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Rethinking Access and Success in Higher Education | Timothy Renick | TEDxGeorgiaStateU

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http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/Information_Sheets/TheRoleOfTheEducationalLeader.pdf

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All educators take on leadership roles. Teachers are the leaders of their classrooms. Principals are the leaders of their schools. Every educator and administrator plays a part in leading tomorrow's future. How inspiring is that? Together, no matter what your role, you are making a difference in the lives of your students.

Want to be sure you're being a good leader? Here are five of the most important characteristics any effective educational leader should possess and demonstrate on a daily basis.

1. Self-aware

A good educational leader needs a solid understanding of oneself and should also have confidence. When you believe in yourself, you can accomplish so much more. Have confidence in the decisions you make, don't be nervous, and don't be afraid of what others may think. Plan how you'll start each and every day in ways that will lead your students, school, and colleagues in the right direction to achieve their goals.

2. Excellent communication skills

You can't lead a group of people if you don't speak with others! The best educational leaders are excellent communicators and know how to reach a variety of people in many different ways. For instance, a principal might have one-on-one chats with teachers each week and also send out a daily email update. This way, the principal takes the time to communicate in-person but also makes communication convenient by emailing the teachers as well. No matter what your job title is at your school, make sure you're constantly communicating with your colleagues, students, and others.

3. Resourceful

To be an effective leader, you need to be resourceful and open to new ideas. Especially during tough economic times, technology helps to change classrooms, and you need to be open to new ideas that will improve the way students absorb and retain information. You also need to know how to use the resources you have to the best of your ability-if you aren't sure, ask someone in the know. Take an online course. Get the answers you need; others around you will benefit greatly from this type of leadership mentality.

4. Lead by example

The best leaders in the educational system make it a point to lead by example, and not simply by words. It's easy to spell out rules and dictate them from an ivory tower, but this type of leadership will not have a large impact in your school. As an educator, you have much influence on students. If you want students to speak kindly to one another in the hallways, you must always speak kindly, too. If you want your students to show respect, them what that means. This method is effective and powerful, and helps you teach students skills they will need for the rest of their lives.

5. Power of teaching and learning

Perhaps the most important trait of being an educational leader is believing in your students and the power of education. If you don't believe in your students or your colleagues, then everyone is doomed for failure. It's vital to believe in what your school is trying to accomplish each and every day, and to convey your enthusiasm for change, your own motivation to make things better, and your confidence in those around you. Your words and actions directly impact morale-show others your passion for education, and they'll feel it too.

There are obviously so many different characteristics and traits of a good leader, but these are a great place to start if you're stepping up to more of a leadership role in your school-whether that's in your classroom, on a sports team you coach, or within your district. Show 'em what you got.

For details on our online MEd in Educational Leadership program, click here. If leadership is in the stars for you, you'll love what we have to offer working professionals.

Tags: Educational Leadership, Leadership and Administration

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5 Important Traits of Outstanding Educational Leaders

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All educators take on leadership roles. Teachers are the leaders of their classrooms. Principals are the leaders of their schools. Every educator and administrator plays a part in leading tomorrow's future. How inspiring is that? Together, no matter what your role, you are making a difference in the lives of your students.

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"Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share. Be bold. Proclaim it everywhere. They only live who dare."

To be effective and inspiring as a leader, you must do what Voltaire describes in this quatrain. Developing a Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) will empower you to declare YOUR truth and stand tall within it, to operate from a position of strength that ennobles you.

It is a common practice in all branches of the U.S. armed services for top-ranking officials to develop and declare their philosophy of leadership. The leadership program at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania includes an advanced course called "The Philosophy of Leadership." A prerequisite to that class is called "The Philosophy of Command." In other words, what seems like a long article here is just the starting point - you could take intensive classes about this very subject.

Before sharing and modeling your own PLP, you'll first need to do some of the work done in those classes to consider and craft a meaningful and genuine philosophy. This article will walk you through the steps needed. For more support, you can also use the samples and info on this resource page.

First, a definition of this thing called leadership philosophy. Philosophy is defined as:

Your personal foundation or belief in human nature.

A particular system of thought.

A system of principles for guidance.

An activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.

Love of wisdom

From these definitions, you can extract some important ideas about the PLP you'll construct:

Philosophy is personal. There is no right or wrong.

