Rinzin Dorji1 and Karma Tshering2
1Principal, Samtenling Primary School, Bhutan
2Principal, Zangtherpo Primary School, Bhutan
*Corresponding Author: Rinzin Dorji, Principal, Samtenling Primary School, Bhutan.
Received: September 15, 2021; Published: September 30, 2021
Citation: Rinzin Dorji and Karma Tshering. “Shared Leadership Practice in Samtenling Primary School”. Acta Scientific Paediatrics 4.10 (2021): 98-108.
I worked in a small primary school for many years. I feel I have less experience in leadership. It is never, ever a goal of mine to meet the expectations of my subordinates and students. I am not satisfied with my teachers and school’s performance. This realization inspired me to do action research to improve my leadership style and promote shared leadership.
For collecting baseline data, I used three tools: interviews, survey questionnaires, and observation. My critical friend assisted me in maintaining field notes and interviewing other colleagues. The analysis of baseline data collected from five teachers proved three main areas of my concern for effective leadership; collaborative decision making, effective job delegation and proper communication.
The concept of shared leadership, of course, flies in the face of the traditional idea of how a school should operate: one person in charge and the others follow. But in a team of specialists, for example, one expert usually does not have the know-how to understand all the facets of the job at hand. Instead, a better approach is to share the duties, so the person in charge at any moment is the one with the key knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) for the aspect of the job at hand.
When the KSA requirements change, a new expert should step in. In this article, we share some preliminary insights from our in-progress, multi-tasked study of shared leadership—labeled "Share the Lead"—to help put an exclamation point on the kind of ideas included throughout this special issue. In summary, the early evidence on shared leadership demonstrates that it can have a powerful performance impact on, and through, teams. Nonetheless, shared leadership, we must emphasize, is not a replacement for leadership from above. It should only be considered for situations where the tasks of the people involved share a certain degree of interdependence.
Post intervention data was collected using the same tools. There has been some improvement in all the three areas of my concern identified from the baseline data analysis. More parents and teachers took part in the decision-making process. They were more open and shared their concerns about students’ development. Teachers became more responsible and punctual in their duties. Students’ participation also increased in decision making processes.
When a leader fails to unite and build a team, it’s impossible to accomplish goals. In a situation where there is no collaborative effort, a leader becomes impoverished and fails to succeed at the end. The whole atmosphere gets disrupted and ultimately affects the learning outcome of the students. The relationship amongst staff becomes fragile. Students’ faith in teachers diminishes, which leads to disruptive behaviors. Eventually, there is no room to create a conducive learning environment.
I have observed that there is always an issue of leadership and management. There are clashes of ideas and authority between the leaders and their subordinates, especially in Bhutanese society. Leaders usually feel that they are powerful and have the authority to lead alone. Such a leadership style refers to an old model of formal, one-person leadership where it leaves the substantial talents of subordinates largely untapped.
Findings from this AR suggest that team leadership is enhanced through collaborative decision making, effective delegation and effective communication skills. This AR also concludes that team leadership is very much necessary for effective leadership and management.
Specifically, team/shared leadership benefits schools in three important ways: teachers working together are better able to create shared expectations and high standards for all students; teachers working together engage in discourse that leads to the creation of learning experiences that are richer and of higher quality than those created by teachers working in isolation; and teachers working in teams are more effective in creating the collaborative culture that allows a school to continuously reflect on and improve its practices.
Since I am not an experienced leader (Principal), this AR has contributed an enriching experience for my professional growth. In the process of promoting team leadership, I was exposed to other aspects of effective leadership. Beyond my professional development, this AR also helped me to improve my personal behavior. I have learnt many tips to control my anger and now I am confident to pacify my bad temper while dealing with my team. The intervention strategies implemented in this AR could be followed by other leaders to examine their leadership style and promote team leadership. This AR concludes that collaborative decision making, effective delegation and effective communication are necessary for building team leadership.
Although this AR has been challenging, yet it was inspiring and productive. There has been overall improvement in my leadership style after incorporating my intervention strategies.
Keywords: Reconnaissance; Teachers; Principal
Being a novice leader and having merely two years of experience in leadership, it is never my goal to see myself performing up to the expectations of my subordinates and students. Neither am I satisfied with my teachers or the school’s performance. This realisation inspired me to do action research to improve my leadership style and promote shared leadership.
