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Gareth Southgate: what football (and business) can learn from England’s manager

Pete Holmes, Nottingham Trent University

Gareth Southgate could yet become the most successful ever manager of the men’s English football team. With a record so far of 36 wins and 11 draws from his 57 games in charge, he ranks higher than almost all of his predecessors.

All that’s really missing in his record is a major tournament win – with only Sir Alf Ramsey, in 1966, having gone one better than Southgate’s semi-final appearance in the 2018 World Cup.

And while some fans remain critical, Southgate’s players appear to be genuine and unanimous in their support. Midfielder Phil Foden, who at 21 is a three time Premier League winner with Manchester City and an England under-17s World Cup winner in 2017 has said of his national team boss:

He is a great coach – working with him every day you get to see what he is like. He always has the players’ backs and I believe that his tactics are great so all these negative people don’t know what they are talking about.

Southgate has enjoyed similar backing from other players since 2016, when he won two and drew two of his four games in temporary charge. And the English Football Association, aware of his previous work with the England under-21s, appeared to listen to (and agree with) the players, awarding Southgate a four year contract. This was later extended to the next FIFA World Cup in 2022, making him one of England’s longest serving managers and one of the longest serving in world football.

Southgate himself has said his coaching style focuses on the person before the footballer, involves regular communication, listening more than speaking, and empowering his players to make key decisions. As such, his approach appears to be in line with “empowering coaching”, a concept developed by motivation expert Joan Duda.

Based on many years of research, empowering coaching involves a sharing of control between a leader and their team. It encourages both individual and team thinking, personal responsibility, freedom to choose, two-way communication, and a focus on self improvement.

Get most of these things right, the theory goes, and the results will look after themselves. In both sport and business a key focus is a happier, more autonomous and better motivated workforce. At the time of writing, it certainly seems to be working for Southgate.

Shared goals

Empowering coaching appears to share similarities with “transformational leadership”, a leadership style which allows team members to work with their leader or manager to help to achieve goals, and requires personal qualities from the leader such as care, trust and support. Southgate’s open letter to fans including a call for togetherness ahead of the Euro 2020 tournament certainly gives the impression that this is his style.

Such an approach appears to be in stark contrast to some extremely successful football managers of recent decades including Sir Alex Ferguson and the self-proclaimed “special one”, Jose Mourinho. Ferguson famously kicked a stray boot in the Manchester United changing room following an FA Cup defeat to Arsenal that left David Beckham needing stitches above his eye. He was also well known for his “hairdryer” treatment, which involved shouting in player’s faces if they were deemed to be under performing.

Mourinho was perhaps a little more subtle in demonstrating his power, accused of ridiculing players in the media or forcing them to train with the reserves or junior sides, as was reportedly the case with Luke Shaw, now an England regular.

But the world is a different place in 2021, and approaches to leadership and management have moved on. The days of bawling football managers and business leaders publicly and openly shouting down their players or employees may be becoming a thing of the past.

Whether Southgate’s more modern approach leads to a major tournament trophy for England remains to be seen of course. But his management style, driven by growing knowledge in motivation and performance, will hopefully become the norm – not just in football, but in other sports and across the world of work. And that would count as a very big win indeed.The Conversation

Pete Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching, Nottingham Trent University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

green windmills

Seen to be green? Research reveals how environmental performance shapes public perceptions of our leaders

Mick Tsikas/AAP

Vlad Demsar, Swinburne University of Technology; Jason Pallant, Swinburne University of Technology; Melissa A. Wheeler, Swinburne University of Technology; Samuel Wilson, Swinburne University of Technology; Sylvia T. Gray, Swinburne University of Technology, and Timothy Colin Bednall, Swinburne University of Technology

In recent months, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has faced pressure both domestically and internationally to do more on climate change. In contrast, state governments have been applauded for adopting more ambitious emissions reduction targets.

Data from the Australian Leadership Index suggests these differences may have electoral consequences. It found environmental outcomes increasingly shape how voters view their political leaders. And alarmingly for the Morrison government, the public has well and truly registered its lack of action on climate change.

In 2020, public attention on COVID-19 provided some cover for political leaders not acting on climate change. But from February to April this year, when climate issues rose to the fore, producing positive environmental outcomes became a key driver of public perceptions of political leadership.

As the next federal election looms, voters are watching closely to see whether the Morrison government’s environment and climate policies serve the public interest.

People hold protest signs
Australians are concerned about the environment and want political leaders to act.
Dean Lewins/AAP

What is the Australian Leadership Index?

The Australian Leadership Index is a national survey which has been running since 2018. It seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of how perceptions of leadership change in response to events over time and across sectors and institutions.

Each quarter, the index surveys 1,000 adults to reveal how institutional leaders – those in government, private, public and the not-for-profit sectors – can show leadership for the greater good.

Such leadership is as much about process as outcomes. Given this, the survey measures public perceptions of the extent to which leaders try to create positive outcomes in three areas: social, economic and environmental. It also looks at perceptions of leaders’ transparency, ethical standards and accountability.

Among the questions asked of survey participants is whether state and federal governments are focused on producing positive environmental outcomes (such as protecting natural places and improving sustainability) and the extent to which this determines how favourably they view these institutions.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Participants are asked if governments are producing good environmental outcomes. Pictured: federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
AAP

Who’s doing best on the environment?

On climate change policy, the Morrison government has opted to prioritise investment in low-emissions technology rather than introduce taxes or set emissions reduction targets.

In late April, the weakness of Australia’s national policies were laid bare during a global climate summit convened by US President Joe Biden. Australia was criticised before and after the summit for failing to set clear targets for emissions reduction.

This criticism did not go unnoticed by the voting public. Our survey showed from February to April 2021, the proportion of Australians who agreed the federal government was producing positive environmental outcomes declined from 38% to 25%.

The decline may also be linked to a major independent report by Professor Graeme Samuel in late January, which declared Australia’s environment was in a poor state and national laws protecting it were flawed and badly outdated.

The picture was different for perceptions of state governments. From February to April 2021, the proportion of Australians who believed state governments were producing positive environmental outcomes increased from 26% to 37%.

Australian states and territories have taken relatively ambitious action on climate change, including committing to net-zero emissions by 2050.

However, only around one-third of respondents believed governments at any level were focused on producing positive environmental outcomes. Clearly, even the states have more work to do in this area.

In the months since April, public attention has largely turned back to the COVID-19 pandemic, and scores on environmental performance reverted to previous levels. Last month, the proportion of Australians who agreed the federal government was producing positive environmental outcomes was at 37%. And it was 25% for state governments.

This reflects how national conversations about climate change and other environmental issues — including mainstream and social media and other forms of public debate – can shape voter opinions.

When people evaluated the overall leadership of governments in 2020, producing positive environmental outcomes had a 3% impact on their assessment. In January to April of 2021, this figure rose to 10%. This meant the environment became the third-largest driver of leadership perceptions, behind responsiveness to people’s needs (34%) and transparency (16%).

From May to June, however, the importance of environmental outcomes fell back to 3%. Again, this reflects the effect of media coverage in shaping voter attitudes to their leaders.

Keeping the environment in the spotlight

So what does all this mean? Governments wanting to be seen as good leaders must have strong, well-implemented climate and environment policies. And when media coverage and public debate is heavily focused on these issues, governments cannot easily brush them aside.

