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Leadership Book

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VIDEO

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Angelo State University - Library Online Resources

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Unauthorized use is prohibited; Usage may be subject to security testing and monitoring; Misuse is subject to criminal prosecution; No expectation of privacy except as otherwise provided by applicable privacy laws.

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This document discusses what matters most to 21st century counselors and how counselors can redefine leadership.

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This is a great article on the ways in which school counselors serve.

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students! Here are 11 ways school counselors serve as leaders in your building.

1. School counselors recognize and showcase diversity.

In many buildings, school counselors are considered the "heart" of the school. They help create an inclusive environment that is respectful, welcoming, kind, and open to all.

2. School counselors develop community partnerships.

Counseling staff work collaboratively with universities, community colleges, technical schools, local unions, military reps, and apprentice programs to provide a variety of opportunities for students. They are especially vital in ensuring underserved and first-generation students have access to and the tools to reach all possible post-high school options.

3. School counselors help during difficult situations.

Strengths such as listening, reflecting, and high emotional intelligence make school counselors valuable allies when trying to get buy-in from staff or the greater community on difficult issues. Counselors foster a culture of change via strong lines of communication and valuing input from all parties involved.

4. School counselors maintain strong home-school connections.

Counselors tend to be the liaison for parents when it comes to communicating with the school. This leadership role is especially important when assisting families who are not familiar with the school setting or have issues trusting staff.

5. School counselors maximize educational success.

School counselors can help to maximize the educational attainment of all students by providing students with mental health services (school or community-based) and developmental guidance that takes a proactive approach in helping students set and reach academic goals.

6. School counselors lead staff trainings.

Administrators who use their counseling staff (rather than outside contractors) to lead building-wide trainings can save a lot of money and gain quicker buy-in from staff. School counselors are experts on topics such as student engagement, positive discipline, suicide/self-harm, students-as-leaders, peer mentoring programs, and academic/social interventions for low-performing students.

7. School counselors protect and advocate for disadvantaged students.

Counselors identify and amend policies and practices that negatively impact disadvantaged students and advocate for equitable services for all students.

8. School counselors use expertise to bring data to life.

Like administrators, counselors are trained in data collection and analysis. They are skilled at using this information to drive decisions about placement, intervention, and overall student health and wellbeing.

9. School counselors mediate difficult situations between parents/students and staff.

Counselors are consistently looking for ways to support the relationship between school staff and parents. Acting as a mediator when one or both parties are upset about a situation is a critical way in which school counselors serve as leaders.

10. School counselors organize and lead crisis response.

Counselors are on the front lines after a tragedy has happened in a school or community. Staff, students, parents, and community members look to the counselors for guidance and support immediately following an event. Because of their training in emotional/mental, the counseling staff is critical in advocating for and teaching self-care to staff, parents, and students during a crisis.

11. School counselors empower and inspire.

School counselors inherently believe in people and work tirelessly to communicate that. By being visible and accessible at all times, their calming, caring, and encouraging presence helps support and empower staff in the building.

School counselors serve as leaders in many ways and we need to value their perspectives and strengths. They are vital to building positive learning environments in which students thrive.
Join our Facebook group Principal Life for more conversation about and insights into the challenges of school leadership.

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11 Ways Your School Counselors Serve as Leaders - WeAreTeachers

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School counselors are uniquely equipped to bridge the gaps between administration, teachers, parents, and students. As the demands placed on everyone in a school community increase, it's vital that we view and include school counselors as part of our leadership teams. Let's make sure we recognize all they do and put their strengths to work for our students!

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Traits of a transactional leader.

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Transactional leadership, also known as managerial leadership, focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance. Leaders who implement this style focus on specific tasks and use rewards and punishments to motivate followers.﻿﻿

This theory of leadership was first described in by sociologist Max Weber and further explored by Bernard M. Bass in the early 1980s. Take a closer look at how the transactional style works as well as some of the potential benefits and downsides of this style.

Basic Assumptions of Transactional Leadership

People perform their best when the chain of command is definite and clear.

Rewards and punishments motivate workers.

Obeying the instructions and commands of the leader is the primary goal of the followers.

Subordinates need to be carefully monitored to ensure that expectations are met.﻿﻿

This theory takes a behavioral approach to leadership by basing it on a system of rewards and punishments.

Athletic teams also rely heavily on transactional leadership. Players are expected to conform to the team's rules and expectations and are rewarded or punished based on their performance. Winning a game might mean accolades and bonuses while losing might lead to rejection and verbal castigation. Players often become highly motivated to do well, even if it means suffering pain and injury.

Unlike transformational leaders who tend to be forward-looking, transactional leaders are interested in merely maintaining the status quo.﻿﻿ Transformational leaders try to sell their ideas and vision to followers. Transactional leaders, on the other hand, tell group members what to do and when to do it.

How Transactional Leadership Works

In transactional leadership, rewards and punishments are contingent upon the performance of the followers. The leader views the relationship between managers and subordinates as an exchange - you give me something for something in return. When subordinates perform well, they receive a reward. When they perform poorly, they will be punished in some way. Rules, procedures, and standards are essential in transactional leadership.

They do not, however, act as catalysts for growth and change within an organization. Instead, they are focused on maintaining this as they are and enforcing current rules and expectations.

These leaders do tend to be good at setting expectations and standards that maximize the efficiency and productivity of an organization.﻿﻿ They tend to give constructive feedback regarding follower performance that allows group members to improve their output to obtain better feedback and reinforcement.

When Is Transactional Leadership the Most Effective?

Followers are not encouraged to be creative or to find new solutions to problems. Research has found that transactional leadership tends to be most effective in situations where problems are simple and clearly defined.﻿﻿

It can also work well in crisis situations where the focus needs to be on accomplishing certain tasks. By assigning clearly defined duties to particular individuals, leaders can ensure that those things get done.

Transactional leaders focus on the maintenance of the structure of the group.﻿﻿ They are tasked with letting group members know exactly what is expected, articulating the rewards of performing tasks well, explaining the consequences of failure, and offering feedback designed to keep workers on task.

While transactional leadership can be useful in some situations, it is considered insufficient in many cases and may prevent both leaders and followers from achieving their full potential.

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How a Transactional Leadership Style Works

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Transactional leadership, also known as managerial leadership, focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance. Leaders who implement this style focus on specific tasks and use rewards and punishments to motivate followers.﻿﻿ This theory of leadership was first described in by sociologist Max Weber and further explored by Bernard M.

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Transformational leadership leadership - Bing video

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Top suggestions for Transformational leadership leadership

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Traits of a servant leader.

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The concept of servant leadership goes back millennia, but the term itself was first used by Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay, "The Servant as Leader." This leadership philosophy has skyrocketed in popularity since then, with numerous books published on the topic and increased attention being bestowed on it in the media and popular culture.

We sat down with Rebecca Herman, Graduate Professor of Leadership at Purdue University Global and an organizational culture expert, to learn more about servant leadership and its benefits.

What Is a Servant Leader?

"There are many ways to define it," Herman says, "but my personal favorite goes back to Robert Greenleaf's definition: 'The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first.'"

The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership further defines servant leadership as "a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world."

What does this mean? It means that a servant leader focuses on the growth and well-being of employees and other stakeholders in their organization. Servant leaders seek to help the people they serve grow as individuals.

"If they are growing, then they desire to perform and achieve," Herman says. "They have more capability to accomplish things, and therefore they're really serving in return, and it becomes a cycle of positive service and performance, which I believe makes servant leadership exceptional."

How Does Servant Leadership Differ From Traditional Leadership?

Traditional leadership, Herman notes, focuses on such things as strategy, goals, financial performance, and customer satisfaction. "Those things aren't bad, of course," she says. "Those are things we expect leaders to do. We want our CEO to focus on things that are going to bring us profit.

"But servant leaders go further. They focus on providing their employees with development opportunities. Employees today want to feel they have a job where they can succeed. They want an opportunity to be coached and mentored by someone. And since servant leaders put people first, they get to know them on a different level. They help them to develop, they give them opportunities because they empower them versus micromanage them."

What's Driving the Growth of Servant Leadership?

"We live in a very fast-paced technological world," Herman says. "We are inundated with information at such increasingly large levels that it's almost impossible to keep up with. We're people first, and our basic human needs are needing to be met.

"Servant leaders understand how to build a workplace culture where teams and community are valued. And people want that real feeling of community in the workplace because they don't have it in their lives."

Herman says our present culture can be disconnecting.

"We are incredibly virtual today," she says. "We have virtual jobs, serve on virtual teams, and get to know people virtually on social media. We text more than we speak on the phone or face-to-face. Even dating is done on an app-you have the option of swiping left or right to determine if you may want to meet someone. People are craving real relationships and real connections. Plus, this goes back to that whole idea that we all really want to feel we've contributed to the world, that we want work that has true meaning."

The Benefits of Servant Leadership

Increased employee loyalty and a beloved company culture are benefits of this style of leadership. Productivity and problem-solving are also bolstered with servant leadership.

"Servant-led employees don't fear that if they take a risk and try to do the right thing, they could get punished," Herman says. "I think that makes them perform at more of a risk-taking level, as long as they're doing it based on the goals, the mission, and the core values of the organization.

"And that ultimately leads to how that business performs," she says. "If every person is performing at their best, imagine what the organization is going to be like. People who receive coaching and personal development are equipped to be empowered to make decisions to serve their customers. Empowered employees are more engaged, and this increases job satisfaction, which increases retention. You want great people to stay a part of your organization."

Well-Known Servant-Led Companies

Some of the best-performing companies are well-versed in this style of leadership. Herman named the following companies with servant leaders at the helm:

"When we think of these organizations, we often think about how outstanding their customer service is," she says. "It really isn't accidental, because they're servant-led companies, so their servant-led employees want to make sure the customer is always cared for.

"These are not just the best companies to work for, they're also very high-performing companies-some of the most profitable and successful in the business world."

And there's a reason these are familiar companies with familiar stories being told. Servant leaders are very values-based and mission-driven, so they share stories frequently. That is an additional benefit for a servant-led company looking to build or sustain a brand.

Do You Aspire to Be a Servant Leader?

Making a decision to become a servant leader is making a decision to succeed and to lead your company to success.

"You need to know that it's going to become who you are more than what you do," Herman says. "This is great because it bleeds into your personal relationships and who you are in your community.

"Being a servant leader is amazing, but it's a huge commitment because you're really going to have to take very intentional actions to be a servant leader. It's really about truly walking that talk every day, and modeling that behavior."

Herman says that the greatest leaders have a desire to serve the greater good-and that they may encounter pushback.

"There will be people who will say that you're a little crazy," she says. "They're going to say that it doesn't work if you want to call yourself a servant leader. But you have to be willing to defend that and stand up for it. Be prepared because you will face a lot of resistance."

Herman compares servant leadership in the workplace to the ultimate servant leadership in the home.

