Demoulin, Don Leaders Of The Lost Art

NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4, 2007

Leaders of the Lost Art Don DeMoulin Doctoral Faculty College of Education Argosy University - Atlanta

ABSTRACT This article specifies the “Effective Leader” as one with distinct traits that transforms a mere leader to an effective leader. The author emphasizes that in many instances, people think that because a person is an effective teacher that she/he will be an effective principal or that an effective employee will make an effective supervisor. According to the author, an effective leader means developing or enhancing specific leadership traits.

Introduction

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omeone once said that leadership is like beauty: it is hard to define, but you will know it when you see it. Among theorists, leadership does seem to be a difficult concept to define although there are many theories that attest to leadership. In my 20+ years of studying and writing on leadership, I have discovered that a few people have a high potential for effectively leading in almost any situation, but they are leaders only when they lead. The following are components that I have been exposed to over the years (although non-inclusive by no means) that contribute to good leadership: • • • •

the ability to define a vision to work toward and inspire others for the critical ‘buy-in’ factor, the ability to define the goals that are needed to attain the set-forth vision, the ability to effectively communicate goals to appropriate people, the ability to determine the most appropriate path to reach these goals,

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• • • • •

the ability to instill confidence in subordinates that the goals defined and the path to these goals are both valid, the ability to use the power of the leadership position as tactfully as possible to meet the goals that have been set when others are in opposition, the ability to effectively move the organization and reach the goals that have been set, the ability to match people to jobs and obtain the maximum benefit , and the ability to take risks and move beyond status quo in reaching the goals.

Effective leaders are also highly skilled in Decision Making, Delegation, Communication, Listening, Time Management and Implementation. These are critical areas that were uncovered during years of research and are included in the DLS instrumentation provided by PanTesting and The American Psychological Association (see Appendix A). In the entire realm of leadership, there are only two ways people succeed: because of the leader or in spite of the leader. Few people succeed in spite of the leader. That is because an ineffective leader can dramatically influence the outcome s/he has not bought in to. Success, then would mean that the followers would have to take on all aspects of success—without leadership, and this is highly unlikely nor desired. Success because of the leader means that the leader has taken control of the situation and has provided the necessary guidance with trust and credibility to assist others to succeed. Leadership, therefore, is a process of influence; leaders influence and motivate others to do a task. The attention given to leadership has been increasing as a result of ongoing research convictions that describe leadership as a significant factor in effective organizations. The daily activities of leaders clearly indicate a broad and highly demanding job. Leaders who are successful in managing and leading their organizations display confidence in their leadership capacity. Unfortunately, there has been a trend over the past many years of mistaken those who manage as leaders. There is a huge difference in one who manages and one who leads. One can be an effective manager, but not be an effective leader. An effective leader also is an effective manager. The difference between a manager and a leader is that a manager is given formal authority to plan, organize, budget, staff, control, direct the activity of others, and focuses what it takes to get things done on a day-to-day basis. A leader defines the vision, aligns people with that vision, inspires them to make it happen, develops them, listens to them, and empowers them to reach that vision through established and measurable goals and objectives. In essence, an effective leader produces effective change and sees the vision.

What It Is To Be an Effective Leader

Throughout this article, I will use the term ‘Effective Leader’ because in my experience there is a distinct set of traits that transforms a mere leader to an effective

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leader. The good news is that becoming an effective leader can be learned by people but it cannot be assumed in people. I say this because in many instances, people think that because a person is an effective teacher that s/he will be an effective principal or that an effective employee will make an effective supervisor. These are not always the case because being an effective leader means developing or enhancing specific traits and while some can be effective in a classroom or work place, they may not be able to advance to what is required to become the effective leader.

