It is perceived that the growth of a nation rests on the quality of its educational leaders. The NEP 2020 today has set the impetus to implement a truly dynamic framework. The phased-out manner brings clarity and vision as to how schools should proceed in implementing it.
Therefore, the wider context lies in how the school leadership will view and structure it in their respective schools. It becomes paramount as to how a school leader should be. The basic concern of this theoretical debate is to examine then the wider context of leadership and its effectiveness in improving school management. Theories of leadership and styles of leadership are important yardsticks for pedagogical leadership.
Many of us believe that leaders are not born, but made. Interestingly, it is also recognized that to be a good leader, one must have the experience, knowledge, commitment, patience, and most importantly the skill to negotiate and work with others to accomplish organizational goals. Good leaders are thus made, not born. Good leadership is developed through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and the accumulation of relevant experience (Bass & Bass, 2008). In his book, “The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society”, Boulding (1956) outlined the general trans-disciplinary theory of knowledge and human, social, and organizational behaviour. He mentioned that the basis of good leadership is strong character and selfless devotion to an organization (Jenkins, 2013).
A very important factor is trustworthiness, it is often key to positions of leadership as trust is fundamental to all manner of organized human groups, whether in education, business, the military, religion, government, or international organizations (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2007). Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.
There is no particular style of leadership that can be considered universal. A good or effective leader inspires, motivates, and directs activities to help achieve group or organizational goals. Conversely, an ineffective leader does not contribute to organizational progress and can detract from organizational goal accomplishment.
Naylor (1999) pointed out that effective leadership is a product of the heart and an effective leader must be visionary, passionate, creative, flexible, inspiring, innovative, courageous, imaginative, experimental and initiate change.
Contemporary theories can be accommodated under three broad perspectives,
- Process Perspective
- Trait Perspective
- Skill Perspective
However, there seems to be some degree of the claim that leadership is a process that involves influencing a group of people toward the realization of goals, school goals or organizational goals.
Theories Of Leadership
There are many theories, Trait Theory, "Great Man" Theory, Contingency Theory, Situational Theory, Behavioural Theory, Participative Theory, Transactional / Management Theory, Relationship / Transformational Theory, and Skills Theory.
Trait theory often identifies particular personality or behavioural characteristics that are shared by leaders. But many have begun to criticize this theory and question, if particular traits are key features of leaders and leadership, how do we explain people who possess those qualities but are not leaders?
Inconsistencies in the relationship between leadership traits and leadership effectiveness eventually led scholars to shift paradigms in search of new explanations for effective leadership.
Great Man Theory emphasizes that great leaders are born, not made. These theories often portray leaders as heroic, mythic and destined who rise to leadership whenever needed.
Contingency Theory stresses specific variables in the environment that might determine which style of leadership is best suited for a particular work situation. According to this theory, leadership styles vary across all situations. Success depends upon several variables, including leadership style, qualities of followers and situational features (Charry, 2012).
Contingency theory categorically states that effective leadership depends on the degree of fit between a leader’s qualities and leadership style and that demanded by a specific situation (Lamb, 2013). A contingency factor is thus any condition in any relevant environment to be considered when designing an organization or one of its elements (Naylor, 1999).
Situational Theory proposes that leaders choose the best course of action based on situational circumstances. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for different types of decision-making.
Behavioural theories of leadership are based on the premise that great leaders are made, not born. This theory focuses on leaders' actions, not their intellectual qualities. People can learn to become leaders through training and observation.
Participative leadership theories point out that the ideal leadership style takes the input of others into account. Participative leaders encourage participation and contributions from group members and help group members feel relevant and committed to the decision-making process.
Transactional Theory focuses on the role of supervision, organization and group performance and the exchanges that take place between leaders and followers. In other words, a leader’s job is to create structures that make it abundantly clear what is expected of followers and the consequences (rewards and punishments) associated with meeting or not meeting organizational expectations.
Transformational leaders motivate and inspire people by helping group members see the importance and higher purpose of the task. These leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also on each person fulfilling his or her potential. Leaders of this style often exhibit high ethical and moral standards (Charry, 2012).
