The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner - Article Example

Answer The Leadership Challenes’ by Kouzes and Posner is an exemplary book on motivation and gives invaluable insight into the leadership perspectives. The authors have made leadership not only approachable but have made efforts to bring out the leadership traits from the closed ambit of few to all who want to enrich their professional lives. Kouzes and Posner have suggested the five leadership traits that take challenges of the organizations to move it forward to still greater heights. The five challenges vis-à-vis Challenging the process; Shared vision; empowering others; setting an example; and motivating others through acknowledgement of their talent and good work are also critical ingredients in the educational leadership. They greatly enhance the performance outcome of the various stakeholders like students, teachers, parents, administers etc. As an educational leader, I find the first paradigm of leadership extremely critical to the educational arena. Education is the most vital area that needs to be always in a position of flexibility so as to absorb and incorporate the evolving socio-environmental values within its academia. Thus, it becomes essential for educational leaders to challenge the existing processes to improve and improvise. At the same time, it is also important to realize that change is an integral part of life and academics must be able to meet the challenges of the changing time with vigour and creative inputs. Promoting shared vision is important trait of leadership. This becomes, especially important in education because teachers as leaders not only provide an intangible stability among the students coming from cross cultural value systems and facilitate their integration with the system, but they are also known to promote collective vision of the institute and provide the necessary impetus to the students to strive towards it. They help facilitate more accommodating approach to the changing dynamics of the educational scope and processes. The teachers as leaders, provide facilitating platform for various aspects of the interactive elements of the education, which may comprise of diverse ideologies and personal conflicts of the individuals and helps in adjustment to work together to produce a cohesive output representing the institute’s unique objectives and goals. . Educational leadership assumes special meaning because it motivates and encourages that target group within the population that plays a crucial part in the future of nation building processes. They help students to become a responsible. Through effective communication and dissemination of information, the leadership promotes empowerment. It is vital for educational leaders to empower students so that their decision making power is greatly enhanced through exercising informed choices effectively. Good leadership teaches through self example. Students like to emulate persons who inspire them and are capable of instilling self confidence. It is especially relevant in the context of multi cultural society where students learn to interact with each other without racial prejudice. They learn to develop attitude and behaviour which is conducive for a mutually benefiting and tolerant society. Educational leadership is a strong tool for promoting independent thought and actions with good analytical and rational approach towards issues and people thus facilitating and building a society which believes in peaceful coexistence in a multicultural atmosphere. Indeed, good leaders build relationships based on mutual trust and confidence which is the main reason that changes are accepted with equanimity. Students learn to become good leaders through observation and imbibe qualities that help them to evolve as an individual with strong character. In the educational institutes, peer leadership promotes and develops, quality education with scientific temperament incorporating the needs of the changing time. The educational leadership encourages creativity and innovative practices that give a unique perspective to participatory approach of management and students. The motivating factor of educational leadership (read as teachers) facilitates adaptability to changing equations, which occur due to rapidly changing environment of emerging new patterns in educational processes. It has another very important attribute of recognizing the wide scope of emerging opportunities. The empirical relationship of leaders and the emerging changes are critical for a given situation and therefore, good educational leadership demands a better informed leader who is capable of taking initiative and at the same time, he is also able to inculcate confidence in his students to move forward. Thus, encouraging students towards creative output and appreciating their efforts greatly improves their performance and inculcates confidence to excel. (714) Answer 2 2(a) Worldview is the philosophy of life where one constructs and rebuilds worldly relations and perceptions within a defined and narrowed ambit of ideologies, beliefs and religious paradigm. Rusbult asserts that worldview prevents teachers to interpret and explain things from wide perspectives and limits his or her interpretation to a theistic approach (Rusbult). Francis Schaeffer, on the other hand, is quite emphatic that theistic approach or Biblical worldview is the correct approach because it believes that God is the creator of the world and life can only be improved by following Bible’s true words and values and living by Christian ethics. After extensive research, Schaeffer came to the conclusion that Biblical worldview is most comprehensive and can be applied to a wide spectrum of human interaction because it fundamentally relies on ethical considerations that promote goodness and universal brotherhood. In the educational arena, it is a controversial area because modern theorists believe that it restricts the views of a person and limits his abilities to express and explain things from a myriad aspect and understand others who may be coming from diverse culture, religion, race or nationality. But as an educational leader, I’ll promote Biblical worldview but would ensure that it is not limited within the Christian paradigm. The contemporary times, the world is fast converging towards universal values with multi-cultural societies and having diverse ideologies, cultures and religiosity. The challenges of the time demand broader perspective to interpret and understand conflicts and understand the issues from a wider perspective. 