Building Collaborative Relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n Education is a career about people.\u00a0 Investing in the strong teaching ability of my colleagues has no down side. Supporting, encouraging, assisting them in developing better practices in their own classroom and in broader school involvement reaps great reward for their students, the parent community, and our school\u2019s peaceful functioning.\u00a0 A positive work environment benefits everyone.<\/p>\n Having a strategic premise in thinking, acting, and influencing my work environment involves my relationship with my administrator.\u00a0 Strengthening collaborative relationship also strengthens our administrator\u2019s ability to fulfill their diverse leadership responsibilities; our school of 300 students has one 80% administrator and no vice principal with whom to share the leadership responsibilities. My colleagues and I need to develop a cohesive unit to best enable short-term leadership decisions which foster our long term MVV mandate and goals (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 249).\u00a0 It is easy to criticize decisions without full knowledge of the factors involved and many staff members do this from the comfortable position of knowing they have no accountability.<\/p>\n Strategic Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n Strategic Planning is necessary on both a personal level as well as a professional level.<\/p>\n Personally – \u201cBehaviour change can be tough\u201d according to Hughes et al. (2014, p. 269) which includes monitoring our own behavioural tendencies and not just our employees\u2019 behaviours.\u00a0 Wong (2018, para. 3), in his response to Kunal\u2019s post, reflected on the need for self-management and self-regulation when developing any strategic leadership competencies.\u00a0 Kunal was not as optimistic about the benefits of self-management in his organization (Kunal, 2018, para. 4).\u00a0 The starting point for change is with me; I must model the changes and behaviours I hope to develop in others.<\/p>\n Professionally \u2013 The beginning of influencing others is consistency with positive results.\u00a0 Most people want to fell valued (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 57), effective, and included in decision-making at work (Zhang, 2018, para. 11).\u00a0 \u201cSupporting individuals in changing the behaviours that will strengthen their leadership effectiveness is establishing an active learning and developmental support network\u201d (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 269).<\/p>\n Acting Systemically<\/strong><\/p>\n Since our new curriculum shift mandated by the BC Ministry of Education, I have witnessed an intense increase of complexities in decision-making at the school level.\u00a0 Continual downloading of responsibility from the ministry to districts to schools demands strategic thinking for both short-term and long-term efficiency.\u00a0 Decisions are interconnected which creates large impacts for even seemingly small changes in directions (Atha, 2018, para. 11).\u00a0 A domino effect can easily occur if adherence to the MVV is disregarded; recovery is often slow as well as costly.\u00a0 \u2018Act in haste, repent at leisure\u2019.\u00a0 A vision for systemic growth or enhancement is connected to a broader understanding than the myopic view we often have of remedying our immediate discomfort.<\/p>\n Less Relevant Right Now<\/strong><\/p>\n I agree with my course colleagues that a business perspective<\/em> is not a particularly relevant competency in an educational setting (Seabreeze, 2018, para 12; Warkentin, 2018, para. 12).\u00a0 The public schools have individual personas, but there is no real brand to promote, profits to consider, or market profitability to consider.\u00a0 Independent institutions may need to consider the business perspective more closely due to the tuition and donation responsibilities which is a situation not in my immediate requirement.<\/p>\n Organizational decision-making<\/em> is not even possible in my employee position right now, so this competency does not merit any immediate consideration. More information would be needed if I were to attempt real organizational involvement.\u00a0 I intend to be more strategic in the decisions I do make to better prepare for the possibility of influencing organizational change.<\/p>\n Image retrieved from https:\/\/ninaamir.com\/monday-inspiration-create-a-domino-effect\/<\/p><\/div>\n 3 IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES<\/strong><\/p>\n Building up others.<\/em>\u00a0 Our greatest resource in schools are the people.\u00a0 Teachers, educational assistants, administrators, parents, and students rely on us to rise above our self-serving tendencies to go beyond for their success.\u00a0 Empowering others is essential for life-long learning, strong decision-making, and truly impacting the world beyond our school walls (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 102).<\/p>\n Personal management<\/em>. Expecting top performance from others means it must be evident in my own life first; why would anyone want to take my lead if I don\u2019t hold my self accountable?\u00a0 \u201cIt means quite simple, that expectations matter\u201d (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 55).\u00a0 Five of my grandchildren were staying at our house this past summer when I was taking LDRS 503.\u00a0 My oldest grandson asked me, \u201cDoes everyone have to study and work this hard when you grow up?\u201d\u00a0 I told him everyone has to work but not everyone has to do as much work as I have been doing.\u00a0 I explained to him that this was the only way to achieve some of my goals and I have high expectations for my learning; he thought taking more school when you didn\u2019t have to was crazy. He is 10. Managing self is a full-time job and is important for both leaders and employees (Ungerer et al., 2017, p. 366).