FRSA, FCMI, MA (Cantab), MA, PhD (KCL), Director Research & Enterprise, University of Greenwich, expert e-learning, leadership, education http://bit.ly/jkqQu9 London
Blogging is important for educators. It allows for reflection, stimulates opinion and provokes debate. This blog only began as a colleague suggested it would be a suitable way to record thoughts on an iPad project in school. I am very thankful he suggested it!
I have been to Argentina 3 times between 2005 and 2010. The first two times I got the visa from Delhi and it was very straight forward the first time. The second time was not too bad, just seven trips to the consulate and one to a bank in Connaught Place.
Once again I will be leading the "study skills" module for new students this year and I have decided to try a new tack with student communication this time - beginning prior to Welcome Week- with a Facebook page set up expressly to provide academic support.In previous years I have avoided Facebook as a platform for teaching and learning, seeing it as the domain of the "social" network, but Facebook's role in the learning network, particularly in HE is becoming more and more commonplace.
Last year I asked the Year Two students to set up a Facebook group for the new intake but kept away from it (at least "officially" - it remained an open group so I could look in from time to time and address any issues that seemed to be prevalent). The theme of the assignment in my first year study skills module was social networking and HE, and some students felt pretty clear the two didn't and shouldn't mix! (For more on this theme see my earlier post on the Diigo project and on the students' feedback).
Over the last year though I have heard from colleagues about various experiments blending social networking and learning and I have decided to take the plunge. (See for example Sarah Cousins or Dr Maria Kontogianni)
First of all, I set up a new "academic" identity on Facebook to keep it separate from the "real" me. Secondly, after some discussion with one of the student mentors and advice from other educators who have a lot more experience in this area, (such as Alan Cann, below, via Google+) I decided on a Page as opposed to a Group on Facebook.
A Page provides a platform for communication without the students having to become my or each others' friends. (Once again though, the student mentors have also set up and will initially manage a Students only Facebook Group which will be closed to staff).
For those of you unfamiliar with Facebook - a Page is really more like a website or blog than a social space: it can be a platform for transmitting information but can also allow interaction - like comments or messages. The plan is to use this as an adjunct to the official VLE "Learning Room" to encourage students to raise questions and keep in touch with tutors in a place that is perhaps more familiar to them. Discussion Boards on the VLE never, for me, really seem to work in this semi-formal way and tend to restrict the flow of communication.
What I hope for as an outcome is that students will feel more comfortable with approaching teaching staff on the module for help with various issues as a result of this slightly less formal interaction; that they will find here resources and support in a more accessible form than the VLE can provide (although this will also be available on the VLE) and that those students who are less familiar with social networking and the internet (we have a lot of "mature" students on our course) will also develop skills in this area which will help them in other areas of study and in future employment. (see Digital Literacies).
On this last note, a key issue in the use of the platform is the familiarity of the staff team with Facebook in general and the operation of Pages in particular. I teach this module with the help two colleagues - both like myself "ladies of a certain age" but both totally new to Facebook. One colleague does run a blog and a Twitter account so she is well on the way to feeling confident in the medium but the other has needed a lot of support to get started.
It is going to be a learning adventure for all three of us in different ways!
Online education not only gave nontraditional students a chance to enroll in collegiate programs from afar; it has also given universities that historically have not enjoyed the prestige of the Ivies a chance to build a reputation on fresh territory and build reliable revenue streams.
But, now that higher education’s traditional heavyweights are creating online courses and offering them for free to anyone who wants to register, those universities that have made names for themselves in the market for “conventional” online programs are trying to sort out how these high-profile “MOOCs” (i.e., Massive Open Online Courses) could affect their own positions in an online market where many have staked their futures.
One strategy for established online players would put them in the somewhat ironic role of making sure students who have passed Harvard-level exams deserve college credit.
As online education has bloomed over the last decade and a half into a mainstream avenue for attaining a postsecondary degree, the “elite” universities largely declined to transpose their vaunted courses to the Web. In the last year, however, more than a dozen top universities, including Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, and the Massachusetts and California Institutes of Technology, have announced plans to develop free, open, online courses through platforms such as Coursera and edX. Professors at other top institutions are holding their own MOOCs through Udacity and Udemy.
None of those universities or professors are offering course credit for its MOOCs, let alone full degree programs. But, degrees or no, the top brands in higher education have turned heads by suddenly investing in what they promise will be innovative online teaching and assessment techniques. Their emphasis on harnessing data to create personalized, measurable learning experiences, as well as their interest in building alternative job pipelines that might render a traditional college credential beside the point, has suggested that Stanford and MIT do not merely want to show their faces in the online medium but want in fact to take their places at the front of the class.
“There is no doubt in my mind that in just a few years the entire online space is going to be very different,” says Arthur Kirk, the president of Saint Leo University, which enrolls about 3,000 online students. “And while the MOOCs aren’t, in my mind, an immediate threat, it’s just one of a number of things that are going to transform the entire space.”
For years the abstinence of the most recognizable universities from offering online programs opened the door for new institutions, both nonprofit and for-profit, to scramble for the top of the heap, says Richard Garrett, managing director of Eduventures, a consulting firm. Now that Stanford, MIT and other brands that “no one’s going to question” have ventured into the online territories, one could propose that “the traditional brand pecking order” will “reassert itself online,” says Garrett. Especially since the most desirable brands are offering their product for free.
But Garrett says conventional online degree programs need not panic yet. Any substantial upheaval of “conventional” online programs would be contingent upon those top universities offering traditional college credits and degrees via those free courses “in strategic and scaled ways,” he says, and none have indicated that they plan to do so.
“It’s something to watch — there are frictions and vulnerabilities in the mainstream system that MOOCs are pointing to, but no evidence of quick revolutionary forces,” says Garrett.
Certifying MOOC Learning
Although the MOOC platform hosts and their high-profile university partners do not offer to give out credits for high marks on exams, there are ways students can cash in their MOOC learning for credits that they can use toward a degree. Indeed, the significance of MOOCs, and the strategic implications for conventional online learning providers, may be tied to another transformative phenomenon: the growth of “competency-based” learning.
The high-profile MOOCs that originated at Stanford last fall are not quite a year old; many online institutions are still waiting to see how MOOCs evolve before they make strategic maneuvers. But the idea of helping students redeem MOOC learning for college credits, for a fee, has already gotten some traction since a number of online institutions already have the infrastructure in place to assess "nontraditional" learning experiences.
Competency-based learning, which has been around for a while but recently has found a foothold in the “completion agenda,” gives preeminent weight to how well students can demonstrate specific skills, no matter how they learned them — on the job, say, or in a MOOC. Institutions such as Western Governors University, the popular online nonprofit, have built formal curriculums around competency. Others institutions provide “prior learning assessment” services, where advisers work with students to formalize their ad hoc learning experiences into portfolios that can be redeemed for actual college credits.
