Blog 8.1 Competencies at Work<\/p>\n
The literature for LDRS Strategic Leadership shows a variety of competencies which are relevant for success in strategically leading organizations for example Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie (2014) have a list of \u201cStrategic Leadership Competencies Relevant for Success\u201d (pp. 268-69).<\/p>\n
Strategic planning<\/em> is one competency I plan to incorporate into my teaching. Lepsinger (2010) states having an \u201cAction Plan is the corner of execution\u201d (p.25). One way I will use strategic planning is through collaborating regularly with my different school departments (Socials, ELL and Career Life Education) as well as on-going collaboration with other educators within the district and across the province. When we meet up at school for monthly meetings we discuss things like what\u2019s new in the curriculum and ways in which we are implementing it in our classrooms. In my Career Life Education department for example, we meet up to share resources and are currently planning a school-wide Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) program that we will all teach from January \u2013April. The School District offers opportunities such as book workshops for various different departments who can sign up to attend 3-4 sessions at the school board office. In education things move quickly and there seem to be new adjustments that need to be incorporated all the time. Therefore having \u201ca well-thought-out action plan is one of the best tools you have to ensure that the factors required for effective execution are in place\u201d (Lepsinger, 2010, p.25).<\/p>\n A second competency I believe strongly in and will always employ in my teaching and leading is vision<\/em>. Unlike visualization where there is a tendency to have more control over what happens, vision is simply \u201ca clear and compelling aspiration\u201d (Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie, 2014, p.67). Hughes et al. (2014) also contend that \u201chaving a vision is about seeing something\u201d (p.65). When I was about twelve years old I remember vividly my old diving coach teach about the technique of visualizing our dives before we attempt them. His words of advice still stick with me all these years. Of course in terms of diving, visualizing and having some control over every step in the process of executing your dive is critical. I imagine many athletes think in these terms. Hughes et al. (2014) go on to say how \u201can organization\u2019s aspirations can give meaning to the work and energize people to do more than they thought they could or would\u201d (p. 67). As a teacher, it is beneficial to wield vision and help my students push themselves to achieve things they do not think are possible. The same is true as a coach. My vision for my swimmers is to keep propelling them to achieve their best time. Scholar Lepsinger (2010) explains how \u201cleading is in actuality the same as formulating a vision and strategy and engaging employees\u201d (p.205). So, leading therefore entails having a vision as well as stirring others up to grasp hold of the vision and bring it to completion.<\/p>\n A third competency I plan to continue utilizing in my teaching is maintaining a \u201cstrong moral base\u201d (Ungerer, Ungerer & Herholdt, 2016, p.42). I absolutely agree with Ungerer et al. (2016) who asserts \u201cwe clearly need leadership with a strong moral base\u201d (p.42). Being virtuous as a leader and ascribing to moral values, sets one apart from the world and is a breath of fresh air to people who have few good role models to emulate.\u00a0 Ungerer et al. (2016) emphasize the need for \u201cbetter leadership at all levels of management in all types of organisations\u201d (p.42). According to journalist Giustra (2018) \u201ctrue leaders-ones with courage and conviction- instinctively find their higher ground in times of crisis, when violence and intolerance seem to be ubiquitous\u201d (para 3). As Guistra points out, we need look no further than the lack of leadership qualities being exhibited in the last American midterm elections to note how lacking we are as a society to have so few moral and up-standing leaders left to imitate. Even in Canada, political leaders are making grave faux pas\u2019 like the fall of Tony Clement, former shadow Cabinet minister, and his fall from grace. For these reasons, it is paramount to build up future leaders in education and in all sorts of organizations who maintain a moral base.