Explain and Justify your Understanding of Educational Leadership
Purpose statement
The purpose of this paper is to explain and justify how different styles and characteristics of educational leadership impact educational outcomes, including student success and employee satisfaction. Transformational educational leadership is one of the most researched leadership styles because of its organizational benefits. When coupled with the perspective of leadership as serving, this leadership style can yield even more positive educational outcomes. In itself, educational leadership of any kind is challenging, and leaders may experience negative emotions and have to deal with the negative emotions of others. Having emotional intelligence helps educational leaders to manage theirs and others’ emotions better. Also, having components of emotional intelligence such as empathy and social skills has been shown to increase the effectiveness of transformational leadership.
Educational leadership has evolved beyond administrative and management functions. It is now change-oriented and includes the development and implementation of policies targeted at educational reforms. Educational leadership is critical to changes in education and general school improvement. Various factors have contributed to the evolution of educational leadership, including the issues brought about by globalization. For instance, globalization has affected classroom demographics and how leaders approach issues such as bilingualism. Technological advances have changed the way students learn and given leaders new perspectives on incorporating technology in the classroom. Educational leaders have many opportunities to improve teaching and student outcomes, such as collaborating with other school system members. Servant and transformational leadership can be beneficial in this regard. While these educational leadership perspectives have proven effective, it is crucial to note that they also bring some organizational challenges that can be mitigated by displaying emotional intelligence.
Structure statement
The following propositions structure this paper:
- Transformational leaders inspire change in school systems
- Educational leaders possess emotional intelligence capabilities that help inspire change in others and deal with negative emotions
- Servant leadership in education encourages collaboration and acknowledges the contribution of others to the success of school systems
Transformational leaders inspire change in school systems
Transformational leadership facilitates change and helps students, teachers, and school administrators to rise above their challenges. Transformational leadership is affective and relies on a leader’s connection and influence over others to achieve common goals. Transformational leaders build strong relationships and emotional attachments with their followers. They can identify and fulfil the needs of their followers, making them feel valued. Transformational leaders have four attributes: idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration.
For transformational leaders to have idealized influence, they must motivate those they lead. Such influence may be through their lifestyle, language, or mannerisms. The followers of transformational leaders trust them, which is why they allow themselves to be led. Transformational leaders emulate what they believe in, in other words, living by example. This particular trait contributes to their endearment to their followers. Transformational leaders are committed to their cause, which inspires the same from their followers. Commitment is at the core of transformational leadership and contributes to the attribute of inspirational motivation. People are more willing to follow a committed leader with a willingness to deal with issues. Transformational leaders enlist others’ support and commitment to achieving common goals. They are honest about any challenges involved and form attachments with their followers. The attribute of intellectual stimulation describes transformational leaders who encourage creativity among their followers. Such leaders influence their followers to think critically to develop solutions to organizational problems. Through their attribute of individual consideration, transformational leaders mentor their followers to reach personal and organizational goals. Such leaders are aware of the individual strengths of their followers, which they capitalize on to ensure the organization’s success.
In an educational setting, transformational leadership can be demonstrated in various ways. Educational leaders can embody their visions and inspire their followers’ commitment to the same. By walking the talk, charismatic educational leaders can inspire followers to take responsibility in ensuring educational goals are met. Transformational leaders trust their followers enough to delegate responsibilities and empower them to fulfil their tasks. Transformational leaders in education build relationships with others, influencing wholesome development. Rather than focus only on what goes on in classrooms, transformational educational leaders are also concerned with employees whose needs they try their best to satisfy. Such leaders know that student outcomes are influenced by many factors, including teacher satisfaction, and ensure their followers are motivated and happy.
It is easier for satisfied staff to stay committed to educational goals and allow themselves to be guided by a transformational leader. Transformational educational leaders also know that teachers have to be kept on their toes as much as students. They, therefore, create supportive environments where teachers can be creative and innovative. Innovation, in turn, promotes problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Transformational educational leaders strive to form a rapport with their followers. For instance, school administrators seek connections with teachers beyond the mandatory meetings to build trust and create a sense of belonging. Transformational educational leaders note the individual strengths of their staff and build upon them to create a successful school system.
