Week 6 - Leadership - Leadership Theories, Styles and Attributes 18 December 2017

Leadership Assessment 1

In your LEADERSHIP 1 assessment you'll need to write (either individually, or in groups of two or three) a cohesive essay where you critically analyse the leadership of a change initiative that you were involved with in the past. Identify the leadership theories, styles and attributes used and evaluate their effectiveness. When reflecting on the leadership attributes and styles used, provide evidence where possible (e.g. interview class or team members who were involved). You can choose the leadership theories freely, they just have to be ones that are recognised in research literature.

You then plan your leadership of a future digital and collaborative change initiative. Indicate how insights gained from reflecting on the past initiative have influenced your plan for leading the future initiative. Remember that the focus of the plan is your leadership - not the initiative itself.

Leadership Theories

As time has progressed a number of leadership theories have emerged which deal with various styles and methodologies about leadership. These theories could be labelled in four broad headings; namely the Trait theories, Behavioral theories, Contingency theories and the Power and Influence theories. In 1922, Max Weber (see Weber, 1978) identified three kinds of leader/follower relations; traditional, bureaucratic and charismatic. He also noted that they occur in combination, and there may be gradual transitions between these types. Since then, much has been written about types of leadership. Some examples of leadership theories relevant to education include

• Transactional
• Transformational
• Pedagogical
• Distributed
• Servant (Agile)
• Tū Rangatira
• Situational

Burns (1978) outlined the original ideas for both transactional and transformational leadership. He stated that both are 'moral' forms of leadership, as opposed to 'amoral' power-wielding.

Bass & Riggio (2006) developed their transformational leadership theory based on Burns' original ideas. This has been the one many of our students have found interesting to reflect upon in their Leadership 1 assessments. According to this theory, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. 

Providing a different perspective, Tū Rangatira: Māori Medium Educational Leadership (Ministry of Education, 2010) presents a model of leadership that reflects some of the key leadership roles and practices that contribute to high-quality educational outcomes for Māori learners. It focuses on leadership practices, providing insights into how effective professional development programmes can work towards strengthening leaders’ capabilities, growing capacity and sustaining exemplary leadership in the Māori medium education sector. Its message is not, however, limited only to kura. "Contemporary times call for innovative thinking. This visionary role of leadership entails understanding the past, recognising the present and envisioning the future, to bring about optimal education and life outcomes for learners.” (p.24).

Leadership Styles

Situational leadership (Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, 1969) is interesting from the perspective of linking theory and style. It suggests that leaders adjust their leadership styles based on the 'readiness' of their followers. Situational leadership theory argues that for leaders to be truly successful, they must adjust the way they lead their teams, to suit two factors:

• The ‘task maturity’ of the people they are leading (that is, how competent a person or team is at the task at hand)
• The details of the task 

The Situational leadership model suggests four quadrants. Each quadrant denotes a different leadership style. In situational leadership theory, leaders place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the empowerment of the people they’re leading, depending on what’s needed to get the job done successfully

(Adapted from Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson, 1969)

Complete the University of Kent (2011) online quiz about your typical leadership styles When you have finished record your results and thoughts for later use (Leadership 1 & 2 Assessments).

Leadership Attributes

There are many personal characteristics that may be identified as aspects of leadership. However it may be helpful to explore some of the attributes identified within various categories that we have introduced on the course previously. These include:

• Key Competencies (e.g. relating to others)
• 21st Century Skills (e.g. real-world problem-solving and innovation)
• Growth Mindset (e.g. resilience)
• Emotional intelligence (e.g. social skill)

Google Training and Emotional Intelligence

Google (n.d.) freely share their New Manager Training Guide, which includes some coverage of the importance of emotional intelligence.

In considering the link between empathy and teaching, Barr (2007) states that “Research has consistently demonstrated the influence of positive school culture on student outcomes and that teachers have control over changing school culture variables. Enhancing teacher empathy might be one way to improve school culture.”

5 Emotional Intelligences

In this session we look at the five emotional intelligences. 

1. Self-awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Motivation
4. Empathy
5. Social skills

See tinyurl.com/TMLEI (Akers & Porter, 2016) for more detail on these intelligences.

Student feedback

We will fill in a student feedback form during this week's session. The feedback is about the first 6 weeks on The Postgraduate programme at The Mind Lab by Unitec, with the two courses 'Digital & Collaborative Learning in Context' and 'Leadership in Digital & Collaborative Learning'. Your feedback is golden!

References

Akers, M & Porter, G. (2016). What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)? Retrieved from: https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-emotional-int...

Bass, B.M. & Riggio, R.E. (2006). Transformational Leadership (Second Edition), Routledge

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

Goleman , D., Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2013). Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Google. (n.d.). Google's new manager training slides. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13-rj7ZqlyuHNli9Ybd5D8g-qqUNtG81t3JLq7JV5c2o/edit#slide=id.gc65ffdba2_0_1998

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. H., & Johnson, D. E. (1969). Management of organizational behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Ministry of Education. (2010). Tū Rangatira: Māori Medium Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Key-leadership-documents/Tu-rangatira-English

University of Kent. (2011). How to find out your style of leadership. Retrieved from https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/leadership.htm

Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An outline of interpretive sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

World Economic Forum. (2015). The skills needed in the 21st century. New Vision for Education - Unlocking the Potential of Technology. Retrieved from https://widgets.weforum.org/nve-2015/chapter1.html (Note: Full version of the report available from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_NewVisionforEducation_Report2015.pdf)