Transformational Leadership in School Learning Environments

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Recommended: Importance of educational leadership

According to noted American writer and scholar Peter Drucker “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Flagello 2009, p.127). There in lies the difference, management is about implementation and leadership is about deciding which course of action to take. Leadership is about the ability to influence, motivate, and stimulate those you lead while considering their input and the objective (Bass 1985). However, just as it is with management, leadership is affected by both the situation and resources presented. The ability to lead is the culmination of a set of skills and abilities, which are acquired and developed over time through experience as long as there is sufficient motivation and desire (Kouzes and Posner, 2008). Two other critical factors are necessary in leadership; they are role models and coaching. Through these two factors, it is clear that a student of leadership can be melded by their observational and practical experiences of other leaders who serve as their mentors. Management is seen as a set of skills and abilities that are learnt, while leadership is seen as a set of innate personal characteristics (Kouzes and Posner, 2008). These personal characteristics of leadership are a reflection of the situations the leader finds themselves in and forms the basis of their own self-awareness and effort to become leaders (Kouzes and Posner, 2008). The leader must be willing to be adaptable to the situations and willing to undertake the responsibility to lead.

As a leader it is necessary to have a multitude of skills, none are exclusive but in particular the ability to communicate and collaborate are two of the key requirements for effective educational administration ( Harris 2009, p.8). It ...

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...ndom House, New York.

Leithwood & Jantzi 2005, p. 183

A Review of Transformational School

Leadership Research 1996–2005

AK eRnenveitehw L oeift hTwraonosdfo armnda tDioonrails LJeanadtzeirship KENNETH LEITHWOOD and DORIS JANTZI

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

Leithwood, Kenneth and Jantzi, Doris(2005) 'A Review of Transformational School Leadership

Research 1996-2005', Leadership and Policy in Schools, 4: 3, 177 — 199

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15700760500244769

Kouzes, J & Posner, B 2008, The leadership challenge, 4th edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Silins, H 1994, ‘The relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and school improvement outcomes’, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, vol. 5, no. 3, viewed 17 April 2011, .

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