"I don't want to say that leadership is like parenting, but parents are really servant leaders in many ways," she says. "And I don't know many parents that would be considered soft or weak. They want to have the best for their kids. That's why they discipline. That's why they try to help them be the best they can be.

"Being a servant leader will change you, and it will change those around you. It can be a little frightening, but the results are worth it."

Learn More About Being a Servant Leader

Herman recommends these books to read more about servant leadership:

On Becoming a Servant Leader by Robert Greenleaf and Peter Drucker

The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Great Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance by James A. Autry

The Serving Leader: Five Powerful Actions to Transform Your Team, Business, and Community by Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert

Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving by James W. Sipe and Don M. Frick

The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership by James C. Hunter

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The concept of servant leadership goes back millennia, but the term itself was first used by Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay, "The Servant as Leader." This leadership philosophy has skyrocketed in popularity since then, with numerous books published on the topic and increased attention being bestowed on it in the media and popular culture.

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The impact school counselors have.

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Far from simply setting up student schedules and administering placement and academic evaluation tests, school counselors are leaders who can have a huge impact on the acceleration and the enhancement of learning. They must possess the ability to negotiate, persuade others their ideas are worthwhile, and collaborate with principals and other school officials.

School counselors have many responsibilities, including counseling students, working with teachers and parents, referring students to outside agencies, participating in student welfare and learning support communities, and evaluating and improving their own school counseling program.

Listening

First and foremost, a school counselor needs to be a good listener. Often, they have several students they work with and may get very few chances to converse with them in a one on one setting. "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood," said Ralph G. Nichols. "The best way to understand people is to listen to them."

To listen effectively, counselors must be fully in the moment, not thinking of their "to do" list but rather giving their full attention to the issue at hand. Reflecting back to the person, your perception of what they said helps show understanding, and lets them make corrections. The counselor must also keep an open mind, being careful not to make any judgments until they have heard the entire story. ¹

Being Empathetic

Often a part of listening, putting themselves in the shoes of the person speaking, whether that is a student or another school official, helps counselors truly understand the underlying issues.

"Without the ability to understand what the student is experiencing, a counselor cannot truly do an effective job," says Helen A. Hatridge, past president of the Missouri School Counselor Association. "Empathy leads to good listening and a better ability to help the client come up with solutions. It also helps the student feel more comfortable and willing to open up to a counselor." ²

To be more empathetic, it is essential for a counselor to put aside their viewpoint. At the same time, they need to validate the student's viewpoint, which does not always mean agreement. Instead it means acknowledging their right to have an opinion, and that they have valid reasons for it. Asking how that person thinks a situation should be handled or what they would do opens up an even deeper understanding. ³

Building Relationship

It takes time for a counselor to build a relationship with any student or even their peers. However, through listening and being empathetic, that process can be accelerated.

To feel free to talk to a counselor, a student must often "break the ice," and needs to feel trust, comfort, and acceptance. Students need to accept that the counselor is a professional caregiver, and someone they can turn to without fear of judgement.

A counselor who develops this trusting relationship with students can get a lot more done, An understanding of the kid culture and what they care about can go a long way toward providing that environment of trust and understanding.

Performing Assessments

Assessment skills are essential for any school counselor in a number of areas. From academic and skills assessment to personality testing and career advisement, the ability to discern the intersection of talent and desire is essential to offering good counsel.

Assessment also includes determining if a student has special needs and interpreting test and non-test data to decide where the student should be placed, and what programs will most benefit them.

Regardless of the reason for assessment, the steps often include, but are not limited to the following:

Choosing what tests should be administered and when.

Scheduling, preparing, and administering tests.

Scoring tests or sending them out to be scored.

Advising students, teachers, parents, and other staff on test score interpretation.

Evaluating the testing process, results, and subsequent recommendations.⁴

Assessments involve some testing but must also be combined with listening, empathy, and the relationship that has been built to determine how testing outcomes relate to personality, desires, and the goals of the student.

Coordinating Efforts and Activities

Efforts and activities can fall into a couple of different categories. A counselor will have to coordinate Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) for students, and other student specific plans as well. Along with coordinating individual student plans and interacting with teachers and other school officials, the school counselor often coordinates other activities and projects as well.

In many cases, the school counselor is in charge of parent newsletters, school announcements, managing social media accounts, and other community outreach and event planning efforts.

The ability to coordinate and manage these efforts and activities requires strong leadership and organizational skills. Teaching these skills to students by allowing them to take responsibility for their own educational goals and other efforts enables a counselor to show leadership by example.

Exercising Authority

In order to be able to implement programs, direct student activities and coordinate tasks, a counselor must exercise a certain amount of authority.

This means first of all that the counselor must be granted the authority to handle certain tasks by other school officials such as principals and administrators. The more their authority is validated by their actions, the more the counselor will be perceived as a leader by parents and students alike.

Secondly, the school counselor must be willing to wield the authority they have been granted, taking charge of tasks and situations, setting expectations, and holding those responsible to deadlines.

The counselor must also know in any given situation when to cross the line from friend to professional. If a student is being abusive or abused, a more professional response is ethically and legally mandated. It is the counselor's obligation to take charge and follow through, ensuring that student safety comes first.

Being Flexible

If one thing is certain in the field of education, it is that things will change. Interruptions, schedule changes, new programs, and new responsibilities all interrupt a counselor's daily routine.

Student needs and the needs of the school overall often take priority over scheduled meetings. Parent phone calls, staff concerns, talks in classrooms, and unexpected counseling needs can all be disruptive.

A successful counselor should:

Leave gaps in their day for unscheduled needs.

Use good time management techniques.

Set reasonable boundaries. Know what is worthy of an interruption, and what can wait.

Communicate clearly. Inform students, parents, and faculty of schedules and boundaries.

By remaining flexible, a counselor can better manage the stress inherent in the job and be more responsive when needs arise unexpectedly.

Having a Sense of Humor

Being able to see things from the side of humor has a number of advantages. It lets students see that the counselor is human and can not only laugh at situations but laugh at themselves as well.

This is frequently one of the biggest assets in building student trust and developing a relationship with them. It is often how those students relate to adults, whether through jokes or humorous anecdotes that illustrate a point the counselor is trying to get across.

Humor is also a stress reliever. Being able to see the humorous side of interruptions and other daily situations allows a counselor to relax and keep anxiety from taking over many scenarios.

It takes a combination of many leadership traits to make a school counselor effective. They must use listening skills and offer empathy in order to build relationships. A counselor must also perform assessments and coordinate activities and educational efforts. These duties mean they must remain flexible and exercise authority when appropriate.

Not one of these traits alone is enough, and no one is equally adept in all of them. They are taught and can be learned in a Master of Arts in Counseling with an emphasis in school counseling like the one offered by Wake Forest University. This graduate degree will prepare you for a career as a school counselor in almost any setting.
Sources: 1 2 3 ⁴ American Counseling Association, Assessment Skills for School Counselors Mind Tools, Empathy at Work Education World, School Counselors Reflective On What Makes Them Effective Fast Company, 5 Ways To Improve Your Listening Skills

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Leadership Traits Every Counselor Should Have

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Far from simply setting up student schedules and administering placement and academic evaluation tests, school counselors are leaders who can have a huge impact on the acceleration and the enhancement of learning. They must possess the ability to negotiate, persuade others their ideas are worthwhile, and collaborate with principals and other school officials.

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This article is from the Chronicle Of Higher Education.  It discusses the reasons why good leaders make enemies and why this can be a good thing.

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This book examines current problem trends in education.

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The article examines teacher education and the lack of quality teachers being produced and reasons why.

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This article parallels the differences and similarities between leaders and managers.

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The terms "leadership" and "management" are often used interchangeably. While there is some overlap between the work that leaders and managers do, there are also significant differences.

In a keynote discussion at Harvard Business School Online's annual conference, Connext, HBS Professors Nancy Koehn and Joe Fuller explored the interplay between leadership and management and shared how they define the two disciplines.

Koehn referenced the work of HBS Professor John Kotter, who she said aptly defined the "activity of leadership."

"Leadership, he wrote, is the creation of positive, non-incremental change, including the creation of a vision to guide that change-a strategy-the empowerment of people to make the vision happen despite obstacles, and the creation of a coalition of energy and momentum that can move that change forward," Koehn said.

Fuller, who teaches the online course Management Essentials, relayed his thoughts on how management compares.

"Management is getting the confused, misguided, unmotivated, and misdirected to accomplish a common purpose on a regular, recurring basis," Fuller said. "I think the ultimate intersection between leadership and management is an appreciation for what motivates and causes individuals to behave the way they do, and the ability to draw out the best of them with a purpose in mind."
Watch the full keynote discussion between Nancy Koehn and Joe Fuller below:
While these definitions draw parallels between the roles of leaders and managers, they also allude to some key contrasts. Here are three differences between leadership and management.

How Is Leadership Different from Management?

1. Process vs. Vision

Effective leadership is centered on a vision to guide change.

Whereas managers set out to achieve organizational goals through implementing processes, such as budgeting, organizational structuring, and staffing, leaders are more intent on thinking ahead and capitalizing on opportunities.

"I think of management as working with other people to make sure the goals an organization has articulated are executed," says HBS Dean Nitin Nohria in an interview for the online course Management Essentials. "It's the process of working with others to ensure the effective execution of a chosen set of goals. Leadership is about developing what the goals should be. It's more about driving change."

2. Organizing vs. Aligning

In the book, On Becoming a Leader, scholar Warren Bennis presents a list of key differences between managers and leaders, including:

The manager administers; the leader innovates

The manager maintains; the leader develops

The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people

Managers pursue goals through coordinated actions and tactical processes, or tasks and activities that unfold over stages to reach a certain outcome. For example, they may implement a decision-making process when leading a critical meeting, or when devising a plan for communicating organizational change.

Leaders, on the other hand, are less focused on how to organize people to get work done and more on finding ways to align and influence them.

"Your central function in a position of leadership is to mobilize others so they can execute a set of individual and collective tasks," says HBS Professor Anthony Mayo in the online course Leadership Principles.

By developing a personal leadership style through self-reflection and honest feedback, leaders can learn how to empower their employees and inspire them to both believe in and pursue important organizational initiatives.

3. Position vs. Quality

The title "manager" often denotes a specific role within an organization's hierarchy, while referring to someone as a "leader" has a more fluid meaning.

"Manager is a title. It's a role and set of responsibilities," says leadership coach Doc Norton in Forbes. "Having the position of manager does not make you a leader. The best managers are leaders, but the two are not synonymous. Leadership is the result of action. If you act in a way that inspires, encourages, or engages others, you are a leader. It doesn't matter your title or position."

Leadership is a quality that needs to be shaped. Through developing emotional intelligence and learning how to influence others, professionals of all levels can build greater self-awareness and understand how to bring out the best in themselves and others.