The University of Maryland University College, a long-running distance education provider that has become a powerhouse in the online era, envisions a role for UMUC of validating MOOC learning through the university’s prior-learning assessment arm. This could help the university funnel bright, motivated MOOC students into its online degree programs, says Marie Cini, the acting provost of UMUC. “If you want to finish your degree we’re the place that will allow you to do that easily and seamlessly,” says Cini.
John Cunningham, the acting CEO of UMassOnline, another well-reputed bastion of online programs, says his institution is also looking into awarding credit for MOOC learning.
“UMass is interested in providing appropriate academic credit for learning accomplished from open educational resources, including MOOCs — alone or in combination with traditional approaches — in those cases where our faculty are able to assess that learning with respect to the curriculum,” said Cunningham, who is also the vice president for academic affairs, student affairs, and international relations at UMass proper, in an e-mail. “This may be an avenue facilitated through UMassOnline once the methods of assessment are established by our faculty.”
The Actual Costs of Getting Credit
Yet the question remains as to how earth-shattering the prior-learning route for converting MOOCs to credit will actually be.
At a time when students are sizing up online education based largely on price and reputation, arguably the most intriguing aspect of MOOCs is the combination of the prestige of the universities offering them and the fact that the courses are free. Although finagling college credit via a prior-learning workaround bridges the gap between MOOCs and mainstream higher education, it does so at the expense of both prestige and freeness.
Getting credit for MOOC learning through a prior-learning apparatus is not as easy as submitting one’s MOOC exam scores with a form letter from the instructor and then waiting for the credit to be posted. Rather it is a highly involved process that, while allegedly less expensive and time-consuming than sitting through a course, nevertheless requires patience, dedication and money.
A student who wants to convert MOOC learning into a credit through UMUC, for example, would first have to enroll at the university (application fee: $30). Then she would have to take a semesterlong online course costing $753 or $1,497 depending on whether she qualifies for in-state or military discounts. During that course she would, with the help of an adviser, develop a portfolio to submit for evaluation. The centerpiece of the portfolio would be a long essay that presents “a narrative explaining how [her] learning maps to the learning outcomes” in a particular course at UMUC, according to Cynthia Davis, the acting undergraduate dean at the university.
The student could include in her portfolio any exam scores or blandishments she earned in MOOCs, but she could not submit those instead of writing the essay or taking the course, says Davis.
After that, the student would have to pay again to have someone at the university evaluate her portfolio: $250 for the first subject area, then $125 for any others beyond that. Finally, if the evaluator determines that whatever learning she picked in her MOOC was indeed credit-worthy, she would have to pay $90 for each credit.
All told, students can expect to spend a minimum of $1,300 to convert the learning picked up in a MOOC into three college credits. That is, of course, in addition to the hours and effort they sink into actually taking the MOOC.
There is an alternative: Students can pay a fee to take a “challenge exam” to earn credit immediately for certain courses. But the nonrefundable exam fee is equivalent to the tuition of the course. UMUC charges about $250 per credit for in-state residents and military and $500 per credit for out-of-state students. And students who wish to take challenge exams also have to enroll at the university.
At this point, converting MOOCs to credit might seem more trouble than it is worth, says Garrett, the Eduventures analyst. “If you have to jump through an extra four hoops … the cost-benefit analysis starts to become difficult,” he says. “It just seems rather longwinded and therefore not as appealing.”
Moreover, the credit they would earn would be UMUC credit, not Harvard credit. That is not to say students cannot take those credits elsewhere, but they would carry considerably less weight than if the credits had been awarded outright by the university whose exams they had passed. “I can’t promise another university would take those credits — every university has its own admissions requirements,” says Cini.
While students have successfully transferred prior-learning credits earned at UMUC, some institutions are less likely to accept them than others. Harvard, for example, is particularly conservative when it comes to accepting credits earned elsewhere, especially through online or otherwise unconventional programs. At the same time, according to its website, Harvard is likely to accept credit if a student "took courses comparable to those given at Harvard."
For the latest technology news and opinion from Inside Higher Ed, follow @IHEtech on Twitter.
3 Mentoring for Academic LeadershipPanel
Maria Klawe (Chair)
President, Harvey Mudd College Leah Jamieson John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering Purdue University 2007 President and CEO, IEEE Jeanne Ferrante Associate Dean University of California, San Diego Eve Riskin Associate Dean University of Washington Academic leadership has its joys and perils, but the rewards can far outweigh the penalties and current and future faculty should seriously consider leadership opportunities in their career path. This chapter considers the nature of leadership, as well as its obstacles, dangers, rewards, and tradeoffs along with a little advice. Examples of various paths to leadership are described.
There are many flavors of leadership for academics. Perhaps the most familiar are the well known positions in academic administration, including the positions of department chair or head, dean, provost, and president, along with variations of these positions with qualifiers like associate, assistant, and vice. But leadership is not restricted to administration; other leadership positions within academia include leading research groups, from lead researcher on small teams to directors of programs and centers. Professional societies offer a variety of leadership positions, including boards of governors and executive officers. Some academics become leaders in government agencies and entrepreneurial startup companies. The various skills for these positions are not the same, but they are often complementary and transfer directly. Paths to top leadership positions can take a variety of forms, as indicated by the examples given in this chapter.
The greatest reward of leadership is the ability to have a major impact on an institution and its faculty in an area you care about. Leadership brings with it access to greater resources and leverage and the tools for making your world a better place for you and your colleagues. Such change can result in significant improvements when brought about by those who care deeply about their academic environment and are willing to expend the effort necessary to make improvements. Being able to promote and implement significant changes through curriculum reform, advancing new technologies, fostering new multidisciplinary collaborations, and expanding the focus of an institution can be exhilarating and fulfilling. Creating new programs such as the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) [8], developed at Purdue University to combine engineering education, real-world projects, and community service, can benefit a far larger community than academics usually reach. Having an influence on the future directions of academic and professional institutions by leading strategic planning can have a major positive impact on education and the profession, and some academics participate in national and international planning of major projects with potential benefits for large populations.
Taking on leadership responsibilities brings with it new kinds of learning, including the development of skills in negotiation, communication, collaboration, grant writing, mentoring, time and project management, finance, performance evaluation and people management. These skills in turn can improve our abilities as researchers and enhance our contributions to professional organizations and society. Acquiring such new knowledge and putting it into immediate practice with visible benefits can be highly satisfying.
There are often unexpected rewards, such as the joy and pride of celebrating others' successes and the pleasure in seeing yourself stretch to solve unexpected problems. (A good time to consider becoming a leader is when you are ready to celebrate the accomplishments of other people as much as you are your own.) Even the chores of fundraising can lead to unexpected pleasures when meeting alumni with amazing careers and accomplishments.
