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Attributes and Skills of Effective Leaders?


The role of a school leader has taken us only so far in the quest for continual school improvement. We must now raise our sights and focus on the theme of why many school leaders are so successful in what they do in fullfilling this demanding responsibility. Questions that encouraged us to pursue this study were as follows: What is leadership? What are the critical components that awaken an unquenchable curiosity in people to learn more about the characteristics of leaders? Why are some school leaders considered to be more effective than others? Little conclusive evidence exists that connects attributes and skills with the performance of high achieving educational leaders. If there is evidence can the results be used to prepare future educational leaders?

Based primarially on the work of the National Association of Secondary Principals and the Hay McBer's models of excellence for school leaders, Professors Calzi, Denig and Iannarelli at Niagara University, Niagara University, New York U.S.A. examined 21 attributes and skills to identify which of these concepts resulted in identifying effectiveness.

Over the past six years data has been collected from 176 participants in seminars and leadership courses held in the United States and Europe. All participants were either practicing school administrators or graduate educators preparing to assume leadership roles in education. The survey consisted of four questions. However for the purpose of this presentation on Learnhub we will only address the results of the first question--" Think of the most effective school leader you have ever worked with or have been associated with during your career. Please identify the three most important attributes/skills this person possessed."

The presentation consists of three parts:

--- Definition of Attributes and Skills

---The 21 Attributes and Skills

---Participant response to question 1

1. Definitions

Attribute - Those innate qualities that the person brings to the position

Skill - Essential competencies leaders need to achieve effective performance

2. The 21 Attributes and Skills of Effective School Leaders NOTE: Those attributes and skills identified with a *** are from the research of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

THE ATTRIBUTES

a. Leadership/Role---Social responsibility, appreciates the need to assume the role of leadership with respect to that responsibility.

b. Perseverance---Perseverance: able to stick to a task and see it through regardless of difficulties encountered.

c. Judgment***---Ability to reach logical conclusions and make high quality decisions based on available information; skill in identifying educational needs and setting priorities; ability to evaluate crictically written communications.

d. Sensitivity***---Ability to percieve the needs, concerns and personal problems of others: skill in resolving conflict; tact in dealing with persons from different backgrounds; ability to deal with people concerning emotional issues; knowing what information to communicate and to whom.

e. Stress Tolerance***---Ability to perform under pressure and during opposition; ability to think on one's feet.

f. Personal Motivation/Self***---Vision is clear about progression of his or her own life and career, as well as where the organization should go.

g. Ability to Motivate Others---The capacity to move people to action, to communicate persuasively, to strengthen confidence of others, to change behaviors.

h. Educational Values***---Integrity: has a well established value system which has been tested in various ways in the past.

i. Deciveness***---Activity takes a vigorous orientation to problems and needs of the organization. Ability to recognize when a decision is required (disregarding the quality of the decision) and to act quickly.

j. Relationship/Authority---Maturity: has good relationships with authority figures.

k.Relationship/Others---Self-awarness, self confidence and self control; commitment and integrity;the ability to communicate and influence, to initiate and accept change

l. Intellectual Capacity--- Intelligence: has the capacity not only to abstract but also to be practical.

m.Physical/Mental Energy--- Stamina: has physical as well as mental energy

THE SKILLS

n. Problem Analysis***--- Ability to seek out relevant data and analyze complex information to determine the important elements of a problem situation; searching for information with a purpose

o. Problem Prevention---Ability to exercise judgment to assert one's self regarding potential sensitive issues before they become a problem.

p. Organizational Ability/Others---Ability to plan, schedule and control the work of others; skill in using resources in an optimal fashion.

q. Organizational Ability/Self***---Personal Organization: has good sense of time. Ability to deal with a volume of paperwork and heavy demands on one's time.

r. Oral Communication***---Articulate: makes a good impression. Ability to make clear oral presentation of facts and ideas.

s. Written Communication***---Ability to express ideas clearly in writing; to write appropriately for different audiences......students, teachers, parents, community, et al.

t. Management by Wandering Around--- Involvement: sees oneself as a participating member of an organization. Highly visiable in carrying out one's responsibilty.

u. Range of Interest***---Competence to discuss a variety of subjects: educational, political, current events, economics etc. desire to actively participate in events.

3. Participant Response to Question 1 "Think of the most effective leader you have ever worked with or have been associated with during your career. Please identify the three most important attributes/skills this person possessed."

In order of frequency the most often identified attribute/skill for rating effective leaders in our sample of 176 educators participating in this survey were:

JUDGMENT--71 times

LEADERSHIP ROLE--68 times

RELATIONSHIP/OTHERS-- 67 times

SENSITIVITY--54 times

ABILITY TO MOTIVATE OTHERS--52 times

EDUCATIONAL VALUES--48 times

ORGANIZATIONAL ABILITY/OTHERS--45 times

In order of frequency the least often identified attribute /skill for rating effective leaders in our sample of 176 educators participating in this survey were:

Written Communication--0 times

Relationship/Authority--2 times

NOTE: In a follow up to this presentation we will make available on a PDF file an evaluation system to assess one's strengths and weaknesses of the 21 Attributes/Skills.

Key Sources of Knowledge for this presentation:

1. National Association of Secondary Principals. (2001). 21st Century School Administrator Skills. Reston, Virginia.

2. Hay Mcber. (1999). Models of Excellence for School Leaders. Department of Education and Employment UK.

3. Waters, Marzano and McNulty. (2004). Balanced Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells Us About the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement. Educational Leadership, Vol 61, No.7, pp48-51 ASCD.

" One uses the urgent to pursue the important. Or, to put it another way: never let a crisis go to waste." Fareed Zakaria " Wanted a New Grand Strategy " Newsweek December 8, 2008