have
Should be patient, intelligent, flexible, honest and sociable.

• Are there universal traits?
• Can these traits predict leadership in all situations?
• Is there real correlation between leadership and traits? • Do those traits determine success or achievement?
• What about if you have those traits but no motivation?
Even I believe there are universal traits that a good leader should have as the ones I mention before I don't think they are a sufficient condition to predict leadership in all the situations. I believe that given those traits in a person the possibility of success is greater but there are multiple scenarios and who is able to lead a group of people doesn't necessarily inspire and succeed in a different group with a different scenario. Motivation of course is another key factor as a good leader should be inspiring and someone who doesn't show motivation won't be probably.
In the end leadership and success depends of several personal factors that combined with capacity to adapt to the situation will lead or not into success

2. What leadership styles do we expect in international curriculum schools? 

I believe that we expect to have a model that embrace both cultures.

3. What issues might arise about the differences between your previous answers?

There are several issues that can occur when trying to put this styles together. Today's education and specially the IB program is structured in a manner that multiple leadership positions are needed in different level. This together with collaborative planning makes that leaders should take a more democratic approach. I would say that outside the Eastern and the Western world I would also look at generational view leadership. From what I've seen in the past years there has been a change on the expectations and conditions of work for everybody at least in the first world. While before leaders where expected to be an authoritarian leader, nowadays people has different expectations. The transition between generations and different leaderships models is what I consider to complicated.

What I think as well is that International schools should have some internal standards on the kind of leadership they expect in order to try to match with the local culture.

Thinking on me, as a teacher I am a classroom leader, I believe it is important to know a bit about the Indonesian culture in order to know what is an appropriate approach to a situation. For example, Indonesian find extremely rude to embarrass someone in public, they call it ¨losing the face ¨. I've seen, opposing to what is our stereotype, a western teacher making this kind of things at my school and having problems with eastern students.

Flexibility is the key!

• What challenges/implications does that standard create for schools?

I think that these standards implies several challenges for school. In the first place there needs to be a full understanding from all the parts of the responsibilities of each individual. School boards should understand that there are different decisions to take at different levels and that everybody should their areas and not interfere in the other's job.

Another important challenge is time allocation. Schools need to understand that in order to take decision as a group and there needs to be time allocated for meetings within the leadership team and as well with the rest of the team. Collaborative meetings meetings and teacher development days needs to be planned and allocated in order to develop fully the program. In order to support the program the curriculum coordinators needs to have a time allocated taken from the teaching, this is a key position that needs to support the entire team and schools needs to understand that doing this job effectively takes time.

I choose those options according to my interests and also to what I think is best for my career at the moment.
I prioritized in this case what I think is safer which would be to get a teaching license as in case of need that will open more doors. It is difficult to prioritize as in this case, my interest is somewhere else but according to the criteria I considered to be the most important the decision should be made in a different direction.
For the six thinking hats I consider:
Process: Get information about universities in order to move on the next steps. The processes of registering in each university should be clear.
Facts: Price; duration; face to face hours, when and where; prestige of the institution; documentation needed, etc.
Feelings: I feel that I will need to complete that program in Spain as British or American institutions won't accept me without any English certificate of language.
Creativity: Find other countries where English is the oficial language and try to get information from universities there in case of need for alternatives.
Benefits: I think this decision process will work because it will be faced with enough time in advance.
Cautions: The first information I should get is when the enrollment starts in order to be sure to don't miss the dates. 

I think the De Bono helps to consider all the implications that a decision or a process. By looking at all perspectives we can more prepared for the inconvenient. If I already took in consideration what to do if something goes wrong I will be able to react faster in case of inconvenient while not considering these things conduct into a crisis management where problems are faced when happen.
For me the easier hats to answer where the ones that relates to fact and feelings, it is easier for ourselves to think about the feelings that a decision or a situation provoque on us, it is also easy to the reflect on all the things that we need to know in order to make a decision.
I think the most complicated one is the creativity hat, as we have a preconceived idea of the direction and steps that we need to follow to reach a goal it is more complicated to think on possible alternatives if things go wrong at some point in the process. This is one of the reasons why we should consider them before to start any process.

I think action plans are an effective tool as they help to reflect in all the implications and ramifications that every action has, at least myself I try to underestimate the time it takes to do things, using action plans I can get the big picture of the time I need and help me to monitor the process.
For reflection is as well an important tool, once the process is done taking a look on the action it will help us to confirm if the followed strategy was correct or if for instance there where some things that could have been done differently.
I think I should use more actions plans when it comes to long term projects, as I said before I trend to underestimate the amount of work of long processes and I end up stressed sometimes. 

 

This second article talks about the experience of becoming a leader. I have to say that I feel that I am in a similar position to one the author express. Four years ago I started teaching in an international school and even I still felt lost two years later I was offered a leadership position as MYP coordinator. I have to say that I same as the author I feel that it wasn't my moment to do it but some people trusted in me and I took it. Even I have to still teach full time I have to say that same as Elena Aguilar I enjoy every day more my job. That part where you need to deal with humans and understand their situation and try to support them with the resources you have is a difficult but at the same time comforting. In the end I feel is just adding further pressure to what teaching is.