2(b) The concept of ‘neutral education’ is highly relevant in the contemporary environment of fast advancing technology and rapid globalization. Neutral Education broadly caters to the academia which is not confined within a narrow perspective of one religion, belief, culture of race but makes efforts to understand the various perspectives and empowers person to form his or her opinion based on informed choices and understanding of issues from a wide perspective. As a leader, neutral education is need of the hour. The world is already strife ridden and propagating narrow worldview would only promote conflicts. The neutral education, on the other hand, would help understand people coming from different race, culture, religion, nationality. Effective leadership would help create special arena of cross cultural understanding where human values will outweigh tunnel vision of issues and conflicts and thereby promote universal values promoting peace and harmony. 2(c) Leadership style McShane defines a leader as ‘one who has vision, perseverance, and the capacity to inspire others’ (2003). Leadership in all areas assumes special meaning because it motivates and encourages that target group within the organization to improve performance outcome. There are primarily three types of leadership: directive; participative; and delegative. (US Army handbook, 1973). Directive leadership is prevalent in organizations where the locus of control is external. This type of leadership promotes target based organizational behaviour and helps facilitate psychological and predefined organizational structure for predetermined targets. Participative leadership encourages collective decision and mutual trust building to improve and improvise outcome. And in delegative leadership people are empowered to make decisions. As an educational leader, I would prefer participative leadership because it promotes collective decision making that is conducive to the increasingly changing environment of global competitiveness which necessitates adaptability to changing equations thereby, recognizing the wide scope of emerging opportunities. As Sjostrand and Tyrstrup reaffirm ‘leadership is all about managing creativity’ (2001) and it can only be done if there is shared vision and collective responsibility. (2d) Delegation and empowerment Delegative leadership is hugely popular in organizations that thrive on hierarchical structure of delegation of authority. In this type of leadership, though the leadership remains responsible for the outcome of the decisions, the employees have the freedom to make decision about the way the target is to be achieved and complete the work without any interference from the leadership. This type of leadership demands intrinsic trust and mutual understanding between the leadership and the workforce. In my capacity as educational leader, I would promote empowerment through delegation primarily because the students need to be exposed to wider experience of life. The empowered decision making would promote application of informed choices, which would inculcate confidence in them as a responsible young person. (2e) Vision and communication The leaders are visionary and the emerging new managerial leadership has encompassed a very important aspect of organizations, that of making effort to involve employees in the decision making process. Visionary leadership anticipates changes and recognizes the importance of people’s participation in the overall strategy of having collective goals through shared learning. Thus making it an intrinsic part of the work methodology which is characterized by the stability provided by the system and the integrated approach of the workers. Good leaders are able to effectively communicate with others and instil confidence. Effective communication helps to foster good relationship and even make friends of the enemies. Artful communication helps to build bridges and improvise situations which could move towards dangerous outcomes. The need to effectively communicate a message at crucial time facilitates linkages that have vast scope of building relationships in areas that may otherwise seem futile. Effective communication must make people understand and inspire them to act on the basis of understanding of the issues. Hence, leaders, who are visionary and are endowed with effective communication skill and cultural understanding, have the capability to influence the cultural identity of the group within the institute thus facilitating changes in the institutional culture to adapt to the changing environment. I would greatly promote these dictums of leadership. (917) Answer 3 Leadership proverbs 1. ‘Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average’ This is the most important principle of leadership. The effective leadership challenges the processes and promotes creativity and innovative practices that give a unique perspective to participatory approach of management and students. The motivating factor of leadership facilitates adaptability to changing equations, which occur due to rapidly changing environment of emerging new patterns in various organizational processes. It has another very important attribute of recognizing the wide scope of emerging opportunities. The empirical relationship of leaders and the emerging changes are critical for a given situation and therefore, good leadership demands a better informed leader who is capable of taking initiative and at the same time, he is also able to inculcate confidence in his followers to move forward. 