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Leadership Essentials: Self-Knowledge and Awareness for the leaders
As an educational leader, I have always recognized the importance of self-knowledge and awareness as an important leadership essentials skill in ensuring success in working with people. Philosophers who have influenced educational thought, such as Aristotle and Plato, have long exhorted us to “know thyself!” These skills help leaders first understand their own strengths and weaknesses and then move outward to begin to understand others more fully. Self-knowledge requires the ability to engage in deep introspection and reflection and a willingness to work at improving shortcomings.
As a leader, one of the most important tasks one has to perform is to select a team that will be effective in achieving the required outcomes. Leaders who have a high level of self-knowledge and awareness are better positioned to identify these skills and characteristics in others. This allows leaders to select a team that represents a wide range of attributes and skills. It also provides the insight that allows leaders to select a team that will complement their own skill set. And it helps leaders be more open to new and diverse ideas. That is why studies of executives in a variety of industries, both public and private, have found that high self-awareness is the strongest predictor of leadership effectiveness (Flaum, 2010; Tjan, Harrington, & Hsieh, 2012).
To become more self-aware, leaders need to be reflective about their own attributes and leadership overview practices (Coombs, 2001). They need to know what motivates them and what influences their decision making. However, they must then go beyond personal reflection and also develop sensitivity to the values and orientations of others, so that they can give meaning to the actions of those they lead (Begley, 2006).
The inside-out approach is a very effective strategy for those who want to grow in knowledge of what guides and motivates their thinking, values, and actions. There are a number of variables that one should consider in that personal quest for increased self-awareness. These include examining one’s
- Values, beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions
- Beliefs about human nature
- Biases and prejudices
- Ability and willingness to make moral and ethical decisions
Our core values, beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions influence how we see the world, our actions, and the decisions we make.
These are often formed over one’s lifetime, beginning in early childhood. They are the sum total of all our experiences and relationships with significant others.
Those values, beliefs, and attitudes may also ultimately influence the decisions leaders are called upon to make in their boardrooms, schools, and districts.
It is very important for leaders to become increasingly aware of their values in particular. They need to be aware of the source of these values and how they manifest themselves in interactions with others. Greater self-awareness should help us become more accepting of the diverse perspectives of the members of our teams especially in multicultural and multiracial contexts. The ability of a leader to deal effectively with diversity is a major source of success (or failure) during these times of heightened awareness of and commitment to human rights issues. A lack of sensitivity to the values of the people we lead can be detrimental to our leadership success. One example of this is an incident I discussed earlier in this book, about the principal who was “run out of town” because it was felt that she did not take seriously the prevailing values of her rural community. This was all about the importance of getting to know deeply held community values.
Being aware of one’s dispositions or temperament is also essential, as the people we lead can be affected by our moods.
People often say that when they walk into a school, they can sense immediately what the climate of the school is and the tone that the leader has set for the organization. A leader who is self-aware has a high level of self-regulation, ensuring that employees are not affected negatively by the leader’s feelings, moods, or behaviors. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2002) also discuss this leadership skill.
Our beliefs about human nature also influence how we lead. Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, discussed in his book The Human Side of the Enterprise (1960), which influenced my early thinking about human nature at work, illustrate this point fully. In a nutshell, Theory X states that people are basically lazy, unambitious, unmotivated, irresponsible, selfish, and not very smart. Theory Y, on the other hand, describes people as energetic, motivated, ambitious, responsible, selfless, self-directed, and intelligent. These theories represent negative and positive views of human nature, respectively. If these theories influence leadership behaviors in the workplace [how to be a good leader], the leader’s theoretical orientation can have a powerful impact on how leaders behave for example, on tasks such as participatory problem solving.
In addition, William Ouchi (1981) popularized Theory Z, based on the work of W. Edwards Deming. He came to prominence by pointing out the differences between Japanese and American companies and management styles. It is interesting that he also wrote about how to make schools more effective.
Theory Z is essentially people-oriented in its pronouncements. It focuses on issues such as well-being and loyalty. Ouchi favored stability in employment, high productivity, and high employee morale.