For seasoned and aspiring managers alike, possessing strong leadership skills can not only lead to better job performance, but an improved knowledge of how to influence the context and environment in which decisions get made.
How to Be an Effective Leader at Any Stage of Your Career
Unleashing Your Leadership Potential

Leadership skills can be developed at any stage of your career. By understanding the characteristics of effective leaders and how leadership differs from management, you can develop techniques for coaching colleagues, delivering feedback, and overcoming specific organizational challenges.
Do you want to become a more effective leader and manager? Download our free leadership and management e-book to find out how. Also, explore our online courses Leadership Principles and Management Essentials to learn how you can take charge of your professional development and accelerate your career.

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Leadership vs. Management: What's the Difference? | HBS Online

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The terms "leadership" and "management" are often used interchangeably. While there is some overlap between the work that leaders and managers do, there are also significant differences. In a keynote discussion at Harvard Business School Online's annual conference, Connext, HBS Professors Nancy Koehn and Joe Fuller explored the interplay between leadership and management and shared how they define the two disciplines.

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What is the difference between leaders and managers?  This article list jobs that possess leadership skills and those that possess manager skills.

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You've likely had a manager or two in your career that you weren't very fond of. And on the flip side, you've probably worked with or for someone who you looked up to and admired a lot. Managers and leaders. Not every manager is good at leadership, and not every great leader is good at management. There are arguments about if these two terms are actually the same or different. What most research has come to find is that a manager is more about your position, and leadership is more about who you are. You can be a manager and a leader, or you can be one or the other. If you're a current or aspiring manager, it's really important to focus on good leadership. There are some differences between these two titles, but it can be a huge asset to understand these differences and how you can work to develop the characteristics of both.

Managers are generally responsible for the day-to-day operations of an operation. They have people who report to them, they oversee their work, and help make all of the projects run smoothly. They manage systems confidently and help their workers feel understood and meaningful to the organization.

Leadership is all about building a vision for people to follow. They inspire and direct with authority and intelligence. They help people feel confident and excited to follow their lead.

Leadership and management may seem to be different, but in reality they share many qualities. If a manager is a good leader, their workers will be willing to follow their lead, they will trust them, and they will have a more positive work experience.

Discover the different characteristics of leaders and managers, and how you can work to harness both and successfully direct teams in your organization.

Leaders and managers share some important characteristics, but they also have some very different elements that make them unique. There are different leadership theories and management styles that can directly impact how a manager or leader behaves.
Leadership characteristics. Management characteristics. Shared characteristics.

In many instances, not all leaders do management work in their job. And some managers aren't effective at leadership. It's important to understand the specific distinctions in the roles, actions, and responsibilities of leaders and managers. If you're studying management, it's extremely valuable to be able to implement characteristics and abilities of leaders into your work. If you're in a leadership position in an organization, it's vital to understand what managers are in charge of and how you can help support their work. These two job titles can and should work together cohesively to give employees the best work environment.

Mission vs. vision. Management spends a good deal of their time focusing on the specific mission of their organization and their team. They need to know the detailed goals for project success, and help the team come up with a way to reach their goals. A manager's focus on mission helps the team members understand what is expected of them. Vision is a leadership element that involves looking at a larger picture. Leaders help the team understand the greater part they can play in helping the organization. They motivate the people they work with to help them catch that vision. They help teams see their contributions in a bigger light, as part of an overall vision for success. They focus on some of the bigger picture outcomes and help everyone get on board. Managers can have this leadership quality by helping the team catch the vision of the organization and project before diving into the smaller details of their specific mission. It's their responsibility to focus on the details, but it can also be key to inspire them to want to focus on those details.

Innovation vs. organization. Managers need to be organized in order to help their workers be successful. Organization in projects, meetings, strategy, and teams are all key for managers to help their workers feel secure. Managers need to spend time focusing on specific ways to be organized in daily tasks as well as larger projects. Whatever great idea is coming, managers find a way to break it into smaller tasks and projects that are manageable for the team. Leadership spends time focusing on innovation and coming up with new, exciting plans. Creativity is key for effective innovation in leaders. They are always looking for new things that they could try to help the company. Managers can harness both of these actions by looking for innovative ideas that are exciting for their team, and helping organize ways to make those innovations come to light.

Self awareness, trust, and control. Management and leadership alike need to have self-awareness, trust, and control in their employees. Employees and workers need to see that their managers and leaders trust them. This is crucial to them feeling confident in their work. Managers and leaders also need to be self-aware so they understand how they impact the people around them. Being able to see themselves objectively helps them to be better connected to their employees. This is an important part of emotional intelligence which management and leadership can greatly benefit from. Control is another important element for effective leaders and managers alike. Management need to find control so their employees view them with respect and authority. Leaders also need control to make sure that the people who follow them believe that they have something important to show them.

Two-way learning. Two way learning is the belief that insight and advice can come from anywhere. Managers and leaders alike need this to be able to accept ideas and insights from lower employees. Being willing and excited about listening to employees is crucial to being successful both as a manager and as a leader. It's vital to understand that you can learn from anyone in the organization, no matter their title.

While leadership and management are a little different, you can play to the strengths of both of these and be a manager who leads employees successfully. Small business owners and entrepreneurs often have to walk the line of being both a leader and a manager, and management should work hard to try and also have great leadership for the people who work under them. Combining the qualities of both of these roles helps managers and leaders be more impactful. If you're hoping to become a manager, it's important to start with attending school so you have all of the skills you need, and then can work to get the characteristics of leadership and management.

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Leader vs Manager: What's the Difference?

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Not all managers are leaders, and not all leaders are managers. There's an important difference between these two titles, and it's crucial for business professionals to be able to be both. Learn more about the difference between leaders and managers with this guide.

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Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Their use skyrocketed after 2002's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated annual testing in all 50 states. US students slipped from being ranked 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 40th in 2015, and from 14th to 25th in science and from 15th to 24th in reading. Failures in the education system have been blamed on rising poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and, increasingly, on the pervasive use of standardized tests.

Proponents argue that standardized tests offer an objective measurement of education and a good metric to gauge areas for improvement, as well as offer meaningful data to help students in marginalized groups, and that the scores are good indicators of college and job success. They argue standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations.

Opponents argue that standardized tests only determine which students are good at taking tests, offer no meaningful measure of progress, and have not improved student performance, and that the tests are racist, classist, and sexist, with scores that are not predictors of future success. They argue standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations.
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Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1

Standardized tests offer an objective measurement of education and a good metric to gauge areas for improvement.

Teachers' grading practices are naturally uneven and subjective. An A in one class may be a C in another. Teachers also have conscious and unconscious biases for a favorite student or against a rowdy student, for example. Standardized tests offer students across the country a unified measure of their knowledge.

Aaron Churchill, Ohio Research Director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, stated, "At their core, standardized exams are designed to be objective measures. They assess students based on a similar set of questions, are given under nearly identical testing conditions, and are graded by a machine or blind reviewer. They are intended to provide an accurate, unfiltered measure of what a student knows."

Frequently states or local jurisdictions employ psychometricians to ensure tests are fair across populations of students. Mark Moulon, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Pythias Consulting and psychometrician, offered an example: "If you find that your question on skateboarding is one that boys find to be an easy question, but girls find to be a hard question, that'll pop up as a statistic. Differential item functioning will flag that question as problematic."

Moulon continued, explaining, "What's cool about psychometrics is that it will flag stuff that a human would never be able to notice. I remember a science test that had been developed in California and it asked about earthquakes. But the question was later used in a test that was administered in New England. When you try to analyze the New England kids with the California kids, you would get a differential item functioning flag because the California kids were all over the subject of earthquakes, and the kids in Vermont had no idea about earthquakes."

With problematic questions removed, or adapted for different populations of students, standardized tests offer the best objective measure of what students have learned. Taking that information, schools can determine areas for improvement. As Bryan Nixon, former Head of School at private school Whitby, noted, "When we receive standardized test data at Whitby, we use it to evaluate the effectiveness of our education program. We view standardized testing data as not only another set of data points to assess student performance, but also as a means to help us reflect on our curriculum. When we look at Whitby's assessment data, we can compare our students to their peers at other schools to determine what we're doing well within our educational continuum and where we need to invest more time and resources."
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Pro 2

Standardized tests offer meaningful data to help students in marginalized groups.

Keri Rodrigues, Co-founder of the National Parents Union, explained, "If I don't have testing data to make sure my child's on the right track, I'm not able to intervene and say there is a problem and my child needs more. And the community can't say this school is doing well, this teacher needs help to improve, or this system needs new leadership... It's really important to have a statewide test because of the income disparity that exists in our society. Black and Brown excellence is real, but just because a kid lives in Dorchester [Massachusetts] does not make his or her life is less valuable than a child that lives in Wellesley [Massachusetts]. And it is unfair to say that just by luck of birth that a child born in Wellesley is somehow entitled to a higher-quality education... Testing is a tool for us to hold the system accountable to make sure our kids have what they need. "

Sheryl Lazarus, PhD, Director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota, stated, "a real plus of these assessments is that they've really shone a light on the differences across sub-groups. And they have led to improvements in access to instruction for students with disabilities and English learners... Inclusion of students with disabilities and English learners in summative tests used for accountability allows us to measure how well the system is doing for these students, and then it is possible to fill in gaps in instructional opportunity."

Advocates for marginalized groups of students, whether by race, learning disability, or other difference, can use testing data to prove a problem exists and to help solve the problem via more funding, development of programs, or other solutions. Civil rights education lawsuits wherein a group is suing a local or state government for better education almost always use testing data.

Chris Stewart, CEO of brightbeam, summarizes, "We only know that there's a difference between White students and Black students and other students of color because we have the data. We only know about that because we have assessments."

A letter signed by 12 civil rights organizations including the NAACP and the American Association of University Women, explained, "Data obtained through some standardized tests are particularly important to the civil rights community because they are the only available, consistent, and objective source of data about disparities in educational outcomes, even while vigilance is always required to ensure tests are not misused. These data are used to advocate for greater resource equity in schools and more fair treatment for students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and English learners... [W]e cannot fix what we cannot measure. And abolishing the tests or sabotaging the validity of their results only makes it harder to identify and fix the deep-seated problems in our schools."
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Pro 3

Standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations.

While grades and other measures are useful for teacher evaluations, standardized tests provide a consistent measure across classrooms and schools. Individual school administrators, school districts, and the state can compare teachers using test scores to show how each teacher has helped students master core concepts.

Timothy Hilton, a high school social studies teacher in South Central Los Angeles, stated, "No self-respecting teacher would use a single student grade on a single assignment as a final grade for the entirety of a course, so why would we rely on one source of information in the determination of a teacher's overall quality? The more data that can be provided, the more accurate the teacher evaluation decisions will end up being. Teacher evaluations should incorporate as many pieces of data as possible. Administration observation, student surveys, student test scores, professional portfolios, and on and on. The more data that is used, the more accurate the picture it will paint."
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Pro 4

Standardized tests scores are good indicators of college and job success.

Standardized tests can offer evidence of and promote academic rigor, which is invaluable in college as well as in students' careers. Matthew Pietrafetta, PhD, Founder of Academic Approach, argues that the "tests create gravitational pull toward higher achievement."