Skills Theory conveys that learned knowledge and acquired skills/abilities are significant factors in the practice of effective leadership. Interestingly, this theory acknowledges the connection between inherited traits and the capacity to lead effectively but argues that learned skills, a developed style, and acquired knowledge, are the real keys to leadership performance. It demands considerable effort and resources for leadership training and development (Wolinski,2010).
Effective educational leadership is very essential to educational effectiveness and improvement (Ololube et.al.2012). To sustain it, leaders must develop sustainability in how they approach, commit to and protect teaching and learning in educational institutions; how they sustain themselves and followers around them to promote and support teaching and learning; how they are able and encouraged to sustain their vision and how they consider the impact of their leadership in educational management.
Most leaders want to do things that matter, inspire others to do it with them and leave a legacy once they have gone (Hargreaves & Goodson, 2006).
Sustainable leadership certainly needs to become a commitment of all educational leaders. To sustain effective educational leadership, Hargreaves and Fink (2004) presented seven principles:
- It creates and preserves sustaining learning
- It secures success over time
- It sustains the leadership of others
- It addresses issues of social justice
- It develops rather than depletes human and material resources
- It develops environmental diversity and capacity
- It undertakes futuristic engagement with the environment
Leadership Styles
Another very important factor is Leadership Style. Leadership styles are the approaches employed to motivate followers. Leadership is not a “one size fits all” phenomenon. Leadership styles should be selected and adapted to fit organizations, situations, groups, and individuals. There are many leadership styles, Autocratic leadership style, Bureaucratic leadership style, Charismatic Leadership style, Democratic Leadership Style, Laissez-Faire Leadership Style and Transactional Leadership Style. Different leadership styles may be employed depending on the goal set in an organization. Level of decision–making is also important in the context of leadership style.
Educational Context
In the educational context, leaders inspire the whole system by effectively influencing the behaviours, thoughts, and feelings of those working within it, and ensure their vision by creating a strategic alignment across the whole system.
Warren Bennis (2004) held that a leader makes good decisions that imply a goal, a direction, an objective, a vision, a dream, a path, and a reach.
Further, a leader does the following:
- Shares information with all in an organization; motivates people
- Inspire and empower people
- Creates trust through one’s competencies
- Defines mission, models the behaviours, and expresses collective goals of the organization.
- Perceives and handles ‘failure’ differently, embraces error and vows to learn from it.
- Ensures a healthy and empowering environment to generate commitment, feeling of belongingness
- Encourages a network or flattened hierarchy model- a more centralized model where the keywords are acknowledged, created and empowered.
On the whole, vision, constancy of purpose and consistency are central concerns of leaders in educational management and planning. They seek to establish the best educational policies and strategies, which involve the improvement of educational programs and administrative services aimed at creating competent graduates capable of entering significant positions in society and, in turn, improving educational practices and procedures.
Educational leaders ensure that academic and non-academic staff are continually trained to operate in the innovative and ever-changing educational process and that they are building professional learning communities.
Effective leadership and management mean less leadership and management. Teachers are now increasingly caught up in specific managerial roles and distributed leadership. It is suggested that accepting effective leadership principles and styles in educational management are of vital significance. The key characteristics of effective leadership have proven worth in the field of education.
It may be concluded that success is certain by understanding leadership styles, principles, and practices that make up effective educational leadership, provided the leadership styles, principles and methods are applied in the right spirits in educational management.
However, there is always room for improvement keeping in mind the tradition of quality educational leadership. Outstanding educational leadership principles and styles may be adopted intelligently and in the right direction for enhancing educational management at all levels in India.
At present things are moving and progressing in the right direction due to the NEP 2020. The framework is there to guide the educational leaders. They may explore the combination of strategies to be adopted and be successful in their mission of being effective educational leaders. In short educational leadership involves team spirit, improvement in performance in all areas of school management and enhancing teaching and learning. Assessment and parent feedback, community involvement and participation of citizenship, keeping the spirit of patriotism always.
The NEP 2020 framework provides for that change to take place. Be the change agent, be a thought leader, be a leader to transform education.
