, 2004). These definitions describe what a leader does, but it does not provide any meaningful insight to the nature of leadership. A definition for lead, although a bit more descriptive, still does not facilitate an understanding of leadership as a theory. Most people can relate an administrator who demanded a lot from fellow subordinates, who perhaps was unfair, and who looked at job performance in a judgmental way, all of which are common in the business world where the overall objective is to gain profit. In the educational world where the assumption is to gain intellectual property as opposed to monetary property, in terms of leadership or to lead have the risk of being misinterpreted on how an individual should lead. A school administrator’s knowledge, skill, and moral reasoning should all mesh together when leading faculty, parents, and the community towards a common good. School administrators must empower other teachers to take roles that often extend beyond the traditional notion of supervision that does a way with the idea of subordinates and instead creates a culture of collaboration that embraces diversity through the pursuit of both individual and collective goals. This paper reviews literature on key issues that are necessary for educational leaders. These issues include: provision of vision driven by values to school fraternity; effective management of school staff relations; leading people in the organization; and effective communication.
Leaders Must Provide Vision Driven by Values
Effective educational leaders have the capacity to offer a vision for the future and inspire hope to people in educational community (Duignan, 2007). Infact, this is the most distinguishing element of successful leaders in education. Again, they help lift the spirits of their people and guide them to translate the vision into the daily practices of their school work. In this way educational leaders aid to bring meaning into routine efforts to get work done, thereby offering a sense of purpose and direction (Sims, 2005). Articulation of desired vision requires leaders to share their hopes, desires and expectations with all members of the school community. For this vision to come to fruition, leaders need to reflect on, and communicate effectively for it to be internalized into common practice (Dimmock, 2005).
Leaders must be a position to link vision into practice. This is an important component that relates the leader and those he leads. Managing to draw people beyond their routine tasks and engaging them in assisting shape a desired future facilitates the formation of a workplace that is inspiring. Therefore, educational leaders have a great challenge of engaging their in a manner that moves the group forward, rather than reacting primarily on emergencies (Sims, 2005). Leaders must reflect on and work through what is required to position the school to face future challenges. They must communicate the strategic purpose to everyone. This is necessary to bring together staff at all levels. According to Tomilson (2004) clear purpose, inspirational communication and an appeal to agreed values and belief systems, will clearly point the way forward to educational leaders.
For leaders to achieve the organization’s vision and goals, they need to work through others as no one can do it all by themselves. Hardly can anyone find enough time in the work day to offer the scope and depth of leadership needed in modern school communities (Brigg, 2007). This calls for leaders to be strong communicators and good relationship builders. They need capacity to build relationships, to create connections, to build partnerships, and to build sustainable alliances with others. On the other hand, educational heads also need to have and develop and maintain strong external relationships and networks (Duignan, 2007). They are required to be effective public crusaders and need to represent their institutions in various public forums. This is particularly necessary during this modern period when education is viewed to be a concern for all and is constantly placed under scrutiny by a skeptical public (Wallace, 2003).
In essence, possession of vital values is necessary for leaders to set vision and direction. These core values are supposed to be clearly articulated as a basis for institutional purpose and direction. The best way leaders can achieve this is by communicating directly to members of the institution so that they are a ware of their psychological contract necessary to become and remain an effective member. Leaders need to know the values that motivate members and clearly articulate these values to help in constructing a shared vision and mission of the school (English, 2009).
Effective Leaders Must Manage Staff Relations
Any type of leadership is expected to be relational as effective relationship act well as energy source of leadership. According to Duignan (2007) on a principal who stated that valuing others is necessary to the development of true relationships:
The promotion of staff morale, keeping staff motivated, cultivating teamwork and providing opportunities for staff development are some of the greatest challenges for leaders of educational organizations. It could be said that valuing others is a common thread in these elements and provides an authentic bond between the leader and those in the group (p. 206).
What should underpin the relationships between the leader and staff in a way that links strategic purpose to routine practices, is empowering others, delegating authority, and trusting them to get on with work. However, breach of trust usually brings out the element of leaders retreating to the remote classical organizational model, with little personal exchanges, over-reliance on rules, and bureaucratic form of control. Quoting on the comments by a school principal in Duignan (2007):
What happens to the leadership relationship when there is a massive breach of trust? This is not uncommon occurrence. The leader retreats to a position of power and control. The aggrieved staff members feel excluded and do not give of their best. Morale is adversely affected (p. 206).