Elaine Riordan, senior communications professional at Actively Learn, stated, "[C]onsiderable research suggests that interventions that help students improve test scores are linked to better adult outcomes such as college attendance, higher incomes, and the avoidance of risky behaviors... In other words, creating learning environments that lead to higher test scores is also likely to improve students' long-term success in college and beyond... Recent research suggests that the competencies that the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests are now evaluating are essential not just for students who will attend four-year colleges but also for those who participate in CTE programs or choose to seek employment requiring associate degrees and certificates. The researchers argue that all of these students require the same level of academic mastery to be successful after high school graduation."

Standardized test scores have long been correlated with better college and life outcomes. As Dan Goldhaber, PhD, Director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, and Umut Özek, PhD, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, summarize, "students who score one standard deviation higher on math tests at the end of high school have been shown to earn 12% more annually, or $3,600 for each year of work life in 2001... Similarly... test scores are significantly correlated not only with educational attainment and labor market outcomes (employment, work experience, choice of occupation), but also with risky behavior (teenage pregnancy, smoking, participation in illegal activities)."
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Con 1

Standardized tests only determine which students are good at taking tests, offer no meaningful measure of progress, and have not improved student performance.

Standardized test scores are easily influenced by outside factors: stress, hunger, tiredness, and prior teacher or parent comments about the difficulty of the test, among other factors. In short, the tests only show which students are best at preparing for and taking the tests, not what knowledge students might exhibit if their stomachs weren't empty. External stereotypes also play a part in scores: "research indicates that being targeted by well-known stereotypes ('blacks are unintelligent,' 'Latinos perform poorly on tests,' 'girls can't do math' and so on) can be threatening to students in profound ways, a predicament they call 'stereotype threat.'"

Students are tested on grade-appropriate material, but they are not re-tested to determine if they have learned information they tested poorly on the year before. Instead, as Steve Martinez, EdD, Superintendent of Twin Rivers Unified in California, and Rick Miller, Executive Director of CORE Districts, note, each "state currently reports yearly change, by comparing the scores of this year's students against the scores of last year's students who were in the same grade. Even though educators, parents and policymakers might think change signals impact, it says much more about the change in who the students are because it is not measuring the growth of the same student from one year to the next."

Further, because each state develops its own tests, standardized tests are not necessarily comparable across state lines, leaving nationwide statistics shaky at best.

Brandon Busteed, Executive Director, Education & Workforce Development at the time of the quote, stated, "Despite an increased focus on standardized testing, U.S. results in international comparisons show we have made no significant improvement over the past 20 years, according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The U.S. most recently ranked 23rd, 39th and 25th in reading, math and science, respectively. The last time Americans celebrated being 23rd, 39th and 25th in anything was ... well, never. Our focus on standardized testing hasn't helped us improve our results!"

Busteed asks, "What if our overreliance on standardized testing has actually inhibited our ability to help students succeed and achieve in a multitude of other dimensions? For example, how effective are schools at identifying and educating students with high entrepreneurial talent? Or at training students to apply creative thinking to solve messy and complex issues with no easy answers?"
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Con 2

Standardized tests are racist, classist, and sexist.

The origin of American standardized tests are those created by psychologist Carl Brigham, PhD, for the Army during World War I, which was later adapted to become the SAT. The Army tests were created specifically to segregate soldiers by race, because at the time science inaccurately linked intelligence and race.

Racial bias has not been stripped from standardized tests. W. James Popham, PhD, Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Los Angeles and former test maker, explains how discrimination is purposefully built in to standardized tests, "Traditionally constructed standardized achievements, the kinds that we've used in this country for a long while, are intended chiefly to discriminate among students ... to say that someone was in the 83rd percentile and someone is at 43rd percentile. And the reason you do that is so you can make judgments among these kids. But in order to do so, you have to make sure that the test has in fact a spread of scores. One of the ways to have that test create a spread of scores is to limit items in the test to socioeconomic variables, because socioeconomic status is a nicely spread out distribution, and that distribution does in fact spread kids' scores out on a test."

As Young Whan Choi, Manager of Performance Assessments Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California, explains, "Too often, test designers rely on questions which assume background knowledge more often held by White, middle-class students. It's not just that the designers have unconscious racial bias; the standardized testing industry depends on these kinds of biased questions in order to create a wide range of scores." Choi offers an example from his own 10th grade class, "a student called me over with a question. With a puzzled look, she pointed to the prompt asking students to write about the qualities of someone who would deserve a "key to the city." Many of my students, nearly all of whom qualified for free and reduced lunch, were not familiar with the idea of a 'key to the city.'"

Wealthy kids, who would be more familiar with a "key to the city," tend to have higher standardized test scores due to differences in brain development caused by factors such as "access to enriching educational resources, and... exposure to spoken language and vocabulary early in life." Plus, as Eloy Ortiz Oakley, MBA, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, points out, "Many well-resourced students have far greater access to test preparation, tutoring and taking the test multiple times, opportunities not afforded the less affluent... [T]hese admissions tests are a better measure of students' family background and economic status than of their ability to succeed"

Journalist and teacher Carly Berwick explains, "All students do not do equally well on multiple choice tests, however. Girls tend to do less well than boys and perform better on questions with open-ended answers, according to a 2018 study by Stanford University's Sean Reardon, which found that test format alone accounts for 25 percent of the gender difference in performance in both reading and math. Researchers hypothesize that one explanation for the gender difference on high-stakes tests is risk aversion, meaning girls tend to guess less."
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Con 3

Standardized tests are unfair metrics for teacher evaluations.

16 states and DC have stopped using standardized tests in teacher evaluations. [79] [80] As W. James Popham, PhD, noted, "standardized achievement tests should not be used to determine the effectiveness of a state, a district, a school, or a teacher. There's almost certain to be a significant mismatch between what's taught and what's tested."

Margaret Pastor, PhD, Principal of Stedwick Elementary School in Maryland, stated: "[A]n assistant superintendent... pointed out that in one of my four kindergarten classes, the student scores were noticeably lower, while in another, the students were outperforming the other three classes. He recommended that I have the teacher whose class had scored much lower work directly with the teacher who seemed to know how to get higher scores from her students. Seems reasonable, right? But here was the problem: The "underperforming" kindergarten teacher and the "high-performing" teacher were one and the same person."
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Con 4

Standardized tests scores are not predictors of future success.

Standardized tests can only, at best, evaluate rote knowledge of math, science, and English. The tests do not evaluate creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, artistic ability, or other knowledge areas that cannot be judged by scoring a sheet of bubbles filled in with a pencil.

Grade point averages (GPA) are a 5 times stronger indicator of college success than standardized tests, according to a study of 55,084 Chicago public school students. One of the authors, Elaine M. Allensworth, PhD, Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium, stated, "GPAs measure a very wide variety of skills and behaviors that are needed for success in college, where students will encounter widely varying content and expectations. In contrast, standardized tests measure only a small set of the skills that students need to succeed in college, and students can prepare for these tests in narrow ways that may not translate into better preparation to succeed in college."

Matthew M. Chingos, PhD, Vice President of Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, explained, "earning good grades requires consistent behaviors over time-showing up to class and participating, turning in assignments, taking quizzes, etc.-whereas students could in theory do well on a test even if they do not have the motivation and perseverance needed to achieve good grades. It seems likely that the kinds of habits high school grades capture are more relevant for success in college than a score from a single test."
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Did You Know?

1. The earliest known standardized tests were administered to government job applicants in 7th Century Imperial China.

2. The Kansas Silent Reading Test (1914-1915) is the earliest known published multiple-choice test, developed by Frederick J. Kelly, a Kansas school director.

3. In 1934, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) hired a teacher and inventor named Reynold B. Johnson (best known for creating the world's first commercial computer disk drive) to create a production model of his prototype test scoring machine.

4. The current use of No. 2 pencils on standardized tests is a holdover from the 1930s through the 1960s, when scanning machines scored answer sheets by detecting the electrical conductivity of graphite pencil marks.

5. In 2020, states were allowed to cancel standardized testing due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

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Standardized Testing Pros and Cons - Does It Improve Education?

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Proponents say the tests offer objective measurements of education. Opponents say tests only show which students are good at taking tests.

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This article list and describes 20 majors issues being faced in education today.

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13 Major Issues in Education at the K-12 Level

1. Government funding for education

School funding is a primary concern when discussing current issues in education. The American public education system, which includes both primary and secondary schools, is primarily funded by tax revenues. For the 2021 school year, state and local governments provided over 89 percent of the funding for public K-12 schools. After the Great Recession, most states reduced their school funding. This reduction makes sense, considering most state funding is sourced from sales and income taxes, which tend to decrease during economic downturns.

However, many states are still giving schools less cash now than they did before the Great Recession. A 2022 article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that K-12 education is set to receive the largest-ever one-time federal investment. However, the CBPP also predicts this historic funding might fall short due to pandemic-induced education costs. The formulas that states use to fund schools have come under fire in recent years and have even been the subjects of lawsuits. For example, in 2017, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the legislature's formula for financing schools was unconstitutional because it didn't adequately fund education.

Less funding means that smaller staff, fewer programs, and diminished resources for students are common school problems. In some cases, schools are unable to pay for essential maintenance. A 2021 report noted that close to a quarter of all U.S. public schools are in fair or poor condition and that 53 percent of schools need renovations and repairs. Plus, a 2021 survey discovered that teachers spent an average of $750 of their own money on classroom supplies.

The issue reached a tipping point in 2018, with teachers in Arizona, Colorado, and other states walking off the job to demand additional educational funding. Some of the protests resulted in modest funding increases, but many educators believe that more must be done.

2. School safety

Over the past several years, a string of high-profile mass shootings in U.S. schools have resulted in dozens of deaths and led to debates about the best ways to keep students safe. After 17 people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018, 57 percent of teenagers said they were worried about the possibility of gun violence at their school.

Figuring out how to prevent such attacks and save students and school personnel's lives are problems faced by teachers all across America.

Former President Trump and other lawmakers suggested that allowing specially trained teachers and other school staff to carry concealed weapons would make schools safer. The idea was that adult volunteers who were already proficient with a firearm could undergo specialized training to deal with an active shooter situation until law enforcement could arrive. Proponents argued that armed staff could intervene to end the threat and save lives. Also, potential attackers might be less likely to target a school if they knew that the school's personnel were carrying weapons.

Critics argue that more guns in schools will lead to more accidents, injuries, and fear. They contend that there is scant evidence supporting the idea that armed school officials would effectively counter attacks. Some data suggests that the opposite may be true: An FBI analysis of active shooter situations between 2000 and 2013 noted that law enforcement personnel who engaged the shooter suffered casualties in 21 out of 45 incidents. And those were highly trained professionals whose primary purpose was to maintain law and order. It's highly unlikely that teachers, whose focus should be on educating children, would do any better in such situations.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), giving teachers guns is not the answer. In a March 2018 survey, 74 percent of NEA members opposed arming school personnel, and two-thirds said they would feel less safe at work if school staff were carrying guns. To counter gun violence in schools, the NEA supports measures like requiring universal background checks, preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, and banning assault weapons.

