What sort of leadership do I want?
Gardiner (2013, p.13) defines leadership as:
‘the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers.’
He goes on to state that just because someone is in a position of status, such as an Executive or Manager, does not mean they are a leader. The power this position affords them gives them subordinates, not followers.
There will always be someone in a position of authority above me so what sort of leader do I want? This is not as easy to answer as I thought it would be. I want a leader that is considerate, respectful, professional and passionate but that is what I want for all of my co-workers and myself, not just my leader. When I consider all of the leadership styles discussed in my latest learning module and readings, it is hard to pinpoint just one leadership style. Bush and Glover (2014) note that there is no single best type of leadership and each style has positives and negatives. For example, transformational leadership sounds great for implementing change but not if the values don’t align with the values of the staff, students or community; distributed leadership recognises that many people have the ability to lead in their areas of expertise, regardless of status but could be viewed as a way for Executive or head teachers to reduce their workload (delegation); servant leadership has many positives but in a workplace where there is a lack of trust and respect or staff are used to a more traditional leadership model, staff may consider their Principal lacks authority.
Gronn (2010 as cited in Bush and Glover, 2014) puts forward a hybrid model of leadership where you take the best of both individual and distributed models. I like this idea the best. I want a Principal who has passion, drive and vision (transformational leader) while having a focus on teaching and learning (Leadership for Learning – not quite the same as Instructional Leadership) as well as recognising that other staff have the capacity to lead and improve the school (distributed leadership). If we could wrap all of this around a school with passionate staff who place a value on trust, collegiality and responsibility, then we would have a school that would achieve amazing things for their students.
Bush, T. & Glover, D. (2014). School leadership models: What do we know? School Leadership and Management, 34(5), 553-571. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2014.928680
Gardner, J. W. (2013). The nature of leadership. In M. Grogan (Ed.). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership (3rd ed., pp. 17-27). John Wiley & Sons.