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Good Leadership in School 1 Definition of

Leadership

Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. Another of our favorite definitions of leadership is by Warren Bennis. Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential. Good leadership skills can be defined as those actions and behaviors that support your leadershipyour ability to influence, motivate, and direct others. 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. 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:

2. Four Factors of Leadership

2.1 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.
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2.2 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.
2.3 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. 2.4 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.

3. 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:

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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:

1. Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy. 2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
3.

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. Excellent School Leadership The components that make for good school leadership, which makes for efficient productivity. A productive school is one where leadership comes from various sources, there is trust between leaders and followers, there is communication among all parties, there is a vision for the school district to work towards, and effective leaders can solve problems. Leadership entails a number of different parts and can come from any position in the school. The administration is the main source of leadership in a school. Generally, we associate school leadership with superintendents and principals. People in these positions are in charge of making decisions, which run the school. However, teachers can also provide leadership in their classroom and through activities and other extracurricular activities. Katzenmeyer and Moller (1996) argue there is a sleeping giant of teacher leadership that can be a catalyst to push school reform. Even students can provide leadership in certain situations such as an athletic teams captain, a point guard for a basketball team, or a class officer. With the many places leadership can occur, to have good school leadership, all people need to be willing to share responsibility and power. Lambert (1998) argues, Leadership requires the redistribution of power and authority. This distribution of power can lead to trust between staff and administration. This trust emerges when administrators and teachers work together to benefit the school. Trust comes about by principals trusting the judgment of teachers in the classroom and backing teachers on issues such as discipline. So that the

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Fakulti Bahasa dan Komunikasi/FIK3042 teachers authority is not undermined, discipline must be consistent and not show favoritism toward any student. Teachers, in turn, must trust that the principal will follow though on all rules and not make exceptions for the schools star athlete or smartest student. This trust is also part of a type of leadership theory called transformational leadership. Bass (1996) says that trust is a key component of idealized influence, which incorporates faith and respect, dedication, and trust into leadership. Trust is an important aspect of leadership. With the trust between leader and follower, good school leadership will also have excellent communication. Smith, who can be found in Bean (2000), argues that communicating and keeping people informed of changes and events is a key part of effective leadership. People must discuss problems and possible solutions with each other. By not doing this, the problems will continue and the organization will fall into disarray. For example, let us look at a basketball team. If the opposing team is playing man-to-man defense, it will do the offense little good to run plays designed to attack a zone defense. Here is were the coach or offensive players must talk to each other and run the correct plays. Furthermore, we see the importance of communication from Yukl (1998). He states Leadership is about creating teamwork, collaboration, communication, and the emphasis on a total group effort. By communicating concerns, teachers can make administrators aware of potentially school harming actions and can put a stop to these before they go too far. One example of this would be the last month of school in my school district. Due to the hot weather, students begin use squirt guns and balloons to spray each other with water. With graduation and other senior activities to organize, the principal is not in the hallways as much as previous months. Therefore, the teachers need to let the principal know this is beginning so penalties can be determined and readily enforced. This can cut down on water damage of the school and the students can continue to stay focused on school. One aspect of effective leadership that needs to be communicated to all associated with the school district is the vision of where the school is and where it needs to go. Goleman (1995) argues that leader can be expected to communicate a vision well generate energy and enthusiasm regarding this vision, epitomize its meaning through the example of personal behavior, and generally inspire others to reach this vision. People need to be motivated to do a job, whether in school or in the work force. Vision gives people a goal and direction; giving them something to work for. Making people aware of the vision for the school will help parents, students, teachers,and administrators to be on the same page and working to achieve the vision together as a team.
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Fakulti Bahasa dan Komunikasi/FIK3042 Daft (1999) states there are many pieces that visionary leadership can accomplish. These pieces include the linking of the present and future, encouraging commitment, providing meaning to work, encouraging imagination, and defining the destination. For example, if the vision of a sports team is to win, through strong dedication by players and coaches, winning will happen. If coaches can help athletes see the importance of practice and teamwork, there will be chemistry and success.With the vision of moving into the future, there comes problems and opposition. Another part of good school leadership is facing these problems and solving them. An effective way to work to solve problems is to form a group of people to suggest solutions for whatever problems occur. An excellent model to follow is suggested by Bean (2000) and is called POLCA: that is Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling, and Assessing. One problem a school district might face is incorporating the new Pennsylvania standards for education into the curriculum. My school district is in this process and work on this is set to begin in August 2000. Our superintendent started this process by carefully planning when to work on these changes. The mathematics and English departments were contacted to help work on these standards. These teachers were organized into groups by their subject area. Outside help was brought in. These parties had knowledge writing the standards for the state and helping other schools work the standards into the curriculum. These men lead the English and mathematics groups in the writing of our curriculum to include state mandates. After drafting standards and curriculum for the district, the work was checked for quality and improvements were made. Finally, the work was assessed and determined to be useful to the district. We can see that effective leadership is not easy. It takes hard work and tolerance from many different parities. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students all play a part in good school leadership. The administrators plan for the entire district, the teachers for the classroom. Parents and students help with support and may act in limited leadership roles. Effective leaders need to be able to distribute leadership to worthy parties and possibly divide it up to many individuals or groups. Effective leaders need to communicate and problem-solve. Having good social skills and having a good plan can make leadership easier and solving problems smoother. Lambert (1998) says It [leadership] needs to be embedded in the school community as a whole. It takes a team effort to have effective leadership in the school. We all need to work together and share the responsibility of being a leader.
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Refrence: www.lhup.edu/mlovikpo/mccorkie/school leadership.htm www.what.are.good-leadership.skills.com/defination-of-leadership.ht www,wcict.com/effective leadership www.smleads.org/data/pdfs/sis/sis-rr.pdf

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Fakulti Bahasa dan Komunikasi/FIK3042 www.teaching expertise.com/good leadership

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