Leaders should not think that relationship building demands too much time and resources. Authentic leaders should not build relationships for their own sakes; rather they should regard the building of relationships as the central way that organizations driven by value consider all those who work in and for the organization. As posited by Duignan (2007) it is the manner in which an educational institution, as a community, engages its resourceful stakeholders, providing them a sense of belonging and encouraging and supporting their commitment to the purposes of the organization. Construction of relationships is not just the business of managing people in an organization but of offering leadership necessary to marshal people as the most valuable resource (Hoy, 2005).
Leading people in an educational organization
Majority of educational leaders find it tricky to determine how relational relationship building within the institution should be. School heads with experience on hierarchical, control type system of leadership are often unsure of how close relationships should be, especially to those who are accountable to them. It is necessary for school heads to distinguish between personal and professional relationship within a school setting. Nevertheless, professional relationships must engage personal dimensions (Murphy, 2002). Equally, it is necessary to develop personal relationships within a professional framework. It is not a matter of how friendly formal leaders should be with those who work with them, but how all school members will can participate closely and professionally together to fulfill the goals and objectives of the school. Duignan (2007)posits that being trusting, honest, respectful, tolerant, emphatic, open to critique, and willing to be a team a player are necessary to professional relationships as they are to the development and maintenance of personal relationships (Duke, 2003).
In a school setting, central values also comprise valuing students and educational processes that best serve their needs. The bottom line in a school community setting is how well relationships serve the needs of students and their parents. In a number of occasions educational leaders face the problem of dealing with poor performance and balancing their professional responsibility for ensuring the smooth operation of their schools with their personal feelings for those staff who are not performing adequately (Earley, 2004).
Effective Communication
Effective communication demands: first that a school head has something important to communicate; second, they must choose appropriate times and means to deliver the message; and third, they should actively engage with others beyond a simple one way communication to clarify the intended message and dispel misconceptions. Meaningful engagement and dialogue with teachers and other staff members in their day to day working lives facilitates effective communication (Bottery, 2005).
Large systems are sometimes slow to process issues and problems, so gaps in communication may occur between those who make decisions and those who implement them. Leaders should not assume that everyone in the institution understands where they are going and why. Leaders must also understand that no matter how much communication is used, no matter how accessible it is, down the line, messages will be subject to different misrepresentations. It is the responsibility of the leader to correct misinterpretations and put to rest certain misgivings or myths. These myths if not corrected early by leaders, may sometimes develop a life of their own and a rumor can turn be accepted fact. It should be noted that there is no guaranteed process for ensuring that people in an organization are optimally informed about new policies and changes. People will often want to hear what they want to hear and distort what they perceive not to be in their interest. The size of the institution influences the degree to which formal leaders can engage in one on one conversation, which are the most effective form of communication (Sims, 2005).
Conclusion
In sum, education is a major priority for enhancing social, economic, and political objectives for a majority of people around the world. Bearing this in mind, the challenges for educational leaders today are enormous therefore needing a systematic approach to attaining a satisfactory solution. Educational leaders need to be adept at monitoring local and global environments in order to accurately predict social and political problems that will influence their school system (Fullan, 2007). Educational leaders must always be in a position to provide numerous perceptions of problems expected to impact the educational system. Some of the trends that may impact heavily on schools and educational leadership include; students performance, funding, educational choice, the quality of teachers, accountability and standards, and new technology (Wong, 2007).
Educational leaders have the mandate to enhance student performance in schools. Sims (2005) explains the concept of smart schools to guide student performance; a concept introduced by Perkins and colleagues at Harvard project Zero. This concept depends on two guiding beliefs; first, that learning is a consequence of thinking, and that all students can learn good thinking; two, that learning should include deep understanding, which involves the flexible use of knowledge. These principles offer a structure for schools with a vision of a learning community that offers students who are critical thinkers. According to Sims (2005), the seven principles in a smart school include: generative knowledge where educational leaders carefully scrutinize disciplinary content to determine what is most beneficial to students; learnable experience, where learners are expected to learn ways of thinking that can improve their performance; the school as a learning organization, educational leaders should allow all members of the school community to participate in the process of goal setting and monitoring; learning centered assessments, leaders must assessments which function as a reflective and evaluation tool for learning that creates an environment in which students take on the responsibility for their own learning; and others (Murphy, 2002).
Other important trends include; the quality of teachers, where educational leaders must continue to focus their attention on the quality of teachers available for employment; technology; educational choices; and accountability (English, 2008).
Reference
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