My Leadership Philosophy – Revisited

I first reflected about my leadership philosophy in 2011 when all middle managers were asked to consider our leadership philosophy for a dialogue with the Supt. After last week’s cluster key personnel development session, I thought that it was timely for me to take off my glasses and examine my lens on my leadership philosophy objectively based on my current reality so as to analyze how well my beliefs – things that I really care about mapped with my leadership philosophy.

But is there a need to articulate my leadership philosophy? As a middle manager, especially after becoming acting head of department this year 2013, is arguably, one of the great step-change in my teaching career. I am swamped by the many tasks in the school, taking on many roles – classroom teacher, people developer, manager and that is why I believe that I really need to have a clear philosophy of how and why I lead my team. The correct philosophy is like compass, always providing the invaluable vision and direction especially in times of stress, pressure and conflicting interests. The correct philosophy does not change or shift, instead the correct philosophy becomes the core of my personal and profession mission. Without understanding the correct leadership philosophy, there will be times when I feel “lost” especially when situation changes. While there may be others who consider such review just another paper exercise – a waste of time and effort, I personally see it as an exercise of the mind and heart and it will help me understand better why I do things the way I do as an educator, and more importantly, to decide what matters to me and so able to stand by what I am trying to accomplish as a middle manager.

As I look back and think about the evolution of my leadership philosophy, I found that the most important role model for my leadership development will be my direct people developers, someone who will have the most impact on my day-to-day behavior. Their influences (present and past people developers), coupled with my outside working experience will then serve to guide me along my leadership journey. Let me summaries these concisely as two broad principles, namely (1) to do my best in life and (2) to develop my teachers through role modeling.

My first principle – to do my best in life – is more a personal mission. But, why is the personal mission my first principle in my leadership philosophy? Essentially, I came to realize that my personal mission has the most significant impact on professional mission. This is not to say that professional mission has no impact on my personal mission. In fact, I know it does. My professional mission does form an important part of my satisfied life. What I am trying to say is that, my professional mission cannot be fully committed unless it fits my personal mission.

I believe that to make or keep commitment to others is shown by doing my best: to make the best decisions, to work harder than before, to act at being more upbeat and determined or to guide and lead others successfully for long term. This also means that to be committed to do my best, I need to know who I am and what I care about. Hence, the personal mission guides my decision and actions as a leader.

My second principle – to develop my teachers through role modeling – need to show my teachers that I am going to do exactly what I am asking them to do. This means that my actions better be consistent with my words. I believe that such role modeling approach not only enables me to lead and manage teachers ethnically and sensibly, but also unite all teachers through realistic actions that purposefully and deliberately empower my teachers.