Running head: LEADERSHIP PLATFORM

As aspiring education leaders, we are dedicated to being caring,

collaborative and equitable in developing life-long learners and passionate,
knowledgeable educators.

Leadership Platform
Jason Gaylord
California State University San Marcos
EDAD 620
Professor Van Vooren

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Leaders should have many different qualities and hold several things
important when considering their personal philosophy and mission. Leaders
have different challenges they must face on a daily basis, and to say that
there is a one size fits all philosophy and mission for every leader would be
to assume that the challenges each individual leader faces are the same. A
leader must be flexible in his or her leadership and ever changing to adjust
to the different challenges he or she faces on a daily basis. As Marzano,
Warrick, and Simms (2014) put it, organizations must adjust their operations
to proactively prevent failure. As a leader, I will proactively work to adjust
my leadership to foster growth for teachers, staff, parents, and students,
collecting and using data to make those changes. Besides being proactive in
change, I will model the way. I think there is nothing more inspirational and
speaks louder than actions. Leaders should set positive examples. These
examples can be as simple as picking up trash on a walk through the campus
or staying late and working hard on following through on accomplishing
goals. As a leader, I must inspire a shared vision.

If I am able to

communicate effectively the vision of the school, then I will be able to gain
followers who have bought into the same mission. There is nothing more
effective than a unit working together to achieve the same goal.

My

statement of leadership goes like this:

As a leader, I will commit myself to be proactive, setting the

expectation, changing with needs, modeling the way, and inspiring a
shared vision for the school.

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This leadership statement will challenge me to be the best leader I can and
allow for enough flexibility to change in accordance with the environment in
which I am leading.

Proactively Changing
According to Marzano, Warrick, and Simms (2014), a highly effective
school gathers and uses constant feedback to take action and make
adjustments to create positive change. As a leader, I realize that any school I
end up working for is going to have its own systems and culture set in place,
and some of those systems and culture are going to be more effective and
successful than others. To evaluate those systems and culture, I am going to
have to consistently check in by using three different ways of collecting data.
I will have quick conversations with teachers, staff, parents, and students,
make observations of teaching staff and other elements of the school, and
collect information by surveying all stakeholders (Marzano, Warrick, and
Simms 2014). From that data I proactively gather, I will need to communicate
findings to all stakeholders and be flexible enough to make the changes
needed to accomplish the goals set forth for the school.
There is value in being able to make adjustments to create growth for
a school. Using data is definitely on the quantitative side of promoting
positive change; it provides hard numbers to show stakeholders the
reasoning. The data provides justification, especially when the changes, a

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leader are pushing for, starts to shake things up and disrupt the systems and
culture of the school; but there are other reasons for a leader to be
proactively changing.
Proactively changing allows the administrator to be flexible in the dayto-day challenges he or she may encounter as a leader. For example, there
are many times when a leader is going to have to be on his or her toes with
occurrences that happen on a campus. I will be faced with having to make
adjustments to schedules, teachers, parents, and students. When I was filling
the role as administrator designee, I had to think fast and be flexible to find
teachers to cover two other teachers who had to leave the school because of
emergency. This shook up the schedule of the day, and getting other
teachers to cover these classes became the priority.
The variability of situations a leader may face when being an
administrator is endless. If I did not have the capacity to be flexible, then the
outcome could have been disastrous. I had to react and make quick changes
to the daily routine. I remained flexible; and because my leadership was
proactively changing, I was able to find teachers to cover the classes.
Model the Way
One of the best qualities a leader can have is leading by example. As a
leader, I will be put under the microscope and people will notice things about
me that I never considered. They will be judging how I look, act, sound, and
smell. They will notice if I am happy, mad, or sad. Kouzes and Posner (2012)
describe that one of the keys to being a successful leader is to model the

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way by setting the example.

5
If I want the school to look one way or the

other, I will have to express that to the stakeholders through action. I can
accomplish this through simple or complex actions that illustrate what kind
of school I am trying to achieve.
I will lead by modeling hard work and reliability. I will model the way by
being the first to arrive on campus and the last to leave. I will promote a
positive culture by being available for my staff, parents, and students. I will
be present at drop off and visible at pick up, so that people can see that I am
there and available. When I stroll through campus, I will work to promote a
clean school by picking up trash and encouraging those I see doing the
same. To promote a happy and friendly culture, I will work to smile and greet
all the teachers, parents, students and guests warmly.
There are several ways to model the way and many areas of need to
set the example. I will continue to have this on my mind. I will be cognizant
that I am the example and push myself to model the way for everyone as a
leader on campus to promote the schools vision.
Inspire a Shared Vision
There is nothing more important for leadership as being able to inspire
a shared vision. The vision of a school is what drives its direction and culture.
Without the vision being effectively communicated to stakeholders, the
mission of the school can and will get lost. It will not have a driving force or
continuity. I think the vision of the school needs to be in the forefront of the
minds of everyone involved. I will accomplish this by making sure that

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everyone is well informed on the schools vision. I have seen other leaders
model this by reading the schools mission statement at the beginning of
each staff meeting and posting the schools mission throughout the campus.
None of this, however, is effective if the stakeholders feel like the vision is
not shared.
Kouzes and Posner (2012) suggest that the best way to inspire a
shared vision is to allow others to take ownership. I will accomplish this by
allowing stakeholders to give feedback on the direction they would like to
see the school grow. I will do this by leading meetings and providing
platforms for stakeholders to have their voices heard. This will create a buy
in that will make everyone feel like they are included in the schools vision.
Once I am able to get the stakeholders to take ownership, I will continue to
make available forums for people to continue to give their input. I will
continue to provide information informing people of how their shared vision
is being successfully accomplished, and its effect on the populations the
school serves. As a leader, it will be incredibly important to have all
stakeholders feeling included and inspired to achieve the schools vision.
Conclusion
Being a leader is a challenge and something that does not come
naturally for most. It is something that can be learned and improved upon
through experience and diligent work. My personal goal is to become an
excellent leader and a great administrator. I am sure that my thoughts on
this subject will be ever changing and constantly evolving. For now, I see my

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focus being the following: proactively changing, modeling the way, and
inspiring a shared vision. My mission is to never be satisfied with the status
quo, especially if it is not working. I want to proactively look for things to
change and have the flexibility to enact that change. I do not ever want to be
viewed as someone who is not hardworking and sharing the burden of
creating a successful school. I want to model the way and promote the kind
of culture a school deserves, making sure that I am communicating clearly
the vision and inspiring others to share in that vision. This leadership
statement will keep me focused and remind me of the direction I want to
continue to grow as a leader.

Reference
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2012) The leadership challenge (5th Ed.). San
Francisco, CA: The Leadership Challenge A Wiley Brand.
Marzano, R.J., Warrick, P., & Simms, J.A. (2014) A handbook for high reliability
schools. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory.

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