The secret of Japanese success is not technology, but a special way of managing people a style that focusses on strong company philosophy, a distinct corporate culture, long-range staff development and consensus decision-making. (Ouchi, 1981)
It goes without saying that if we believe in and are guided by the tenets of Theory Y, our leadership behaviors would be drastically different from those who believe in Theory X. In fact, I have worked with leaders whose leadership characteristics I can easily subsume under each of these headings. What was most interesting and instructive for me were the lessons learned and insights gained about leadership when I worked with supervisors who demonstrated each of these orientations. I knew instinctively whom I did not want to emulate or be like the style I did not want to possess.
Throughout my career, I have been vehement in my denunciation of Theory X leadership. In the past, I remember challenging one of my “bosses” who demonstrated these qualities. This confrontation could have cost me my career. But what I believe helped was the language I used, having taken assertiveness training early in my career. Suffice it to that the Theory X orientation is so detrimental to employee health, well-being, and productivity that organizations should offer courses and coaching to prospective leaders when they see evidence of a strong Theory X orientation. Or, better still, if Theory X individuals do not demonstrate a significant change of heart and behavior, they should not be promoted to positions in which they are expected to manage or lead people.
If organizations do not take action and retrain or weed out individuals without strong people skills, they will certainly have to pay later for the leadership mistakes, missteps, and overall ineffectiveness of Theory X leaders. When a prospective leader has a negative view of human nature and does not have a strong people-orientation, creative leadership selection processes should take these shortcomings seriously to protect the morale of employees and the culture of the organization.
During and after the 1975 International Women’s Year, some of us were sensitized to women in leadership issues. There was ample evidence of discrimination that resulted in female aspirants’ lack of access to principals’ training programs, promotion processes, and leadership roles. To see this, one just had to look at the number of women in the teaching profession in most countries, especially at the elementary or primary level, compared to the number of women in educational leadership.
Some of us wanted to experience what it would be like to work with women leaders as our supervisors. I had a great epiphany and, as a consequence, learned a very important lesson at that time one that remained with me throughout my career that gender was not the most important quality in determining leadership effectiveness. I wanted so much to believe that was the case, but my experience gave me a more balanced view of who the effective leaders were and the qualities that such leaders possessed.
It was surprising and somewhat ironic that the leader I admired most at the time was a male principal with whom I worked as a vice principal. He was the most caring, sincere, empathetic, trusting, and positive individual with whom I had ever interacted in the workplace! It jarred all my stereotypes of male leadership and debunked all the myths I had imbibed during those years. That was a great experience for me, as it reinforced the fact that the positive leadership qualities that I am identifying in this book resided in both males and females. What this insight meant for me was the need to ensure that we demonstrate fidelity to upholding the values of fairness and equity when we assume leadership roles. After all, these were the values for which we had fought all those years.
After this experience, I refocused my attention on being a role model and mentor for both young women and young men, while recognizing fully that there were still personal and organizational biases that gave males the advantage for leadership roles. At the time, I remember being struck by the statistics on the number of women teachers in Ontario and elsewhere, compared to the number of women in educational administration. The disparity was still great. There was still a need to have special programs to attract and retain women in leadership roles.
I do recall an incident, as superintendent of schools, when, in a particular year, all the individuals who were promoted were females who followed diffused leadership model. This happened when visiting a school one day, and I was accosted by a young man. The young man was very upset, and stated that he had applied to become a vice principal and yet the entire short list that year was female. He wondered aloud if this was about “women’s lib.” He mentioned the name of a woman in his school who had also applied and was placed on the short list. I sat down with him and tried to encourage him not to give up. He referred to this woman again. I asked him a few questions: “How many years of experience do you have?”
Aside from the issue of qualifications, the most telling response was this one. When I asked how much preparation he had done for the interview, his response was that he had not prepared much for the interview. He wanted to know what I meant by “preparing” for an interview. Little did he know that the women had formed study groups and were meeting for months before the interview going over past and anticipated questions, conducting mock interviews, and assisting one another with model answers. I would guess that women would feel compelled to engage in these activities because, in the early days, women knew they had to work twice as hard as men did for whatever they wanted to achieve. Nothing would be given to them on a platter.
I invited this young man and a few others who were interviewed to meet with me and gave them some practice in preparing for interviews and answering questions. Later on, we assisted all individuals who were thinking of applying for promotions in practicing job-interview skills as a part of a larger leadership development program, which had a designated strand for aspiring leaders.
