LEADERSHIP VISION- REMAINS OF BYGONE GRACE

LEADERSHIP VISION- REMAINS OF BYGONE GRACE

Rajesh Kr Srivastava

PVC- DPS Bhagalpur

I write this essay on Leadership drawing inspirations from my personal experiences in DPS Bhagalpur as well as in the corporate world. Certain issues, thoughts and definitions may not conform to the ideal perceptions that all of us have been taught and have practiced over the years; but for me penning down “factual happenings and experiences” was important than being diplomatic in expression. Education does demand certain degree of honesty, as we keep facing reflections of our soul every moment in children studying in our schools.  Let not the “development of children” be coloured with our predefined thoughts and perceptions, rather they should be full of disbelief in what we say; this iota of disbelief will lead them to self-realisation. By “disbelief” I do not mean that our knowledge or self-respect is being challenged, but we are actually showing our students the path leading to realization of “complete knowledge” and “discovery of self”.   

 “Leadership” in Indian schools has generally remained failed attempts in face of stiff resistance from the inflated self-within, promoters, management, system and society. The current leadership trends fall awfully short of expectations in majority of schools, few of them who have been able to deliver are “remains of bygone grace”.  Leadership I perceive it to be an innate character of individual to relate with culture, established norms and traditions, ability to identify objectives, courage to articulate parameters of reform, acumen to inspire people as a collaborative team, capacity to stand critical situations, resolute resolve to learn from success, failures and ultimately lead the group to “Uninterrupted Motion” of progress. 

Various definitions have been attributed to “Leadership” by numerous thinkers and philosophers right from Plato’s Republic, Plutarch’s Lives and till recently, but I feel it to be “an inbuilt trait or developed quality in an individual to appreciate historical norms, desire to accumulate culture, anticipate- induce and innovate reactions to extraordinary situations, cultivate bridge between bygone-present and future, have intellectual breadth, capacity to marshal resources and team, ability to accept challenges, success and failures and vision to transform ordinary results into memorable success stories”.    

In Indian schools we relate Leadership with Educational Administrators - The Principal or the Head Master/ Head Mistress.  Cumulatively the predominant aspect of effective leadership is influenced by beliefs related to caring, pedagogy, moral stewardship, constant rejuvenation, accountability, passion, charisma, civility, economic utility, reform, democratic character, social justice and competence. Today the need of the hour is to provide a comprehensive account of educational leadership drawing inspirations from set practices that have stood trials over centuries, imbibing them to changed circumstances, innovating and adapting Leadership to ever evolving educational scenario, without oversimplifying its complex character, dynamic and interactive nature. 

When we equate “leadership” with “leader” we are driven to think about the Trait Theory.  In 1974 Stogdill identified certain traits and skills being critical to Leaders. Extending it further McCall and Lombardo researched success and failures and identified four primary traits by which leaders could succeed or end up as failures:

·      Emotional Stability and Composure

·      Admitting Error- feeling of not being infallible

·      Good Interpersonal Skills

·      Intellectual Breadth

The intellect deficit in the present crop of leaders is in abundance in majority of good individuals, leading to mediocre performance amidst rising expectations in schools.

My inference is contrary to “Trait Theory”. From my experience in life and professions I have come to believe that “Leadership” has a disconnect with the “Trait Theory”.  Leadership involves constant learning, leading to constructive change and not static ideologies. Learning involves participation in the process, as such it occurs collectively. To me learning is a vector and with a shared purpose. 

There seems to be no sense of total agreement on what Educational Leaders need to know and be able to perform but conceptually we can say that there are some fundamental factors central to the practice of educational administration. Predominantly the mission includes commitment to effective operation and continuous improvement of our schools, but to me the premise of a “leader” is a little beyond than churning out successful students. 

