LEADERSHIP PREPARATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATORS

LEADERSHIP PREPARATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATORS

DEFINITION

George R. Terry - Leadership is an “Activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objections.”

Sprout – “Any one who acts as a model to others in a group is often called the ‘leader’ of the group.”

Lapiere and Fransworth – “Leadership is a behaviour that affects the behaviour of other people, more than their behaviour affects that of the leader.”

IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

            In every society there are various types of educational organizations from nursery, schools to universities and research organizations. All of them impart knowledge to the pupils and develop in them skills and certain human qualities which are required for job and conducting research activities. They have developed a complex structure to achieve these objectives. The concepts of structure, process, power and leadership are intrinsic to all educational organizations. Of these, the concepts of leadership have dominated the field of education.

Leadership in educational organization implies efficient and effective ways of achieving the institutional goals. In educational context the term ‘manager’ points out to a person who is holding a managerial position such as the Vice-Chancellor of a University, Principal of a College, Head of the Department, Director of Institution, Headmaster of a School, Supervisors, Inspectors, etc. As these persons are held responsible for achieving the organizational goals, they have been legitimately designated as leaders.

It is the leader, who plans the activities and gets them executed by the group; it is he who develops sympathy and solidarity among the group members. A group gets integrated and flourishes or gets disintegrated and perishes as a result of the efficient or inefficient leadership respectively. Under the able leadership of a headmaster, a school can make tremendous progress while the unwise leadership may doom its future.

Therefore, it is essential to know more about leadership and the characteristics of a good leader so that we can prepare children for effective leadership.

TYPES OF LEADERSHIP

1. Origin of Leadership
1. Executive Appointed Leaders
2. Elected Leaders
3. Emerging Leaders
2. Field of Activities
1. Political Leaders
2. Spiritual Leaders
3. Social Leaders
4. Artistic Leaders
5. Intellectual Leaders
3. Style of Functioning
1. Authoritarian Leaders
2. Democratic Leaders
4. Nature of the Leader
1. Institutional Leaders
2. Dominant Leaders
3. Expert Leaders
4. Persuasive Leaders

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Educational leadership is simply the vision, skills, and leadership capabilities that superintendents and principals need to possess to build and maintain their local school districts.  Those same educational leadership qualities are used to attract talented teachers and create educational programs that can provide children with a superior academic environment.

Policy Forum on Educational Leadership

Consistent with the observation that the job of a school leader is multidimensional, the forum identified areas in which school leaders must have skills:

v  Instructional leadership;

v  Management;

v  Communication, collaboration, and community building; and

v  Vision development, risk taking, and change management.

REQUIREMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONAL LEADER

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

1. Technical Skills
• Ability to use knowledge
• Methods and techniques
• Equipment
2. Human Skills

·         Understanding of cause of behaviour

·         Change of behaviour

·         Prediction of behaviour of the people working in the organization

3. Conceptual Skills

·         Understand  the complexities of the overall organization

·         Where one’s own operations fit into it

ESSENTIAL ABILITIES

1. Planning
• To know problems
• To evolve plans for solving those problem
2. Organization

·         To mobilize the resources, both physical and human for executing the plans to solve problems

·         To integrate the various resources and organize the entire system and have it functions as one unit

·         Courage to introduce changes in the plans as and when required

3. Persuasion

·         To distribute responsibilities among different individuals for the implementation of the plan

·         To evaluate any plan of action

·         Keeping his own control on the entire organization that he heads

ESSENTIAL BEHAVIOURS

1. System-Oriented Behaviour Dimension
• Production
• Initiating structure
• Representation
• Role Assumption
• Persuasiveness
• Superior-Orientation
2. Person-Oriented Behaviour Dimension

·         Tolerance of Uncertainty

·         Consideration tolerance of Freedom

·         Demand Reconcillation

·         Integration

·         Predictive Accuracy  

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

1. Good communication skill
2. Honesty

3. Visionary outlook

4. Selecting a good team

5. Action speaks louder than words

6. Ability to motivate people around
7. Consistency
8. Ability to stand against critics

Following is a list of the 10 leadership qualities included in the Informal Education World Survey. Has a stated vision of what the school can be and a plan to achieve that vision.