For collecting baseline data, I used three tools: interviews, survey questionnaires, and observation. My critical friend assisted me in maintaining field notes and interviewing other colleagues. The analysis of baseline data collected from five teachers proved three main areas of my concern for effective leadership; collaborative decision making, effective job delegation and proper communication.
Post intervention data was collected using the same tools. There has been some improvement in all the three areas of my concern identified from the baseline data analysis. More parents and teachers took part in the decision-making process. They were more open and shared their concerns about students’ development. Teachers became more responsible and punctual in their duties. Students’ participation also increased in decision making processes.
Action research is a reflective process of progressive problem solving led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a "community of practice" to improve the way they address issues and solve problems (Wikipedia, 2010). Action research is the process of reflecting upon a situation and improving it. In action research, researchers do research on themselves. Ferrance (2000) states that "action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practise systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research" (p.1). In action research, the researcher works out to bring improvement and involvement of self to promote change in the whole system through a cyclic process-focal question, planning, data collection, data analysis, and reflection.
Every leader in the school has the responsibility to carry it out in his/her life. We are equally responsible and accountable for all shared undertakings. However, we need to serve based on the nature of responsibility which is morally and culturally accepted by the communities of the school. As a result, our primary reason for being and living must be balanced with certain responsibilities to ourselves and others. The implementation of shared leadership becomes more imperative for the realisation of common goals. Since I have taken up a leadership role only recently, I have realized that I need to learn and improve most of my leadership style. This realization was a result of poor participation of parents, teachers and students in all the developmental activities of the school. Many studies reveal that team leadership is the most important aspect of effective leadership. Therefore, considering the importance of team leadership as the most important aspect of effective leadership, I have designed this action research to investigate mrealisedadership style and to improve on it.
Reconnaissance means investigating the chosen problems. It consists of going backwards and forwards between refection and collecting evidence (Grundy 1995, p.96). It involves analysis of the situation, competence, and literature review. The object of reconnaissance is to produce a research question that will lead to improvement (Maxwell, 2003).
Situational analysis involves studying the conditions and issues that concern the individual on the chosen topic. It helps us identify our limitations in the work place and improve them.
Leadership emerges as an important concept in the 21st century with the obligation to fulfil transparency, efficiency, accountability, and professionalism in obligations at home and at work. For this, a leader is obliged to become strategic in the day-to-day managerial and leading roles to bring lasting and positive solutions to the issues that surround us. How does a leader achieve it? It is a constant query among leaders.
In my 17 year’s experience as a leader, I have been observing that despite my genuine effort, parents, teachers and students’ participation in many fields was minimal. They don’t come forward with ideas. Instead, they wait for the instructions. Sometimes they fail to carry out the assigned task on time. I had to shoulder most of the leading role in the functioning of the school. In most cases, the decisions were one sided and there was no room for the students to take part in decision making. Recognizing one another's good work was very poor among the teachers, and many are used to working only under certain conditions. The caretaker was not punctual with his duties, and I frequently had to remind him of his responsibilities. The school lacked a cordial relationship with the community, and this resulted in poor support from them.
We conduct parent-teacher meetings twice in a year. During the meetings, I have observed that most parents hardly take part in sharing their concerns and opinions. Similarly, we conduct many staff meetings as and when required in the school. Some of the meetings were unplanned and abrupt. As a result, I had to struggle with knowing where to begin and where to end the meeting. In such disorganised meetings, I had to speak and take most of the decisions. Some teachers never speak during the session because they are unaware of the agendas, are unconcerned about them, and receive very few contributions from them.
We delegate jobs in the beginning of the academic session. I usually distribute responsibilities to my colleagues according to their capability and impose great expectations on them. They end up having no choice but to disagree. In fact, the work load becomes too heavy due to the limited number of teachers. In the process, I have observed that most teachers fail to shoulder the assigned tasks successfully. In most cases, I had to remind them and assist in carrying out activities. In fact, they either lack commitment or work knowledge. Whenever they come across a problem related to their work, I always expect them to come forward to seek advice or share new ideas if they have any, but to no avail. Similarly, most teachers lack a sense of punctuality. Many times, I have observed my teachers spending their time gossiping in the staff room or going late to class. As a result, classes of the concerned teachers would be noisy, which affected other classes. I have seen many conflicts among students in the absence of teachers. The language policy was a big failure because of the lack of support from the teachers and students as well. Ultimately, such conflicts lead to bigger issues. With all these issues, I realized that something must be wrong with my leadership practice.
