Hi Rob,
Original post here.
Thank you for giving us a glimpse into your workplace. It sounds like you are very happy working there, and after some of our discussions for our second team assignment, I am glad that you have found a great place to serve! I appreciate how you began by framing your discussion with the mission of your school, “Committed to Academic Excellence with Biblical Principles” (Tegelberg, 2018). “In all areas of communication the administration and staff members are transparent about their concerns and their desire to fulfill God’s plan for our school” (Tegelberg, 2018). I appreciate the way your organization has utilized the mission, vision, and values to concentrate and align everyone towards one goal. Levi (2014) states, “In a cooperative team, all team members are motivated by the team’s goals. This motivation is mutually reinforced or encouraged” (p. 89). I wonder, though, what happens when a staff member loses focus or becomes misaligned in your organization? Are there repercussions or stated consequences? Levi (2014) warns “Highly cooperative groups tend to become highly cohesive… however, this can also create problems because the team becomes too oriented toward itself” (p. 90). His point, further along, is that a team can “demand conformity from its members…[making] the team resistant to outside influence and resistant to changing the way it operates” (p. 90). Have you seen any hints of this happening, and if so, how does the leadership deal with it? Or do they even notice, as sometimes these areas can be blindspots?
I, too, have worked for a school that is run by a single church, where the “administration is mostly made up of members of the founding church” (Tegelberg, 2018), whereas the staff comes from various churches. As I read this, I wondered if there have been any issues arising from this structure? For example, in my experience, there were seasons of time where the board ran the school but weren’t involved. They didn’t have a vision for the school other than a place for their members to send their children. It became insular and self-breeding, almost nepotism-like. It was difficult to get different points of view from the leadership because they hired their own. I wonder if you have run into this issue at your school yet?
“The development of the positive attitude of the staff came through prioritizing staff prayer times, staff worship times, and through modelling servant leadership on the part of the administration” (Tegelberg, 2018). This is a wonderful example of Lepsinger’s (2010) quote “If you or members of your team take the first step and model cooperative behavior, you’ll increase the likelihood that people you depend on to get work done will respond the same way” (p. 178). The fact that you see your leadership as servants as inspiring. It causes me to wonder how my team views my leadership, and if they find me servant-hearted? Maybe because I’m questioning it is a good sign that I wish to act in this way?! However, I wonder how the modelling of servant leadership cause you to serve others? Can you be specific? Sergiovanni (2007) states “Morally based leadership transforms schools from ordinary organizations to communities. This transformation can inspire the kind of commitment, devotion, and service that will make our school unequal among society’s institutions” (p. 39). The description of your school causes me to equate it with this type of ‘morally based leadership,’ especially when you write “The greatest skill I have drawn from in this environment, is before dealing with any conflict, meet in prayer with the parties involved” (Tegelberg, 2018). The testimony of your workplace is inspirational to me, and causes me to aspire to this level of transformational servant leadership. Thank you for sharing!
References:
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.
Levi, D. (2014). Group dynamics for teams. (4th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Tegelberg, R. (2018). Conflict and Cooperation. Unpublished document. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/robtegelberg/2018/11/12/post-7-1-conflict-and-cooperation/
Sergiovanni, T. (2007). Rethinking leadership: a collection of articles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.