Distributive Leadership

Distributive leadership: Distributing roles and responsibilities that result in serious and important decision making, that maintains accountability.

     I feel that distributive leadership is used for capacity building. Without being able to distribute powers and roles to others it can become more of a dictatorship instead of a community. This is a great model, it holds all in place accountable and responsible. These team members make decisions that impact everyone at the school.

     This model is used in a wide variety at my school site. The school is made up of different committees that are in charge of various aspects of running the school. These committees range from curriculum, to social committee, wellness committee and a safe and civil committee. Each committee is important for the school to run properly. The principal is the main person, who has delegated out a leader in each department for curriculum, they then formed the rest of their teams. Each curriculum team has three-seven members. Usually one for each grade level. There is a math team, a writing team, and a reading team. These teams work on adjusting the current district curriculum that is not aligned with common core standards, only Oregon state standards. They also create road maps for the teachers to follow each school year.

     I also feel that without distibutive leadership, the leader (prinicpal or administrator) cannot fulfill every role, as much as they may want to, someone else has to help out. When distributed equally based on qualifications everyone has an easier job, and the job gets done. 

Leadership Styles

There are a number of different leadership styles which are:

Charismatic Leadership: The Charismatic Leader gathers followers through dint of personality and charm, rather than any form of external power or authority.

Participative Leadership: A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders.

Situational Leadership: When a decision is needed, an effective leader does not just fall into a single preferred style, such as using transactional or transformational methods. In practice, as they say, things are not that simple.

Transactional Leadership: People are motivated by reward and punishment.Social systems work best with a clear chain of command.

Transformational Leadership: Working for a Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to succeed.

The Quiet Leader: The actions of a leader speak louder than his or her words.People are motivated when you give them credit rather than take it yourself.
Ego and aggression are neither necessary nor constructive.

Servant Leadership: The servant leader serves others, rather than others serving the leader. Serving others thus comes by helping them to achieve and improve.

     If I was to choose which style most suits me I would say that I use situational leadership. I think that situational leadership suits me because I make decsions based on situations. Each situation is different, as are the people involved. So for me making decsions based on who is involved and what the situation is make the most sense. This also is more adaptive then the other leadership styles. Which I am a very adaptive person.

Reference:
Changing Minds. (2002-2013). Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/leadership_styles.htm

POWER Dynamic...

Power:  noun

1. ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.

2. political or national strength: the balance of power in Europe. 

3. great or marked ability to do or act; strength; might; force.

4. the possession of control or command over others; authority; ascendancy: power over men's minds. 

5. political ascendancy or control in the government of a country, state, etc.: They attained power by overthrowing the legal government.

 

Dynamics: noun

1. ( used with a singular verb ) Physics. the branch of mechanics that deals with the motion and equilibrium of systems under the action of forces, usually from outside the system.

2. ( used with a plural verb ) the motivating or driving forces, physical or moral, in any field.

3. ( used with a plural verb ) the pattern or history of growth, change, and development in any field.

4. ( used with a plural verb ) variation and gradation in the volume of musical sound.

5. ( used with a singular verb ) psychodynamics.

(From Dictionary.com)

 

 

POWER DYNAMICS

     Teachers hold a special power dynamic. With their students and their peers. There are experienced teachers, and teacher leaders. Teacher leaders know how to use their power correctly. There are a few that are power hungry and strive to have the ultimate power. I feel that each school has a wide range of power dynamics. From those who feel powerless whether they truly are or not.

     People who use their power responsiblity can make a huge difference in their school site, with their peers and with their students. These are the teachers that want change and they make it happen. These are the people that you want on your side when bettering your situation is a must. Students are our number one priority. We can never forget that. The things we do and teach them today will stick with them forever. They are our future, using this power to enable them to be the best that they can be is everything.

     Upon doing some research about power dynamics I came across an article from the Harvard Educational Review, there was a lot of great information about power dynamics in the classroom. I encourage you all to check it out!

http://hepg.org/her/abstract/187

My Top 5 Strengths

     Strength-based leadership can support a community of practice in many different ways. Each individual has areas of strengths and weaknesses. I like many others tend to focus more on my weaknesses not my strengths. Just after the short time of being in this course I have learned that focusing on my weaknesses is making me weaker, because I am always bringing myself down. But when I focus on my strengths I am able to be more positive in my outlook of myself. It makes a huge difference. I am already more focused and confident then I was even last week. I know that if I can have such a massive change in myself in such a short time I can only imagine what it would be like if everyone focused on their strengths and not their weaknesses. People can pull together to combine their strengths to make the ultimate teams. Here is some background information on what my colleauges felt my strengths were, what I thought my strengths were and what my strengths really are...


After reading the themes of Strengths Finder 2.0, I asked two different colleagues what themes they felt fit me the most, the first told me:

1. Adaptability
2. Responsibility
3. Achiever
4. Developer
5. Deliberative
 
The second colleague told me my top five strengths were:

1. Activator
2. Consistency
3. Includer
4. Positivity
5. Achiever
 
The top 5 strengths that I gave to myself before taking the assessment were:

1. Belief
2. Harmony
3. Relator
4. Deliberative
5. Consistency
 
After taking the assessment my top 5 strengths were:
 
1. Restorative: "People who are especially talented in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it."
 
2. Responsibility: " People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty."
 
3. Adaptability: "People who are especially talented in the adaptability theme prefer to "go with the flow." They tend to be "now" people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time."
 
4. Harmony: "People who are especially talented in the harmony theme look for consensus. They don't enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement."
 
5. Connectedness: "People who are especially talented in the connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason."
 
 
After completing the assessment and reading the theme descriptions again and really thinking about myself it is completely accurate. I honestly do not know what I was thinking on the pre-assessment of myself. I am now really thinking about my strengths and how I can build on them even more to be a well rounded teacher leader...

 
Reference
Gallup, Inc. (2000, 2006-2012). Strengths Finder . Retrieved from https://strengths.gallup.com/private/sf2/reports/default.aspx

Hoping to grow and develop my leadership skills!

     As I start my first class of my Master's program in Teacher Leadership, the class is EDL/500-Personal Leadership. In this course I really hope to learn more about my personal qualities as a teacher and a teacher leader. I feel that I know what qualities a ideal teacher leader possesses, but I feel that it is important for me to determine which of those qualities I already have and which I need to work on or develop. I hope to learn from others in my course as well as my instructor. Everyone views various situations differently and I think that it is important for people to understand how they are being precieved through anothers eyes. I hope to be preceived as a future Leader of Teachers.