<\/p>\n Balancing cooperation and competition<\/em> (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 176). When everyone is not fighting to survive or trying to be heard (Zhang, 2018, para.11), there is more cooperation to work toward commonly held goals and expectations.\u00a0 The human struggle for dominance can be disguised in many ways in the workplace and seems to come out when stress increases.\u00a0 Interdependence (Galbraith, 2014, p. 9) seems obvious in any organization; success is more likely when synergy is created through common visions (Galbraith, 2014, p. 255).\u00a0 Competition is healthy when it spurs me on to improve my own game; the same competitive spirit is detrimental when it causes employees to malign colleagues and usurp opportunities simply for personal gain.\u00a0 Recognizing better strategic thinking and planning happens when I remove myself from possible competitive situations and support the success of others (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 59).<\/p>\n 3 LEAST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES<\/strong><\/p>\n Strategic leadership is a series of skills which need to work in unison to varying degrees. It is not wise to lay aside any of the principles since I have learned to expect the unexpected: what you think is least likely to happen will most likely happen when you least expect it or are least prepared to deal with it.\u00a0 While I understand the interconnectedness of strategic consciousness (thinking, planning, acting, influencing) and the danger of disregarding some principles, the following three principles are less applicable to my current organizational situation.<\/p>\n Involving the right people for the right decision<\/em>. I have no control over choosing people nor am I in a position to allocate responsibilities or opportunities for my colleagues. People often have latent skills or talents which are not readily evident in the day-to-day functions of work, so it is important to keep an open mind about who may be the right person in any work situations.\u00a0 Maintain a positive perspective about the possible contributions of others (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 111).<\/p>\n Establishing a reward system.<\/em>\u00a0 There are very few rewards in education beyond a compliment or card.\u00a0 The idea of financial bonuses or job promotions as rewards for a job well done (Galbraith, 2014, p. 45) is foreign to education.\u00a0 Paying for and completing course work may bring a kind of reward but it is self-acknowledged reward.<\/p>\n Staff rotations<\/em>. Moving staff among the various grade levels or staff positions (Galbraith, 2018, p. 145) is not easily done or allowed in education.\u00a0 While it may increase our understanding of the continuum of learning and child development, being adept at one or two grade levels or subject specialities is important for the strength of a program.\u00a0 This principle is not as necessary as it might be in a business environment.<\/p>\n TEXTBOOK CONTEXT\u00a0\u00a0 The more business-oriented texts of Galbraith and Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt were challenging to decipher, embrace, and apply.\u00a0 Galbraith was the most difficult to adapt to education.\u00a0 Reading all the business examples did not translate well into the educational setting since we have much different data to consider for documenting our growth and success.<\/p>\n Ungerer et al. was challenging due to the online version being the only accessible text.\u00a0 The search features of online texts, highlighting, and bookmarking are great tools to use.\u00a0 When referring to text pages our team had to be clear about the content of the pages between online texts and hardcopies.\u00a0 At least with Strategic Possibilities<\/em> we were literally all on the same page.\u00a0 Although uncomfortable, using the one digital textbook expanded my skills and made me aware of the work of learning many people encounter in new environments.\u00a0 Empathy acquired.\u00a0 I also became more familiar with WhatsApp, Zoom, and blogging as we used these communication tools to develop teamwork and synergistic focus.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Atha, D. (2018). Systems thinking: A systems thinking primer: Seeing organizations in action. [Course notes]. Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ldrs501\/unit-3-learning-activities\/<\/a><\/p>\n Galbraith, J. R. (2014).\u00a0Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the\u00a0business unit and enterprise levels<\/em>. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014).\u00a0Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in\u00a0your organization\u2019s enduring success<\/em>. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n Lepsinger, R. (2010).\u00a0Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get\u00a0results<\/em>. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons<\/p>\n Singla, K. (2018). Strategic leadership competencies. [Blog post] Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ldrs501\/2018\/11\/20\/strategic-leadership-compoetencies\/<\/a><\/p>\n Seabreeze. (2018). Blog 8.1 strategic competencies at work. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/seabreeze\/2018\/11\/21\/blog-8-1-strategic-competencies-at-work\/<\/a><\/p>\n Warkentin, M. (2018). Contextualizing. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ldrs501\/2018\/11\/22\/contextualizing\/<\/a><\/p>\n Wong, S. (2018). The importance of building personal competency for success. [Blog post] Retrieved from https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/chiefanalyerofthings\/2018\/11\/22\/the-importance-of-building-personal-competency-for-success\/<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/ninaamir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/mikado-1013878_1920.jpg\")
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