Philosophy is something you choose. You can make a choice that is deliberate, intentional, based on reflection and determinations. Or, if you don't do that, you can have an accidental philosophy... one that is vague and unclear to others and, quite possibly, vague and unclear to even you.

Philosophy is meant as a foundation. Getting a solid core means you have clarity to guide decisions and a focus for sorting out all the competing inputs you get in a given day.

Here's one description of what it means to have a PLP. Please note the bolded verbs - we'll be using them as the five action steps in building your PLP.

"Successful Leaders know their Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) andcommunicate it by living it passionately every day in all they say and do. They have taken the time todetermine who they are, their values and priorities. Theyknow their course and haveset their internal compass, which gives them greater self-knowledge, greater self-confidence, and improved effectiveness as a leader. This is accomplished bywriting a Personal Leadership Philosophy, which states the core values you live by, what you expect of your people, what they can expect of you, and how you will evaluate performance. "

- Ed Ruggerio, The Leader's Compass: A Personal Leadership Philosophy Is Your Key to Success

The action words in bold type are the steps we are going to follow so that you can craft your philosophy and effectively communicate it to others.
STEP 1:
...They have taken the time to who they are, their values and priorities...

Don't jump ahead. Until you work through these questions and have absolute resolve about your own values and priorities, you cannot develop a meaningful PLP. This is the most important step in our process. Take your time in reflecting on these questions:

What do you truly believe?

Which values do you refuse to compromise?

How comfortable are you with who you are?

What causes you to have these core values?

What is the single most important thing to you?

STEP 2:
...This is accomplished by a Personal Leadership Philosophy, which states the core values you live by, what you expect of your people, what they can expect of you, and how you will evaluate performance.

No short-cutting on this step either. These are the benefits of putting your PLP in writing:

Putting it in writing provides clarity, objectivity.

Putting it in writing implies you are serious.

Putting it in writing makes a commitment.

Putting it in writing keeps it consistent.

Putting it in writing causes you to self-reflect, to be sure you mean what you say.

Putting it in writing makes you accountable.

Putting it in writing makes it easier to share.

These benefits are primarily for you. It's you initially who needs clarity, commitment, consistency and accountability. Also, the process of putting something in writing forces us to take a step back and evaluate it more objectively. This leadership philosophy isn't something you want to do with emotion alone - you want thought and analysis to go into it, too. Writing it down will help it to be more balanced.
STEP 3:
Successful Leaders their Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP) and communicate it by living it passionately everyday in all they say and do. They have taken the time to determine who they are, their values and priorities. They their course...

Isn't this interesting? After all this reflection and writing, there is a wholly separate step related now to KNOWING your own personal leadership philosophy. Don't gloss over this!

You have to know your own PLP so well that you live and breathe it. If it is to guide your actions and provide examples to others of who you are and what you stand for, then you need to be intimately familiar with your PLP. This can't be an occasional thing that you bring out when it suits you... It needs to be a constant expression.

When you know your leadership philosophy, you also know your course of action. It's this knowledge that guides your decisions and choices.

These are the outcomes of knowing, in your bones, what you believe in and what you stand for:

Authenticity

Credibility

Consistency

Confidence

Believability

Trustworthiness

Clarity

Self-Assuredness

Determination

STEP 4:
...have their internal compass, which gives them greater self-knowledge, greater self-confidence, and improved effectiveness as a leader...

Once you determine, write down and get to know your own PLP, you can set yourself to live by it.

When you've done that, it's just as powerful as it sounds - imagine that you are no longer going to get lost in the woods and that you will always be able to find and navigate by a bright north star. Think of the confidence you'll project when you know exactly where you are going and no doubts about how you are going to get there. Others will notice, be inspired by this and be more willing and eager to follow you. And you will have fewer qualms about leading them.

What would it be like for you to have this level of clarity and confidence? You'll have:

Discernment (to uncover what you already know).

Clarity that points toward your truth.

Assurance that you won't get lost at crossroads.

An abiding ability to find your way.

Persistent confidence.

Inspiring effectiveness that others will want to follow.

Clear direction.

STEP 5:
...communicate it by living it passionately every day in all they say and do...

