Educational Leadership Policy Standards - Essay Example

Educational Leadership Policy Standards: ISLLC EXEMPLARY LEADERSHP PRACTICE THE ISLLC STANDARDS This is a leadership model formed from a research which evaluated leaders’ experiences at their best. Five common behaviours were observed among several leaders, and these can act as guidance to other people. According to the developers of this model, leadership is not about one’s personality, but one’s behaviour. It is therefore, expected that a leader, at his best, would exhibit the following characteristics: ISLLC standards provide guidance to strong leadership in schools. Every leadership practice is therefore aligned to the standards that will be described below. The standards represent the main themes that should be focused on to ensure the success of every student. All these standards are focused on promoting the success of every student (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). 1. Model the way Modelling the way means the leaders decide on how an organization should be managed; they develop standards, and principles that will ensure certain objectives are achieved. They decide the aims of the organization, and so steer the way for peers, customers, colleagues, and constituents. In a corporate responsibility duty for example, the leader decides on appropriate projects and strategies he thinks are fit (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). 1. That a leader should facilitate the development, communication, execution, and stewardship of a supported and shared vision of learning, among stakeholders in order to promote every student’s success. Standard one is similar to modelling the way. There is a vision of learning that is expected to promote the success of every student. The leader facilitates the development, implementation, articulation, and stewardship of that vision. He leads the way in finding strategies, objectives, and other management practices that can be used to do all the above ( School Leadership Briefing, 2013). The fifth standard requires a leader to act in an ethical manner, with fairness, and with integrity (School Leadership Briefing, 2013).This can be linked to the first exemplary leadership practice, for the leader will decide on how to achieve integrity, fairness and ethical behaviours in the organization. 2. Inspire a shared vision Leaders believe that they can encourage people to make a difference. This is especially through letting people into their own dreams and persuading them to make it possible (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). The first standard also reveals the leader’s characteristic of a shared vision. The standard requires that a leader sets a vision of learning that can be shared by many school stakeholders (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). 3. Challenge the process In organizational management, there are certain practices that are considered the norm and challenging them would mean a big loss or risk for the company. Leaders will always look for opportunities to improve the business, and this means taking risks against status quo to achieve such a goal. They should be risk takers who consider failures as learning opportunities (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). The sixth standard requires a leader to understand, respond to, and influence the social, political, cultural and legal context. This will lead to challenging of processes to achieve specific aims which are focused on promoting the success of every student. The sixth standard therefore, can be linked to the third exemplary leadership practice (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). 4. Enable others to act Enabling others to act is all about the importance of the human resource to the organization, and how effective management leads to maximized performance. Leaders should be able to encourage collaboration among people, and develop a working environment full of trust and human dignity. He should make the others feel worthy of their responsibilities (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). The second standard requires a leader to advocate, manage, and maintain a school instructional program, and culture conducive for staff growth and student learning (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). This second standard requires exemplary leadership practice number four, where the leader builds a full of trust and human dignity. The third standard also requires exemplary leadership practice number four. It is focused on building a safe and effective learning environment, which is through involving others to motivate them in their learning and teaching. The third standard indicates that a leader should ensure an effective and safe learning environment, through effective management of the operation, organization, and resources (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). The fourth standard is also aligned to exemplary leadership practice number four. It requires a leader to mobilize community resources, respond to diverse community needs and interests and to collaborate with community and faculty members (School Leadership Briefing, 2013). 5. Encourage the heart Leaders should recognize every person’s effort towards achievement of targeted aims. This way, he keeps up the hopes and determination among the people. The people will feel like heroes (Kouzes & Posner, 2011) Why the Attributes Are Important The features are important because they guide the schools in selecting the best person with the skills necessary for achieving specific aims. The standards are a means of developing and defining professional roles in education (Green, 2013). Kouzes and Posner (2012) indicate that schools just like any other organization, need good management to promote success among students. Good management includes good change management. Schools are characterised by various changes and challenges, and it only takes a competent leader to endure the changes and challenges, to steer the organization forward. The ISLLC standards were set up to guide school administrators, but the school administrators need to know how they can comply with the standards. The features are important because, compliance to these standards will be accompanied by various leadership challenges. Leaders have to know certain practices that will change values into actions. In this case, they have to know of the practices to help them transform the requirements of the standards into action (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). As described in the table above, a leader should be able to challenge the process. This practice is essential in achieving the sixth standard requirement. It is expected that a school administrator will understand, respond to, and influence the social, political, cultural, and legal context. It is through challenging the common processes; culture, legal, and social contexts that a school administrator or leader will get to influence these contexts. A leader will also need to model the way to achieve the objectives of facilitating the development, execution and stewardship of a shared vision. Comparison of How the Other Leadership Standard Aligns or Does Not Align To the ISLLC Standard Some leadership practices do not align to any ISLLC standards. The fifth exemplary practice is that a leader should encourage the heart. This is all about motivation and there is no ISLLC standard that aligns with it. Motivation is however part of human resource management and can be used to achieve exemplary outcome in performing some duties, for example, improving the performance in specific educational programs. Modelling the way aligns to the first and the fifth standards. Inspiring a shared vision aligns to the first standard, challenging the process aligns to the sixth standard, while enabling others to act aligns to the second, third and fourth standards. Alignment is based on the relevance of the practice to achievement of what the respective standards require. More details are provided in the table. A Brief Summary of Personal Leadership Attributes I am a creative individual who can develop new ideas from research on issues and surrounding environment. I like cooperation, for it makes work easy and quick. Cooperation also produces good quality work, since it recognizes different abilities that people have, and utilizes them. I like assigning duties, since I believe I can easily identify people with their respective capabilities and ensure the work is done. I listen to people and know the importance of motivation. Discouraging an employee just once can lead to a long term poor performance. This makes me encourage them and appreciate their effort. From this brief description, I would link my attributes to the five exemplary leadership practices and say, I can model the way because of my creativity, and innovative skills. I can also challenge the processes because of the same skills. Being creative and innovative enables one to identify areas that need changes and how the new ideas can be incorporated. Team work, good listening skills, and appreciation, make me a leader that can encourage the heart and enable others to act. References Green, H. (2013). Professional standards for teachers and school leaders: a key to school improvement. London: Routledge. Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (2011). The five practices of exemplary leadership. (2nd Ed.). San Fransisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: how to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. (5th Ed.). San Fransisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. School Leadership Briefing. (2013). ISLLC Standards. 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