When a leader fails to unite and build a team, it’s impossible to accomplish goals. In a situation where there is no collaborative effort, a leader becomes impoverished and fails to succeed at the end. The whole atmosphere gets disrupted and ultimately affects the learning outcome of the students. The relationship amongst staff becomes fragile. Students’ faith in teachers diminishes, which leads to disruptive behaviors. Eventually, there is no room to create a conducive learning environment.
Considering all these facts, I feel that I have failed to build a team; a team that takes responsibilities willingly without having to be reminded; a team with self-motivated and committed individuals; and a team that believes in collaborative effort. In order to accomplish a positive working environment, I am motivated to take up this small action research project in Samtenling Primary School to investigate my leadership style as a ‘team builder. “I need to find out my specific weakness as a team builder and to re-examine my leadership practise and its impact on the school administration. Then I want to find appropriate strategies to improve shared leadership practices in the school for the greater good.
It is my first attempt to enter the field of formal research with limited knowledge, but I have gained enough confidence to carry it out with support from different sources and knowledge. I have conducted few surveys to study the impact analysis of students in different classes. The opportunity to attend a Master of Education (M.ed) program and the action research module 505 - "Introduction to Educational Research" sessions provided me with the knowledge to conduct action research.
My experience in the diverse field of teaching and managerial work for the past 21 years would also ensure my ability to re-examine my leadership practise for improvement. Further, after attending module 581-"The Role of the Principal", I have gained a little more insight into the roles and responsibilities of a leader, which enables me to critically examine my role in building a collaborative team in my school.
Literature review is finding published information in a particular subject area. It helps to comprehend what kinds of research have been conducted in the past related to the current research topic. Literature review according to Creswell (2009) is to “share with the reader the results of other studies that are closely, related to the one being undertaken” (p.25). Literature review provides guide to a particular topic and helps to trace the intellectual progression of the field.
A leader is a person who has the vision of what can and should be done; is able to communicate it with others; and motivate them to do what needs to be done [1]. “Collaboration means working together jointly, especially in intellectual endeavors”.—Webster’s Dictionary, as cited in Lummis (2001).
According to Gardener [2], “Leadership is the process of persuasion of example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to persue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers”. It is further supported by Reddy [3] when he stated “Leadership is the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of the group goals” (p.447). For Owens (2004), “Leadership in dealing with problems require collaboration between many individuals over time in an interactive process” (p.259).
Moxlay [4] and Reddy [3] suggest becoming an effective leader by empowering followers, sharing goals and responsibilities with followers, inspiring subordinates, and ensuring respect between a leader and followers. According to Goldman [5] “Several years ago, a principal of a school that was piloting shared decision making said to me, ‘My job is obsolete now.’ The teachers are running the school, and there is no place for the principal as a leader any more” (p.5). This chapter discusses on an effective leadership behavior through the emerging components such as shared leadership, emotional intelligence, delegation, effective communication, and problem solving skills.
According to Moxley (2002), there are four requirements for the shared leadership model at work. They include development of shared purpose or goal, balance of power between a leader and followers, share of responsibility to followers, and respecting staff.
A goal should be shared within the members of a group to develop a common goal. Barth [6], supports that under the shared leadership model, the vision for a school is a place whose very mission is to ensure that students, parents, and principals all become school leaders in some ways and at some times.
Sousa (2003) states that “If they believe in sharing power, then they must give decision making authority to individuals and committees within the building and accepts their decision willingly” (as cited in Marquis and Huston [7] p.10). Balance of power between a leader and member is the other important element of shared leadership. Harris (2002, p.2) asserts that shared leadership or distributed leadership is a key determinant of the motivation of teachers. It is the people that are motivated when power is shared. Murphy (cited in Fullan, [8], p.123) clarifies that leaders can often achieve results by acting like followers and depending on followers to act like leaders”.
Empowering followers to work towards a common goal makes them aware of their responsibilities. Barth [6] supports that principals can develop a community of leaders by openly articulating the goal, relinquishing decision-making authority to teachers, and involving teachers before decisions are made. Empowerment has positive influences on the relation between the student, teacher and leader.
For effective decision, it is important that a leader shares responsibilities to staff. In doing so, a leader saves time to facilitate other important works of an organization. Trail (2000) argues that the most immediate benefit of leadership as a collaborative effort is that principals not only share the lead, but share the load (p.5). Share of responsibility promotes accountability and develop leadership skills in followers.