<\/p>\n Identify the competencies I believe will not work<\/u> in my organizational practice and why\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Galbraith (2014) leaders should be able to prioritize two or three things to work on (p.269). While this may sound fairly easy and uncomplicated in reality the high demands placed on teachers and administrative staff today necessitate a need to balance a lot more than just three priorities. If that were the case, not much would ever get done if teachers were only to focus on three things at a time. The truth of the matter is quite simply, every year teachers find there are more expectations put on them, more meetings to attend, more paper work to complete, and an ever growing mountain of performance standards to emulate. It is for this reason, I do not believe this competency can work in education. Teachers often need to prioritize multiple things in any given week. For example, this past week I had to focus on preparing lessons and teaching multiple subjects, prepping TTOC notes for my absence, coaching my swim team at Provincials, preparing what to say at a staff meeting as the rep. for Health & Safety , communicating with a few different special education assistants pertaining to the needs of our students and marking in order to notify students of any outstanding work before marks cut-off happens this Friday.<\/p>\n Another competency I do not believe will work in public education is having a business perspective. Hughes et al. (2014) states \u201cunderstanding the different perspectives of different areas in the business and having a firm grasp of external conditions affecting the organization\u201d is what it means to have a business perspective. Public education is something free for every citizen and is paid for by our tax dollars. There is no sales pitch in the end. If a parent chooses to pull their child out of the public system and place them in an independent school or home-school their child the public system does not bat an eye. Therefore to make the presumption a business perspective is needed in public education seems to me to be way off base. Alternatively, a business perspective is essential for my colleagues in private, independent schools who try to sell their schools to new families all the time.<\/p>\n Identify and critically evaluate the three most important principles<\/u> I discovered in course readings and how I will incorporate them into my organizational practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n The literature seems to talk a lot about the importance of acquiring substantial buy-in<\/em> (Hughes et al., 2014 and Lepsinger, 2010). I feel this is one essential principle from the course readings because without buy-in from your students or buy-in from your staff, the process of implementing anything is futile. One way a strategic leader can garner positive buy-in from others is by \u201cinviting others into the strategy-making process\u201d (Hughes et al., 2014, p.49). In this way Hughes et al., explain how this produces a better strategy than could have been developed in isolation\u201d (p.49). One example I have is our Christmas Extravaganza<\/em> which we implemented as a staff last year. The idea was first introduced at a staff meeting by the administration but teachers were quickly invited to share their ideas and form a planning committee. By opening up the conversation and inviting in-put from all the staff we were able to ensure great buy-in from everyone and the event turned out to be a great success.<\/p>\n Being able, as a strategic leader, to initiate organizational innovation<\/em> is one important principle I found in the course readings. Last year at one of our staff meetings in November one of our administrators decided it was time to start a new tradition in celebration of Christmas and this led to our schools very first Christmas Wonderland Theme Festivities. One idea that caught hold was the idea to not just celebrate for ourselves to enjoy, but rather to engage the entire school in looking for ways to do some good in the community and to bless others. We raised a significant sum of money last year and collected food for the homeless shelter but I have pondered how we could add to what we already started last year and make it even more successful. So, I proposed bringing in a celebrity guest speaker students would want to pay money to have their photo taken with this person and I also thought we could encourage a toy drive. In this way, teachers have the opportunity to implement organizational innovation. However, sometimes in an attempt to adopt new concepts hastily, grey areas might be overlooked. While organizational innovation might sound like a great collaborative idea it can have its draw-backs. At our school of 2040 students plus approximately 140 staff, trying to incorporate everyone\u2019s voice in a decision is next to impossible. There will always be someone whose voice goes unheard.<\/p>\n A third important principle found in the literature and course readings is the importance leader behavior (Lepsinger, 2010). Lepsinger (2010) stresses how \u201cleader behavior is the key to effectively managing change\u201d (p.165). While it may be true, a leader\u2019s behavior plays a critical role in the change process, it is also difficult to manipulate if the individual is unwilling to change.<\/p>\n Identify and critically evaluate the three least important principles<\/u> I discovered in the course readings and explain why they are irrelevant to my organizational experience and future.