The first four steps helped you to craft your leadership philosophy. This step is equally important. But before you communicate your PLP, you must first take those set up steps so that you don't begin communicating before you are clear and certain in what you stand for. Your PLP isn't something that should change very often, so give it time to take shape and get it to a point where you can live with it for a good long time.

Our description is pretty clear in saying that the way you communicate your PLP is by living it passionately every day in all you say and do. That's a very high standard. But that's what it takes to be credible as a leader.

It all starts with getting clarity, first, for yourself so you can later communicate with clarity, conviction and credibility to others.
About the Author: Deb Calvert has worked as a Corporate Director in a Fortune 500 company and as a consultant, coach and trainer to nearly 400 businesses of all sizes. Deb is a certified executive coach, and a Top 50 Sales Influencer. She is Certified Master with The Leadership Challenge conducting workshops and coaching to help liberate the leader in everyone.

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5 Steps to Craft Your Own Personal Leadership Philosophy

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"Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share. Be bold.

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Think about the most successful leaders in the world, past and present. If you were to compare them with inefficient leaders, the difference wouldn't necessarily come from their skills. The more important factor would be how the successful leaders would be able to provide you with a clear and defined approach to how they lead other people: their leadership philosophy.

In this guide, we'll define what leadership philosophy is and the benefits of having one. We'll explore the idea of publishing your statement and provide you the four steps required for creating a leadership philosophy to guide your leadership.

WHAT IS A LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY?

The combination of leadership and philosophy might sound rather odd. On the face of it, the terms don't seem to have much in common. So, what does leadership philosophy mean? To understand it, it's a good idea to first examine the two words separately, as it'll allow you to understand how they can fit together to provide you with guidance in leadership.

The definition of philosophy

When you think about philosophy, you'll probably first think about some of the greatest thinkers of our time, such as Voltaire, Plato and Descartes. Furthermore, you probably haven't thought about using philosophy in your everyday life and the concepts and ideas might sound a little bit difficult to comprehend. But as one the oldest disciplines in the world, philosophy has plenty to offer and it's part of our everyday experience whether we consciously think about it.

The word philosophy literally translates to " the love of wisdom". The Oxford Dictionary defines philosophy as, " a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behavior ". Indeed, the guiding idea of philosophy is to live a good life. It's about striving for expertise and personal as well as collective fulfillment. Philosophy could be seen as the personal foundation or belief in human nature; for working to live your life to the fullest. Through philosophy, you create a system of thought to support your journey and obtain the guiding principles to use for action or non-action.

Watch the intriguing video by the School of Life to understand why philosophy matters to all of us.

The definition of leadership

What about leadership's definition? Just like field of philosophy with its multiple thinkers and theories, leadership has a number of definitions. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the essence of leadership is " the action of leading a group of people or an organisation, or the ability to do this". But as mentioned, the definitions have evolved out of this technical view, with different people viewing the topic through a slightly different viewpoint.

At its core, leadership is about the ability to influence other people and to create a movement towards a specific objective. Having a vision to which the team moves forward to is crucial. Furthermore, the emphasis is on inspiration because leadership is not the same as bossing someone around to do what you want. A leader inspires through his or her vision and motivates by leading by example rather than telling and intimidating a desired action.

The components of a leadership philosophy

The above definitions might already help you understand the connection between leadership and philosophy. When you combine philosophy, the guiding principles, and leadership, which is the model behavior for inspiring others, you create a theory or an attitude, which provides the norms for behavior and action. The definition is brought to life with four key components, which are:

A theory - The way you define leadership and what's it about.

An attitude - Your mindset in regards of approaching leadership.

Guiding principles - The principles and values you hold dear when you are thinking about leading others.

Behavior - The behaviors you showcase in your journey to reach the desired results and outcomes.

You could view leadership philosophy as a compass - it helps define your expectations, your values and provide the roadmap for actions. With a clear leadership philosophy, you create a focused thought system surrounding your leadership, and you define the behaviors and attitudes you want to cultivate in yourself, but also in others. Leadership doesn't just provide focus for you personally, but it can allow the people around you to know what to expect from your leadership.

Examples of leadership philosophies

Just as there are differences in what philosophers think and divergence in how leadership is defined, leadership philosophies also come in a number of different flavors and styles. Since the framework is based on personal values, leaders can approach it from different angles. There are plenty of options to choose from, but we've selected three unique frameworks to provide you an idea of the divergence.