Concern about the environment is not guaranteed to sway a person’s vote. But our results suggest when public attention is focused on environmental issues, voters look to their leaders for an effective response.

It follows, then, that keeping climate change and the environment in the national spotlight will force governments to act with more urgency and serve the greater good.The Conversation

Vlad Demsar, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of Technology; Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of Technology; Melissa A. Wheeler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of Technology; Samuel Wilson, Associate Professor of Leadership, Swinburne University of Technology; Sylvia T. Gray, Research Assistant and Casual Academic, Swinburne University of Technology, and Timothy Colin Bednall, Senior Lecturer in Management, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

quitting

Is quitting contagious? Depends on who else leaves and who’s in charge

When star performers leave, research shows it can lead to turnover contagion — especially when company leaders fail to motivate or inspire.
(Shutterstock)

Nita Chhinzer, University of Guelph and Jinuk Oh, University of Guelph

Quitting is one of life’s big decisions. It takes an emotional and financial toll on the employee, their families and their co-workers. People want power over these types of big life decisions, aiming to have self-control over their circumstances and decisions.

But what happens when our colleagues quit? Are we more or less likely to quit? Essentially, is quitting contagious?

A multi-phased study of 201 car salespeople working for 93 different car dealerships suggests that quitting behaviour depends on two factors: who else leaves and the employee’s relationship with their manager or leader. There are important employee and management implications of this study, which will be published in the next edition of the Leadership & Organizational Development Journal.

Who else quits matters

The phenomenon of people quitting because co-workers quit is known as turnover contagion.

When strong performers quit, employees are more likely to re-evaluate their relationship with the company. Employees may perceive the departure as a signal that the company may be a “sinking ship” or that it doesn’t reward or value star performers.

The loss of strong performers, in fact, can be demoralizing and legitimizes the belief that quitting is a viable option. Remaining employees might also interpret the loss of strong performers as an indication that they will have to work more, given that the work that the strong performer was doing needs to redistributed to others. Therefore, the exit of strong performers increases the likelihood that others in the workplace will consider leaving.

A woman stares forlornly at her laptop.
‘Do I really want to work here?’ The departure of a star performer can prompt others to ponder quitting.
(Shutterstock)

In contrast, when weak performers quit, existing employees interpret that positively. Employees who perform poorly at work usually have lower work skills, knowledge, resilience, motivation and commitment to their employer. They are also more likely to be cynical towards their company.

Remaining employees feel that the exit of sub-par performers is desirable and might result in more fair distribution of work. It can also indicate that the replacement will add more value to the business unit or team. Overall, the exit of poor performers reduces other employee’s intent to quit, and increases their intent to stay with the employer.

Leaders’ behaviour matters too

The study also indicates that workplace leaders’ efforts and actions can reduce the impact of turnover contagion. At times, employees don’t know why their co-workers quit and they make assumptions based on who left. Managers should provide employees with accurate and timely information about why their colleagues left, which should reduce gossiping and misinterpretation.

For example, a strong performer who left to return to school, for early retirement or to move to another city wouldn’t trigger turnover contagion, because that doesn’t signal a problem or concern with the company.

Open communication can help to inhibit the spread of false information, alleviating the remaining employees’ insecurities, and ultimately reduce quitting contagion.

Also, when employees feel that they’re working for a transformational leader — someone who encourages, supports, motivates and inspires employees — they are less likely to be impacted by turnover contagion. Essentially, employees’ relationships with their managers can mitigate the turnover contagion caused when strong performers quit.

A woman boss yells at her employees in a meeting room.
A motivational, supportive and inspiring leader can reduce quitting contagion, while the opposite type of manager can fuel it.
(Shutterstock)

Leaders should take note of these study results with the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in view. Without support and timely communication from leaders, employees may begin to engage in a mass exodus as they make return-to-work decisions when COVID-19 restrictions ease. This can be destabilizing for companies that don’t want to lose strong performers who have the potential to help the organization recover and succeed in the post-pandemic world.

Think before you leap

As the economy begins to recover, not all of us are interested in returning to our previous employers. Roughly one in every five employees plans to look for a new job. Given the research on turnover contagion, that means the post-pandemic period may be challenging for many companies if they lose strong performers.

A closed laptop on a desk.
Roughly one in five employees is considering leaving their jobs following COVID-19. This could hav a major impact on organizations.
Luca Bravo/Unsplash

While employees want control over their decision to stay with their employers or quit, they’re clearly impacted by what others decide to do. We interpret the departure of our co-workers as a signal about whether we should leave or stay.

Often, we make assumptions about who people quit, based on our interpretation of their job performance. Additionally, the research shows that we are more likely to make such interpretations when we think our organizational leader fails to motivate, support or inspire us.

Given the results of the study, top performers should feel empowered to be proactive and discuss what is making them unhappy or dissatisfied at work with their employers. Sometimes, working together to address these issues can result in a mutually beneficial outcome for both the employee and their company.

Other times, although life-altering in the short term, quitting is the correct course of action.The Conversation

Nita Chhinzer, Associate Professor, Human Resource Management and Business Consulting, University of Guelph and Jinuk Oh, Lecturer, Organizational Behaviour, University of Guelph

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

virtual leadership

An experience of virtual leadership development for human resource managers

Authors: Johnson Sarah, Nauseda Fiona, Sherk Karen E, Liston Delphine

Creative Commons CC BY 3.0

Abstract

Problem

Strong leadership and management skills are crucial to finding solutions to the human resource crisis in health. Health professionals and human resource (HR) managers worldwide who are in charge of addressing HR challenges in health systems often lack formal education in leadership and management.

Approach

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) developed the Virtual Leadership Development Program (VLDP) with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The VLDP is a Web-based leadership development programme that combines face-to-face and distance-learning methodologies to strengthen the capacity of teams to identify and address health challenges and produce results.

Relevant changes

The USAID-funded Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) Program, implemented by MSH, and the USAID-funded Capacity Project, implemented by IntraHealth, adapted the VLDP for HR managers to help them identify and address HR challenges that ministries of health, other public-sector organizations and nongovernmental organizations are facing.

Local settings

Three examples illustrate the results of the VLDP for teams of HR managers:

1. the Uganda Protestant and Catholic Medical Bureaus

2. the Christian Health Association of Malawi

3. the Developing Human Resources for Health Project in Uganda.

Lessons learnt

The VLDP is an effective programme for developing the management and leadership capacity of HR managers in health.

Introduction

The articles in this series on leadership and human resources (HR) have demonstrated the critical role that effective leadership plays in transforming HR strategies into results on the ground. It is essential that groups like the Global Health Workforce Alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donors continue to provide leadership on a global level.

Discussion

Building HR leadership and management at all levels of the health system
How can we rapidly build HR leadership and management capacity at all levels of the health system? One approach to meet this challenge that has demonstrated promising results is the Virtual Leadership Development Program (VLDP). Developed by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) with support from USAID, the programme has been delivered to more than 1900 participants in more than 45 countries in Africa, Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and Latin America and the Caribbean as of December 2008. Its premise is simple: bring teams of managers together and give them the skills and tools to scan their environments, focus on priority challenges, align and mobilize resources, address challenges and produce results.

Around the world, health professionals and HR managers are leading and managing public and private health organizations and systems with little or no formal management and leadership education and experience. Because strong management and leadership skills are crucial to finding solutions to the HR crisis, this is a gap that must be addressed.

