Response to Seabreeze’s 8.1 Competencies at work
Hi Seabreeze!
I agree with what you write about action planning. It is an extremely effective tool in management. There are two things that I find difficult with action planning. In my school, we are required to do action plans, however once they are submitted, they don’t get looked at again. I do action plans on my own but they are not in place for the entire organization. Lepsinger (2010) discusses action plans can be seen as ineffective or useless in organizations. “I find it startling how many of them treat the action plan as an obligatory administrative device rather than a useful tool to help manage the business” (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 28). How will you encourage staff to utilize action plans rather than view them as just another obligatory paperwork?
I really appreciate your discussion of a vision in relation to your experience with diving. “We have emphasized the value of developing and communicating a vision that people can see, and one big reason it’s important is that a vivid vision can touch hearts as well as heads” (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 69). Under the guidance of your diving coach, the vision must’ve touched your head and your heart if it still remains with you to this day. “Great vision and detailed plans amount to nothing if they aren’t carried out with purpose” (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 20). It is important that there is a vision in place, but even more important that people can see and believe in the vision or else its meaning will be lost.
Your discussion of leading with strong morals reminds me of something I wrote in my other course, LDRS 620, this week that I would like to share.
There are many examples throughout history in which we have seen leaders abuse their power as a leader. Nouwen confirms this in discussing the patterns of historical leaders giving in to temptation in political, military, economic and spiritual power. (Nouwen, 1989). In reflection on Nouwen’s (1989) “leadership, for a large part, means to be led”. (p. 75), I am immediately drawn to some of my reflections from David Koyzis in which he reminds us there is no position in the world in which one person holds all of the power. Koyzis, (2014) teaches that even the person in the highest position of power is still under the authority of God. (Koyzis, 2014). There is no person on Earth who deserves more in life than another person. Each person should be given equal chance and opportunity. Koyzis (2014) reminds us that we are not to abuse our power as leaders, but rather use our power in leadership as a means to live by setting an example of living under the authority of God. I believe that this is what Nouwen is telling us. We are never the powerful and all-knowing God no matter how high our position of leadership. We are and always will be faced with situations where we being led in our learning.
(Oberle S., LDRS 620, 2018).
Leading with strong morals is essential.
I Strongly agree with you when you write about the need for individuals to be willing to change in order for change to happen. This is a struggle in my school. Many of the staff are not only resistant to change, but openly refuse the ideas and attempts at implementing change. A leader can only do so much. If the individual refuses to try and implement the changes, perhaps they do not align with the vision of the organization. In teaching, this becomes extremely difficult because the people who are unwilling to make changes are protected by union and contract agreements. This poses many challenges for the leader.
I appreciate your thoughts on business perspective as I had a more difficult time seeing how this fits in education and now I can see that it does. My school is faith-based, so we are kind of like a business in trying to attract families to enroll their children in our school.
Thanks for the post!
Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Second Edition.
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Oberle S., (2018) Unit 5 forum: section D: from leading to being led. Retrieved from: https://learn.twu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=37822
Koyzis, D. T. (2014). We answer to another: Authority, Office, and the Image of God. [https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781630875510/cfi/6/8!/4/2/2@0.00:0]. https://doi.org/. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781630875510/cfi/6/10!/4/2/76/4@0:100
Nouwen, H.J. M. (19921001). In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. [VitalSource]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780824520922/