2. ‘Leadership is action, not position’ Indeed, the leadership is not a position or a status but its is the inherent drive within the leadership to motivate and inspire others to improve and improvise their performance outcome. So a good leader always leads by example and helps build relationship based on mutual trust which inspires others to give their best. Education leaders are also responsible for advocating and nurturing a high standard of education while fostering a good relationship with the school community which includes the parents of the children. 3. ‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other’ Learning becomes a lifelong process for effective leaders. A well informed leader is capable of taking initiative and at the same time, he is also able to inculcate confidence in his people to move forward. It is especially relevant in the educational environment where students are coming from diverse background. Thus, it has become imperative to learn to interact with each other without racial prejudice. Educational leaders learn and teach to develop attitude and behaviour which is conducive for a mutually benefiting and tolerant society. 4. ‘A great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves’ Leaders possessing integrity and strong sense of care and empathy are better equipped to inculcate a sense of security within the organization during the changing dynamics of the current business processes. It is a fact that changing paradigms in the global business environment have brought forth a new set of uncertainties and risks that need to be addressed urgently. Good leaders build relationships based on mutual trust and confidence which is the main reason that changes are accepted with equanimity. In the educational institutes, peer leadership promotes and develops, quality education with scientific temperament incorporating the needs of the changing time. 5. ‘Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do’ It’s a highly appropriate principle of leadership. The effective leaders are versatile and are adept at exploiting the potential of their followers or workers as per the demands of the situation. Blanchard and Hersey have developed matrix model of leadership, better known as ‘situational leadership’ that analyzes the situation and then appropriate style of leadership is applied. It is especially relevant in the context of globalization which has promoted a multi-cultural work environment, comprising of people coming from different race, color and culture. They learn to interact with each other without racial prejudices. 6. ‘The only test of leadership is that somebody follows’ Leadership is an integral part of human social behaviour which is intricately linked with the followers. Managerial leadership can be defined as a persuasive communication skill which inspires others to achieve a common goal. It is a strong tool for promoting independent thought and actions with good analytical and rational approach towards issues and people thus facilitating and building relationships based on mutual trust and confidence which is the main reason that changes are accepted with equanimity. 7. ‘A leader is a dealer in hope’ Good leaders are optimistic and intrinsically believe in the goodness of human nature. That is reason that they are able to promote better understanding of cross cultural value system and help resolve workplace conflicts amicably. Their personal and professional ethics serve as example for others which inspire and motivate the people to achieve great heights. In educational institutes motivation is a remedy for dispelling monotony and infuses fresh enthusiasm and outlook towards the academics. 8. ‘Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach’ This is the fundamental principle of leadership. The good leadership teaches by becoming avid learners and learn from their followers who might be coming from different socio-cultural background. The conflicting ideologies and opinions become strong motivation for the leaders to learn and accept the cross cultural values within the organization. In academia, they also help create a cohesive and encouraging atmosphere where the workers can get effective learning environment that would provide them with a wider scope for personal and professional growth in the area of core competencies. 9. ‘Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality’ Leaders are visionary and have the capacity to anticipate the changes. Leaders create visions and goals for people, not only for self development but also for the organization and society at large. Discussion of leadership in education is important because leaders not only provide an intangible stability within the academia that comprises of students coming from cross cultural value systems and facilitate their integration with the system, but they are also known to promote collective vision. 