<\/strong><\/p>\n Managing conflicting perspectives<\/em> is one area I feel is not relevant to my school environment. For one, everyone has different character traits, life experiences and educational areas of expertise. Moreover, teachers come from diverse cultures, and have different worldviews. It makes little sense to invest any time in trying to manage conflicting perspectives when there will naturally always be conflicting perspectives amongst a staff of 140. The Humanities department, for example, will always have a different mind-set towards essay writing than the Math and Science departments and the PE teacher\u2019s will always have a different view of athletes than most academic subject teachers.<\/p>\n Acting systemically<\/em> is one more principle I feel is not very germane to my high school environment. Hughes et al. (2010) ask \u201cTo what extent do I understand the political nature of the organization and work appropriately within it\u201d (p.268)? I feel this point is absolutely not important. I may work in a unionized environment and many public school teachers support the NDP party, but I have different political interests and my employer cannot persuade me to vote a certain way. I was quite appalled when I received an email from the Langley Teachers Association (LTA) advising me of which School board Trustees they were supporting in our municipal election last month. I found their covert tactics very inappropriate. Why does the LTA feel the need to choose which candidate\u2019s teachers should support in a political election? We live in a democracy and I teach my students the importance of exercising their democratic right to vote. In my opinion, the teachers union is overstepping their boundaries and for this reason I feel acting systemically is irrelevant.<\/p>\n The business perspective<\/em> is another principle which does not pertain to public education as public education is not a business, it is a free service for all Canadian children. Some schools are a business like Faith based schools which must sell their school to mostly like-minded parents who hold the same values and want their children to be taught within its structure. Having a business savvy mindset is thus beneficial.<\/p>\n Identify, from my critical evaluation of course texts, the least effective course text material I discovered during my investigation strategic leadership principles and why I see them as least effective (personally or corporately).<\/strong><\/p>\n The one book I found least effective for me is Navigating Strategic Possibilities: Strategy Formulation and Execution Practices to Flourish <\/em>(Ungerer et al. (2016). For one, I like reading books and because it was impossible to purchase this book from South Africa I ended up printing the entire thing. Reading realms of paper versus a nice succinct book made it difficult for me to really enjoy Ungerer et al. Instead, it was so much easier for me to pick up my other three books which I highlighted and flip to the appropriate pages. Furthermore, I do not think it is wise to offer a course text which must be read on Kindle or printed only. I need something in my hand to read and mark up so Kindle is not my preference for reading. My next least favorite text is Designing Organizations (Galbraith, 2014).The language of the book was focused on the business world and many business examples were used but I did not find the book overly useful for public education. The book kept using business examples when I could not see the cross-over between business and public school education. For example, Galbraith speaks about employee recognition systems used for rewarding outstanding performance and he goes on to say \u201cthe truly high performers are anointed to the 100 Percent Club, win a trip to Hawaii..\u201d(p.51). In public education there are no rewards for our teaching efforts. It\u2019s all unionized and if there is any merit it is not based on how many students score 99% it is rather based on how many years have you been teaching in the system and what is your seniority like. That is the only way one advances. In terms of recognition, we are fortunate to be awarded a 25 year teaching pin from the School board but no financial bonus or free trip to Hawaii.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n Giustra, F. (2018, November 13). Will America’s Cato emerge to save republic? Retrieved November 19, 2018, from https:\/\/www.pressreader.com\/canada\/vancouver-sun\/20181113\/281633896264702<\/p>\n Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Second Edition.<\/p>\n Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.<\/p>\n Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating Strategic Possibilities\u202f: Strategy Formulation and Execution Practices to Flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing. Retrieved from https:\/\/ezproxy.student.twu.ca\/login?url=http:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1427028&site=eds-live<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blog 8.1 Competencies at Work The literature for LDRS Strategic Leadership shows a variety of competencies which are relevant for success in strategically leading organizations for example Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie (2014) have a list of \u201cStrategic Leadership Competencies Relevant for Success\u201d (pp. 268-69). Business perspective Strategic Planning Organizational decision making Managing conflicting perspectives Acting … <\/p>\n