The 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader Self-Assessment Strengths and Weaknesses with Correlations for Student Achievement
Strengths
- Situational Awareness (0.33)
- Resources (0.25)
- Order (0.25)
- Culture (0.25)
- Focus (0.24)
- Optimizer (0.20)
- Relationships (0.18)
Weaknesses
- Flexibility (0.28)
- Monitoring/Evaluating (0.27)
- Discipline (0.27)
- Change Agent (0.25)
- Input (0.25)
- Communication (0.23)
- Affirmation (0.19)
From what I can observe (and I am definitely not a statistics expert!), a number of my weaknesses have higher impacts on student achievement than some of my strengths. This informs me that I definitely need to work on Flexibility, Monitoring/Evaluating and Discipline. Change Agent and Input are secondary areas of improvement. With regard to Flexibility, I have never really been a confrontational person or even the purpose who will express their feelings, but working in an urban district is slowly teaching me how to be more direct when needed. Although I did not rate myself extremely low for this responsibility, I personally want to be to able to deal effectively with a lot of differing opinions. I am sometimes a "I will just do it myself" type of person and I have to learn to let other people do things their way. With regard to Monitoring/Evaluating, I have improved in providing feedback, but I still need to work on consistently monitoring gains and losses. Although I keep detailed records of end products, I sometimes do not document the pre-assessment data. I am then not be able to accurately determine growth or areas of improvements accurately. With respect to Discipline, I am able to deal with students who I have had in my classroom. They understand my high standards and expectations and I can run my class smoothly. Now that I am out of the classroom, I have not had that chance to really let students know who I am and what I am about and cannot often reach students in my teachers' classes when they are making it hard for them to get through their lesson. Since I am over the Career & Technology Education (CTE) department, we have to abide by a whole separate set of guidelines that require double the work on the teachers. I wish I can protect them from this but they are the experts in their industry and therefore I have to rely on them for certain information.
I did rate myself a 2 for Change Agent because I tend to shy away from defending myself or ideas on certain issues. I usually let others battle it out and wait for the final decision, but then I regret not saying what was on mind and end up complaining internally about the decision that was made. I just want everything to be peaceful and smooth, but that does not always mean it is a good decision for the school. I would like to speak up more and worry less about others' opinions of me. As for Input, I do try to gain insight from other people but end up completing a task the way I want to do it. My area of improvement is not asking for input, but it is taking that input into consideration when making a final decision. I am excited that what I rated myself the highest on has the the strongest correlation to student achievement - Situational Awareness. I always think about how others perceive information and how they will utilize it. I try to play the whole scenario in my head so that I know how to best handle the situation and provide step-by step guidance. Overall, I am not very surprised by the results of this self-assessment, but I do realize that to be an effective leader, I definitely have to improve in some areas.
- What does transformational leadership means to you?
- How do you define transformational leadership based on your reading?
- How can transformational leadership flourish in a learning environment?
- How can transformational leadership impact the way an administrator leads a school?
- How can transformational leadership impact the school administrator as he/she leads integrating technology with instruction?
Transformational Leadership is guiding people to a destiny greater than just showing up to work and getting a paycheck. It allows for people to invest in something deeper than just power, position, and money. It leads people to go beyond themselves and focus on the bigger picture rather than just themselves. It instills the concepts of values, morals, and purpose to come into play when influencing followers. According to Cox (2010), Transformational Leadership consists of four components:
- Charisma or idealized influence - leader is trustworthy and carries himself or herself in a manner that demonstrates genuineness and conviction
- Inspirational motivation - leader communicates the vision in a way that provides hopefulness and optimism to the followers
- Intellectual stimulation - leader allows followers to take the foundation and be creative in reaching the vision
- Individualized consideration or individualized attention - leader sees each and every person in the organization as an important part by respecting, listening, and praising each individual contribution to the team
A learning environment or organization is one "where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together (Senge, 1990)." Transformational Leadership falls exactly within a learning environment. A learning environment can only occur if the components of Transformational Leadership are present. In order to be able to learn, discover, and collaborate within a group, that group must be provided the freedom to do so.
Transformational Leadership allows for an administrator to not have to carry the burden of running a school by themselves. It relieves the pressure of having to develop all ideas and get the rest of the staff on board with those ideas. The administrator will be able to articulate their goals, hopes, and vision to the staff and have the staff help each other to reach them.This then allows for a shared vision to come into play and allow all staff members to share the responsibility in attaining that vision.
As an administrator facilitates integrating technology with instruction, Transformational Leadership can open the eyes of teachers who may be fearful to delve into something new with their students. Teachers may complain that using technology in the classroom takes too much time or the teachers do not have the proper skills to teach students how to use the technology properly. With Transformational Leadership, teachers should be inspired to at least see how the technology can be used to enhance instruction and be able to formulate how they can use it in their classroom. For a reluctant teacher, being forced to use something they are not comfortable with will only lead to more resistance. Providing unlimited support and models for them will not only allow them to feel more comfortable, but to then seek out other technology-based ways that can assist them in the classroom.
References:
- Cox, R. (2010). The Transformational Leadership Report. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CGMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.transformationalleadership.net%2Fproducts%2FTransformationalLeadershipReport.pdf&ei=kGQxUKfAO-Gi6wGM54HoDw&usg=AFQjCNGh38dUUDoD04I7PkkFDi8W29xkhA&sig2=25aOjh0cDmRZJijUtQEFvA. [Last Accessed 19 August 2012].
- Senge, P. M., (1990). The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday.
