Philosophy of Leadership

The purpose of this research is to examine the Philosophy of Leadership. I will be discussing different terms that relate to philosophy of leadership, theories and definitions. I will be discussing transactional leadership how it relates to philosophy, situational leadership, and generative leadership. Leboeuf (1999) he defined philosophy as the rational investigation of the truth and principals of being knowledge or conduct(p. 28). Philosophy assumes that leadership rest in individuals who must be capable of inspiring and influencing others to solve problems and achieve goals (Sandmann, 1995). According to Peter (1966) philosophy should involve a particular mode of thinking directed to the disciplined demarcation of concepts, the patient explication of the grounds of knowledge and of the presuppositions of different forms of discourse (p. 15) The educational institution leader is first and formost a teacher. Their primary duties are to teach those that they lead and through them the students of the institution. Someone must make the decisions and take the responsibility to enforce them. There is no point in being a leader, however if no one is willing to follow and to be effective authority figures we must have the cooperation of those we lead. It is important for the leader to understand internalize and consider the perception of the host countrys leaders an the influence these leaders have in the smooth operation of the institution in conjunction with the local community . It is the responsibility of the leader to understand the complexities of the host community and to communicate to each of its member the attempt to actually participate in resolving issues. Leadership is personal unless you know who you are, what you are prepared to do and why then you cant hope to achieve anything very grand. Leaders are judge by how they stand up for their adopted principles and values, but most importantly by how they live a life according to these principles and values (Pelonis & Stefanos, 2010). According to Sergiovanni (1992) Our goal should be to develop a leadership practice based on professional moral authority (p. 29) . The uniqueness of the individual leader must be considerd and one should take cre to adopt strategies and behaviours that fit with the core personality (Pelonis & Stefanos, 2010). Generative leaders recognizes that there are multiple ways of knowing and surround themselves with other thought leaders, including those with whom they disagree. They use holistice, systems perspective in their thinking and move beyond perceived limitations of time,space,traditional thought and their own views of the world . Generative leaders are similar to transformative leaders in working with others to effect change, a generative leader however is one whose definition of success includes finding new options and solutions (Disch, 2009). Transformational leadership occurs when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their employees, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the purpose and mission of the look beyond their own self-interest for the good group. Transformational leaders achieve these results in one or more ways. They may be charismatic to their followers and thus inspire them; they may meet the emotional needs of each employee and they may intellectually stimulate employees (Bass 1990). Transfomational leadership communicates a vision that inspires and motivates people to achieve something extraordinary. Transformational leaders also have the ability to align people and systems so there is an integrity through-out the organization towords vision (Hughes & Curphy,1994). According to Cacioppe (1997) Transformational leaders have a vision and an ability to inspire followers to incoperate higer values. It pulls them towards achieving an important challenge (p. 336) Context of Problem Academic leadership is necessary now more than ever. Leadership for today’s world requires enlarging one’s capacity to see the whole board. Leadership is define by the authors as the continuous act of influencing others to accomplish a common objective. Academic leadership is further define as the continuous act of influencing all constituents of an academic institution to accomplish its mission and to provide the best possible educational experience for students. Leadership is personal unless you know who you are ,what you are prepared to do and why, then you can’t hope to achieve anything very grand (Pelonis & Stefanos, 2010). Knowledge is define as the state or fact of knowing and it usually refers to knowledge gained by schooling and study. With that being said, it is very important to be knowledgeable about whatever your career of choice is. As an educator ,which I know that it is important to find different ways that one can become knowledgeable about what they do in the work place because most importantly teaching and interacting with others on a daily basis. Take this situation for an example, it is your first year as a teacher and the first semester is finally over. You are not an experienced teacher but you know the overall morale at your school is low, student achievement is down, and discipline issues are overwhelming. This is definitely not the atmosphere that they talked about in your teaching classes in college. You want to go to the administration but in your past meetings, you have not felt comfortable expressing your concerns. The principal talks to the teachers in a very disrespectful manner, does not address teacher issues and concerns, and never gives any positive feedback at faculty meetings. On top of that administration has visited your room several times and has never given you any feedback about what was seen or how you could improve your teaching. You feel unsupported, overwhelmed, and headed toward a rocky second semester. You need someone to talk to and you begin to think about a upport group that can give you some knowledge about your profession. You more than likely want a teacher that has been around for a while that knows all the ropes about education. Support groups are a great way to grow professionally and create knowledge. As