3. Disciplinary policies

Data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in 2021 suggests that black students face disproportionately high rates of suspension and expulsion from school. For instance, in K-12 schools, black male students make up only 7.7 percent of enrollees but account for over 40% percent of suspensions. Many people believe some teachers apply the rules of discipline in a discriminatory way and contribute to what has been termed the "school-to-prison pipeline." That's because research has demonstrated that students who are suspended or expelled are significantly more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system.

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued guidelines for all public schools on developing disciplinary practices that reduce disparities and comply with federal civil rights laws. The guidelines urged schools to limit exclusionary disciplinary tactics such as suspension and expulsion. They also encourage the adoption of more positive interventions such as counseling and restorative justice strategies. In addition, the guidelines specified that schools could face a loss of federal funds if they carried out policies that had a disparate impact on some racial groups.

Opponents argue that banning suspensions and expulsions takes away valuable tools that teachers can use to combat student misbehavior. They maintain that as long as disciplinary policies are applied the same way to every student regardless of race, such policies are not discriminatory. One major 2014 study found that the racial disparities in school suspension rates could be explained by the students' prior behavior rather than by discriminatory tactics on the part of educators.

In 2018, the Federal Commission on School Safety (which was established in the wake of the school shootings in Parkland, Florida) was tasked with reviewing and possibly rescinding the 2014 guidelines. According to an Education Next survey taken shortly after the announced review, only 27 percent of Americans support federal policies that limit racial disparities in school discipline.

4. Technology in education

Technology in education is a powerful movement that is sweeping through schools nationwide. After all, today's students have grown up with digital technology and expect it to be part of their learning experience. But how much of a role should it play in education?

Proponents point out that educational technology offers the potential to engage students in more active learning, as evidenced in flipped classrooms. It can facilitate group collaboration and provide instant access to up-to-date resources. Teachers and instructors can integrate online surveys, interactive case studies, and relevant videos to offer content tailored to different learning styles. Indeed, students with special needs frequently rely on assistive technology to communicate and access course materials.

But there are downsides as well. For instance, technology can be a distraction. Some students tune out of lessons and spend time checking social media, playing games, or shopping online. One research study revealed that students who multitasked on laptops during class scored 11 percent lower on an exam that tested their knowledge of the lecture. Students who sat behind those multitaskers scored 17 percent lower. In the fall of 2017, University of Michigan professor Susan Dynarski cited such research as one of the main reasons she bans electronics in her classes.

More disturbingly, technology can pose a real threat to student privacy and security. The collection of sensitive student data by education technology companies can lead to serious problems. In 2017, a group called Dark Overlord hacked into school district servers in several states and obtained access to students' personal information, including counselor reports and medical records. The group used the data to threaten students and their families with physical violence.

5. Charter schools and voucher programs

School choice is definitely among the hot topics in education these days. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was a vocal supporter of various forms of parental choice, including charter schools and school vouchers.

Charter schools are funded through a combination of public and private money and operate independently of the public system. They have charters (i.e., contracts) with school districts, states, or private organizations. These charters outline the academic outcomes that the schools agree to achieve. Like mainstream public schools, charter schools cannot teach religion or charge tuition, and their students must complete standardized testing. However, charter schools are not limited to taking students in a certain geographic area. They have more autonomy to choose their teaching methods. Charter schools are also subject to less oversight and fewer regulations.

School vouchers are like coupons that allow parents to use public funds to send their child to the school of their choice, which can be private and may be either secular or religious. In many cases, vouchers are reserved for low-income students or students with disabilities.

Advocates argue that charter schools and school vouchers offer parents a greater range of educational options. Opponents say that they privatize education and siphon funding away from regular public schools that are already financially strapped. The 2018 Education Next survey found that 44 percent of the general public supports charter schools' expansion, while 35 percent oppose such a move. The same poll found that 54 percent of people support vouchers.

6. Common Core

The Common Core State Standards is a set of academic standards for math and language arts that specify what public school students are expected to learn by the end of each year from kindergarten through 12th grade. Developed in 2009, the standards were designed to promote equity among public K-12 students. All students would take standardized end-of-year tests and be held to the same internationally benchmarked standards. The idea was to institute a system that brought all schools up to the same level and allowed for comparison of student performance in different regions. Such standards would help all students with college and career readiness.

Some opponents see the standards as an unwelcome federal intrusion into state control of education. Others are critical of the way the standards were developed with little input from experienced educators. Many teachers argue that the standards result in inflexible lesson plans that allow for less creativity and fun in the learning process.

Some critics also take issue with the lack of accommodation for non-traditional learners. The Common Core prescribes standards for each grade level, but students with disabilities or language barriers often need more time to fully learn the material.

The vast majority of states adopted the Common Core State Standards when they were first introduced. Since then, more than a dozen states have either repealed the standards or revised them to align better with local needs. In many cases, the standards themselves have remained virtually the same but given a different name.

And a name can be significant. In the Education Next 2018 survey, a group of American adults was asked whether they supported common standards across states. About 61 percent replied that they did. But when another group was polled about Common Core specifically, only 45 percent said they supported it.

7. Standardized testing

During the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) years, schools-and teachers-were judged by how well students scored on such tests. Schools whose results weren't up to par faced intense scrutiny, and in some cases, state takeover or closure. Teachers' effectiveness was rated by how much improvement their students showed on standardized exams. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which took effect in 2016, removed NCLB's most punitive aspects. Still, it maintained the requirement to test students every year in Grades 3 to 8, and once in high school.

But many critics say that rampant standardized testing is one of the biggest problems in education. They argue that the pressure to produce high test scores has resulted in a teach-to-the-test approach to instruction in which other non-tested subjects (such as art, music, and physical education) have been given short shrift to devote more time to test preparation. And they contend that policymakers overemphasize the meaning of standardized test results, which don't present a clear or complete picture of overall student learning.

8. Teacher salaries

According to 2021-22 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in most states, teacher pay has decreased over the last several years. However, in some states average salaries went up. It's also important to note that public school teachers generally enjoy pensions and other benefits that make up a large share of their compensation.

But the growth in benefits has not been enough to balance out the overall low wages. An Economic Policy Institute report found that even after factoring in benefits, public-sector teachers faced a compensation penalty of 14.2 percent in 2021 relative to other college graduates.

9. The teaching of evolution

In the U.S., public school originated to spread religious ideals, but it has since become a strictly secular institution. And the debate over how to teach public school students about the origins of life has gone on for almost a century.

Today, Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection is accepted by virtually the entire scientific community. However, it is still controversial among many Americans who maintain that living things were guided into existence. A pair of surveys from 2014 revealed that 98 percent of scientists aligned with the American Association for the Advancement of Science believed that humans evolved. But it also revealed that, overall, only 52 percent of American adults agreed.

Over the years, some states have outright banned teachers from discussing evolution in the classroom. Others have mandated that students be allowed to question the scientific soundness of evolution, or that equal time be given to consideration of the Judeo-Christian notion of divine creation (i.e., creationism).

Some people argue that the theory of intelligent design-which posits that the complexities of living things cannot be explained by natural selection and can best be explained as resulting from an intelligent cause-is a legitimate scientific theory that should be allowed in public school curricula. They say it differs from creationism because it doesn't necessarily ascribe life's design to a supernatural deity or supreme being.

Opponents contend that intelligent design is creationism in disguise. They think it should not be taught in public schools because it is religiously motivated and has no credible scientific basis. And the courts have consistently held that the teaching of creationism and intelligent design promotes religious beliefs and therefore violates the Constitution's prohibition against the government establishment of religion. Still, the debate continues.

10. Teacher tenure

Having tenure means that a teacher cannot be let go unless their school district demonstrates just cause. Many states grant tenure to public school teachers who have received satisfactory evaluations for a specified period of time (which ranges from one to five years, depending on the state). A few states do not grant tenure at all. And the issue has long been mired in controversy.

Proponents argue that tenure protects teachers from being dismissed for personal or political reasons, such as disagreeing with administrators or teaching contentious subjects such as evolution. Tenured educators can advocate for students without fear of reprisal. Supporters also say that tenure gives teachers the freedom to try innovative instruction methods to deliver more engaging educational experiences. Tenure also protects more experienced (and more expensive) teachers from being arbitrarily replaced with new graduates who earn lower salaries.

Critics contend that tenure makes it difficult to dismiss ineffectual teachers because going through the legal process of doing so is extremely costly and time-consuming. They say that tenure can encourage complacency since teachers' jobs are secure whether they exceed expectations or just do the bare minimum. Plus, while the granting of tenure often hinges on teacher evaluations, 2017 research found that, in practice, more than 99 percent of teachers receive ratings of satisfactory or better. Some administrators admit to being reluctant to give low ratings because of the time and effort required to document teachers' performance and provide support for improvement.

11. Bullying

Bullying continues to be a major issue in schools all across the U.S. According to a National Center for Education Statistics study, around 22 percent of students in Grades 6 through 12 reported having been bullied at school, or on their way to or from school, in 2019. That figure was down from 28 percent in 2009, but it is still far too high.

The same study revealed that over 22 percent of students reported being bullied once a day, and 6.3 percent reported experiencing bullying two to ten times in a day. In addition, the percentage of students who reported the bullying to an adult was over 45 percent in 2019.

But that still means that almost 60 percent of students are not reporting bullying. And that means children are suffering.

Bullied students experience a range of emotional, physical, and behavioral problems. They often feel angry, anxious, lonely, and helpless. They are frequently scared to go to school, leading them to suffer academically and develop a low sense of self-worth. They are also at greater risk of engaging in violent acts or suicidal behaviors.

Every state has anti-bullying legislation in place, and schools are expected to develop policies to address the problem. However, there are differences in how each state defines bullying and what procedures it mandates when bullying is reported. And only about one-third of states call for school districts to include provisions for support services such as counseling for students who are victims of bullying (or are bullies themselves).

12. Poverty

Student poverty is a growing problem. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that as of the 2019-2020 school year, low-income students comprised a majority (52 percent) of public school students in the U.S. That represented a significant increase from 2000-2001, when only 38 percent of students were considered low-income (meaning they qualified for free or discounted school lunches).

The numbers are truly alarming: In 39 states, at least 40 percent of public school enrollees were eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and 22 of those states had student poverty rates of 50 percent or more.

Low-income students tend to perform worse in school than their more affluent peers. Studies have shown that family income strongly correlates to student achievement on standardized tests. That may be partly because parents with fewer financial resources generally can't afford tutoring and other enrichment experiences to boost student achievement. In addition, low-income children are much more likely to experience food instability, family turmoil, and other stressors that can negatively affect their academic success.

All of this means that teachers face instructional challenges that go beyond students' desires to learn.