Finally, there is the perk that higher leadership brings with it increased opportunities for travel and meeting new people.
The final reward of leadership listed above can also be a danger if there are too many opportunities for "free" lunches with people not of your choosing. But there are far more serious issues.
Paths to leadership: Jeanne Ferrante
- 1979-1994
- IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Never a manager, but had a great mentor: Fran Allen- 1994-
- UCSD Computer Science Professor
- 1996-1999
- UCSD CS Department Chair
Developed industrial liaison program
- 2002-
- Associate Dean
Developed Teams In Engineering Service (TIES),
part of EPICS- Autumn 2007
- Acting Dean
Many academics are reluctant to take on leadership responsibilities because they see such responsibilities as a negative career move: time devoted to such service will take away time from research and students, usually the primary concerns of faculty. The paths to leadership are rarely clear and typical graduate education provides little training specifically useful to managing and leading organizations. Assuming leadership responsibilities, therefore, usually involves a steep learning curve. Women and underrepresented minorities often perceive these barriers as being greater than their male colleagues do, as they are often less confident than men about the degree to which they possess the necessary skills. For example, Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide [2] documents the gender differences in confidence in the knowledge of negotiation and in the possession of negotiation skills. Experienced mentors are familiar with the problem of lack of confidence that is common in underrepresented groups.
Leaders often devote significant time to solving other people's problems, including inherited problems and cleaning up other people's messes.
Faculty in leadership positions are often viewed differently by their peers. By joining management, faculty leaders may be thought of as having gone over to "the dark side." The independence of faculty is one of the attractions of the career, but it can make it harder for academic leaders such as department chairs and school deans to accomplish their goals. In industry, a change in policy at the top, such as setting a goal of hiring more women and underrepresented minorities, can lead to rapid change within an organization towards accomplishing the new goals. This "make it so" approach rarely works in an academic environment, where change can be slow and frustrating because of the independence of faculty governance and careful faculty committee procedures.
Unfortunately, the nature of humor can change with leadership since leaders must be more wary of what they say. Their statements can carry weight and implications beyond what they intend, and even jokes can be taken in unfortunate ways and cause offense. Especially higher in the leadership ladder, there are no casual public conversations. Campus politics among staff and faculty can be nasty and cause additional concerns and demand significant diplomacy skills.
There are additional dangers for women and underrepresented minorities in leadership positions. They have the added obstacle of facing common stereotypes, resulting in their being viewed differently in leadership positions. Valian [28][30] cites an experimental study where students were shown photographs of a group sitting at a table and asked to identify the leader of the group. When the group comprised only a single gender, then the person at the head of the table was identified as the leader. If the group was mixed gender and a man sat at the head, then he was always identified as the leader. If the group was mixed gender and a woman sat at the head, then she was labeled as the leader only about half of the time, with a man seated elsewhere being labeled as the leader the remainder of the time. These statistics were roughly the same regardless of the gender of the observer. A woman or minority leader may be viewed as a token figurehead or as being representative of all members of their gender or ethnic group, adding additional stress to the ordinary responsibilities. If you look different, questions will be asked and you will be treated as a spokesperson for your group.
Paths to leadership: Maria Klawe
- 1980-88
- IBM researcher
- 1984-88
- IBM research manager
- 1988-94
- Head of CS dept., UBC
- 1995-98
- Senior VP (IT + Students), UBC
- 1998-02
- Dean of Science, UBC
- 2003-06
- Dean of Engineering, Princeton
- 2006-
- President, Harvey Mudd College
Unfortunately, some colleagues may feel that a woman in a leadership position is there simply because she is a woman rather than because she was the best candidate for the position. It has become true in recent years that more women are being interviewed for such positions as institutions try to provide diversity in leadership, but all current research indicates that the final hires are made on the basis of who is the best candidate. The push for diversity in institutions is aimed at ensuring diversity in the pool of candidates, not in forcing a quota on the actual hires. Offers should be based on the quality of the candidate and not on gender or ethnic considerations.
Lastly, there is a risk of the presence of a woman or minority leader being used as an excuse for downplaying gender or ethnic imbalance in a faculty using the argument that one minority representative in a leadership position should be considered as having solved the problem, when it has not.
The upside and downside of leadership are both quite real, but the balance of opinion from the successful leaders at the workshop is that the good things far outweigh the bad things. The satisfactions and joys of having a major positive impact, of leaving an institution better than they found it, are incredible highs, and there are strategies and tricks for dealing with most of the negative aspects. Higher-level leadership positions provide a bigger playing field with more opportunities to make a difference. Furthermore, academia is about reinventing yourself and leadership does just that. It gives you the greatest possible opportunities to make a difference by initiating and guiding projects to improve academe and its impact and visibility. It also provides a different way in which to be creative. In most cases effective leaders find the leverage to achieve positive change is a good tradeoff with the grunge that comes with the job.
Some of the drawbacks of leadership can be eased by careful planning. With discipline, a department chair or even a dean can maintain a research program, and at most universities a high quality research program is more important to your career than teaching. A common approach is to set aside and protect a specific day a week for research. Teaching can be done when it fulfills a strategic goal such as covering a class that can benefit from your personal handling and the attention of a chair or dean. The difficulty of moving projects forward can be handled by building a consensus and seeking broad support. Dealing with unjust and inaccurate critics can be handled by concentrating on those who support you. Concentrate on the positives and do not dwell on the inevitable unhelpful sniping. Some people find it helpful to have a trusted friend or mentor to whom they can vent when things become noticeably stressful or people are behaving particularly badly.
Paths to leadership: Eve Riskin
- 1990
- Appointed Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
University of Washington- 1995
- Promoted to Associate Professor at UW
- 2002
- Promoted to Professor at UW
- 2002
- Appointed Director, ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change, UW
- 2005
- Appointed Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering, UW
Most academics end up being leaders in some form as part of their job. Some examples are viewed as chores -- necessary service as part of being a good citizen -- and others involve actively seeking a leadership role to promote some project or change of personal interest. The typical beginning stages are leading a research group or chairing a committee. The research group might comprise only the professor and a collection of students, but it might also be a larger group involving multiple faculty, students, and staff. Typically one of the professors takes the lead, often by default because the others in the project are narrowly focused on their part only and would rather let someone else handle the big picture and overall organization. This latter talent is a sign of potential leadership -- an interest in stepping back from the individual pieces to view the overall project, to stitch the pattern together and make things happen. You may recognize new talents and interests in yourself in these initial steps towards leadership.
