Course: School Leadership (8618) Semester: Spring, 2022
Level: B.Ed (1.5 Years)
Assignment No.1
Q.1 Do you think leadership and management are similar? Explain your opinion with examples.
Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.
A young manager accosted me the other day. “I’ve been reading all about leadership, have implemented several ideas, and think I’m doing a good job at leading my team. How will I know when I’ve crossed over from being a manager to a leader?” he wanted to know.
Q.2 Explain the feature of educational leadership in global perspective in detail.
The global top performers have narrowed what they look for in teachers and use a variety of ways to select candidates for school leadership. Whereas some select and groom aspiring school leaders from high-performing teachers, others select from among highly-trained teachers and some allow self-selection. Singapore and Finland also recognize that teaching requires complex, professional knowledge and skills, similar to those that medical doctors and lawyers use in their work, so they have rigorous quality controls at the entry point into teaching, which directly impacts the quality of their candidates for school leadership.
In Singapore and Shanghai, school leaders from across the system help to identify and groom future school leaders based on their performance and potential. For example, in Singapore, teachers with potential for school leadership are identified early in their career and, as early as the third year of their career, can select the leadership track from among the three tracks in Singapore’s career ladder system, in consultation with their principal.[i] Only the most effective and accomplished teachers who advance forward on the career ladder will be recruited to become school leaders, and they must successfully pass district level interviews with panels of experienced school leaders and experts.[ii] School leader candidates are selected based on criteria including being values-driven, life-long learners who can effectively collaborate and communicate with others to support the holistic development of children.[iii] In order to gauge which teachers have potential for school leadership, teachers are regularly assessed through a comprehensive appraisal system according to professional standards based on a professional portfolio, self-reflection, evidence and data that satisfy each standard, and other indicators informed by senior colleagues and experts.
Q.3 What do you understand by the term Trial Theory? Explain it.
Anyone who has sat on a jury or followed a high-profile trial on television usually comes to the realization that a trial, particularly a criminal trial, is really a performance. Verdicts seem determined as much by which lawyer can best connect with the hearts and minds of the jurors as by what the evidence might suggest. In this celebration of the American trial as a great cultural achievement, Robert Burns, a trial lawyer and a trained philosopher, explores how these legal proceedings bring about justice. The trial, he reminds us, is not confined to the impartial application of legal rules to factual findings. Burns depicts the trial as an institution employing its own language and styles of performance that elevate the understanding of decision-makers, bringing them in contact with moral sources beyond the limits of law.
Burns explores the rich narrative structure of the trial, beginning with the lawyers’ opening statements, which establish opposing moral frameworks in which to interpret the evidence. In the succession of witnesses, stories compete and are held in tension. At some point during the performance, a sense of the right thing to do arises among the jurors. How this happens is at the core of Burns’s investigation, which draws on careful descriptions of what trial lawyers do, the rules governing their actions, interpretations of actual trial material, social science findings, and a broad philosophical and political appreciation of the trial as a unique vehicle of American self-government.
Q.4 Charismatic leadership is said to be dangerous some times. Give examples from practical life to support your answer.
1. Leaders can become addicted to charisma
This is a variation on the adage “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” A leader who employs too much charisma can come to rely on this ability as an end unto itself. Picture a leader who can inspire a group, or promote a vision, or simply want to walk into a room as the center of attention, all with seemingly little effort. The recognition, validation, and basic positive feedback generated by charisma is a heady mix – and can tempt a leader to capture this reaction first and foremost, rather than face situations that are more challenging or unpopular. In essence, charismatic leaders can charm themselves.
Leaders can avoid this quagmire by making sure they don’t take their charismatic capabilities for granted, or treat them lightly. Authentic leaders understand (and continually calibrate) the influence and authority they have by virtue of their position and personal attributes.
In short, they study themselves in the context of the practice of leadership. They learn to be better leaders over time by focusing not on what makes them compelling personally, but on what makes their organizations compelling as a whole.
2. Organizations can become addicted to the charismatic leader
Just as leaders are susceptible to their own charisma, organizations can become addicted, too. An overly-charismatic leader draws focus from the rest of the organization by demanding (subtly or dramatically) attention for him- or herself. When the focus shifts to the personal characteristics of the leader, accountability is diminished. The followers can become overly dependent on the leader for all manner of large and small directions and decisions. The most extreme example of group dependency? A cult.
A less extreme situation is often found in organizations where too many things must pass through the leader, and no one is ever quite certain what to expect as a reaction. The enterprise loses the ability to be resilient in the face of changing realities. It’s too busy waiting for the leader to decide what to do, and believing that the leader knows best.
Q.5 In your opinion how emotional self-control effects? Decision making discuss in detail.
Emotional Intelligence remains a key ingredient in the development of corporate leaders. In this series, best-selling author and Korn Ferry columnist Dan Goleman reveals the 12 key skills behind EI. It is excerpted from Emotional Self-Awareness: A Primer.
Emotional Self-Control is the ability to keep your disruptive emotions and impulses in check, to maintain your effectiveness under stressful or even hostile conditions. This doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions. We want to control our disturbing emotions, not the positive ones (which make life rich, and come into play with the Positive Outlook and Achievement Orientation Competencies). With Emotional Self-Control, you manage your disruptive impulses and destabilizing emotions, staying clear-headed and calm.
Consider this example: The head of marketing at a global food company always tried to find better ways to do things, but had no regard for the people he depended on for that very success. He’d pounce on anyone who wasn’t up to his standards. If anyone disagreed with him, he’d fly into a yelling rage. His direct reports complained behind his back, saying he was a terrible boss.