Throughout my teaching career, I have been fortunate to observe different leadership styles and witness how those examples of leadership have affected all stakeholders in the school community. It is certainly no coincidence that many of the leadership positions I held during my teaching career were focused on establishing and maintaining leadership skills among my students. As the Volunteer Service Facilitator, I continuously strive to provide students with volunteer opportunities to develop and strengthen their leadership skills, and as the Link Crew Coordinator, I aimed to establish and support student-leaders who could affect positive change among the student population of our building. Through these experiences and my own reflection on leadership, I aspire to lead through a collaborative leadership approach.

 

I find a strength-based, collaborative leadership approach best reflects me and a positive culture in which all stakeholders are eager to participate. Educational administrators must be able to build relationships with members of a school community, discover the strengths of their faculty, staff, and community and play to those strengths, build capacity for leadership by empowering students and educators, and, most importantly, lead by example. Through my experience as the Volunteer Service Facilitator, I understand the importance of providing a variety of avenues for individuals to collaborate as a community and share in leadership. Moreover, this is how leaders empower others to become leaders.

 

In a school community, strength-based, collaborative leadership starts at the top by working with others to develop their leadership in every position and level of the school. By focusing on an individual’s strengths, I initially show that I value this person’s expertise before looking to help him or her develop in other areas. This strength-based focus helps to build a relationship with each individual, pushing him or her to strive for improvement every day. When the leader of an organization holds this belief and demonstrates it through actions, it, in turn, lends to open communication and collaboration, which is crucial in building a positive culture within a school.  The more experience I have in leadership, the more I see that effective teachers have this same strength-based, collaborative approach with their students. I believe my main responsibility is to empower our teachers, so that they are in the best possible position to succeed, as they will, in turn, empower our students, to maximize success for all.