a teacher, you fulfill a number of roles for your students both intellectually and socially. In addition to learning about different teaching tech niques, support groups can help you deal with the responsibilities and pressures that come with the profession. I believe that every new educator needs a teachers' support group at their school. Taking the sole responsibility for starting a well-planned support group can be time-consuming but also be very rewarding for a teacher who is seeking to create knowledge in the workplace. It may also be helpful to invite colleagues to meet for a general discussion at least once a week so any questions or concerns can be addressed. As the group evolves, the details concerning agenda and procedures will iron out as you customize the group to fit whatever the knowledge one is seeking within the workplace. As we all know everyone does not know it is very important for an educator to be knowledgeable about what they do. Educator holds some very important lives in our hand and they need knowledge. For instance, if educators fail to make the goals attainable, students will never internalize or truly comprehend the skills and make them work in their own brains. Experts say they should steer clear of teaching children as if they were unfilled vessels for information (Barth, 2001). As an alternative, educator should allow them to construct knowledge in a process-oriented way. Instead of worksheets we should incorporate publishing and technology effectively. Then, your classroom will replicate the technological powerhouse society in which students live. Finally, always think about standardized test scores instead of unofficial evaluation statistics and urge parents to do the same. Teachers and teams of teachers must make certified, knowledgeable verdicts based on their individual students’ requirements and skill levels, in relation to curricular necessities and framework. To do this, teachers must be directed and sustained in an uninterrupted learning progression about successful ways to make students learn. Which brings me to my point, an educator must have knowledge and if they do not have knowledge then there are ways to create knowledge in the workplace as I mentioned before. Goodlad (2004) believe that school teaching and leadership are moral endeavors and that preservice teacher education programs seldom address the needs for moral leadership in democratic school (p. 27). According to Pelonis and Gialamas (2010) Successful leadership in the international academic arena calls for leaders to have the following qualities to be continuous learners, risk takers ,visionaries , performing well under stress and able to promote and accommodate change. The ability to cope with and promote change will in fact determine to a large degree the effectiveness of the leader during transitional times ( p. 73). Successful leaders are sensitive to the situation and their followers, are flrxible,and able to adopt to the use situation to ensure that the vision is achieved. A challenging, worthwhile vision is also characteristic of a good leader. The leaders helps the follower transcend their own self-interest and participate in a vision for greater good (Cacioppe,1997). According to Leboeuf (1999) the first element to consider in developing a philosophy of leadership is vision (p. 29). Nanus (1992) contends that vision must be idealistic a mental model of future state of the organization. He also stated that vision must also possess the properties of appropriateness, standards of excellence, purpose and direction (Nanus, 1992). Philosophy examins how meaning is determined and knowledge is established through language usage (Peter, 1966). Leadership philosophy reflects his principals , values,personal , professional goals and talents. It is essential to identify strategies and be st practice for implementing the adopted philosophy. If one adopts the model of leadership in partnership with flexibility, then strategy would require the leader and the leadership team to meet and clearly precisely define the authority and accountability of each (Pelonis & Stefanos, 2010). The idea of shared leadership is variously termed dispersed, roving, distributive,collective,or group-centered leadership, and organizations are referred to as leaderful. All of us have leadership qualities that can be pooled and drawn upon as needed. (Nirenburg, 1993) Generativity is the ability to produce or originate , and generative leaders are individuals who create new options or new approachers to old problems and work with and through others to effect needed change, Generative leaders are intellectually curious and never satisfied with the status quo; they are resilient and optimistic, seeing opportunties where others see insoluble problems (Disch, 2009). According to Disch (2009) Generative leaders model creativity and innovations,work with others to enhance their capabilities and create environ,environments in which people can do their best work (p. 173). Transformational leaders are individually considerate, that is, they pay close attention to differences among their employees; they act as mentors to those who need help to grow and develop. Intellectual stimulation leader are willing and able to show their employees new ways of looking at old problems to be solved, and to emphasize rational solutions. (Bass, 1990) Situational leadership is one of several transaction al approaches to leadership. Other transactional theories like path goal theory and leader-participation theory describes the major task of the leaders to guide motivate task of he leader to guide and motivate their followers in the direction of established goals and to reward their efforts in ways that are fair and valued by followers Situational leadership uses the two dimensions of supportive and directive to describe four leadership styles that are most appriopate depending on the situation and the developmental level of the person or group. The major advace of the situation approach is the recognition that for different development levels and different types of situation, different leadership styles are more effective (Cacioppe ,1997).