Leader believes followers should have the power to make decisions.

Leader believes in empowering followers through increased responsibilities.

The framework is effective when followers are knowledgeable.

Leader believes that everyone should have equal say within the team.

Leader values participation, consultation and consideration.

Leader emphasizes co-operation and support.

Leader believes results are best achieved in a controlled system.

Leader has clear vision, including how and when things should be done.

Leader is accountable for the decision-making.

You can use these generalized models as guidance for defining your own leadership philosophy. Nonetheless, you shouldn't try to copy a specific leadership philosophy. While learning about other philosophies can be a solid way to identify useful qualities, you need to adopt an approach that comes from your heart. Later on in the guide, we'll provide you with a systematic guide to drawing your unique leadership philosophy.

WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE A LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY?

Leadership philosophy has a foundational element to it. The different components included create a strong basis on which to build on and take your leadership forward. You are better-equipped to lead and to succeed in your leadership with a leadership philosophy due to three core benefits: character, consistency and collaboration.

Character

Drafting a leadership philosophy will provide clarity and focus in your character. Character matters because it influences your everyday decision-making and communication with other people. Without a proper understanding of your character and the traits you truly value, you are more likely to fall into bad habits and to let emotions control you.

By making a conscious decision with the help of a leadership philosophy, you outline the characteristics you want to strive for and which you value in other people as well. In a way, you become better at controlling your behavior and you strengthen the qualities required of a successful leader.

Consistency

The above benefit directly relates to the second advantage of creating a leadership philosophy: consistency. The most important aspect of the philosophy is setting out and defining your values and objectives.

Once you define these, you immediately create more consistency to your behavior and actions. You have guidelines, which help you make decisions and take action. You'll always use the same defining values at the heart of your decision-making. Let's assume your leadership philosophy is defined by sustainability.

Whenever you are faced with a decision, you will evaluate the options based on how they relate to the value of sustainability - Will it hinder or enhance it? This assures your actions and behaviours are consistent. You don't flip-flop from one value to another, but you stick to your principles.

Collaboration

Leadership always requires a level of collaboration. Since you need followers to voluntarily to follow you, you can't expect to achieve much without an understanding and focus on teamwork. Getting along with people will become much easier if you have a clear leadership philosophy to follow.

Among the things you need to define with your philosophy is your approach to collaboration. The framework requires careful consideration of engagement, communication and accountability. Defining these, you create more consistency and improve your chances of more meaningful collaboration.

People will know what your values are, they understand your approach to teamwork and thus they feel more comfortable because you follow these well-defined patterns of behavior. Essentially, people can trust you because they don't need to constantly be on their toes.

Overall, leadership philosophy will provide clarity to your leadership. Business strategist and author John Spence has written a good blog post on the topic and in it, he gave a powerful example of the benefits of a leadership philosophy. He used the famous quote by Walt Disney to make a point about why successful leaders need to define the framework for action.

The quote says, " When values are clear decisions are easy." Spence flipped it around stating, " When values are not clear decisions are difficult." By defining your leadership philosophy, you clarify your decision-making by enhancing your focus on the values and actions that truly matter.

PUBLISHING YOUR LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

My Philosophy of Leadership is to surround myself with good people, who have ability, judgment and knowledge, but above all, a passion for service. - Sonny Perdue (American Politician)

We will outline the four steps to developing a leadership philosophy in the next section, with one of the steps involving writing down your ideas. Before providing you with the format for your written philosophy, we are going to explain why having a published leadership philosophy matters.

As you'll see in the next section a written leadership philosophy statement can be useful in getting to the heart of your true values and ideas. By having a written statement, you are sure to have a reminder of the ideals you want to be pushing towards. But it can be more beneficial to have the leadership philosophy published or at least shared with a few people because it increases your accountability.

If you are the only one aware of your leadership principles, you don't need to worry about others calling you out on doing something against your values since no one has knowledge of them. On the other hand, if you are loosing your sense of direction, a person who has seen your leadership philosophy statement can nudge you back in the right direction. The objectives you want to deliver and the values you want to keep at the heart of your leadership will be known. Even the knowledge that people have access to your statement or your closest friends or mentors know it can be enough to keep you focused on following your path.

