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Essay
In education, like in any other field, the leaders encounter with the conflict between the private and professional life. Usually, the books teach us that it is vital not to mix these two parts, but in some instances, it is quite problematic. Leader or not, an individual tend to take personal baggage to the workplace, yet for the leader it may cause serious consequences. Leadership does bring a lot of responsibility and the need to become impatient as well as objective. In this case, personal problems may become a barrier to communication, if, for example, a leader does not like one of his/her employees; it may prevent the leaders from gaining necessary goals, if they continue to concentrate on such things as, for instance, break up with their partner. These personal problems may affect the decision-making process by making a leader inattentive and subjective. Consequently, it is essential trying to abstract from the personal problem during work to see the picture clearly and use intelligence, clear evaluation, and logic to guide the decision-making process. It is one of the crucial ability of a leader, which together with the other skills constitutes an effective manager.
In the list of skills crucial for the leader, competence plays one of the most important parts. It is impossible to be a good specialist if you are incompetent in your job. For the leader, competence is embodied in the ability to work with the team, guide it, as well as to resolve the problems and take responsibility for them. Also, the leaders have to be competent in their profession. In the field of education, a principle will not be effective if he/she is the unqualified teacher. Leaders have to be proficient in work done by their followers to coordinate and if it is necessary to predict their mistakes. Competence helps to build trust and reputation for the leaders and makes their work easier. If there is a trust, it is possible to delegate certain tasks to the employees in order to make the work of the team more harmonic. A lot of leaders are afraid to delegate their responsibilities due to various reasons, including the need to control their environment, the lack of trust, arrogance, and fear that the followers may be better in certain leadership tasks. There are a lot of multitaskers in the top management, but they usually do not survive for long simply because it is unhealthy and it makes the completion of responsibilities more complicated. Good leaders know how to disperse certain responsibilities among the followers and retain trust and respect of the team at the same time.
However, in order to delegate the tasks, the leaders must have effective interpersonal skills and the ability to build an effective relationship with all parties involved, including the staff, students, parents, and the community. Interpersonal skills necessary in education include understanding, empathy, objectivity, and the ability to take care of the interests of the others before the personal ones. If a leader has these skills, it is easy to not only communicate with everyone but also to collaborate and improve the field of education. At the same time, usually, experts forget that the leaders in education must have perseverance and stamina to resist the pressure existing in the field. The vision of the education can vary from teacher to teacher as well as from parent to parent. It does not mean that all of them are right, where the main goals of the educational leader are to be an arbitrary in the intercommunication between all parties involved.
For instance, there are numerous reports claiming that today’s technology poisons the mind of children depriving them of the real human relationship. The others insist that technologies have a massive potential in educating children by simplifying the tools for the lessons as well as providing the hardware and software that can be designed for the educational purposes. Technologies can be very helpful for the education but only if used correctly by adjusting the programs and gadgets for the lessons and not just for entertaining. For example, it is possible to design a strategy game that would have scientific facts. At the same time, while the technologies still did decrease the time of modern students for the human relationship, it is important to encourage them to stay away from technology for at least couple of hours a day.
Questions
The current problems in my school refer to the inner communication among the teachers and our management. I consider that it is essential to revisit the approach to the collaboration and listening to each other by taking care more about the others more than about personal interests and ambitions. I think that the current course will help me to resolve this problem, as it was indicated during the self-assessment that I also lack interpersonal skills that may hinder from the effective communication with my peers and the top management. During the course, I have encountered with several practical methods of enhancing professional abilities as well as the interpersonal ones. Particularly, by evaluating myself and deciphering my weaknesses and strengths, I have a clear picture of myself, which will help me to increase my potential in future. I would recommend increasing the number of practical exercises that the students may complete in groups in the field to improve the ability to collaborate with each other.
References
Benson, J. (2014). Four Frames for Principals, New and Experienced. The Whole Child. Retrieved from: http://www.wholechildeducation.org/blog/four-frames-for-principals-new-and-experienced
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Defoe, D. (2013). Understanding Organizations Using the Four Frame Model. Psycholawlogy. Retrieved from: http://www.psycholawlogy.com/2013/05/31/understanding-organizations-using-the-four-frame-model-factories-or-machines-structure-family-human-resources-jungle-politics-and-theatres-temples-or-carnivals-symbols/
