Distinction Between Leadership in Educational Organisation and Business Organisation - Essay Example

Distinction Between Leadership in Educational Organisation and Business Organisation Leadership has been an aspect of human civilization from time immemorial and has been exercised in ruling tribes to nations and in winning wars and facing adversities of natural disasters. Leadership is defined as “the ability to influence individuals and groups to work toward attaining organizational objectives” (Weiss 2001). While leadership in general remains essentially an influencing process, the styles of leadership varies greatly and to suit the different situations and follower profiles. While different schools of thoughts extend different views on leadership, they are grouped under four wide categories of trait, behavioral, situational and transformational theories. Trait theories believe that leaders have specific qualities and characteristics in them that make them a leader. Subsequently leadership studies turned to leaders’ actions and behaviors. Leadership studies evolved further to accommodate the idea of situational aspects that required different leadership styles. Alternative approaches have emerged in the form of Transformational vs. transactional approach (ChangingMinds.Org). In order to compare and contrast the different styles of leadership adopted by two leaders in two different organisations, a leader in an educational organisation – Principal of Washington Elementary School and CEO of Slim Line Limited – an apparel manufacturing International Joint Venture of MAST Industries USA (http://www.mast.com) have been interviewed. Personal interviews were carried out with semi structured quantitative research questionnaire, which aimed at capturing the Leader’s style of leading. The CEO was contacted while on a business visit to the parent company. The Business Leader, Mr. Dian Gomez has an MBA degree from Harvard and started his career at KPMG – Ford Rhodes Audit Firm. Subsequently in 1981 he joined Saracon Interiors – Ashby & Homes – UK in the capacity of manager and worked till 1989. Afterwards he worked in May department stores USA till 1990. In 1190 he joined the garment industry in the capacity of Finance Director at one of the Mast Industries International offices and subsequently promoted as the CEO of one of its largest joint ventures in Asia, managing over 10,000 people and a business of US$ 50 million annual revenue. Under his leadership, the company has achieved success in productivity, adaptation of industry best practices and being a forerunner in setting benchmarks for quality. The Educational Leader, Mr …………………. possess 2 masters degrees, one in History from Cal State in Fullerton and the other in Administration. His teaching career started in 1989, as a history teacher in college and History, Language Arts and Science for grade schools. In 1996 he was appointed to teach grades 4-6 at Cerritos and Foothill Elementary.  He then held the post of Assistant Principal for 3 years. A 2- year program for Asst. principal at the CA school of Leadership Academy gave him added leadership training and in 2003 he became the Principal at Washington Elementary School, which he holds for the past 3 years. Considering the leadership styles of the two personalities, there are some marked similarities that can be identified in their perceptions of what is leadership and how it should be exercised. Both persons exhibit a high level of emotional intelligence, which is a prerequisite of a good leader. As per Daniel Golman, although a certain degree of analytical skill is a minimum requirement for success, what is called “emotional intelligence” may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers from those who are merely adequate (Goleman 1997). Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence include Self-Awareness, Self Regulation, Motivation, Empathy & Social Skills. Self-awareness is defined as being well aware of own strengths and weaknesses and the effects on others. In this aspects the educational leader identifies the following strengths and weaknesses in him “As a kid, I shied away from math and was not analytical.  It didn’t come naturally to me.  I learned to use technology and now utilize it more. I always had the ability to listen and understand problems… Communication – I had to work on this. I learned when to be serious and when its time to have fun.  Surprisingly, I was rather shy growing up....” The Business leaders self-awareness of his strengths and weaknesses were very much similar, and in his own words “ I am not at all a left brain logical and analytical person. True that I have a financial background in the beginning of my career but then I was a very mediocre performer. It is with working and leading these people that I get in to my true essence. Another weakness is my volatile temper. But my major strength is people power” It can be noted that the business leader is lacking in the dimension of self-regulation in his own admittance of having a volatile temper. However, for the Educational leader this is a critical dimension as working with children needs much self regulation as he is seen as the key role model in the educational institution. His remarks on “ ability to remove emotions from an issue but do so with understanding. Openness, candor, and being accessible…” indicate his strength in this area. Considering the other dimensions of emotional intelligence, the two leaders both possess good motivating skills as well as empathy. It is with empathy that a leader can understand the issues and needs of the followers, willing and able to listen to them and be effective in motivating them. They are both visionary in their approach, looking at the big picture. One of the main similarities in them is the coaching style of leadership where they empower and encourage the followers to attain the goals. While this style is common with successful educational organisation, for a business leader to establish this style, the organisation has to be transformed in to high performing autonomous organisations where employees are highly empowered. Below quotes from the two interviews indicate the two leaders line of thinking which illustrates the above-mentioned similarities. Educational leader stated that “ I believe it’s multi-faceted. I’m a situational leader - balancing the needs of the kids.  