Culture, Symbols of Continuity, Human Capital and Accumulated Knowledge Base

When a person takes charge of school the first thing she or he comes across is the school’s Culture. Fact remains that our past is much closer to us than it often seems to be. Every school has its own history to deal with and get inspired. They begin much before the site is selected and doors of school buildings are opened to students. The nostalgia is apparent as the memories are revisited from time to time but the founding nucleus of beliefs and values remains stable and the accumulation of key experiences around the core story remains mutual.

The unfolding of school’s culture starts in shape of stories, history gets recounted through drawings, photographs, poems, write-ups, songs, dramatizations etc.  Learning history is critical to acquiring a robust understanding of the culture of the school; it should not be confused with occasional social gathering of old storytellers.  Knowing school’s history makes one aware of purpose and vision of the founders and the management.

Most often it’s wiser to make understanding of school’s culture and history into a public event than a private undertaking with inclusion of all teaching, non-teaching faculty, students and workers. It should be made to look like a pleasant desire to archeologically excavate into layers of existence of school in time. The memories of lessons from school’s history will in-turn connect the staff to echoes of foundation on which the school was founded and would extend a continuity to cherished possibilities and dreams that would now seep into new leadership, leading to school’s corridors and classrooms.

Leadership and Capacity Building

The reform strategies in the twenty first century such as inquiry, shared leadership, collaboration and collective responsibility are important ingredient of “Capacity Building”. Successful School Restructuring is firmly linked to student achievements in relation to the effective work habits of all adults. If we consider the threads of activities of most successful school Leaders, we would conclude that these school leaders used restructuring tools to help them function as professional communities.  That is to say they found a way to channel staff and student efforts towards a clear, commonly shared purpose for student learning; they created opportunities for teachers to collaborate and help one another achieve the ultimate aim of a “learning community with success”. The conditions extended by a Leader to allow habits of staff to work well as a unit contribute to a “professional community” leading to “capacity building”. Capacity building attitude of leaders are visible where teachers participate in decision-making, have a shared sense of purpose, engage in collaborative work and accept joint ownership for the outcomes of their work as a team.

Understanding leadership as a collective learning process leads to the recognition that the dispositions, knowledge and skills of capacity building are synchronous with the attitude and perception of the Leader.  If this is true then it can be said that “ Leadership capacity building“ is “broad based” and “skillful participation” in the work of leadership.

·      Broad-based participation means involving all the partners of a good school - student, parents, teachers, staff and community. 

·      Skillful participation indicates active involvement of a leader in display of creative understanding, demonstration of proficiency in subject of specialization, reflection of decision-making ability and attitude to weave every individual into collaborative fabric of a team.

Changing Change

What schools have not done so far is produce students whose achievement isn’t predicted by socio-economic status. James Traub

Change can be for good or bad, but the end result will always be different. In case of reform, the context changes for better. A leader’s job is to induce new elements into situation that are bound to influence school’s cumulative character for better. James Traub of Times magazine rightly said that schools has indeed failed to produce students unmindful of socio-economic status.  Something remains seriously flawed in the structure of Leadership.

It’s difficult to bring about a turnaround into the context of socio-economic consideration of students but we can change the context and influence the behavior.  Context is important factor in personalities and behavior is a function of social context, according to Malcolm Gladwell.  To me, by the leader along with his team can bring about a telling change in the entire performance of school. When there is a disciplined thought there is no need for bureaucracy and excessive controls. When culture of discipline for change is coupled with entrepreneurship the school is bound to get “alchemy of exemplary performances”.  The moral going from good to great requires little extra effort of transcending the curse of competence.  A disciplined effort imperative of Leadership remains “changing change”, that turns around the failing school and obtains substantial gains in education; leaving behind at the end of tenure a qualitative performance at every level that marks as emulating desire for successor to perceive and endure further.

