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ISLLC Standard #5: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students byacting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.

A Leadership Perspective:

The difference in management and leadership is the movement from shape to form, from two-dimensional perspectiveto a three-dimensional one. Leadership in many cases is a matter of perspective. Effective leaders find ways to recognize differentperspectives in general through effective communication and more specifically through active listening. Truly gifted communicatorscan discern surface messages and distinguish them from the very important, but embedded, messages. What is the speaker saying? Whatis the speaker communicating? What is the speaker feeling? The answers are often wide-ranging.

The form for effective school-based management comes as effective communication. In other words, effectivemanagement requires one to be able to see individuals, events, and cultures from three dimensional perspectives. Communication has asits prerequisite trust. Without a sense of trust between two people, both in terms of content and confidentiality, there islittle hope of meaningful conversation. An obvious example might be that if teachers trust their colleagues to work with them and notreveal their weak teaching areas to the general public, and certainly not to supervisors, then they might be more inclined toshare deficiencies with colleagues. In so doing, teachers might be able to find help toward improving pedagogical gaps. If, on theother hand, teachers do not have the confidence in others' genuine concern for their professional development, they will certainly notengage in conversation with people about any professional areas of need. It is through active listening that principals cancommunicate trust and genuine interest that might lead to collegial interaction and growth.

Fortunately, active listening is a skill thatcan be developed. Though many people might think they are good listeners, in fact, without concentrated and frequent practice, andperhaps training, few people are effective listeners. It is only through intentional practice that one can develop into an effectivelistener. And the truly good listener recognizes that communication comes in verbal and nonverbal forms.

Effective leaders also recognize that through empathic writing, a sort of active listening through writing, thecontent of a message can begin to have depth along with breadth (Kelehear, 2002). In other words, leaders see the message from thefront, from the side, from the inside. In so doing, the effective leaders recognize the multi-dimensional dynamic, thethree-dimensional reality that comes with effective communication.

Research on the role of effective communication and the role it plays in successful leadershipproclaims that that there can be no leadership without communication. In fact, it is communication that helps schoolleaders build trust and integrity in organizational cultures. Robbins&Alvy (1998) assert that today’s principals are expected to be much more than simply instructional leaders. Amongthe multiple roles principals assume beyond instructional leadership are chief financial officer for the school building,student and teacher counselor for both professional and personal matters, and community contact for topics ranging from dress codesto the bus schedule. Embedded in all the principals' responsibilities, both the de jure and de facto assignments, is therequirement that they be clear and accurate communicators (Cousins, 1996). In fact, one might easily make the case that, above allelse, effective principals must be skilled communicators (Stevan&Blumberg, 1986; Zigler, 1994; Tauer, 1996; Cousins, 1996; Reiman&Thies-Sprinthall, 1998; Reiman, 1999).

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Source:  OpenStax, Educational administration: the roles of leadership and management. OpenStax CNX. Jul 25, 2007 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10441/1.1
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