13. Class size

According to NCES data, in the 2017-2018 school year, the average class size in U.S. public schools was 26.2 students at the elementary level and 23.3 students at the secondary level.

But anecdotal reports suggest that today, classrooms commonly have more than 30 students-sometimes as many as 40.

Conventional wisdom holds that smaller classes are beneficial to student learning. Teachers often argue that the size of a class greatly influences the quality of the instruction they are able to provide. Research from the National Education Policy Center in 2016 showed smaller classes improve student outcomes, particularly for early elementary, low-income, and minority students.

Many (but not all) states have regulations in place that impose limits on class sizes. However, those limits become increasingly difficult to maintain in an era of budget constraints. Reducing class sizes requires hiring more teachers and constructing new classrooms. Arguably, allowing class sizes to expand can enable districts to absorb funding cuts without making reductions to other programs such as art and physical education.

7 Big Issues in Higher Education

1. Student loan forgiveness

Here's how the American public education system works: Students attend primary and secondary school at no cost. They have the option of going on to post-secondary training (which, for most students, is not free). So with costs rising at both public and private institutions of higher learning, student loan debt is one of the most prominent issues in education today. Students who graduated from college in 2022 came out with an average debt load of $37,338. As a whole, Americans owe over $1.7 trillion in student loans.

Currently, students who have received certain federal student loans and are on income-driven repayment plans can qualify to have their remaining balance forgiven if they haven't repaid the loan in full after 20 to 25 years, depending on the plan. Additionally, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program allows qualified borrowers who go into public service careers (such as teaching, government service, social work, or law enforcement) to have their student debt canceled after ten years.

However, potential changes are in the works. The Biden-Harris Administration is working to support students and make getting a post-secondary education more affordable. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education provided more than $17 billion in loan relief to over 700,000 borrowers. Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats are advocating for free college as an alternative to student loans.

2. Completion rates

The large number of students who begin post-secondary studies but do not graduate continues to be an issue. According to a National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report, the overall six-year college completion rate for the cohort entering college in 2015 was 62.2 percent. Around 58 percent of students completed a credential at the same institution where they started their studies, and about another 8 percent finished at a different institution.

Completion rates are increasing, but there is still concern over the significant percentage of college students who do not graduate. Almost 9 percent of students who began college in 2015 had still not completed a degree or certificate six years later. Over 22 percent of them had dropped out entirely.

Significant costs are associated with starting college but not completing it. Many students end up weighed down by debt, and those who do not complete their higher education are less able to repay loans. Plus, students miss out on formal credentials that could lead to higher earnings. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2021 students who begin college but do not complete a degree have median weekly earnings of $899. By contrast, associate degree holders have median weekly wages of $963, and bachelor's degree recipients have median weekly earnings of $1,334.

Students leave college for many reasons, but chief among them is money. To mitigate that, some institutions have implemented small retention or completion grants. Such grants are for students who are close to graduating, have financial need, have used up all other sources of aid, owe a modest amount, and are at risk of dropping out due to lack of funds. One study found that around a third of the institutions who implemented such grants noted higher graduation rates among grant recipients.

3. Student mental health

Mental health challenges among students are a growing concern. A survey by the American College Health Association in the spring of 2019 found that over two-thirds of college students had experienced "overwhelming anxiety" within the previous 12 months. Almost 45 percent reported higher-than-average stress levels.

Anxiety, stress, and depression were the most common concerns among students who sought treatment. The 2021 report by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) noted the average number of appointments students needed has increased by 20 percent.

And some schools are struggling to keep up. A 2020 report found that the average student-to-clinician ratio on U.S. campuses was 1,411 to 1. So, in some cases, suffering students face long waits for treatment.

4. Sexual assault

study by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of reported on-campus forcible sex offenses grew from 2,500 in 2009 to 12,300 in 2018. A separate 2020 report from the American Association of Universities found that approximately 13 percent of all college students experienced unwanted sexual penetration or touching through force (i.e., being physically overcome or threatened with a weapon) or incapacitation (i.e., being unable to consent due to being drunk, high, or asleep).

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that more than 75 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement, so the actual number of incidents could be much higher.

And the way that colleges and universities deal with sexual assault is undergoing changes. Title IX rules makes sure that complaints of sexual assault or harassment are taken seriously and ensuring the accused person is treated fairly.

Administrators were also required to adjudicate such cases based on a preponderance of evidence, meaning that they had to believe that it was more likely than not that an accused was guilty in order to proceed with disciplinary action. The "clear and convincing" evidentiary standard, which required that administrators be reasonably certain that sexual violence or harassment occurred, was deemed unacceptable.

Critics argued that the guidelines failed to respect the due process rights of those accused of sexual misconduct. Research has found that the frequency of false sexual assault allegations is between two and 10 percent.

In 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama-era guidelines. The intent was to institute new regulations on how schools should handle sexual assault allegations. The changes went into effect on August 14, 2020, defining sexual harassment more narrowly and only requiring schools to investigate formal complaints about on-campus incidents officially filed with designated authorities, such as Title IX coordinators. The updated guidelines also allow schools to use the clear and convincing standard for conviction.

Victims' rights advocates were concerned this approach would deter victims from coming forward and hinder efforts to create safe learning environments.

The Biden administration is expected to release their proposed revisions to Title IX in October 2023 which could see many of the Trump administration changes rescinded.

The use of trigger warnings in academia is a highly contentious issue. Trigger warnings alert students that upcoming course material contains concepts or images that may invoke psychological or physiological reactions in people who have experienced trauma. Some college instructors provide such warnings before introducing films, texts, or other content involving things like violence or sexual abuse. The idea is to give students advance notice so that they can psychologically prepare themselves.

Some believe that trigger warnings are essential because they allow vulnerable people to prepare for and navigate difficult content. Having trigger warnings allows students with post-traumatic stress to decide whether they will engage with the material or find an alternative way to acquire the necessary information.

Critics argue that trigger warnings constrain free speech and academic freedom by discouraging the discussion of topics that might trigger distressing reactions in some students. They point out that college faculty already provide detailed course syllabi and that it's impossible to anticipate and acknowledge every potential trigger.

In 2015, NPR Ed surveyed more than 800 faculty members at higher education institutions across the U.S. and found that around half had given trigger warnings before bringing up potentially disturbing course material. Most did so on their own initiative, not in response to administrative policy or student requests. Few schools either mandate or prohibit trigger warnings. One notable exception is the University of Chicago, which in 2016 informed all incoming first-year students that it did not support such warnings.

6. College accreditation

In order to participate in federal student financial aid programs, institutions of higher education must be accredited by an agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. By law, accreditors must consider factors such as an institution's facilities, equipment, curricula, admission practices, faculty, and support services. The idea is to enforce an acceptable standard of quality.

But while federal regulations require accreditors to assess each institution's "success with respect to student achievement," they don't specify how to measure such achievement. Accreditors are free to define that for themselves. Unfortunately, some colleges with questionable practices, low graduation rates, and high student loan default rates continue to be accredited. Critics argue that accreditors are not doing enough to ensure that students receive good value for their money.

7. College rankings

Every year, prospective college students and their families turn to rankings like the ones produced by U.S. News & World Report to compare different institutions of higher education. Many people accept such rankings as authoritative without truly understanding how they are calculated or what they measure.

It's common for ranking organizations to refine their methodologies from year to year and change how they weigh various factors-which means it's possible for colleges to rise or fall in the rankings despite making no substantive changes to their programs or institutional policies. That makes it difficult to compare rankings from one year to the next, since things are often measured differently.

For colleges, a higher ranking can lead to more visibility, more qualified applicants, and more alumni donations (in short: more money). And the unfortunate reality is that some schools outright lie about test scores, graduation rates, or financial information in their quest to outrank their competitors.

Others take advantage of creative ways to game the system. For example, U.S. News looks at the test scores of incoming students at each institution, but it only looks at students who begin in the fall semester. One school instituted a program where students with lower test scores could spend their first semester in a foreign country and return to the school in the spring, thus excluding them from the U.S. News calculations.

Rankings do make useful information about U.S. colleges and universities available to all students and their families. But consumers should be cautious about blindly accepting such rankings as true measures of educational quality.

5 Emerging Trends in Education

1. Maker learning

The maker movement is rapidly gaining traction in K-12 schools across America. Maker learning is based on the idea that you will engage students in learning by encouraging interest-driven problem solving and hands-on activities (i.e., learning by doing). In collaborative spaces, students identify problems, dream up inventions, make prototypes, and keep tinkering until they develop something that makes sense. It's a do-it-yourself educational approach that focuses on iterative trial and error and views failure as an opportunity to refine and improve.

Maker education focuses on learning rather than teaching. Students follow their interests and test their own solutions. For example, that might mean creating a video game, building a rocket, designing historical costumes, or 3D-printing an irrigation system for a garden. It can involve high-tech equipment, but it doesn't have to. Repurposing whatever materials are on hand is an important ideal of the maker philosophy.

There is little hard data available on the maker trend. However, researchers at Rutgers University are currently studying the cognitive basis for maker education and investigating its connection to meaningful learning.

2. Moving away from letter grades

Many education advocates believe that the traditional student assessment models place too much emphasis on standardization and testing. They feel that traditional grading models do not sufficiently measure many of the most prized skills in the 21st-century workforce, such as problem-solving, self-advocacy, and creativity. As a result, a growing number of schools around the U.S. are replacing A-F letter grades with new assessment systems.

Formed in 2017, the Mastery Transcript Consortium is a group of more than 150 private high schools that have pledged to get rid of grade-based transcripts in favor of digital ones that provide qualitative descriptions of student learning as well as samples of student work. Some of the most famous private institutions in America have signed on, including Dalton and Phillips Exeter.

The no-more-grades movement is taking hold in public schools as well. Many states have enacted policies to encourage public schools to use something other than grades to assess students' abilities. It's part of a larger shift toward what's commonly known as mastery-based or competency-based learning, which strives to ensure that students become proficient in defined areas of skill.

Instead of letter grades, report cards may feature phrases like "partially meets the standard" or "exceeds the standard." Some schools also include portfolios, capstone projects, or other demonstrations of student learning.

But what happens when it's time to apply to college? It seems that even colleges and universities are getting on board. At least 85 higher education institutions across New England (including Dartmouth and Harvard) have said that students with competency-based transcripts will not be disadvantaged during the admission process.

3. The rise of micro-credentials

Micro-credentials, also known as digital badges or nanodegrees, are mini qualifications that demonstrate a student's knowledge or skills in a given area. Unlike traditional college degrees that require studying a range of different subjects over a multi-year span, micro-credentials are earned through short, targeted education focused on specific skills in particular fields. They tend to be inexpensive (sometimes even free) and are typically taken online.

Some post-secondary schools are developing micro-credentialing partnerships with third-party learning providers, while other schools offer such solutions on their own. A 2020 Campus Technology article stated 70 percent of higher education institutions offer some type of alternative credentialing.