Educational leadership of a transformative nature inspires change by creating a vision, empowering followers to commit, leading by example, and fostering a spirit of cooperation geared towards achieving the vision (Cruickshank, 2017). The higher-order values associated with transformational leadership, such as morality, are transferable in interactions between transformational leaders and followers. Transformational leaders can influence their followers to have the same moral values and ethics. In an educational context, followers, including teachers, follow their leader’s moral and ethical ideals. Transformational educational leaders motivate others to forego their self-interest and instead focus on achieving a common goal. Such leaders positively impact teachers’ productivity, job satisfaction, and student achievement (Jovanovica & Ciric, 2016). Some studies show that transformational school principals who inspire commitment to their vision and organization positively contribute to teacher autonomy and motivation (Duraku & Hoxha, 2021).
Teacher autonomous motivation affects students autonomous motivation towards learning, limits burnout, and enhances self-actualization among teachers (Duraku & Hoxha, 2021). Intellectual stimulation facilitated by transformational leadership helps teachers better adapt to changes. This type of leadership has a positive influence on facilitating change in schools and can help schools cope better with the evolving demands of schools today. Further, research suggests that transformational leadership in education positively impacts organizational conditions and promotes professional growth (Jovanovica & Ciric, 2016).
Servant leadership in education encourages collaboration and acknowledges the contribution of others to the success of school systems
Like in transformational leadership, servant leadership requires leaders to lay aside their selfish interests for the good of others. Robert Greenleaf first postulated the concept of servant leadership in his 1970 essay “The Servant as Leader.” Greenleaf posited that leaders focused on serving their people are the most effective (Crippen & Willows, 2019). Such leaders wholeheartedly tend to their followers and their needs. The concept of servant leadership disregards the common top-down approaches to leadership. Instead, it focuses on building trust, collaborations, and ethical behaviour. In this case, a leader’s priority is serving others, assuming that their actions will encourage teamwork, increase engagement, and improve followers’ performance.
Since Greenleaf, other theorists have expanded his theory on servant leadership, such as Larry Spears. Spears developed characteristics of servant leaders, including a commitment to others’ growth, community building, stewardship, persuasion, empathy, awareness, healing, listening, foresight, and conceptualization. Leadership as serving is also a perspective held by Christian leaders who regard Jesus as the embodiment of servant leadership. A noteworthy aspect of servant leadership is that it stems from an intrinsic desire to serve, hence the selflessness with which it is associated. Thus far, it is the only concept of leadership focusing on followers more than the leader. Leaders who embody the concept of servant leadership put their followers first. Although they still require other leadership qualities, servant leaders’ acts of service distinguish them from other leaders. Whereas servant leadership focuses on the wellbeing of followers, transformational leadership prioritizes organizational needs. Although transformational leaders do not pursue their interests at the expense of others, their desire to serve may not be intrinsic like that of servant leaders. Still, some, like Spears, describe servant leadership as transformational (Crippen & Willows, 2019). In his work, Greenleaf suggested a means to determine whether a leader was practising servant leadership; by questioning whether those being served grow as people, become healthier, freer, wiser, more autonomous, and more likely also to become servants (Crippen & Willows, 2019).
In an educational setting, servant leaders prioritize the needs of their teachers and students. As leaders, teachers embodying servant leadership consider and serve their students’ needs. Educational leaders who model servant leadership create a school community where there the needs of all stakeholders are taken care of. Servant educational leaders care about those in their charge. Educational leaders modelling servant leadership ensure their followers have all the resources they need to succeed. Through servant leadership, educational leaders can impart their values and beliefs to their colleagues and students during their interactions. Servant leadership espouses the leadership process more than it does power. For instance, servant leadership encourages teamwork and collaborative decision-making rather than a hierarchical approach to decision-making and implementation. The collaborative aspect of servant leadership blurs the line between leaders and followers as focus shifts from positions and titles to acts of service (Crippen & Willows, 2019). Servant educational leaders develop a strong community by listening to their peers and followers, being empathetic to others’ circumstances, and creating personal connections that form the basis of their influence. It is worth noting that the relationships built by servant leaders extend beyond schools to include students’ families and the larger community. Such leaders enable creativity and encourage followers to do more than their expected roles. With their characteristic of foresight, servant educational leaders can predict future scenarios and prepare accordingly (Crippen & Willows, 2019).