Respecting staff is another element that the literature reveals as the component of shared leadership. Respect for personhood is the sine qua non of partnerships [4]. One can build strong, cohesive unit that can work well together to accomplish a goal. This is built through love, trust, empathy and sympathy that existed between leader and members.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize emotions in others and to have compassion when others react emotionally [9]. Reddy [3] presents self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, social awareness and social competence to describe emotional intelligence.
Self-awareness has to understand one’s own emotions, the causes of the emotion and their effect on performance by strictly finding ones strengths and weaknesses and knowing one’s states, preference and intuitions.
Self-management is the ability to manage the disruptive emotions and impulsive behavior by handling feelings to make them appropriate, realizing the reasons behind the feelings, finding ways and means to manage negative emotions. Drucker (1999) maintains that leaders have to learn to manage themselves before they can lead others.
Self-motivation is the emotional tendency that guides us or facilitates reaching goals. Social awareness includes empathy, organizational awareness and service orientation. This allows us to appreciate the differences in how people feel about things and show concern for their feelings and emotions. Being aware of emotional intelligence, it leads to effective communication which is a factor that is responsible to strengthen collaboration, collectivity and team work in an organization.
Delegating is not task assignment. To delegate, you must give someone the responsibility and authority to do something that is normally part of your job as a manager (as cited in the course pack-EDUC-581, 2003, p. 36). The real delegation is more complex and challenging in nature. It is an instrumental tool to foster collective performance more than mere distribution of work amongst members. Nirenberg [10] argues for Keep in mind that delegation is a real art, especially when it is done as a collective. Effective delegation in the shared leadership model involves giving people responsibility and freedom, responsibility to find the information and resources needed to work on their task, and the freedom to do it in their own way.
Leaders normally forget the abilities, interest, and commitment of the members in the process of delegation. In fact, one person does not delegate since members choose to do what they do the best. In a way, members should be provided with more freedom to choose their own work.
According to the course guide, EDUC-581 (2003), we can follow the following steps to foster effective delegation:
Effective communication is required in the process of interaction, such as speeches, meetings, reviews, and other collaborations. According to the Comprehensive school health program, Ministry of Health and Education (2008 and 2009), for effective communication, honesty is a quality where one shares honest views for clarification and options. Further, Blasé and Kirby (1992) found that the ability to influence others is related to honesty, optimism and consideration.
It is communication in the ‘human moment’ that also most powerfully creates team cohesion – a strong sense of loyalty and commitment to the team vision as one’s own" [11]. Listening to others and letting others listen as well encourages two-way communication to help enrich the points of discussion. It is about being considerate as well as demanding. Hence, the elements of effective communication should be taken care of to maintain relationships, teamwork, and collaboration in the pursuit of collective goals.
The Bhutanese Health and Education (2008 and 2009) has suggested adopting the idea of POWER to solve problems. It stands for the orderly stages of a problem, option, weighing, electing, and reflecting to solve the problem that surrounds them.
First, it is suggested to identify the causes and the nature of the problem through study for awareness. After being made aware of the problem, it is time to sort out the possible options to solve it. After the options have been laid, weigh the options through their advantages and disadvantages. Then, elect and implement the most appropriate options to solve the problem. Finally, reflect on the ways that the problem has been solved.
As per the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, Massachusetts (n. d.), teachers working collaboratively benefit schools in three important ways: 1) When teachers collaborate, they are better able to establish shared expectations and high standards for all students. 2) Teachers who collaborate engage in discourse, which results in richer and higher-quality learning experiences than those created by teachers who work alone. 3) Teachers who work in groups are more effective at fostering a collaborative culture that allows a school to constantly reflect on and improve its practices.
What can I do to enhance my Shared Leadership Practice in Samtenling Primary School?
Five teachers, four parents and ten students of my school were involved in my action research. Baseline data was collected to understand my leadership style and find out the barriers to effective leadership. This was done in the first week of March 2020. Survey questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used to gather baseline data. This data provided an understanding of my leadership style, which further made me clear about my concerns. After thorough analysis of these data, plans for interventions were designed (see Intervention strategies, p.16). These strategies were implemented right after the analysis of the baseline data.
Unlike the survey questionnaire, the semi-structured interview and observations were carried out with the help of my critical friend (CF) to validate my findings. Observations were mostly done by the CF and provided critical comments. The objective of using these strategies was to find out my weak areas for improvement.
By the 1st week of June 2020, post intervention data was collected using the same tools along with my CF. The data collected was compared with the baseline data to see if there was any improvement in my leadership style.