Symptoms of an inclination for leadership include liking to solve problems or make a place better, and finding yourself working on things even when it's not really your job. Keep in mind, however, that at research universities the primary requirement for advancement is a solid reputation for research. Beware of time consuming diversions before you have established a high quality research program. The degree of risk of such tangents varies among universities, but there is always risk in not devoting a critical mass of time to research at the early career stages.
Being chair of a committee can come from either just taking a turn at it, or from a personal interest in the goal of the committee and the realization that the chair can guide the deliberations and have a major influence on the results. Being a committee chair also carries with it a hint of power, as the chair can set the schedule as well as guide the agenda, which can be a big advantage for personal time management.
At times, opportunities for leadership can arise by surprise when someone is acting like a leader without being aware of it. As an example, Eve Riskin of the University of Washington was an active participant in the NSF ADVANCE center at UW, of which the Dean of Engineering, Denice Denton, was PI. Eve did not consider herself a leader, but she often was one of the first to respond to email from Denice seeking ideas and advice, and Eve agreed to serve on a search committee for a director of the center. The committee did their work and found two excellent candidates, but neither worked out for a variety of reasons. At that point both the remainder of the search committee and Denice realized they already had the ideal candidate in their midst, and offered the position to Eve. Her passion, participation, and activity made her a clear choice to everyone but herself, and she accepted because of the opportunities to have a significant impact on issues that mattered a great deal to her. She quickly learned the job and later was made an Associate Dean based largely on her performance as a center director. Most opportunities for leadership do not fall out of the sky like this one, but are a result of conscious choices made along the way in response both to your interests and to opportunities. Different choices can result in quite different paths towards leadership.
In general, it is a good idea, and quite typical, to start with a small taste of leadership when the opportunity arises. This strategy provides an opportunity for a trial run and a chance to see how the benefits balance the time involved. Such beginnings can come about by invitation (and often do), but they can also be sought out by talking to academic leaders about the possibilities of assisting with ongoing or new projects.
Leadership becomes an increasingly important component of an academic career after securing tenure; however, a moderate amount of experience as a junior faculty member can help build a skill set for leadership and test an aptitude and inclination in a manageable way. It is not a good idea to jump into a major leadership position without a warmup to learn the ropes and gain the experience to grow into more critical positions. In particular, do not become a department chair or director until you are tenured. At most institutions, you should not accept such a position until you are a full professor, as chairs and directors risk making enemies.
Choices regarding leadership will arise throughout your career, and the several examples of paths to leadership boxed in this chapter demonstrate a few of the possibilities. While each path is unique, a few general observations can be made. First, these are paths that led to the upper echelons of leadership, but most of us will rise only part way up this ladder and eventually return to an emphasis on research and teaching. You must gauge your own aptitudes and passions in the early stages when making your decisions.
One critical decision will be how long you should continue in a given position. If things go well, opportunities for a higher position may arise naturally and present a clear path for advancement. Furthermore, serving too long in a single position runs the risk of its being identified with you too strongly and can make it difficult for a program to advance when you are no longer there. If things are not going well, do not abandon the effort too soon. Resigning from a position may mean that no further high positions are offered to you, and even if you are not happy, you still may be able to accomplish important goals -- and you will learn from the experience. It is better to move from an unhappy position into a parallel or higher position than to resign. If you enjoy constant contact with students and faculty, beware of positions that leave you little time and isolate you. Be aware that your potential impact can diminish with time, and it will be greatest if you come in as an accomplished outsider with the high hopes and expectations of the faculty. The more you are considered a long-time part of the organization, the less likely major change becomes. On the other hand, the good thing about being in a place for a long time is that you know the contexts for why things are the way they are. This means you must be more aggressive about making sure you change the things that need to be changed.
Paths to leadership: Leah Jamieson
- 1976
- Appointed Assistant Professor at Purdue
- 1991-1998
- Research group lead
- 1990-1996
- ECE Graduate Program Director
- 1995-2006
- Co-founder & Co-director/Director,
EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service)- 1998-99
- President, IEEE Signal Processing Society
- 2002
- ECE Interim Head
- 2003
- IEEE Vice-President for Technical Activities
- 2004-06
- Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
- 2005
- IEEE Vice-President for Publication Services & Products
- 2006-
- Dean of Engineering
- 2007
- IEEE President & CEO
When considering a change in your position, do not look only at the best and most successful programs. Leading these may enhance your reputation, but your potential for significant impact may be small. Often an individual can have the maximum impact leading a less famous or even broken program, where the possibility exists for major advancement and growth in stature. Provided that the position brings with it sufficient resources and leverage, growing a young and enthusiastic faculty and integrating them into the development and strategic planning of the program as a meritocracy can reap huge benefits. The best position may not be the one promoted by your best friends, the strongest challenge may lie elsewhere. If you do go to a highly successful program, then expect to find change more difficult and your marginal impact less. You can still have an impact, but the required approach is likely to be different. For example, you can distribute high praise among the faculty, but then suggest ways in which the wonderful program might be made even more wonderful. Again, it takes participation and teamwork to effect positive change; you cannot do it alone.
Often the first group that tries to create change will run into horrible resistance, and yet a few years later someone else can propose essentially the same ideas and everyone will get on board. People sometimes oppose things they know are right simply based on the person proposing it, and when the idea later resurfaces with a new promoter it gains acceptance. It is more effective and fun being in the second wave. Think carefully about when you want to make your move, and remember that it is much easier to change the system as a senior person with external credibility. With determination, you will succeed, but you should always consider how much effort you want to expend to achieve a particular goal at a particular point in your life.
When considering moves during poor economic times, keep in mind that some "hot" areas will provide far more opportunities in funding and resources. They might not be precisely your area, but often the skills required have a huge overlap with other areas, including yours, and you can fit the bill by a shift in emphasis or application without a shift in basic skills. The recent move of many academics in signal processing to bioengineering provides an example.
It should also be pointed out that, as the separate examples of leadership paths in this chapter attest, there are many paths to senior leadership. Of the first four women deans of engineering at at the leading research (R1) universities (Denice Denton at UW, Kristina Johnson at Duke University, Janie Fouke at Michigan State, and Ilene Busch-Visniac at Johns Hopkins University), none of them served as department chairs.
The beginning stages of leadership often do not require any special training, though some of the day-to-day skills of budgets, time management, planning, and dealing with people on cooperative projects are often developed early in an academic career. As one moves up the leadership ladder, however, formal learning of leadership skills can be a major advantage and save a great deal of time in the long run. The most common sources of such education are mentors -- senior leaders with significant experience who are grooming a new generation for future positions. Formal training in workshops and seminars, and books and web sites devoted to leadership issues are also useful. The learning can be clustered into two types: the fundamentals of leadership which provide basic principles and views of successful leaders, and the tricks of the trade that are often anecdotal in nature, but which provide gems of tactics for managing the attendant chores and responsibilities with humor and good sense. A few examples of each are mentioned in this section.