Aside from accountability, publishing your leadership philosophy will provide another major benefit: the ability to reflect. While the philosophy must naturally be built around your actual values and objectives you want to achieve, bouncing these ideas with another person can provide an invaluable angle to your thinking. The ability to reflect on your ideas and to go them through with another person can add ideas to your thinking you hadn't thought about before. The way you see yourself will always differ slightly from the experience of others and you can learn a great deal about your characteristics by asking questions from others.

If you share your leadership philosophy, you'll be able to reflect on your ideas from a completely different perspective. The feedback can be useful in ensuring your philosophy is the best roadmap for you to move forward. Don't worry about the feedback being negative; a well-constructed leadership philosophy is sure to inspire others. Overall, the idea behind publishing or sharing your leadership philosophy is all about feedback. If you are criticized consider the words carefully and think whether there is some truth to them.

How to publish your leadership philosophy? There are different ways to go about it. You could naturally share with a few close friends or colleagues and ask their opinions. If you have a leadership mentor or a coach, then it's a good idea to talk about the statement with them. But you could go further than that and have your leadership philosophy on your personal website. This could potentially be a good idea even in terms of career progression, as future employers might get a better understanding of what your leadership looks like.

Finally, don't use publishing the statement just for feedback, ensure you have someone to keep a check on you to ensure you are following your values and objectives.

THE STEPS TO DEVELOPING A LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

Hopefully, the above would have convinced you about the importance of having a leadership philosophy. We've talked about the characteristics of the framework, but how do you develop it? Here are the four steps you need to take in order to draft a proper leadership philosophy, which will guarantee you succeed as a leader.

Step 1: Define your values and priorities

The first, and perhaps the most important part of the process is defining your values and priorities. You need to look deep inside you to discover the values you want to highlight and which you think make leaders great. You need to be able to answer the following questions as part of this step:

What are the values I think are the most important in life and business?

What are my personal strengths and weaknesses when it comes to values and behaviors?

What do I feel are the priorities of a leader?

But how do you define the core values and priorities? It's easy to create a list of things you think are important, but you need to dig deeper when it comes to a leadership philosophy. First, you need to actually understand why you think a specific value has value. Second, you can't have a list of 20 values as this doesn't truly clarify your position, but instead, you must focus on just a few core priorities. Entrepreneur and author Kevin Daum has written a great post on Inc. on how to define your values. Daum suggests taking the following steps:

Identifying the following moments from your life and describing them in detail:

Three greatest accomplishments

Three greatest moments of efficiency

Three greatest failures

Three greatest moments of inefficiency

Consider the above moments and examine the possible common themes between them.

Using these common themes, identify the advice/tips you would give yourself. For example, if you find yourself avoiding conflict situations, your advice might be "Don't walk away from difficult situations."

Refine your advice into a value. For instance, the above advice could become "Confront difficulties"

Furthermore, once you have these core values and themed outlines, it's auspicious to take a moment to define them properly. Let's say you realized ' authenticity ' is a value you cherish. Define what you mean by it by writing down a few sentences. You can use the formula:
"Authenticity to me means..."
You can do this with all of your values, whether the value is ' communication', ' family', or ' competitiveness '. It is definitely worthwhile doing this all on paper because it will help you better communicate your ideas to yourself.

When you've selected your values, you need to prioritize them further. If you have around 3-7 values selected, you should consider which ones resonate the most with you or which you think are the most essential in terms of leadership. An effective way to prioritize your values is by comparing them with each other. You can do it by simply taking two values, such as ' authenticity' and ' respect ', and make the following statements with your chosen values:

Authenticity but NO respect

Respect but NO authenticity

Would you pick the first or the second sentence? The value you choose is the one you rank as more important. You can do this prioritization with all of your values by comparing them against each other. You should eventually have a value on top that beat all the others in comparison.

Step 2: Define the desirable outcomes you want to achieve

As well as defining your values, you also need to examine the outcomes you wish to achieve as a leader. In order to do this, you need to study the outcomes you want to achieve in the light of your chosen values. First, you should identify the goals for your leadership and the possible operational goals your organization is looking to achieve.

What are the actions you want to or should achieve as a leader? An auspicious way to set goals is by using the SMART method, described in the image below:

Furthermore, once you've identified the objectives, you need to outline and write down the actions required to achieve these goals. The actions can range from finding tools to motivate your team to enhance innovation.