One study found a correlation between teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ servant leadership behavior and the former’s job satisfaction. From the study, teachers who saw their principals’ behavior as part of servant leadership were more satisfied with their jobs (Fischer & Jong, 2017). This correlation was higher than demographic factors tested in the study, such as years in education, school size, and teacher gender. A similar study on academic staff in higher institutions found a positive connection between servant leadership and job performance (Aboramadan, Dahleez, & Hamad, 2020). Servant leadership is also associated with improved organizational performance and team effectiveness. A study in elementary schools in Taiwan showed that as principals modelled servant leadership, teachers’ teaching effectiveness, positive emotions, job satisfaction, work-life balance, and organizational citizenship behavior increased as work stress decreased (Hung, Tsai, & Wu, 2016). Overall, servant leadership creates a positive school climate where teachers feel valued and are less likely to quit their jobs (Stewart, 2017).
Educational leaders possess emotional intelligence capabilities that help inspire change in others and deal with negative emotions
Both transformational and servant leadership counts on the emotional intelligence of leaders. Emotional intelligence is a necessary component of leadership through emotional perception, thought development, understanding, and managing emotions. Leaders exercising emotional intelligence can recognize their own and others’ emotions, which they can manage to suit a particular situation. Emotionally intelligent leaders are highly self-aware and often stop to think of the impact of their emotions and those of others. Stress and negative emotions are part of the challenges facing educational leaders. Stress may lead to emotional exhaustion and affect job morale and satisfaction. Emotional intelligence also correlates positively with servant leadership. It can also predict a servant leader’s approach to leadership (Barbuto, Gottfredson, & Searle, 2014). Put together, emotional intelligence and servant leadership can predict employee job satisfaction (Jha & Bhattacharya, 2021).
Transformational leaders influence the emotions of their followers through their attributes of idealized influence, individual consideration, and inspirational motivation. Transformational leaders influence their followers by appealing to their emotions (Jovanovica & Ciric, 2016). To inspire commitment to organizational goals, followers have to trust their transformational leader. To inspire motivation, transformational leaders make their followers feel good about themselves emotionally and professionally. Followers inspired to believe in their capabilities are more likely to pursue further intellectual development. Transformational leaders are attentive to and reflect on their emotions as well as perceive the emotions of others. Transformational leaders’ perceptions of others’ emotions enable them to react to their followers needs more effectively through individual consideration. Such leaders are aware that individuals have different emotions and also react differently to specific scenarios. Several empirical studies suggest that leaders with high emotional intelligence are more effective in influencing employees (Kim & Kim, 2017).
Conclusion
Transformational and servant leadership impact educational outcomes such as teacher satisfaction, school climate, teacher retention, and student performance. Transformational leaders, through their charisma, can inspire change in educational settings. Such leaders believe in their goals, work towards achieving them and inspire others to do the same. Transformational leadership prioritizes organizational goals and inspires followers to commit to fulfilling the same. Such leaders put aside their interests for the good of the organization. Transformational leaders are instrumental when developing new school initiatives because of their ability to get others rallying behind them.
Similarly, educational leaders who are selfless inspire others to do better for themselves and the organization’s good. A transformational educational leader dedicated to serving others could achieve more positive outcomes. By empowering and valuing their subordinates, educational leaders have the potential to better the education system. A collaborative educational system focused on building relationships in and outside school and involving everyone in decision making will be transformative. Understanding their emotions and those of others can also increase followers motivation, as seen in transformational leadership. Managing their own and others’ negative emotions can increase a leader’s capacity to serve others while also making subordinates feel valued. Emotional intelligence in leadership can be learned, and seeing how important it is to leadership, it should be prioritized as a prerequisite for leadership in educational settings. Educational leaders with emotional intelligence are better suited to handle the challenges that come with the job.
References
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