On Leadership and Role Modelling

There are two powerful ideas that stand out from my MBA studies so far.

1. If you are serious about starting a business you need partners. This idea of real life collaboration can be applied in all sectors. For any project there are far too many things to accomplish alone. Success comes from finding and working with people that can share a vision, apply their myriad skills and make a project come to life. 
2. Transformational Leadership is the most effective style of leadership for any organization. This method of leadership shapes both how I conduct myself as a leader and the lens with which I view the other leaders in my organization. 

Today I saw an example of Transformational Leadership, so that is what I am going to write about. 

Transformational Leadership.

While reading my news feed this morning I came across an opinion piece by Paula Simons called

Dentyne and Cheezies: Edmonton Public Schools’ boring expense reports are actually pretty exciting. At essence this is a story about transformational leadership. 

It is a story about the managers, executive directors and board members behaving in a way that maintains the public trust. Spending responsibly, acting with the knowledge that they are under the watchful eye of the public, while still completing the important work that has been entrusted to them.

This kind of article does not get written and this kind of behavior does not occur by accident. There is an active example that has been set by our leaders, and it is the perfect example of both idealised influence and inspirational motivation (two facets of transformational leadership). 

This is also just one example of how I have witnessed first hand the new leadership direction that possesses a tangible feeling within our board and throughout the district. 

Because there is a certain tone to this short post that sounds like pandering (really though I genuinely feel proud of my organization) I will offer one brief criticism. I would really like to see the individual consideration that is necessary for transformational leadership to be complete. My interpretation of this segment has always included getting out into the front lines of any organization. For me as an acting assistant principal it means getting into the classrooms and the student spaces. For our board, particularly the assistant superintendents, I hope it means more visits to the schools themselves.