Chapter 19 --  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership
The Authentic Leader

Transformation begins with trust.  Trust is the essential link between leader and led, vital to people's job satisfaction and loyalty, vital to followership.

School leaders seeking change need to begin by thinking of what will inspire trust among their constituents.

Consistency is the lifeblood of trust.

Innovation needs more than trust -- it needs confidence.

The key to both is authenticity.

The essential of authenticity are integrity and savvy.

Integrity: Character in Action

Integrity is a fundamental consistency between one's values, goals, and actions.

Integrity can take many forms.

The values of authentic leaders are characterized by three things:  personal ethics, vision, and belief in others.

Leaders with values and vision tend to believe that other people have the potential to be motivated by the same commitments.

These same three qualities (ethics, vision, belief in others) are central in the personal beliefs of authentic leaders are reflected in their organizational goals.

Savvy

Authenticity also demands savvy, a practical, problem-solving wisdom that enables leaders to make things happen.

Becoming Authentic

Authenticity can be generated, only discovered.

Most of us believe that good leaders must have the "right stuff," the right personal qualities to lead, and that these, like savvy or charisma, are to some extent innate.

Some central aspects of leadership are innate and unteachable and that not everyone has all the necessary potential.

Leadership begins at one's center; authentic leaders build their practice outward from their core commitments rather than inward from a management text.

There are a range of related inquires that can help a leader flesh out the details of his personal leadership landscape:

• How well do I understand the school and its community?
• How solid is my relationship with my constituents?
• Where do I think the school out to be headed?
• How should the school be governed?
• How prepared am I to handle the school's problems?
• How can I improve my ability to advance the school?
• Am I the right one to e leading right now?

Administration mostly involves not the application of theory and data but the "idiosyncratic use of the self in interactive work situations".

Many Ways to Excel

All leaders whose practice is rooted in deep values and strong beliefs will resemble each other in some important ways.

Research has shown that principals who were successful change agents all fulfilled four key roles:

• Resource provider
• Instructional resource
• Communicator
• Visible presence

Every way of leading has deficits as well as advantages, and these are inextricably linked.

Philosophy, Vision, and Strategy: What Do I Want?

Largely overlooked in all the enthusiasm for vision is that it typically derives from "a personal and imaginative creativity that transcends analysis".

Character in action is always vital to leadership, but it is especially vital when innovation is under way.

Authenticity in Action: Strategic Biases for Change

Spelling out their basic assumptions and discovering their authentic core helps leaders develop strategic biases for action to guide their work and shape the implementation of change.

Action orientations foster change.  In schools that are implementing significant reform, four essentials stand out:

• Clarity and focus
• Participation without paralysis
• Recognition
• Confrontation

< Back

Jossey-Bass Publishers.  The Jossey-Bass Reader on Education Leadership.