Sample Essay on School Principal’s Leadership

"(Name)" is the current principal of my school (School name) with a leadership term of above 30 years. The journey of *--- as a leader was full of tribulations, challenges but also adorned with achievements and success awards. Journey of *--- to enter into the aura of leadership was shaped when he was working as an educator in another school and got numerous recognition for his contribution towards the growth and development of the academic institute. His fame spread across the place and he used to get various golden opportunities to teach in other schools and institutes. But with a visionary mission(Bass, 1985), he and his fate had other plans. To reach the zeniths of horizon he continued with the job and now is leading various branches of the institute by applying innovative strategies and exploiting resources(Yukl et.al, 1992) at their best. His decision was a golden wand for his successful bright future and was an effect of right decision plan thought. According to him, every min ute moment of his life aided towards his leadership qualities. He said Our whole life is weaved for the future which steers the direction of the aim of our life. Such a great philosophy of life he had! His journey was garnered with support(Bass, 1991) from his mentor and teacher who have guided him wisely and strategically through all the phases of his life. His role was valued by --- as he always talked about what is best for ---. He knew him since he was a child and have had a deep insight into his capabilities, weakness, strengths and inherent desires(Bass, 1997). He was my treasure and my guiding star. He has always been with me in my highs and lows. Leadership was never the main goal for ---. It was his dedication for servicing the education that drove his path for the road towards leadership(Hughes, 1993). It was not a matter of qualities imbibed in his nature, but the skills were were inherent and were being polished with experience and disruptive thinking(Andrews, 1987) to bring about a revolution in education industry. I do not consider myself as a revolutionary leader, I am a proponent of change and a spark of literary illumination. The turning point was his life was entry into the arena of leadership, his first step and his initiation of the first stage. This phase made him utterly responsible and with further success he became the head of range of institutes. The transition from a teacher, to principal to head of institutes was a challenging task and called for various additional responsibilities. I always say that leadership is not completed by the role of a leader, it is a framework inculcating talent pool(DuFour, 2004) and innovative strategies from everybody in the vicinity of leadership. He is always dedicated towards motivating the people near him to act for some change for better and hence guides them in their road towards leadership. There were some dimensions(Hargreaves, 2004) towards his vision which was far sighted and really influential. His topmost vision was to implement the resources wisely to set a standard for education and to foster the resources to improve the level of distant learning too. He believed in innovation and hence his aim was to club together the innovative practices used in business management and to mold them in learning management(Reeves, 2006). I am happy that more and more leaders are collaborating with my view o integration of business and learning management and hence the first step is laid. His visions are popular among his co-employees and is praised by anyone who knows him. He is quite active on social networking and hence his vision is shared and adopted by many. Technology is a boon for us and we should exploit it to its full potential to serve the education field and to make everybody aware. Keep you missions well set and these are the things that wont let you sleep until fulf illed. Aim at the eye of the fish and then hit the goal with full dedication. The present education scenario as per --- is quite traditional and needs to be changed to include a pinch of technology(Robertson, 2011) and a pinch of responsibility by the world leaders to make the education and learning occupy an altogether new arena of evidence based learning(Bass, 2000), practical approaches, case studies and knowledge of the real world. Technology according to him is the best communication channel to let all the wise brains and potential leaders all around the world come together to infuse their energies and capabilities into one big idea or one effective innovation in the field of educational leadership. The path of his leadership journey was filled with thorns of challenges and every time bore flowers of success for him. His greatest of the challenges were in the beginning of his leadership life. He was faced with evil eyes of his fellow employees who were jealous of his rapid success and immense fame which was spreading like a forest fire in the field of education. He overcame this challenge by including his fellow employees by considering their valuable suggestions into the process of change and by this he was able to include everybody in his saga of leadership. When you cannot fight against the people who criticize you, then make them a part of your journey. Communication with other leaders was also a challenge without much technological advancements and hence technology was a gift for him which was really a treasure in his story. There were various unforeseeable challenges(Ubben, 2001) too coming everyday and demanding a different solution. The world of teaching was much polite and full of love as compared to the real hard world of leadership wherein responsibility of a huge mass lies over your shoulders and you are accountable for every little move under your leadership or guidance. And Wow! That is a great feeling to be a part of this sport!. Challenges to him now are part and parcel of his routine and he accepts them with full grace. Various unanticipated challenges were competitions among the world