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The problem with leadership in Education is that often the leaders are leaders because they are good educators/teachers NOT necessarily GREAT leaders. This is a truism across all fields. An individual who excels IN a field does not equate a Great Leader OF that field.
I think a bit about the leadership structure and expectations that I'm currently in (UNDERSTATEMENT). OK, I'm always thinking about the leadership situation and about how we can be better. We're doing pretty well as a school but we ALWAYS can be better.
One of the major points that arises time and time again in my observations and assessments is that there is this broken logic that GREAT teachers make GREAT leaders.
Now I'm not saying that you can't be a great teacher AND a great leader. I just think that it is a fallacy to think that both are in lockstep with one another.
This is a core problem of educational leadership, especially when you promote from within - which is important. When you look at candidates on your staff you often judge them by what they are currently are doing - teaching - to project their success as a leader. Wrong.
While it certainly helps in the respect department to be pretty good at what you are going to lead people in doing, it just is not that important on the whole.
We need to start to understand that leadership requires important, unique skills that cut across disciplines. Universities really shouldn't have an 'Intro to Educational Leadership' class until they have done an 'Intro to Leadership' class. Do you think that the teachings of John Wooden, Winston Churchill, or Marcus Aurelius have no application to my work as a Leader in an education setting? Nowhere in any of the readings for 'Intro to Ed Leadership' courses are we analyzing leadership in its truest and most successful form.
Seeing education as some entirely unique world where we have rules unto ourselves is what is problematic. Finding the threads which connect successful leadership in business, politics, military, sport, and education are easy. Shouldn't we then gravitate to the best examples of leadership rather than limit ourselves to those which occur in an educational context?
In my next post I'll talk about the most important error leaders make time and time again in my experience as an educator.
CAV
I think a bit about the leadership structure and expectations that I'm currently in (UNDERSTATEMENT). OK, I'm always thinking about the leadership situation and about how we can be better. We're doing pretty well as a school but we ALWAYS can be better.
One of the major points that arises time and time again in my observations and assessments is that there is this broken logic that GREAT teachers make GREAT leaders.
Now I'm not saying that you can't be a great teacher AND a great leader. I just think that it is a fallacy to think that both are in lockstep with one another.
This is a core problem of educational leadership, especially when you promote from within - which is important. When you look at candidates on your staff you often judge them by what they are currently are doing - teaching - to project their success as a leader. Wrong.
While it certainly helps in the respect department to be pretty good at what you are going to lead people in doing, it just is not that important on the whole.
We need to start to understand that leadership requires important, unique skills that cut across disciplines. Universities really shouldn't have an 'Intro to Educational Leadership' class until they have done an 'Intro to Leadership' class. Do you think that the teachings of John Wooden, Winston Churchill, or Marcus Aurelius have no application to my work as a Leader in an education setting? Nowhere in any of the readings for 'Intro to Ed Leadership' courses are we analyzing leadership in its truest and most successful form.
Seeing education as some entirely unique world where we have rules unto ourselves is what is problematic. Finding the threads which connect successful leadership in business, politics, military, sport, and education are easy. Shouldn't we then gravitate to the best examples of leadership rather than limit ourselves to those which occur in an educational context?
In my next post I'll talk about the most important error leaders make time and time again in my experience as an educator.
CAV
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