Dimensions of LeadershipWhat makes a difference?

Three important aspects to consider

• The landscape• Your vision• You

Scanning the landscape

1. What are the key issues facing your community? (Think of STEEP - social, technological, economic, ecological, political)

2. What are the challenges and opportunities for strategic change, thereby positioning schools and your school in particular as a key service?

3. What role can schools play in meeting these challenges and seizing opportunities?

Creating your vision

This exercise is the beginning of creating a personal vision. Based

on what schools of the future need to be, it is about thinking about what you will be doing to create and shape that future.

Begin by answering the following questions:

1. What kind of school community are you helping to create?2. Who are your stakeholders? What user needs do you anticipate?3. What services are you providing? Why? How/ Where?4. What is the place of your school in the community? What market

niche is being served?5. What personal values drive your support of schools in the

future?6. What is the leadership role you will play in the profession? Is it

local, regional, national, or international?7. What leadership skills will you need to develop to contribute

towards the vision?

Write your vision.

Knowing yourself

1. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a leader in your profession?2. How do you ensure that you are getting feedback about your impact?3. How do you encourage self-reflection in others?

Some tools: enneagrams, Myers-Briggs, leadership styles

Enneagram types

1 THE REFORMER The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic                    2 THE HELPERThe Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive 3 THE ACHIEVER The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious          4 THE INDIVIDUALISTThe Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

5 THE INVESTIGATOR The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated          6 THE LOYALISTThe Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious 7 THE ENTHUSIAST The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered          8 THE CHALLENGERThe Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational 9 THE PEACEMAKER The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

Extroverted or Introverted?   Extroverted Characteristics • Act first, think/reflect later • Feel deprived when cutoff from

interaction with the outside world • Usually open to and motivated by

outside world of people and things • Enjoy wide variety and change in

people relationships •  

Introverted Characteristics • Think/reflect first, then Act• Regularly require an amount of

"private time" to recharge batteries• Motivated internally, mind is

sometimes so active it is "closed" to outside world

• Prefer one-to-one communication and relationships

  Sensing or Intuitive? Sensing Characteristics • Mentally live in the Now, attending to

present opportunities • Using common sense and creating

practical solutions is automatic-instinctual

• Memory recall is rich in detail of facts and past events

• Best improvise from past experience • Like clear and concrete information;

dislike guessing when facts are "fuzzy"  

Intuitive Characteristics • Mentally live in the Future, attending

to future possibilities• Using imagination and

creating/inventing new possibilities is automatic-instinctual

• Memory recall emphasizes patterns, contexts, and connections

• Best improvise from theoretical understanding

• Comfortable with ambiguous, fuzzy data and with guessing its meaning.

Myers-Briggs

Thinking or Feeling? Thinking Characteristics • Instinctively search for facts and logic

in a decision situation.• Naturally notices tasks and work to be

accomplished.• Easily able to provide an objective and

critical analysis.• Accept conflict as a natural, normal

part of relationships with people. •  

Feeling Characteristics • Instinctively employ personal feelings

and impact on people in decision situations

• Naturally sensitive to people needs and reactions.

• Naturally seek consensus and popular opinions.

• Unsettled by conflict; have almost a toxic reaction to disharmony.

Judging or Perceiving?   Judging Characteristics • Plan many of the details in advance

before moving into action.• Focus on task-related action;

complete meaningful segments before moving on.

• Work best and avoid stress when able to keep ahead of deadlines.

• Naturally use targets, dates and standard routines to manage life. 

•  Perceiving Characteristics • Comfortable moving into action

without a plan; plan on-the-go.• Like to multitask, have variety, mix

work and play.• Naturally tolerant of time pressure;

work best close to the deadlines.• Instinctively avoid commitments which

interfere with flexibility, freedom and variety

Leadership Styles• The transformational leader• The enforcer• The deal maker• The administrator• The visionary• The serial entrepreneur• The spin doctor

Based on a mixture of five leadership behaviours:• Impose context• Make risks and take risks• Have conviction• Challenge and change• Generate critical mass

Additional resources:

• School Leadership and Student Outcomes (BES)• Enneagrams• Myers-Briggs• Leadership Styles• Luis Herrera, Eureka! Leadership Institute