As I reflected on this experience, I realized that, indeed, the women’s movement generated many programs to assist women who wanted to assume leadership roles. It was needed because biases were still prevalent. We did not have many role models who had traveled that road. But one also had to admit that young men did not have many opportunities to prepare in a formal and transparent way.
Some of my friends said that my empathy for these young men was misplaced. The number of men in leadership roles was still disproportionate to their numbers at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. My friends were convinced that men were mentored in different ways—on the golf course, on the sports field, and in other organizations of which men were members and to which the women were not privy. Admittedly, that was the case. But as an educational leader who wrote equity and inclusive policies, it was important to be a mentor for both men and women. If one considers oneself to be a transformational leader, one cannot fight for changes and then later erect barriers that resemble the obstacles that one fought hard to dismantle. If a leader behaves in this way, he or she would, at best, be disingenuous. A certain level of self-monitoring is necessary to achieve congruence between values and behavior.
As an immigrant to Canada, it was also important for me to provide strong advocacy to ensure that more individuals from diverse communities had pathways established for them to get into leadership positions. Students need to see a strong representation of diversity of their communities in educational leadership. If this is not the case, they will not trust what we say about equity and inclusivity. In other words, they would tell us that we are not practicing what we are preaching. The statement “Your actions speak so loudly that I can hardly hear what you are saying” is applicable in these situations.
Admittedly, much remains to be done. But those in leadership in many of our Canadian provinces and parts of the United States do not yet represent the diversity of the larger communities. One just has to attend a meeting of principals or superintendents to see how homogeneous the senior management groups are. But I remain optimistic. I do not doubt that there is commitment in many districts to improve this situation. What is most obvious to me is the desire of leadership team development regardless of their composition to redouble current efforts to improve the life chances of students in general, and of children from poor or diverse communities in particular.
The aspect that concerns me most, and one that I have shared openly in many settings, is the fact that when students from diverse background see members of senior staff as a team, they do not see individuals with whom they instantly identify. Having role models who look like oneself is very important, given the diversity that exists in the broader society. From a career development perspective, we want our students to look to our leaders and say, “I could be like her,” or “I could be like him.” If they do not have these role models, they may not aspire to these roles, as I discovered in my study of the career aspirations and expectations of Ontario high school girls.
Ontario, for example, launched an equity and inclusive education strategy, which is still being implemented at this time. I was fortunate enough to be a co-chair of the committee that developed this strategy. Premier Kathleen Wynne was education minister at the time. Under her leadership, and at her insistence, Ontario developed and continues to implement the equity strategy that is still an important part of government policy in education.
Leadership Essentials: Peripheral Vision and Recognition of Future Trends
A core characteristic of effective leaders is the ability to have a vision of a preferred future, to identify smart goals, and to articulate these goals clearly to their staff so that they know the role they are expected to play in achieving that vision (Wilhelm, 1996, p. 223). All successful leadership starts with a vision, as leaders must set out a “compelling image of an achievable future” (Friedman, 2009). A clear vision works both to inspire and to focus attention and efforts on what is most important. A necessary component of this is to constantly scan the environment for trends, opportunities, and challenges that would thwart one’s quest to fulfill that vision. Consistent with the literature on contextual leadership, leaders today require an understanding of a range of factors that are both internal and external to the organization (House & Aditya, 1997).
One of my early insights as a leader was the importance of having a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. The leaders whom I admired most in my early years were those who had an inspiring vision of where they wanted to take the organization. They had a sense of what the school or organization should look like and, more important, how to get there. Authentic collaboration with colleagues was essential if they were to make a real difference in the lives of the people they chose to serve.
I have always thought that having visions but not a pathway toward achieving them is empty chatter. People lose confidence in talk with no accompanying action. What is important is that a leader possesses certain skills and competencies for the execution of seemingly lofty ideas. A leader must know how to coopt others so that they buy into the leader’s dream or image of the future. Leaders have to realize that they cannot do things alone, and that what is important is to influence and convince others to assume ownership and to be willing to put in the hard work required to achieve the goals.