Precision Alignment- Making Difference To The School

I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. Lily Tomlin

In majority of situations Leaders end up complaining, “why some one did not do this, why did they not do that”; but believe me they fail to realize that they themselves are an important ingredient of those “somebody”.  Leaderships’ purpose becomes more visible when we shift our focus from past to present situation and requirements. Alignment between various parameters play an important role in the outcome of result, the degree of precision is what exactly prophesies the extent of success. History never fails legacy of doers but it does delete non-performers.

Reina and Reina while discussing transactional trust defined three types of trust (reminiscent of Bryk & Schneider):

1.     Competence Trust,

2.     Contractual Trust and

3.     Communication Trust.

I have experienced that in precision alignment there has to be seamless connection between all the three “C”. Speaking from my encounters in DPS Bhagalpur, I discovered two more transactional trusts that are there as the pre-dominant factor for making a difference to the school.  I call them the five “C” and the other two are:

1.     Cultural Trust and

2.     Credibility Trust.

Reina and Reina reiterated that trust would not evolve through mere invitation, goodwill and expectation. All the components must be actively developed and reinforced by leaders. The sub-components of each type of trust are:

Competence Trust

·      Respect people’s knowledge, skills and abilities

·      Respect people’s judgment

·      Involve others and seek their input

·      Help people learn skills

Contractual Trust

·      Manage Expectations

·      Establish boundaries

·      Delegate appropriately

·      Encourage mutually serving intentions

·      Honour agreements

·      Be consistent

Communication Trust

·      Share information

·      Tell the truth

·      Admit mistakes

·      Give and receive constructive feedback

·      Maintaining confidentiality

·      Speak with good purpose

The two trust according to my perception in addition to illustrations by Reina & Reina are:

Cultural Trust

·      Faith in the traditions of school

·      Establish continuity with history

·      Respect for old staff of the school

·      Respect for vision of management

Credibility Trust

·      Impeccable integrity

·      Moral credibility

·      Good reputation

·      Law abiding

The system of continuous quality improvement entails human asset at the end of every process, we can blame people or we can blame the system but words of blame will reflect our failure more prominently. In both the cases the blame squarely lies on human assets. Problems are usually created by misaligned systems. Misaligned systems occur when people fail to understand the organizations goals, directions and vision; if they don’t know where they are headed, its hard to stay motivated and maintain a good attitude and even harder for them to perform at an optimal level. When employees perform in a misaligned system, even though they are giving their optimum, the organization ends in realizing random acts of improvement, giving a false sense of accomplishment.   In majority of schools random acts of improvement occur, astonishingly we fail to admit knowing fully well that the achievement fell woefully short of intended success.  The role of leader with five “Cs” comes into play for precision alignment so that the achievement of goal and vision is holistic and not random or scattered.

The Leaders with five “Cs” have to navigate in the process for reforms in a way, that they do not lose sight of direction. They have to believe and act like a “learning team” without losing the idea who the actual customers are - students, parents and community. There has to be consistency in the purpose; school should never forget that they are selling a tangible and most valuable asset in human existence - knowledge; the thought, the process, the approach and the vision of leader should be in consonance with ultimate goal. In navigation a Fathometer is an instrument of measuring water depth through SONAR, this precision instrument operates by transmitting sound waves towards bottom of water body and thereafter measuring the echo. Similarly whatever measuring instrument we may choose to use to measure, they need to be reliable and precise to measure the echo of performance in the students, staff, school and community.  The “x” and “y” axis in performance chart is very clear in any navigation we undertake, the bottom horizontal scale measures longitude and the vertical side scale measures latitude.  Latitude and longitude readings are very important for schools and management, which leaders should never forget. In event of SOS the graph of latitude and longitude will help in finding where the school exactly is in the deep sea of expectations. 

