When I look at very influential leaders they all share a common message- relationships matter. You cannot be a leader without the support of others. From Trump to the Dalai Lama, leading is inexistent without building relationships. The statement, “Get the right people on your team, and get the wrong ones off,” holds little truth in our world today. If we only focus on one group of people, we move in a linear direction. As I saw with the election, though Trump has some absurd values, he was able to convince many types of groups that his leadership was ideal-- just as an example.
In chapter four of, Leading in a Culture of Change, it outlines seven attributes to building relationships and supports the statement that, “leaders create relationships.” The seven aspects to developing relationships are as follows (Fullan, 2001):
I truly believe that the best leader is the one who lets the (often) unheard be heard. Leaders give voice to those who may not be able to or feel like the outlier. Looking at this question from a statistical perspective, we see a rise in women leaders. As reported by Forbe, many interesting findings have been revealed with the rise of women leaders. Forbe reports that, “While communication is seen as the most important attribute of good leaders by both sexes, women are more likely to perceive this skill in terms of listening and engaging in two-way dialogue, while men are more likely to focus on broadcasting message (Medland, 2016).” This hits the point that relationship building, rather than dictator-leading, influences the mass. It hears all sides and involves all perspectives. It keeps the “wrong” and the “right” on the playing field so that the best possible outcome can be collaboratively created. Through a study done by 438,000 respondents, the findings were that, “ "Managers with experience building relationships are seen as more effective (Baldoni, 2007).” Just knowing my personal experience with leaders, I had the most respect and favored the ones who I saw care and show respect for each individual person. We teach our students to care about one another and have respect, and it isn’t surprising that even as adults we uphold the leaders who carry these attributes. Baldoni, John. 2007. Great Leaders Build Off Great Relationships. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/2437699/leadership-management/great-leaders-build-off-great-relationships.html Medland, Dina. 2016. Today’s Gender Reality in Statistics, or Making Leadership Attractive to Women. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/dinamedland/2016/03/07/todays-gender-reality-in-statistics-or-making-leadership-attractive-to-women/#44c0b5ea6883 Schaefer, B. 2015. On Becoming a Leader: Building Relationships and Creating Communities. Retreived from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/on-becoming-a-leader-building-relationships-and-creating-communities
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There have been a few experiences in my life where I took the role of “mentoring” adult learners. I blindly went into it knowing that, however I proceeded, it had to be much different than how I taught children. This experience was in Thailand where I mentored Thai English teachers how to teach English. I knew their perception of learning varied person to person and I had to accommodate that and their desires. I had to make the learning interesting and appealing to a group of adults who shared a vastly different culture than mine. Had I read the articles from this week before this experience, I think I would have approached the teaching much differently.
A few takeaways I learned from this week was that each adult has their own unique learning style and perception of learning. Years of experience means that most adults have pinpointed how they like to learn and what they like to learn. Sara and Natalie talked about mentoring and how this creates a balanced relationship between learner and mentor. Sara said, “As adults we want to share what we know and as kids we are trying to absorb as much as we can,” which I believe perfectly sums up the main difference between adult learner and child. Gerald talked about how he never had a mentor in his early years of teaching. That got me to thinking of how I am so fortunate to have a mentor during my first year, but why? I think the main benefit I am getting from a mentor/mentee relationship is reassurance and confidence. I am doing things in my classroom for the first time, and hearing someone say, “yes your are on the right track; you are doing this right,” is worth years of confidence and effective teaching. The contributions I made to this week’s learning was in the twitter discussion. I tried to ask questions that were thought-provoking to everyone. Although we don’t all teach adults, we can use the contrast and comparisons to help us better teach our own age group. I think this week we really emphasized the need for motivation to learn. Motivation happens best when there is interest, options, and self-directive opportunities. There have been a few experiences in my life where I took the role of “mentoring” adult learners. I blindly went into it knowing that, however I proceeded the mentoring, it had to be much different than how I taught children. This experience was in Thailand where I mentored Thai English teachers how to teach English. I knew their perception of learning varied person to person and I had to accommodate that and their desires. I had to make the learning interesting and appealing to a group of adults who shared a vastly different culture than mine. Had I read the articles from this week before this experience, I think I would have approached the teaching much differently.