One of the lessons I have learned is that visions can, indeed, be lofty. What is important is that they must be accompanied by intentionality, focused action, and competent execution. From my experience, visionary leaders certainly became the beacon of hope for the future we all wanted to achieve together. These leaders had a vision for the future, but, more important, they were able to tap into the vision of others, integrate their ideas and aspirations, and translate the notions into a combined vision for the future. It meant that when individuals recited the vision and mission statements, they could see themselves, their aspirations, and their role in that vision and in its realization. This helped build commitment and loyalty essential qualities for organizational cohesion.
Reaching the heart of leadership requires that aspiring and current leaders learn about future trends so that they are not taken by surprise or derailed from their course. The fact that we are engaged in preparing students for a future that we cannot fully imagine is another reason for paying attention to these trends.
Educators, because of the very nature of their work, must have a keen interest in the futurist literature. The trends that I have found most helpful in working with teachers are those proposed by Gary Marx, who has conducted trends research for more than fifty years. He has worked with businesses and countries across the world. For years, Marx proposed sixteen trends. His most recent research identified twenty-one trends.
My longstanding interest in the trends research began when I was a classroom teacher. I remember hearing a statement that stayed with me over the years: “The future belongs to those who can see it coming!”
Statistics tell us that many of the young people with whom we are working today will have working lives of more than forty years after graduation. Even though trends may change, knowing what they are now will help us prepare children for the future, however uncertain it may be. Trends provide us with glimpses over the horizon and into the future. They tell us that our graduates will have to deal with many challenges, changing landscapes, patterns, opportunities, expectations, and needs. They help us understand the pitfalls and the possibilities that we will encounter in our work and daily lives. By studying them, we can anticipate impacts and give our students the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions to deal with the unknown. Most important, we can prepare students and ourselves to become solution finders locally, nationally, and internationally.
Leadership Essentials: Moral and Ethical Decision Making
Over the past two decades, in light of many leaders’ scandals that have occurred in both the public and the private sectors, there has been increased attention paid to the moral and ethical dimensions of leadership (Den Hartog, 2015). Ethical leadership is now seen as absolutely crucial to a leader’s ability to inspire and influence others (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005; Piccolo, Greenbaum, Den Hartog, & Folger, 2010). One definition of ethical leadership is “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005, p. 120). Ethical leaders are therefore “humble, concerned for the greater good, strive for fairness, take responsibility and show respect for each individual” (Mihelic, Lipicnik, & Tekavcic, 2010, p. 31).
Ethical leadership is not just a moral obligation; it has also been shown to improve performance and effectiveness within organizations (Piccolo et al., 2010; Walumbwa, Morrison, & Christensen, 2012). Furthermore, ethical leadership communication has been found to increase satisfaction with the leader and perceptions of leader effectiveness, as well as followers’ job dedication and well-being, and has been found to decrease cynicism within organizations (Hassan, Mahsud, Yuki, & Prussia, 2013; Kalshoven & Boon, 2012; Neubert, Carlson, Kacmar, Roberts, & Chonko, 2009). And perhaps not surprisingly, other research has shown that ethical leadership increases prosocial behavior and decreases the unethical conduct of others within organizations (Brown & Trevino, 2006).
The failure of a few leaders in recent years has created some skepticism and mistrust within organizations. Leaders are finding, more than ever, that they have to prove themselves each day. They are fully aware that trust is essential to their effectiveness. They must now prove that they are deserving of that trust.
Interestingly, though, I have read that companies such as Enron and Tyco that were in serious trouble for what has been described as unethical activities have beautifully written beliefs-and-values statements adorning the walls of their organizations.
The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, was described as the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, as well as the biggest audit failure. Executives were indicted for a variety of charges, and some were later sentenced. This, for me, was a clear lesson on the importance of leaders’ practicing what they preach, being transparent, and being genuinely ethical in their values, beliefs, and behaviors.
Leadership Essentials: Biases, Stereotypes, and Prejudices
In the early years of the women’s movement, stereotyping was a favorite topic for us to talk about. Stereotypes abound for all groups. What is sad is that some groups are consistently stereotyped positively, while others are consistently portrayed in a negative way. Some people will defend this practice, referring to those who “complain” as “overly sensitive,” and will say that stereotypes are innocuous. These individuals are often quite dismissive, of those who complain about this inconsistency, offering the explanation that all groups are stereotyped.
