Who are the leaders in a quality school? The principal and members of the senior management team? Yes, that’s part of the answer, but not totally correct. There are many other leaders in a quality school.
Rigidly led schools are often tightly controlled by a small group of people who wield all the power. These people claim to know all the right answers and expect everyone to do precisely as instructed. But that style of autocratic leadership belongs to the previous century. Freedom of expression is stifled. Creativity and individuality are discouraged. Such schools are usually unhappy places for both the learners and the staff.
Quality schools of the 21st century approach leadership differently. Their leaders believe and practise a wide range of leadership styles. Two of them are distributed and situational leadership. What do these styles mean?
- Distributed leadership: this style shares leadership across the school. A well-run school makes many demands of its staff and learners. Distributed leadership shares the workload across the school. Positions of authority and responsibility are not always in the hands of top management. Others are given the authority and responsibility that goes with leadership. They learn how to motivate others and carry out projects. Senior management members praise them publicly (or privately, if they prefer) for their achievements.
- Situational leadership: no one person has all the best answers for the challenges that confront a school — not even a principal with a lifetime of experience at the chalkface. If you ask the right person though, you’ll often get the best advice and results. Quality-driven schools welcome having different leaders for different situations.
Be aware that the best leader for a particular situation might not be found in the staffroom. The leader, for example, could be a learner or a parent with specialist knowledge. Empower others to lead in their field of expertise. That person or team is given the authority to make decisions and give instructions to others including — tactfully, of course — the principal.
Leadership skills can be nurtured in everyone — whatever his or her age. A grade one learner, for example, could be entrusted with taking messages to the principal’s office; a matriculant, as a member of the learner representative council, could engage with the school governing body on planning new sports facilities for the school.
How does one develop leadership among learners? Give opportunities. Here are examples for primary schoolchildren:
- Appoint classroom monitors to do tasks such as cleaning blackboards, handing out textbooks and being in charge of sports equipment;
- Select sport and club (examples, chess or public speaking) captains;
- Have children’s councillors, class captains and prefects;
- Allow children to make announcements and give report-backs at assemblies;
- Get children to take visitors on tours of the school;
- Involve older children to help teachers to coach younger learners in sports;
- Organise charity programmes, such as visiting an old-age home; and
- Allow a child to be a “buddy” or friend to a new learner at the school.
Teach leadership skills. Learners can be taught about leadership through topics discussed at assemblies and in the classroom. An increasing number of South African schools have leadership days and camps from about grade six onwards. Here the learners focus on issues such as the qualities of good leaders, conflict resolution and leadership styles. For really lively discussions, get learners to discuss the leadership qualities of South African politicians and sporting personalities.
Not everyone wants to be a leader. There’ll always be those who are reluctant to take up the challenge. Fear of failure often makes people afraid to step forward. They lack confidence in their ability to motivate others. They’re scared of being ridiculed or marginalised by colleagues if they try something new. Simply stated, they don’t want to stand out from the crowd.
True leaders aim to develop the leadership potential of others and take away their fear of failure. On the road to achievement, mistakes will be made … guaranteed. During these times the leader gives positive encouragement and a helping hand. Jonty Rhodes, the former Proteas team cricketer, remarked that the secret of success is feeling free to fail.
Use all the talent in your classroom or school. Encourage the leadership potential of everyone. Remember, of course, to share your own leadership qualities and skills with others. When leadership roles are taken up across the entire school, there is one big winner: the entire quality school.
SAQI (South African Quality Institute) has a range of leadership and management programmes. For more details, please contact Vanessa du Toit on 012 349 5006 ([email protected]) or Richard Hayward on 011 888 3262 ([email protected]). Poor schools are sponsored