Educational Leadership Philosophy

Allen Mooneyhan

Doctoral Seminar: Educational Leadership Practices I

My Leadership Philosophy as of November 2000

Dr. David W. Cox

Arkansas State University

November 30, 2000

My previous leadership philosophy was rooted in what had been my overall educational philosophy. Over the past few years, I have developed a philosophy of teaching that carries over into my philosophy with regard to leadership. I believed that we should be teaching our students the basics or essentials necessary in order to maintain a job in today 's workforce. I also believed that we should take advantage of technology available today; this technology could be used to facilitate the teaching of essential skills through structured
I believe that leadership of an organization is leadership of emotions. According to Friedman (1999), there are several major components of leadership including self-differentiation, staying connected while remaining non-reactive, having a non-anxious presence, managing triangles, and persistence in the face of sabotage. Self-differentiation involves knowing what you believe and pursuing those beliefs despite what others think. It also involves the maintenance of one 's own function in the organization. This means that one should evaluate whether he or she is overfunctioning because when one is overfunctioning in any relationship another is probably underfunctioning. Staying connected while remaining non-reactive means that one understands the vision of the organization and maintains a focus on its vision while, at the same time, remaining detached enough that he or she is not overly anxious about the processes of the institution. Having a non-anxious presence involves having a calming effect on the organization by remaining calm despite the situation present. A leader who remains non-anxious can affect those following simply by retaining a calming air about him or her. Managing triangles includes being a part of a relationship without attempting to change the relationship of others in the triangle. The objective is maintaining one 's
According to Owens (1998), there are three orientations helpful in planning and managing change. They are empirical-rational strategies, power-coercive strategies, and normative-reeducative strategies. Empirical-rational changes involve linking findings of research to practices in education by improving communication between researchers and practitioners. Power-coercive strategies include the use of sanctions to obtain compliance. Normative-reeducative change focuses on deliberately shifting the culture of the organization toward desired change by encouraging those working in the organization to participate in the change process. I believe that both empirical-rational and normative reeducative strategies are better alternatives to power-coercive strategies because of the ownership facilitated by involving workers in the change process. Finally, I believe that when coercion is used to promote change, conflict will arise because of the lack of participation in the decisions that are made when initiating