Category: Post 2.1

Dear Marcelo,

Thank you for your response to my post. I found this comment interesting, “Many times I also have to learn to read “between the lines.” I must speak from what I experience. I am aware that Paraguayans do not speak directly, but one needs to learn to interpret what is being said. One can easily make a mistake when you don’t understand correctly specific observations or does not understand the comments.” It reminded me of the need to create “shared understanding” as found in Hughes et al. (2014). Your explanation highlights how different communication can be in various cultures. As an International Coordinator, I work with East Asian students, families, and agents. I find it imperative to get clarity and agreement on the smallest of details, and then I put it in writing after to verify the conversation. I have learned to not move to the next step of the issue until all parties have agreed on the meaning. As I read the example of working in Paraguay as the senior administrator, this process could get tedious, needing a lot of patience on your part.

Thank you for providing me with an example of how people in your culture do not always respond positively to TSL principles. “When I say that some people do not respond well to some servant leadership skills is that occasionally people do not want to take part in the decision-making process, for example. People want me, as a principal to decide. They don’t want me to ask, “what do you think?” You point out an interesting paradox between serving versus being seen as weak. As this is your second year in the MAEL program, have you found any change in people’s responses to your willingness to serve? Is it becoming more accepted as you practice the competencies in your organization? Do you find you must be strategic in how you implement your service? Lepsinger (2010) says “To make a good decision, you must seek out the perspectives of a wide range of people. Involving people in decisions gets them focused on generating solutions to problems rather than complaining or waiting to be told what to do” (p. 14). This must be very difficult, as you mention, “Some are so used to the top-down decision-making process that they believe the leader has all the authority to decide without asking. I had my secretary tell me the first year that I was not a leader since I allowed others to decide as well.” What an interesting walk you have!!

“I add the word situational because the leader picks and chooses the time and with whom to fully apply servant leadership skills. I might be wrong of course, but this has been my experience.”  I appreciate the explanations you have provided for me. I have learned something new today, and I feel led to pray for strength for you, as well as wisdom. God bless!

Stella

References:

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hello Sea Breeze,

Wonderful post on behalf of Change Makers, ET2 group! You have provided a lot of food for thought for me to consider.

“Servant leadership would therefore bring about more engagement from staff (Hughes et al., 2014, p.56).  Staff would feel loved and appreciated.  They would be encouraged to emulate their servant leader and would thus start performing at a higher level.”  I find the linkage of “more engagement” to ‘feeling loved and appreciated” an interesting comment. I wonder if this criterion is needed for most people to be engaged at a higher capacity? Are you speaking for yourself personally? For me, I don’t need to feel loved, but I do need to be respected.  Also, I was in a senior administrator meeting today where there was a conversation about the lack of staff engagement even though there have been several transformational servant leadership competencies applied to these specific teachers. Being strategic in ones TSL can be difficult to implement also.

“At staff meetings, there would be more participation and open-ness to experimenting with the new curriculum.  Negativity, pride, selfishness and gossip would all flee.  If servant leadership were the central focus of strategic leadership in schools, there would be a new revolution.” I also find this an interesting interpretation of the effects of strategic TSL. As we are in different sectors of the education system, you in public and me in private, I wonder if you interpret the public-school system as non-strategic TSL? I get that sense when I read your post. Maybe I am interjecting, so this is why I ask. I would consider my school as striving for strategic TSL, and yet there are still negativity, pride, selfishness, and gossip found in the staff culture. As humans, we are prone to walk in the flesh, participating in the fruits of the flesh (Galatians 5). However, as strategic TSL leaders, the job is to cast vision higher (ex. towards the Lord, towards a better future) so that the fleshly expressions are dampened. We inspire to give hope, to take the thoughts off of the difficult day-to-day work we do, reminding people of the calling we have. Maybe we are saying the same thing but it seems your description is too utopian!? Let me know.

“I think TSL is a great strategy to implement in educational settings and would work best in a Christian school environment where all teachers are at least on the same page and the Christian school community would rise up and eagerly support with little or no backlash.”  To be sure, being in a Christian school environment provides leaders the opportunity to acknowledge the desire to follow and be like Jesus. However, it is my also my experience in the public-school environment when I did my teaching practicum recently, that the passion for making a difference in students’ lives was palpable. Creating unity on these bases created wonderful professional learning communities that I am still in contact with today. Do you have this opportunity in your school? As the sower of seeds, teachers in both sectors have the awesome ability to share the love and light of Christ in our spheres of influence. In fact, my high school Biology teacher, who inspired me to pursue a B. Sc., was a Christian but I didn’t know that until a few years ago. As a young person searching for God, I saw the light in him and that passion changed me. I hope you see that you have that same impact in your setting!

Blessings!

Stella

References:

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader. San  Francisco: Jossey-Bass Second Edition

Hi Marcelo,

It’s nice to be in another course with you, and I missed seeing you this summer! I hope you are well!

“As much as that is key, we cannot forget that strategic leaders and  transformational servant leaders are not just focused on the future, but they also have a good understanding of the present.”  Thank you for pointing out the importance of the balance a TSL strategic leader needs have when visioning: how the impact of today’s decisions affects the future of the organization. I am new to my senior administrative role this year, so I am finding that every query that comes to me needs deliberate and intentional assessment and data gathering: What did the person before me do? How did that work out? What other things need to be considered? Who might be in a better position to make this decision? And so on… It reminds me of being a first-year teacher where things as seemingly benign as how to hand out resources can create a big problem.  Without experience,  it can be overwhelming to think of how the present might affect the future.  Thus, an effective TSL strategic leader must have their eyes and ears open at all times to pick up information that might inform a big problem just around the corner.

I would like to add that TSL strategic leaders, when visioning, also need to have a deep understanding of the past. Hughes et al. (2014) state “The greatest visionaries are those who are able to paint a picture of a more desirable future,” which implies that the leader needs to know from where the organization came in order to make visual a better future (p. 65). An action item suggested by Hughes et al. (2014) is to “put the organization’s story in a meaningful context that connects members to its core identity” (p. 78). One of the agenda items for my first team meeting this September was for each member to identify a time when the team had made a decision which significantly impacted the culture of the high school. Some team members have a longer history at the school than I do, so they carry the “community of memory,” as described by Sergiovanni (2007). In piecing together our story, we learn the impact of how ideation times have had fruitful consequences, which is the basis for making the present a new foundation for future thinking.

“I have realized the last few years in Paraguay that some of my staff members do not respond well to some servant leadership skills I use.” Marcelo, can you give an example of what you mean? I have always been fascinated by the comparisons of your culture to here in North America. I am also curious about your concept of “situational servant leadership.” Is this a suggestion of an adaption of how TSL competencies are implemented in your culture? It sounds like a ‘conditional’ serving (ie. “transactional leadership” as defined by Northouse p. 162) to me, which I do not think you mean to imply.

Blessings,

Stella (Lana)

References:

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader. San  Francisco: Jossey-Bass Second Edition

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. (7^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Sergiovanni, T. (2007). Rethinking leadership: A collection of articles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.