There are many models for leadership and a great deal of training material on the Web and in books. An example is the VRE training of Frank Green [12]. The acronym refers to the basic components of leadership:
- Vision
- Leadership means leading a group of people toward some goal, which requires a vision of where the group is going and for what it is striving.
- Relationships
- Leadership means leading people, and that requires understanding what relationships are needed to achieve the vision, and building relationships.
- Execution
- Leadership involves implementing the details of the plans and ensuring the execution that actually achieves the vision.
These separate components and their integration form the basis of this approach to leadership training.
Another overview of leadership is provided in the book Leadership Without Easy Answers, by Ronald A. Heifetz [13]. Heifetz makes the distinction between solving strictly technical problems, which can be done by expertise alone, and solving adaptive problems such as global warming and drug abuse, which demand innovative solutions. The basic strategies can be summarized as follows:
- Bring attention to the problems and difficulties.
- Develop a shared vision with the community or team.
- Overcome the resistance and reluctance to face the problem (a reluctance to reorganize).
- Manage conflicts and hold steady so tension can be managed.
- Take risks and learn from failures.
- Distinguish the difference between self and role - when to
- "get up on the balcony" to see the larger picture, and when to
- "get down on the dance floor" to join the dance.
As the challenges of leadership are becoming more complex with a greater reliance on interdependent work, the nature of leadership is changing as the emphasis shifts from the heroic individual to collective teamwork [18]. The primary skillset is increasingly requiring flexibility, especially the ability to collaborate across boundaries, teamwork, the building and mending of relationships, and innovation in managing change. The best preparation for the future is the development of "right-brain" skills and a willingness to take on new and broad challenges. Finding a mentor who practices this style can be an invaluable asset.
Leading within academia is not just budgets and strategic planning; it depends more than ever on building consensus and relationships among colleagues. Goals are achieved not by fiat, but by an understanding of the barriers and an ability to move people toward a common goal. The lofty goals can get somewhat lost in the details of administration, so it is useful to point out some aspects of leadership and offer some advice on handling them.
A daily aspect of leadership is the necessity to make decisions involving matters of finance, personnel, startup funding, space, facilities, human resources, building. You just do it. You make your best effort to consider what is in the best interests of with whom and for whom you work, and then do it. You revisit decisions when you have to. Decisions must be made in a timely fashion. No one else will make them for you.
Communication can be the most difficult thing for people in high leadership positions. Colleagues will often not tell the difficult truth to a Dean or President, and that can mean a lack of adequate feedback for crucial decisions. So work at opening communication channels with colleagues and staff, for example, by regular informal meetings or lunches or "conversations with the Dean." Also take advantage of feedback from the students and the junior faculty, who are often less fearful of the high powers of academia and more willing to provide honest opinions.
Do not try to do big things on your own. You need to build teams and share the load and the participation. Ideally, everyone on the team becomes a leader.
Crises will occur on an almost daily basis, and by definition their nature will be a surprise. You can plan on their occurrence, however, and budget time for dealing with the surprise issues that arise and must be handled immediately. Doing so lessens the surprise and the stress involved and they will seem less of a disruption. A half hour is usually sufficient time to do a triage and move the crisis on to the next step along the path, hopefully turning it into someone else's problem in the process.
Do not drive yourself crazy by mourning the loss of your research and teaching time. You cannot maintain your research output at its previous level when you accept major leadership responsibilities. You can, however, redefine your personal success to give yourself credit for other accomplishments, which often will have a more far reaching impact on your institution and the outside world. Your success should not depend on research productivity alone.
The following are several nuggets of advice for being an effective leader that emerged during the workshop.
- Think broadly about leadership. It is not just administration.
- Be positive.
- Get training.
- Build your own village of mentors.
- Prioritize your commitments. A dean will sacrifice a precious research day when a meeting with alumni might yield a million dollar donation.
- Recognize and exercise opportunities to grow into leadership roles and positions.
- Look inward: assess, recognize, develop your leadership skills, and discover where you are doing things well.
- Look outward: build a network of mentors/counselors/supporters. Don't lead in isolation.
- Let your (potential) interest in leadership experience be known.
- Stretch yourself - leadership means spending a lot of time outside of your comfort zone. Try approaches that don't feel natural.
- Make sure you include stress-releasing time such as exercising, hiking, painting, music, and shopping.
- Seek and welcome feedback and constructive criticism. As you rise higher in the system, your peers may be less inclined to tell you the entire truth and you may learn the most from students and junior professors.
- Think impact. What can you change? What can you make better?
"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission." Grace Murray Hopper, computer pioneer
One of the responsibilities for leaders is to help others become leaders, and all of the academic leaders who participated in the workshop cited key examples of their mentors in their professional growth. Encourage anyone with an issue to become part of the solution. Recognize and reward leadership within your institution, as positive feedback goes a long way. You can encourage others to become leaders by discovering what they are passionate about and encouraging them to focus on those passions to effect change. Give advice freely, but do not expect it to be taken! And encourage, encourage, encourage.
Often potential leaders will lack confidence in their ability to lead, a feeling often associated with the "imposter syndrome" of highly talented people not believing that they are as good as their resume proves them to be (see, e.g., Chapter 4 of [23]). Such people may require particularly encouraging mentoring on the part of those that recognize more ability and potential in them than they may recognize in themselves. Women who succeed sometimes do so because they "ignore reality" and do not let their own negative self-perception get in the way.
Women and members of underrepresented minorities in leadership roles make the leadership teams to which they belong more heterogeneous, and research shows that the quality of innovation of a team is a function of the diversity of the team -- the more ideas and varieties of experience, the better the solutions.
November 15, 2007
Are tuition-free, global online courses financially sustainable?� We saw the rise this year of the “Ivy League Spring,” in which leading universities, bowing to the growing disruption of higher education economics, agreed to open up some of their courses, for free, to online, global audiences of students.
Stanford, which embraced the revolution. Photo: Standford University
Some powerful and well-connected online programs have emerged. Coursera, for one, has partnerships with four universities: Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Udacity, launched by a Stanford professor, offers online courses geared toward the IT sector. edX, started earlier this year, is a joint online venture between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Free, online classes are the polar opposite of the current business model of the higher education industry, which is already seen as overpriced and bloated — running more than $50,000 a year. Now that the higher education sector is starting to feel the effects of a massive disruption in their business models, the question about long-term sustainability needs to be asked. Even the leading proponents of these programs from the educational sector are not certain how the business model will evolve.