When you have the goals defined, you must reflect on the ways your values relate to and impact these objectives. You can do this by answering the following questions:

How do my values support the key goals of leadership? Remember leadership was about influencing others to follow your vision. You need to pick each value and examine how it would help inspire others and move you closer to your vision. If you value 'honesty', then you want to consider how it is demonstrated in influential leadership.

How do my values support the operational goals? You should consider the same in terms of the specific organizational objectives you've identified.

How can my values strengthen the actions required to achieve the objectives? Look at each action and consider the different ways your values would have a positive impact on it. 'Honesty' could be seen as a way to strengthen trust, which in turn would boost motivation, for example.

How do my values show in the way I communicate with my teams? Think about the above and the positive or negative impact your values, actions and objectives will have on the team. You want to identify the routes that uphold your values, but create a meaningful partnership with your followers.

What are the behaviors and actions I expect from my followers? Your followers don't necessarily have to subscribe to the exact same values as you do or prioritize the values the same way. Nonetheless, you need to consider the behaviors and actions, which are in conflict with the objectives you want to achieve as a leader and as an organization, and the behaviors, which are not sustainable in terms of your own values.

The above helps you to clarify what your leadership philosophy should look like in action. It makes the values turn into concrete examples in terms of behaviors and actions.

Step 3: Write down your leadership philosophy

With the above steps concluded, you can start putting your leadership philosophy on paper. We briefly mentioned the importance of having a written statement in the previous section. Writing down your philosophy helps clarify your ideas and makes it all just a bit more concrete. It can improve your focus and help you keep yourself more accountable, since you can always go back and read what you've created.

To help you write down your leadership format, we propose using the format below, although you can always just write a document in your own style. The format is based on the four core elements of leadership philosophy: theory, attitude, principles and behavior.

Write the specific elements of leadership you believe are at the heart of being a good leader; the values you prioritize. An example sentence could be: I believe in confronting issues head-on is the key to better communication.
Attitude: My thoughts will ___________ and my words will ______________. Principles: I will lead by/with ____________. Behavior: I expect to ___________ and ____________ in situations.
These sentences refer to the attitudes you want to foster in the workplace; the example you want to set with your own attitude. The aim is to focus on the attitude you think will boost your success as a leader and help to achieve the objectives you've set out. You might say, " My thoughts will focus on finding solutions and my words will be based on honesty and integrity. "

The focus is on writing down the guiding principles you will use as part of your leadership. These are the top priorities to you as a leader; the principles you won't negotiate on and which you'll consider each time you make decisions. You'll most likely end up writing a few of these and an example sentence might be: I will lead by understanding and embracing change and how situations and people can change over time.

Finally, you need to write down how you will behave and react in the workplace, no matter what the situation is. The behaviors should reflect your leadership philosophy and highlight the core ideas in action. The identification of your past successes and failures during Step 1 will help with the last point. You could state, "I expect to consider the different options and listen to feedback in challenging situations."

When it comes to drafting the document, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, keep it concise; you don't want the document to be more than one page. You should be able to state the essence of your leadership philosophy in a few sentences. The other crucial point is to aim for clarity and this is why you also want someone else to have a look at your philosophy.

You need to define the philosophy in a manner that will help others to understand it without the need to ask multiple questions. Even if you decide not to publish it, you want at least one person to view it. Aiming for clarity will guarantee you truly understand what you are looking for with your philosophy and this will guarantee you are focused on your intentions.

Step 4: Evaluate your leadership philosophy

Finally, it's not enough to write your leadership philosophy and continue with your daily activities; you need to actively evaluate how well you are holding on to your ideals. You must regularly reflect on how well your actions and behaviors follow your statements. Essentially, you need to hold yourself accountable.

Take time to review your leadership philosophy and go back to your previous actions. Are you practicing what you preach? What are the things you excel in and which behaviors and actions do you struggle to follow? You could look at these questions each week or every month. Write a list of the major actions you took that week; for example, consider the three successes for the weak and the three possible failures for the week.

Reflect on which principles you held on to and which actions or behaviors went against what you believe in. As you identify the actions and behaviors where you didn't follow your leadership philosophy, consider what were the reasons leading to this situation. Why didn't you remember your philosophy at that moment or why did you reject it? This will help you understand what are the areas where you need to work harder on or even identify the values and priorities that might be unattainable for you.

