The readings and videos this week from ETL504 have all been about leadership theory and as I have read through each one I have reflected on the leaders and managers I have worked with in education over the last twenty years and recognised many of their traits and also my own leadership strengths and weaknesses. Managers should ideally be leaders but this is not always the case, sometimes the principals in schools do not have the effective traits to lead and the deputy principal exhibits these traits and is operating more as the leader (“Leadership Theories,” 2019). As an employee in any workplace, it can be easy to criticise management and in schools that can happen a lot. There is no disputing that leadership in any workplace brings endless challenges and there can be numerous people leading within any organisation and this can depend on the type of business it is.

Henry Mitzberg in Kokemuller (2017) describes many different classifications for organisations and one of these is the professional classification whereby a school can be bureaucratic but they also have a high degree of professional, knowledgeable and competent workers who have specialist skills and drive the school forward (“Leadership Theories,” 2019). All of the schools I have worked in have enabled staff who are not managers to work as leaders in some capacity. My current school has project-based groups to drive the strategic vision forward and this enables staff who are not managers to lead.

My leadership journey has been an interesting one. In London, I worked for the most inspiring head teacher(Principal) I have ever come across, and I learnt so much from him. He was outstanding at empowering staff and would create extra responsibilities for even the most junior staff. These roles were always given a title and, at times, small pay increment which of course led to staff feeling recognised for their work. He also encouraged staff to further themselves and I was encouraged to enrol in a middle management course, Leading from the Middle, from the University of London. Shortly after this I successfully won the role of head of Key Stage One and then a couple of years later I acted as one of the Deputy Heads of school for a short time. After this, I had three children and took many years off full time work. We then moved to Singapore, where I started doing some part time teaching at a few different schools which provided me with opportunities to observe how they were lead. Almost four years ago I went back to full time teaching and shortly afterwards made the move into a teacher librarian role. I have often reflected if moving to the library meant the end of me working in school leadership and that brings with it mixed thoughts. I feel like I contribute so much to the entire school in my role and I am very passionate about it and get a lot of job satisfaction. However, I often feel frustrated that I am not officially recognised as a leader within my school, both in my job title, by pay or by my inclusion in any leadership teams. I have had conversations about this and will continue to and I am sure this subject will provide me with more strategies in my toolkit to pursue this further.

I know as a leader I need to look forwards not backwards. So enough, of my personal reflections, what have I learnt about leadership theory? There are a number of different types of leadership styles including:

1. Situational: Leaders adopt a style depending on the situation and focus on enabling followers. This style can have issues because it is changeable depending on the situation and also because it relies on the followers (“Leadership Theories,” 2019).
2. Transactional: This is task and results driven and is not focused on the strategic vision of an organisation and the underlying principle is that reward increases effort (Ingram, 2019.)
3. Transformational: These leaders plan strategically and enthuse motivate and inspire employees. This is the complete opposite of transactional with regards to management and motivation (Ingram, 2019; “Leadership Theories,” 2019).
4. Servant Leadership: These leaders are the servants of their employees and they replace self-interest with service to others by focusing on trust and collaboration. (Burkus, 2010)
5. Distributed leadership: moves authority away from one individual and relies on strategic groups within the organisation and follows the idea that ‘many hands make light work’ (Harris, 2014).
6. Instructional: These leaders direct and manage from the top but they always place students at the forefront and share their vision with staff who they involve in the decision making process (Spenceko, 2013).

The most effective leaders will have a range of styles but the instructional leadership is the one that is most appropriate for the current school context (“Leadership Theories,” 2019).  Ferguson and Hamm (2013) summarise McEwan’s seven steps to effective instructional leadership.

1. Establish, implement and achieve high academic standards through a strong vision.
2. Collaborate with staff by being an instructional resource who creates collegiality.
3. Create a learning orientated school culture.
4. Communicate the vision and mission to staff and students and always be visible and accessible.
5. Set high expectations for yourself and staff. This includes observing teaching and providing feedback.
6. Develop more teacher leads, rather than followers.
7. Create positive relationships with staff and students by being a good listener and celebrating success.

From immersing myself in this theory I want to end this blog with a list of what I believe are the most important leadership attributes. These are the attributes that I want to see in the managers who lead me and the attributes I would like to possess when I lead. Most of these would be traits of an Instructional leader.

• Organised, inspirational and enthusiastic
• Motivated and motivating
• Recognises and rewards effort
• Focused on the strategic direction of the school
• Team builder and collaborator
• Have empathy and the ability to listen and support
• Ethical, honest and aware of the cultural and socioeconomic diversity within the school community
• The ability to give direction and be a problem solver
• Willing to have courageous conversations and address difficult situations with staff, parents and students
• The ability to influence others to perform to a high level
• Intelligence and excellent knowledge of IT and 21^st century learning

References

Burkus, D. (2010, April 1). Servant leadership theory. In DB: David Burkus. Retrieved from http://davidburkus.com/2010/04/servant-leadership-theory/

Ferguson, A. & Hamm, B. [BlueBearEdVidoes]. (2013, January 22). Seven steps to effective instructional leadership [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-p9A7EHCR4
[4.33 mins]

Harris, A. (2014, September 29). Distributed leadership. Teacher Magazine, ACER. Retrieved from https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/article/distributed-leadership

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

Kokemuller, N. (2017). Mintzberg’s five types of organizational structure. In Hearst Newspapers: Small business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-60119.html

Leadership Theories. (2019). In Teacher librarian as leader [ETL504 module]. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42384_1&content_id=_2733068_1

Spencekao. (2013, April 6). Instructional leadership. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efzXDk1–4w
[6.03 mins]