Anant Agarwal, president of edX, ia leading proponent of open access to all for the best education, told NPR’s Tovia Smith that it’s yet not a sustainable business model. There will be efforts made to generate revenue in non-traditional ways, he says, including charging for certificates, or developing career placement services.
Plus, Jason Wingard, vice dean at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, cautions that schools offering free or inexpensive online alternatives may “dilute their brand.” As he puts it: “There becomes a disconnect where the customer doesn’t understand the difference. All they understand is that they’re giving it away for free over here and they’re charging money for it over there.”
Nevertheless, a new report in Knowledge@Wharton is bullish on the future of online courses in higher education — particularly the free offerings now emerging from many quarters. The Wharton report calls these offerings MOOCs, or massive online open courses, which offer an way to address the skills gap that can pull un- or underemployed workers closer to the large number of positions going unfilled that require technical savvy.
While it’s unclear how impressed employers will be by online certificates, the NPR report observes that these online courses may work well for upgrading specific skills in demand, such computer programming and quality control.
Wharton’s report cites a projection from Global Industry Analysts that the global e-learning market will reach $107 billion by 2015. as mentioned above, much of this income will come from ancillary services — a fremium model if you will — that offer certificates, transcripts, and career placement. Eventually, donations from online alumni may also make a difference.
There is also financial support from foundations that can be counted on. For example, MIT just announced it has received a $1 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to go towards developing an introduction to computer science course and partnering with a postsecondary institution that targets low-income young adults to offer this introductory course in a âflipped classroomâ setting.
Not mentioned in either the NPR or Wharton reports are the additional cache some universities may gain from new markets around the globe. A popular online professor, for example, may draw new students on campus within traditional enrollment programs.
A top-ranked, global provider of leadership education and research, serving organizations and individual leaders at all levels.
- Coaching by Managers: No Appointment Required
Thu, 17 Mar 2011
I met with a lively and well-informed group of leaders from the Singapore Ministry of Health recently. Although they may not have needed my expertise on executive coaching, their questions instead centered on why a supervisor, manager or executive needs … READ MORE- Ray the Mentor: A Lesson in Leadership
Fri, 21 Jan 2011
My profession is teaching people about leadership.ÃÂ As a result, I am always on the lookout to seeÃÂ when leadership is truly practiced, yetÃÂ this practice goes unheeded and unnoticed to the outside world.ÃÂ I saw true leadership one night, in the … READ MORE
Subscribe to Brian Tracy’s newsletter
and learn to achieve your goals faster
and more efficiently than ever before.When you subscribe, you’ll receive Brian Tracy’s Goal Setting Success Guide — absolutely free!
Subscribe now by entering your email address below.
You may unsubscribe anytime. Read our Privacy Policy
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 9:17 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
For you to break through the success barriers in your own life, you must aspire to maintain a successful leadership role and become an effective leader. You must develop your management skills and influence others to work with you to achieve your goals and objectives.
Archive for the ‘Leadership Success’ Category Leadership Success | June 19th, 2012 | 4 Comments » For you to break through the success barriers in your own life, you must aspire to maintain a successful leadership role and become an effective leader. You must develop your management skills and influence others to work with you to achieve your goals and objectives. Becoming a leader, however, requires that you understand the leadership role and responsibility of being an effective leader. Individuals in a leadership role must strive to make better choices and decisions for the sake of others. Continue reading to learn how to improve your management skills and become an effective leader Tags: effective leader, leadership role, management skills Posted in Leadership Success | 4 Comments » Leadership Success | May 23rd, 2012 | 4 Comments » A good leader has an intense desire to lead; they possess the mentality of a role model who has a clear vision of a better future and steadfast ambition. A good leader inspires their team to peak performance and motivates others to achieve their goals. They have a clear picture of the kind of future they want to create, and they have the ability to communicate this vision to others in an exciting and inspiring way. There are three laws of leadership you must learn in order to become an inspiring leader and an excellent role model for your team. Read further to learn how to become a good leader and role model Tags: good leader, peak performance, role model Posted in Leadership Success | 4 Comments » Leadership Success | May 3rd, 2012 | 4 Comments » Meetings are an essential part of the life of every organization and your ability to run effective meetings with your management skills is a critical part of your success in meeting management. As a leader, there are a series of things I recommend that you keep in the back of your mind. Read more about how to improve your management skills for effective meetings» Tags: effective meetings, management skills, meeting management Posted in Leadership Success | 4 Comments » Business Success, Leadership Success | April 10th, 2012 | 1 Comment » In my lifetime, I’ve given speeches to hundreds of thousands of people to audiences all around the world, but it didn’t always come easy to me. I spent years working on my public speaking and communication skills with a speech coach before I reached the level of speaking I’m at today. The ability to help others through my speeches has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career, both personally and professionally. Read the rest of this entry » Posted in Business Success, Leadership Success | 1 Comment » Business Success, Leadership Success | April 5th, 2012 | 3 Comments » What makes a good leader is the use of effective management skills such as spending 50 percent or more of their time listening carefully. Great leaders understand that some of the best leadership qualities entail listening to others with undivided attention. When was the last time you actually listened single-mindedly to one of your staff members? Can you remember when you last listened to someone without interruptions or distractions from either telephone calls or drop-in visitors, when you just focused intently on the person speaking with you, ignoring all else? Continue reading how to improve your management skill » Tags: leadership and management, leadership qualities, management skills, qualities of a leader, what makes a good leader Posted in Business Success, Leadership Success | 3 Comments » General, Leadership Success, Time Management | March 12th, 2012 | 7 Comments » All of life is a series of projects. A project is a complex task. It is often called a multitask job. This type of job requires the coordination of efforts of several people, each of whom is responsible for a part of the job, with every part of the job being necessary for successful completion. Your ability to handle these multitask jobs is a critical skill for success. All achievements of consequence are complex, and they involve the cooperation of many people. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: create a list, create a project, how to do more, how to multitask, leadership and management, make it easier, management and leadership, qualities of a leader, qualities of leadership, to do list, work with the team Posted in General, Leadership Success, Time Management | 7 Comments » General, Leadership Success | February 9th, 2012 | 10 Comments » In life, it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. Where are you going and how are you going to get there? Aside from what you want to accomplish, what kind of a person do you want to become as the result of all your work and effort? Men and women who achieve great things in life are invariably those who give a lot of thought to their own evolution and growth. They become exceptional people by design, not by accident. They are like master craftsmen, continually shaping and polishing their characters and personalities so that they evolve and grow into someone important and worthwhile. And so should you. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: become a leader, great leader, how to be motivated, how to motivate, inspire people, leadership characteristic, motivation of employees Posted in General, Leadership Success | 10 Comments » General, Leadership Success | October 12th, 2011 | 12 Comments » Who wasn’t Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs was undoubtedly one of the greatest visionaries of our time and will always be famously known for his countless accomplishments, innovation in technology, and numerous titles. Genius, entrepreneur, innovator, and icon are to name a few, but I feel his most memorable and respected legacy was his LEADERSHIP STYLE. In the time of corrupt corporations and untrustworthy CEOs, Jobs gave hope to managers and businesspeople everywhere by demonstrating that authenticity, integrity, and diligence are not only rewarded, but imperative for success in any industry. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: Great Leaders, how to be a leader, inspirational quotes, inspirational stories, leadership qualities, leadership style, Steve Jobs, technology and innovation, What is Leadership, who is steve jobs?, Who was Steve Jobs? Posted in General, Leadership Success | 12 Comments » Leadership Success | June 14th, 2011 | 6 Comments » The key to getting followers in every case is to “trust your subordinates.” The Definition of Leadership Leadership has been called “The ability to get followers.” One of the deepest cravings of human nature is the need to feel important, to have a sense of meaning and purpose in life and work. Leaders are invariably those who can tap into the deeper emotions of others and get them to rise above and beyond anything they may have accomplished in the past. Read the rest of this entry » Tags: act with integrity, have integrity, inspire others, inspiring words, trust others Posted in Leadership Success | 6 Comments » Business Success, Leadership Success, Personal Success, Sales Success | January 5th, 2011 | 20 Comments » Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines charisma as “a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure.” Read the rest of this entry » Tags: charisma, charismatic, interpersonal relationships, peak performance, top performer, top salespeople Posted in Business Success, Leadership Success, Personal Success, Sales Success | 20 Comments »
Notes
Updated November 15, 2010. Created March 9, 2004. Find out more about me (copyright, APA formatting, etc.) ~ Email me at donclark@nwlink.com ~ A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump Production
I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. - Warren Bennis Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader.
