Reflective Journal 7 - Leadership Styles

 Task 1 - Different styles of leadership

All subject leaders should be social-orientated (i.e. people-orientated). They keep the human side of the school team going strong and are attuned to the emotional responses of their colleagues. Social orientated leaders embody personal attributes that mean they will get the best from others. They enable others to both achieve and want to achieve. The real value of this approach comes from making the group produce better results than would come from the sum of its parts alone.

Nevertheless, according to Goleman (2000), we can identify the following styles of leadership:

1. Autocratic, commanding or authoritative leadership styles give low consideration to social orientated factors (Goleman, 2000). Autocratic leaders make decisions autonomously, often without consultation, or with limited consultation. This leadership style can be required of leaders if time is an issue and decisions need to be made quickly; however, this way of working can often alienate staff.

2. Transactional leaders work on the assumption of hierarchy and the power that leadership brings. The transaction will often involve reward, or punishment systems, that ensure employees ’ work meets a certain standard. This style of leadership is unlikely to be an approach that a relatively new member of staff would engage in, as a level of seniority is required, but it is a useful leadership style in some school situations. When there is a question about the competence of a member of staff, capability issues need to be clearly linked to performance. This leadership approach will ensure that the roles and responsibilities are made clear.

3. Transformational, coaching leadership styles invest in their staff, enabling them to develop performance over a period of time (Burrows, 2004). Transformational leaders are inspirational to those they work with. They are passionate and concerned in supporting individuals within the staff team to succeed and achieve the vision.

4. An affiliative leadership style will serve to create strong, positive relationships with staff teams. This style will motivate staff but will place lower emphasis on getting things done. This approach can be very helpful to staff during times of stress or challenge.

5. Democratic leaders try to get things done by consensus. They will seek advice from colleagues and court opinion but will make any overall, final decisions.

TASK: Please consider the following scenarios and reflect on how you would approach each situation to motivate the staff member/s to achieve your curriculum aims. Consider the different leadership styles discussed above. If you were the subject leader, what would you need to do and say in each case?

Scenario 1:

The Year 5 teacher refuses to stay behind for your subject's working party meeting.

I think a transformational/coaching leadership will help to prevent issues like this arising. Over time, this leadership style will motivate teachers to want to develop their knowledge, skills and performance and therefore will want to attend subject meetings. 

Scenario 2:

You’d like your school to take part in an Everybody Loves Science/Maths/English Day just after half term.

Scenario 3 (English):

A newly appointed Year 1 teacher has refused to follow a scheme of work you have implemented as they want to have flexibility and wish to use their own ideas.