Team Leadership

 

“The era of one heroic school leader per school has passed and instead, leadership is often distributed across a number of individuals across the school (Firestone 1996; Hulpia, Devos, and Rosseel 2009). Also teachers are increasingly formally incorporated in the leadership team of a school (Mangin and Dunsmore 2015). Neumerski (2013) argues that it is important to study the diverse types of leaders in schools in a more integrated way to gain insights in how school leadership is organized in schools” (Tuytens, Et al, 2019, p. 7). Team leadership is described as a groups of administrators, teachers, and other staff that work cohesively to lead a successful school environment. Together they make important school decisions and lead school improvement initiatives.  “Most secondary schools also have formally designated teacher leaders in their school leadership team. These teacher leaders are teachers who are part-time or full-time free of teaching duties to take up a leadership role such as student counseling, instructional support or administrative tasks” (Tuytens, Et al, 2019, p. 8). Teacher leaders are designated to provide support to other teachers to enhance the education of their students. Teachers working together with administrators creates an environment focused on student achievement. “The average size of the leadership team (principal, assistant principals and teacher leaders) in these schools is 8 leaders” (Tuytens, Et al, 2019, p. 11). Team leadership allows for higher productivity, shared responsibility, quality improvements, and increased involvement to the success of the school community. They hold each other accountable to accomplish a common goal. This is accomplished through clear communication, set aside individual goals, actively sharing knowledge and skills for a greater purpose. In order to have a successful team leadership, school leaders must identify individuals who are part of the team. Followed by clearly establishing the long term vision for the school. The team leaders should work together to improve classroom learning through direct coaching or modeling. The team leadership must also be prepared to provide feedback. Once the team leadership establishes a clear vision, provides coaching and modeling as well as feedback, teachers will feel more confident in joining the team’s vision.

 

Reference.

 

Tuytens, M., Moolenaar, N., Daly, A. J., Devos, G., Leerstoel, van G., & Education, and L. D. in I. (2019). Teachers’ informal feedback seeking towards the school leadership team. a social network analysis in secondary schools. Research Papers in Education, 34(4).

Followership and Leadership

 

School structures are designed with teachers, staff, and administrators in the roles of followers and leaders. Followership is key in the relationship between administrators and staff. Without followers there can be no leadership roles. Both followers and leaders are equally important and balance each other out for the success of the school environment. “To date, several models have been proposed for assessing effective leadership. The GLOBE project highlights six leadership dimensions that appear to characterize effective leadership across cultures; these dimensions evaluate whether a leader is charismatic, team oriented, participative, human-oriented, autonomous and self-protective (House et al., 2004). In a different model, Offermann, Kennedy, and Wirtz (1994) proposed eight leadership characteristics, six of which have been replicated and validated in several studies (e.g. Epitropaki & Martin, 2004; Bray, Foti, Thompson, & Wills 2014). They included six leadership prototypes (sensitivity, dedication, charisma, attractiveness, intelligence, and strength) and two anti-prototypes (tyranny and masculinity) (Offermann et al., 1994),” (Da'as & Zibenberg, 2021, p. 3). Followers are individuals who willingly and effectively follow the parameters of the leadership or administration. Some characteristics that a good follower holds are: ability to take directions well, good listening skills, support the leadership goals, team player, and able to deliver what is expected. Other key characteristics include: loyalty, sportsmanship, focus on their efforts, committed to the common goal, honest, and able to manage themselves well. “Employee perceptions of effective followers have been found to include the attributes of integrity, dependability and communication skills, among others (Carsten, UhlBien, West, Patera, & McGregor, 2010). Sy (2010) identified that the content and structure of IFTs suggested the followership prototypes: industry (hardworking, productive, goes above and beyond), enthusiasm (excited, outgoing, happy) and good citizen (loyal, reliable, team player); and followership anti-prototypes: conformity (easily influenced, follows trends, soft-spoken), insubordination (arrogant, rude, bad-tempered) and incompetence (uneducated, slow, inexperienced),” (Da'as & Zibenberg, 2021, p. 4). The ideal followers are defined as confident in their abilities and the abilities of leadership. Good followers do not need to be told repeatedly what needs to be done, they already know what is expected of them and commit to completing all tasks for the success of the school and organization.

Reference.

Da'as, R., &; Zibenberg, A. (2021). Conflict, control and culture: implications for implicit followership and leadership theories. Educational Review, 73(2), 194–208.

Leadership Ethics

 

“A general definition of ethics fits within a branch of philosophy that involves the systematization of moral principles and the resulting rules of behavior and conduct that are adopted by individuals, groups, and society” (Landre, 2019, p. 1) An ethical leader makes it point to use moral principles when making a professional decision, guided by fairness, values the rights of others, and clearly articulates expectations. The four main characteristics of an ethical leadership include: honesty, respect, justice, and integrity. Ethical leadership allows administrators to inspire, lead, and motivate staff to reach their fullest potential. They also influence the workplace culture by creating a successful environment for staff, teachers, and students. “The administrator should promote the success of all students by acting with integrity and fairness, and in an ethical manner, through knowledge, disposition, and performance” (Landre, 2019, p. 1). Ethical leadership models respect to the staff, teachers, and students by actively listening, value any contributions, and acknowledge any concerns. This type of administration provides a safe environment where every member of the school community contributes to the success of the school. “Ethical issues concern all stakeholders in relation to how they fulfill their responsibilities not only in the schools and school districts but also within their own private lives. With the widespread use of social media, educators—more specifically administrators—are held to a higher moral and ethical standard than the average citizen” (Landre, 2019, p. 1). That is why it is important for administrators to be a leader with integrity in all aspects of their lives. Ethical leaders must stand up for what is right and have humility to admit when they are wrong. This helps establish a positive and compassionate environment with productive relationships with staff, teachers and students.

 

Reference.

Landre, R. (2019). Ethics in education, from a philosophical perspective. Multicultural Education, 27(1), 57–58.