Micro-credentials can serve as evidence that students have mastered particular skills, but the rigor and market worth of such credentials can vary significantly. Still, they are an increasingly popular way of unbundling content and providing it on demand.

4. Flipped classrooms

A growing number of schools are embracing the notion of flipped learning. It's an instructional approach that reverses the traditional model of the teacher giving a lecture in front of the class, then sending students home to work through assignments that enhance their understanding of the concepts. In flipped learning, students watch lecture videos or read relevant course content on their own before class. Class time is devoted to expanding on the material through group discussions and collaborative learning projects (i.e., doing what was traditionally meant as homework). The instructor is there to guide students when questions or problems arise.

Provided that all students have access to the appropriate technology and are motivated to prepare for each class session, flipped learning can bring a wide range of benefits. For example, it allows students to control their own learning by watching lecture videos at their own pace; they can pause, jot down questions, or re-watch parts they find confusing. The model also encourages students to learn from each other and explore subjects more deeply.

Flipped learning is becoming widespread in all education levels, but it is especially prevalent at the college level. In a 2017 survey, 61 percent of college faculty had used the flipped model in some or all of their classes and another 24% of instructors were considering trying it.

5. Social-emotional learning

There is a growing consensus that schools are responsible for fostering students' social and emotional development and their cognitive skills. Social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on helping students develop the abilities to identify their strengths, manage their emotions, set goals, show empathy, make responsible decisions, and build and maintain healthy relationships. Research has shown that such skills play a key role in reducing anti-social behavior, boosting academic achievement, and improving long-term health.

Every state has developed SEL competencies at the preschool level. The number of states with such competencies for higher grades is growing.

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Here Are 20 Major Issues Affecting Schools Across America

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Here's what to know in order to understand the debates. Get the facts about current issues in education and learn about emerging trends in the sector.

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This article defines leadership, leadership philosophy and the components of a good leadership philosophy.

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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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This article examines;
~Beliefs about Leadership, ~Leadership Framework,

~Operationalizing Leadership,

~Educational Models for Leadership
~ Leadership Accountability.

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Modernize Your Leadership Philosophy in 5 Steps Today

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There remains limited leadership education available on how to create, adapt, or utilize a leadership philosophy in the workplace. However; there is now a huge need for for good leadership and a good leadership philosophy that can help navigate leadership.

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View Abstract View PDF Share Article

Introduction

The study of leadership became a scholarly activity in the early 20 th century, and since then multiple practices and approaches have taken hold in the workforce (Northouse, 2016). Today, bookstores are filled with shelves of manuscripts and publications devoted to the art and science of leadership. In the same way, leadership degrees, certificates, and development programs continue to gain traction across the United States. Leadership is a hot commodity, and everyone seems to be asking themselves, 'How can I be a more effective leader?' Even more so, many struggle with how to define and articulate what type of leader they are and their overall leadership identity (Figliuolo, 2011).

The National Intelligence University, a federal, accredited university in the Washington D.C. metro-area, has successfully utilized an experiential exercise since 2013 in their leadership education curriculum that assists its graduate and executive-level students to develop and openly share a proposed personal leadership philosophy. The authors of this article have utilized this exercise approximately 25 times, and have had great success and real-world feedback from students on its implementation inside the classroom and outside in the workforce. Ultimately, the production and presentation of a leadership philosophy helps students to reflect on their own leadership efficacy and how they can improve as current and future leaders.

Literature Review

While leadership philosophies are utilized extensively in the business arena, aside from blogs and leadership development websites, there remains limited leadership education scholarship available on how to create, adapt, or utilize a leadership philosophy in the workplace. Yet, as leaders rise through the ranks, a personal leadership philosophy can help navigate the rough waters and assist leaders to be more proactive versus reactive in the office, as well as help to establish an identify as a leader (Derue & Ashford, 2010). A core philosophy can also ultimately help leaders to establish relationships across an organization (Walker, 2015).

In 2011, Mike Figliuolo published a book One Piece of Paper that walks the reader through four aspects of a leadership philosophy: Leading yourself; leading the thinking; leading your people; and leading a balanced life (Figliuolo, 2011). In this sense, Figliuolo touches on the popular leadership education practice of authentic leadership. Authentic leadership emerged in 2008, and is composed of four main components: self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing, and relational transparency (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wensing, & Peterson, 2008). With regard to formulating a leadership philosophy, self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, and relational transparency are critical building blocks to establishing one's leadership philosophy.

Self-Awareness. A leadership philosophy is written from a personal perspective; as such, self-awareness is imperative for an individual to author a truthful philosophy. Self-awareness includes understanding one's own goals, motivations, strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and morals and values (Northouse, 2016). This awareness is often gained through self-reflection and introspection where the individual asks himself or herself, "Who am I?" (Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005, p. 347). Kouzes and Posner (2012) referred to this period of reflection and introspection as an inner journey. This journey enables one to discover what they truly value and believe in, so that in a position of leadership they are able to make tough decisions, act with courage, and choose the best path forward (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).

Internalized Moral Perspective. Often associated with self-determination theory, internalized moral perspective is a self-regulatory process used by individuals to guide them to make decisions using their internal values and morals (Northouse, 2016; Walumbwa et al., 2008). An individual who has a strong internalized moral perspective is more likely to make decisions inline with his or her internalized perspectives, and is less likely to go against their values or morals to stay in step with a group or organizational values if they are opposed. If these values and morals are expressed succinctly in a leadership philosophy and the individual has a strong internalized moral perspective, their subordinates should be able to predict their leadership behavior and decision making (Walumbwa et al., 2008).

Relational Transparency. Relational transparency is defined as presenting yourself openly and truthfully to others. As explained by Northouse (2016), relational transparency is self-regulated as individuals are capable of masking their true selves in front of others. Kernis (2003) found that relational transparency is a critical component to authenticity as it requires one to be real, both good and bad, in front of others that they are in close relationships with. While leaders will seldom be open books with their subordinates, they do need to be truthful and genuine, or they risk losing a subordinate's trust. Subsequently, the creation and sharing of a leadership philosophy is equivalent to opening a chapter up for others to read and reflect upon. This is similar, if not sometimes equal, to the well-established practice of constructing stories to establish a leadership identity (Hersted & Frimann, 2016).

Leadership Education Pedagogy. Experiential learning in the classroom has been around for quite some time, and according to McCall (2004) learning leadership through experience is often most effective. Essentially this leadership education exercise ensures that students engage, "in the learning process through discussion, group work, and hands-on participation" (Wurdinger & Carlson, 2010, p. 2) that mimics real-world application. Subsequently, this classroom exercise provides a leadership development and reflection opportunity that is critical to maximizing leadership learning (Guthrie & Jones, 2012). Moreover, this provides an intentional experience, followed by a reflection opportunity to enhance and further develop students' leadership identify and self, that according to Guthrie and Jones (2012) can be difficult to find, but is paramount in leadership education.

The Leadership Philosophy Assignment

The Leadership Philosophy assignment consists of two parts: a written document and a presentation. This assignment has been successfully incorporated in two different types of graduate leadership and management courses at the National Intelligence University - one to full-time students who meet weekly for ten weeks, and the other to part-time students who meet eight-hours a day for one full week. In both environments, students are assigned readings to help them understand the purpose of a leadership philosophy and self-reflect on who they are as a leader. These readings include: Kouzes and Posner's (2012) "Leadership Begins with an Inner Journey", Garner's (2012) article "Developing an Effective Command Philosophy", and Chapter One from Figliuolo's (2011) book One Piece of Paper.

To prepare students to formulate their personal leadership philosophy, one classroom instructional session scheduled for approximately 60-75 minutes is devoted to "Developing a Leadership Philosophy" and includes discussion in key areas: the concept of a personal leadership philosophy; ways to codify it; when and how to communicate a leadership philosophy; and lessons learned (or examples). Each student is then provided time outside of class to write or update their personal leadership philosophy in preparation to present it to a small group. Upon receiving personalized feedback from others in their small group, students are given additional time outside of class to incorporate any changes to their written document prior to turn in.

Instruction. To encourage student reflection, we begin the classroom session with a modified scenario from Kouzes and Posner's (2012) "Leadership Begins with an Inner Journey": Imagine returning to your office and discovering that you have a new leader; What do you want to know about that person? An instructor can anticipate a wide variety of responses: the leader's values; what the leader cares about; expectations; leadership style or approach to leadership; what frustrates the leader (i.e., hot buttons); why the individual wants the job; background experience; and changes the leader plans to make to the organization. This classroom discussion can provide insight into themes that might resurface later in the session when discussing what a leadership philosophy is and is not.

Following the scenario discussion, it is helpful to gauge the group's experience by asking how many students have previously written or shared their leadership philosophy. Since each student has a different degree of leadership experience, and some have never formally led a group, an instructor can increase efficacy by reminding students that developing a leadership philosophy is important even if not in a positional leadership role. As Maxwell (2005) notes "leadership is more disposition than position. With the right attitude and the right skills, you can influence others from wherever you are in an organization" (p. 60). Additionally, the process of developing a leadership philosophy can inspire students to reflect on who they are and who they want to be as a leader.

What is a Leadership Philosophy? Once the scenario discussion is completed, one can pose the question "what is a leadership philosophy?" to invite discussion among students. First defining "leadership", and then "philosophy", helps students reflect on the meaning of the concept. While there are many definitions of leadership, in our program we often use Northouse's (2016) definition of leadership as "a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal" (p. 6). Philosophy can be defined as "a set of ideas about how to do something or how to live" (Merriam-Webster online, 2018); however, students might identify with other definitions. When combined, Garner (2012) and others concur with George Ambler's definition of leadership philosophy: "A set of beliefs, values, and principles that strongly influences how we interpret reality and guide our understanding of influencing humans" (p. 77). Ambler (2012) contends that a person's philosophy of leadership influences their behavior and reactions to others and surrounding circumstances.

In the classroom we have also found it helpful to contrast this discussion with what a leadership philosophy is not. Often times, when a leader shares a leadership philosophy, the presentation may transition to their vision for the organization. While vision is important for a leader to share, a personal leadership philosophy is different from an organization's vision, goals, or objectives. It is also not a summary of past positions and accomplishments. That said, an individual might include a story of how an experience influenced them as a leader, or connect their core values to an organization's values and their leadership approach to achieve an organizational vision.

Ways to Codify Your Philosophy of Leadership. Writing a leadership philosophy is not an easy task for many students. When examining their values, beliefs, and expectations, students may discover that they have so many that it is difficult to narrow down what should be included. Additionally, while a person's core values generally do not change, students who have previously written a leadership philosophy may find that what they choose to emphasize does change. These modifications may be the result of promotion within an office, entering a new organization with a different organizational culture, experiencing a new season of life, or influence from first-hand experiences and lessons learned. As Garner (2012) notes: "Determining one's personal philosophy is a continuous mental practice, a process of constant self-evaluation and the questioning of personal assumptions, beliefs and values, all of which ultimately will result in how well we manage individuals and situations we encounter" (p. 77).