¨      Helps develop the leadership skills of others.

¨      Does not tolerate bad teachers.

¨      Offers kindnesses and kudos that make a difference to staff and students.

¨      Is visible -- gets out of the office and is seen all over the school.

¨      Knows students' names and talks with students on a regular basis.

¨      Has a sense of humor.

¨      Shows that he or she is in charge when that needs to be done.

¨      Shows that he or she is not in charge alone by getting others involved in meaningful ways.

¨      Is trustworthy and straight with students and staff.

¨      Is good at "politics," a diplomat.

¨      Clearly states goals, expectations, and standards -- for students, staff, and parents.

¨      Develops strong teachers; helps cultivate good teaching practice.

¨      Is a role model for students and staff.

¨      Is an insulator -- protects staff from distractions that get in the way of teaching kids.

LEADERSHIP CHARACTER MODEL

            The character necessary for leadership can be visualized as a scale, where integrity is the strong and solid base, and respect and responsibility are balanced on either side. People with integrity are honest, trustworthy and authentic. They are also respectful of others and have a strong sense of personal responsibility. Respect is developed by the component qualities of Empathy, Emotional Mastery, Lack of Blame and Humility. Responsibility is developed by the component qualities of Accountability, Courage, Self Confidence and Focus on the Whole.

RESPECT

People who demonstrate respect show:

·         Unconditional high regard for others.

·         Acknowledging their value as human beings, regardless of their behavior.

·         The respect comes through in all situations, even during times of conflict or criticism.

Demonstrating respect for others requires developing and refining the following core qualities:

 a. Empathy

A person who demonstrates the core quality of empathy:

• Can understand others’ points of view, including the views of those who are different
• Shows genuine concern for others
• Listens with understanding
• Is respectful even when he or she has nothing to gain from the relationship

b. Lack of Blame

A person who demonstrates the core quality of lack of blame:

• Admits fault when appropriate
• Does not look for a scapegoat in a crisis
• Spends time fixing problems, not assigning them

c. Humility

A person with the core quality of humility:

• Listens to others with an open mind
• Doesn't brag or name drop
• Clearly sees and admits their own limitations and failings
• Is not afraid to be vulnerable

d. Emotional Mastery

A person with the core quality of emotional mastery:

• Says what he or she thinks, but never berates others
• Stays calm even in crisis situations
• Doesn't let anxiety interfere with public speaking or with other things that need to be done
• Reflects before reacting and is able to consciously choose an appropriate response

RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility is the acceptance of full responsibility for personal success and for the success of the project, team and organization.

 Becoming responsible requires developing and refining the following core qualities:

a. Accountability

A person with the core quality of accountability:

• Takes the initiative to get things done
• Is not afraid to hold himself accountable
• Is willing to cross departmental boundaries to help with a meaningful project
• Takes personal responsibility for organizational success

b. Self-Confidence

A person with the core quality of self-confidence:

• Has a self assured bearing
• Is flexible and willing to change
• Easily gives others credit
• Isn't afraid to tell the truth

c. Courage

A person with the core quality of courage:

• Champions new or unpopular ideas
• Talks to others, not about others, when there is a problem
• Accepts feedback and really hears what others say
• Takes the ball and runs with it, even when there are obstacles

d. Focus on the Whole

A person who demonstrates the core quality of focusing on the whole:

• Realizes that they represent their company to customers
• Sees how the work in their area affects the entire project and the entire organization
• Gathers information from all stakeholders when making decisions
• Shares information throughout the company and understands the value of a knowledgeable workforce

LEADERSHIP STYLES

• Directive Leadership
• Supportive Leadership
• Achievement Oriented Leadership
• Participative Leadership

According to the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of leadership styles, it is further classified into:

Effective Styles

¨      Executive Styles

¨      Developer

¨      Benevolent Autocrat

¨      Bureaucrat

Ineffective Styles

¨      Compromiser

¨      Missionary

¨      Autocrat

¨      Deserter

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP

            Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility, that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting negative damage on the surrounding educational and community environment. Sustainable leadership has an activist engagement with the forces that affect it, and builds an educational environment of organizational diversity that promotes cross-fertilization of good ideas and successful practices in communities of shared learning and development.