leaders in the field of education. I cannot understand how people with the same aim and vision can compete with each other instead of summing up their energies and focusing over a combined goal. It is a world of wonders and surprises. Just by explaining the vision to a wider mass doesnt serve the purpose of a leader, he should be the first person to light up the flame of change and must motivate other people to join him in this movement. The major catalyst for his self confidence and self motivation is his tendency to strive for excellence in every task he undertakes. He believes that dreams are not what we see with the closed eyes, dreams are what cannot let us close our eyes and hence work hard to map them into reality(Copland, 2007). His dreams and his aim to strive for excellence are major encouraging forces. He believes that he can shape his destiny and hence is infused with exuberance and confidence for every task he undertakes. My friends make me cheerful and this happiness keeps me confident that I can bring about a change in education arena with this smile and confidence. One of his burning desire for which he has sacrificed his sleep of various nights is to amalgamate business leadership and styles into the field of education and to make every individual student capable of leading his preferred area of interest and to marvel in business leadership intrigued with learning leadership. I have attended various workshops and given various lectures for this dreams but have not found any suitable partner to aid me in my dream. I will soon be able to initiate my plan to blend business arena with education and to let other leaders be born out of my institutes. He believes that every individual has something unique to tell and hence stands out from the collective group. Imagination and dreams are the source of inspiration and hence eyes must be filled with dreams for a better future. His greatest source of satisfaction are the initiatives taken by the teachers in his institute and a widespread awareness(Donald, 1997) for his vision in the mass and other education leaders. Queries by other people and doubts regarding my vision and strategies implemented so far and others yet to come drives a force of satisfaction down my nerves and makes me feel lighter by spreading knowledge. When asked about source of dissatisfaction, he said that incompetency of people to achieve their dreams and not to believe in themselves is the major source of dissatisfaction for him and makes him gloomy regarding the ideologies and behavior of people. He wants to change this scenario by making people believe in themselves and hence curb this source of social weakness. There were many sacrifices made, sleepless nights spent , days filled with toil in this journey of leadership. With the dream of making education worth for all the students, I missed spending precious time with my children. I used to fulfill their demands but wasnt able to cater to their demand of time which is the most sensitive and important one. He thinks that for a few years of his life, he abandoned himself from the world and was imprisoned into work. He became a workaholic(Gronn, 1999) and now when he goes down hi memory lane, he could feel that it is his hard work and sacrifices made that have made his vision a bit more clear and a bit more profound. His friend circle became limited to his mentor and close guides for a certain period of time but then with the help of social media his friend circle and followers(King, 2002) became a part of his life and filled up the gap of friendship too. I think that being friends with like minded people is worthy and fruitful in the long r un of life. Being a leader is just not enjoying perks of leadership but giving a part of ones soul and blood into the service. I have become active and healthier once my path for leadership was set. Advice, (laughs), I dont think I can give advice to become a leader because a leader is just another common man with a potential to recognize his capabilities and come up with disruptive innovative thoughts. He guided me to grab in and actually grab in every positive opportunity coming up in the way and act accordingly. Next he told me to believe in yourself and nobody else in the course of anybodys life. His valuable teaching(Hallinger, 2003) was to be brave enough in the life to face any challenge and to learn to say no to the things that are against personal set values. Everything problem in this world has a solution to it, we just need to drive deeper into the mysteries of the universe and we can find the answer very close to us. He guided that a positive group of workforce(Wagner, 2001) and people surrounding us play a significant role in overall personality development and hence we should always live in group which is optimistic and full of positive vibes. --- is charismatic leader(Denmark, 1977) who inspires others with a positive energy and raises morale of everybody along. He is quite innovative and experimental in his approach towards education and learning. He has set a standard of leadership and is perfect blend of various leadership styles. He is a problem solver for any entrenched situations(Style, 1971). He has a personality who is really inspiring for everyone and serves as a role model for todays generation. His approach is visionary and a democratic leader. *The blank spaces "------" are left for the students to fill up with appropriate data. References Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Yukl, G., Van Fleet, D. D. (1992).Theory and research on leadership in organizations. Consulting Psychologists Press. Bass, B. M. (1991). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision.Organizational dynamics,18(3), 19-31. Bass, B. M., Avolio, B. J. (1997).Full range leadership development: Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire(pp. 43-44). Palo Alto, CA: Mind Garden. Hughes, R. L. (1993).Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. Richard D. 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