You need to listen to people if you want them to work for you.  A eader will try to understand the motivations behind situations, get the whole picture of things and then work with a person to move forward in a good empathetic way. A leader is someone who acts as a cheerleader. To find the good in any situation.  To be able to work with people.”   As per the business leader “ My door is always open, and so is my heart and ears. That’s how I can have empathy with them. It’s important when I have to cross cultural barriers as well. Also, it’s important that they understand the big picture. The vision toward they are working. I have a vision and I share it with them. So they know the agenda and what they are working towards. Let them do the running. I do the coaching and cheering. Humans don’t usually like to be told what to be done at every step of the way. So I let them use their own initiative, That’s what made this company a such a success in the Asian region.” Considering the above remarks surprisingly there are few exact key words, which the two leaders from different scenarios are using. This shows that successful leaders have common elements in their style. As per James Kouzes and Barry Posner’s The Leadership Practices Inventory that listed common characteristics of leaders, which included Model the way, Inspire a shared vision, Challenge the process, Enable others to act and Encourage the heart (Kouzes & Posner 2003). Assessing the two leaders in these aspects, both have set good role models in them and have provided shared visions for their organisations. Vision of the educational leader was that “ My vision is that every student will go to college if they desire” while the business leader’s vision was “ I want my team of people to be the number one in the industry, and in every thing they do. That’s why I sponsor so many sports personnel through our company. Our boxers have won Asian titles. So my vision is Winning… all the way in every way! I know it’s a very aggressive vision. But in today’s competitive world, its survival of the fittest” The contrasting characteristics of the two leaders were identified in this aspect of the level of aggressiveness, assertiveness and self-confidence. While the educational leader displayed above characteristics in subdued levels, the business leader exhibited very high levels of assertiveness and self-confidence. Business leader cited a situation where he purchased a closedown factory in Maldives and shipped out machines and 500 staff to get an order done and shipped to a US client within one month. His own factory was unable to do it due to quota restrictions to US but Maldives had no quota restrictions. He said “I always always believe that I can have a solution if there is a problem.” The two leaders’ perceptions of great leaders also differed where the educational leader cited Ronal Ragen as a great leader and lauded his communicational and people skills. The business leader cited more spiritual Jesus Christ and Buddha as role models saying that he has become spiritually inclined and interested in different religions. He lauded the transformational leadership qualities (Burns 1978) exhibited by these spiritual leaders which has followers after many thousands of years. In conclusion, it can be noted that though leadership can have situational aspects and should be changed in terms of level of assertiveness and supervision, the key requirements of high level of communication, shared vision and people skills are essential aspects for leading successfully. Even though the educational leader was in the opinion that business is always about making money, today’s businesses are increasingly called upon to exhibit high levels of social responsibility and people orientation and thus, leading successfully in business world is equally challenging and people centric as grooming the young generation of a country through education. Work Cited Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row Goleman, D. (1997). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books. Gardner, J.W. (1990). On Leadership. New York: The Free Press. Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2003) The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. “Leadership Theories” ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved on 06.02.2006 from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/leadership_theories.htm Weiss, J.W. (2001) Organisational Behavior & Change, 2nd ed. Ohio: South-Western Collage Publishing. Dian Gomez- CEO Slim Line Garments Ltd. Personal Interview at Park Hyatt Washington on February 06, 2006. …………………………………. School principal- Washington Elementary School. Personal Interview held at Washington Elementary School on February 1, 2006. Read More