I was particularly interested in understanding the issue of prejudice and discrimination more fully in my early years as a teacher. I could understand the tendency to stereotype I am sure that I was guilty of this behavior as well. But I have always recognized the devastating impact that stereotyping can have if, as educators, we do not guard against it in our work with students. Most educators learn about the Pygmalion effect and its corollary, the Golem effect, in teacher’s college. These are self-fulfilling prophecies. With the former, we attribute higher expectations, which lead to increased performance. With the latter, we attribute low expectations, which lead to decreased performance.
This phenomenon has also been attributed to leadership expectations. What we do know is that expectations matter and that leaders must be aware of the expectations we have of all those who fall within our sphere of influence. Even more important, those who work with young people must never place limits on what they are capable of doing or achieving. They will always surprise us. At parties, when we mention that we are educators, so many stories are told with great resentment: “My teachers said I would amount to nothing,” or “My principal said I would just be a school dropout,” or “I was told, ‘You are just as lazy as your brother; you will never be able to do math well!’”
A colleague sent me a photograph of a high jumper with one leg Arnold Boldt, who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada. Boldt defies all predictions about his ability and surprises everyone because he continues to exceed all expectations.
There is a clear message for us as educators when we work with students. We should never underestimate their ability. They will continue to surprise us!
As a teacher, it was very important for me to make every effort to ensure that stereotypes about the children I taught were not harbored especially about their ability. This is necessary because stereotypes do reside in all our minds even with the best of intentions. And what is even more disconcerting is that these judgments can surreptitiously affect how we relate to students, how we evaluate them, and how we make decisions about their lives.
Leadership Is Political!
While the word “politics” can conjure up negative associations, the reality is that all organizations are inherently political (Mintzberg, 1985). Schools are no different. Therefore, being an effective leader involves acknowledging this political reality and engaging with it skillfully. In this context, a common definition of political skill is the ability to understand and influence others in order to accomplish organizational objectives (Ahearn, Ferris, Hockwarter, Douglas, & Ammeter, 2004). Ferris and colleagues (2005) outline four dimensions of political skill:
Social astuteness: Individuals possessing political skill are astute observers of others and are keenly attuned to diverse social situations. They comprehend social interactions and accurately interpret their own behavior, as well as that of others, in social settings. They have strong powers of discernment and high self-awareness.
Interpersonal influence: Politically skilled individuals have a subtle and convincing personal style that exerts a powerful influence on those around them. Individuals with high interpersonal influence, nonetheless, are capable of appropriately adapting and calibrating their behavior to each situation in order to elicit particular responses from others.
Networking ability: Individuals with strong political skill are adept at developing and using diverse networks of people. People in these networks tend to hold assets seen as valuable and necessary for successful personal and organizational functioning. By the sheer force of their typically subtle style, politically skilled individuals easily develop friendships and build strong, beneficial alliances and coalitions.
Apparent sincerity: Politically skilled individuals appear to others as possessing high levels of integrity, authenticity, sincerity, and genuineness. They are, or appear to be, honest, open, and forthright.
These competencies social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity are essential for leadership today. They symbolize the head, the heart, and the hands words commonly used to describe the cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains of learning. The ability to demonstrate astuteness, sincerity, and influence should be taught in all leadership development programs. Without these essential prerequisites, leaders will not be able to develop trust the sine qua non of leadership and a major conduit to the heart.
Interestingly, these are described as the “soft skills.” I am convinced that the soft skills are, indeed, the hard skills. They must be taught systematically. They are not learned by osmosis or association with those who possess these 21st century skills.
There is also reason to believe that educational leaders have a particular obligation to engage with the broader political system, as it affects their ability to initiate and lead positive educational change. For example, Lammel (2000) states that leaders in education “have a moral responsibility to stand up and be counted on those issues that affect quality education for all students” .
This means that leaders must be willing to engage in positive political action, utilizing the influencing skills we have honed over the years and making sure that schools best serve the needs of students. This positive form of politics is simply about marshaling all resources available human, financial, and material to influence decisions about children and their needs. By taking action to benefit students, we reach the heart of leadership.
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