Traditional ways to build capacity to lead change, such as sending an individual to an off-site workshop or course, can be slow and costly, and may disrupt services. Other disadvantages of traditional approaches include a theoretical rather than practical focus and participation of too few staff from the same organization in such training. Finally, when people are trained individually, they may find it difficult to generate support for change when they return to their workplaces.

The Virtual Leadership Development Program

The VLDP is a Web-based programme that strengthens the capacity of teams to identify and address health challenges and produce results. It is available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Rather than giving a few senior managers off-site leadership training for one or two weeks, the VLDP trains teams via the Internet over the course of 13 to 16 weeks.

Adapted for HR managers and their teams and health services teams working on HR issues, the VLDP for HR managers focuses on identifying and addressing HR challenges. During the programme, each team strengthens its leadership capacity by applying MSH’s leadership principles and practices and a model of challenge, feedback and support.

The VLDP requires approximately four hours of individual commitment per week. Team members work independently on the VLDP Web site with the support of a printed workbook. They also participate in on-site team meetings throughout the programme. During the VLDP, all the teams plan and develop a leadership project that addresses a real organizational challenge.

In 2006 and 2007, the Capacity Project, funded by USAID and implemented by IntraHealth, joined the USAID-funded Leadership, Management, Sustainability (LMS) Program implemented by MSH to deliver two VLDPs to teams of HR managers from different levels in ministries of health, private hospitals, universities, NGOs, and faith-based organizations in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The two programmes were jointly facilitated by a team of facilitators from MSH, IntraHealth and the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI). The challenges identified by the teams during the VLDPs spanned the gamut of HR issues, from staff retention to the need for good HR information.

The impact of the VLDP on HR managers

Follow-up with the teams that participated in the VLDPs for HR managers took place in April and November 2007. Interviews with representatives from the teams revealed that teams are:

• beginning to demonstrate results as they implement their VLDP action plans to address the HR management challenges they identified;

• applying the concepts they learnt in the programme and using leadership and management tools in their organizations;

• working better in their organizational teams.

Examples of teams’ progress as of November 2007 appear below.

The Uganda Protestant and Catholic Medical Bureaus (UPMB and UCMB)
The UPMB and UCMB are umbrella organizations that oversee faith-based, private, not-for-profit health facilities in Uganda. During the first HR managers’ VLDP, the team in Uganda identified actions to address their challenge of “retaining qualified health workers in the private not-for-profit health facilities.” The activities included holding a consultation workshop with the health facility managers and designing and implementing a study to collect data about staff attrition. The study data will be used to develop retention strategies. The respondent reported that the team held the workshop, developed a survey and is collecting data. In July 2007, the team reported that they had implemented several staff-retention strategies. They have harmonized data collection instruments between the Protestant and Catholic Medical Bureaus in order to regularly monitor information such as personnel data, using these data to observe trends and take steps to reduce attrition. They have also coordinated with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on the hiring and placing of MOH staff with their organization, which has helped with retention and consistency. They have identified and learnt to better advertise the benefits of working for their organization. They say these changes were possible because of the leadership skills they gained through the VLDP.

The Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM)

CHAM is a nonprofit, nongovernmental umbrella organization that oversees 167 member health units in all districts of Malawi. While participating in the second HR managers’ VLDP, CHAM identified the following challenge: “How can we attract and retain qualified health personnel in three remote health facilities?”

The team outlined activities to address this challenge, including the installation of solar electricity in the facilities, service-level agreements for site renovations and development of staff incentive packages. In November 2007, a respondent from CHAM reported that the team has installed two Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-donated solar energy systems in two of the three remote sites. Because of discussions held during the VLDP they were able to identify the need for the solar energy systems in remote sites as opposed to the planned installation closer to cities. Other progress includes the construction of two new homes near the remote sites; the establishment of three renovation service agreements; and collection of regional data by the team for the development of incentive packages.

Developing Human Resources for Health (DHRH) in Uganda

DHRH is a European Union-supported, five-year project focusing on strengthening HR for health in Uganda. In November 2007, a respondent from the DHRH team in Uganda reported that the team has made important progress in addressing its challenge of improving the learning environment and opportunities for developing clinical laboratory skills among clinicians and medical and nursing students. The actions identified included establishing four skills laboratories in a national referral hospital and a school of nursing and identifying and training professional mentors. The respondent reported that skills laboratories have been established in 12 schools and medical institutions, and the team completed the training of 15 mentors and developed a training guide for training future mentors

Conclusion

The VLDP is a model for strengthening the leadership capacity of all staff who have some responsibility for human resource issues in the health sector. It provides a way to upgrade the HR skills of the legions of personnel administrators and managers responsible for human resources and give them the confidence and capacity to implement solutions.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

SJ and KES oversee the implementation of all VLDPs for MSH. FN and DL managed the implementation of the two VLDPs discussed in this article. FN and DL also managed and completed the follow-up with VLDP teams discussed in this article. KES drafted the manuscript and SJ reviewed and edited it. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

 

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e-learning

Educational Leadership for E-Learning in the Healthcare Workplace

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Fahlman photo

Dorothy (Willy) Fahlman
Athabasca University, Canada

Abstract

Effective educational leadership can make a difference in the resolution of complex issues that impact today’s demand-driven educational marketplace. The ongoing professional and skill development needs of human health resources may be best managed through distributed strategic leadership blended with servant leadership. Together these two approaches may offer the critical bridge for effective educational leadership for e-learning within the healthcare workplace.

Keywords: Distributed leadership; strategic leadership; servant leadership; e-learning; healthcare workplace

Introduction

The context of North American education is changing. In educational organizations, change imposed by technology, economics, global connections, and social awareness is challenging leaders (Cleveland-Innes & Sangra, 2010). These challenges are not confined to higher educational organizations but also impact societal institutions including the healthcare workplace. The quality and delivery of Canadian healthcare is dependent upon well-trained healthcare providers responding to consumer needs (El-Jardali & Fooks, 2005). From the perspective of the healthcare workplace, this article explores a distributed strategic leadership approach blended with servant leadership for e-learning.

Central Issues in Educational Leadership in North America

In the past three decades, North American society has undergone revolutionary changes due to demographic, economic, technological, and sociocultural issues that are causing the shift from a “supply-driven” to a “demand-driven” educational marketplace (Keller, 2008). Declining birth rates and increasing longevity are shifting the age distribution towards older age groups who are seeking continuing and higher education, coupled with the upward trend for younger adults to be highly educated (Keller, 2008). Increasing immigration requires a greater emphasis on multiculturalism in education to reduce language barriers and increase skill levels (Canadian Council on Learning, 2007). Additionally, the metamorphosis of family life including single parent homes and women working outside the home are creating new demands for education (Keller, 2008). These demographic changes necessitate leadership and innovative pedagogical practices to respond to the diversity of learners’ needs.

The shift from domestic capitalism to a more global knowledge economy has resulted in the emphasis on human capital for increased talent and expertise. This move is creating competition in the educational sector (Latchem & Hanna, 2001). Leadership is required to determine how the education system can effectively contribute to the knowledge-based economy and how each institution within this system evolves (Salmi, 2001).

Technologies are opening access to education across institutional, sectoral, and international boundaries (Latchem & Hanna, 2001). Without educational leadership that ensures “adequate resources, pedagogy, and educational practices, technology could be an obstacle or burden to genuine learning and will probably increase rather than overcome existing divisions of power, cultural capital, and wealth” (Kellner, 2004, p.12).