10. ‘Leadership should be more participative than directive, more enabling than performing’ Participatory approach is important leadership principle. The leadership qualities have become vital tools to encourage people’s participation in the overall strategy of having collective goals through shared learning. It was realized that strategies rather than operative planning and decision making, became the main factor of managerial leadership (Chandler, 1977). In the context of education, these factors become fundamental to the development of the students as a responsible citizen. (968) Answer 4 In the fast changing societal norms, the role of leaders and administrators have become more challenging when new strategy and policy decisions are introduced in the organizations. It is especially true of administrators in the educational setting who have huge responsibility towards students, teachers, parents and communities at large. For effective discharge of their duties, the administrators must cultivate good ideas that can be effectively used in different contextual situations to diffuse tension and conflicts. Few of these ideas are: use good communication to resolve conflicts; promote adaptability towards change; be creative; take initiative to bring about constructive change; inculcate positive attitude to overcome adversity; promote commitment towards goals; inculcate confidence in their own capabilities; promote integrity to establish good credibility; have ethical considerations; develop nurturing attitude. Use good communication to resolve conflicts The idea of using good communication to resolve conflicts would be highly credible and intelligent initiative on the part of administrators in education setting. Effective communication helps to foster good relationship and even make friends of the enemies. Through artful communication conflicts can be resolved to build bridges and improvise situations which could move towards dangerous outcomes. The need to effectively communicate a message at crucial time facilitates linkages that have vast scope of building relationships in areas that may otherwise seem futile. Effective communication must make people understand and inspire them to act on the basis of understanding of the issues. Promote adaptability towards change Change is intrinsic part of life. The administrators and educational leaders use effective communication to disseminate information about the necessity to evolve and embrace change and encourage participatory approach to clear doubts. They promote collective decision for shared vision of the new strategy thus promoting better understanding among the employees for easy adaptability to change. Technology is one major area that creates insecurities within a person as well as provides them with vast scope of personal and professional growth. When organization is in the process of adopting newer technology which creates self doubt of the new technology and at the same time they become unsure about their own ability to successfully adapt the changes in their work practice. As a result of their irrational fear, they fight against any change to defend their position. Good leadership ensures decisions made on informed choices that enhance self confidence. Inculcate confidence in their own capabilities This is perhaps the most dynamic ideas of the leadership and administrators to improve and greatly facilitate improved performance outcome. In the educational setting, it becomes the most critical factor for the students to excel in their field. The encouraging learning environment and proactive participation promotes and inculcates self confidence and greater belief in their own abilities to achieve the desired and expected goals and formulate long term mission in life. To make a significant difference to the academia, it is important the leaders and administrators need to develop and enhance cross cultural relationship that must go beyond the officialdom in order to win the trust of the students. They must also become the link which would promote confidence building and strengthen interpersonal understanding with the group so that each of them becomes empowered and confident of themselves. Have ethical considerations In the fast changing social dynamics and deteriorating values, ethical considerations become highly relevant. The world is moving towards multi-cultural societies, hi-tech gadgets and lifestyle that are contributing towards non accountability of actions, environment degradation and fast depletion of natural resources. Ethics can be defined as value based conduct that is needed to lead a worthy life which serves the benefit of the people at large. The interpretations and rationalizations of one’s action and reactions are increasingly becoming inter-dependent on socio-cultural paradigms. Understanding of cross cultural value system needs to be promoted within and outside the society so that resolution of moral and ethical dilemma becomes easier. An informed leadership encourages ethics and moral accountability within one’s action and therefore promotes the development that incorporates better sense of social accountability and sustainable development. Develop nurturing attitude In the current environment of competitive business, the academia needs to initiate and introduce new culture that is based on human relationship. The consideration and importance of human interaction in the organizational culture have become crucial factor of success. The various aspects of the interactive elements of the organization, which may comprise of diverse ideologies and personal conflicts of the individuals, work together to produce a cohesive output representing the organizations unique objectives and goals. Indeed, the leadership has recognized the importance of people’s participation in the overall strategy of having collective goals through shared learning. Now the leaders and administrators nurture human resource and treat it as human capital that has potential to achieve great things. The administration and leadership, together encourage personal dialogues and promote inter-personal relationship to not only resolve conflicts but also to develop effective team and subsequently exemplary teamwork that thrives on mutual understanding, mutual respect, common goals and shared learning. (824) Reference Chandler, A D. (1977). The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 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