Analysis of the baseline data indicates that teachers were not happy with decision making processes in the meetings. They were dissatisfied with the mode of job delegation strategies. Parents, teachers and students did not feel free and open to share their concerns due to communication barriers. Each of these issues is briefly discussed under three major barrier themes: collaborative decision making, effective job delegation, and effective communication.
Generally, most participants feel that there is a lack of team unity and spirit as indicated in the baseline data. Since parents, teachers, and students hardly take part in the decision-making process, I usually take decisions on their behalf. However, such decisions are not always correct, as much research shows that collaborative decisions are best for any institution.
Baseline data indicates that most of the decisions taken are good. But about 50% of the participants are not happy with a leader taking decisions alone. Most of them feel that the decisions should come collaboratively from the participants.
Some baseline data also indicates that the participants do not feel responsible for being a part of the responsibilities they are shouldering. Accordingly, it affects the outcome of the activities that are carried out in the school. Therefore, some interventions are developed to address this barrier in my leadership style.
About 35% of the participants feel that they are often confused about their responsibilities and assignments. 15% of them say that the principal does not select the assignee thoughtfully when assigning work. About 10% say that they are not happy with the job delegation process and they find it challenging to take up the assigned tasks.
This analysis indicates that the participants are either forced or challenged to take up the task. The tasks assigned are not of their interest, which hampers the result. Therefore, some measures are developed to improve the job delegation process.
A finding from the baseline data indicates that about 60% of the participants do not feel free to express their ideas during the meetings. Poor communication is somewhat evident in the team: people don’t feel comfortable speaking up and don’t listen to each other or talk together.
The open-ended responses from the baseline questionnaire indicate that I am serious and not approachable to be open and share their views and opinions during meetings. Few of my colleague participants also commented that they don’t feel safe and open due to my bad mood. Some measures are developed to improve my communication skills with parents, teachers and students.
The themes (weakness) identified from the baseline data are the focus of my intervention plan for the enhancement of leadership skills. All the intervention strategies are consciously implemented during meetings such as planning, follow up and performance reviews of the school activities.
Provision for collaborative decision making
Decision making is one of the most important skills in life. In every day's conduct, be it at work or at home, we make lots of decisions, either individually or collectively. Ethical decisions are required for teamwork spirit and productivity. Moreover, from the baseline data, I realised that I had a problem with my decisionmaking process. Hence, I decided to ensure appropriate decisions through the idea of POWER (Comprehensive School Health Programs, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, 2008 and 2009).
To enhance the collaborative decision-making process, the following measures were taken during meetings:
I followed the following steps to foster effective delegation as mentioned in the course guide, EDUC-581 (2003),
Most importantly, I have given them the freedom to choose the responsibilities of their choice of interest and competency. This motivated them to become responsible and take up the job with dedication and productively.
For effective communication, I need to understand the required or related substances. I had strengthened it through regular school activities such as speeches, meetings, reviews and other similar interactions. Basically, I have taken the following steps to foster better communication:
Beyond that, I tried to inspire and encourage even petty little things that are done by both the staff and students. Such ways of doing things became a culture of the school to ensure teamwork.
All these three strategies identified were carefully implemented for about two months. Since there was an issue with getting false data if I collected all the data myself, my CF helped me throughout the process by authenticating my findings.
Collection of post intervention data was done in the 1st week of June 2019, using the same tools. I had used the same participants as in the baseline data. Similarly, all the participants were cooperative and no one refused to take part in gathering data. The post intervention data collected was compared with the baseline data to see if there were improvements in my leadership style. Analysis of the data was carried out in the three areas of my concern as discussed under baseline data analysis.
As mentioned in the intervention strategies, different measures were taken to enhance and strengthen the collaborative decision making process. It was found that many participants were encouraged to participate and contribute towards making decisions after enforcing some changes (as mentioned in p.16) in the process of decision making. According to the interview conducted by CF, one participant comments that "I like the change because now we feel that we are responsible for the discussion and our views are respected”. Another participant comments that "It is nice to chair a meeting although it’s challenging. I think this is a good opportunity for every participant to experience and be a part of it. " A self-record also reveals that the participants were actively participating in the discussion. They were open and lots of interactions happened on various issues (Observation form, 7/5/2019). My CF has also recorded a comment saying "There is a big change in the conduct of meeting. It is lively and motivating for the participants" (Diary, p.1,7/5/2019).
This indicates that the participants were motivated to take part in the decision-making process after incorporating certain changes (p.16). Finally, I can say that team collaborative decision making is one of the important aspects of team leadership. From the analysis, it indicates that there has been some improvement in the collaborative decision making process. The improvement is represented in the following diagram.
