Last week’s
reflection on the first of the five practices of exemplary leadership: Model
the Way provided some clarity on my personal principles and values that guided
my actions in my leadership journey. To Model the way includes both clarifying of values by finding your
voice and affirming shared values and setting
the example by aligning personal actions with shared values (an important
approach to personal development) and teach others to model the principles and
values. Now that I have a clearer sense of my personal principles and values, this
week’s reflection is to make sure that I set the example by aligning my
personal words and deeds – on following through and demonstrating how I live my
principles and values.
Below is a recap
of the three principles which I am focusing on and the values I hold to achieve
these principles (to gain trust, to develop potential and to achieve
excellence).
The authors James
Kouzes and Barry Posner highlighted some significant actions that I may
undertake to enhance my own style of leadership, including how I spend my time
and attention, the language I use, how I deal with critical incidents and my openness
to feedback.
So, what does
that mean to me? I too strongly believe that leadership practice starts with me
– more specifically from within me! I need to have clearly articulated principles
and values (my “why to do’s”) and be able to apply practices (my “what to do’s”)
based on these principles and values. In this way, I will be able to earn and
sustain personal credibility as acting head of department by having both character
and competences. Of the four practices highlighted above, I will attempt to speak
on two of them, namely on how I spend my time and attention and my openness to
feedback.
The behavior and
actions of leaders send a clear message to others about what is important and
what is merely lip service. For example, as excellence is one of my key
principles, I spend my own time and commitment to (academic and leadership) excellence
in pursuit of continuous learning. In striving for academic excellence,
learning might be through my own experiences in the classroom or it might be by
participating in learning teams or workshops to support implementing,
evaluating and expanding on my instructions that keeps my pupils engaged in
learning. As for growth in leadership excellence, it might be through my own readings
or it might be through practicing reflection on a weekly basis in the midst of
my professional practice.
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