Leadership is a very ambiguous and indistinct term, am I a leader, or
do I just guide the students and team members around me in the direction I
believe that is correct…. Is that leadership?
So far as I understand it - in a school situation the effective leader’s
direction (and this is not necessarily the Principle) inspires the teachers who
in turn encourages the students to achieve.
(Marzano, Waters & McNutty)
I expect, as it has in previous semesters and previous subjects, that as this semester unfolds my understanding of leadership
in schools will be altered.
In answer to the first Forum I believe that leadership is a performance involving the
collaborative interpersonal processes of a manager’s job, but I also believe
that many managers are not necessarily leaders. Leadership must involve a least
two people, where one is intentionally influenced to make something happen by
the other.
Leaders:
• Use communication to influence fulfilment of a
goal
• Regard the workplace dynamic as a partnership
• Guide rather
than push
• Guide others to a ‘result’ and then let them claim
‘ownership’
• Don’t always have the right answers, but are willing to
find them
• Have the energy, drive, integrity and credibility to be able to
inspire others
Leadership should involve looking behind you occasionally to
see if anyone is following or if you actually are making a change for the
better.
My position does not lend itself to making
big changes within the library so I attempt to lead by example in providing the
best processes I can to teachers, students and my team, as well as directing
them to the ‘new’ that I find to advance what they do. I allow those I ‘lead’
to achieve and to become self-sufficient, to take ownership of a project and
also take ownership of the success of that project. I have tried to create a
team that is independent but also works with each other’s strengths to achieve
our common goal of making the library the hub of the college.
16/04/2014 - I do
not find it that unusual that study and my everyday life continue to intertwine
at certain points.
My subject this
semester is based on the Leadership qualities to be found within the school
library spectrum, my work life this semester is also revolving around the
leadership ‘qualities’ of those who are directing us in the largest series of
modifications seen in decades. Yet I have just watched a movie, ‘Invictus’, a
story of two leaders who lead by example and inspire others to excel by
expecting more of themselves. While watching this movie I could not help
reflecting and contrasting the movies plot, my studies and the situations
occurring at work...