Furthermore, you should occasionally have a chat with people who know you or who work with you. Finding out what they think your guiding principles are can reveal a great deal to you about how they view you and whether your philosophy shows in action. If your followers identify values that are counter to everything you've written in your statement, then you are properly doing something wrong as a leader. On the other hand, if people relate values to you, which are at the heart of your philosophy, you get confirmation you are on the right path and achieving success as a leader.

As eluded to earlier, evaluating your leadership philosophy will help you realize whether your philosophy is working or not. If it's not, you need to carefully think about the reasons behind the failure. It might be that you are simply failing in staying true and you need more time to instill these values deeper into your actions. Just continue to be more mindful of your philosophy and think more about the ways you can stick to your principles. But your failures might not be due to lack of motivation.

It could well be the actions and behaviors you chose are not truly you and do not fit into your leadership strategy. Therefore, you might have to re-evaluate each value and principle, adding in new ones and removing the ones that don't reflect your philosophy. Successful leadership is a fluid strategy and the philosophy shouldn't be too rigid either. As you gain more experience, both in business and in life, you will develop and grow as a person. This personal development might well change the way you approach leadership and therefore, you should be willing to make small changes to your philosophy if you feel like it.

The video clip below on self-reflection is a valuable watch because it highlights the importance of being more aware of the impact of your decisions. It's an important lesson to keep in mind when evaluating your leadership philosophy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Leadership philosophy is a crucial element, as it acts as the foundation for your leadership. It helps you determine the guiding principles, behaviours and actions you want to put at the heart of your leadership. By carefully considering your values, priorities and objectives, you can create a framework for effective and focused leadership.

Having a leadership philosophy creates clarity to your decision-making and your actions, which help you to inspire and to motivate the followers to support your vision. You will be a leader with a clear mission and way of operating, which makes it easier for people to respect and trust you because they will always know where you are coming from.

When it comes to drafting a leadership philosophy the key is to spend time analyzing yourself and writing down the things you believe in and value. Creating a document will ensure you are not only accountable, but can easily remind yourself to focus on the essentials. It ensures you aren't just thinking about specific actions and behaviors, but to actually implement these in your leadership.

Leadership philosophy is often based on intuition, but also a careful examination of what your strengths and weaknesses are. It's about finding the voice that truly speaks for you rather than pretending to subscribe to things you don't believe in or can't achieve.

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How to Develop a Leadership Philosophy that Inspires | Cleverism

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Think about the most successful leaders in the world, past and present. If you were to compare them with inefficient leaders, the difference wouldn't necessarily come from their skills. The more important factor would be how the successful leaders would be able to provide you with a clear and defined approach to how they lead other people: their leadership philosophy.

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Nearly a fifth of private colleges have discounted their first-year tuition by at least 60 percent, significantly more than last year, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

The results of the credit-rating agency's annual tuition survey, released on Wednesday, illustrate the pressures private colleges are facing to undercut their sticker prices by offering more-generous financial-aid packages to attract a static number of 18- to 24-year-old students. The average discount rate nationwide - or the average amount of tuition revenue a college devotes to financial aid through grants - has been steadily climbing for at least a decade.

In 2017 just 13 percent of private colleges reported a first-year discount rate of 60 percent or higher. This year the number was 19 percent. That's a "fairly substantial" increase from last year, said Susan I. Fitzgerald, a Moody's analyst and an associate managing director.

Some colleges, the survey found, reported a first-year discount rate above 70 percent. Moody's received responses from 174 private, nonprofit American colleges, all of which are rated by the agency.

Scholars who are skeptical of tuition discounting worry that, if left unchecked, the practice will risk the financial health of an institution. It can also undermine a college's efforts to enroll low-income and minority students, they say, because such students are often scared off by the full advertised tuition, commonly known as the sticker price.

Defenders of tuition discounting say it makes private colleges more accessible, including to middle-income families that would otherwise be priced out.

Private colleges increasingly rely on tuition discounting, Fitzgerald said, because they face competitive pressure to attract students. The number of high-school graduates has been relatively flat, with some slight decreases in the Midwest and Northeast, she said. Those students sometimes apply to dozens of institutions, and they pay close attention to the types of financial-aid packages they're offered.

