Leadership Research Summary:
- Education is undergoing a period of sustained change from a focus on traditional skills and compliance to positional authority, to a focus on 21st century skills and more adaptable behaviors. In the light of this changing context, this study examined the role of school principalship and identified those attributes which teachers and students recognize as being desirable in a school leader today. Principals come in all shapes and sizes, have different leadership styles, spend time on different things, and are judged on their performance based upon what they say and do, how well their school is performing, and how happy the led are with their leader.
- The study looked at the various leadership styles emerging from the extensive literature. The statements used in the survey were drawn from six different principal styles, with five attribute statements for each style. Teachers and students (N = 405) across nine schools completed a two-part survey in which they were asked to rank leadership attributes in order of importance. In this way we identified specific attributes deemed desirable in a school leader. The results showed high statistical significance.
- The findings were quite conclusive: Teachers and students preferred the Integrated Leadership style which combines instructional and transformational leadership and agreed on the importance of principal as role model for both students and colleagues. This key element of the principal’s role was linked to two other attributes, these being that a principal should (a) foster a shared vision in the school, and (b) have a vision for the school that they help to develop with colleagues. These findings give rise to some interesting questions, one being: What does it mean to be a role model in the context of 21st century education? A second being, what is the link between shared vision and role modeling?
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
- The outcome of this study implies that a School’s Governing Body must assure themselves that school staff and leaders are very clear about what sorts of students the school wants to develop, what sorts of instructional practices are needed to achieve that outcome, and thus what skills and behaviors they want reflected in the school’s teachers and leaders. If they can assure themselves that this vision for the school is adequate, then they must further assure themselves that the principal is modeling behaviors consistent with this vision as well as extolling its virtues. Finally, they must assure themselves that behaviors and practices amongst staff are changing over time to come more into alignment with the school’s vision, and the desired outcomes for students are being progressively achieved.
- In the event that a school lacks vision; either due to the absence of a clear mission statement, uncertainty at the governing level or due to insufficient induction of key leaders, then the Governing Body has both a significant challenge and a potential opportunity for reset and renewal. If the vision of the school is not clear, then the Governing Body must task the principal to lead a broad-based process to develop a clear and adequate vision for the school and assure themselves that, once developed, the principal is willing and able to commit fully to modeling the behaviors embedded in the vision and to act as a passionate custodian for it. The challenges of a school ‘lacking charts, a course to steer and a skillful navigator’ is the potential for future study.
- In the circumstance where the school community cannot collectively agree on a vision for the school then the principal must build and support the capacity required such that an agreed vision can be achieved at some point in the future. Institutional capacity building is an important aspect of the Integrated Leadership style (Ololube, 2015).
- In the case where a school has already developed an adequate vision then the role modeling of the implied behaviors and the capacity to inspire behavioral change amongst staff and students should be important factors in the Governing Body’s recruitment of a new principal or the ongoing evaluation of an existing principal.
- During periods of stability, the above conditions may naturally align. It is during periods of transition that care needs to be taken to assure that each individual condition is met, and a new alignment achieved.
- In the first instance, aspiring leaders need to align themselves with the mores and values of the organizations they wish to lead to the extent that they can consistently model the associated behaviors and inspire others to adopt them as well. For some, existing behaviors are so entrenched that even with knowledge of the prevailing institutional mores, they just cannot help but default to their personal values compass, which may prove to be a mismatch and their tenure unsuccessful. A better understanding of the key attributes needed of a principal in this time of change can allow aspiring leaders to better prepare to take on the principal role. The match between leader and school needs to be authentic. The leader modeling the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs cherished by the organization, and sharing these attributes in turn, reinforces and grows them within the institution. The aspiring leader’s responsibility is to fully understand the school they wish to lead.
- In some cases, there is the potential for maximum leadership impact if the principal can model those qualities to which the school aspires but is currently falling short. In these cases, it is not just the qualities but also the ability to inspire others which are the critical factors.
- Aspiring principals also need an appreciation not only of their own skills but also of their own world view. Sadly, it can be the case that aspiring leaders have an unrealistic self-awareness and, in their ignorance, fail to see that they have neither the attributes nor the skill required to lead.
- The aspiring leaders most likely to succeed will be those for whom new behaviors are relatively close to their current behaviors, meaning that they already model 21st century skills, they respect all staff and students—treat them as subjects rather than objects—they have the capacity to cause students (and staff) to present their authentic selves and willingly do their best work, and expect this high standard from everyone they meet. Developing aspiring leaders along these lines would go some way to preparing them to take on a principal’s role in the future.
- Most principals would likely agree on the traits of good leadership, but such agreement does not necessarily translate into principal behaviors. This study suggests that the principal ought to be spending most of their time and energy on two things. It is ensuring that the school’s vision is up to date with contemporary needs, they are aligned with it and promoting it exhaustively, and that they are modeling the skills and behaviors that their school wants to see in students, teachers and leaders, and they are inspiring behavioral change, that are paramount. Here model means literally to live by and consistently express the skills that are integral to the vision—to be creative and adaptive, to be curious, to show initiative, to be collaborative and communicative—exactly the capabilities that society wants students to have, but the principal needs to have them to a high degree.
- The strength of the responses in this study suggests that the principal ought to put considerable time and energy into these specific domains. Being handy with the paperwork or prolific with emails might be admirable traits, but these are not the things which colleagues and students are using to measure the value of the principal, not the things that will have a lasting impact on the school’s outcomes. Modeling contemporary skills and behaviors and inspiring others to adopt them is where the principal can have the greatest impact, and where their efforts are best placed, not forgetting that what is being modeled must be derived from and enshrined in the school’s vision. What we want to be and how we behave need to be consistent.Hopefully, existing principals will be interested in the results of this study and reflect on their school’s current vision and how they spend their time in and around the school.