The instructor can provide students a list of questions to help students reflect and focus their leadership philosophy. Questions can include:

What significant events have shaped you?

What are your beliefs about people and outlook on life?

What core values describe and guide who you are as a leader?

What traits, characteristics, skills, styles, motivation, goals, etc. do you bring to leadership that makes you effective?

What is important for your team to be effective?

What is your preferred communication style?

How do like to receive information?

What are your expectations for yourself and others?

What is your role in developing others?

How do you want to be remembered?

The written leadership philosophy document may also take on different formats (e.g., bullets, paragraph form, etc.) depending on the audience and delivery. As instructors, we try not to define exactly how a student should format their philosophy to allow creativity and personal preference. However, regardless of the format, it is important that students are clear in what they communicate.

When and How to Communicate Your Leadership Philosophy? There is no one right answer related to when and how to share a leadership philosophy. However, an instructor can focus discussion around this question to help students think about how their audience, comfort level with sharing, and environment might influence their personal approach. For example, some individuals may prefer to share one-on-one with team members during their initial performance feedback sessions, while others may prefer to address the entire workforce. Some students may prefer to design a one-page handout version that they can email and post outside their office; others may prefer a paragraph version that they can verbally share.

Instructors can encourage students to think about how they increase the chances of others remembering their leadership philosophy. A scene-setter opening/closing, a personal story, or a quote can help create a memorable leadership philosophy. However, some students may not be comfortable sharing personal information. Word choice also plays a significant role in how others receive and relate to a leadership philosophy, especially when a student intends to share directly with subordinates. Instructors can encourage students to personalize their message by saying "you" and connect personally to their leadership approach rather than saying "leaders should".

Lessons Learned and Examples. We often ask students who have shared their leadership philosophy in the workforce to offer any lessons learned; this can be an effective approach for maintaining classroom engagement in the session. Similarly, those who have not shared their leadership philosophy before may have feedback related to what they have heard before in an audience of someone sharing their personal leadership philosophy. Each class may gravitate to certain themes, depending on the group dynamic and experiences; however, the following lessons learned may be helpful for students to consider throughout the process of developing their leadership philosophy:

the use of buzzwords may come across as insincere if not careful;

acronyms may not be understood by everyone;

there are different perspectives on including personal religious beliefs and/or what level of detail;

the concept of work-life balance has different meanings and may need a caveat for when the job requires something different;

conveying preferences for situational leadership could come across to some as providing "special treatment";

the organizational culture and climate of the audience may impact the tone of what is shared;

it is important to consider how much personalization is right and when to be implicit or explicit;

using words such as "I promise to" may need to be caveated since some things are out of a leader's control; and

word choice and order matters (e.g., what message do you want to leave the audience with).

Some faculty members also choose to share their own personal leadership philosophy with the class and may invite those who have already shared one before to offer an example to the group. Personal leadership philosophy examples can also be found on the Internet; for example, the Academy Leadership website (https://academyleadership.com/LeadershipPhilosophy/) is a popular website containing examples of leadership philosophy. However, instructors may need to caution students from determining what is "right" from examples, since everyone's leadership philosophy is different.

Written Document - Guidance and Rubric. Our course syllabus directs students to type out their personal leadership philosophy (one page preferred; no more than two pages). The format of the written document is the student's choice (e.g., single space, prose style, bullets, etc.). Students are authorized to make changes to their leadership philosophy document based on others' feedback and turn in a final version a few days later or by the following class session. The Leadership Philosophy Paper is typically worth 15pts/15% of their overall course grade and is graded in accordance with the following guidelines:

Substance (10pts):

Clearly articulate who you are as a leader and/or your ideas on leadership.

Convey specifically what you value and believe in, what you expect of others and what they can expect of you, and how this impacts your actions, decisions, or behavior as a leader.

Style/Format (5pts):

Communicate ideas effectively; consider the flow and organization of material; ensure proper sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.

The format of the document is your choice (e.g., prose style, bullets, spacing, etc.); think about what format would be the most useful for presenting your leadership philosophy.

No research is required for this assignment; however, if you use any quotes ensure you provide the properly cited reference.

Presentation and Facilitation. Once written, students are assigned to small groups of four to six students to share their leadership philosophy. Since many students have not developed or shared their leadership philosophy before, small groups offer a less intimidating environment yet allows students to learn from others. Once in the groups, students are asked to first identify the scenario that they envision presenting their leadership philosophy (e.g., with the individuals they currently lead, following a promotion to a new office/organization, etc.). This is important since the intended audience can sometimes impact content and delivery. The first time this exercise was implemented, students were asked to present their leadership philosophy as if they were addressing a new office. This scenario was adjusted to be more flexible and have maximum utility for students upon completion. For example, individuals who were promoted within their office might have a different approach than individuals transitioning into another organization. Additionally, the content and style of delivery might be different if sharing one-on-one, with a small team, or addressing a large organization. Following the scenario explanation, each student has five minutes to present their leadership philosophy. Following each presentation, small group members provide feedback and ask questions (approximately 10 minutes). If time permits, following the completion of the exercise, a large-group discussion helps students reflect on learning points and common feedback themes from the small-group exercise.

There is flexibility in the amount of time required to implement the exercise, which is dependent on the size of each group, time allotted for implementation of the exercise, and availability of faculty facilitators to assist in the implementation of the exercise. In the full-time program at the National Intelligence University, the exercise is usually led by the lead instructor of the course. Students are typically divided into groups of four, and the instructor observes groups simultaneously. This approach takes between 60-90 minutes to complete, depending on how much the instructor encourages discussion. In the week-long class, however, students are divided into three groups of approximately six students in each group. Each group meets in a room with a different faculty facilitator, while the lead instructor floats among the groups. The time allotted to the presentations is 90 minutes in the small groups, and then a short discussion back in the large group to hear their reactions to the exercise. Prior to the presentations, faculty facilitators are provided additional information on their role as a facilitator. Faculty are asked to ensure each student presents their leadership philosophy to the group in the time frame provided, and time is allotted for a brief feedback discussion amongst the group. If the facilitator needs to encourage students in the feedback portion, one or more of the following questions might draw out discussion:

What is something that you think [the student] did particularly well? Or ask the student what he/she thought went well.

Were there any parts that could use more clarity or explanation?

Would you do anything different in the future?

How comfortable are you with your leadership philosophy?

What was memorable? [These are just representative of the type of discussion desired in the feedback portion].

Faculty facilitators are also invited to attend the earlier instruction session on "Developing a Leadership Philosophy" to ensure they understand the classroom culture and dynamics.

Outcomes & Conclusion

As discussed in the application section, this leadership education assignment involves quite a bit of student self discovery and questioning. As such, during this specific assignment, it is recommended that the instructor(s), once the initial information is presented, move away from being a lecturer and take on a facilitator role in effort to maximize student learning. This practice encourages students to engage with each other and cultivate an environment of shared responsibility, especially during the presentation portion of the leadership philosophy (Doyle, 2011). Additionally, because of this student engagement level, we recommend that instructors present this assignment early in the course to enhance group dynamics and extend the personal learning and discovery that takes place. This also enables instructors to relate back to the leadership philosophy discussions throughout the remainder of the course.

As an instructor, helping students see the "why" behind writing a leadership philosophy is important to motivate them to examine and clarify their views of leadership, their personal leadership identity, how they react to circumstances, and their expectations for self and others. As Garner (2012) states, "[t]he way we see ourselves as leaders guides our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts. It provides the foundation of how we influence others" (p. 77). Ruggero and Haley (2014) contend that this resulting consistency and predictability can positively impact a leader's credibility and trust among followers. Kouzes and Posner (2012) further clarify the purpose of writing a leadership philosophy: "The better you know who you are and what you believe in, the better you are at making sense of the often incomprehensible and conflicting demands you receive daily" (p. 120).

As students learn and reflect on other leadership concepts, instructors can encourage students to continue to refine their leadership philosophy and remind them of the value of doing so. This assignment is directly applicable to students' current and future professional positions as leaders and something they can apply immediately to their job. The leadership philosophy experiential exercise equips students with knowledge and experience to share their leadership philosophy with their teams upon return to their offices or future organizations. This assignment can also help students in their professional development (e.g., job or promotion interviews) by clarifying who they are as a leader. This leadership education graduate-level assignment is an exceptional experiential reflection opportunity that students and faculty can enjoy in the classroom and readily apply in the workplace.

References

Ambler, G. (2012, July 12). The importance of a clear leadership philosophy [Blog post]. Retrieved from: https://www.georgeambler.com/the-importance-of-a-clear leadership-philosophy/

DeRue, D. S., & Ashford, S. J. (2010). Who will lead and who will follow? A social process of leadership identity construction in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 35(4), 627- 647. doi.org/10.5465/amr.35.4.zok627

Doyle, T. (2011). Learner-centered teaching: Putting the research on learning into practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Figliuolo, M. (2011). One piece of paper: The simple approach to powerful, personal leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., May, D. R., & Walumbwa, F. (2005) "Can you see the real me?" A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 343-372. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003

Garner, H. C. (2012). Developing an effective command philosophy. Military Review, 92 75.

Guthrie, K. L. & Jones, T. B. (2012). Teaching and learning: Using experiential learning and reflection for leadership education. New Directions for Student Services, 140, 53-63. doi:10.1002/ss

Hersted, L., & Frimann, S. (2016). Constructing leadership identities through stories. Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 14(4), 149-162.

Kernis, M. H. (2003). Toward a conceptualization of optimal self-esteem. Psychological Inquiry, 14(1), 1-26.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). Leadership begins with an inner journey. In Rosenbach, W.E, Taylor, R., & Youndt, M.A. (Eds.), Contemporary issues in leadership (7 th ed., pp. 117-123). New York: Westview Press.

Maxwell, J. C. (2005). The 360-degree leader: Developing your influence from anywhere in the organization. Nashville, TN: Nelson Business.

McCall, M. W. (2004). Leadership development through experience. Academy of Management Executive, 18(3), 127-130.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory & practice (7 th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE.

Philosophy [Def. 2]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online. Retrieved from http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/philosophy.

Ruggero, E. & Haley, D. F. (2014). The leader's compass: A personal leadership philosophy is your foundation for success (3 rd ed.). King of Prussia, PA: Academy Leadership.

Walker, C. A. (2015, September). New managers need a philosophy about how they'll lead. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://www.hbr.org

Walumbwa, F. O., Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Wernsing, T. S., & Peterson, S. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89-126. doi: 10.1177/0149206307308913

Wurdinger, S. D., & Carlson, J. A. (2010). Teaching for experiential learning: Five approaches that work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

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Development of a Personal Leadership Philosophy: An Experiential and Reflective Opportunity in the Graduate Classroom - Journal of Leadership Education

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Introduction The study of leadership became a scholarly activity in the early 20th century, and since then multiple practices and approaches have taken hold in the workforce (Northouse, 2016). Today, bookstores are filled with shelves of manuscripts and publications devoted to the art and science of leadership.