My Leadership Platform

“Grand dreams don’t become significant realities through the actions of a single person.

Achieving greatness requires a team effort. It requires solid trust and enduring relationships. It

requires group collaboration and individual accountability” (Kouzes & Posner, 2017, p. 17).

This quote effectively summarizes my vision and idea for what makes an effective educational

leader. Throughout this past year at Cal State San Marcos, I have learned that as an effective

leader, it is on my shoulders to build a strong team with a common goal, but reaching that goal

will require me to enable my team to work together

Shared Leadership

Leaders should not think that the burden of success is all on them, they are not alone in

their efforts. In EDAD 614, Professor Stephanie Wallace taught me the strengths and benefits of

shared leadership. An effective leader utilizes their team members to their greatest potential,

creating teams who collaborate and trust. They take the time to identify their team members’

greatest strengths through observation and interaction and then support and guide their members

to use those strengths within their team to reach the end goal. According to Kouzes & Posner

(2017), “Enlisting others is all about igniting passion for a purpose and moving people to persist

against great odds” (p. 119). Passion builds passion I like to say. When a vision is shared by

many, you have that many more people to support you, with great ideas to share, to fight for a

positive outcome, and that many less naysayers. One person alone is just that, ALONE. When I

think about every amazing thing I see happening around me, a single person did not complete

these things, but a team of people with a shared vision did. True, the idea may have begun as

one person’s vision, but the outcome is the culmination of the shared vision worked on day in

and day out by the team.

Building Trust and Relationships

An effective educational leader knows how to build trust and relationships with all

stakeholders. In EDAD 610, I learned from Professor Vargas that “A great leader is inspiring,

uplifting, a consensus builder, and someone who brings the best in human aspirations” (p.3).

Sinek (2014) confirmed this, when he spoke to how good leaders can instill a deep sense of trust

and cooperation in their employees. Environment is key in any workplace and the leadership

sets the tone. When employees feel safe and trusted, they have the capacity to do remarkable

things. When teachers trust and in turn are trusted by their leaders, then they can provide their

students with trust and a safe learning environment. Good administrators show teachers the way

and let them take it from there. They use real influence to inspire buy-in and commitment from

their staff.

Building trust and relationships in all stakeholders does not just include the students and

staff, but the parents and community members as well. Adams, Forsyth, and Mitchell (2009),

point out that we must reconfigure our thinking to that of schools as social networks and think of

parents as a critical internal partner along with teachers, administrators, and community

members. To bring families into this partnership, it is imperative that the school builds trust

between parents and all aspects of the school. One key factor to building parent trust is to clearly

define the role that parents play in relation to their child’s education. Another important part of

building parent trust in schools is through collaboration between parents, teachers, and the

administration of various forms. When we allow parents to share in the responsibility for student

learning, then they feel that their input is valuable, hence building trust in the school. Frequent

interactions between parents with teachers, students and administrators help parents to build the

necessary emotional and cognitive connections through which trust forms. When parents,
teachers and administrators work together towards the common goal of fulfilling an educational

vision, then trust builds between parent and all aspects of the school.

As administrators, if we want to see any sort of change in our schools, we need to make

changes from within our school, but we cannot make change happen on our own. It is time for

us to reach out and bring in the support of the teachers, community, and families. We need to

think of parents as partners along with the teachers and administrators. The only way for this to

work effectively is to have trust and buy in from the parents by letting them know how they can

help, collaborating with them, encouraging their input, and building trust from the students.

Through these efforts, we should be able to build a strong social partnership between school,

parents and community that can implement incredible change yet to be achieved.

Motivation

As a leader in education, my job is to continuously find out what will motivate my

teachers, staff, and students towards achieving my vision. During EDAD 612, Dr. Lisa Basista

taught me the importance of motivation. Chance (2013) stated, “The essence of leadership is

motivating others to follow and achieve” (p. 127). When it comes to leading a school

community, if we want our teachers to go above and beyond, then external motivation has its

limits. As a teacher, I always said that I was in this job for the OUTCOME, not the INCOME.

Now, I will take that saying and use it to motivate the teachers and staff that I will be leading. I

will build a good rapport with my staff so that I can understand what it is that motivates them

and give them the guided freedom to choose how they want to motivate their own students in

their own classrooms to make our learning outcomes better than they have been.
Students First

In EDAD 610, Professor Manuel Vargas had me write my own vision statement.

Through that process, I came to realize that putting students first, ahead of everything else should

be the main drive behind a mission and vision as it is the students that we are here for. Any

changes made to staffing, curriculum, programs, or sites, should always be made with the best

interest of the students in mind. It is imperative that my teachers and staff are given ample

professional growth opportunities, providing them with current practices and ideologies that are

aligned with this vision. Our 21st century students will be faced with more challenges socially,

globally, economically, and academically than ever before. It is our job to ensure they are

leaving our school as independent, strong minded, flexible, and technologically literate complex

thinkers. Students should be instilled with a lifelong passion for growth and learning. Together,

we must engage them in a fulfilling education in an environment that encourages their drive to

seek more knowledge. Students must be taught to collaborate with others as it is these life skills

that will help them succeed in the real world. It is our job to provide them with the knowledge

and the tools so that they will be prepared for what the 21st century throws at them.

Conclusion

As an educator, I have always felt that learning by doing is the best practice. I am so

grateful for the educational administration program at CSUSM and the time I spent learning, the

experiences I received, and the opportunities I was given to examine leadership and to put it into

practice. I also appreciate the incredible professors who modeled great leadership and shared

their knowledge with me. It is through these experiences that I have learned the importance of

being an instructional leader through shared leadership, building trust and relationships,

motivation and putting students first. I have gained the confidence and knowledge to be a strong
leader who can promote and create positive change in any school setting, so that all students can

be successful.

References

Adams, C. M., Forsyth, P. B., & Mitchell, R. M. (2009). The Formation of Parent-School

Trust. Educational Administration Quarterly,45(1), 4-33.

doi:10.1177/0013161x08327550

Chance, P. L. (2013). Introduction to educational leadership and organizational behavior:

Theory into practice. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge: how to make extraordinary

things happen in organizations. Hoboken, NJ: The Leadership Challenge, A Wiley

Brand.

Sinek, S. (2014, March). Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe [video file]. Retrieved from

www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe

Vargas M. P., (2017). Leadership for the 21st Century [power point presentation]. Retrieved

from https://cc.csusm.edu/pluginfile.php/603265/mod_resource/content/5/Leadership%20

for%20the%2021st%20Century%20%281%29.pdf