The last few decades have seen the move to a more egalitarian society including equal opportunity for education. This openness to equality requires leadership for managing changes in educational structural design, infrastructure and services, content and instructional practices, and pedagogy (Keller, 2008).

Canadian Healthcare Workplace

The societal changes driven by demographics, economics, technology, and sociocultural issues have also impacted Canadian health human resources (HHR). HHR include regulated and unregulated workers, unionized and nonunionized, and those working in publicly and privately funded delivery models that provide Canadian healthcare services (El-Jardali & Fooks, 2005).

In 2006, Canada’s healthcare workforce was just over 1 million people, or over 6% of the total Canadian workforce, with the average age of HHR at 41.9 years (CIHI, 2007). The exodus of HHR due to retirement is projected to be critical by 2016 (Spinks & Moore, 2006).

Changes in gender, cultural, and generational diversity are increasing in the healthcare workplace. Approximately 80% of HHR are female although gender diversification is escalating (CIHI, 2007). Younger workers who are technologically more inclined are noted to place greater value on work-life balance than older cohorts who are more work-centric or preparing for retirement (Spinks & Moore, 2006).

The years of cost-cutting, downsizing, and restructuring of HHR have caused demoralization and overwork impacting work-life balance and organizational performance (Lowe, 2002). On the agendas of healthcare employers are workplace practices that improve HHR recruitment and retention, health and well-being, quality of patient care and safety, organizational performance, and societal outcomes (Shamian & El-Jardali, 2007). Part of what Canadians value most in a job is “respect, interesting work, good communication, a sense of accomplishment, work-life balance and opportunities for skill development” (Lowe, 2002, p. 50).

In the healthcare workplace, it is the opportunities for ongoing skill and professional development (PD) that call for educational leadership for e-learning.

Review of the Literature

Over the past decades, numerous educational leadership theories have gained popularity. However, there is no one specific leadership theory that is universally suitable or ensures infallible leadership performance in the ever-changing educational context (Beaudoin, 2003).

The trait-based theory identifies the key characteristics for successful leaders including physical attributes, intelligence, skill, and personality factors (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, & Dennison, 2003). These authors argue that some common traits are found in leaders but no consistent traits can be identified.

Emergent leadership proposes that a group member surfaces to be perceived as the leader. This leader has to be an innovator and at the same time be a conformist to the group’s social norms (Curtin, 2004). Curtin posits that leadership which conforms to followers’ social norms may be based on self-interest rather than innovation and new direction-seeking.

The leader-member exchange theory (LMX) suggests that leaders develop different follower exchange relationships that impact the leader and member outcomes (Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009). Dyadic relationships may create followers’ “in-groups” versus “out-groups” that result in inequities and distrust (Horner, 1997).

Contingency leadership suggests that maximization of followers’ performance is dependent upon the interaction of the situation, people, task, organisation, and other environmental variables (Bolden et al., 2003). However, if everything is an interaction that turns into a contingency then “it may become difficult to do what science needs to do—which is to provide a model that, in some way, reduces a phenomenon” (Sternberg, 2005, p.198). Subsequently, the contingency approach may be more appropriate for supervising small groups of followers rather than leading educational organizations into the future (Aronson, 2001).

Transactional leadership is built on contingent reinforcement where followers are motivated by positive or negative feedback (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999). Using control strategies maintains the status quo within an organization (Aronson, 2001). The current educational marketplace calls for leaders to embrace change and innovation with new organizational structures and pedagogical models rather than controlling and maintaining the status quo.

Transformational leadership is intrinsic and value-driven, creating a collaborative vision for empowering stakeholders to work together to achieve a shared goal (Burns, 1978). Critics argue that there can be pseudotransformational leaders whose behavior may be deceptive and devious; authentic transformational leaders operate out of genuine concern for others and foster an organizational culture with high ethical standards (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999).

Strategic leaders’ attributes and skills are adapted from transformational and transactional leadership theories. In times of change, organizational learning processes benefit from transformational leadership, while during stable times the transactional approach may reinforce current organizational learning (Vera & Crossan, 2004). Historically, strategic leadership has centered on an individual leader at the top of the hierarchical pyramid. This model is becoming increasingly counterproductive and “strategic leaders constrained by their abilities to deal with rapidly increasing amounts of data and the general complexity of the global economy . . . are now challenged to discharge their strategic leadership responsibilities differently” (Ireland & Hitt, 2005, p. 66).

Distributed leadership focuses on leadership practice that is widely shared between leaders. It is characterised by interdependence and cooperation that encourages members to contribute their knowledge and expertise in the leadership activity (Harris, 2004). Distributed leadership works only in teams where members recognize the potential for leadership practice to coexist as a function rather than a position (Thornton, 2010). As Thornton indicates, distributed leadership focuses on maximizing the capacity of people within organizations by concentrating on expertise wherever it exists.

In servant leadership, the focus is on the role of the leader as a servant rather than on self-interest (Stone, Russell, & Patterson, 2003). Sendjaya, Sarros, and Santora (2008) argue servant leaders encourage followers’ learning, growth, and autonomy for development of future leaders in learning organizations. However, caution must be exercised that the followers’ needs do not take precedence over organizational objectives.

Research on leadership styles and outcomes for managing the challenging healthcare workplace has examined how leaders can increase satisfaction, recruitment, and retention and promote healthy work environments (Cummings et al., 2010). Gilmartin and D’Aunno’s (2007) review of empirical studies of leadership in the healthcare workplace for the period of 1989–2005 concluded that participative and person-focused leadership styles are linked to reduced HHR work stress, increased group cohesion, empowerment, and self-efficacy associated with job satisfaction and retention. Additionally, Cummings et al.’s (2010) systematic literature review from 1985–2009 on leadership styles in nursing identified that relationship or people-focused leadership practices were empirically linked to improved outcomes in this context.

E-Learning and Educational Leadership in the Healthcare Workplace

To respond to the multifaceted challenges in the healthcare workplace, educational leadership is required for creating a culture that seeks opportunity for new directions. In the interests of recruitment and retention of HHR in the Canadian healthcare workplace, education for ongoing skills and PD should be broadened and be more inclusive (Shamian & El-Jardali, 2007). The Canadian Council on Learning (2007) also states that employers who support workplace training and skills development receive a significant return on their investment impacting positively on productivity, innovation, and economic success. E-learning in various delivery formats is noted to be an excellent medium for promoting knowledge and skill development in HHR (Chambers, Conklin, Dalziel, & MacDonald, 2008; MacDonald, Stodel, Hall, & Weaver, 2009).

E-Learning in the Healthcare Workplace

Historically, education and training programs in the healthcare workplace have been delivered in a face-to-face format. Attendance at these programs has become increasing difficult due to budget and time constraints, staffing shortages, lack of employer or administrative support, scheduling difficulties, and family responsibilities (Penz et al., 2007). “Addressing these ‘new age’ challenges requires ‘new age’ approaches and tools to support the teaching and learning of health care professionals” (Kenny, Park, Van Neste-Kenny, Burton, & Meiers, 2009, p. 79).