Effective Leadership Traits as Measured by the DLS

First and foremost, effective leaders are people of good character and know what it takes to be effective. In essence, the leadership potential as a leader can been seen and identified within as the character needed to be successful. They know and understand that without character, their capacity to be successful will be greatly diminished because people of character carry more weight in establishing the critical trust factor than people of questionable character. This is because people of questionable character incorporate lies, manipulation, deceit, and other questionable actions into their behavior—basically putting on one face to some and another face to others. Once the behavior of these individuals is identified, their credibility is damaged beyond repair and they are avoided to the point where achieving success is severely limited. That sets the stage for effective leadership to emerge. Effective leaders know their leadership style and can make the necessary adaptations from developing relationships to keeping people on task. There is a delicate balance in moving from one area to the other and the effective leader knows how to maintain that balance. They know that developing strong relationship is critical to get people actively engaged in the vision, but also know that there are times when there is a need to go beyond the relationship component and move people out of their comfort zone. Successful leaders are not afraid of making decisions and utilize appropriate use of committees or teams to gain valuable input. These teams are also useful to identify a vision as a viable part of overall effectiveness and success. Effective leaders seek to develop and nurture an effective team spirit that fosters a sense of belonging and ownership while focusing attention on measurable goals and objectives proven to be effective in similar situations—not only goals that work, but those goals that work best. Their attention is focused on reaching their well-established and carefully defined objectives and the use of teams aid in the decision-making process. Effective leaders develop carefully planned processes and procedures that minimize individual differences by providing structured activities that enhance personal development and increasing productivity. These leaders usually see the “big picture” from a linear perspective. They understand the value of following step-by-step approaches to task completion. Emphasis is placed on a vision and set of defined goals and the proper preparation and completion of objectives to reach the goals toward the

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vision. The initiation of long- and short-term organizational goals and objectives is paramount prior to establishing successful vision attainment. Without a vision, it is difficult to get people directed in the same direction, at the same time, working toward the same thing. Effective leaders use specified goals and objectives to meet their identified outcomes. They evaluate their performance through measurable goals and objectives— celebrating the little successes as they are obtained. Effective leaders plan effectively, delegate wisely, and work according to priorities. Because they are well respected and are perceived to have an honest demeanor, there is a harmonious climate with a strong sense of loyalty, a solid relationship, a high degree of trust, and a low potential for conflict. With this constructive environment, little time is lost on unnecessary altercations and debates. The effective leader has provided the proper training that is aligned with the vision so that each member of the team can function as an appendage of the leader. These leaders, in essence, gain power by giving it away and constantly pursue ways to improve the people on the team. Effective leaders have communication skills that rank high among the qualities people evaluate and consider when forming impressions of a person's educational background and intellect. They make the most of individualized communication to motivate positive behavior practices and are considered effective the role models for others. They accomplish this by basically sharing messages, ideas or attitudes that produce a certain degree of understanding. They understand that communication is effective when the purpose is known (free of jargon) and is explained in a down-to-earth fashion leaving little doubt about what is being addressed. Effective leaders also understand that communication is ineffective when people voluntarily modify a communiqué for selfish reasons, fail to relay segments of a communiqué due to lack of understanding, have unnecessary distractions within the communique’, or are sidetracked by things other than the communiqué itself. Effective leaders are good listeners. Unfortunately, listening is widely considered to be the weakest component of all communication skills. Although it takes a great deal of proficiency to speak appropriately, it takes a far greater skill to listen intently. Ineffectual listening results from inadequate training or poorly developed listening skills. Studies have suggested that American output could be doubled if the people practiced effective listening skills. Most of us think we are good listeners but we usually find out that we may be good hearers, but that does not make us good listeners. Effective leaders are great managers of time. Time is a precious commodity; we each have the same amount of it each day. How we partition time determines the importance and the value we place on things; the more time we set aside for something, the more important we perceive it to be. But, in reality, we should ask ourselves, "How much of me does this task deserve?" Yesterday's time is gone and we will never be able to recoup it, nor help anyone, yesterday so it is imperative that we make awfully good use of the time we have been given. Effective leaders possess the ability to get things done—getting themselves and others to achieve desired outcomes and reach personal goals. The ability to implement plans of action separates a leader who is progressive from one who is stagnant. A person

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who is an effective implementor is one who is actively engaged in personal advancement and development. Individual who have difficulty implementing ideas, plans, or strategies falls short of being a successful leader.

