The Adult Basic Education Association (ABEA) Hamilton was established in year 1983 as a humanitarian organization. The organization is a not-for-profit organization and it works by providing a learning network. The ABEA works for adult education as name suggests and upgrade adult’s learning. Mission statement of the organization is “The ABEA Hamilton exists to improve the quality of life in the community of Hamilton through the promotion and support of lifelong learning”(Adult Basic Education Association). Major services provided by the organization: Assessment, writing & training consultancy, services related with workplace education, 3rd party evaluations and various other types of educational consultancy services.
ABEA Hamilton has governance board of eight directors. All Board of Directors possess different types of skills that facilitate effective working of the organization. All Board of Directors work collaboratively for the growth of agency. The Governance Board work jointly and perform functions by considering opinion of all Board Directors. No individual Director take decision in isolation and consult all members about future directions and support. The organization work by considering ideas of common people. Any individual can directly send their ideas to Executive Director by using email or hard letter. Leah Morris is Executive Director and Sara Gill is Asst. Executive Director at ABEA Hamilton. That organization is successfully delivering various project under their leadership and guidance. Both Directors are responsible for identifying requirement, recruitment, orientation and development of Board Directors. However, no major decision in the organization is taken without consulting all Board members.
The ABEA ensures that its Directors have all desired essential skill set. Major Board requirements are derived from the organizational mission and all services provided by the organization.Leah Morris ensuresthat all Board Directors have knowledge of different areas such as English, Business/ Management, Finance, community services & programs, early year’s literacy, and adult literacy. The organization has diversified portfolio of services, hence, it is essential that Board Directors have knowledge in order to deliver excellent results. Leah Morris ensures that she selects right people on the board so that all members has all set of skills desired to perform the job.
The selection of any board member is very tough and important process because selection of wrong person will impact the working of overall organization. ABEA Hamilton recruits a member when there is a vacancy of Board member. The organization informs public about the vacant position through its website and other mediums such as job portals. Organization shortlist profile of suitable candidates by analyzing their education, experience and knowledge in different subjects. ABEA ensures that the shortlisted candidate possess certain level of knowledge in different areas mentioned above, experience of working in humanitarian organization and certain leadership traits.
Board orientation and development ensure that all Board members are aware about the major function of the organizations, its services, processes, people and clients. It is important for Board members to clearly understand how different services are efficiently delivered to the clients and how organization is adhering to its mission. Therefore, orientation and development of Board members is taken care under precise guidance of Leah Morris.Orientation informs individual about the values & beliefs and code of ethics followed by the ABEA Hamilton while performing its job. Development is essential for effective management of the people and delivery of the services.
Leadership qualities play an essential role in developing healthy and collaborative working environment, and in ensuring delivery of results on time.Both can be achieved without appropriate leadership style and governance. Leadership style adopted by Leah Morris is transformational. Leah provides all type of support, motivation and guidance to her staff and other Board members. She develop a strong bonding of trust with his colleague that helps her in executing any tuff task and in achieving difficult results.Leah Morris helps in defining clear goal of all members in order to avoid any confusion and provide all types of training or support so that individual achieve their goals. Leah Morris empowers Board members and also staff by making them important part of decision making process and encourage them to come up with new ideas. Not only Leah Morris but other board members are also capable to guide, motivate and support their team members or staffs to perform work efficiently. Leah Morris’s leadership style helped in developing collaborative learning organizational environment and made the organization a good place to work.
After discussing various aspects and functioning of ABEA Hamilton and leadership style of Leah Morris, it is good to conclude that the organization is good place for learning and developing career of a philanthropist. I find that the transformational leadership traits displayed by Leah Morris ensured identifying of exact requirements, recruiting right people and providing effective orientation and development of Board Directors. Transformational leadership qualities help leaders in developing strong bonding with all members and developing healthy organizational environment. These qualities are important for any leader to recruit, train, inspire, motivate and manage his team efficiently.
Work Cited
"Adult Basic Education Association." 2014. abea.on.ca. Electronic. 25 November 2014.