A few takeaways I learned from this week was that each adult has their own unique learning style and perception of learning. Years of experience means that most adults have pinpointed how they like to learn and what they like to learn. Sara and Natalie talked about mentoring and how this creates a balanced relationship between learner and mentor. Sara said, “As adults we want to share what we know and as kids we are trying to absorb as much as we can,” which I believe perfectly sums up the main difference between adult learner and child. Gerald talked about how he never had a mentor in his early years of teaching. That got me to thinking of how I am so fortunate to have a mentor during my first year, but why? I think the main benefit I am getting from a mentor/mentee relationship is reassurance and confidence. I am doing things in my classroom for the first time, and hearing someone say, “yes your are on the right track; you are doing this right,” is worth years of confidence and effective teaching. The contributions I made to this week’s learning was in the twitter discussion. I tried to ask questions that were thought-provoking to everyone. Although we don’t all teach adults, we can use the contrast and comparisons to help us better teach our own age group. I think this week we really emphasized the need for motivation to learn. Motivation happens best when there is interest, options, and self-directive opportunities. When I look at this question from the opposite lens there is one immediate similarity. The importance of offering options, independence, and guidance (rather than direct instruction) are key for motivation. Both children and adults need to have that excitement in education. The differences start to become more evident when thinking about how to influence student motivation. Adults are greatly influenced by their environment and experiences. This directly affects the way they look at learning, new content, teachers, and the learning experience. Deb Peterson wrote in her article, “5 Principles for the Teacher of Adult Learners,” that there are five set principles for the adult learner:
Through my online research I found, not surprisingly, a common message: adults need active learning experiences. Just like children, adults don’t learn best through traditional lecture. A few examples of this type of teaching/mentoring are case studies, role plays, classroom training, experiential learning, games, simulations, projects, and self-studies (Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, 2012). Papa, R. (2011). Technology Leadership for School Improvement. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications,Inc.http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2051/login.aspxdirect=true&db=nlebk&AN=467141&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_91 on March 11, 2017
Peterson, Deb. (2017). 5 Principles for the Teacher of Adults. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/principles-for-the-teacher-of-adults-31638 Northwest Center for Public Health Practice. 2012. Effective Adult Learning: a toolkit for teaching adults. Retrieved from https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/evaluation/documents/effective-adult-learning-a-toolkit-for-teaching-adults When I think of leadership these days, it is hard to say that a healthy moral purpose gets you to the top. I look at our president and those who are leaders in their own department and support him. I look at our secretary of education, big oil companies, and banks and wonder if their moral purpose is the same driving force as a leader in education.
Our twitter discussion and blogs all agreed that moral purpose (whether altruistic or egoistic) builds a leader and inspires others. However, when I look outside of the education world this isn't the same pattern I see in other areas. With that being said, this week inspired me even more to do what I can to use my moral purpose to teach my students about their own moral purpose in life. A few blogs, such as Sara's, said that their moral purpose is all about doing the right thing. I appreciated in her blog that she said, "sometimes this means changes to my own teaching philosophy." A true leader, in my opinion, is able to learn from others and use that to shape their beliefs. Natalie discussed teaching her students how to use their energy to reach their fullest potential. I think this is a great point that should be taught at the early ages. Self-sufficient and aware of one's own ability is a huge life skill that doesn't always get taught each year. My contribution to this week was mainly during the twitter discussion. I felt like the questions I asked prompted people to really look at moral purpose from different angles. The conversation was productive and although we could all say, "yeah we have moral purpose because we are in education," instead, everyone gave specifics and details on what their own moral purpose looks like and how moral purpose, in general, shapes our society. The backbone to any motive or leader is purpose. There is a purpose, whether altruistic or egoistic, that drives people to do what we do. In education, we are constantly surrounded by liked-minded people who are pushing through the hard times because of their moral purpose.
The strategies that I see naturally come out because of my moral purpose is teaching to the whole student. My value’s make it so that I am always teaching children who are growing rather than students who need information. I use strategies to teach, such as mindfulness, yoga, and metacognitive practices. Educational jargon can get in the way of the root of what schools’ purposes are, but I completely agree with the article by Nel Noddings that education’s purpose should be happiness (Noddings, 2005). I know personally that my moral purpose ultimately makes me do the things I do because I want to bring (or teach) happiness to my students. With this in mind every day, I am able to use strategies common to other educators such as,
I know that I have a big influence in shaping each student I meet into a kind and purpose-driven citizen. Every day in my classroom I look at ways to accomplish this by shaping my voice, lessons, body language, classroom environment, and student interaction around social emotional learning. Activities that develop children’s ability to, “recognize and manage emotions, build relationships, solve interpersonal problems, and make effective and ethical decisions,” are a huge part of my teaching because it shapes SEL (Yoder, 2014). Of course, the motives behind it stem from an altruistic and egoistic mindset. As Learning in a Culture of Change states, all effective leaders are driven by both (altruistic and egoistic) what Sober and Wilson call "motivational pluralism, which is the view that we have both egoistic and altruistic ultimate desires (Fullan, pg.28). I believe being aware of which part is altruistic and which is egoistic (and which weighs more) steers a person to the other areas of leadership. Being cognitive of the fact that it isn’t all a holy deed out of righteousness makes a person balance the other areas of leadership. When I think of overall leadership, the driving force behind it is moral purpose. A leader who is completely altruistic and tries to lead a group may become overshadowed by the moral purpose and burn out because of their needs not being met. However, a person who knows what part of it is intrinsic (or extrinsic) motivation for themselves may keep a clear eye on the goal during any successes and failures. ASCD Whole Child Bloggers. 2012. Educating the Whole Child: The Top 5 Strategies. Retrieved from http://www.wholechildeducation.org/blog/educating-the-whole-child-top-5-strategies-for-educators Fullian, Michael. 2001. Leading in a Culture of Change. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED467449.pdf Noddings, Nel. 2015. What does it mean to educate the whole child? Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept05/vol63/num01/What-Does-It-Mean-to-Educate-the-Whole-Child%C2%A2.aspx Yoder, N. 2014. Teaching the Whole Child. Retrieved from http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/TeachingtheWholeChild.pdf It is hard to make a huge contribution in the learning of others when we all share the same values and ideas. Instead of contributing to the learning, I felt this week I moreso reassured or reaffirmed thoughts and opinions.
