Educational
Leadership: The First Among Equals
It goes without saying that every organization, every establishment,
every activity involving team work, every group working together for a specific
purpose, needs a leader. Leadership spans all human collective activities such
as political leadership, corporate leadership, business leadership, society
leadership, professional leadership relating to different professions, where
the leader has the responsibility to realize the objective of his/her
organization. It may relate to victory in elections or profit in business
ventures or success in a competitive professional undertakings- where the end
goal is either political power or monetary benefit for the organization. Even
as the organization garners praise, it is the leader who gets recognition for
the achievement. Today we talk about Modi Government and Modinomics; earlier it
was Gandhian Movement or Nehruvian socialism or Indira Gandhi’s 20-point
programme. In the corporate sectors, we
associate Bill Gates with Microsoft Corporation or Narayan Murthy with Infosys
or Ambanis with Reliance. The credit goes to the leader with the tag-‘the winner
takes it all”. The power of the leader precedes the power of the rest including
the organization. So also when there is a failure, the applauding world does
not miss a fraction of a second to bring down the leader. This is because the
stakes are high in terms of money and profit, power and status. The rise and
fall are equally huge in proportions.
Leadership
in education is different. The goals are different; the work is a shared effort;
the gains are shared gains. There is no profit motive; there is no status climb
for anyone. The gains are, on the contrary, intangible. But the gains are great
as they point more to the future than to the present. For what is achieved is
the start of a new future. As Tennyson says, “That which we are, we are, and if
we are ever to be any better, now is the time to begin.” Hence leadership in
education is different as the recognition and reward is not for an individual
but for a collective achievement. If a University or a College gets a star
ranking, it stays with the institution and the credit goes not exclusively to the leader but to the institution and all
the stakeholders. Allied to this is another key factor namely the absence of
academic hierarchy in the strict sense of the term. It is far removed from “the ladder like social arrangement
wherein one individual
outranks all others,
the next outranks
all but the
first, and so on down
the hierarchy". In academia, the ranking provides a rung for
every academic and every student to rise to his level of competence and
collectively to contribute to the excellence of the institution. Different
faculties, different studies and different research scholars, not ranked in any
hierarchical order, bring about an intellectual levelling that is hardly seen
in any other organization. Thus the
leader of an educational institution has to be aware of shared gains, shared
work, shared responsibility, shared enthusiasm for intellectual development and
take specific care not to hurt the ego and pride of fellow academics. Instead
of a vertical climb to the top, s/he moves horizontally to take the place as
the first among equals. All decisions have to be in consultation with other academics
that involve the leader and the faculty members who are co-equals in all respects except that
they are not in the last rung of being
first among them.
This brings us to the
question as to what shall be the contribution of a leader to an institution. It
is clear that all decisions should have the three objectives as the academic
institution has three wings- the faculty, the students and the administrative
staff. Hence the focus has
to be on three levels
- Promote student achievement
- Promote Faculty Excellence
- Build a solid organizational structure
The
leader- the Vice Chancellor of a University or the Principal of a college,
should have this constancy of purpose and work simultaneously on all the three
fronts to realize the potential for excellence intrinsic to any educational
establishment. Leadership comprises being a mentor and guide to the students, a
team enabler to the faculty towards effective professional development and a
sustainer of the support staff towards managing people and creating a climate
hospitable to education. In a University or college, the work and the results
are for the stakeholders, by the stakeholders and of the stakeholders towards
improving learning and instruction leading to the development of the institution.
Who then qualifies to be a leader of an educational
institution? S/he has to be a Servant leader and a Culturally Responsive
leader. A servant leader sounds like an oxymoron for the person has to double
up as a servant and a leader. A servant is not necessarily being subordinate
but one who is institutionally employed in the service of others. As stated above, the position of being first
among equals demands that the leader should be aware of his responsibility not
to bruise the ego of fellow academics
but make them equal partners in decision making that is in the best
interests of the institution . At the same time s/he has to act not from a
position of compromise, but from a position of moral and intellectual strength.
As Daniel Wheeler writes in his Servant
Leadership for Higher Education: Principles and Practices, “… Servant
leaders are comfortable with who they are and not afraid to be vulnerable to
others. Their authenticity is central to building strong relationships with
others.” Leadership is not to be misconstrued as being coterminous with authority,
oppression and control, where people pretend to like the leader because s/he is
strong but it is to be seen as unique
blend of concession and cooperation, strength and settlement of
differences- in short, it has to be a matter of opinion and compromise, requiring much skill and much patience.