Dynamics of Dynamic Leaders

A lot has been said and written on “dynamic leaders’, but its indeed difficult to fit someone in the grove of idealism.  Dynamic people are charismatic and are natural leaders of society. Nation’s President, Prime Minister and CEOs of MNCs, TNCs have made a mark of leadership for people to emulate. Leadership does bring with itself immense power to decide course of an organization but it also carries a baggage of arrogance enough to lure achieved success to failure. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin can be said to be dynamic leaders in history of humanity but were at extreme low of Dynamic Aggressive Continuum. Our own Mahatma Gandhi and African Leader Martin Luther King practiced higher moral and ethical end of continuum - a quality leadership that gave us sovereignty and independence.

Summarily actions that Dynamic leaders are needed to perform in school are:

·      Lead by example. Maintain high ideals and moral ground, respect honesty and truth in individuals. Lead by examples and serve as a role model by encouraging collegiality; this will bring out the best in others. Your efforts of creating and communicating core values will instill a sense of satisfaction and self-belief. 

·      Always focus on fundamental instructional issues. Accentuate continuous learning for students and educators. Promote multi-cultural education. Bring out the best in your teachers, identify leadership qualities in them and extend appropriate support mechanism for their leadership quality to flourish in positive direction and for benefit of school. Extend them positive reinforcements in case they falter.

·      Learn to acknowledge mistakes, readily admit errors, as this behavior of yours would instill admiration in staff and students for you.

·      Become a keen observer and listener as God has given us two eyes to see, two ears to listen and one mouth to speak. Take note of what others are speaking and acknowledge your attentiveness by positive head nodding.

·      Be supportive of shared governance. Inspire democratic practices and belief in execution of governance in school. Empower others and give them their credit by highlighting and acknowledging their performance publicly.

·      Focus on humans and not on system. Schools are meant to deal with Human Asset and system will automatically follow. Frame realistic goals for reforms keeping every parameter in mind. Always reward performance even if it amounts to going beyond pre-approved budget of emotional or financial acknowledgement.

·      You can never have a pre-defined notion of centralization or de-centralization; use your instinct and talent to modulate change. Please always have in mind that you are designer of “reform” and not “crusader” of change. Increase the level of enthusiasm in and around you.

·      Sharpen your critical thinking skills and examine your biases frequently for they may be wrongly founded. Take swift action to combat these biases as you will end up feeling much more relieved and better.

·      Prioritize your commitments. You would be always inundated with requests for assistance, learn not to convert every requests into commitment before giving ample thought to the expectations.

·      Work like a buffer to the school bureaucracy. Treating people with dignity will bring you lot of relief. Build allies, as they would help you in time of need.

·      Finally establish a school wide expectation and trust that leadership is not a one-person effort nor is it an individual concern, rather its a collective concern and shared dream of holistic success.

Our DPS Society has a tradition of churning out leaders who have made a mark in the country for people to follow. DPSS now sixty years young, has traversed many a mile exemplarily and has innumerable distance ahead to tread. Our present dispensation has indeed lead all of us from front by examples and we all have been spectator and participators to numerous positive changes occurring regularly. The Chairman is known for his no-nonsense attitude has amply demonstrated his Leadership qualities that are reflective in our sterling performances. It would not be out of place if I say that he taught me lot of nuances of performance and I did copy a few traits from him observing silently from a close quarter and induced them in my character.

How often India will witness a charismatic leader who can rewrite the rules of leading and helping transform “Education” to its acme of literal meaning needs to be seen. Some one from you or the crowd waiting to grab the opportunity, will someday write rules of success and take individual Delhi Public Schools to dizzy heights of glories, till then let us not be left out behind in our commitment for the Nation that eagerly looks at us with lot of expectations. If we join hands and share our concern for success the day is not far off when we all will succeed in Unison. Can we come together as real DPS Schools with unified purpose and define our destiny as true Leaders? Should we not venture as a team, into unexplored territories of education under the able leadership of Principal? Let us plan to leave indelible mark of our triumphs together, on the sands of time for History to deal with DPS Society respectfully, in the era ahead. Our success will not lie in achieving of astronomical marks but will be measured by the conduct and performance of our students in society; “the good human beings” that walk out of our schools every year.

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