Unit 5 Activity 2: Internal and External Actions

In order for a team to be effective and purposeful, team leaders must regularly take internal and external actions. Internal leadership actions are either task-based or relational-based while external leadership actions are environmental based (Rowe& Guerrero, 2011, p. 314).

At my work, my department head, Lisa, is the team leader for our program. She regularly performs all of the internal and external leadership actions listed by Rowe and Guerrero (2011, p. 315). Lisa works closely with our team of teachers and with our vice-principal to ensure that our program runs smoothly and optimally. She exemplifies the qualities of a strategic team leader. Generally as a team, we are working fairly independently in our own courses. However, we often come together to work on bigger projects like curriculum implementation and strategies for student enrolment growth.

Internal task-based actions include “goal focusing, structuring for results, facilitating decision making, training, and maintaining standards” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 313). “Organizational mission, vision, and and values are important aspirational components that create meaning and purpose” (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 24). Lisa often reminds us that the mission of the district’s online program is to provide students with an alternate option that offers flexibility while maintaining educational integrity. To help ensure we are meeting our goals, Lisa identifies and uses strategic drivers to help align us with the program’s vision. Lisa regularly reviews our course and student numbers to ensure that our loads are structured properly. When decisions need to be made regarding specific courses, she supports teachers with feedback and suggestions while still allowing each teacher his or her autonomy in the course. In our group of teachers, Lisa has been teaching online the longest and as such, she is the most familiar with policies and programs. She provides training for new online teachers as well as training sessions for program updates during professional development days. Most importantly, Lisa maintains the standards of the online program but role modelling it in her own practice and also reminding us as a group the importance of providing each student with the best education possible. In doing these tasks, Lisa completes all the internal task-based leadership actions regularly.

Internal relational actions include “coaching, collaborating, managing conflict, building commitment, satisfying needs, and modeling principles” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 315). One of the roles of a good leader is to “build community to provide a place where people can feel safe and connected with others, but are still allowed to express their own individuality” (Northouse, 2016, p. 229). It is evident that Lisa strives to create a culture where open communication is encouraged and conflict resolution is accomplished as smoothly as possible. On many occasions, Lisa has coached the team on how handle certain situations with students or parents. She also regularly encourages us to work together as a team whenever possible to share new ideas and practices that we have found successful in our individual courses. When team members have experienced conflict with each other, Lisa mediates the resolution by encouraging members to express their perspectives calmly and to compromise as much as possible. Lisa works to enhance team commitment by building trust and supporting the needs of the teachers (Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 315). She consistently models the principles that she encourages and expects from the team.

External leadership actions include “networking, advocating, negotiating support, buffering, assessing, and sharing information” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 313). Perhaps Lisa’s most impressive leadership action is her ability to advocate for us as teachers. She is constantly in conversations with our vice-principal and our district’s teacher union to negotiate more support for our team. Lisa is always networking with other distributed learning programs to learn about new practices and supports that are available for teachers. She regularly participates in provincial committees to learn about the new curriculum and expectations and then relays that information to our team.

While I was reading this chapter 11 in Rowe and Guerrero’s (2011) book, I could not help but feel blessed that I work under such strong leadership in my current position. My department head truly embodies the characteristics of a strong team leader and consistently practices the internal and external actions needed for optimal team development and maintenance.

References

Hughes, R. L., Colarelli Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rowe, G. W. & Guerrero, L. (2011). Cases in Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.