The other dimension is that of being a Culturally Responsive leader. In
today’s rapidly changing demographics we need a visionary, collaborative, and
culturally appropriate leadership on university campuses. In the face of
widening gaps in academic achievement and socio-economic roadblocks, we need a leader with a new vision of
leadership that can transform diversity and turn challenge into opportunity. Culturally
Responsive leadership springs from those who promote access, equity, and
educational improvement for underserved
students. Its goal is to improve educational pedagogy and practices for social
equity and transformational betterment..
What makes a great leader of higher education?
First and foremost is to have a
vision. Unless there is soup in the pot, you cannot ladle it. If a leader
does not have vision- an intuitive perception as to what kind of an institution
s/he envisions, there can be no movement forward. A futuristic vision cannot be built in a
vacuum. That will be just a fantasy. Nor can one have an empty dream that
refuses to reckon with the present. It is a step by step process, but the
leader must know where s/he wants to have the last step. One has to have a clear
idea of the direction the institution must traverse and how to steer it towards
it. While the leader communicates the vision to his faculty, s/he reaches out
for collective consensus and plans towards achieving it. This is the special
quality of the leader- to have a clear vision and an ability to communicate and
articulate it to fellow faculty, a willingness to discuss and debate and modify
the vision. From being just a
transactional manager, one becomes a
transformational leader.
The second quality is to have courage
of conviction. Merely having a
vision will prove infructuous, if it is not accompanied by courage to dare and
act. Every action has its plusses and minuses. Every action entails a risk of
some kind. All decisions impact the students who will be the torchbearers of
the next generation. So long as the vision entails no moral or ethical
compromise, so long as it is in the past forward mode, there need not be any
anxiety to act on that vision. As Mahatma Gandhi had shown the means are more
important than the ends. One must have the courage to adopt the right means
which will involve taking risks and act. The leader has to be courageous to
take action even if the results may not go according to his/her plan. True leadership lies not in never
failing but in rising every time we fail. Among all the qualities of a leader, courage
is the most identifiable outward trait.
The third quality is integrity.
Vision and courage gain validity from moral and ethical strength. Integrity is
an essential quality as it is a reflection of one’s honest vision and courage. Whatever may be the situation, not to waver
from truth generates trust and loyalty. “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to
hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” – Zig
Ziglar. The leader
of an institution has a huge responsibility in developing the moral fibre of
the young students. The responsibility extends to the faculty who are also
mentors of the youth. The core of integrity is truthfulness.
Of
all professions, the profession of a teacher is marked as much by nobility as
it is affected by hubris. Academic hubris is the cause of institutional destruction.
It is a well known truth that academics compete with each other to have the
last hundred words in any argument. The leader has to avoid the trap of overbearing
pride in his/her knowledge and scholarship. Even when s/he is strong, decisive and
dynamic, it is important to remain humble. There is a Tamil proverb
that says “All that you have learnt is the sand your hand holds’ all that you
have not learnt is the vast stretch of sand on the shore.” Humility
consists in giving equal importance to the thoughts and views of others. Humility
means your willingness to admit that you
may be wrong. Humility is giving credit to others where it is due.
A leader is a leader 24x7. It is important
that the leader is available to all at any point of time, easily accessible and
willing to attend to the needs of all the three groups –the students, the
faculty and the support staff. A leader has to have an open door policy and
never indulge in closed door parleys. There is no need for a peon to be
stationed outside the room of the Principal or the Vice Chancellor to regulate
people coming in. The policy should be to lend one’s ears to the students,
faculty and staff.
The
ability to focus on multiple tasks and possess time managerial skills are
assets to a leader. The leader has to focus on the needs of all sections of the
institution. The demands of the various groups may be conflicting. An open and
impartial approach, an empathic response to others’ needs and the ability to
motivate and make everyone contribute to the institution are exemplary
qualities required by the leader.
Last,
but not the least, the leader has to understand that in any institution, 30%
are outstanding workers, 50% are the cat on the wall kind, ready to sink or
swim with the flow and the remaining 20% are genetic work shirkers. If the
leader goes witch hunting the last
group, the institution will collapse. On the contrary, the leader sets personal
example of excellence and ethical standard that makes even the middle 50% of
the fence sitters join the elite 30% to bring the institution to its highest
potential for excellence.
The
leader of an educational institution is a special person. Let us bear in mind “
Leadership is not
about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration.
Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you
have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers”. (Robin
S. Sharma)
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