{"id":308,"date":"2018-10-09T22:06:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T05:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/?p=308"},"modified":"2018-10-10T05:14:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:14:39","slug":"no-other-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/2018\/10\/09\/no-other-way\/","title":{"rendered":"No Other Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Other Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The very nature of an educational setting requires the inherent practice of Transformational Servant Leadership (TSL) tenets delineated in Imbenzi, Page, and Willaume\u2019s (2013) leadership monograph (paras. 20-32).\u00a0 Since education requires a people-centered focus and TSL focuses on being \u201ccommitted to helping each person grow personally and professionally\u201d (Northouse, 2013, p. 222), it seems there is no alternative to educational leadership than the TSL way.\u00a0 The top four features of TSL leader critical to empowering everyone in an educational organization (Northouse, pp. 221-223):<\/p>\n

1) Listening<\/p>\n

2) Empathy<\/p>\n

3) Commitment to the growth of the people<\/p>\n

4) Building community.<\/p>\n

TSL Meets the Education Demands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a TSL led school, both the leader and the follower will be transformed through the practice of decision making that adheres to serving others.\u00a0 Practicing TSL in the classroom changes the traditional structure of authority to one where the teacher focuses on instilling life-long skills, attitudes, and understandings that transcend the classroom (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 43).\u00a0 TSL is a timely and necessary element in our BC classrooms since the provincial mandate includes the requirement to prepare students to be successful in a future that is \u201cdifferent from the one we envisioned even 10 or 15 years ago\u201d (BC Curriculum, 2018).\u00a0 This need transcends the system of education in any country and can only be truly filled through the TSL path which prepares people to face challenges, develop consistent flexibility, and continually build strong relationships through mutual trust, respect, and reliability.<\/p>\n

Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

An educational setting must also meet the needs of the staff who work there to equip them to build up the students.\u00a0 The staff \u2013 teachers, EAs, custodians, itinerant support staff, administration \u2013 cannot adequately meet the current diverse demands of the student population without feeling supported and cared for themselves.<\/p>\n

1) TSL leaders ensure there is adequate self-care measures and reminders to mitigate the constant outpouring of energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.\u00a0 Without restoration through a caring work environment, people succumb to the stress and discouragement, disillusionment, and burnout (Northouse, 2013, p. 222).<\/p>\n

2) TSL leaders focus on caring for their staff and are aware of individual personal needs. They pay specific attention to how people are valued and empowered (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 2).<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 TSL leaders assist their followers to develop their own skills and abilities for more effective participation in the organization\u2019s purpose of educating students.<\/p>\n

4) TSL leaders find ways to access appropriate resources to enhance their followers\u2019 ability to meet the mission, vision, and values (MVV) of any school site (Northouse, 2013, p. 228).<\/p>\n

STRATEGIC SERVANT LEADERSHIP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consistent decision-making which maintains the focus on the learning institution\u2019s MVV allows for the TSL leader to consider individuality for the followers within the commonly understood context of the school\u2019s mandate.\u00a0 A servant leader is not someone who is weak and unable to lead others in a common direction.\u00a0 To the contrary, a servant leader must be so strong in character and purposeful in vision that they are able to consistently and reliably lead others through changing circumstances, fostering trust and respect among all the followers.<\/p>\n

Personal Leadership Considerations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ephesians 4 speaks to the task of leaders\u2014more specifically teachers\u2014in preparing people to serve so that everyone is built up.\u00a0 The leaders cannot be \u201ctossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men\u201d (Eph. 4:14, NIV).\u00a0 TSL leaders act in the full knowledge of their strengths as well as their limitations to develop other people first (Northouse, 2013, p. 219).<\/p>\n

Visioning<\/strong><\/p>\n

This strategic competency (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 75) is necessary to lead the school or district to where it needs to go for the successful enhancement of all its participants.\u00a0 Parents, students, staff, administrators, school boards, and trustees need to know that leadership is heading in the right direction and is doing so on budget.\u00a0 Servant leaders make all decisions in congruency with the MVV and to empower others to also see their place in the vision (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 77).\u00a0 \u201cCrafting a realistic vision and gaining employee buy-in\u201d (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 6) is a necessary part to close the gap between what the followers know they should do and what they are able to do.<\/p>\n

Reframing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using the ability to see things differently, servant leaders can reframe decisions to include the diversity of ideas among their staff rather than exclude individual perspectives (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 83).\u00a0 When there are so many educated people in varying stages of professional development with personal pedagogical mindsets, framing the potential of situations and necessary decisions as positive possibilities has a powerful effect on staff cohesiveness.<\/p>\n

CRITICAL THINKING AS A TSL LEADER<\/strong><\/p>\n

If critical thinking involves data collection, analysis, reasoned arguments, and relevant application (Atha, 2018, para. 2) then a TSL leader must use critical analysis in their key decisions.\u00a0 Critical thinking must be clear and devoid of personal influence to ensure decisions are collectively beneficial.\u00a0 Is it even possible to be a transformational leader without critical analysis?<\/p>\n

Jesus presented a clear example of servant leadership that transformed lives through clear rational, open-minded thought that was also fully in line with His God-assigned mission here on earth (John 6:38).\u00a0 He did not veer from this mission but maintained a consistent delivery in word and in deed regardless of who he was interacting with as he travelled with and taught his disciples. He knew his purpose and served others with humility, caring, and singular focus.<\/p>\n

TSL leaders must bring a similar mindset to their workplace. Singular focus while maintaining both the soft side and the hard side of strategic, critical thinking (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 62).\u00a0 The traits of critical thinking which include humility, perseverance, and responsibility provide the TSL school leader with the stability required to lead well.\u00a0 There are so many changes that occur each day when serving others in a school.\u00a0 Knowing that leadership has clarity of vision and consistently applies the rigour of critical thinking to important decisions creates an environment of trust and reduces anxiety.<\/p>\n

The transformational servant leadership model is necessary in our schools and in all levels of educational administration.\u00a0 We are in the business of building people up to reach their own personal potential and we need consistent focus on well-reasoned and data-supported goals that have enduring qualities.\u00a0 There is no other way to fully meet our educational mandate for producing students who can face the increasing demands of the 21st<\/sup> century world that is changing faster than we can react.\u00a0 Serving others through leadership builds capacity in everyone.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Atha, D. (2018). Learning activity 0.2: Critical thinking.<\/em>\u00a0 Course Learning Notes. Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ldrs501\/activity-0-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n

BC Curriculum. (2018).\u00a0 Path to Graduation<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/curriculum.gov.bc.ca\/graduation<\/a><\/p>\n

Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization\u2019s enduring success.<\/em>\u00a0 San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n

Imbenzi, G., Page, D., & Williaume, D. (2013).\u00a0Transformational servant leadership<\/em>. Unpublished manuscript, Master of Arts in Leadership. Trinity Western University: Langley, Canada.<\/p>\n

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results.<\/em> San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n

Northhouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. <\/em>(6th<\/sup> ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Other Way The very nature of an educational setting requires the inherent practice of Transformational Servant Leadership (TSL) tenets delineated in Imbenzi, Page, and Willaume\u2019s (2013) leadership monograph (paras. 20-32).\u00a0 Since education requires a people-centered focus and TSL focuses on being \u201ccommitted to helping each person grow personally and professionally\u201d (Northouse, 2013, p. 222),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,96,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-education","category-ldrs501","category-post-2-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/sally81\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}