In the healthcare workplace, e-learning can promote reflection and higher level thinking for knowledge exchange, synthesis, application, and translation for improving healthcare (MacDonald, Archibald, Stodel, Chambers, & Hall, 2008). E-learning includes either synchronous or asynchronous formal learning modes such as online courses or conferencing, and informal learning. Formal e-learning incorporates objectives and outcomes defined by an instructor or educational institution, while informal e-learning is implicit, unintended, opportunistic, and unstructured learning undertaken on the learner’s own terms without either prescribed curricular requirements or a designated instructor (Eraut, 2004; Livingstone, 2001). Informal e-learning that impacts skill and PD could be situated at the point-of-care using mobile devices, enabling HHR to interact, maximize ideas, and expand the boundaries for just-in-time learning (McGreal, 2005).

By providing HHR with the opportunity for skills and PD using e-learning, the quality of work-life and overall performance of the healthcare system may be enhanced well into the future (Lowe, 2002). It is up to educational leaders to leverage this strength.

Educational Leadership for E-Learning

In this climate of growing societal demands, technology, and the complexities of the global economy, it is becoming increasingly difficult for single individuals at the top of a workplace pyramid to have all the answers (Ireland & Hitt, 2005). In the healthcare workplace, strategic distributive leadership at the senior administrative level blended with servant leadership at departmental levels might be the critical bridge for effectively engaging HHR in e-learning.

With senior administrative leaders, holistic forms of distributed strategic leadership that include intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral dimensions may produce high levels of interdependence among the leaders emerging from multidirectional and dynamic social processes (Gill, 2006). Hence, the heterogeneity of knowledge and skills would focus on leaders strategically interacting for collaborative and strategic decision-making towards the vision of e-learning in the healthcare workplace. These leaders use a transformational approach to develop a collective healthcare workplace vision for e-learning that springboards off the urgency for HHR recruitment and retention. Instead of providing the answers, distributed strategic leaders will strive to ask the right questions that empower stakeholders to work collaboratively, build engagement, capability, and alignment (Ireland & Hitt, 2005). This approach requires validation of HHR concerns, open communication, empathy, and active listening to seek different perspectives that inspire engagement in e-learning (Gill, 2006).

Where leadership is wholly top-down and outside the departments, employees will be slow to embrace change; it is important to build leadership capacity at all departmental levels (Latchem & Hanna, 2002). In the healthcare workplace, a blending of distributed strategic leadership with servant leadership has the potential to support and inform pedagogical practice with e-learning. Both servant leadership and the transformational aspect of strategic leadership “emphasize the importance of appreciating and valuing people, listening, mentoring or teaching, and empowering followers” (Stone et al., 2003, p.3).

At the department level, servant leaders are called to lead rather than driven to lead; the servant leaders’ focus is on people rather than on self-interest (Stone et al., 2003). Servant leadership promotes teamwork and community involvement in decision-making based on ethical and caring behavior that enhances the growth of people and quality of institutions (Swearingen & Liberman, 2004). Servant leadership is characterized by “service orientation, holistic outlook, and moral-spiritual emphasis” (Sendjaya et al., 2008, p. 402) that promotes equality and shared values, respect, open-ended commitment, mutual trust, interconnectedness, and concern for others. As Senge (1997) states “learning organizations are built by servant leaders” (p. 17).

Significance of Educational Leadership for E-Learning in the Healthcare Workplace

The blending of distributed strategic leadership with servant leadership can set direction and develop shared strategies to achieve a vision for effective e-learning for HHR using the following:

    • awareness that helps educational leaders to understand issues involving ethics, power, and values from a more integrated and holistic approach with e-learning;

 

    • foresight to discern possible consequences for the future and to learn from past lessons with HHR to prevent problems with e-learning; and

 

  • conceptualization to look towards long-term goals while strategically balancing day-to-day operations (Swearingen & Liberman, 2004).

For the healthcare workplace to evolve as a learning organization, these leaders must employ e-learning and thus provide HHR with opportunities to learn and grow and to respond to their changing work environments. This blended leadership approach has the potential to build and rebuild community spirit and promote a community of practice that engages e-learning for skill and professional development (Swearingen & Liberman, 2004).

Conclusion

In the healthcare workplace, there is a call for educational leadership for e-learning that broadens “the vision of what can be accomplished, provides guidance through uncharted waters, gains commitment and creates systems that are responsive, energizing and sustainable” (Latchem & Hanna, 2002, p. 213). It is a call for leadership that transforms and increases a shared vision and value focus, creativity and innovation, responsiveness and flexibility, commitment to service, which includes respect, and diversity (Hamilton, 2008). To answer this call, leadership is needed for informing pedagogical practices in the healthcare workplace that is outside the traditional hierarchy, which focuses on one leader. Instead, a distributed strategic and servant leadership blend is required that generates teamwork and community building, shared decision making, and ethical and caring behavior that encourages interdependence and interaction among HHR to serve as well as lead (Neill & Saunders, 2008). Moreover, blended leadership may provide the critical bridge for incorporating effective e-learning to advance the skills and PD of HHR to meet Canadian healthcare needs in the 21st century.

References

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Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 181 -217.

Beaudoin, M. F. (2003). Distance education leadership: An appraisal of research and practice. In M.G. Moore & W. G. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of distance education (pp. 519-530). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A., & Dennison, P. (2003). A review of leadership theory and competency frameworks. Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter.

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

Canadian Council on Learning. (2007). Canada’s biggest economic challenge: Improving workplace learning in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/LessonsInLearning/Mar-15-07-Canada%27s-biggest.pdf

Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI). (2007). Canada’s health care providers, 2007. Ottawa: CIHI. Retrieved from http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/products/HCProviders_07_EN_final.pdf

Chambers, L. W., Conklin, J., Dalziel, W. B., & MacDonald, C. J. (2008). E-learning education to promote interprofessional education with physicians, pharmacists, nurses and nurse practitioners in (LTC) facilities: Promising potential solutions. International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 1(3), 233–249.

Cleveland-Innes, M., & Sangra, A. (2010). Leadership in a new era of higher distance education. In M. Cleveland-Innes & D.R. Garrison (Eds.) Introduction to distance learning: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era. New York: Routledge Publishing Inc.

Cummings, G. G., MacGregor, T., Davey, M., Lee, H., Wong, C. A., Lo, E., Muise, M., et al. (2010). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47(3), 363–385.

Curtin, J. L. (2004). Emergent leadership: Case study of a jury foreperson. Leadership Review, 4, 75-88.

El-Jardali, F., & C. Fooks. (2005). An environmental scan of current views on health human resources in Canada: Identified problems, proposed solutions and gap analysis. Toronto: Health Council of Canada.

Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 26(2), 247-273.

Gill, R. (2006). Redefining leadership: A new model. In Theory and practice of leadership (pp.63-95). London: SAGE Publications

Gilmartin, M. J., & D’Aunno, A. (2007). Leadership research in healthcare. The Academy of Management Annals, 1, 387-438. doi:10.1080/078559813

Hamilton, F. (2008). Servant leadership. In A. Marturano & J. Gosling, (Eds.), Leadership: The key concepts. (pp. 146-50). London: Routledge.

Harris, A. (2004). Distributed leadership and school improvement. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 32(1), 11-24. doi: 10.1177/1741143204039297

Horner, M. (1997). Leadership theory: past, present and future. Team Performance Management, 3(4), 270- 287.

Ireland, R.D. & Hitt, M. A. (2005). Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership. Academy of Management Executive, 19(4), 63-77.

