Leadership

Prior to coming into teaching, I had many years of leadership experience in the health care industry. I served as a Charge Nurse of a burn unit, an Assistant Manager of a cardiac unit, a Head Nurse of a hospice/oncology unit, a Manager of a home care unit, and an Assistant Director of Nursing in long-term care. Even though all of this experience was in nursing, it covered quite a spectrum of services, some that had absolutely nothing in common. This varied experience helped me to learn to deal with a variety of different people, from demanding patients to prima dona surgeons. I became versed in handling anything from life-threatening emergencies to $2M budgets. Adapting these acquired skills to the education arena seemed to have flowed naturally.

Essentially, though, I am a change agent. One only has to look at my resume to realize this. I embrace change. If there is a new program to pilot, I am the first one with my hand up to volunteer. If there is a new initiative to roll out, I was probably on the committee which was involved in the groundwork. Even in my role as a Student Council Advisor, if there is a new community service effort the students want to get involved in, I am there to encourage and support.

I am also a reflective leader. I have been in many new situations that call for much observation and reflection before charging in to make changes. I have made it a practice to never react when angry. It is not productive and may actually be counter-productive. Inherent in my reflection is a sense of altruism or global thinking. I make decisions based on the greater good, even if it is not the best outcome for myself. And if the greater good involves students, then my motivation is even greater.

My leadership style also involves blatant honesty, fairness -- in the sense that fair is not equal to the same thing for everyone, but what meets each person’s needs --, and resourceful. I have been known to get far with a little or to think outside the box. Lastly, I role model hard work. I am not afraid to get out there and do my best for my students and my co-workers.

I know that my leadership approach is appreciated by my administrator and admired by some of my peers. I also know that because of that, I have received support for initiatives that I have proposed or efforts I have spear-headed.

My belief about leadership is that it starts with passion. You need to be prepared to be your organization’s or your cause’s head cheerleader at all times. If you are going to be an effective leader, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. If not, there will be no “buy in” from your potential followers.

In combination with this passion, I also think leadership involves an expertise in an area. A leader needs to be knowledgable about the topic he/she is passionate about. It would do me no good to sound the call for followers of grade reform, for instance, if I didn’t know anything about it or if I hadn’t invested any time in researching the concept.

In conjunction to the above sounding the call for followers, is that leadership involves more than just a leader, an isolated individual. It involves people working collaboratively and oftentimes, creatively towards solving a problem. Looking at a problem from more than one viewpoint can open up many possibilities that the leader himself might not have otherwise thought of. Also inherent in drawing followers is that a leader needs to have a strong ethical background. Leadership is a principled practice. People will not follow someone that does not uphold standards.

Lastly, I believe that there are many different ways to lead, and that every organization needs different kinds of leaders. I think that an organization will become lethargic if all of its members are like-minded. I think that if an organization has a good leader at the helm, it will breed more good leaders.

Although leadership may start with the passion and principles of one individual, I believe that a leader’s ultimate success arises from collaboration. My philosophy is that there is no super hero leader that can do it all. Effective leadership comes from evolving with the changing times, considering others’ input and needs, reflecting on that input and needs and thus eventually making improvements that benefit the majority.


 * Seminar entry: As I read this over -- now almost 18 months later -- I am quite proud of where I was when I started. I had had a lot of life experiences to lean on when forming my educational and leadership philosophies. Many of the themes from our graduate work are represented in my leadership philosophy: change, collaboration, passion, and reflection. Above, and also in our final change paper for Introduction to Educational Leadership, I describe myself as a "veritable change agent". As I reflect back over these past 18 months, I keep coming back to Thomas Friedman's //The World is Flat//, and his allusion to us being involved in a watershed. Information //is// increasing exponentially. The job market of tomorrow includes jobs we don't have today. The economy, the environment and global integration are all emerging trends. The speculative question is, //"How does education change enough to survive?"// **** I believe Friedman's watershed to be so, which means that as educators, we will have to learn to embrace the many changes that confront us. We will have to move from being information disseminators to learning facilitators. We will have to offer our students relevant, hands-on, real-life problems to solve. These must be authentic. We will have to provide them with the technology and other resources necessary to solve these problems. We will need to open up a flattened world of communication for them via the Internet, skyping and collaboration with students from all over the world. We will need to offer many different perspectives for which our students to build their own opinions. We will need to use data from assignments and assessments to improve our instruction and thus our students' learning. We will need to suggest a balance between the impersonal, hectic, frenzied pace of learning and the slower-paced, humane art of personal communication. **


 * These statements are essentially what I would refer to as my new and improved philosophy. It is not so much a change in philosophy, but rather, a renewed willingness to continue to be a change agent and make the changes mentioned above to make education better for our future students. To do so, I must stay actively involved in education reform and I must be prepared to whether the storm. Creating change, as we all know, is often met with resistance. **** Much like the character Haw from //Who Moved the Cheese?,// I have felt this resistance. **** I feel that the best way to help others accept change is by being a role model and leading them through what Johnson (1998) metaphorically refers to as the "Maze". Rather than being bogged down in the negativity and becoming a dinosaur to change, I will continue to choose to move to the "Cheese" -- those things in life we want, that we know are right -- and enjoy doing it. **