Concepts of LeadershipI used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. — Warren Bennis
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience (Jago, 1982). This guide will help you through that process.
To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels.
Definition of Leadership
The meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the image. — Kenneth Boulding in The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
Before we get started, lets define leadership. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. This definition is similar to Northouse's (2007, p3) definition — Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.
Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982), in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born rather than made. These two leadership types are shown in the chart below (Northouse, 2007, p5):
While leadership is learned, the skills and knowledge processed by the leader can be influenced by his or hers attributes or traits, such as beliefs, values, ethics, and character. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make him or her unique.
Skills, knowledge, and attributes make the Leader, which is one of the:
Four Factors of Leadership
There are four major factors in leadership (U.S. Army, 1983):
Leader
You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader or someone else who determines if the leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
Followers
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
Communication
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you “set the example,” that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the relationship between you and your employees.
Situation
All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's action than his or her traits. This is because while traits may have an impressive stability over a period of time, they have little consistency across situations (Mischel, 1968). This is why a number of leadership scholars think the Process Theory of Leadership is a more accurate than the Trait Theory of Leadership.
Various forces will affect these four factors. Examples of forces are your relationship with your seniors, the skill of your followers, the informal leaders within your organization, and how your organization is organized.
Boss or Leader?
Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization (called Assigned Leadership), this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss (Rowe, 2007). Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around (Rowe, 2007). Thus you get Assigned Leadership by your position and you display Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do great things.
Bass' Theory of Leadership
Bass' theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders (Stogdill, 1989; Bass, 1990). The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
- Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
- A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
- People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational or Process Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.
Total Leadership
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.
When a person is deciding if she respects you as a leader, she does not think about your attributes, rather, she observes what you do so that she can know who you really are. She uses this observation to tell if you are an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their workers.
Be Know Do
The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is everything you do that effects the organization's objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders concentrate on (U.S. Army, 1983):
- what they are [be] (such as beliefs and character)
- what they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature)
- what they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction).
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.
The Two Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership
According to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found that:
- Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.
- Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
- Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
- Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
- Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing — relative to strategic business objectives.
So in a nutshell — you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where the organization needs to go. The next section, Principles of Leadership, ties in closely with this key concept.
Principles of Leadership
To help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983). The later chapters in this Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them:
- Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
- Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.
- Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
- Make sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
- Set the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
- Know your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
- Keep your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
- Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
- Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the key to this responsibility.
- Train as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
- Use the full capabilities of your organization - By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
Attributes of Leadership
If you are a leader who can be trusted, then those around you will grow to respect you. To be such a leader, there is a Leadership Framework to guide you:
BE KNOW DO
BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform selfless service, take personal responsibility.
BE a professional who possess good character traits. Examples: Honesty, competence, candor, commitment, integrity, courage, straightforwardness, imagination.
KNOW the four factors of leadership — follower, leader, communication, situation.
KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character, knowledge, and skills.
KNOW human nature. Examples: Human needs, emotions, and how people respond to stress.
KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others in their tasks.
KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate and culture, who the unofficial leaders are.
DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision making, planning.
DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising, evaluating.
DO motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de corps in the organization, train, coach, counsel.
Environment
Every organization has a particular work environment, which dictates to a considerable degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities. This is brought about by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders.
Goals, Values, and Concepts
Leaders exert influence on the environment via three types of actions:
- The goals and performance standards they establish.
- The values they establish for the organization.
- The business and people concepts they establish.
Successful organizations have leaders who set high standards and goals across the entire spectrum, such as strategies, market leadership, plans, meetings and presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.
Values reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers, investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the manner in how business will be conducted.
Concepts define what products or services the organization will offer and the methods and processes for conducting business.
These goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's personality or how the organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. This personality defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take place.
Roles and Relationships
Roles are the positions that are defined by a set of expectations about behavior of any job incumbent. Each role has a set of tasks and responsibilities that may or may not be spelled out. Roles have a powerful effect on behavior for several reasons, to include money being paid for the performance of the role, there is prestige attached to a role, and a sense of accomplishment or challenge.
Relationships are determined by a role's tasks. While some tasks are performed alone, most are carried out in relationship with others. The tasks will determine who the role-holder is required to interact with, how often, and towards what end. Also, normally the greater the interaction, the greater the liking. This in turn leads to more frequent interaction. In human behavior, its hard to like someone whom we have no contact with, and we tend to seek out those we like. People tend to do what they are rewarded for, and friendship is a powerful reward. Many tasks and behaviors that are associated with a role are brought about by these relationships. That is, new task and behaviors are expected of the present role-holder because a strong relationship was developed in the past, either by that role-holder or a prior role-holder.
Culture and Climate
There are two distinct forces that dictate how to act within an organization: culture and climate.
Each organization has its own distinctive culture. It is a combination of the founders, past leadership, current leadership, crises, events, history, and size (Newstrom, Davis, 1993). This results in rites: the routines, rituals, and the “way we do things.” These rites impact individual behavior on what it takes to be in good standing (the norm) and directs the appropriate behavior for each circumstance.