Keller, G. (2008). Higher education and the new society. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press

Kellner, D. (2004). Technological transformation, multiple literacies, and the re-visioning of education. E–Learning, 1(1), 9-37.

Kenny, R. F., Park, C., Van Neste-Kenny, J. M., Burton, P., & Meiers, J. (2009). Using mobile learning to enhance the quality of nursing. In M. Ally (Ed.), Mobile learning transforming the delivery of education and training (pp 75-98). Edmonton: AU Press.

Latchem, C., & Hanna, D.E. (2001). (Eds.). Leadership for 21st century learning: Global perspectives from educational innovators. London: Routledge.

Latchem, C., & Hanna, D.E. (2002). Leadership for open and flexible learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 17(3), 203-215.

Livingstone, D. (2001). Adults’ informal learning: Definitions, findings, gaps and future research. Toronto: Centre for the Study of Education and Work, OISE/UT. Retrieved fromhttps://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/2735/2/21adultsinformallearning.pdf

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MacDonald, C.J., Archibald, D., Stodel, E., Chambers, L.W., & Hall, P. (2008). Knowledge translation of interprofessional collaborative patient-centred practice: The working together project experience. McGill Journal of Education, 43(3), 283-307.

MacDonald, C. J., Stodel, E. J., Hall, P., & Weaver, L. (2009). The impact of an online learning resource designed to enhance interprofessional collaborative practice in palliative care: Findings from the caring together pilot project.Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education, 1(1), 42-66.

McGreal, R. (2005). Mobile devices and the future of free education. Paper presented at the ICDE World Conference 2005, October 24-28. New Delhi: International Council for Distance Education.

Neill, N.W., & Saunders, M.S. (2008). Servant leadership enhancing quality of care and staff satisfaction. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 38(9), 395-400.

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An Enabler for Success as a Technology Education Teacher-Leader

By Robert E. Wenig

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Introduction

While our technological society has rapidly moved into the digital-information age leadership has emerged as even more distinctive and essential for success (Reich, 2000). Experience teaches us that leadership can be exercised through noble uplifting pursuits or driven by corrupting repressive power. Leadership when positive creates a stimulating environment that builds a thriving organization but, when negative, it fosters a woefully oppressive and debilitation atmosphere which chokes performance. Historically, Americans love Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, but despised Hitler types who are autocratic tyrants. Research tells us that leaders are not born but emerge through a complex sociological process to satisfy some demanding need or want (Clark and Clark, 1996)

We are all familiar with the story of Winston Churchill, who during World War I was charged with poor military decisions ending in extensive lost of life. For nearly twenty years fame was derailed and influence ceased. Churchill referred to this time in his life as the wilderness years. Fortunately for England, Churchill took the advice of Benjamin Disraeli, who said, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.” Certainly, it was Churchill time when he was elected Prime Minister of England in 1939 at the beginning of WW II. He more then anyone else rallied the English people through inspiring speeches and endless work to achieve eventual victory. Today, England, and others, consider Churchill, the greatest Englishman who ever lived. Similarly, great teachers rise to the challenge by becoming successful classroom leader through a combination of ever increasing knowledge and elevating experiences (Walling, 1994)

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to share the value of leadership knowledge and skill for enhancing the survival and performance of teachers and leaders.

Leadership and Performance

When performance of an individual, organization, or event is discussed leadership becomes the dominant subject. Recently a cartoon appeared in the Wall Street Journal where two men were having a heated discussion about leadership.   Finally, one turned to the other and said, “Yes, we need leadership, but also we need someone to tell us what to do.” Most people have difficulty attempting to understand or appropriately use leadership (Peters, 1992 and Drucker, 1993). They see it as hazy, confusing, or a distant abstraction.

Nevertheless, most people can comprehend the behaviors of great leaders and teachers when they can personally relate to their actions. Let me illustrate. Recently I visited an art museum dis- playing works of some of the worlds most famous artists. There were paintings by Monet, Picasso, van Gogh, Renoir and many others on display. The paintings I enjoyed the most were those that gave a clear depiction of something I am familiar with, such as a serene lake, a gathering of flowers, or people easily recognized as humans. There were other paintings on display that portrayed distorted figures, and blurred shapes and colors that defy description. Certainly, these too, are valued works of art that were care- fully selected to represent the variety of creative expression, but the distant abstraction left me with a feeling of emptiness or even confusion. Similarly, the omnipotence or great secret of highly effective leaders and teachers is achieved when they cut confusion and haziness to relate and build understanding. An example of trans- forming from a hazy-confusing leaderless environment to a clearly functioning leadership process can be found in the small book, The Leaders Compass (2003) by Ruggero and Hailey. This is a must read by the beginning leader.

Clark and Clark, (1997) state, that with effective leadership any organization can increase its performance by at least 20-25 per- cent. Further, educational literature suggests that an effective teacher-leader can also raise the learning level of his/her students by 15-25 per- cent. Accordingly, the relationship between gift- ed teachers and gifted leaders is very similar as Williams (2001) found in her dissertation that compared award winning local school technology teachers and their use of effective leadership practices.  Hasting, (1991) agreed in her article, Teachers as Leaders” saying,  “teachers as leaders model the way or influencing their students to follow”.

Leadership Defined

Bennis and Nanus, (1985), stated in their award winning book, Leaders, “Decades of academic analysis have givens more than 350 definitions of leadership”(p. 4). Even today, the quest continues to specifically define just what is leadership. One stirring and profound definition of leadership that is well accepted by noted experts is Burns’(1978) “transformational leadership” which is described in his classic and award winning book, Leadership.  He defined a transformational leader as one who creates a vigorous and magnetic environment in which the leader and his/her followers raise each other to higher and higher levels of motivation and morality.

It happens when a leader can harness and focus an organizational member’s energy into a collective force resulting in a powerful empowering process that transforms both the individual and organization to higher and higher levels of performance.  The best leadership thinking today  (Covey, 1992; Kanter, 2001; Kotter, 1996; Reich, 2001; Senge et. al, 1999) about how to gain the highest level of organizational performance continues to include a leader who successfully uses transformational leadership. Again, transformational leader-teacher creates an environment that releases human potential then reinforces it by giving recognition and the opportunities for continuous personal growth (Walling, 1994; & Wenig, 1995).

Finally, after years of concerned involvement in leadership theory and application, I believe that it is more important to define leadership by what it “does” rather than by what it “is”. At first glace, what a transformational leader does seems so simple, yet it possess that overwhelming powerful human propellant called “hope”. Accordingly, top leaders and teachers are a “merchant of hope” those who elevate the meaning and aspiration of others to form an organization under pinned by hope. Hope can be germinated by leaders-teachers who propel others-students to rise to higher and higher levels of success. Leadership then, when practiced at its positive best, produces hope, that propels individuals and organizations that transform dreams into visions and visions into actions – – “a vision community” (Barker, 1994). The leader-teacher who applies the powerful spirit and tenor of “hope”, establishes transformational leadership in the classroom / boardroom, the magical key ingredient to gaining a dynamic and fruitful future for all involved. Debbie Kennedy, (June, 1991) perhaps expresses the significance of hope in the following poem tilted, “Our Dreams In Action”:

  • Dreams give us hope.
  • Hope ignites passion.
  • Passion leads us to envision success.
  • Recognition of opportunities inspires far- reaching possibilities
  • Far-reaching possibilities help us enlist sup- port from others.
  • Support from others keeps us focused and committed.
  • Focus and commitment foster action.
  • Action results in progress.
  • Progress leads to achievement.
  • Achievement inspires dreams.
  • Dreams give us hope.