Sara brought up multicultural leadership. I think we often immediately think of leading different cultures/ethnicity but this also encompasses perspectives and personal values. A leader should always be aware of the multicultural paradigm and how to mitigate between varying perspectives. I think the most effective leaders see people as individuals with their own background and finds the middle ground or the best decision for the whole. I hadn't thought of this in my original blog so I was happy to have this point highlighted in her blog. Matthew answered the essential question with his students in mind. I, on the other hand, answered it with coworkers in mind and how I can be a leader in that area. I hope that my small contribution on his blog helped him think about his leadership within his school as an educator and a co-worker. Andrea and I work together and share the same students so every week we are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other and various parts of the 5 components comes out. We both are doing what is best for the students and that is such a great foundation for us to work on. Her role in education is very diversified as she works among many ages, abilities, staff, and parents. I found Josies the most thought provoking as she posted a graphic that really made me think about how we are people of accessibility. As I said in her blog regarding the graphic she posted, “The graphic is great because it also shows how in our world there are dozens of options (if not hundreds) to do one task. However, it is the one that offers the most diversity, user-friendly, eye-catching, efficient, and reliable experience that users lean towards. This is definitely the same for leaders as we are drawn to people who make things easier and more efficient for us.” This inspires me to find ways to be a leader in my staff community by making things easier and more efficient. Week 7: Why are all five components of leadership necessary for success in leading through change?3/3/2017 Leaders steer the direction while simultaneously help to pull the weight. I believe that encompassing all five components of leadership develops the leader in the first picture rather than the second. “All this complexity keeps people on the edge of chaos. It is important to be on that edge because that is where creativity resides.” This quote found in Leading in a Culture of Change eloquently summarizes the importance of chaos during change and the beauty that comes out of teetering that line. This article defined a lot of aspects of a leader’s role that I hadn’t quite been able to put in words. Through reading this and other sources, I found that there are areas I have put a lot of practice towards, and other areas that I greatly lack.
Leadership embraces ambiguity and mentally stifles through challenges and hardships. The difference between a leader and a passive is the ability to hone these skills to make rational decisions. The first of the five components listed was moral purpose- the desire to make a positive difference. As teachers, we already innately have this part of leadership in us. We thrive off of moral purpose because that is what helps us be the best educators possible. The second component is understanding the change process. Any leader has to presume the role of accepting, handling, and making decisions that create or influence change. Understanding change doesn’t mean you know exactly how to deal with every bit of change, but rather that you understand the possibility and the conundrums that come with it. This is an area I feel that I empathize and in my personal life have a good grip on. However, if I am to understand change for a group of people and be put in a leadership role, this is something I am not yet comfortable with nor have had a lot of experience in. The third component is relationship building. As an educator and in my personal life, I value the importance of healthy relationships. I understand that putting myself in positions to build relationships is key in fostering a balanced life. Likewise, taking on a leadership role means fostering and maintaining relationships. Though I feel confident in this area, I know we can always improve. The last two knowledge creation and sharing, and coherence making are newer areas to me as a leader. I feel as though I am not entirely an effective and reliable leader because these two areas I lack confidence in. As a leader, there are times you won’t have the answer to everything, but the ability to embrace creation, input from others, compromise, and foster teamwork is what shapes a true leader. There are times in my life that I have had this role and was able to mitigate a situation because of my knowledge creation and coherence making skills. Still, I know that early in my career leaves a lot of room for growth in this area. Sources: B. Gitu. 2016. 50 Inspiring Quotes That Help Lead Your Team. Retrieved from http://www.jcount.com/50-inspiring-quotes-that-help-you-lead-your-team/ Fullian, Michael. 2001. Leading in a Culture of Change. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED467449.pdf McNamara, Carter. Understanding All Aspects of Leadership. Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/leadership/development/understanding.htm YS Community. 2016. Leadership Styles Are Changing, and You Should Too. Retrieved from https://yourstory.com/2016/06/leadership-styles-evolution/ |
Author2nd Grade teacher at Keet Gooshi Heen in Sitka, Alaska Archives
April 2017
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