Leadership

Qualities of leaders:

• "sense of responsibility
• concern for task completion
• energy
• persistence
  
• risk-taking
• originality
• self-confidence
• capacity to handle stress
• capacity to influence
• capacity to coordinate the efforts of others in the achievement of purpose" (Beare, 1989, p. 103).

Some common qualities of leaders:

• display energy and enthusiasm
• always tries to improve their own performance
• has a clear vision and direction
• has great judgement
• collaborates
• walks the talk
• open to new ideas
• learns from mistakes
• great interpersonal skills
• consistently develops others

I believe it is people skills, not management skills that result in staff helping the leader achieve the school vision and ultimately the learning outcomes that students deserve. People follow a leader who is great with people, who has great emotional intelligence. Beare (1989) identifies this as transforming leadership.

Beare (1989, p.103 & p. 123) states that research has identified 2 behaviours of leaders:

• concern for the accomplishment of tasks
• concern for relationships

and essentially, communicate a shared vision to empower followers to become leaders in a collaborative environment.