Perhaps Warren Bennis (2003 & 2003) ship expert, stated it best about hope when he stated, leadership involves creating larger visions and engaging people’s imagination in pursuit of them.

Leadership Knowledge for Survival

Rip Van Winkle went to sleep for twenty years. When he awakened, the American landscape had changed dramatically, and his bones creaked with age. The world around him was no longer one he understood or in which he could function well. Will history someday see that classic story as a parable for leadership in American public and private organizations? George Santayana, the noted anthropologist, once observed that in our changing world we no longer salute our ancestors but bid them farewell. The world constantly searches for new knowledge and wisdom to answer very complex problems with simplicity. Let me illustrate. There is old parable about the grasshopper that decided to consult the hoary consultant of the animal kingdom, the owl, about a personal problem. The problems concerned the fact that the grasshopper suffered each winter from severe pains due to the savage temperature. After a number of these painful winters, in which all of the grasshopper’s known remedies were of no avail, he presented his case to the venerable and wise owl. The owl, after patiently listening to the grasshopper’s misery, so the story goes prescribed a simple solution. Simply turn yourself into a cricket, and hibernate during the winter.” The grasshopper jumped joyously away, profusely thanking the owl for his wise advice. Later, however, after discovering that this important knowledge could not be transformed into action, the grasshopper returned to the owl and asked how he could perform this metamorphosis. The owl replied rather curtly, “Look, I gave you the principle, it’s up to you to work out the details!”

All parables, supposedly, contain a moral, and the moral here is that even if knowledge is provided survival is linked to actually performing the metamorphous. Again, transformational leadership elevates performance of individuals from the boardroom to the classroom. Leadership knowledge is paramount to change (Kotter, 1996), and change is the key to organizational survival (Senge, 1999).

(leadership knowledge and skills) s-curve: lifestyle of an organization

Figure 1: The “S” Curve: The Life Cycle Of An Organization

The present-day “S” Curve (see Figure 1) evolved in the early part of the twenty-century from the work of Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff and was popularized in America by Joseph Schumpeter in 1939. It represents the typical life cycle of an organization that last beyond infancy. Through dynamic and creative leadership, the opportunity for an organization to experience explosive growth is possible. However, over time things change; competition increases, cost rises, new technology suddenly appears, economic down-turn occurs, product demand falls, management falters, or whatever happens to trigger decline eventually ending in failure. When reviewing super successful surviving organizations (e.g., Ford, IBM, Johnson and Johnson, and 3 M) one finds a core ideology of visionary leadership one that that has a passion for learning to stay competitive. Accordingly, organizations that are built to last (Collins & Porras, 1997) feverously keep informed (knowledgeable) about the future which enables them to constantly plan and execute critical intervention strategies (see Figure 2) at key times to avoid stagnation and decline to propel continuous rebirth and growth.

There is a significant example of not staying competitive (realizing the “S” Curve) as found in American public schools. The word competition was foreign to the public educational system. Many thought that no outside force could or would attempt to provide K-12 education. Over time, public schools failed to implement key intervention strategies to meet their greatest challenge parent dissatisfaction with public school performance.  Certainly, lack of parent confidence has triggered the advent of home schooling, charter schools, vouchers, and yes, even private businesses schooling children. All are pursuing a replacement to the traditional public school system.

Research has consistently said that the difference between model and poorly run schools is the ”Whoever be chief among you let him be your servant principal’s leadership performance (Clark and Clark, 1997). It is obvious that TED can significantly benefit from possessing leadership knowledge and skills because the future belongs to the informed (Collins & Porras, 1997 & Peters, 1994). In time of drastic change, the learners inherit the future. The learned find them equipped to live in a world that no longer exists (Reich, 2001 & Senge et. al., 1999).

Finally,Servant-Teacher-Leader

Historically, the Bible reveals through endless stories examples of individual servant leadership, especially those in the New Testament. In 1966, Queen Elizabeth II, the present Queen of England, placed a large carved plaque in Westminster Abby which stated, “Whoever be chief among you let him be your servant.”  “The term servant-leadership was first coined in the United States in a 1977 essay by Robert K. Greenleaf entitled, The Servant First Leader (Spears, 1995 P.2) Question. If the leader’s overwhelming desire is to serve when or how does the leader lead? Leading and Serving seems rather contradictory, or is it? Another perplexing question, does a leader lead first by serving or serving first then lead? To answer these questions, Greenleaf wrote:

“Servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant—first to make sure that other people’s highest-priority needs are being served. The best test is: Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? …At the core, servant-leadership is a long-term, transformational approach to life and work…a way of being that has the potential to create positive change throughout our society” (Spears 1995, p.4).

Greenleaf went on to say, “When I started to write on the servant-leader theme, I was trying to communicate a basis of [hope]—not just for students but for everybody” (Spears, 1995 p.21). Hope or servant-leadership, then, provides a most powerful pronouncement again for the operational behavior followed by the best teachers and leaders.

Historically, we have some understanding of where the idea of servant came from, but what triggered Greenleaf at add servant to leader or leadership? Greenleaf (1984) stated that he conceptualizes and coined the term servant-leadership after Eventually; he comes to realize that it was his servant, Leo, who held him and his group together. After many years of wondering, the director finds Leo again, who as it turns out, is the head of the spiritual community that the director was seeking all along. Reading on it becomes more and more clear that the director is actually Hesse, himself, an autobiographical character.  After Hesse (A Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946) was initiated in the spiritual order Leo and Hesse are talking and they are holding a small transparent sculpture of two figures joined together. One is Leo and other is Hesse who realized that his image was in the process of adding and flowing into Leo’s nourishment and strengthening. Reading the story about Hermann Hesse’s (1956-2003) Journal to the East . The story is about a party of seekers searching for enlightenment in the form of a particular secret spiritual order. Leo, a servant, attends to their needs and does menial chores. Throughout the journey, the group is sustained by Leo’s “spirit and his song.” Leo eventually disappears. The party gets completely lost and gives up on the search. The party director carries on but suffers immense emotional and physical stress.

Peter Senge (1995), after reading the Journey to the East , “I knew that this man [Greenleaf) understood something, something we have lost in our modern transactional society, where ‘what’s in it for me’is the assumed bedrock of all actions.” To make it very clear, servant-teacher-leader grand design focuses on serving others by adding and flowing together to achieve one image using nourishment and strength. Robert Frost said, “All great things are done for their sake.” Senge adds, to think that this reorientation of spirit might be a foundation for true leadership stunned me.

The significance of the servant-leadership concept has led to the establishment of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for ServantLeadership.  Further, the 1995 publication, Reflections on Leadership also includes the writings of Greenleaf with companion reflections about Greenleaf works. The importance of the Greenleaf’s was given further credence in the “Indianapolis Business Journal” which stated, “Servant leadership has emerged as one of the dominant philosophies being discussed in the world today (Spears, L. C, Reflections on Leadership 1995).