Concluding Remarks

According to John Maxwell, people usually follow into one of four dream categories: 1) they never see the dream—and meandering through life without purpose; 2) they see the dream but never personally act on it—depending on or following others to get them to the dream; 3) they see the dream and chase after it—finally realizing and achieving the dream; 4) they see the dream, achieve the dream and then help others find their dream—becoming leaders. Effective leaders are people who do not seek recognition but seek an opportunity to help others improve themselves. Just like an effective referee is unseen but controls the game, an effective leader controls the situation through laying the proper groundwork and setting the parameters for success. Each of the areas discussed in this article is measured in the DLS. It is good for us to know how we measure in the different categories when compared to experts in the respective areas. It is also good to know if a person who thinks s/he is ready for a leadership position to know what areas are his/her strength, what areas are good, and what areas are a concern that need to be strengthened. The DLS provides this information so proper training can be implemented to maximize the potential of becoming an effective leader versus a leader by position. The DLS instrumentation also went through the rigorous analysis of PanTesting and the American Psychological Testing for inclusion in their test batteries and are available for review at www.pantesting.com and www.apa.org

References

Maxwell, John (1991). The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader: Becoming the person people will want to follow. T. Nelson. Amazon.

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Appendix A DEMOULIN LEADERSHIP SERIES The DeMoulin Leadership Series (DLS) is designed to provide organizations with a viable source of information for individual and/or group evaluations and performance enhancement. These evaluations can be used in a variety of ways as a supplemental informational resource, from pre-employment screening to assessing the effectiveness of inservice programs to identifying potential supervisors/managers/principals/superintendents. The DLS contains a collection of eight instruments designed to effectively measure individual strengths and/or areas of concern within specific leadership categories including: Leadership, Decision Making, Delegation, Communication, Listening, Time Management and Implementation. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Myself as a Leader Leadership Assessment Profile Myself as a Decision Maker Myself as a Delegator Myself as a Communicator Myself as a Listener Myself as a Manager of Time Myself as an Implementor

The DeMoulin Leadership Series was thoroughly tested and normed with reliability coefficients ranging from .89 to .94. Questions concerning face, content, construct, and concurrent validity were sufficiently addressed and answered utilizing the Delphi technique and Principle Component Factor Analysis. Test retest reliability was conducted with the separate components over one, two, and three week intervals, with resulting Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from .81 to .93. External concurrent validity for the DLS has been assessed in a number of ways. One notable example involved the comparison of the judgment of a panel of experts with DLS scores. The Memphis area National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Test Center provided continuing education training in which the characteristics of participants were assessed pre and post by a panel of 11 experts using rating scales. A pass/fail cutoff score was derived for each assessed area, and in overlapping content areas. Preprogram judgments evidenced a 91% rate of agreement with cutoffs derived from the DLS. Post training ratings by the panel of experts evidenced 89% agreement with DLSderived cutoffs. A more traditional assessment of DLS concurrent validity was undertaken using Dr. Russell N. Cassel’s Leadership Ability Inventory (LAI). Assessments were made of military officers and business leaders using the two instruments. Correlation coefficients between overlapping DLS/LAI content areas ranging from .75 to .84.

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Each area of the DLS for norming of scores utilized people deemed experts in the respective categories which formulated calculations for individual tests and where results were transformed into T-scores for interpretation. Numbers for norming included: Leadership (Number for Norming = 327) Leadership Assessment Inventory (LAI—Number for Norming = 327) Myself as a Decision Maker (MAADM—Number for Norming = 295) Myself as a Delegator (MAAD—Number for Norming = 313) Myself as a Communicator (MAAC—Number for Norming = 267) Myself as a Listener (MAAL—Number for Norming = 188) Myself as a Manager of Time (MAAMT—Number for Norming = 236) Myself as am Implementor (MAAI—Number for Norming = 210)