Participation throughout ETL504 has led me to discover how complex leadership can be and that there is not just a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Different styles of leadership will be displayed by teacher librarians at different times, in different situations and in a range of contexts (Haycock, 2010, p. 2) which has been evident throughout the case studies and module readings.

The group work for the case studies provided an interesting insight into the dynamics of groups and how they can successfully work, or not. Group 2’s, case study 4 discussion board displays what was involved for us to become established and have clear understandings about how to achieve our goals. My personal aim was to implement a feeling of collaboration from the beginning (Catherall, 2020, August 30) and ensure everyone knew that their opinion and thoughts were important and could be heard which is important for team building. Transformational leadership which includes a team-building and collaborative approach usually results in positive change (Ingram, 2019). This was somewhat successful however as the result of a team member having a stronger desire to ‘get things moving’, the collaboration did not go as planned and it turned into more of a transactional approach which assists with getting work done in a time frame however does not allow for people to feel valued.

Throughout these case studies I found that some members were possibly not being adequately involved enough as a result of not feeling valued (Catherall, 2020, July 28) and possible lack of transformational leadership throughout activities. I did attempt again in case study four (Catherall, 2020, September 19) to be collaborative but there was no response. In a scenario like this again, it would be worthwhile to try and develop stronger relationships before becoming task oriented as outlined by Tracey Ezard in this post (2018, October 17) about developing relationships with those around you to gain results.

Infrequent communication was problematic, particularly in the final case study (Catherall, 2020, September 28) when no one had volunteered to put the concluding piece together. I had learnt from what I could see developing that I would need to take the lead and ask if someone who had not done this yet would be willing. I reflected upon case study one (Catherall, 2020, July 16) and I recognised through this that it was important for others to take the lead also. I was hoping as a result of particular members modelling behaviours and taking the lead as a transformational leader that others would then do this voluntarily; this was not the case. Expectations from the beginning were not made clear about everyone’s involvement which obviously became a problem.

For future directions, it is important to note that teacher librarians need all staff to know exactly what is required of them and how this benefits the ‘team’ which would have been useful in the beginning of our group case study discussion. Overall, our group was friendly and everyone did contribute. If expectations were clearer from the beginning though, it may have been more collaborative and had higher levels of communication.

References

Ezard, T. (2018, October 17). Do you love you people as much as your purpose? Tracey Ezard: Ferocious warmth leadership, high performance teams. https://www.traceyezard.com

Haycock, K. (2010). Leadership from the middle: Building influence for change. In S. Coatney (Ed.), The many faces of school library leadership (pp. 1-11). Libraries Unlimited.

Ingram, D. (2019, February 4). Transformational leadership vs transactional leadership definition. Hearst Newspapers: Small Business. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transformational-leadership-vs-transactional-leadership-definition-13834.html