Also, private colleges aren't competing only against one another, Fitzgerald said. They're also facing off against lower-priced public and community colleges as well as states that offer free or significantly reduced college tuition.

"It's just a very complex and competitive environment on a number of fronts," Fitzgerald said. "Private colleges are trying to figure out the model that's sustainable."

In general, the report says, small private colleges are discounting more than their larger peers are, partly because smaller colleges offer mostly undergraduate programming. The median discount rate will most likely continue to rise, the report predicts, to 39 percent in 2019, a five-percentage-point bump from 2014.

Rising discount rates will continue to stifle private colleges' pricing flexibility, Fitzgerald said. That's because once a certain discount rate is promised to incoming freshmen, she said, it's really difficult to tell them the following year that they're getting less of a break.

In July, Moody's issued a somewhat bleak longer-term outlook for private colleges. Declining tuition revenue mixed with mounting expenses would prove to be a recipe for financial stress, the group said. Some of the roughly 1,700 private, nonprofit colleges will merge. Others will reduce the number of programs offered. And a few, the report says, will close.

Emma Pettit is a staff reporter at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.

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A Fifth of Private Colleges Report First-Year Discount Rate of 60 Percent, Moody's Says

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Nearly a fifth of private colleges have discounted their first-year tuition by at least 60 percent, significantly more than last year, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service. The results of the credit-rating agency's annual tuition survey, released on Wednesday, illustrate the pressures private colleges are facing to undercut their sticker prices by offering more-generous financial-aid packages to attract a static number of 18- to 24-year-old students.

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https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Fifth-of-Private-Colleges/245092

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The more that you, as a leader, manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence. So, let's look at each element in more detail and examine how you can grow as a leader.

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

1. Self-awareness

If you're self-aware, you always know how you feel, and you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you're in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and it means behaving with humility.

So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

Keep a journal. Journals help you improve your self-awareness. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.

2. Self-regulation

Leaders who regulate themselves effectively rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people, or compromise their values. Self-regulation is all about staying in control.

This element of emotional intelligence, according to Goleman, also covers a leader's flexibility and commitment to personal accountability.

So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

Hold yourself accountable. If you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and to face the consequences, whatever they are. You'll probably sleep better at night, and you'll quickly earn the respect of those around you.

Practice being calm. The next time you're in a challenging situation, be very aware of how you act. Do you relieve your stress by shouting at someone else? Practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper (and not showing them to anyone!) is better than speaking them aloud to your team. What's more, this helps you challenge your reactions to ensure that they're fair!

3. Motivation

Self-motivated leaders work consistently toward their goals, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work.

How can you improve your motivation?

Re-examine why you're doing your job. It's easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you're unhappy in your role and you're struggling to remember why you wanted it, try the Five Whys technique to find the root of the problem. Starting at the root often helps you look at your situation in a new way. And make sure that your goal statements are fresh and energizing. For more on this, see our article on Goal Setting.

4. Empathy

For leaders, having empathy is critical to managing a successful team or organization. Leaders with empathy have the ability to put themselves in someone else's situation. They help develop the people on their team, challenge others who are acting unfairly, give constructive feedback, and listen to those who need it.

If you want to earn the respect and loyalty of your team, then show them you care by being empathic.

How can you improve your empathy?

Respond to feelings. You ask your assistant to work late - again. And although he agrees, you can hear the disappointment in his voice. So, respond by addressing his feelings. Tell him you appreciate how willing he is to work extra hours, and that you're just as frustrated about working late. If possible, figure out a way for future late nights to be less of an issue (for example, give him Monday mornings off).

5. Social Skills

Leaders who do well in the social skills element of emotional intelligence are great communicators. They're just as open to hearing bad news as good news, and they're experts at getting their team to support them and be excited about a new mission or project.

Leaders who have good social skills are also good at managing change and resolving conflicts diplomatically. They're rarely satisfied with leaving things as they are, but they don't sit back and make everyone else do the work: they set an example with their own behavior.

So, how can you build social skills?

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Emotional Intelligence in Leadership - Learning How to Be More Aware

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Relating to others is vital in today's workplace. Learn how to build your emotional intelligence (EI) with this article.