Week 1: CEDO 565 Leadership & Planning

I have been in a formal leadership position in my company for a number of years now, but even having that experience I know I have a lot of room for growth. This week we were introduced to the first chapter of our text How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader by J.G. Gabriel where he describes the different types of leaders in a school setting. As I reflected on the types of formal and informal leadership roles, I find that I wear many of those hats and need to work on developing more teacher leaders within my staff.

We also watched Patrick Awuah's TED Talk, which was eye-opening and inspriational. Mr. Awuah is an amazing story teller with an important message: Leaders are not born, they need to learn and develop leadership skills if they are going to be effective and promote positive change. I think this is a concept many people miss when promoting staff members, whether in a school or corporate environment. In order for someone to step up in a leadership role and be effective, there needs to be training and support along the way. I know that I have had to learn a lot about leadership along the way through trial and error. I've had to learn the hard way how to provide flexible direction and listen to my co-workers and staff when rolling out new processes and systems. Certain people do have certain leadership qualities that help guide them to those types of roles, but natural ability to lead can only take you so far. In order to be an effective leader, it is critical to learn and develop the skills to do so.