Figure 1
Through implementation of those steps (as mentioned under effective delegation strategy), the post intervention data shows that there is some improvement in my delegation style. It was found that most participants are happy with the choice and freedom that they are given while delegating any task. One participant rightly pointed out that "this time it’s good that we are given freedom to choose our tasks which were not possible before”. My CF also pointed out in his observation form that "participants are happy and motivated to take up the tasks due to the freedom of choice”. Even in my observation form (6/6/2019), it states that "teachers are carrying out the tasks assigned without much reminder. They are more responsible and outcome oriented". All these show that the strategies that I have enforced really made a difference in delegating the task.
Figure 2
The improvement, as indicated in figure 2, illustrates that the intervention strategies that I have enforced were effective and motivated my participants to take up responsibilities productively. It also indicates that effective delegation is another important aspect of team leadership.
However, I found that some tasks which are challenging and not related to their choice are left out. In such a case, either I end up forcing someone or I take up the task myself, although I may not like the task. Therefore, I need to study more and find out strategies to address such issues in the future.
The analysis of the data shows insignificant improvement in my communication skills. However, my CF noted in his observation form (20/6/2019) that "Principal is friendly and open. He participates in games and other co-curricular activities with other friends". Similarly, my observation form (15/5/2019) clearly states that "I made sure that every participant was clear about the tasks assigned and what is expected". These were some of my improvements as a result of the enforced intervention strategies to address effective communication.
Figure 3
In contrast, as illustrated in figure 3, there was little improvement in this area of my concern when compared to the previous two. As a response to question number 7 of the interview questionnaire, one of the participants pointed out that "a leader should be cool and free of bad temper”. It indicates that he is not happy with my bad temper. I admit that I have a bad temper and it is my personal challenge to cope with it. Similar feedback was also recorded in the observation form of my CF (12/5/2019) that "The principal is annoyed with one of the participants for not performing the assigned task on time. For that, the teacher was warned not to repeat it. As a result, the discussion was not productive and meaningful as expected". This comment clearly indicates that my bad temper is a barrier for effective communication.
Through the journey of my life as a learner and educator, I have observed that there is always an issue of leadership and management. There are clashes of ideas and authority between the leaders and their subordinates, especially in Bhutanese society. Leaders usually feel that they are powerful and have the authority to lead alone. Such a leadership style refers to an old model of formal, oneperson leadership where it leaves the substantial talents of subordinates largely untapped.
The universally accepted form of leadership is team leadership, which unites all the members to work together towards a common goal. Team leadership is all about cohesion. Cohesiveness leads to increased self-esteem, more willingness to listen to others, freer expression of feelings, greater self-confidence, and members’ effective use of other members’ evaluations in enhancing their own development.
As a middle age leader, this AR has been a good experience for me to study and improve my leadership style. It was challenging for me to enforce different intervention strategies since I had to transform my behavioural traits in most cases, which was not easy. But ultimately, I saw some improvement in my leadership style and my participants’ contribution as a team.
Findings from this AR suggest that team leadership is enhanced through collaborative decision making, effective delegation and effective communication skills. This AR also concludes that team leadership is very much necessary for effective leadership and management.
Specifically, team/shared leadership benefits schools in three important ways: teachers working together are better able to create shared expectations and high standards for all students; teachers working together engage in discourse that leads to the creation of learning experiences that are richer and of higher quality than those created by teachers working in isolation; and teachers working in teams are more effective in creating the collaborative culture that allows a school to continuously reflect on and improve its practices [12-16].
Since I am not an experienced leader (Principal), this AR has contributed to an enriching experience for my professional growth. In the process of promoting team leadership, I was exposed to other aspects of effective leadership. Beyond my professional development, this AR also helped me to improve my personal behavior. I have learnt many tips to control my anger and now I am confident in pacifying my bad temper while dealing with my team.
The intervention strategies implemented in this AR could be followed by other leaders to examine their leadership style and promote team leadership. This AR concludes that collaborative decision making, effective delegation and effective communication are necessary for building team leadership.
Although this AR has been challenging, it was inspiring and productive. There has been an overall improvement in my leadership style after incorporating my intervention strategies.
I would like to thank my teachers, supporting staff, students and parents (participants for AR) for their cooperation and support rendered throughout my AR project.
Copyright: © 2021 Rinzin Dorji and Karma Tshering. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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