Summary

History has shown us that leadership can either be positive or negative.  When positive and of the highest quality it can enhance performance, whether in the classroom or boardroom, remarkably by 20-25%. The master teacher who seems to draw us out has thrilled us all. These same high qualities are also found in top leaders. The teacher-leader makes a difference—a big difference for they model the way to influence our lives. Through an examination of the literature and research, the author attempts to discover what makes leadership such a powerful force.  The first research question dealt with how to gain and inspire support.  The challenges and possible opportunities facing TED are also discussed..  Second question reviewed the research on effective TED teaching. The findings indicated that innovative teachers are professionally involved in their associations, have greater school support, use different instructional methods and are very creative.

The third research question provided information on how TED could apply the dynamics of leadership to sell its benefits.  These processes include: developing communication power, applying various leadership development models, bringing about effective change, using visioning technology to set the course, and the need of research to apply the teacher-leader model for developing Technology Education for American youth.

Dr. Robert E. Weing is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics,Science, and Technology Education at North Carolina State University.  He is Trustee of Alpha Pi Chapter of Epsilon Pi Tau,and received his Distinguished Service Citation in 1995.

References

Barker, J. A. (1994). The power of vision (Video Tape) Burnsville, MN: Charthouse International Learning Corporation

Bennis, W. (2003). On becoming a leader

Bennis, W, & Goldsmith, J. (2003). (Revised). Perseus.Learning to lead

Bennis, W. G. , & Nanus, B. (1985). Harper & Row. . New York: Basic Books. Leaders:strategies for taking charge

Burns, 3. M. (1978). Leadership . New York: . New York: Harper & Row Campbell, D. (1984). If I’m in charge here why is everybody laughing.  Greensboro, NC: Center of Creative Leadership.

Clark, K. E. , & Clark, M. B. (1997) Choosing to lead . Greensboro, N C: Leadership Press The Journal of Technology Studies Limited

Clark & M. B. Clark (Eds.), America.

Covey, S. R. (1992) Principle centered leadership The Journal of Technology Studies

Drucker, P. F. (1993). The post capitalist society . Simon & Schuster. . New York: Harper & Row

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977).

Hasting,S. C. (1991). Servant leadership Teachers as leaders . New York: Paulist Press. . Learning 2001 Carlson Learning Company Journal. Vol.2, No.3.

Hesse, H. (1956-2003)

Kanter, R. M. (2001). The journey to the east . New York: Picador. Evolve:succeeding in the digital culture of tomorrow Review Press.

Kennedy, D. (June, 1991). Our dreams in action. . Harvard Business Burnsville, MN: Charthouse International Learning Corporation.

Kotter, J. P. (1996).

Peters, T. (1992). Leading change . Boston: Harvard Businesa School. Liberation management.

Peter, T. (1994). New York:Alfred A. Knopf. The Tom Peters seminar:Crazy time call for crazy organizations. Vintage Books. Spears, L. C. (1995).

Reich, R. B. (2000). Reflections on Leadership The future of success

Ruggero, E., & Hailey, D. F. (2003). . John Wiley & Sons. . Random House. The leaders compass New York: . King of Prussia, PA: Academy Leadership.

Senge, S. M.  (1999). The dance of change Walling, D. (Ed.). (1994). . Doubleday. Teachers as leaders. Bloomington: Phi Delta Kappa.

Wenig, R. E. (1995) Technology education leadership.  In G. Eugene Martin (Ed), of technology education , Foundations 44th Yearbook of the Council on Technology Education. Glenco Division, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.

Williams, R. (2001) Peoria, Ill: An analysis of award winning local school technology education teachers and their use of effective leadership practices. Raleigh, NC: An unpublished dissertation, North Carolina State University

 

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Four key rules for successful leadership

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Christian Harrison, University of the West of Scotland

The disruption and devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Not only has it taken the lives of more than 5 million people around the world, it has also seriously wounded the global economy.

Thousands of businesses have gone bust and employees are demotivated, with almost four in 10 feeling less galvanised at work since the pandemic. There has been a decline in productivity for most businesses, with those sectors involving the most social contact bearing the brunt.

I recently wrote about the skills that effective leaders need to possess. These have never been more relevant, especially now that we need strong leadership to guide us to recovery after the pandemic. Here are four key skills crucial to help make that happen.

1. Be empathetic

Effective leaders need to understand the feelings, motivations and emotions of others, especially the people who work for them. Empathy with employees is crucial now that many people are facing diverse challenges such as anxiety, stress and adjusting to new work conditions and income decline. Leaders need to show that they are human.

A good example is Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott, the largest hotel chain in the world with a workforce of around 121,000 people. Marriott’s revenues experienced a drastic decline at the start of the pandemic. Sorenson recorded a video message, which has since gone viral, expressing compassion for employees and their families, reassuring them that things would get better. At the time he was being treated for pancreatic cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, but this did not prevent him from showing empathy – or leadership. This act of compassionate leadership is what differentiates good from great leaders during crisis.

2. Be decisive

The pandemic made it imperative for business leaders to act swiftly. Situations can change quickly, and successful businesses are the ones able to respond quickly and adapt to change. Good leaders need to be decisive and not averse to taking risks. They should be able to identify, evaluate and assess the risks while making difficult decisions. Resources during the pandemic were limited, so it was important that leaders adopted a logical, analytical approach to ensure that decisions were made not just quickly, but thoughtfully.

Amazon emerged from the pandemic stronger compared to other companies because of the decisions Jeff Bezos made at the start. As people found themselves confined to their homes due to restrictions in movement, Bezos recruited 175,000 extra employees and increased pay by £2 an hour, knowing that the pandemic was going to have a drastic impact on the supply chain and jobs. This was instrumental in helping to increase Amazon’s profits during the pandemic. Which leads on to the next rule.

3. Recognise and exploit opportunities

The pandemic was also a period that saw a huge leap in new and existing opportunities. The ability to recognise them in a crisis is vital. Leaders must be aggressive catalysts and identify opportunities where others see chaos, confusion and problems. Such opportunities vary from expansion into emerging markets, to selling new products and adapting existing services, such as restaurants becoming takeaways.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, is a classic example of a leader who was able to recognise and exploit opportunities that arose as a result of COVID. The pandemic led to an abrupt shift to remote working for many businesses around the world. This transformed Zoom into a global brand during the pandemic. Profits in 2020 soared to $186m, while customer growth rose by 458% compared to 2019.

Yuan identified that success would depend on the company’s capacity to attract big-spending corporations to Zoom in addition to people just using it for free. Zoom’s CEO is acutely aware that the future has changed and, regardless of how the post-pandemic world unfolds, remote working will be a fixture of it. Great leaders know the importance of this skill and are usually prepared to exploit opportunities when they emerge.

4. Build effective teams

Leadership is about influencing and motivating people. Leaders need to promote teamwork and foster team spirit to ensure their staff cooperate and collaborate to work together effectively. To do this, employees need to trust those in charge. Leaders must be role models who lead by example; employees learn a lot from good leaders, especially in difficult times.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, was faced with an extremely difficult and tragic situation in March 2015 when a suicidal pilot deliberately crashed his plane, killing 150 passengers. During this crisis, Spohr displayed honesty and took responsibility. This inspired and impressed his employees and helped build a culture of trust within the organisation after such a shattering event.

To develop these skills, mentoring and personal growth activities are important. Leadership is a personal journey and business leaders need to commit to developing their own skills. No one is perfect or has all the answers, but good leaders should not be afraid to fail. They should show that life continues and can improve after failing – if lessons are learned, however painful. Like anything, strong effective leadership takes practice.The Conversation

Christian Harrison, Reader in Leadership, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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