Sustainable Leadership:

• Creates and preserves sustaining learning
• Secures success over time
• Sustains the leadership of others
• Addresses issues of social justice
• Develops rather than depletes human and material resources
• Develops environmental diversity and capacity
• Undertakes activist engagement with the environment

MEASUREMENT OF LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

            One important aspect of leadership training is measurement or evaluation of leadership. Without this one can never know that quality of leadership one had prior to training and whether after training there was any improvement in his leadership quality.

Tools for measuring leader behaviours:

1. The Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)

            It measures two dimensions leadership behaviour- the ‘initiating structure and consideration’. Each dimension of  LBDR consists of 15 items and scored on a 5 pt scale ranging over “always”, “often”, “occasionally”, “seldom” and “never”. Hence, theoretical range of scores on each dimension varies from 0 to 60.

LBDR identifies four managerial styles:

1. high initiating structure, high consideration (HS, HC)
2. low initiating structure,  high consideration (LS, HC)
3. low structure, low consideration (LS, LC)
4. high initiating structure, low consideration (HS, LC)

2. Leader Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ)           

            It measures leader’s orientation around two major factors-Structure and Consideration. It is a 40-items questionnaire divided into the foregoing two factors. The items are presented with a five pt continuum with scoring weights of lowercase zero to four depending on items orientation to total dimension.

3. Supervisory Behaviour Description (SBD)   

            It measures perception of subordinates of the leadership behaviour demonstrated by their immediate superior. It yields scores on two factors-structure and consideration. It consists of 48 items, first area includes 20 items and second area consists of 28 items the items are responded interns of a 5 pt continuum having scores from 1 to 4.

4. Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD)         

            It was designed to measure three aspects of leader behaviour: (i) style of leadership, (ii) range of leadership style, and (iii) style adapability. It has two forms: LEAD (self) and LEAD (others). Former is administered to managers and the later is administered to subordinates. It consists of 12 items or situations. Four alternative response i.e., style of management are also given out for each situation.

CONCLUSION

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Leaders who demonstrate persistence, tenacity, determination and synergistic communication skills will bring out the same qualities in their groups. Good leaders use their own inner mentors to energize their team and organizations and lead a team to achieve success. Leadership is applicable to all facets of life: a competency that you can learn to expand your perspective, set the context of a goal, understands the dynamics of human behavior and takes the initiative to get to where you want to be.
Actually, leadership depends upon the individual qualities of the person and not the office that he holds. There is no single kind of skills and personality traits that will make a man always a leader. Leadership, besides the important traits of one’s personality, is a function of the situation. Specific situations require specific qualities in a leader. It was these characteristics that educational leaders needed to possess in order to provide effective leadership in today's school environment. .  They need to structure leadership jobs and begin preparing individuals that are skilled and committed.  Remember, leaders are made, they are not born.  And that's what educational leadership is all about.

REFERENCES

§  Turknett, Robert L. and Turknett, Carolyn N. (2005). Decent People, Decent Company: How to Lead with Character in Work and in Life.

§  The Top 10 Leadership Qualities – HR World

• Association of California School Administrators. (2001). Recruitment and retention of school leaders: A critical state need. Sacramento, CA: ACSA Task Force on Administrator Shortage.
• Giles,C. and Hargreaves, A. (in press). ‘The sustainability of innovative schools as learning organizations and professional learning communities during standardized reform’, Educational Administration Quarterly.
• Nagarajan, K., Selvakumar, D., Devaraj, G. and Srinivasan, R. (2003). Educational Psychology. Ram Publishers, Chennai.

 BOOKS

§  Hemphill, John K. (1949). Situational Factors in Leadership. Columbus: Ohio State University Bureau of Educational Research. 

• Van Wormer, Katherine S.; Besthorn, Fred H.; Keefe, Thomas (2007). Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Macro Level: Groups, Communities, and Organizations. US: Oxford University Press.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• House, Robert J. (1996). "Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory". Leadership Quarterly Vol.7 (3): 323–352. 
• Spillane, James P.; et. al (2004). "Towards a theory of leadership practice". Journal of Curriculum Studies Vol. 36, No. 1: 3-34.