The climate is the feel of the organization, the individual and shared perceptions and attitudes of the organization's members (Ivancevich, Konopaske, Matteson, 2007). While the culture is the deeply rooted nature of the organization that is a result of long-held formal and informal systems, rules, traditions, and customs; climate is a short-term phenomenon created by the current leadership. Climate represents the beliefs about the “feel of the organization” by its members. This individual perception of the “feel of the organization” comes from what the people believe about the activities that occur in the organization. These activities influence both individual and team motivation and satisfaction, such as:
- How well does the leader clarify the priorities and goals of the organization? What is expected of us?
- What is the system of recognition, rewards, and punishments in the organization?
- How competent are the leaders?
- Are leaders free to make decisions?
- What will happen if I make a mistake?
Organizational climate is directly related to the leadership and management style of the leader, based on the values, attributes, skills, and actions, as well as the priorities of the leader. Compare this to “ethical climate” — the feel of the organization about the activities that have ethical content or those aspects of the work environment that constitute ethical behavior. The ethical climate is the feel about whether we do things right; or the feel of whether we behave the way we ought to behave. The behavior (character) of the leader is the most important factor that impacts the climate.
On the other hand, culture is a long-term, complex phenomenon. Culture represents the shared expectations and self-image of the organization. The mature values that create tradition or the “way we do things here.” Things are done differently in every organization. The collective vision and common folklore that define the institution are a reflection of culture. Individual leaders, cannot easily create or change culture because culture is a part of the organization. Culture influences the characteristics of the climate by its effect on the actions and thought processes of the leader. But, everything you do as a leader will affect the climate of the organization.
For information on culture, see Long-Term Short-Term Orientation
The Process of Great Leadership
The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to successful leaders:
- Challenge the process - First, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the most.
- Inspire a shared vision - Next, share your vision in words that can be understood by your followers.
- Enable others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
- Model the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do, a leader shows that it can be done.
- Encourage the heart - Share the glory with your followers' hearts, while keeping the pains within your own.
Next Steps
Perform a Leadership Activity:
Leadership Self-Assessment Survey (short version)
Leadership Self-Assessment Survey (long version)
References
Bass, Bernard (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18, (3), Winter, 1990, 19-31.
Ivancevich, J., Konopaske, R., Matteson, M. (2007). Organizational Behavior and Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Jago, A. G. (1982). Leadership: Perspectives in theory and research. Management Science, 28(3), 315-336.
Kouzes, James M. & Posner, Barry Z. (1987). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lamb, L. F., McKee, K. B. (2004). Applied Public Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Routledge.
Mischel, W. 1968. Personality and Assessment . New York: Wiley.
Newstrom, J. & Davis, K. (1993). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oak, London, New Delhe, Sage Publications, Inc.
Rowe, W. G. (2007). Cases in Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Stogdill, R. M.(1989). Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research. Bass, B. (ed.) New York: Free Press.
U.S. Army. (October 1983). Military Leadership (FM 22-100). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Performance, Learning, Leadership, & KnowledgeA door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. ~ Ogden Nash
Welcome to The Performance Juxtaposition Site, your window to learning, training, leadership and all things related to improving human performance. Click on any of the above tabs to go to your area of interest.
Daggett System for Effective Instruction The Daggett System for Effective Instruction provides a coherent focus across the entire education organization on the development and support of instructional effectiveness to improve student achievement.
Daggett System for Effective Instruction
The Daggett System for Effective Instruction provides a coherent focus across the entire education organization on the development and support of instructional effectiveness to improve student achievement.
- Create a culture
- Establish a shared vision
- Align organizational structures and systems to vision
- Build leadership capacity
- Align teacher/administrator selection, support, and evaluation
- Support decision making with data system
Instructional Leadership
- Use research to establish urgency for higher expectations
- Align curriculum to standards
- Integrate literacy and math across all content areas
- Facilitate data-driven decision making to inform instruction
- Provide opportunities for focused professional collaboration and growth
Teaching
- Embrace rigorous and relevant expectations for all students
- Build strong relationship with students
- Possess depth of content knowledge and make it relevant to students
- Facilitate rigorous and relevant instruction based on how students learn
- Use assessments to guide and differentiate instruction
- Demonstrate expertise in use of instructional strategies, technology, and best practices
For more information about the Daggett System for Effective Instruction, please read our white paper The Daggett System for Effective Instruction: Where Research and Best Practices Meet.
The Most Complete Leadership Development System Explore our powerful, integrated leadership development system for developing more effective leadership at an accelerated pace. Shifting the Leadership Mindset Improve a leader's internal operating system and you'll create extraordinary leadership. Explore our resources which explain how you can shift your thinking about leadership.
The Most Complete Leadership Development System Explore our powerful, integrated leadership development system for developing more effective leadership at an accelerated pace. Shifting the Leadership Mindset Improve a leader's internal operating system and you'll create extraordinary leadership. Explore our resources which explain how you can shift your thinking about leadership.
If you would like to know more about Strategic Planning facilitation and support click here. Leadership: If you would like to know more about Leadership Development Programmesclick here. If you would like to know more about Team Development Workshops click here. Recognised by Professional Associations as an accepted Continued Professional Development initiative.
If you would like to know more about Strategic Planning facilitation and support click here. Leadership: If you would like to know more about Leadership Development Programmesclick here. If you would like to know more about Team Development Workshops click here. Recognised by Professional Associations as an accepted Continued Professional Development initiative.
Fresh ideas, new ways of looking at things, specialist skills and the latest expertise. These are what fuel business success. But how do you manage to constantly access expert input without regularly recruiting to your board or paying high consultancy costs?
The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership Welcome to the website of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, an international non-profit organization! We invite you to learn about us and about servant leadership. You can learn more about servant leadership through our annual conference, our online catalog of books and materials, and our Speakers Bureau.
The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership Welcome to the website of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, an international non-profit organization! We invite you to learn about us and about servant leadership. You can learn more about servant leadership through our annual conference, our online catalog of books and materials, and our Speakers Bureau.
Organizations that focus strongly on interpersonal skills learning are on average 27% more productive and enjoy 40% higher revenue growth than their competitors. CRM Learning's substantial library of products can help you combat and rectify these persistent problems: Poorly trained (or untrained) managers Lack of accountability Underdeveloped interpersonal skills Inability to innovate and change Customers say these things about our products: "Your products save me time in developing and presenting subject matter."
Leadership is intentional influence. At Leadership Now we believe that anyone can make a difference by leading from where they are. Leadership Now provides insightful articles and commentary to serve as a leadership guide for on the challenging issues facing leaders in today's ever-changing culture.
Don't worry, we won't post anything.
4
37
